SteveThaiBinh

Literally, 'God as/from a machine', I think. It comes from ancient Greek plays, where the plot would get more and more confused and convoluted, to the point where it was impossible for the characters to sort everything out. Then at the end one of the Greek gods would just 'descend' (on stage, probably involving some sort of machinery) and pronounce a solution that everyone just had to accept.

Obsidian is producing a patch which will fix technical problems only. They asked LucasArts for money to produce a 'content patch' that would flesh out the story at the end and add extra areas to the game, but this was refused. Better endings were cut from the game and the material was left in files on the game disks. A group of modders is busy piecing these back together, and there will be a 'cut endings' mod available in the future.

The automatic default to Revan = LS male was just silly, and I hope that the ambiguity that remains on the Star Wars website is an indication that they've backtracked on this. As for the wider picture, slowly, slowly, the average age of gamers is rising and the industry is (hopefully) maturing. Inevitably, the proportion of gamers who are teenage boys will fall, whether they're replaced by older males, women, girls or a combination of these. Not everyone likes to see simplistic, stereotypical portrayals of women in games. It's a question of realism - realistic female characters just add to the perception that you're playing a quality product where some thought has gone into the design. Getting more women into the industry is vital, and I hope Obsidian, now that it's hiring, has given some serious thought to this. From the bios on the website, it seems to be an all male crew, though if somebody paid more attention than I did watching Kotor 2's credits, they could correct me. If this latest round of recruitments results in no women being hired, I'd like to hear how that could be justified.

Yes and no. The idea of capitalism is that the best way to help society is to be personally selfish - by working for your own interests, you create wealth and employment which incidentally benefits others as well. It was called 'trickledown' by Thatcher and Reagan, but it's not a new idea. The kind of charity we see in rich countries is not inspired by neo-liberal capitalism, but another source such as religion, tradition or a sense of social justice. Socialists would say that this just another way for the elites to shore up their position - you can't be 'rich' unless there are poor people to look down on as you 'give generously'.

It's not a bug, but it's a bit confusing the first time. You can recover your party by going to the party selection screen. You can get there through one of the icons in the top right of your screen. Select the people you want and choose 'Add'. You must do this before you enter combat. You'll be using this screen throughout the game. This is the first time you really need it, and there should be a pop-up message explaining how it works. The rest of the 'tutorial' element was really well executed, this is one that slipped through the net.

The first thing you need to do is attract the attention of a passing Jedi. The best way to accomplish this is to contrive a truly bizarre and pointless errand that for some reason you are unable to perform. A good example would be if you needed to collect your week's supply of jelly from the jellyseller, you could give the Jedi the money and she could go and fetch your jelly while you stay at home and keep an eye on the garden in case the trees wander off. This post was brought to you by the Society for the Inclusion of Plausible Side-Quests in Computer Role-playing Games

Here are two good threads to read. http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=32845 http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=32955

I was attacked by a squadron of ****roaches. Well, by squadron I mean four, but simultanously from four different directions. It sure as hell looked co-ordinated. I hate ****roaches. Every other small animal runs AWAY from you if you approach, but they run straight AT you. And they FLY! They keep it pretty quiet, until suddenly one day something lands on your FACE! EDIT: And the absurd censor wins again.

I've mostly done the same. You know, Aurora's mod is going to increase the replay value of this game by a factor of ten.

Historically, and if you look at the world today, democracy goes hand in hand with capitalism. But there is an internal contradiction in this: full democracy requires equality, or at least equality of opportunity, with everyone having equal access to information and rights. But capitalism tends to increase inequality. Social democracy is an attempt to bridge the gap, and it works OK in some European countries, notably Sweden (or at least I think that's still true). Democracy's call for social justice is more in tune with socialism, but its emphasis on personal rights and freedoms is more in tune with capitalism.

"I'm killing you because I love you. Does that help?"

I would say it was more socialist than capitalist because the state was the defining aspect of peoples' lives. Elements which resembled capitalism were allowed because they were necessary for the country to function, that's all. Strongly capitalist countries have some programmes which resemble socialism, such as welfare payments for low-income families. It doesn't change the fact that these are extras grafted onto a basically capitalist system. It is true that in Soviet-style socialism, the individual existed to serve the state - so yes, the government uses its people for its own purposes.

Definitely (though PC is preferred). Happily, this appears to be what's happening.

