The Cemetery at Ypres


One of the many Cemeteries at Normandy

Today, the closest Sunday to 11 November, is the day that the people of my nation, and many others, set aside to commemorate those who fought, and died, in the defence of our people and others, in all the conflicts in our history.

I don’t intend to make a sermon out of this, so I’ll keep it short. In order for us to have the freedom of running, flying and driving over virtual battlefields, the freedom to pursue the happiness that we find in all things, untold millions of men have sacrificed themselves on the altar of war and tyranny.

Those who know me will know how strongly I feel about the free world’s debt to our fallen. Those who don’t, I ask you to spend some time today thinking about just how different the world might be today, if your great grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, and friends were not prepared to pick up a rifle and put someone else before themselves.

You will all have your own ways of paying your respects. It's 11AM GMT, and I am joining my nation for a few minutes’ silent contemplation. I try never to forget that everything I have, I have because somebody else fought and died for it.

We Shall Remember Them

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.


“The Soldier”
Rupert Brooke

And again, it seems we have some mindless buffoon who seems to take relish in causing trouble or discomfort in our members. Below is a transcript of a conversation with Slayer of affiliated DoD clan [M2K].

Oli says:elfy u there
[Elrond] says:ya
Oli says:we had some1 say this on our server yesterday:
L 11/03/2002 - 11:43:50: "L*$T3rkL3mm3<20><1106203>" say "think i have to sort out yourclan off the OWP". thats outta logs [Elrond] says:wassat supposed to mean
Oli says:not a clue. he then said "u will see it"
[Elrond] says:i think he's a brainless tit
Oli says:yeah thats what i said. thought u might wanna know tho. make sure u aint got people going round pretending to be high up in [OwP]

I have said it before and I'll say it again. We never have, and never WILL, go around dissing players, clans or servers ingame, in any game EVER. That is not the diplomatic, or fair, way to air grievances.

Whilst it's not yet posted, we do have a complaints procedure for players about servers and admins (mail your relevant game Chief of Staff) and for grievances with [OwP] (mail me) we will always handle such sensitive issues in a discrete and courteous manner. I GUARANTEE you, if some idiot comes on your server and claims to be a member of our staff, and subsequently starts throwing orders or threats around, he's NOT one of us and probably not even registered here on the site. BAN.

The offender outlined above was named L*$T3rkL3mm3 and his WON ID is 1106203. Feel free to do with that information as you will.

Its finally here!, this is set to be a great league with a massive amount of teamplay. You signup by using your owp account handle and password, it then automatically puts you into 1 of 20 squads. The squads will be made up of 8 ppl each and the match's will be 6 v. 6. The [OwP] League is set to be a point based league so dont worry if you lose afew, you can still comeback and win. Atm the squads are named squad A, squad B e.t.c. but as soon as the squad is full you will have the chance to re-name your squad to whatever you like and you will also have to elect a squad leader. Be sure to check the League CoC in the menu on the left before signing up.

Sign Up here.

UnitedClans is an independent association for internet gaming teams helping the community achieve its common goals.


UnitedClans specializes in bringing Online Gaming clans and their members closer together. Its founders are longtime gamers themselves who have built clan servers and been involved with clans and communities in various online games. UnitedClans members learn from and help each other grow their clans and work together as a team. They strive to make each game they play more enjoyable for their clans, their fellow UnitedClans clans and all players.

www.unitedclans.net

Bug manipulation and cheats are certainly not restricted to FPS games and sims ... this article from the BBC News website.

Real life and online fantasy worlds have at least one thing in common: economics. The company behind the online fantasy game EverQuest has started punishing players who have found a way to bend the game's rules and almost literally make money.

The crackdown has happened because the huge amounts of virtual cash that people were pumping into the game world were threatening to bring the EverQuest economy to its knees. If left unchecked the influx of cash could have prompted hyperinflation and made it impossible for beginning players to get on in the game world.

Cash pile

In most respects EverQuest is utterly unlike real life as it features warriors, spell-slinging sorcerors and magical beasts of every hue, temperament and size. But like the real world many of the characters that inhabit the world pursue a profession at the same time as they venture out on heroic quests looking for riches, artefacts or monsters.

As the characters get better at their chosen profession, be it tailor, blacksmith or jeweller, they become capable of creating ever more intricate and powerful items that can be used or sold in the game world. Typically the time needed by a player to substantially improve the professional expertise of their EverQuest character and to make these powerful items is so great, that it causes little problem in the markets of the game world.

But some people have discovered a very easy way to carry out these time-consuming tasks, and in the process, unbalance the EverQuest economy. In EverQuest, as in many other programs it is possible to automate common or repetitive tasks using a small program called a macro. In Microsoft's popular Word program many people create their own macros to search through documents and correct spelling mistakes or to add addresses to letters.

But some EverQuest players found a combination of profession, skill level and macro that turns small cash piles into slightly larger ones. By running the macro countless times they found it was possible to generate large amounts of money. Some people even set up computers that did nothing but run the macro time and time again.

Once a player created a large pile of cash they then sold it for real money on the many auction boards and marketplaces, such as PlayerAuctions, that have sprung up. Recent estimates put the amount of platinum pieces available to buy on just one EverQuest server at more than 3million.

The exchange rate of game money to real money is not very good, 100,000 platinum pieces sells for about $350, but it was enough to tempt many people to try it. Now Verant, the company behind EverQuest, has started cracking down on people that use the money-making macro and is suspending accounts and confiscating items from people it catches exploiting the loophole.

And I thought we had it bad in FPS games ...