SteveThaiBinh

I'm not allowed to use BitTorrent. If my university's network detects it, I'll be disconnected. Is there any chance of getting it as a regular download from somewhere in the future?

Is that from the Trapdoor?

I agree! And more trade negotiations and treaty signing ceremonies in Kotor 3! :D Romance is part of a good mix. Some game designers seem to think that interminable bleakness and despair are a substitute for good writing. Romance, comedy, loss, hope and hopelessness, all work together to make a good game.

Very interesting. For anyone with some knowledge of LucasArts' announced projects and likely sequels (i.e. not me), it might be possible to sketch the company's release schedule for the next few years.

If you ordered a game from a European retailer, it would work fine on a North American PC. As I said, just check that you are ordering the right language version.

I don't know if they apply between the US and Europe - you'd have to go onto the Amazon website to check that. I couldn't order games or DVDs from Amazon.co.uk when I lived in Latvia or Viet Nam, and they said legal restrictions were the reason. Unless this has changed, of course... But there's no problem actually getting the games to work.

Yes, it is. Check that you have the right language version, though. There's nothing like DVD region coding for PC games, but there are restrictions on where retailers like Amazon will mail games.

Japan's violence is growing but from a very low starting point, so to Japanese observers it seems to be out of control, whereas from a Western perspective it's relatively low. Having worked in a Japanese school, I tend to think that the growth in violence has a lot to do with problems in Japanese schools. Japan's relative lack of violence is a strong argument against a link between video games and violent acts, although that's only one of the possible links you might want to draw. A link between video games and violent feelings seems to have more research behind it.

It's a dying art, oft neglected in school curricula. I have a friend who's a keen interpreter of dreams, and has done courses in it. I'm doubtful that anyone but me can interpret my dreams, and as I say, I can't actually remember any.

It was my first playthrough. She was a minor character who I'd given blood to, who then approached my once and who I told to go away. I didn't even learn her name, I think, or that she was supposed to be a love interest. It would be like the Sabbat trying to get at me by brutally murdering the twit who said 'Awww maaaan!' all the time.

I thought that even if you sent her away, she was still killed in the Sabbat HQ just the same as if you 'adopted' her. The only time I sent her away was my first playthrough, so I could be wrong, but I remember watching her die and thinking 'Hmmm. Who's that? Oh, her. What's she doing here?'

Dreams are supposed to be connected to the learning process. If you've been learning how to play the violin, for example, when you sleep your brain replays every moment of that again and again so that you absorb it and your skill level increases. This is why teachers encourage their students to sleep well and discourage all-night study sessions - unless you sleep after learning, you won't get the full benefit. You only remember a tiny fraction of the dreams you experience. Recently, I hardly remember any of my dreams. It's a shame, because I used to have some very vivid ones. What do you think is the reason for this?

The only decent or loving thing you can do with Heather in Bloodlines is tell her to go away and get on with her life, although I think she ends up dying anyway (bizarrely enough). I have sympathy for designers who take the easy way out and have no romance option in their games. Nothing is as cheesy as a cheesy love story.

It took you how many days to come up with that?

If video games turn some people into vicious killers, they also improve the reflexes and strategic thinking of other players, giving them a better chance to dodge or outwit the vicious killers when they attack. Edit: Bye, 11XHooah. Good luck in 'learning to kill people' school.

But that's the point - the romance with Atton wasn't in the game. It exists only in the fanfics, albeit in a very well developed form.

Real romance is often very corny when viewed from the outside. No matter how good the game, I don't suppose you're ever going to identify so much with your character that you will share his or her romantic feelings for another, although I suspect there are some honorable exceptions we all know. :D I agree that it can sometimes feel rushed and unrealistic for being so. Kotor 1 did OK - the romances didn't really get beyond the first kiss/declaration of love, which is reasonable in a short time frame. To have them kissing and cuddling and getting married would have been overkill. I like romances. They're another choice in games where there are often fewer choices than you might wish. They add to replay value and the sense that your character is on an important personal journey, especially in a game where the main object is to save the world. They can lighten an obsessively oppressive atmosphere. They can give the protagonist something to fight for. They also make the game feel more like a movie, something that game makers and advertisers apparently value. The lack of female designers has many implications, and I don't think the crafting of romance storylines is the greatest. By the way, Obsidian, have you hired any women yet?

Five or Six times each. I just had to play once through Kotor 1 as LS female and then play Kotor 2 setting Revan to LS female, as though it were a straight continuation of the story. I only did it once, though.

I like the idea of starting with as an Outcast on Taris, but wouldn't it attract criticism for being a rip-off of Fallout? On the other hand, I don't suppose that really matters. Another possiblity (probably mentioned already by someone else, I haven't read all the threads) is to start as a member of a new non-aligned group of Force Users determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Jedi/Sith schism - a sort of Bindo Club, if you like. Your apprentice character could make the choice eventually to stay with this group and help them become the dominant group in the galaxy, or to leave and work to rebuild either the Jedi or the Sith. This would give a new faction and a 'Choose between three paths' kind of tag-line that would be a useful selling-point for the game.

I just finished reading this on the train (long journey) and I am so glad I didn't pay for it. It's a shame - the second and especially the third books in the series were really good, aimed at kids of course, but well written enough that anyone could enjoy them. But a few days ago when reading the new one became a possibility, I found I couldn't recall any of the events of book five, and had to get my sister to remind me. As for book six, did you find a plot? I didn't. It was like an episode of a soap opera, with each relationship being advanced slightly but nothing actually happening. They're going to have real trouble getting a feature film out of it. I'm now at the same stage with JK Rowling that I am with Robert Jordan - I'm going to keep reading the books, because I want to find out what happens, but I'm enjoying it a lot less than before. At least I know other people who read Harry Potter, so I don't have to fork out my own money. :D

We are <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Why? Was it necessary for restoring something else, or was it part of your original plan?

LucasArts don't see it as a priority and are busy settling in to their new HQ. Obsidian can't release information without clearing it with LucasArts, I'd guess, so the same problem applies. It's a shame we can't see the results of that on-line survey they did a while back.

If you want to apply to LucasArts customer service division, I'm sure they'd be happy to have you. :D

My point is that if you're going to have character 'creation' so fleshed-out, essentially it's moved beyong the point of creation and into development. In which case, it's better to think of it not as character creation but as a whole-game development process. You avoid the problem that some players will simply turn off to anything that's perceived as no more than extended character creation. I guess I'm thinking something along the lines of Morrowind, except that as you focus on a smaller number of skills your 'major' and 'minor' skills emerge through gameplay rather than being chosen by you at the outset.

Yes, and 'Ultra-flexible character creation: define your character throughout the game' is a much better selling point than having a five-hour academy - for however fun it is, it might still be seen as that.