There are clearly an awful lot of preconcieved and unfair notions going around about vector folk, of course we have some immature players, what server doesn't? do we have more...hmm can't honestly say but I am absolutely certain any difference is actually very small. The evidence of event reports clearly shows vector to hold its own very well imo, rp may be different but what it benefits from is consistency as it deals with one approach to hostility rather than having to adapt to someones on/off invulnerability field. The sad irony is that, much like the game, the potential of Vector exceeds the other servers in its depiction of a living rp world but as a result of external factors, these preconceived predjudices it isn't given the chance to realise it - it needs the very players who are the first to pass it by

I will concede is that the hostile tag does allow disruptive elements more power, which is why its down to the wits of the player to make use of their environment to interact in the manner they so wish...in some ways it amounts to an elevated challenge, it has to be an element that rp itself involves, but in fact it is far easier to interact as your hearts desire in vector than anyone here suggests.

The real problem that pervades the game as a whole is the lack of real consequence for your actions, a homicidal maniac is as free from comeback as a philathropic pacifist, DE is far too mild to deter anyone or anything, the ability of players to police the matrix is nil as there is no real threat or incentive that can be used to get players into a mutual frame of mind.... all out pvp would therefore be too chaotic imo (but if that element of conseqeuence could be realised it would be worth the effort).

The days of technological restriction limiting freedom in game mechanics are fading fast, rp has to evolve; to be less structured, more flexible, more geared to a realistic and credible environment rather than the run on rails point a to point b style of times gone past.... MxO could lead the way still but it needs a level of flexibility imagination in its community to realise it  imo.

MxO's population under monolith was pretty large compared to anything since....if they had to sell it then clearly they had no way to sustain it's continued contraction.... I doubt the game is self sustaining even today financially so it could only ever fall into the hands of someone who wants the prestige carried by the franchise (and one of those rare alternatives to elfland) within a larger portfolio.

While I doubt I would have been any 'happier' with the story details under Monolith (they killed Morpheus to no point whatsoever) I think their commitment was more solid irt the ongoing story and, that would, at least, have kept the Matrix environment and the story as a coherent whole sadly today the two aspects appear to have detached never to return again " width="15" height="15" />.

My understanding is that Pandora's box, CR2, the White Halls is all content dating well before SoE came aboard.

Not sure at what point SoE begin injecting their idea's into the game but from this point onwards content has been notable in that there is little connection with the story or environment tending to indicate a shift in philosophy. The game lives becasue of SoE's involvement but as ever there was a cost.

I would say the individual events held today surpass anything that we had under Monolith, but the overall philosophy behind the game has moved, either by accident or design, away from the story.

The one overiding and unique facet held by this MMO is the story, new players need to be led into the events (story events not live events I mean) that are going down, they need to be made to feel it matters, that it affects the world around them (not some area they can never visit) and that they can make a difference, that their presence has value, content and storylining has to emphasise this. It would imbue this game with something no other MMO can compete, it was the promise and potential of such a world, a living breathing matrix, that Monolith seemed to invest in. Since the Soe change we have a much more technologicaly sound platform but one that has detached content and gameplay from the story diluting and sterilising the overall impact that the game can give.

I remember decoding/finding meeting times and places and beating Zion to Morpheus, spying on masked meetings etc, etc, twas fun............

Do current story events actually affect the city or redpills in any material way any more?  The sad lack of connection between the story and the environment leaves very little for a Newspaper supposedly written in the city to convey....

In considering this problem I concede that the lack of the sentinel is one of those factors that is severely missed and contributing in my case to a lack of feel that we have any connection to what is going on. It or something like it needs to return to bring the world to life, and all players especially newbies need to be given a reason to keep in touch with the world we occupy.....it is a key part of the unique appeal of this mmo over any other.

The problem for Lesig is transparency, we have all seen the venom hurled out when accusations of favortism and insider knowledge are made, actually allowing LESIG to leak info in some subtle form places them in an impossible situation. Equally while players can generate content from events gone by all that will become is an event recap whipped up by spin, any new sentinel needs to look into the furture, it needs to give us some ambition, some hope that progress is occuring and that there is some consequence for things that have occured, it needs to draw new players into the plot and make them a part of this world. It would take creative dev time but it plays to the strengths of the game and would be more worthwhile than adding more disconnected mechanical gameplay. 

