It should be obvious to anyone who watches the news that, at least in the US, when it comes to how the public at large handles depictions of gratuitous violence or gratuitous sex, reactions usually vary wildly. We're used to violence on movies and television shows, to say nothing of the perpetual sport we as gamers partake in through gunning down criminals and generic "bad guys" through the course of any FPS or action game. We're "desensitized" to this, at least when our impetus is killing enemies in the name of a greater good, and most people don't really balk unless said killing is exceptionally graphic and excessive.
Global Agenda is one of a few new science fiction-themed MMOGs that have been announced recently. Developed by Hi-Rez Studios, the title blurs the line between FPS, MMOG and strategy game, delivering something that is a fun amalgam of the three even if it lacks a lot of the depth found in any one facet. As such, Hi-Rez has named their game a "spy-fi" MMOG.
A thread was recently started at the GayGamer.net forums around the following rant about modern gay rights, implicitly blaming the fact that we don't have gay marriage and full equality on things like the overt sexuality demonstrated at pride parades or the effeminacy of some gay men. The latter I have complained about here a few times already, but I added a wall of text to the discussion thread after the majority of comments amounted to "I think this guy is completely right." Sadly the guy isn't completely right and most of his perspective is incredibly nasty and self-hating, but as I've lamented before, it's a perspective shared by most gay people my age and younger. As the GayGamer.net forums require a registered account to read, I was asked if I could post my "essay" someplace else so it could be linked to.
When the OnLive service was announced last year it basically promised implausible miracles– if you had a crappy computer or a netbook, you wouldn't have to worry about upgrading your computer to something more promising in order to play Crysis on its highest settings. While beta testers are under a strict NDA not to tell anyone about their experiences, Ryan Shrout from PC Perspective obtained access through slightly illicit means and wrote a rather scathing critique of the service last week.
Given the organic, ever-evolving nature of MMOGs these days, the line between alpha, beta, open beta and release are blurring moreso than in usual titles. Even though Cryptic will be releasing its latest MMOG, Star Trek Online, in a bit over a week, the state it goes live in will likely not be representative of the game in a few months. As such it's difficult to give a really fair round-up of the game, or any MMOG in general, because they change so drastically in such a rapid space of time. Perhaps because I played the Champions Online beta, I am approaching Cryptic's latest offering with a bit of a raised eyebrow. In its current state, Star Trek Online is a rather buggy mess that shows great promise but feels rushed and unpolished.
- Joshua Meadows: Its long term appeal does have me concerned. It’s a fun game to play initially, but unlike Planetside much of it is...
- We Fly Spitfires: Nice review. It’s definitely a game that I want to check out although the high price and lack of distribution is putting me...
- Josie aka Poly: You still rock, Joshua.
- Adri: You don’t have an appropriate emoticon for “preach it,” but you should.
- Dave: Just like to follow on that I finished the beta and they cleaned it up a LOT in the last week. You’d still need to be a trekkie to...
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