I am not a high end raider. I am a herder of cats, and seriously would implode if I had to deal with the level of intensity the Ensidia and other "world-first" guilds go through. I also don't see the value of giving up that much of my life to a video game, where it's less about time with friends and having fun than it is about beating out a rival guild from another country...

But in my opinion, there's something fishy here. Supposedly blacked out chat logs and no video? Really? Don't these videos normally get put to "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and spammed on YouTube and every gaming site like a viral epidemic? OK, maybe they were concentrating on the achievement and didn't turn on their tracking cameras. Maybe they aren't proud of the intensity of language at each other in chat logs. I don't know. But what I do know is human nature. And there is no way that not one out of TWENTY FIVE of the raiders didn't realize something wasn't right. And these people are in chat (pretty much guaranteed on headsets) so it's not like communication was barred for some reason. And if you are one of the "premier" raiding guilds, you know when something is too easy, or if the Reanaissance man is right, your toon is not being thrown over the edge when it should be.

Regardless, if Ensidia did not exploit this using their Blizzard-given bomb tactic, then they could have said, "Hey, look what we did. We're not sure if this was supposed to happen or not, so we're going to go in again and try it without, just in case." Again, 25 seasoned raiders with no clue it was a mite easier than it should be to DEFEAT ARTHAS? Swampland in Florida to sell, my friend...

While I may not have enough factual info to render an informed opinion on Ensidia's fate, if Blizzard says it's an exploit, then an exploit it be. It is Blizzard's game. And we know players will use exploits shamelessly, and then contrive any number of excuses until (or when) they're caught. I myself have struggled with the 5 man Halls of Reflective Death "exploit" at the end, following Arthas along. We just stand there and let him walk past. We're not blinking into walls, feigning death to reset him, or anything like that. We stand there and wave as he walks towards Sylvanas. Really, does Arthas give a fig about us anyhow? We're gnats. But once Blizzard tells me "that's a bannable exploit because..." then if I continue it, I deserve to be punished. But do I have to be told? If, like in some of the comments I linked to, I use a mage to blink into a wall and attack King Ymiron, and none of his powers touch me while I DPS the crap out of him, I don't think I need big brother pointing out that's not how the mechanics are supposed to work. You are NOT supposed to be able to farm ore from underground, that is cheating. No one needs to tell you when something is not working as intended, especially when you're a seasoned player and have seen years of appropriate game mechanics.

And I detest cheating and exploits. I left Warhammer for a number of reasons, but I was so sick of players cheating that it was one of the straws that broke the camel's back. Engineers dropping turets into walls or trees where you couldn't kill them, sending pets through walls, that sort of nonsense. I enjoy PvP, but the crap in City of Heroes kept me out of it. Player versus PLAYER, not "spec all my skills into teleport other and grief people into the sentry bots". Cowards and cheaters. And again, people play these games for any number of reasons, some to relax with friends, and some to achieve world firsts and titles. But if how you play is going to screw someone else over, or misuse or misrepresent game mechanics, then think again. You may have been smart enough to figure out how to "bypass fail code lol" or some nonsense, but someone smarter will catch and expose you. And you deserve everything coming to you at that point.

Honestly? A three day ban for Ensidia is not heavy enough if they did this on purpose or even with the suspicion of exploiting, and Blizzard HAS access to their chat logs and information. Cheaters and exploiters are breaking the rules set out by the games. If you don't play by their rules, kiss your ass good-bye. I will toast marshmallows when they explode your avatar in Aion.

-Real Big Kitty

I decided to snag Global Agenda over the weekend while it was only $45 on Steam. After hearing so much good about the game from some of the writers and bloggers whose opinions I appreciate, I figured the game would be a solid bet.

So after a weekend of play and after tonight's launch event (got to play around in game with the loverly Seraphina Brennan of Massively fame), I have a few thoughts to throw out there about the game so far. Here they are, in no particular order:

Badly. Frankly, there is just no reason for a social game, MMO or shooter or otherwise, to NOT have a functioning friend's list. Sure, you can join up with an Agency (guild) but that seems to be the only way to see if your friends are online. The game is run through Steam, so perhaps they just assumed you would use your Steam Friends list, but people don't use the same name for their Steam account as their character names.

The gameplay and shooter action are top notch. The game has a very quick pace to it, but not overly twitchy like some first-person shooters can be.

There will be much class balance to come. They all feel solid right now, which is great, but I forsee a lot of balancing down the road.

Phantasy Star Universe 2.0?

If you ever played either of Phantasy Star's online games, the set up for GA will be very familiar. There is one city that acts as a hub where players can meet and group up if they'd like, visit the auction house, craft, and a few other essential functions. From there, all the missions are instanced be they PvP or PvE.

Grouping Is Easy

I love that I can queue for a mission and be auto-grouped for the mission when it pops up. Sometimes I've had to decline the mission when it pops (no group packed full of Recons will really work that well), but in general it mixes and matches well. Plus I can run through the city while I'm waiting for my mission to pop. It's really that simple.

Included Voice Chat

The voice chat is well done and implemented, with just a few simple controls to make it work smoothly. The side effect is that PvP matches can devolve into the worst of the worst when it comes to angry voice chat rants from teammates. I haven't heard that happen much, and when I have I heard it I just turn down the voice volume.

Variety

Right now, it seems there's a variety of activities and things to do. There are tons of PvE maps of varying difficulty and a few PvP maps with different objectives. Hopefully the team at Hi-Rez can keep a quick pace with adding new maps or swapping maps out so that things stay interesting.

Pace

LOVE the pace. Everything is timed. No more 30-minute PvP stalemates, the match will end sooner rather than later. Same with PvE maps as you are given a countdown timer and you must kill the boss within that time frame or fail. You literally can jump in and out with just 15 minutes of play time and be productive.

Crafting

Seems basic right now. You can buy recipes from the vendors or get them as random drops in PvE missions. All materials drop in PvE. If you prefer PvP, you can always buy the materials and recipes from the Auction House. However, it does seem like crafting weapon and armor mods is rather important.

Choose Your Adventure

Its your choice whether you want to level via PvP or PvE or some combination of both. I'm assuming you can level in the Conquest mode as well, but I haven't joined an Agency yet so I cannot confirm that. You gain more money in PvP matches, but more experience and the ability to get crafting mats in PvE, so there's a definite choice you'll need to make. Personally, I just like shooting other players.

Conclusion

I'm having fun with the game. I'll jump on board with an Agency within the week just so I can try out the Conquest mode stuff while it's free, but even if I don't decide to subscribe to that function, I'll still have the option to have fun in the regular PvE and PvP missions. I'm looking forward to where this title goes and hope that it picks up some steam as it moves along because it really is a solid title… once they add a friend's list, of course.

-Dickie