As The Producer rather snippily points out, being too busy is no excuse, or something, so here goes with a change to the format here, and an attempt to see if I can get away from the whole 'A Blog Post Is A Thing Of Great Craftsmanship' mindset I seem to have which dictates that I can't even think about a post unless I have three hours to do so. Speed blogging then: somewhere between the Tweets and the Dissertations, there must be a happy medium. Here goes then...

I'm still doing these, of course:

Van Hemlock Podcast (Ep 51): Live from KiasaCon09

A fine day out, with a barbecue and everything, courtesy of the Killed In A Smiling Accident chaps, featuring PJ too as Live Studio Audience. Several weighty matters discussed! I'm sure you're all bored to tears of Eurogamer vs Darkfall by now and anyway, I don't play either of them, so somewhat outside my experience. The Garriot vs NCSoft thing was about a game I no longer play, and nor does anyone else, so again, outside my experience.

The third biggie was different though; Paragon Studios vs A Hefty Portion Of It's Customers, in the form of massive exploitation of the Mission Architect system in the pursuit of...what...finishing the game in three hours? A motivation that has always baffled me, I think. Starting in EQ, and being taught that the next level was a privilege not a right, I've never really been that achievement oriented and figure, perhaps foolishly, that if the actual business of getting more XPs isn't fun in itself, theres probably something wrong.

I do indeed play City of Heroes, and am still at a bit of a loss as to why the Architect isn't doing anything for me at all. On paper it has, and still does, look great, but I think I've spent two hours with in total, and have very little intention of giving it further time. I dabbled with a mission arc, mostly so that I could sound authoritative on the podcast when talking about it. Certainly it seemed more a chore than a pleasure, and I know its me, not the system. Continuing the theme of Being Too Busy, I'd rather just play the game as designed, and am still not bored of basic gameplay yet.

Saying that, I almost never log in to CoX when it isn't Static Group Night anyway, and I've always felt the grind whenever I've tried to solo the thing. In all honesty, I'm there because my friends are, and as a backdrop for Doing Stuff With Mates, CoX works well. I suspect the reason I'm not interested in the Architect is that at core, the Architecting itself is a very solo experience, conducted almost in isolation from all other players. I can't even see incoming tells!

And anyway, as a Superhero, I've always thought of myself as a supporting character in the dramas of others, and so really...I have no story of my own that needs telling.

Oops...20mins are up! See you later!