Guys. I needed money - got a job writing about games. (NCSoft/Midway news too)

[Mrbloodworth]

Dungeon Runners is finished.. and I never even got around to giving it a try.

What do you mean its finished?

Stephen, Administrator, Big Boss Man, says Nope, not true.

[Hutch]

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=11876.0

No one gets a free pass.

Ahh, nostalgia.

PS bring back your Freddy Mercury avatar.

[Evildrider]

Dungeon Runners is finished.. and I never even got around to giving it a try.

What do you mean its finished?

Stephen, Administrator, Big Boss Man, says Nope, not true.

Well that's good.  Gives me more time to get around to it.  lol

[Mrbloodworth]

I recommend it as a fun game, with a casual slant. That teams additions trip me out sometimes, lol.

Montezuma’s Revenge (Ranger Trainer)
You ate some seriously bad tofu! Time to get to a toilet, stat! As you run around, you leave some of the most horrendous gas clouds known to Man (and Gosh) behind you! Each gas cloud causes some poison damage when an enemy runs into it. On top of that, the enemy may take an additional amount of poison damage over time. Sadly, the bad tofu does leave its mark on you too. You take some fire damage over the duration of the skill as well. Oh, it burns! It burns!

My Flaming Buddy (Fighter Trainer)
My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy. Where ever you go, he goes-ish.

To get your very own My Flaming Buddy, attack an enemy with this skill! Doing so will dish out a healthy amount of fire damage on your enemy and will potentially create a new My Flaming Buddy that runs around causing fire damage to nearby enemies. Don't get too attached to your new Buddy because his friendship is very temporary; 8 seconds to be exact. Look at the bright side; you don't have to deal with any long term commitments.

My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy and me!

Ray of Gosh (Mage Trainer)
Behold, all of your prayers are answered! Okay, perhaps not all, but at least this one is! Gosh sends down a mighty ray of Divine light to smite your enemies! Each ray shines down upon the position you pray for and sears an area with a radius of 2 meters for 3 seconds. All the heathen caught within the ray will be smote with some divine damage for each second they remain in the light!

[Evildrider]

I recommend it as a fun game, with a casual slant. That teams additions trip me out sometimes, lol.

Montezuma’s Revenge (Ranger Trainer)
You ate some seriously bad tofu! Time to get to a toilet, stat! As you run around, you leave some of the most horrendous gas clouds known to Man (and Gosh) behind you! Each gas cloud causes some poison damage when an enemy runs into it. On top of that, the enemy may take an additional amount of poison damage over time. Sadly, the bad tofu does leave its mark on you too. You take some fire damage over the duration of the skill as well. Oh, it burns! It burns!

My Flaming Buddy (Fighter Trainer)
My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy. Where ever you go, he goes-ish.

To get your very own My Flaming Buddy, attack an enemy with this skill! Doing so will dish out a healthy amount of fire damage on your enemy and will potentially create a new My Flaming Buddy that runs around causing fire damage to nearby enemies. Don't get too attached to your new Buddy because his friendship is very temporary; 8 seconds to be exact. Look at the bright side; you don't have to deal with any long term commitments.

My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy and me!

Ray of Gosh (Mage Trainer)
Behold, all of your prayers are answered! Okay, perhaps not all, but at least this one is! Gosh sends down a mighty ray of Divine light to smite your enemies! Each ray shines down upon the position you pray for and sears an area with a radius of 2 meters for 3 seconds. All the heathen caught within the ray will be smote with some divine damage for each second they remain in the light!

it's actually all that stuff that makes me wanna try it.  That and the Bling Gnome trailer I saw.

Do I have to get the premium membership for it to be worth trying though?

[Mrbloodworth]

I recommend it as a fun game, with a casual slant. That teams additions trip me out sometimes, lol.

