Take me out, into the black...

Well, the X-Prize has been won. The first private manned craft to be able to reach 'space' twice within two
weeks (actually, it was twice within a week, but the requirement was within two). They win 10 million, which isn't much compared to what they spent, but it's still damned cool.

Somehow, before I die, I just want to get into space. Really, I'm hoping I can somehow die on a different planet than I was born. That would be the accomplishment for me. And although either goal is still far, far way, I guess it's a tiny bit closer.

What about anyone else competing for the X-Prize? Well, apparently the organizers of the X-Prize are working on something called the 'X-Prize Cup', to further encourage many different manned space flight options. Good on them.

Ahh, disappointment...

So, still MU*less for the moment, but there was one on the horizon I'd been waiting for. A Firefly MUSH. You couldn't play Canon characters (which is my preference - any game where you could, I probably wouldn't even bother with), but I had a craving to play in the world.

First warning sign, they said they were going to make it have stats.

Okay. I don't like it, but maybe I can deal with it. So I wait while they try and get things ready behind the scenes. Finally, they announce a website under construction: http://www.objectsinspace.com and a title "Into the Black". Either due to design or some imcompatibility with my browser, the website still doesn't look like very much, but I've heard other people refer to 'under construction' signs on the site, so I do some digging, and with a little work, I find a way to get into pages (some still incomplete of course, with the 'under construction' description), and have a look at things.

Stats done with a point system, with everyone having a set number of points... okay, fine. My character needs to be really good at a couple things, but can be bad at others to make up. No real problem there, aside from my distaste for stats in general.

I move on to skills... the general concept of it works fine, but then find that they have a rule... you can't start out with more than 3 ranks in any skill, essentially because all characters are just 'starting out', and so presumably nobody could have gotten really really good at anything, even at the expense of learning other skills. That took the wind right out of my sails. I didn't want the character I played to be 'just starting out'. I wanted him to be really, really good at one (non-combat) skill, with a reputaiton of being 'one of the best' (even if not entirely deserved), and decent at some other (non-combat) skills.

The other problem: they have a 'no alt' policy. Now, I generally don't play a lot of alts. But I like the option being there, and more importantly, I want the option there for others. If you only get one character, who's going to play the local shopkeeper, confined to one world... it's hard enough to get people to try such things when you can play as many characters as you want.

This is why I generally prefer statless games. You can describe your concept, and if the people like it enough to have it fit in, it does. It's not a matter for me of wanting to be better than anyone else, I don't like a game in general where everyone (or at least, everyone who signed up at the same time) is 'even'. The 'verse ain't like that. I just want to play a character.

I may still wind up apping there, but not the character I was going to, (not any character I've even thought up, so it'll take a lot longer, too) and... I just care a lot less about the game than when I read the way they were doing it. Ah well, maybe someone will start a second game at some point with better (to me) policies and I can try there.

So, MU*less I remain...