In terms of his effort, the meetings aren't events, people went and will still go thinking and expecting to see something relevant happen, a meeting is only inclusive of discussion there's no operation involved - at the meeting i attended rarebit said there would still be operations but im inclined to believe that this is the new format of mxo - we meet once a month discuss some random nonsense in his story learn about what operatives should be doing, despite the fact that we have no means to do it - in this case chasing the BIP.
Then the update can drop and include new crit missions and farmable stuff to silence everyone so they can farm tons of gear into their inventory and stop harassing him for 10 minutes, aswell as have to work harder to get the other 2/3's of the story. I don't know if he intends to do side events but i sincerely doubt it, as per usual i hope im wrong, but for a guy whose objective seemed to be lightening the work load to improve quality, he's only really accomplished half of that.
Another annoying concept rests in his continued execution of story, if there's going to be so much hang time between meetings and events it's rediculous to place so much importance on charachters we won't see, what good comes of telling the players to chase someone down or question someone if they don't jack in live event style?
*cue the part where someone says they are jacking in you just haven't seen them.*
The real longevity of this game can be dragged out when happenings in the matrix drive people down different roads and they perpetuate the story by debating it and acting on it, when its something that affects everyone from a belief standpoint rather then a:
"Uh oh 'insert-powerful-entity-here' is trying to destroy the matrix!"
It's clear we can't ask for much in terms of LE's or LEC's, because rarebit is too busy with.....
As such we need the means to further the story as far as our own charachters are concerned, there's no point in even trying to follow a story that we in no way shape or form can connect to or change or even play a part in. If the players have ever been forced into a more audience like role then right now, i'm lost as to think of what it is.
The general rule for mxo these days seems to be - watch and wait.
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Concerning EPN and zion - i understand in concept people are mad that epn operatives haven't been parting with information about either what was seen in the no-fly zone and what the oracle gave them (fairly sure it's the same way on the machine-cyph side) - but people need to sort of figure out that no player has any idea what that data would be since rarebit didn't tell anyone (at least recursion epn side) moreover considering their end of support as an org it's kind of in bad taste to really bust someones balls over information they don't know.
Despite speculation or even solid RP - it's stupid to RP over because no matter what the players say, rarebit can change it at the drop of a hat.
Sort of like the Neo RSI - hologram - which to my knowledge only became a hologram yesterday when rarebit said it was one.
~Darminian