While Star Wars Galaxies is still in the development stages, with beta testing slated to begin late this year, Blackman is extremely excited about some of the game play features that have already been incorporated into the game. “We’re taking the idea of customizable avatars to a whole new level. The game engine and animation system, for example, have been written from scratch to incorporate our ideas. I’m particularly excited about how we’ve been able to integrate the player versus player combat. This was a difficult system to design and proved to be our biggest challenge thus far. In Galaxies, characters can die, however, we’re not supporting what’s commonly known as perma-death. If a character is killed, it can re-spawn at fixed locations. There will also be ways to keeping a character’s equipment after its death by purchasing insurance. By eliminating down time, such as recovering after a battle, we’re making Galaxies more appealing to non-hard core gamers,” said Blackman.
While it's a "remote possibility," Graham points to the possibility of a 1.4 patch farmed out to an outside group, to make significant changes in the game. He also wants to reassure people that Ubi Soft is listening to your comments. "We take everything at face value. If we see a lot of something on the forums, we just assume it's something that's happening and look into it." Graham feels that it was too many cooks, not bad cooks that resulted in an underdone Pool. Too many people were making too many decisions, without enough supervision, he feels, and the final game shows that.
I threw another 400 lbs of dirt in the hole in my backyard, and I really think it can't really be considered a hole anymore, though I'm guessing it could take another 400 lbs or more of soil and still not be considered a pile, so I guess I've entered a new gray area as far as this goes. I keep doing 'net searches for philosophers and gardening, but keep drawing blanks. Apparently Socrates ate hemlock, but didn't plant it.
Finally, happy birthday to Robs (LAN Party! LAN Party! LAN Party!).
Link of the Day: The Outsider
Plush Cthulhu Doll (thanks EvilToast). The cuddly side of the Necronomicon.
Story of the Day: Jet Blue installing bulletproof cockpit doors.
Hell the napkins on the BlueJet are bulletproof! Thanks Paul Schubert and Jim
Strider.
Bonus Story: RIAA
Wants to Hack Your PC (thanks [MP] Wolverine [MP]). To look for mp3s.
Coincidentally, I plan on asking for the right to break into their garage to
look for my missing lawnmower.