AoC writes its own comics, I swear. I have 5 more planned without even having to stretch.

Today's comic is a TRUE STORY. I admit I had to make up the NPC dialog because I was so busy trying to get OUT of the damn cutscene that I missed everything he said.

The truth is, there is no way out. Once you commit to the letterbox of enforced viewingness, you are STUCK until it ends or you die. You can hear yourself being mauled, and you can see the spurts of blood gushing out a la bad Japanese movie. Even if you are being hit in the legs, the blood spurts forth in gouts from your chest.

Sure, sure, under the game options, there is a place to check in order to SKIP CUTSCENES. I set that early on, but it just... doesn't... work.

I play on a PvE server, but a PvP player informs me that quest NPCs are a favored ganking location, precisely because of cutscenes that hold the player immobile and unable to respond.

Another disturbing thing about cutscenes that I forgot to add to my commentary earlier:
If the NPC is sitting, and stands up during the cutscene, you are left staring at their crotch.
For a long time. I refuse to speculate further.

I have died more than a few times to these cheating, exploiting NPCs who are paid off by bloodthirsty mobs to keep me occupied while they do their dirty work.

I demand these NPCs be banned.
I'll settle for flayed alive.

;-)#
Brasse


ADDENDUM FOR THOSE WHO GIVE A RAT'S ASS:

The comic is late, yah, I know.

Yesterday morning, we had the tree trimming guys out (the ones with chainsaws, not the little guys full of yuletide cheer). They cut down the sneaky tree that was planning on falling on our house in the next hurricane. In the front yard there is a short section where our cable (yeah, THAT cable), runs about an inch under the ground*. The cable is only 1/4" wide, but as the inverse rules of likelihood would have it, a large branch hit it... and took out our cable. TV, phone, internetz.

I had to find things to do that involved actual outdoorsness and non-internetness, and once the initial shock was over, it was actually pretty fun, except the insta-sunburn part.

Amazingly, Brighthouse Networks showed up ahead of schedule to look at our dilemma and we just got a temporary line laid along the top of the ground, so now I don't care HOW long it takes them to replace the underground part.

;-)#


*in Orlando, where I now live, everything runs about an inch under the ground. Water, electrical, sewer, graveyards... in the world's easiest ground to dig in, being 99% sand, no one seems to go more than an inch or two under. In Canada, we go the opposite extreme, and you won't find anything less than 6' under, even if it requires drilling through solid rock.