There are some issues with regard to the story - The loss of the truce places credibility issues on a public newspaper as a information source, this isnt a neutral zone or occupied territory it is the land of the Machines, the Sentinel would either be a pure propagander tool or else shut down altogther. In Zion's case use of the matrix as a place to plot, plan or play lacks any real conviction, for them it is literally the worse place to transfer information. The mutual investment and real connection all orgs had in the Matrix is now a lot more tenuous. It still has a place but perhaps it's bias needs to reflect these factors.

Not really a very fair contest, we never got to see what the original system would have been like as they gave up early on and didnt make the simplest of fixes to things like stun times, debuff stacking, and limited multi IL to 4.

The double hotbar isnt really an advantage in cr2 since you needed the extra slots to maintain the same functionality imo. CR2 is beautifully balanced for even fights and horribly unbalanced when the numbers are unequal.... 90% of pvp finds the numbers unequal on each side.

I cannot deny the many merits of cr2 but I just know that I enjoyed pvp a lot lot more pre-cr2.

fixed original system ftw

Dear Walrus,

Please stop wasting time on yet another souless runaround of an mmofps, get back here to a game that still has masses of untapped potential (where you could probably do everything 'the agency' might promise within the context of a decent rp world) with a concept, playerbase and a franchise more than worthy of all the time and effort soe could ever lavish on.......well anything really.

Yours sincerely

Ty

Regardless of details it really boils down to the fun factor and type of pvp you enjoy.

The old system had a LO for every occasion, whether you were alone or in a zerg, whether you faced one person or faced a Zerg, there was a way to PvP with all sides having somthing to achieve. Today Solo pvp is definitely more restrictive, Zergs are way more resistant to death, teams are favoured etc...... As a predominently solo pvp-er (or small team) under the old system every day offered lots of fun pvp, post cr2 its very hit and miss.

CR1 better for solo pvp and casually occuring, ie unbalanced, pvp (75% of all pvp)

CR2 better for duels, organised team pvp 

Tytanya_MxO wrote:

CR2 better for duels, organised team pvp 

lolwut?

I've taken out three MKTs in one life once, and then there are some days where I can't even kill another MA. CR2 is random and it's annoying, in CR1 I could at least know when I'm gonna win, instead of randomly not being able to get off a single attack on someone for 10 minutes.

Unfortunately relating pvp combat here to other mmo's isn't really very encouraging, the vast majority of mmo combat systems are limp, disconnected, overly random and unrewarding in the areas of skill or tactics.

Part of the old systems appeal and also a significant part of the overall appeal of MxO it was the distinction it had from generic mmo fare, not only did the world look different it behaved differently. CR2 was a step back towards into what everyone else was doing - free fire took a step forward (equal or better reward with less risk/restriction) and the unique style of IL took a step backwards (once you comit to IL you are pretty much in for the duration), nowhere is this more apparent than when you are facing a larger force, IL actually works as a trap holding you in place while the lazy zerg rattles you with free fire stuff.

Right from the beginning CR needed to offer IL some kind of protection, it needed to promote the unique and matrixy style of combat over the pale and insipid free fire.....it still does, and if there comes a time for CR3 then please please please do not waste your time looking at what other mmo's have already done, even the supposed dedicated pvp games like Fury are dismal when compared to the lowliest of online fighters, wrestlers or fps's out there.

He didn't say but id assume that when Cryptos went back to Zion she got locked up. The post about the original script can be found here btw or if your to lazy here's the quote

"Some of it, sorta. Seraph's attack on Cryptos "cured" him completely, and Cryptos returned to Zion. Cryptos helped the Kid fight the General, and helped track down the last cheat code, which the Oracle said the Kid would need in order to beat the General. The Kid drinks the code, gets super powers, and kills the General. Zion's secret base is revealed in 8.3 (the whole "New Zion" thing, and other things you'll see in chapter 9, all came out of an idea that popped into my head during a discussion with HCFrog waaaaaay back in the day), but it's eliminated pretty much immediately by the Machines. Aside from that there were some other sort of personal character plots that I don't want to go into since Paul I think will be wanting to inject aspects of them here and there as we go on."

