Chapter 21

[Maelstrom]

Like many others, I had come up with that possibility. It's been said, though, that von Faxon (or whatever his name is) is probably off at college and would be unaffected.

Of course, if that's not the case, it'll serve as a shrewd self-sacrifice.

By the way, the ban death is still as eerie as ever.

[Sgt. Mongoose]

So who's the jerk programmer who coded that art into the game?

[Mista_B]

Nah, Loure's brother is at college, while Loure is at home. Loure's parents are probably glad that he can't play the game anymore - they were opposed to his playing in the beginning.

Heck, there's a possibility that they would reward his brother for banning Loure's IP from being able to access the game anymore. Still, as far as heroic self-sacrafice goes, that was well done.

[edcool1]

Doesn't killing lore in this way kind of make 'outting' him kinda pointless?


Also, I can't imagine how a hacker can permaban someone like that. You can't just ban someone's IP, a lot of people have dynamic IPs, and they could just get a new one in a few days.

[Mista_B]

Eh, the point of 'outing' Loure was to intentionally inflict emotional damage. Success! The permaban was just a bonus.

As to the second point - eh, in Dan's world, it certainly seems possible.

[NK]

I can't help but think that Arashiko still had something harsh up her sleeve before Loure martyr'd him/herself. That said, I think this is the first time I've ever seen Arashiko as anything other than unflappable. That in and of itself was kind of creepy. And then there's the unholy "404: eyes not found" thing that Loure's got going on...

So who's the jerk programmer who coded that art into the game?

Seeing as it's a hacked item and I doubt the game's designers ever intended for that particular event to play out, I'm betting that the whole visual effect is thanks to whatever sadistic soul had that sword made up.

Also, I can't imagine how a hacker can permaban someone like that. You can't just ban someone's IP, a lot of people have dynamic IPs, and they could just get a new one in a few days.

Apart from the "it just works" nature of the comic, seeing as it's hacked anyhow, it could just bust their game client to never work again. If they did it really subtly, it might never occur to the victims to reinstall the client. (Or for that matter, they could try busting into the OS and doing something unholy there. Remember, it's fiction: It Just Works.)

[edcool1]

So I feel like asking, is revenge okay?

I think in general, the answer is no, so is killing in the name of revenge okay in a game? If, say, denki were to force V.Fax were to drop his banning sword, and denki were to pick it up...would it be okay for him to use it on its owner? Or would that affect the way we view denki negatively?

[NK]

I dunno, barring extensive rehabilitation (and in this case it would pretty much be outright brainwashing) I'm not sure if V.Fax can even be allowed to continue playing the game. Given that, using the sword may be the most expedient way of doing so.

Even barring that, if V.Fax is KO'd normally, what's to stop him from respawning a few seconds later? Seems their options are to either perma-kill V.Fax or find some way of keeping him non-KO'd but still disabled.

That said, of course revenge is okay. What's it gonna do, beget violence?

[Maelstrom]

Cheating/hacking by themselves are typically considered bad enough to warrant a deleted account and perhaps a ban. Consideing how thorough V.F. has been with his crimes, him facing the worst case scenario isn't entirely unwarranted. Besides, it's not so much a matter of vigilante justice anyway but more of surviving a clear-and-present danger.

Of course, it still may not have to come to that.

[Maelstrom]

...and that seems to be the case.

Did the mods wake up? Did Morris find a way to snitch? Is this (improbably) some kind of player-led counter-attack? Or is this possibly some kind of built-in mechanism of the game (a ban limit to protect against renegade admins, or perhaps some kind of hack-detection finally catching up with von Faxon)? Is Loure about to go Neo on big brother?

There are only nine strips left in this series, so there's not much time left until justice has to be served.

[MQmoxie]

Mael you sound just like the closing teaser of a 1980's cartoon. "Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion!"

Ah the memories....

[FredMSloniker]

Whoa, is there a character who isn't coming back in this plot extravaganza? I actually said, out loud, 'Dun dun duuuun!' when I saw who'd shown up to save everyone's bacon. Time to show this cheating jerk that this is not the South Park WoW episode and you can't just kill the devs.

[NK]

The Grasslands Branmoot from Ch 0. Nothing can bring that poor thing back.