The Peanut Gallery

So it’s been announced that in Issue 10, the Rikti will return for a second invasion.

Hmm.  Alts?  What do you think about all this?

(Clickety-click for full sized goodness!)

 

Lo, There Shall Be A Vistaing!

So what’s the lowdown on Bill Gates’ newest baby and CoX? I’m looking to get a new laptop soon and want to make sure the OS will permit the dramatic return of Jimmy Holden and company.

 

I Am Officially Sick of Snaptooth

Seriously, how many times do we have to paste this loser?

 

Prime Time

Paragon City, Steel Canyon, Silver City Apartment Building, 7: 23 pm

In a well-furnished and comfortably disarrayed living room, a pair of scaly green feet lounged on a black leather ottoman.  Nate Conrad, the Leapin’ Lizard, slumped indolently in his big chair as he watched Friday night sitcoms.  Between a hard week of crimefighting and lab work, the semi-reptilian hero was already geared up for a quiet weekend.  One long-fingered hand was already buried in a bowl of kettle corn; the other was lifting a glass of Diet Rite to his mouth.  The good life.

At that precise moment, the Lizard’s TV — and that of everyone in the WPGN viewing area — cut off into static, interrupting the laugh track.  “Aw, nuts,” muttered the Lizard, as he set down his popcorn to grab the remote, but within seconds the picture had returned.

But not the sitcom.

Instead, a blue-hooded figure seated behind a table.  A figure wearing a grotesque, grinning green mask.

In the Leapin’ Lizard’s apartment, a glass of soda crashed forgotten to the floor.

———

“Evening, Paragon TV viewers!” came the evil, mocking voice from the mask.  “I know you’re all anxious to get back to your program, and find out whether Stan and Annette get together, so I won’t keep you long.

“As you all know, I’m your good friend the Grinning Ghoul.  No need to reintroduce myself — you’ve probably met either me, or my associates in Infamy Unlimited, during one of our many really fun trips to your city.  Oh, we’ve had a lot of laughs.  Mostly at your expense, of course, but anyway.”

He snickered a moment, then lowered his voice and leaned toward the camera.  “But although you know us here at Infamy Unlimited, it has come to my attention that you do not fear us yet.  Not enough.  Well, we’re going to have to fix that, aren’t we, Paragon?  And we will fix that … starting tonight.

“As of tonight, the Grinning Ghoul and Infamy Unlimited declare war against the people of Paragon City!  At my command are the most powerful super-criminals this world has ever seen, and you shall learn to fear them like never before as they lay waste to your homes, your shops, to any place you once imagined yourself secure and safe.  You’ll soon learn how pathetically you’ve been kidding yourselves.

“And with each blow we strike upon your city, you will also learn of the effectiveness of Paragon City’s  so-called heroes.  No matter how many of your protectors come leaping to the rescue, they will always prove themselves too weak, too slow, too pathetic to stop us.  Infamy Unlimited is superior!  Ha ha ha ha!”

Here, in the midst of his manic outburst, the Ghoul held up for the camera a small black handheld device like a remote control.  “But talk is cheap.  So here’s a free demonstration for you to chew on.  No extra charge.”  His armored thumb pressed a large red button on the control, producing a very faint beep.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of each other,” continued the Ghoul, “so I’ll wrap things up for now.  People of Paragon City, I now return you to your spineless, mediocre, TV-watching lives.  Enjoy them … for as long as they last.”

The Ghoul chuckled, slowly and evilly, as the camera zoomed to fill the screen with his twisted visage.  Then the screen turned to static, and local programming resumed.  Except the sitcom had been replaced by a “LIVE BREAKING NEWS” infographic, with an urgent voiceover describing the grim situation now being shown from the WPGN  helicopter:

“… panic and devastation at the Mashu Bridge, where a massive explosion just moments ago has collapsed one of the bridge supports … smoke and debris are making it hard to see, but the middle section of the bridge appears to be completely collapsed.  At least one car can be seen teetering on the edge … And now, less then one minute after the explosion, heroes are already beginning to arrive at the site.  I’m being told that Whizkid has just run up and is helping motorists from their cars, and that streak of blue light in the sky is reportedly Dr. Ray, now appearing on the scene …”

———

In the control room of Infamy Central, the Grinning Ghoul stood watching the lovely havoc on the news feeds.  After enjoying the show for a minute, he switched off the monitors and turned away.  Mind-Grinder, who had been standing patiently in the back, spoke up.

“For someone who spends so much time invisible, you have a surprising weakness for the theatrical,” commented the psychic in clipped, disdainful tones.