I missed this previously but this sequence of events is significantly more credible and rational than what we actually got, it is very sad to note that seemingly just to maintain the Cyph and EPN tags the credibility of the story was compromised so badly. It certainly represents a key moment where the conviction of the story really took a nosedive.

The Cyphs plot had very clearly reached a logical conclusion and their continued existence today, with absolutuely no direction, definition or identity beyond the 'I'm a terrorist' T-shirt is a significant millstone around the neck of the story. If they are to continue to exist they desperately need to be given a credible angle that distinguishes them from their current 1 dimensional status and most importantly seperates them the other organisations. Without such a distinction they will exist heavily at the expense of the Mervs and to a lesser degree the Mechs in story terms diluting plot to no benefit whatsoever.

The existence of EPN has always been a serious detriment to Zion at a plot level, while the truce was there a miniscule distinction as to which line, which org would cross, but in reality they occupy the exact same position as Zion exclusively to the detriment of the older organisation. Again if they have to exist give them some meat for their cloned bones that allows them their own identity and distinction to allow their (far more valid albeit heavily abused) parent to breathe!

Matrix Revolutions provided the most perfect set up any MMO could hope for; it provided a valid reason why we'd work rest and play in the Matrix (very important and very much in absence in the current scenario), we urgently need to get back to that, we need to reaffirm our connection with the franchise we spawned from, the story needs to deliver its content at a level that is both rational and of significance to the player it should be about the Matrix itself not about the concept or the real world around it, we need to get real not sail off into lands we can never experience or appreciate, it needs to promote and exploit characters with charisma, character we care about and might be inspired to follow or assist..... I'm not sure who is in now charge of the plot today but there has been a lot of damage done recently to no visible benefit and some care and attention is desperately needed.

I must confess I assumed the alternate story would see the kid and cryptos sacrifice themselves and both orgs end...or redirect themselves etc  

I am not actually avocating scrapping the sub orgs, I've always enjoyed insulting them, it's so easy and I agree its very good to see player enthusiasm rewarded (the org tags are the only relevent story level content to appear in MxO to date) - but again if they are to exist beyond the point of their natural 'death' the commitment to keep the tags has to be joined by a commitment to evolve a new aim and relevent direction, and in fairness to the older orgs the areas of excessive overlap need to be reduced at the official level. Players have one real choice to make and to deliver any kind of involvement it they have to have reasonable tools/info to choose.....its actually some of the easiest content to provide but it has to be official or your reasons for joining EPN could be identical to someone elses for joining Zion which is crazy. I hear what is said about the memory of Neo and trinity but Zion alone could have had that role very easily (and regardless of EPN should imo).

The best change of the recent patch for me was the Agents no longer targetting Mech op's at last the environment is recognising some identity.....though for parity's sake the other tags should have some alternate environmental bonus.

Every org and every tag should bring with it rewards and consequences...you become what you eat and the structure then makes your rsi a part of the city rather than just a shell for you eyes to watch a story.

What annoys me most is story destroying the foundations that got us this far for seemingly no reward or point, Morhpheus died for...errr well if he hadn't errr hmmm............. if the Cyphs were to continue that whole sequence with Gray is far better left out or supplanted with a 'I dont believe you' from Veil but neither words or subsequent actions made any sense of the revelation and to date it has served no purpose whatsoever - the raison d'etre of the Cyphs was made null and void and their credibility nil for nothing? And yes they made far more sense as covert members of the other orgs rallying to the odd meeting with their superiors etc (and as a form of content discovering their id and stealing a cq would make a very nice competitive mission...)

likewise the business with the truce - With it gone the ideal set up and connection to revolutions is lost, the logical reasons for the way we are forced to interact with the city gone, the defining line between cyph/mech and EPN/Zion gone, the disturbing inference that even with the power of Neo nothing can be changed or achieved and for what? What has happened that could not have happened anyways? The story just annhilates its own credibility and then forgets about it then it goes on and waffles about massive changes in places we can't see or feel, Zion? new Zion? Botswana? feel free to log in from whereever. Ironically Cause and Effect is exactly what is missing from the Matrix, tough to be a Merovingian these days

There seems to be an inherent problem with the perspective from which the story is developed since chapter 7, it is treating us as detached spectators or simple readers -  but we are (or should be) part of the story (even if we are helpless and can change nothing) it has to relate to us and has to deliver some sense of individual and organisational worth.

