How to celebrate Halloween with your local Global Agenda devs
Halloween is a special time of year -- a time of blood, gore, and amazing effects. It is, to many geeks, what Christmas is to your Grandmother. Instead of thick sweaters embroidered with stockings stuffed with kittens, however, we prefer belt clips loaded down with ammo. What better place to celebrate than in a favorite MMOFPS: Global Agenda.
It warmed our hearts to coordinate with the developers from Hi-Rez Studios last night, and it thrilled us to hand out Halloween swag in exchange for trivia answers. Granted, some allowances had to be made (skipping questions when they were obviously not going to be answered), but overall the event ran smoothly.
In fact, here are some good rules to follow when hosting your next Hi-Rez Global Agenda Trivia Contest (what? It could happen.).
And raid -- let's not forget the Raid of DOOM!
No matter what, stay professional. Let's say you're standing in the middle of Dome City, and suddenly you are instructed to put on a new outfit that was specially designed for you and your team. Put it on, but stay professional once you do. No matter what, do not scream out "Holy moly, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen! I am never taking it off or logging out of the game!" If you do, simply blame it on your "little brother" -- even if you do not have one.
As you attempt to ask trivia questions in the city chat, be sure to repeat them several times. Remember that not everyone is looking at the city chat at the same time. Repeating the question is a good way to include all players. It's also good to remember that PvPers are predators -- they want a moving target. Repeating the question taps into their prey drive. Unfortunately this also means that many answers you receive will either be completely made up, nonsensical or in the wrong channel, but forgive them and their trigger fingers.
If no one is answering in any serious way, give it to the first person who attempts an actual answer. While you want to make sure that the answer is somewhat close to the one you are looking for, forgive them if they answer in the wrong channel or if they nestle the answer in between massive mounds of "snark." ("Snark" is what we older gamers used to refer to as "smart-alec.") Answering politely and correctly is a sign of weakness in the PvP world -- so roll with it. Remember that you should feel good whenever a PvPer says "Hello" -- normally he'll just shoot you directly in the face.
Enjoy yourself, because everyone else is. Understand that PvP brings out the wacko in people, in a good way. If you find yourself unable to stomach the non-stop joking and taunting, there are always several other perfectly polite and boring events going on throughout the world of MMORPGs. If you're lucky and patient with the PvP crowd, you just might find yourself in the possession of a passionate and varied friends list. It might take a while before you understand their particular dialect (it's LUL -- not LOL... at least I think so), but before too long you will be fighting alongside some very cool people.
In the after-event raid, do not show yourself to be a "noob" -- always remember that you have a giant "Massively" stamped across your back. You have something to prove. Do not die first, and do not die several times. If you do, blame it on the little brother again. More importantly, remember that dying in spectacular fashion at least looks cool, so go ahead and rush that oncoming wave of giant ghost-bots.
Always thank the hosts. Thank you, Hi-Rez, and especially thank you to the players!