“It’s television, Mind-Grinder,” the Ghoul answered jovially.  “The public expects a little razzle-dazzle with their nighttime viewing.”  A chuckle escaped from behind his eternally smiling mask.  “Now we’ll let the heroes clean up the mess, as they always do.  They’re good at that.”

“In that case, you’ve wasted all this expense on a mere a publicity stunt.”

“Mind-Grinder, for all I care they can repair the bridge overnight and have people driving on it to Saturday brunch.  Our goal here is fear.  Paragon will remember that Infamy Unlimited can strike them anywhere, anytime — and their pathetic heroes can do litttle more than pick up the pieces.  After tonight’s broadcast, they’ll credit us with everything that goes wrong for days.  Every robbery, every unexplained disappearance, every power outage … their first thought will be to remember my face on their television screen.

“Tonight may be only a stunt; but one day, Mind-Grinder, all of Paragon City will be under our control.  In order for that to happen, they must fear us.  Don’t you agree?”

Mind-Grinder considered this.  “Actually, I wouldn’t see the point of ruling anyone who didn’t.”

“That’s the spirit!” laughed the Ghoul.  “After all, old friend, the first word in our name is ‘infamy.’  Which is something I take very seriously.  As for the ‘unlimited’ part” — and here his voice took a wild, unhinged pitch — “oh, it will be unlimited.  I have a plan for that, too.  And soon the very cosmos will quiver at it.  Hahahahahaha!”

To be … continued?

 

If You Thought Baby New Year Was Ugly Now…

…just wait until he hits puberty.

But that’s not our problem anymore.  We made it to 2007 and gave Snaptooth a kick in the pants to boot, and that’s all that matters.

That, and the badges.

Happy New Year!

 

One Great Year of Perfidy

I don’t recall the exact day, but it was sometime in November 2005.  The Grinning Ghoul, still pumped from his unexpected prison break, was deposited on Mercy Island, where it was hoped he would become a loyal servant of Arachnos.  Instead, the mad arch-genius assembled a crew of villains to form Infamy Unlimited, the organization which today looks back upon a year of blood and victory.

It’s a credit to all of you, the members and minions of IU, that we have managed to grow so strong and so feared even under the very shadow of Arachnos.  Consider what we have accomplished in a single year, starting from nothing at all:

• Assembled three dozen of the most desperate and dangerous criminals the world has ever seen.
• Learned to coordinate and fight as a single unit.
• Constructed a hidden base in the heart of Lord Recluse’s own domain, filled to the brim with wealth and advanced machinery, and kept it secure from all intruders.
• Brought terror and death to all who have opposed us — even coming out victorious in battles against Recluse’s lieutenants and the Freedom Phalanx.
• Bested the arch-demon Bat’Zul in his own lair.
• Briefly went all emo and survived.
• Remained a cohesive and powerful group even during the leader’s unplanned absence into the infinite jetsam-choked streams of time and parallel reality.
• Endured the humiliation of temporary possession by pirate ghosts, and successfully broke the spell and reassumed control of our own bodies.  (I’m pleased to report that relapses of possession by the Queen’s Ransom ghosts are down 17% as of this month.)
• Brought terror and mayhem into the very heart of Paragon City, proving that no place on Earth is safe from Infamy Unlimited’s diabolical power.

You guys are, without dispute, the world’s greatest supervillain group.

So does this mean we can now rest idle upon our thorny, blackened laurels?  Not remotely!  We’ve done nothing more than lay the groundwork.  All that Infamy Unlimited has accomplished so far is merely the prelude, the first phase in the Grinning Ghoul’s grand scheme.

We now have the talent.  We have the wealth and the equipment.  Now, in the year to come, we will begin to seize the power.  TRUE power.  In time, Arachnos itself will be eclipsed by the growing influence of Infamy Unlimited.  We will no longer hide underground when the Rogue Isles become our domain.  Paragon City’s defenders will finally comprehend the true threat to their existence, but it will be too late.  The heroes of the free world will be swept away in a bloody tide.  Soon, Earth itself will writhe in our grasp!  Our power will truly be unlimited!  And the future will belong, not to Recluse, not to the Freedom Phalanx … but to the Grinning Ghoul.

Gentlemen and ladies, a toast!  Phase Two begins today!  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

 

Issue 8 Is Alive!

So fresh on the servers, the electrons aren’t even dry yet!  Issue 8: To Protect And Serve is now open to all.  Read about the tasty details here.  Highlights:

• Veteran Rewards dished out to accounts 3 months or older.  Rewards include a variety of crunchy stuff such as new badges, costume pieces, and (after 18 months) wings.
• Some new emotes.  Yes, you can finally drink tea!
• More stuff to do in Pocket D.  No actual missions, it seems, but there’s an Arena kiosk to make it easier for heroes and villains to fight.  Also, LEGAL RIKTI MONKEY DEATHMATCHES.
• Various new costume pieces.
• For Dominators, a quicker buildup of their Domination.  Mind-Grinder has announced he is “not displeased” by this change.