Of course maybe there are explanations a coming but every moment the integrity of what is to come is severely damaged by the way we find it out and the wait to see it denied.....ultimately the only thing we can learn is 'meh it doesnt matter one way or tother'

I don't think the chapter title makes any real inference on whether the truce would actually break, only that attempts were made to do so.... its very rare for a title to reveal the final resolution or even hint at it...... Star Wars Episode IV: finding out how then destroying the death star...... although I wouldnt put it past Lucas to have considered it

Regardless of the original intent (and by the alternate story posted war was not a likely outcome) and regardless of who or what was involved in agreeing it, the problem is not that the story can't go there but that in our case the canvas on which the story is being written cannot follow.

In a book, comic, film or tv show in we are an observer, usually the plot leads us to identify or sympathise with a central character, the person we associte with can feel or do things we would never do ourselves, they can also have emoitonal responses that are quite the opposite to our own but we can accept this third party relationship and enjoy it. An mmo is a different beast, we aren't observers this is us or our character in there and the need for a credible path is more important than individual milestones, the story has to weave its messages on the interface we use and this is where certain stroy developments just leave us behind, defy any sense of reality and destroy that all important 'suspension of disbelief'.

The truce justified and reenforced the constraints of our interface, war does the exact opposite and is therefore simply an inappropriate and damaging development... all the things we do online suddenly exist in contradiction, the importance of the matrix and time spent inside diminished, events outside are unreal as we can't feel or influence them....given other knowledge such as EJP the Matrix is the worse possible place to describe a war, it isn't coincidental that Revolutions spends the least time jacked in of any of the movies.

Unfortunately your last sentence is probably spot on, good idea or dont care, in one case they don't adapt anything for the medium its played out on and in the other well In either case the conviction and integrity of the rp world steadily collpase under the weight of multiple contradictions both from story and from the physical content (that likewise doesn't seem to feel any responsibility in adpating to the world of the franchise).

While I agree with you, I just do not want to see us stray too far (than we already have) from the movies. If these people want to drop the war, do it IC. Bring the truce back (by means of Neo), and then let EPN and CYPHS duke it out (I still doubt they would).

While Tytanya makes good points I have to say there's only so much excitement to be had under the terms of a truce and I think we pretty much exhausted the possibilities in the last year or two. 

Meh forum ranks what do they tell you about the posters?

Lets keep it simple and have a universally understood set for all forums - Almost Mute, Restrained, Erudite, Gobbie, Loud, Downright Obnoxious seems to cover most eventualities

Sad but true the reasons and motivation of players attending events has changed significantly and the influence of the story as a whole is being lost beneath the generic mmo staples of rare items, mindless pvp, and disconnected content.

MxO has always had the potential to create a living breathing world where we live the role as much as play it, in such a world the story functions everyday and events are milestones on a bigger journey that affects everyone and matters to them, as players are then encouraged to immerse themselves in the world they actually become a part of it that makes it come alive to other players...... this is the place we should be heading for it is certainly how I see MMORPGS of the future.

Seems to me the datamine functioned for a brief time because for that time PvP actually had some purpose and the confines of the datamine also drew together the small population into one place. However it is content that is discontinuous and contradictory to the rest of the story and the rest of the environment, the fate of such content will always be fleeting as after the initial interest you won't go there to do anything other than mess around. I'd rather not see more dev time wasted on it unless it was properly integrated into the environment and story to mean something on an ongoing basis (that the orgs benefit from etc) and move it beyond its current souless 2 dimensional level.... (the ffa aspect was a mistake imo better to have a ffa luggerble on the outside for those that wish it.)

/pvp [ all | friendly | hostile | release | status ]

I've said it before. The pvp command should have additional functions to harbour, e.g. FFA tags.

That would be the ideal/perfect solution but I fear would be the most work to implement (if the devs had specific area controls they could activate it individually for the sub orgs so for those odd times it could be Mech vs Cyph or Zion vs Epn hence expanding the variety of events and allowing for last minute betrayals etc).

In terms of the datamine, it is simply another construct and as with the others no matter what reward or bonus you get there, once you have it the reason to go back diminishes exponentially....with masses of the city already standing empty all we really do is draw people from the city for a while and make it seem more deserted to the lower levels/new players.

