This week will go down in my personal annals as the string of days in which I was EverCracked. That's right. The release of EverQuest II is totally owning me, and though I'm having a pretty time at it, the amount of coverage we're putting up for this game is insane. The only reason that I'm not storming out of the office right now in a frenzy is because of my unending desire to serve you. Since you guys might find these articles useful and exciting, it's all worth it. But as a result of this, Onlife is late. My bosses are probably throwing +5 daggers at pictures of my face right now, but as they say, better late than never. Quest two.

I have to thank you guys for the sheer volume of letters that you sent in since the last installment. It's great to know that people are actually reading this, and that they care enough about the topics to write in. That's cool as hell. I read each and every one that was sent, and I still mean to reply to a whole mess of them. It's cool to know that the people reading this are so smart, thoughtful, and knowledgeable about this topic. Anyway, the theme last time was immersion in MMOs -- what they're lacking in this regard, and what steps developers can take to remedy this. It struck a nerve, without a doubt, and you guys elaborated in ways that my article couldn't begin to. As such, I decided to dedicate this installment to your letters.

As I said, I received a lot of them, so I tried to touch on the most common ideas I you guys voiced in with. It surprised me to see just how much you guys agree about the genre's shortcomings. It's as if the answers are right in front of developers' faces, and the only thing keeping them from bringing them into effect is complacency. They know you'll keep playing (and paying) regardless, so rather than take a significant risk by changing up the script, they keep milking the formulas that work. That's weak. But you guys say it much better than I can…

The ideal online world might just be the one without you in it.

Just Leave Me Alone

I play MMP's to play with friends, and on rare occasions to make new friends. What I find most annoying about some of the upcoming and current MMP's is the lack of an ability to ignore unwanted solicitations from other players.

A prime example of this is the lack of a /ignoreinvites in CoH. I can't count the number of times I've been happily playing along by myself and some person I've never heard of sends me an invite and I get that "do you want to accept" pop-up in the middle of my attempt to select a new target.

WoW is just as bad. Allowing you to see everyone online on your "side" and what level they are and worst yet... class. Next thing you know you're getting tells from folks you've never heard of before asking you to do this of that for them.

These games keep adding more tools to help you group, but they seem to be forgetting when to add tools to help you control who can find/contact you.

Brent Stineman
Wow, this is a first. Usually, people complain about it being too hard to find parties of like-minded people to link up with. But if you've found a groove in which you can effectively solo in your chosen game, then more power to you. It's not an easy feat. My advice: become acquainted with the command that makes your character's details anonymous (usually /anon), and I guarantee that 90 percent of your unsolicited tells will vanish. 'Cause if they don't know what you are (and thus, what you're capable of), they won't be very likely to hit you up.