I'm a little puzzled. I thought the last Onlife would spark a whole bunch of debate amongst you all. It didn't. I got a couple of letters, sure, but am I just imagining you guys to be more passionate about the whole virtual-money-selling thing than you actually are? It seems like this topic has been on fire on the message boards lately, so I thought I'd get more of a response. I guess the ones who are real passionate about this are too busy playing the games to read Onlife, and write in. Oh well. It's all good.

I won't let a sleeping dog lie, though. I still want to pursue this story, and extend my thanks to those who wrote in, and sent me some sources. One thing I want to make clear, though: if you or anyone you know are employed by one of these moneysellers, please get in touch with me. I'm curious about the people behind these enterprises, and I'm sure many of you would be as well. It should go without saying, but I'll keep your identity confidential -- I won't go blabbing about what server you're on, and I sure as heck won't report you to any authorities. Seeing as how many of you guys are working from developing countries, the last thing you need is your source of income taken from you. I understand, respect, and sympathize with this.

Anyway, I'm still very much into the idea of mixing up the Onlife program, and I'm going to do just this. But certain titles bear mention this week, and I will touch on these as well. So without further ado ...

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Things have been hush-hush with this Microsoft-published MMO for a while, but just recently, the proverbial floodgates have been opened. The game's developer, Sigil, recently held a Community Summit (to which GameSpy was not invited) to which it invited representatives of various sites to play the game, and talk to the team. These lucky cats got some hands-on time with the game, as well as a chance to interface with the developers. Needless to say, impressions are everywhere on the web, from which we can infer a great deal about the game.

Kick me.

Needless to say, this being an MMORPG, most of the impressions focused on the combat system. It's a little bit fascinating, on paper anyway. It works like this: a number of moves are immediately at your character's disposal -- things like "slash," "stab" and "kick." Rather than have a bunch of arbitrary stats attached to them, however, their applications geared more towards how they will be used in real life. Fighting a monster that's much shorter than you are? Kick it! One scenario described by Warcry's Raya described an encounter with a spider, in which he was encouraged to do just that. If it plays out correctly, the tactic would allow the kicker to turn the spider on its back, and then stab it in the belly, for more damage. Cool stuff, no?

Certain moves will also become available after you execute certain attacks, though only for a limited amount of time, creating a sort of combo-system. Sigil has also mentioned that magic will work the same way - - land certain spells, and you'll have a chance to follow them up with others, for increased damage, debuffs effects, and the like. This is supposed to work between charcters as well, meaning that, if one of your party members executes a certain attack, it could conceivably "chain" with one of yours. Sound a little bit like the skill chain/magic burst system in FFXI, don't it? This is a good thing, no doubt. I'm all for creatively stealing successful game elements, and them flipping them up in some unique way. I'm frankly surprised that it's taken someone this long to steal FFXI, to be completely frank. I'll say it right here: it's got some ugly things about it, no doubt, but that game has the best combat system out there. It inspires teamwork to a level that other MMOs can't touch, and rewards those who are smooth and efficient enough to achieve this in marvelous ways. If Vanguard can replicate this, then chances are, fighting badgers, snakes, and spiders in its world will be fresh indeed.