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[Merdaneth]

The Broker was the worst thing to happen to Caldari RP.  Heth's intro was a Broker ploy.  Heth should have been a mixed bag, but we have little to no insight how wide spread the reforms have been and if those reforms are directly tired to CPD penetration.  All we get is a paranoid baseliner, used to introduce Factional Warfare (where he was unneeded) and now the introduction of DUSTies (where he is unneeded).

Don't reed the novels....

As far as I can see all the novels and all the 'secret' backstories, while expanding the lore, only served to hurt RP.'

Merdaneth has never heard of this 'broker', and I'm certainly not influenced by in my RP by his non-existence.

[Anslol]

To be honest, I really don't like it when people bash on the novels. They were good stories. They were interesting and grabbed attention even if it was "sekrit backroom" stuff. The Broker was sort of portrayed meh'ly towards the end in my opinion. But the Jove and the Other and the overall story of both novels was super interesting to me AND gave us some stuff to work with . For instance, as capsuleers we would have heard rumors of some weird shit going on in Amamake II near Pike's Landing, where the area was sort of cordoned off. So what?

So...people could RP a scenario where an investigation was made. Where it goes from there is up to you. But my point still stands; while the novels may have had some SLIGHT derp, they were (to me) overall interesting, great background flesh-outers (yes I know this isn't a word), and gave us some potential RP scenarios if they're done right.

[Hamish Grayson]

To be honest, I really don't like it when people bash on the novels. They were good stories.

To be honest, I really don't like it when people say the novels were good stories.   

[Horatius Caul]

To be honest, I really don't like it when people bash on the novels. They were good stories.

They really weren't.

If they hadn't been tie-in novels set in a universe with existing fiction, they may have been passable. If a real editor was involved and given the time to do their work, they may even have been okay.

[Anslol]

Why are you both so against them/critical about them? The writing style? The 'space magik?' What?

[Svetlana Scarlet]

Why are you both so against them/critical about them? The writing style? The 'space magik?' What?

Allow me to provide my personal "why you are so very, very wrong":

http://www.wraithwerks.net/blog/2008/07/the-empyrean-age.html

Every time someone says that TEA, at least, was a good story, it makes me want to cry inside.

[Anslol]

This review reeks of elitism ever present in Eve's bitter vets to the point that I can't take him seriously. For instance;

"Here's the problem with this bit: it's largely unnecessary.  Why does Jamyl need this?  The telepathy makes almost no difference to the story, it's completely unprecedented in Eve, and I have to admit it feels a lot like a slightly obscured Palpatine ripoff."

Because she would have found the Nova Cannon WITHOUT it? She'd be able to get her minions to obtain it without many people knowing or info leaking? Because they could have pushed back the Elder Fleet without the Nova Cannon so quickly with their scrambled fleets WITHOUT half the Amarrian worlds burning?

No, sorry. In my opinion, this guy is just knit picking to the point of elitism. It was a fun read. I read to enjoy, not to edit and pick out flaws.

Also some of us LIKE mysterious forces and ancient tech in a story as opposed to constant mellow dramatic human emotions being magnified for all the world like a space based episode of "All My Children."

[Ciarente]

Why are you both so against them/critical about them? The writing style? The 'space magik?' What?

The writing style.

[Horatius Caul]

She'd be able to get her minions to obtain it without many people knowing or info leaking?

You don't need to introduce hitherto unprecedented phenomena to have secure comms. Fluid routers, for example - which Tony can't seem to wrap his head around - cannot be intercepted.

[Anslol]

She'd be able to get her minions to obtain it without many people knowing or info leaking?

You don't need to introduce hitherto unprecedented phenomena to have secure comms. Fluid routers, for example - which Tony can't seem to wrap his head around - cannot be intercepted.

Alright, fine.

How else would she find the Cannon? How else would she be able to tell them how to use it? How else would she be able to know the Terran Depot's location? How else would we have been able to explain the Other and further flesh out the Sleepers lore wise as a race?

