TrueGentleman

My chief villain on Virtue - who just turned rogue - is a waxed-mustached and monocled Stalker called the Unspeakable Cad. Rather predictable, really.

I'm holding out for the supervillain formerly known as Paste Pot Pete, the Sinister Six's own Trapster!

A new challenger enters (after a fashion): Dark Horse may be dropping the prices of its digital editions to $1.49.

Stepping back from speculating about what these screenshots portend for the game's canon, I have to wonder if the devs are truly prepared to scrap or at least reboot the Ouroboros setting and deal with all the in-game mechanics that would have to be adjusted accordingly, along with inevitable bugs.

My inner 8-Ball says "Very doubtful", so my hypothesis is that we're seeing screenshots from an alternate instance of Ouroboros, perhaps the launching pad for the Incarnate system in the same way the old Ouroboros is the gateway to Flashbacks. (On preview, what The_Volt said.)

Also, what's with PYRAMIDS in the distant horizon in the second screenshot???

I aim for concision with my character bios, so there's usually no room to dwell on their beginnings. For my Peacemaker, Djet, I decided that the character's mental ordeal of bonding with an alien entity was an occasion to riff on the confusion that multiple retcons bring to origin stories, e.g. D.C.'s Hawkman.

1. Are you male or female?
Male

2. What ATs do you mostly play, and for what reason(s)?
Scrappers, Masterminds, and Blasters, with the occasional Stalker, Tanker and Controller (I have a test toon for each of the HEATs and VEATs). Since I’m more or less a casual player these days, I tend to stick to ATs that can solo relatively well. I enjoy DPS, tank, and shield support types, but I've never been one for strict "healer" roles.

3. Redside, blueside, purpleside, or any combination of the above?
Blueside, primarily, with a couple of redsiders. I’m trying out a couple of goldsiders as well these days, and while I like a bit of PVP ordinarily, I've never gotten into "purpleside" in this game.

4. What are your favorite story arcs?
To Save a Thousand Worlds; Ouroboros Initiation; Revenant Hero Project; The Radio’s Hit List; Echo Down the Aeons (I’m also enjoying the final morality missions in the alignment switching system, though I don't have a particular favorite yet).

5. What makes you like this game?
Character customization (both in terms of appearance and builds) and player-created content are the primary reasons. Super sidekicking and level pacts are also important, since it's all too easy in other games to find one's progression is out of sync with friends'. (Although you didn’t ask, what I dislike about this game includes the heavily instanced content and the lack of player impact on/interaction with the virtual world.)

6. What other games do you play?
Age of Conan currently, though I expect to let my subscription lapse at the end of the month. Previously among MMORPGs, I’ve played World of Warcraft Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, Champions Online, Myst Online, and the improbably named Dofus (a independent French MMO). For occasional “instant gratification” gaming, I play StarCraft II and Team Fortress 2.

7. How long have you been playing?
I joined in February 2009, played regularly for about 8 months, dropped out for 4, and have since returned casually (I'm getting back into the game following Going Rogue's release).

8. How many alts do you have, what is the average level range, and how many are level 50?
I've let myself get distracted among far too many alts after making concept chars and server sightseeing (call it two dozen), with the average level around 12, and only 1 level 50 from my first phase of dedicatedly playing CoX.

9. Do you bother with softcaps, set bonuses, and all that numerical stuff? What difficulty settings to you normally use?
While I'm not a confirmed min/max'er, I do try to keep my builds somewhat efficient with IOs (it's unfortunate Mids is not available for OS X). I tweak my corresponding levels and hero-equivalents on a case-by-case basis, but on average, it's just +1 level, 1-2 hero equivalent.

An OSX version was the catalyst for me (I read about it on a Mac-gaming web site). I'd long been fascinated by MMOs, though I could play only some of the few that had Mac clients. By the time one was released for CoH in early 2009, the game had thrived and matured into a competitive, attractive MMO with a lot of innovative features and a different vibe from the usual "Orcs & Dorks" fantasy settings. I wound up letting my WoW subscription lapse in part because CoH offered options that it couldn't match, such as player-created content and super sidekicking, or did better, such as character customization. The devs' dedication to improving and expanding the game with regular issues, as well as the superb setting for Going Rogue, suggests I'll be here for the long haul.

Newsarama has collected the reactions from Wildstorm alumni Warren Elllis, Ed Brubaker, and Gail Simone, ranging from the uncertain to the elegiac.

In 1999 DC Comics bought Wildstorm. It was generally agreed they wanted it for three things. The colourists. Jim Lee. And Alan Moore.

At this point, what else is DC Comics supposed to do?

P.S. Warren Ellis and Kurt Busiek don't sound especially hopeful about what's in store for their creator-owned titles with Wildstorm.

Ultraamann's "Shoot the advisor/trusted lieutenant/dungeon guard/beautiful princess" earn points for efficiency and directness, but these responses lie along the "Mafia Don" end of the evil overlord spectrum. "Shoot whatever is coming behind you without having to turn around to look." and "Open your mouth as if to answer... then shoot the hero/heroine." display something of an evil vizier's requisite villainous flair, yet even these favor the overt instead of the oblique, the straightforward instead of the scheming. Consider Silas's convoluted "I tell them a false plan then allow them to escape, so that they may strive to foil the fake plan and in doing so, help further my actual plan.", which was just one among several devious responses.

Champion deserves an evil vizier worthy of Conrad Veidt's Jaffar - only the evilest and viziest should apply.

As the concept of a democratically elected* evil vizier goes against the time-honored tradition of the office's appointment by the naive/foolish/senescent hereditary ruling figure, the candidates' positions on the execution of its customary duties ought to be established at the outset.

In the following standard evil vizier scenarios, what is the candidates response—

• If one of your advisors asks, "My liege/lord/leader, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?"
  
  
• If your trusted lieutenant asks, "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?"
  
  
• If one of your dungeon guards expresses concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell?
  
  
• If the beautiful princess that you capture declares, "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!"?
  
  
• If your are fighting with the hero/heroine atop a moving platform, have disarmed him/her, and are about to finish him/her off when he/she glances behind you and drops flat?
  
  
• If after you've captured the hero/heroine, he/she pleads, "Before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?"

* Even a fixed election is an election.

Instapaper is great for archiving/formatting articles from the web to read on the iPhone (think of it as the equivalent of Safari's Reader feature).