The GuildWars WPE is nearly upon us!

Don\'t know what I\'m talking about?
Get informed at GuildWars.com

Download the Client  (a mere 62 KB zipped)

Do you need a reason to play GuildWars?
Here are some:
- it\'s a free 3 day preview. you have nothing to lose.
- there will never be a monthly fee for this game
- there are no servers or \"shards\" to separate you from your friends.  This way you will truly know that you are the best in the world.
- streaming technology allows the client to be small and updates & patches to be fast.  This means they can change the game world in an instant... as you might see during this preview event on Halloween
- load up the client right now and see how amazing the in-game graphics are on the login screen!  Yes, that really is the in-game graphic engine!

Anyway, as you might be able to tell, I\'m pretty excited about the whole thing.  GW has fixed every problem that I\'ve ever had with MMO\'s, and I\'ve had quite a bit (just check my This is Why EQ Sucks  thread).

Hope to see you all there October 29th-31st! )

Thinking of pre-ordering the game (as I already have)?  You can get one of five in-game bonus items  depending on where you pre-order.  The pre-order also reserves you a spot in their beta weekend events.

Got a new thread title so as not to unnecessarily offend (or adulate) anyone against their will.

This is drawing number 3.
I think he looks like Guile from Street Fighter II... or Duke Nukem.



I drew this with the help of the tutorials found here.
I think this is probably my best work.



Is anyone else noticing something Freudian about my work?  Particularly the male characters I\'ve drawn? If you don\'t know what I\'m talking about then nevermind, but if you see it too, then let me just say: I swear I\'m not doing it intentionally.



Let me also post the other crap that I did:

[drawing #1]


and [drawing #2]

I\'m expecting to see some new crop circles this month as they generally begin to appear in either April or May of each year.  Here are the crop circles from last year.

The following excerpt tells of an April crop circle, but no pictures of it have been published, and the original website no longer hosts the story, nor does google have it cached.  Still, we should see more crop circles appearing very shortly...

Originally from news.com.au but since removed
LOU ROBSON
04apr04

LARGE crop circles with unbroken stems have mysteriously appeared in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Residents of the small town of Conondale, west of Maleny, say they are baffled by the large areas of flattened grass.

Crop circle enthusiast Chris White gave the complex designs an eight out of 10.

Will this new modeling system allow \"rag doll\" physics?  That is, would it be possible to drag an unconscience companion out of harms way, and have their body behave as if it were a rag doll, gently flopping along as you pulled?

I only ask because rag doll physics is very important to me.

moogle\'s, right?  you like moogle\'s.

http://www.cybermoonstudios.com/dance-or-die.html

(good thing I post this in the off topic forum)

Is the PS team considering Instanced Dungeons?
This is when a player or a party enters a dungeon that becomes an instance (or a copy) that they will have all to themselves.  The next party that enters the same dungeon will create a new instance, thus the dungeon will always be \"ready\" for adventurers, the 2 parties will never meet, and there will be no need for monster spawning.

This idea is being used by World of Warcraft which is beginning to looking like a pretty amazing game.

Summary
This is an idea that should allow players all the joy\'s of PK\'ing with none of the grief cause by actual PK\'ing.  

Philosophy
Let me start by saying, the main characters in a movie or book or any story never die.  They can be badly beaten, but because they are the main characters, they cannot be killed.  In a MMORPG every player is a main character.  So every player must survive till the end of the story.

Proposal
That being said, I propose that no player character be killed ever.  Wait, it\'s not as crazy as it sounds.  It can work.  Here\'s how...

• In place of death would be being beaten to a bloody pulp.  There would be no loss of items, or instant respawn.  You would just lay on the ground bleeding.  
• At this point you are as good as dead.  Herbs and potions will do you no good as they can only heal minor wounds.
• If you have mage friends, a powerful circle magic spell can be used to \"revive\" you.  If not, you must crawl or be carried by a friend back to a town where you can be healed.
  
• In this state, you must speak slowly and cannot shout.  You are nearly dead, so you must act like it.  This can serve as a fitting punishment for verbally abusive players.
• Your body cannot be looted because you are still alive and can still grab the arm of a thief.
  
• This would leave zero incentive for random PK\'ing.

Possible Modifications
Maybe players can run out of blood after a certain amount of lying on the ground bleeding.  This would allow the death quest I seem to remember reading about.

(Semi-)Final Thoughts
It is still inconvenient to be beaten to a bloody pulp.  
Grief still exists when more powerful players lay the unprovoked smackdown on less powerful players.  
Hmm... so... it is the randomness of the attack that is the problem.... yet there is no way to determine whether an attack is random or provoked...
.........................eurika!  I\'ve got it! Playground rules!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: Playground Rules are flawed like every other system.  Please disregard.
Playground Rules
The same rules used on the playground of your grade school.

• We start with no open/random attacking.  You must first establish yourself as the aggressor before you can attack another player.
• You do this by \"pushing\" them
• After you push them, you become the aggressor and can be attacked by anyone for a short time.  
• You must also wait a short time before you can follow up that push with an actual attack.
• The one you pushed must then choose to stay and fight or run.
• Anytime you push or attack someone you become an aggressor for a short time.
• Aggressors can be attacked by anyone.  (That means things can get messy real fast in a gang scenario.)

Whew... let me know if anyone sees problems with any of this.  It so far looks pretty solid to me.

It\'s me!  ...just kidding

WAIT DON\'T GO!
I really do have a gift
...although its kind of unrelated...
but hey, this is the off-topic forum, heh

so, anyway....  ............umm......... ........ right, the gift.
the gift is something I made specifically for you that I hope you like.  And I know the kind of things that you like.  You and me, PS community, we go way back; we have history.  I remember that time when we were holding hands walking along the beach and you hinted that you liked rocks as big as diamonds... well, I know I shouldn\'t have PS community, but I wanted to, and you know you\'re worth it...

I got you a Pizza Value Calculator !!!

why are you angry, PS community?  I did this for us... okay, mostly for me, but I put your name on it... oh... oh yeah... i guess that is my name.  What can I say, I like pizza, and I don\'t need to waste all my money buying expensive Round Table pizza that you wont even eat!

...

I\'m sorry PS community, I don\'t want to fight... m... maybe we should just be friends.  
This relationship is getting kinda weird anyway.

So check out the Pizza Value Calculator I made for you.  It\'ll save you MONEY. =)

Pizza Value Calculator and slightly crazy story provided free of charge by:
- A b e /\\/\\ o r e