We need content that gives us tasks everyday, contentious tasks that demand pvp and actually give reason to others to stop us (rather than just wanting to stop someone else getting the $i) - org bases, luggerble power items that need stockpiling, hunt seek locate style activities over the whole city - things that fit with story and pvp - that involve the all of the population all of the time in a variety of ways, things that accumlate in some larger way over time to ensure there is always a reason to do them, temporal rewards that need work to be gained and more work to be retained.............

Your ability to relate absolutely any thread and topic, no matter how unrelated, back to your ideas on the story continues to astound.

The reason that we never really get any story related quests is becuase the story is always changing and after another update that quest would perhaps seem strange and out of date, irrelevant if you will. Rarebit is only going to work on content that adds end-game value and something that can be put there forever, he simply doesn't have time to keep making quests that become irrelevant after the next patch (Exculding Anniversary, Winter and Halloween events of course). And before you metion the Elite Commando Quest, thats only indirectly related to the story.

The nature of all 'new' content to date has focussed around some kind of personal reward.... by and large no matter what it is once we get it we lose interest, the net worth of the content decreases significantly over time because it does not link to any larger aspect of the game. The effect of increasing the reward or making it easier or harder to get only extends the contents life fractionally, if we want content to last longer an alternative approach has to be made. There are background processes always present in the city and a story connection actually functions to prevent content getting out of date and doesnt have to tie to any particular chapter of the story to remain relevent.

As an example, power...the mechs have a lot and other orgs need it for their hcft or their cities or whatever, suppose the datamine was a conduit - packets of power like photons spawn there for distribution (luggerble) the mechs need to ensure it is safe until it passes to its designated routes, but merov and Zion forces need to steal it or reroute it into their own reserves, a reason to go a pvp arises even for players who rp preferentially, the reward is accumulated over time and normalised for relative populations on a server reset the details transfer into the buffs provided by some org specific ability which for the following week or activates some special ability for the following week for the winning org or perhaps generates an org specific $i boost for the following week..... shifting the nature of the reward from a personal item to something that benefits an org for a specific period of time delivers a smaller personal incentive to go and pvp but compensates by being an incentive that never actually dissapears altogther....individual events can even call on temporal needs to draw more power so players can have the importance of this task reinfoced on a periodic basis through the LET - different reasons, same content - its a more lateral approach to sustaining a greater longevity for content.... not the only one I grant you but one that hasn't yet been tested

I am aware it might be a difficult idea to describe but I did try to make it clearer via the example content. In no way am I suggesting no reward should be offered, only that the nature of that reward shouldnt always boil down to item A that you gain and then hoard in your inventory.... The pattern of such content to date is always the same, flurry of activity and then its almost forgotten. If we keep doing more of the same we will just keep getting the same results.

I suggested one alternate route but there are others and the best source is looking deep into the story/concept/theme (whatever term you want to give it since story seems to be a dirty word these days) and think what is going on in the background, what is always needed, how could our rsi be employed within the matrix and how could what we do be made sufficiently important for us to feel we should keep doing it.

(( trying to reword the example for clarity - Make a reward we all would like....a single organisational ability for instance  but rather than just let us gain that from a drop and be done with, go on to say that its continued used can only be sustained for seven days and relies on winning sufficient power from the mechs to use it. For the Mechs perhaps an agent assist ability a one shot get out of trouble move they get it by default but if Zion or merovs steal so many luggerbles from location A and deliver them to location b the mech ability fails to work and for the next seven days the org that gained the most units (per operative to cater for population differences) has their ability function. - we have a cool reward but only by continually fighting for it do we get the oppertunity to fully enjoy it etc......not that I'd like to see something like that wasted on the datamine mind, but hopefully the concept of a two pronged reward is clearer.))

The look is consistent with the tone of the Matrix, I'd rather see a screenie of people in any variety of outfits than any amount of, fx leaking out of different body parts or wire frame planets orbiting a scene

There is no question in my mind that if we accept it is possible to extract someone from the matrix (a place they have spent the vast majority of their time) re-insertion has to be equally possible. Indeed as a redpill we already undergo a good proportion of that process and dismiss it as routine. Psychologically there are issues, but again the fact that until the EJP arrived even hardcore redpills could be killed by the events inside the matrix (which they more than any bluepill know to be what they are) demonstrates an immense ability of the simulation to convince its reality.

