And another thing...

Just thought of something else I want to add, but it's kind of random, so I decided to put it in another post.

A while back, I signed up to be on this email list for news about "The Matrix Online", the MMORPG continuation of the Matrix franchise scheduled for release in Q1 2004. I finally got the first email update about it, and the gameplay does not sound promising. They wanted to keep the whole "bullet-time/wire-fu" feeling of the fighting, but also wanted it to be playable over a modem. So the compromise was what seems like a completely awful combat system. Basically, the player chooses what set of tactics he wants his avatar to use: aggressive, defensive, or some other thing I forgot. Then he sits back and watches as his character goes to town/fails to go to town on his/her opponent, determined by a D&D-esque system of dice-rolling (all invisible to the player, of course). Sounds kinda lame, huh? I don't really need to pay $20 a month to watch CG characters do crazy kung-fu crap.

In other MMORPG news, I saw a report on the local news last night about Everquest. Apparently, people are losing their jobs, their families, and even killing other human beings (in real life, mind) over this game. One guy was convicted of murdering his three-year-old son after he started crying while daddy was playing -- daddy squeezed the kid so hard, he punctured his heart. What I thought was odd was that this news report seemed to be blaming Everquest. Now, I haven't played that game, but I have played another MMORPG (Earth & Beyond, which begins to suck ass after 4 weeks). I never felt an urge to kill anyone (except myself, after the ass-sucking commenced). However, I did feel a strange urge to smack everyone who uses Internet lingo -- the next person who says "u r l4m0x0rz" will feel my wrath.

That is all.