Good morning guys; just a very quick update from me as to how things are over at Runz HQ.  As is typical, just when I think I'm getting on top of regular news stories and frequent tidbits of information work (as in my real job) comes along and kicks me in the knackers.  This is, unfortunately, why you see a hive of activity on the site and then hear nothing out of me for two weeks.  I will as ever endeavour to overcome this and provide a much more scheduled product but as I'm sure many of you can sympathise my actual job must come first.

Steel Jaguars

What else has been eating my time? Well since Civ 5: Gods and Kings was released I've been playing a fair amount of that and really enjoying the addition of religion, although the espionage side of things is really quite lightweight and tbh does not impact the game as much as I would have liked.  More on that later this week.

The other thing taking my time is the gaming team.  As some of you may or may not be aware I joined a gaming team earlier this year, one with very big aspirations particularly with the slew of mecha games coming out including Mechwarrior Online and Hawken which is where we want to focus our attention.  Although initial recruitment had been slow but has increased significantly as both titles start to edge nearer to a release date.  The North American team is now completely full although we are still filling out the roster for our EU team.

So if you have an interest in some competitive gaming primarily focused around Mechwarrior Online, Hawken and Reign of Thunder and you're in Europe then drop by the Steel Jaguars' Website, have a nosey and join us on IRC - if you like the cut of our jib then submit an application, if we like the cut of your jib then we'll notify you with an acceptance message.  It's that simple!

As we've been talking about the prodigious use of the banhammer in Diablo 3, let's run with the theme and talk about how Rockstar Games intends to deal with cheaters in the upcoming Max Payne 3 and they've come up with possibly the best idea ever.  Anyone found circumventing the leaderboards or using hacked saves or mods to gain an unfair advantage in Max Payne 3's multiplayer will be "quarantined from all other players in a cheaters' pool" - that's right, cheaters will be forced to play other cheaters where they will unable to enter the leaderboards - in addition any invalid leaderboard entries will be scrubbed.

This is possibly one of the best examples of "see how you like it" being used to police an online community and I'm kind of excited to see how well it will act as a deterrent - the idea is so ingenious though that Rockstar is getting a big round of applause from me regardless, it's simply a damned clever idea and so simple that it just might work.  Full details are on the above link.

On Monday Blizzard confirmed that Diablo 3 players found to be cheating by using hacks, bots or mods will be in breach of the EULA and will face a permanent ban from the game.  This was followed up by Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym confirming that "several thousand players" have been banned as a result of this enforcement.  I'm fairly certain this will have been met by those players with a great deal of wailing and nashing of teeth.

How does the classic turn based strategy game Civilisation 2 see mankind's future in the year 3991AD?  Racked with pain, suffering, and bi-monthly nuclear holocaust apparently!  In a Reddit post that seems to have taken on a life of its own, user Lycerius shared information on the game of Civ 2 he has been playing on and off for 10 years.  In a situation that almost completely mimics George Orwell's dystopian future view in the novel 1984, mankind's nations have been reduced to three super powers locked in an almost constant state of warfare.  The latest round of hostilities have last 1,700 years, making the evening news somewhat predictable I'm sure ("Tonight; War, war and more war.  The weather, nuclear fallout across most of the country" - it's Fox News's dream scenario, although I'm sure they'd manage to include whimsical stories about amusingly shaped vegetables somewhere in there).  The story has gained a lot of traction both within and without the gaming community and has even spawned a subreddit dedicated to ending the eternal war.