Francis

I had to search out what a bracket competition was. I don't have an interest in sports, except for the IKTHOF.

Found a guy offering a billion for a perfect prediction. [Link]

-

Nevermind...

GMG ended up emailing me two beta keys unexpectedly, so I actually have 1-2 to give away now if anyone else needs one.

 

And to think I was half way through filming my interpretative dance... Phew, that was close!

Damn them. Damn them all.

They will rue the day they denied us the possibility of chastizing our admin.

Wow. Now those are the cutest/ugliest things I've ever seen.

Wish I could draw something, but I've got 24 hours to complete a thesis from scratch. Instead, here's a picture of a real one I stole. Secunda must have goddamn collided with Masser.

Just a suspicion, but I think Musclemagic already sent David a code. Saw that he was using the personal messenger right after David made a post before I could say anything. But if not, I guess we've got an offer from Thal and the Cheshire Khajiit over here. Guess you guys hold ultimate judgement.

 

...via interpretive dance.

Yeah, sure, he could. But I doubt we'll be able to respect him afterwards. Now way am I letting a dirty interpretive dancer administrate my ramblings.

....So, really? No other ideas? ...God dammit, we need Blake for this.

Ain't it supposed to end with a "z"?

No problem, and me too. I can't wait to try out the collision detection.

The next and probably last Beta has been confirmed for this weekend, March 14. Invites coming this Tuesday.

It is so.

Don't worry about it. The ring only transforms you randomly once.

As for the stag, I'll go out on a limb and say storm shout it.

I have been very impressed with these developers. They have a clear vision of what they want to do, but at the same time they listen and will revise things when it seems like it is what most people want.

 

I will share a personal story. During beta, I did not get the beta survey in my email like everyone else. I sent a message to their customer support, and a day or two later I got a response. Not only had they read my message and responded to it, but the customer service rep had moved heaven and earth trying to find a way to send me that survey email. Eventually he found out that it was impossible to resend the survey email because of the way it was set up, but then he said he would personally read any comments I might like to share, and pass those along directly to the development team! I was so impressed by the time this guy devoted to one customer, I had never received that sort of response from a MMO customer service. And after receiving the email, he actually told me that my comments were similar to many others they had received, which really gave me some insight to the response they had been getting and therefore the direction they would be going. Since my comments and suggestions were generally quite positive, it was reassuring to hear that the people that were so vehemently negative in the beta forums were the minority. Anyway, thought folks might be interested.

 

I feel better about these developers than any I have ever seen, which gives me a lot of comfort that the game will keep getting better. I have been very excited about only a couple games this early in the process (DAoC and LotRO) in terms of the game itself, but in terms of developer response and customer service, these guys are in a class of their own so far. 

Finally, something constructive.

I agree. Zenimax is really proving they care. I think more highly of Paul Sage now, when I used to rue the fact that Todd Howard wasn't the one in charge, and slightly resented Paul. I was wrong. He's actually okay.

I can PM you my survey link, Eol. It's still unused. Though, I'll be frank--It'll take forever to complete.

Something is on the decline... I'm keeping quiet.

Just on the HUD or even over the NPCs?? This'll make questing annoying as hell..

Silly min/maxers. Elder Scrolls is not about knowing where to go. Elder Scrolls is about poking around and having adventure thrown at you. Did you think linear efficiency was going to be put before wanderlust? Aha ha. You fool.

The quest-giver indicators have also been removed. These updates just keep getting better and better.

Great news, everyone. You will now be able to better interact with the world in ESO, plus some other things. Here's the video and the announcement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D15xTlHemPY

From the PTS:

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to drop a line in to talk about some things coming to the game in the future that we thought you might want to know about. Of course, there is way more happening than what is listed here, with team busy on many initiatives including continued bug fixing, balancing, and other features. But these are things we can offer some tidbits on that you’ll hopefully be seeing soon. As with anything in development, things could change, so we are not guaranteeing these.

Adventure Zone – Craglorn and Trials We are going to be talking about this in lots of detail very soon. I know everyone is eager for details, and they will come soon.

FOV Slider There isn’t a lot to say about this feature that isn’t in the title, other than we will be adding it in. We know different people have different Field Of View settings which will make them comfortable, or just not nauseous.

Improved World Interactivity You will be able to pick up even more objects in the world, including picking up that sword or armor off the rack.

Death Recap In your darkest hour, we rub it in. Just kidding. When you die, you will now be informed of who or what killed you, what the last top five events were that contributed to your death, and offer some hints that might contribute to your success in the future. This will be a UI element that comes up when you die. We don’t want you to die, but if you do, we want you to be a better person for it.

Battle Level Off We're adding a toggle so you’ll be able to turn off battle leveling in Cyrodiil if you wish.

Exclusive Full Screen Mode In Digicolor. Okay, Digicolor isn’t really a thing, but exclusive full screen mode sounded so impressive, I thought I should embellish. Sorry about that.

Player Separation We know that group members can become separated in some of our content, and we are looking at ways to make sure you stay together with your group members. We are currently testing some solutions.

So there you go. Just a peek into what’s coming up, and really, that’s only a small portion of what we are working on. We’ll be announcing more in the upcoming weeks, and I’m looking forward to seeing you at launch.

Paul

***

I am extremely glad to hear this. With the latest Beta updates including collission detection, and now this, ESO is starting to look very promising once more.

A nude female Breton on a white horse, who does the 'plead' emote every time you dismount her, and then does a happy-dance if you spare her, before resuming her merry way.

Eventually, in a long enough timeline, all will come to love her as the harbinger of sexiness, and the legends will say that seeing her ride in Cyrodiil brings imminent joy and good luck.

I guess since the NDA has pretty much only opened up for the recent Beta, there really hasn't been much progress in terms of trade guilds. I'm sure people have also been reluctant to participate in such trade because of the impending notion that their is stuff is going to get wiped anyway. Your best bet is to find a trade guild in forum hubs.

In fact, why don't you start one? Take advantage of a demand, and seize the chance to cement yourself as a pioneer.

Though, honestly, the mechanics of ESO guilds are still hazy to me, but you can't go wrong with garnering influence. If you're in Ebonheart, I might just join you.

I assumed it would be a link for the petition...

 

 

Anyways; DOUBLE POST!!!(?)!!

I thought the plush toy was funnier. I laughed for a whole minute, then several more times in regular intervals over the next half-hour. But, right, the petition...

[Link]

And, well, yeah, a day passed since, so I double posted.

But should we really worry about such petty things? I mean, Jesus. First, you molest that little girl, and now you bother me with such trivial minutiae. Is there no end to your insanity!?

Wow, the aftermath is staggering. There's already an All-Terrain Venomoth plush toy, and someone's started a government petition to make March 1 National Helix Day.

[Link]

Cool.

My question is, with the general expansiveness of ES, how in the heck will that be worth anything when it goes live. Surely there will be hundreds

Well, it's a start...

Hey, look, they misspelled Entoloma and Hyacinth. Tsk, tsk.

I'd personally be against having two characters. Since you wanna focus on PVP anyway, why don't you just keep doing that, earn PVP rewards, extract the components, and sell them to other players. That way you could commission some other guy to make your gear for you. I mean, it is a choice to make, and they do emphasize on your choices.

You'd still be leveling up your crafting from all the extraction. And when the time comes that your build is right, spend some skill points on it.

Check out ol' Helix with that glamour pose.

Now that's it's over, I feel empty... and lifeless. Ack, I gotta get away from the computer for a while.