Montezuma’s Revenge (Ranger Trainer)
You ate some seriously bad tofu! Time to get to a toilet, stat! As you run around, you leave some of the most horrendous gas clouds known to Man (and Gosh) behind you! Each gas cloud causes some poison damage when an enemy runs into it. On top of that, the enemy may take an additional amount of poison damage over time. Sadly, the bad tofu does leave its mark on you too. You take some fire damage over the duration of the skill as well. Oh, it burns! It burns!

My Flaming Buddy (Fighter Trainer)
My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy. Where ever you go, he goes-ish.

To get your very own My Flaming Buddy, attack an enemy with this skill! Doing so will dish out a healthy amount of fire damage on your enemy and will potentially create a new My Flaming Buddy that runs around causing fire damage to nearby enemies. Don't get too attached to your new Buddy because his friendship is very temporary; 8 seconds to be exact. Look at the bright side; you don't have to deal with any long term commitments.

My Flaming Buddy, My Flaming Buddy and me!

Ray of Gosh (Mage Trainer)
Behold, all of your prayers are answered! Okay, perhaps not all, but at least this one is! Gosh sends down a mighty ray of Divine light to smite your enemies! Each ray shines down upon the position you pray for and sears an area with a radius of 2 meters for 3 seconds. All the heathen caught within the ray will be smote with some divine damage for each second they remain in the light!

it's actually all that stuff that makes me wanna try it.  That and the Bling Gnome trailer I saw.

Do I have to get the premium membership for it to be worth trying though?

Nah, its a rather full game with out paying, but there are perks to doing so. Also, don't be fooled by the creation page, there are no classes in the game, you can learn any skill from any trainer if you got the coin.

[Evildrider]

Nice thanks for the info.   

[Nonentity]

Anybody know how Lum is doing?

Well the latest post on his site says no more updates this week. I'm guessing that things might not be going well for him this week.

http://brokentoys.org/2008/08/13/transitions/

:(

[Lum]

NCSoft folks were just let go.

Anybody know how Lum is doing?

I'm good, thanks. Schild may want to change my title to "Objectivist Cockmonkey" or something, though.

[Nebu]

http://brokentoys.org/2008/08/13/transitions/

:(

Sorry to hear it, Lum.  I hope the new position works well for you.

[Ingmar]

If nothing else, Webwars: EVE looks hilarious.

I can't wait to see the fighting over somethingawful.com.

[DraconianOne]

Sorry to hear it, Lum.  I hope the new position works well for you.

I concur.

[Signe]

Poor Lum.  Congrats on getting a new job so fast though!  Good luck! 

[schild]

What a horrible emote.

[HaemishM]

NCSoft folks were just let go.

Anybody know how Lum is doing?

I'm good, thanks. Schild may want to change my title to "Objectivist Cockmonkey" or something, though.

Damn, brother. Sorry to hear that. I was looking forward to feigning angst at the PVP design document for your game.

[Signe]

What a horrible emote.

Shuddup you.  It's a happy emote.  I'm trying to make Lum cheery! 

Dammit.

[Lum]

Oh, I'm fine. Believe me, if nothing else relieved I'm not competing with 150+ people for Austin game development positions.

[schild]

Yea, it's just too bad your producer is a real son of a bitch.

[Calandryll]

Yea, it's just too bad your producer is a real son of a bitch.

Jerk. :)

[schild]

oh hay there. sup.

[Yegolev]

Shuddup you.  It's a happy emote.  I'm trying to make Lum cheery! 

It appears to be burning alive and screaming for help.

Dammit.

Indeed.

Lum, congratulations on still having a paycheck.  When are you moving to Kuala Lumpur?

[Soln]

LumNews   from    to  and    in under 2 mins


Good luck thar Sir.

[schild]

Today NCsoft confirmed to Kotaku that they are indeed laying some folks off from their Austin offices.

"We are announcing that 21 positions are being eliminated in the Austin office of NCsoft in the area of product development," an NCsoft spokesman told Kotaku. "Primarily this is related to products which we have not previously announced and were in prototype phases. We are also cutting some positions on the Dungeon Runners team after deciding not to port the client to other platforms at this time."

