>Oh, then you'll love it. It bears a lot of resemblence to Everquest,
>presuming that's the kind of mindless slugfest you like. No flames, of
>course: it's a different game than Everquest entirely, but generally,
>it appeals to the same target audience.

Heh. I despise EQ. This could be because I've seen several marriages go wildly awry over it (and, yes, other issues that were grossly exacerbated by the lovely communication-avoider that is EQ). Or, it could be because I'm merely too antisocial to play MMORPGs (you want me to team up with people I don't know who talk in all caps? are you nuts?), and hence play PSO in offline mode pretty exclusively.

The one time I wandered into a PSO lobby, I fled within two minutes. The cartoon speech bubble thing just _really_ bothers me... although it can be used for some unintentionally kawaii effects on big, burly Rangers. :)

My idea of fun, of course, is Diablo 2, but I just DON'T think I could've gotten the D2 game world past Gryphon as a viable homeworld for UFme. :)

And yes, some actual roleplaying would have greatly helped PSO-- but for what it is, a PC-style MMORPG on a console, it works pretty darn well.

OTOH, on the "purist" side of the equation, I'm still livid that Old Man Nintendo decreed that Metroid Prime needs to be a first-person shooter. I *liked* Metroid; aside from the occasional bout of Marathon or Half-Life, I hate FPS.

Ard

Ard Sumhenner
Ronin Research, Sacramento, CA