Sorry, but this was all interesting to me. It's nice to see some unexplained and very advanced phenomenon in New Eden and not have to deal with hurrhurr human dramaz.

Also, speaking of the Other, wasn't her telepathy explained via her clone data's interception by said Other and modification? Hell it's 2013 and we already have electronic tattoos to enable telepathy. Why couldn't the Other, a wholly infomorphic being, intercept her and modify her electrochemically to allow for what we may PERCEIVE as telepathy, but what is in fact simply very advanced science.

We all supposedly have these comm implants in our heads along with plenty of other doodads. What's to stop the Other from giving Sarum the ability to read and translate electrochemical systems and reactions in humans in response to external stimuli (i.e. the brain doing such and such chemically/biologically to show OH SHIT IM SCARED)?

Answer: Nothing.

[Svetlana Scarlet]

...yes, the person that wrote that review was very bitter. And still is, about that and SO MANY other things.

And sorry, I cannot call TEA good in any sense of the word. I have read good tie-in novels, and they managed to both a) contribute to the world building and incorporate the world as it was established previously, b) avoid deus ex machinas, c) avoid casual misogyny, and d) accomplish the goal of making a player see how they could fit in to that world. TEA did none of those.

What do you think made it a good story? Good characters? Good descriptions? Can you tell me anything specific about any of the characters' world views? Did you ever have an emotional response to it?

[Vieve]

If I had been Tony Gonzales' editor, I would have said "Dude, I see what you're trying to do here.  You want Jamyl to have knowledge of ancient technology that'll help the Amarr kick the Elder Fleet to the curb. You want her to be able to communicate with her spooky mysterious possible-controllers.  You don't need to introduce telepathy.  She's an infomorph.  The ancient knowledge simply could have been spliced into her neural pattern.  The other end of a quantum entanglement could have been implanted into her skull, if you're really wanting something fancier than the skull-implanted comms some capsuleers already have.  Make the entanglement end specially grown brain cells or an evolved lobe or something if you don't want something metal, ceramic or plastic that can be picked up on a scan."

[Anslol]

If I had been Tony Gonzales' editor, I would have said "Dude, I see what you're trying to do here.  You want Jamyl to have knowledge of ancient technology that'll help the Amarr kick the Elder Fleet to the curb. You want her to be able to communicate with her spooky mysterious possible-controllers.  You don't need to introduce telepathy.  She's an infomorph.  The ancient knowledge simply could have been spliced into her neural pattern.  The other end of a quantum entanglement could have been implanted into her skull, if you're really wanting something fancier than the skull-implanted comms some capsuleers already have.  Make the entanglement end specially grown brain cells or an evolved lobe or something if you don't want something metal, ceramic or plastic that can be picked up on a scan."

But they did say that right at the beginning...They waited for the neural pattern for gods know how long. Once it suddenly appeared, the machine holding her clone began to rewrite and modify the clone physically and chemically. He mentioned that it happened, right from the get go. They couldn't even stop the machine, it just rewrote her mind and modified her body.

[Vieve]

They couldn't even stop the machine, it just rewrote her mind and modified her body.

You'd think somebody could have figured out the on-off switch on the machine.  Or the plug.  Just sayin'.

[Anslol]

They couldn't even stop the machine, it just rewrote her mind and modified her body.

You'd think somebody could have figured out the on-off switch on the machine.  Or the plug.  Just sayin'.

And then what, risk loosing the only clone of Sarum they had perfectly preserved for the past how many years?

"oh but they could just make a new clone!"

Sure, and then loose the infomorph transmission they were receiving in real time. To top that off, you don't just make another clone of a person who's supposed to be dead by LAW AND not get noticed. It was difficult just hiding the first clone.

"Oh couldn't they store the infomorph?"

How do you store something begin written as it's transmitted? If it had been sent to a buffer and from the buffer to the clone's brain, ok maybe you could. From what I read, that wasn't the case. The infomorph and programming it came with bypassed any transmission receipt buffer and went straight to the medical machine.