I think some Marxists called the USSR a 'dictatorship of the proletariat' rather than proper communism, as communism suggests that the state will wither away. But the Soviet leaders created their own definition to suit their interests. Some elements of a capitalist economy remained, such as money and some private property. I think they abandoned attempts at complete collective ownership after collectivising the farms in the 30s led to a famine. But the state was all-powerful, so it was a socialist dictatorship. You can argue about whether that's the same as communism, though. Yes, capitalism widens existing differences between rich and poor, unless there's government intervention. Marx had an equation which I can't remember offhand, but the gist is that in a capitalist economy, the more you invest, the more you get back, so those with more to start off with will get back more and more, and the poor, with little to invest, stay poor. The only way to moderate this is through government intervention and welfare. That's true, but some people say there's a tendency for them to go together, as both emphasise personal rights and freedoms. Capitalism stress the property rights aspect of that, and democracy the human rights aspect. Nobody will invest if they're afraid the state/dictator will appropriate the money they get back.

X-2: The Threat. A bizarre choice, but I saw it in the shop and thought "Ooh, this looks like Elite ", which was the first game I ever played on a PC. I'm still near the beginning, but so far, so really good. I'm thinking of ditching the main story line and wandering off to explore for a bit.

I guess there's no-one at Obsidian who truly understands evil. They don't know the true power of the dark side. I see they're hiring lots of new people. Maybe they could add 'experience of being evil' to the job descriptions. Now I can imagine Feargus Urguhart as Dr. Evil, interviewing candidates: FU: So, you're a graphics programmer? Programmer: Yes. FU: And you've done some graphics programming? Programmer: Uh huh. FU: Was it evil graphics programming?

I don't think it's possible to avoid getting Visas, or at least, I've tried and failed. Her arrival was triggered when I was nearly dead centre neutral on the alignment screen. It might be that even if you balance LS and DS points evenly, the game also counts the total number of alignment points you've received, and eventually this will trigger Visas.

For problems to happen so early (before installation is complete) it's unlikely that the fault is related to Kotor. I suggest all the usual clean-up activities, such as downloading and running an anti-spyware programme, uninstalling any programmes that are running all the time, and even reformatting your hard disk and reinstalling all your software.

Were the references to the 'godly beings' part in the Kotor games or somewhere else? I certainly didn't get that impression from the games. It was mentioned that the Sith had originally been a species with a particular set of beliefs that were taken up by exiled dark Jedi, who were later called 'Sith'. The original Sith, the species that is, were supposed to have died out. My interpretation of the True Sith references in Kotor 2 was of an Empire of Sith in previously unexplored space, perhaps a surviving colony of the Sith species or another civilization inspired by a purer form of their teachings. But nothing supernatural, godly or extradimensional. That would be difficult to implement in a game, and to reconcile with canon.

I don't see any good reason for fixing Revan's sex/alignment. Sure, if they made a movie or cartoon of Kotor, it would be necessary, but that's hardly likely. If Kotor 2 could maintain the four possible combinations, there's no reason why Kotor 3 (if made) couldn't do the same. So why upset the fans to no purpose?

Thanks. Not sure about any of the game mechanics/systems. I guess it makes sense to use a pre-existing system that's been tried and tested. I know there is an unfortunate tendency to make games easier and easier these days, but getting killed in the first minute is swinging the pendulum too far the other way. As for the setting, none of them really jump out at me. Something that hasn't been done to death would be nice, with definitly no elves or goblins and no magic. Has there ever been a cRPG set in Roman or Greek times? Would that work? Just a thought. Actually, I would like a Stargate RPG. I heard the new Stargate game was going to be a first person shooter. Alas, I suppose it's the financially sound thing to do.

It's a tiny little patch which mostly fixes the manual pdf file. You're not missing anything.

No, although I've at least heard of Star Trek, but not as a game. Is Vampire: WoD anything to do with the Bloodlines/Masquerade game that Troika did? I heard that was based on a regular role-playing game, and the computer version worked pretty well, I thought.

I know what you mean. After finishing Kotor 1, it did occur to me 'This was so much better than Episode I. Why didn't they just make a movie of this?' In practice, to make a movie you would have to cut huge amounts, most of the characters and locations, certainly. Fans of the game wouldn't like it (although everyone would go and see it anyway, I'm sure), it would lose the magic epic quality, so other cinema-goers wouldn't be impressed, either. But I think it would be a good idea for George Lucas to produce (not direct!) a new movie with an entirely new setting (within the Star Wars universe) and entirely new characters, not drafted from the existing EU. Kotor gave a glimpse of how successful it could be.

And precisely how many poles have you seen?