The extraction is supposedly an element of choice, if your choice is to accept the simulation even after knowing of its nature again I would have to say its logical to be able to lose yourself within once reinserted.

As to the relative merits or value of reinsertion, ebnergy cannot be created or destroyed, the creation/birthing process has to involve an input of energy disproportionate to the rest of its life. At the same time the young body expends energy on growth (even in the pods this is seen to be the case by Neo's adult body etc), so the energy value or output of a full grown human has to be greater than starting from scratch.

Given the delvelopment process that almost has to have occurred to arrive at this type of power source, at some point reinsertions have to have taken place.

Can machines lie..... well to a degree they must, but it will be a devastatingly dissapoining aspect of mxo if all we end up doing is making mechs behave identically to their human counterparts with exactly the same stregths and weaknesses (though I would lay that criticism of 90% of Sci-Fi)

The Official story needs to recreate or restablish the sceanrio that existed at the end of Revolutions (or one very like it) as it created the setting for the PERFECT MMO. At that point the focus of the story was on the Matrix itself (its the only place we can go so it HAS to take centre stage) its the one thing we ALL had a vested interest in, the truce made sense of many of the contrivances enforced by the mmo-gameworld - in that environment working, resting and playing were all credible reasons for a redpill to jack in, exactly analogous to the real world situation of the mmo, equally the characters in place had a presence and purpose that even casual players could get a kick out of meeting them.

MxO needs an official, credible and cohesive storyline even more than it needs an official storyteller, because with the right fuel and the right parameters everything that goes on and everthing that is done by everybody can then be made important and can feel like you have stepped into 'The Matrix'.

Chapter 8 was actually where logic and continuity was sacrificed and any influence and continuity with the original trilogy was lost.

The Matrix online is a persistent MMO with unavoidable restrainst that the story has to work withing or lose any conviction or resonance. We are forced to go to plan, to go play, to idlly discuss and to act inside the matrix. Given the changes that had to be made to accomadate its game roots it is unequivably the worse possible environment to play out a war scenario...its not that the storyline wasnt good or right it was simply that this place has no credible way to realize a war and further that the presence of war destroyed the credibility of our regular gathering online. Equally a war is a conflict on a scale that diminishes the influence of individuals, unless you are lucky enough to wield god like, world changing powers, ie unless you happen to BE the on, a war simply means you are insignificant. The story and the game setting are set in direct contradiciton by the state of war.

The truce actually made the Matrix important, not for what it is but for the way it then became the logical place to plan for the future; stories should have revolved arouond powerbroking, a cold war, intrigue, espionage, future real world development, alternate power sources, joint ventures, trust, envy, anxiety, impatience, control, faith all these were relevent in the context of a truce and all become irrelvenet as the sides fragment into a war.

Revolutions, love it or loathe it, presented an answer, an alternative to an endless and redundant war, one that permitted a new environment where the influence of an individual, ie a player, could actually have a role to play, in  a future that actually had direction and hope....thats where we need to be placed again, to recover the sensation that we can, however minutely, actually make a difference, and that as players we have worth.

The issue is not where the story could have or should have gone, its a case of delivering a story that works on the canvas that is an mmo. Books, films and games are three different mediums, the manner in which the story is told depends on the tools you have to tell it, if the story goes to a place you cannot follow you lose interest, if it delivers a punch and you see no consequence or effect it destroys involvement, if it offers an inevitable and unavoidable conclusion you're not encouraged to make any contribution.

The story as taken forward has to work in the confines of the gameworld we have, it has to deliver an experience that is enetrtaining, involving and challenging and for that the aspirations, the aims and objectives have to be of a scale and nature that the player can appreciate and considers important. It cannot be all out war, simply because that can never be realised or even simulated here.... massive events like the breakdown of the truce, the destruction of zion, the abuse of Cryptos, and the presence of the oligarchy may offer interest but the game engine comepletely fails to deliver any consequence or resonance, they are effectively irrelevent to the player, they change nothing and go nowhere and never will.