The news comes a day after parent company Korean-based NCsoft announced a bump in sales but a drop in operating profit and net income. The news is a stark contrast to rumors that surfaces earlier this week that 140 to 160 people were going to be let go and the office possibly shuttered. At the time NCsoft told Kotaku that the rumors were "not accurate at all" and "pretty outrageous."

What's not accurate at all and outrageous today isn't so outrageous in a couple months.

I know PR has to spin, but the writing is on the wall. Shit, I put it there.

Edit: Of course, I'd love them to NOT fire all of them to prove me wrong. Then people wouldn't be out of work. 

[Xanthippe]

Congratulations, Schild, on the new paying gig.

Somebody doesn't like you very much.  I had to go vote up all your articles because some jerks are voting them all down! What's up with that!!?!

Lum - landed like a cat. Hope Webwars is fun work; failing that, hope it's something we can make fun of.

[schild]

Somebody doesn't like you very much.  I had to go vote up all your articles because some jerks are voting them all down! What's up with that!!?!

That would be the Vigil kiddies. I touched their game in a bad place apparently. I'm glad they have enough time at work to do something entirely nonsensical like that. Here's me, on the internet, caring about ratings. They're only making themselves look bad.

[sam, an eggplant]

So can you talk about the unannounced project, now that it's been canceled? Or does that fall under a blanket NDA?

[WayAbvPar]

They're only making themselves look bad.

Nice of them to send us their king as an ambassador then   

So can you talk about the unannounced project, now that it's been canceled? Or does that fall under a blanket NDA?

I was wondering the same thing, but figured he would spill or not spill on his own schedule. Like after he knows the route to his new office by heart.

[schild]

I may or may not be interviewing someone. If you have any questions for someone just PM me. This thread was about me btw, not Lum. That thief.

[Lum]

I'm pretty sure I can't talk about it since it's property of NCsoft where I no longer work and all that.

I will share one crack-monkey idea I had that probably never would have made release: I wanted a floating economy. As in, NPCs that valued loot/items/material based on the amount of money in the economy. If money devalued, then by god MONEY WOULD DEVALUE - NPCs would have a similar judge of monetary value as players.  It would be interesting to see if hyperinflation would kick in, the effects thereof, how players would cope, would an alternative economy form... good stuff.  However it is dangerously close to "ant farming" ie hmm, maybe it'll be interesting if I pour all this poison sugar on the helpless ants/players in my sandbox. So, yeah, I'm sure someone sane would have talked me out of it.

Also, this was an interesting thread.

[WayAbvPar]

If you could have just gotten a basic economy to run you would have been light years ahead of most games.

[sam, an eggplant]

Well we got the name, anyway. I picture a post-apocalyptic low-magic dark ages kind of world, human dictator rose up, created an empire, slaughtered all the elves and dwarves, died, sons squabble over the remains of the empire, warlords arise, lots of human suffering, player comes in as a slave who killed his master when he tried to molest another slave, only way to survive after that is to collect 10 bear asses and deliver them to that guy with a ? over his head. Close?

[cevik]

Well we got the name, anyway. I picture a post-apocalyptic low-magic dark ages kind of world, human dictator rose up, created an empire, slaughtered all the elves and dwarves, died, sons squabble over the remains of the empire, warlords arise, lots of human suffering, player comes in as a slave who killed his master when he tried to molest another slave, only way to survive after that is to collect 10 bear asses and deliver them to that guy with a ? over his head. Close?

From the name I thought it was going to be a webkinz knock off.  Hopefully with a ultra realistic petting simulator like nintendogs on the DS.

[schild]

In other news, Forbes coincidentally just called Austin the Hardest-Drinking City in America. You can't make that shit up. Depressing and morbidly funny at the same time.

[Merusk]

Well everyone's got a reason to get their drink on tonight!   Wash away those dreams, mates!

Anywho, we all know Lum's project was a dancing game where your anime-girl avatar would totally pwn someone with a killer pirouette using jazz-hands.  Heads would have exploded, which is why they canned the whole idea. 

[Signe]

Why would they can something as awesome as that?