it's very easy to be brave with your good foot in the grave

So, a bit ago, a friend sent me this:

(from the bizarre album, it's another Evony clone!)

"Love can expel darkness!", the ad gushes. "Make love against the evils with her NOW!"

I'm pretty sure I'm behind the first statement, but the second?

So I looked into it. There's a website, and I found more artwork:

(from the bizarre album, and why am I not surprised that they're blonde and white?)

So, seems your standard armor-for-guys, lingerie-for-girls gaming experience, but I was already expecting something like this based on the initial ad text I was sent. But it gets stranger--according to DotMMO, it's a cumbersome, but they feel ultimately workable amalgam of other, more targeted games. Which ones? Well, there's a Farmville aspect to the game, there's a Civilization aspect to the game, and once players reach level 20, they can enter into a full-on Diablo-style dungeon crawl solo. There's also a social aspect to it that seems vaguely There-like, with hints of Facebook--there are menus you can pull up to click your friends' names, and go donate energy to their Trees of Life (I suppose in the fairly blatant hope that they'll turn around and do the same to the player). Advantages to having more friends in the game? More clicks on the Tree--and the more clicks on the Tree, the likelier it is to start handing out gold, in-game objects, and vouchers (which is WarTune's main tradeable currency).

It's a Chinese game, which doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, just be careful if you do play--but still, I think it's the first I've heard of where a game tries to combine casual gaming with RPG action and social media.

Meanwhile, in City of Heroes...

"Is that a sparkling bronzed bodybuilder in a speedo? Good grief, you must be going crazy. You're already seeing hallucinations! Time to lay off the shrooms."

This was the total bio for "Blue Ether", a level 39 Natural Peacebringer--powers are Luminous Blast and Luminous Aura, like all Peacebringers, with a fillip of Medicine for healing powers. But his outfit...well, see for yourselves:

(from the City of Heroes album. I have no words.)

Yeah. And he's calling me crazy.