Since part of the goal of Issue 8 is to help bring CoH in closer parity to CoV, many of the big changes are on the hero side.  Here’s what our goody-good rivals will get to enjoy:

• Police Band missions and Safeguard missions, the hero equivalents of newspaper and Mayhem missions.  About time, heroes!  Welcome to the now!
• A (mostly) reconstructed Faultline, former red-headed stepchild of Paragon City hazard zones, now rehabilitated into a full-fledged city zone for levels 15-25, with stores and real live contacts.  (A monorail stop has been promised for Issue 9.)  Part of the zone, the Faultline dam, remains a restricted hazard area.

We in Infamy Unlimited, of course, hope that Paragon’s heroes will be sufficiently distracted by their new toys that they will leave us to pursue our nefarious plots without interference.

 

We Apologize for All the Text

I’m changing my online picture storage provider, and until I get everything moved over, picture links on Infamy Unlimited will be busted.  I’ll keep the text-only downtime as short as possible, but before then, deal!

 

Bad Titles Soon to Be Less Bad

Positron gave us an interesting tidbit on the boards recently regarding Issue 8 title policy. Are you now named the Vicious Doctor Deadly, but have changed your mind and want to be the Villainous Doctor Deadly, only you’re level 26 and it’s too late? Well, it won’t be too late for long.

Since this has come up so often, I guess I will leak a feature of Issue 8:

You can change your title at any of the following levels:

15, 25, 35, and 45

At 50 you can change your title at any time.

You need to visit a trainer still to change your title and they “don’t stack” (in other words, if you don’t use your level 35 change, you don’t have two changes when you hit level 45).

There is no Influence or Infamy cost associated with this.

It’s already been announced that new titles will be available to players who’ve had an account for 2 years. But it looks like all players will be able to take advantage of this new title policy. Yay!

 

Evil Takes No Naps

Readers of this blog, in all their numberless hordes, have had to endure a thin month-and-some-change with regard to updates.  For this I apologize.  There is always the inclination, when writing about games, for me to simply neglect the writing part and just play the damn game.  I mean, if I’m sitting at the computer — and I’m in a City of Villains frame of mind — the natural thing to do is to run CoV and play it, am I right?  Get in the trenches, gut a few dozen Longbow losers, and laugh villainously: that’s what it’s all about.  And then write about it.  Unless I suddenly remember that Cast Iron Carl hasn’t leveled up in a while, and maybe it’s time to switch characters and punch some Wyvern agents into the moon; and the next thing you know it’s 1 AM and I’m nodding at the keyboard and can’t even be expected to form complete sentences, let alone remember that there’s a lonely blog somewhere piteously crying for updates.  You get the dilemma.

So if a reader might note the lack of activity on this page and wonder if Infamy Unlimited has possibly gone soft — or even worse, legit — I’m here to tell you it ain’t so.  We’ve been getting the job done, rest assured.  Our business is badness.  And business is good.

What’s new?  Well, for one thing, Infamy Central recently added a teleport beacon to Nerva Archipelago.  With more and more members passing level 30, we’ve been hampered somewhat by the lack of instant travel to that zone.  But no more!  The Grinning Ghoul finally took an evening to scour Nerva and scoop up the last of the Exploration badges to be found there.

And thanks to the Prestige gift handed to supergroups in I7, Infamy Unlimited is fairly rolling in wealth — about 750k.  We’re good for rent for a loooong time, and in fact our base is so nicely decked out that I can’t even think of any big purchases to spend our stash on.  Possibly we can simply save up for a big base expansion when we hit the 3 million mark.  (Also, last time I paid rent, I noticed that the Base Registrar in Port Oakes now lets you exchange personal Infamy for group Prestige.  Don’t know when that option got added, but it’s pretty nice of them.)

So there you have it.  We’ll see you next time with another great — What?

Oh, right.  The pirates.

Yeah, whatever happened with that?  After that long, overcooked writeup launching the “Piracy Unlimited” storyline, it just ends with no fanfare?  What happened to the ghostly crew of the Queen’s Ransom?  How did Infamy Unlimited shake off the voodoo curse and become themselves again?

Because this is a democracy, I’ll leave that to YOU to decide.  Post your favorite theory as to how the “Piracy Unlimited” storyline got resolved.  The best yarn gets a hearty, luxurious pat on the back.