The truce functions firstly to reduce the scale of the problem which brings it closer to the player. It creates excuses and reasons which directly emulate the manner in which players interact inside the matrix, it delvers a credible environment over which other stories of intrigue and terrorism can be played. smaller conflicts with smaller objectives that the player can feel important in involving themselves. If you dont have the truce then there needs to be some other valid story mechanism that emulates these effects but this also has to be in sympathy with the original trilogy or we have discontinuity and it ceases to be the matrix and just becomes city online....something considerably short of its proper potential.

As Fen says we do need a storyteller that actually enjoys the matrix, but we also need one that knows how to make the player feel that what is going on around them actually matters to them, that offers choices that have both consequence and reward. Its not just a story to sit us down and read at us, we need to be a part of it, our character need to feel its effects and have an investment in its future.

I wanted to say thanks to rare, for the many many good times with MxO, so it was worth a resub.

As regards the upcomming event, tbh I can barely remember how to play I find it kinda hard to 'go home again' so I'm not sure I will actually feel able log in again =/

Hmmm no stay puffed marshmallow man anyways.

The community makes the game, the devs can only work with the resources alloted, the resources alloted are goverened by the number of subscribers QED!

I havent been impressed with any MxO content since PB and the story imo has been a series of missed oppertunities and irrelevent blind alleys....but it was carried forward with a dedication and energy that belies the funding the game is likely generating or being paid to any one person, I think that was Rare's real contribution and it is worth celebrating even for those of us unable to stomach the missed potential here......on my travels I have tried many games, the community here is so much better than anything else you come accross and I think there is a direct connection that should not be underestimated.

Possibly more than vaguely off topic, but reading the stuff SoE are putting out about DCUO and its approach to storyteling and making the player a part of the DC Universe...... its a severe case of Deja Vue from those promises made for Matrix Online before its release.

Merge the servers and make downtown Hostile

designate a club to each organisation and fill the looby area of each and surround it with a force of high level npcs that only attack the other orgs to create a form of base.

Make other downtown clubs contestable objectives.

Bring the story to a point that establishes a common base for and encourages future player designed stories - a new truce, reinsertion being possible (and indeed enforceble for those more determined cyphs), progress the idea that the Merovingian has ways to encode an RSI into a fully fledged program (immortality at a price etc) ie operative can one day be real exiles.

redesign Zion hallways to be more like real world Zion and provide unique 'zion clothing' options there

Implement the outfit shell idea of Ingus' from way back when, where buffs arise from the first 6/7 slots of the inventory while appearence is delivered by the usual clothing slots.

introduce as many tools as possible for future player led stories to call on... ie luggerbles that can spawn a customisable npc threat force, inserts that can by submitted for inclusion in the sentinel, customisable information npc's that can be placed in the world and have their interactions defined to respond to players (the persist fro a designated time only of course), implement Organisation chat,

Produce items and rewards that are organisation specific (dependent on rep).

Org specific powers

introduce a luggeble that places a player into a fourth pvp state (so cyph and epn can occasionally fight their parent orgs)

Remember this is to please me not the rest of you .......though it might take a little longer than a month!

Disguise myself as Walrus, walk down the corridor to the Agency room and tell them to spend some time on MxO a decent game with some deeper appeal than the souless run around fps thingy they have wasted their time on :p

I dont think its right to suggest any real connection between MxO and the Agency, it seems yet another in an incoming barrage of mmo's that want to label themselves 'action mmo's - which seems to translate as mmos that are dumbed down to the basics a series of loosely connected time sink mechanics functioning for their own sake. Consequently they come accross as bland, generic, lacking any real mood, character or depth, Tabula Rasa and Hellgate are good examples, decent gameplay but really with nothing there to make you care about or feel involved. They are about as unlike MxO as its possible to be and not in any posistive way.

If the hype can be believed - more potential lies in the likes of DCUO and SWKoR, they talk of placing story and character to the forefront much like MxO did in the early days (I dont believe SoE ever understood that and hence why they managed to lose so many dedicated fans along the way). If someone had been around to coordinate MxO's content and story, making sure one didn't go off and damage the other or else wander into and leave the players behind, MXO would probably be recognised as the pioneer of such an approach, an intelligent take on the mmo market.

Thank you for revealing these secret, hope to see some of those effects i have never seen before at last.