by Jeff Woleslagle on Sep 11, 2009
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It's the most somber day in our national memory today, and
many of us have a personal connection to the events that transpired
eight years ago this morning. We've also spent eight years collectively
trying to figure out what we can learn from the 9/11 tragedy, and
perhaps the biggest takeaway is that, despite modern myths about power
and supremacy, despite our best efforts at security, we're all fairly
vulnerable. As one wise philosopher once said, it takes less than a
pound of pressure, properly applied, to undo us. But vulnerability also
has the effect of bringing us together. More thoughts on this in
today's Loading... Vulnerability.
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A 35 minute drive from my house, you'll find a field that looks like
just about any other field that crisscrosses the ridgelines and valleys
of the Laurel Highlands. It would be completely insignificant except to
the farmers who derived their livelihood from it, except that eight
years ago that field witnessed a horrible sacrifice unlike any other in
recent memory when the passengers of Flight 93, saving untold lives,
made that field their final resting place.
The hijackers were on a southeastern bearing towards Washington DC, but
due to a slight course change made when the passengers attempted to
regain control of the aircraft, it's speculated that had the plane
stayed airbourne just a few minutes longer, it would have crashed in
the middle of my hometown, killing who knows how many on the ground in
our small city of about 40,000. That fateful day in 2001 touched many
of us deeply, and we'll all probably carry the images
with us for the rest of our lives. I hope that's the case - it would be
an awful thing if such a terrible event became over-propagandized,
desensitizing us to how vulnerable we really are and what evils human
beings are still capable of in our supposedly modern and civilized age.
You likely remember where you were that fateful morning, where you
first saw the towers fall. I remember a stunned, silent crowd watching
a TV far too small for the task in our student union at college, and
later two girls sobbing that their parents worked in the WTC, that they
hadn't been able to reach them by phone. I remember the helplessness,
the wanting to do something, anything, rushing off to give blood even
though there would be few survivors in need of it and none in our local
area, buying ammunition for a rifle kept locked in the RD's
apartment for a planned hunting outing with college friends later that
fall (yes, I brought my gun to school - it was a slightly more innocent
time before the VT massacre). Buying ammo was a strange thing to do, I
know, and I knew it at the time (a friend remarked, "What are you going
to do? Shoot down an airplane?"). But the impulse to do something, to
do anything to at least feel like you were helping, was incredibly
strong. That impulse could have led me down a very different life path,
as I'd soon after started training for the USMC officer candidate
school, training I came just short of completing due to an unshakable
case of chronic asthma.
In the aftermath, I also remember a feeling of unity like we haven't
seen since. Throughout history, nations were born and grew strong not
so much out of vainglorious dreams of power and empire (that came
later) but due to external threats. If your village is more powerful
and warlike than mine, I have to ally with several other villages that
also perceive you as a threat or face extinction. You can see how it
scales, but it's that feeling of economic or military vulnerability
that drives people to come together.
It seems pretty crass to link such a momentous and very real event to
gaming, but bear with me for a second. In speaking to a prominent name
in our industry at PAX, he mentioned the "myth of MMO gaming" and "that
whole thing of playing together, alone ." Doubtless we've seen
a drive towards more soloable MMOs, more solo achievements, more hybrid
classes that can do more by themselves, with the promise that the game
really becomes an MMO in the endgame, should you be tenacious enough
about soloing a fundamentally boring solo game to get there.
That approach isn't what I signed up for, to be honest, and making
soloing easier seems, in the final analysis, a lazier solution than
making groups more accessible, maybe even compulsory. You can't do that
without making a player feel vulnerable, then making
help instantly available in the form of other players. That might seem
like a dream, but you see the beginnings of it in the WoW raid game
and, more obviously, with persistent world shooters like CrimeCraft and
Global Agenda. If we could just slow down the gameplay somewhat to
allow for social interaction, let it happen on day one instead of day
92, and make the action not so much about PvP, I think we could
recapture some of that old MMO magic.
Sorry for the heavy Loading... to start off the weekend. Where were you
on 9/11 eight years ago? Have some thoughts you'd like to share on the
subject? Stop by the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46207">Loading...
forum and weigh in on the discussion.
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=589">Aion
General Discussion
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46188">Does
your character look like you?
You've
undoubtedly whipped up a few characters in Aion's open beta by now.
Your avatar represents you as a character in the world of Atreia, but
does your character also represent you as a person? Does he or she have
your eyes? Your hair? Or is that character an idealized version of you;
the person you'd be if you were taller, or shorter, or thinner, or
curvier, or more ripped? Or maybe your character a complete work of
fiction--the opposite gender, perhaps, or some specific persona you've
made up in your head or that you roleplay.
So, are your characters really you? We want to know! Our latest Aion
thread bids you to vote in a poll, and then
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=46188">share
your character creating secrets.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"My main character in a
game
often at least mimics me, and in Aion my main probably comes closer
than most before it, though I'm not striving for an exact copy, maybe
an idealized version. All my other characters are based off archetype
characters I've made up and take with me from game to game, so they
don't look anything like me.
style="font-style: italic;">"
- KazuyaDarklight
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
Today's New MMO Coverage, Features, and Guides
Few games in the MMORPG genre have been around as long as Ultima Online
and the game is still going strong today. With its latest expansion
Stygian Abyss bringing new content for players to the game and the
ability to fly around as a gargoyle, Ultima Online is still a game many
players enjoy. This week Ten Ton Hammer got the chance to speak with
Producer Cal Crowner about the Stygian Abyss and what it will offer
players of the Ultima Online universe.
Giveaways:
EarthHottest Content:
AnThanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network! Have a
great weekend!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team