[X] My Assistant

[Raven Bloodeyes]

...they had me for a few days, but I was skeptical.... then had myself a good laugh at it! Bravo gents! I think revealing earlier might have lessened the vehemence (geeze guys......it's still a game.....), but it sure was funny to me.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[swirler]

I laughed
I went back and forth on it, whether it was a joke or not. i was pretty sure it was considering the fact that the devs were keeping extremely tight-lipped about it. I figure, hey who cares. The stuff is there. Use it if you want, if not, don't.

and hey, atleast it wasn't another site that just linked to Rick Astley!

[Larme]

Holy crap, Larme, it wasn't that bad. The idea should have been taken with a grain of salt in the first place, as so many items (timing [such as releasing RC info before Unwired, when Unwired is next), being so close to April 1 [probably late due to having to finalize it], to name a couple) pointed that the item may not be real. People jumped the gun and assumed way too much. This isn't the first time this is happened for an April Fool's joke. Hell, the most serious overreaction I can think of was when User Friendly posted a comic stating that Microsoft and AOL had worked to shut them down due to libel, and hackers subsequently shut down Microsoft's website in retaliation. Take a breather and let it slide, it's really not that bad.

NO! LARME NOT LISTEN TO REASON! FAIL! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

usually,the only ones laughing at a prank are the perpetrators. Thats the nature of playing a joke on someone.
I think everyone needs to take a chill pill and lighten up. Let the new guy have a chance before you totally shred him a new one.

That true. But some of us would prefer jokes where we can all share a laugh, rather than pranks where we get laughed at. I see the humor value in internet trolls put out by people who don't sell anything designed to exploit the general retardedness of internet peeps, a la Dattebayo. But these are loyal fans who actually buy stuff being pranked. I'm the first one to say "hey, have a sense of humor" to people taking the intarweb seriously. It's just that when the joke is an utter failure at trying to be funny, no amount of sense of humor will help. I can see how they were poking fun at themselves, etc., I'm not trying to get all up in arms here. I just think it was an utterly worthless attempt at humor, and they would have been better off having not wasted their time writing it.

I think a rickroll disguised as a runner companion preview would have been a lot funnier (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

[Whipstitch]

All I know is the whole thing lacked the charm of Blizzard's two headed ogre preview.

[O'Donnell Heir]

All I know is the whole thing lacked the charm of Blizzard's two headed ogre preview.

Or their latest "Bard" class preview.

[swirler]

hmm
has Blizzard done anything of merit in awhile?
not really
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

well okay if you count conning people into paying monthly to play what is essentially an offline game
then okay, good prank
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Zolhex]

It was ok for a joke it was carried out too long is about the only thing I can was really bad about it.

The D20 joke was much better.

[Cabral]

Wow. Alot of people with their Serious dial at 11. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

I for one, thought it was fun; doubly so, in fact. I laughed at the prank and thought it was nifty that they provided sort of half-way balanced rules at the same time. The jabs at themselves made it all the better. So I say good one, guys.

The d20 one had better art though ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

[Cthulhudreams]

No obsidimen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[raverbane]

Praise be that crap wasn't real!!

[BetaFlame]

I knew it was fake when I read it, and it wasn't funny then.

Seriously, that was horrid comedic timing, folks. The biggest part of pulling a prank and telling a joke is to know when it is over.

[Critias]

Seriously, guys. Some of you need to relax. *hands out quarters* Go buy a sense of humor. It was an April Fool's joke. Calling it a "frat boy prank" and complaining about how the new line developer is somehow unfit for the job because you didn't think it was funny is just ridiculous.

Lighten up.

[Calabim]

As a Joke it was OK. I agree the d20 one was a lot better. It is sad that one thing that made this look real was the shoddy quality. There is a lot of competition on the game market for my (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nuyen.gif) and right now Catalyst is not winning it. Hope it gets better.

[Muspellsheimr]

It was an April Fool's joke.

One problem with this theory - it wasn't on April Fools day, nor did it end with April Fools day. The supposed joke was very poorly executed, and by many is even still not regarded as a joke because of how it was presented, when it was presented, and it's utter lack of humor.

While I remained skeptical about it the entire time (I spotted all the errors suggesting it was false), everything suggesting it was a joke could very easily be explained by the amount of time between the preview and the book's release, including layout & balance issues (unlike most, I find the dragons to be a bit overpowered, even with their hefty BP costs due to the possible 10 & minimum 6 starting magic). The typo's even lent it a bit of credibility, judging by previous releases.

Any April Fool's joke is done on April first, and ends on April first. This was not such a joke, but an utter lack of thought on the developer's part.

[Fortune]

Oh, woe is me! A company that markets a game I enjoy has decided to give a little light-hearted fun to the community at absolutely no expense to me. What a fucking rip-off! Damn them! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

[Adarael]

This r serious players. This r serious thread.

[Oracle]

Great prank! I never thought anyone would believe this preview to be the real thing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Eyeless Blond]

Yup, now to point out some of the other pranks scattered throughout the SR books:

-Emotiontoys
-The Mimic vehicle mod, seeing as it has no cost, in either table
-the wireless Matrix

What gives me pause about this "joke" is how, frankly, I wouldn't have been too surprised to see the whole passage, as-is, appear in the actual Runner Companion book, Obsidimen and all (note that those were mentioned once IIRC in a previous SR3 book, just never given stats. T:AL maybe?). The fact that, even with the logic holes, typos, and rampant copying and other silliness, people didn't clue into the joke because nobody really expects any better is a bit shocking to me. Heck, I'm still wondering if this announcement is the joke, and that the "preview" actually will appear in Runner Companion....

[nathanross]

This r serious players. This r serious thread.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Fuchs]

April fool's are done on april 1st, not 2nd. Call it whatever you want, but it was not an april fool's joke.

[Critias]

Will it make you all feel better if we just call it "a joke," then?

Lighten the fuck up, people. Jeeze.

[hobgoblin]

Or their latest "Bard" class preview.

that one was so bad it was good...

[knasser]

I agree with Larme that I found it rather lame, though I agree with Critias that I don't consider the issue to be important. However, it's pretty clear that a lot of other people here took it more seriously and who am I to tell other people what they should or shouldn't care about? It spawned several quite long threads that people must have put a fair bit of their time into writing about.

It was pretty obvious to me that it was a joke not because of problems with the joke itself (though the unexpected preview of a long-away product did give it away), but because it went on and on with none of the developers denying that it was a joke. Given that it was obviously false, that leaves us with funny. I didn't really find it that, either. Convincing or funny - you require one of these for a joke or trick. Didn't really find it either, I'm afraid and the admission has been waaaaaay too long in coming.

The Zen of Fanpro continues: There are April 1st's, but no jokes. There are jokes, but not on April 1st's.

-K.

[Critias]

I don't think it was terribly funny or anything, but I don't think it's worth getting your panties all in a knot about. There are governments deceiving people about far more important issues with far more regularity every day, and we've all gotta pick The Great Dragon Hoax of '08 as the place we draw out line in the sand and start demanding honesty from folks?

[Casper]

Hell, I thought it was funny. I reckoned y'all would get it when you read the bits cribbed from Dragons of the Sixth World.

The obsidimen was a nice touch, though. Kudos Syn!

Ya I saw the Obsidimen thing and I was like well shit they're keeping Surge so why not throw in the rock men aswell. But I did have an interest to see if they added winglings to the list cause I did play a sprite in a campaign for many a year.