Volourn

"Only if you like sport games." Yup. And, BG2 and FO are only some of the best games ever if you like RPGs. R00fles!

Uh. EA develops games. It's called EA Sports. Some of the best games ever created. "Customers give publishers money which the publishers use to make games you like. Customers indirectly give you games that you want to play." L0L With that logic, my parents give me games I want to play even thoguh they haven't bought a game for me since I was a kid because without them I wouldn't even be born hence I wouldn't be able to play games. "Atari and EA make games you like to play? Really? Here I thought it was developers like Bioware and Obsidian that made games you liked to play. All Atari and EA seem to be doing is gumming up the works of happy customers getting happy games from happy developers." First off, EA is a developer and publisher. And, Atari does make games people want to play. Whetehr you like it or not, Atari had a hand in NWN2. As well as other games they publish. Developers don't create games in a funnel. Sorry. No Atari, no MOTB. Period. "Yep Atari and EA are only screwing the developers by pissing off the customers. Way to go!" Atari is struggling; but EA is most likely the most successful game company in the world. If 'pissing off customers' mean publishing/developing games those customers want than they're the kings. The Sims, Madden (and, to a lesser degree their other sports games) have been pleaisng games for over a decade now, and a bunch of other successful games. EA knows want the gamers want, and deliver it time, and time again. You shouldn't speak for other gamers. The millions of copies that EA games sell speak enough about how customers feel about EA - they make games people want to play. R00fles!

"BG3 would recieve contempt and utter hatred from the die hard fans just as Fallout 3 has." No.

scumbag publisher > scumbag 'fans' / 'customers'. Why? Because publishers like Atari and EA make games I want to play.. customers give me NOTHING.

Seems to work with the FF series. *shrug* It also worked for the BG series since BG1 was Baldur's Gate/surroudnings and BG2 was Athkatla/Amn.

"Volo: A quick question-- if an employee folding shirts at the Gap spends her entire shift chatting with customers about the company's suppliers' sweatshop labor practices, can/should the Gap management discipline or fire her? Or is that too repressive of her "free speech" rights?" if she's on her shift, she should be working. They're paying her to work. If she has a problem with the company's labopur practices why is she even working there? She, however, has the right to say what she wants when she is off company time. ie. When she's at home. Afterall, if she's spending her entire shift chatting then she's obviously not working which means she's not doing her job. Fire her. The ref was likely not working when he was 'interviewed' since his job is reffing games so it becomes a free speech issue because he's not working. P.S. Just ebcause soemthing is in a contratc doesn't make it legally binding, btw. It has to pass certain legal threshholds.

"If Dragon Age tanks, it would probably be the fault of DRM." Evidence, please. if DA tanks it will be because not enough people wanted to buy it for many different reasons. "if it's in the EULA" As stated above, just because it's in the EULA doesn't make it legally binding.

"What about NHL 08 vs NHL 09" Too close to call at this point. "Who gives a crap about NHL anyway? Hockey is not that much popular here in Europe anyway..." Who gives a crap about Europe? L0L And, yeah, hockey is popular is Europe. There's a reason why European leagues dish out moolah for their players. And, skilled European hockey players don't come out of thin air either. Nice try, though. btw, Coming back with 'soccer is more popualr than hockey in europe' only proves two thinks: a ) you are a doofus, and b) soccer is more popular than hockey in europe. It doesn't stop hockey from being popular in europe. "People here usually play the FIFA and NBA Live series... Both made by EA... But these brands are always sure to be successful..." Pretty much all of EA's sports brands are popualr to one degree or another. "Actually, they aren't doing what all their fans want, Volourn." Actually, they do. This is why they're successful since I've been told that without the fans/customers, companies are nothing.... Well, like them or not, EA is anything but 'nothing'. Those who are bashing EA are NOT EA's fans. On top of that, you can't please ALL of *any* group. L0L It's silly to even try. "A good chunk of their PC fanbase do not want DRM." Define 'good chunk'. Most of EA's fans simply don't care about DRM one way or another - as long as the game(s) work and play and for most people they do. *shrug* "We will have to see how successful their PC sales will be in the future." Notwithstanding other factors, I doubt they'll be much different. DRM will have little to no effect to their bottom line in terms of sales.

"why not? Daggerford was probably the best 2nd best NWN1 mod ever made, after HoTU." Because. "like so many things you say, that makes precious little sense." Makes perfect sense. P.S. Not everyone thinks the same way you do, and it doesn't make them insane. "i mean, if it suddenly became available in physical form, would you suddenly become interested?" Yup. "no. i'm just amazed that something as big and as complex as a full-blown NWN2 expansion pack has managed to race ahead of a simple little premium mod." *sigh* You claim to understand the logic of Atari's reasoning but are still 'amazed'. It's not complex or amazing. It's about profit. MOW will likely not make Atari much money. SOZ has the potential - even as a second expansion - to make them 'real' money hence more motivation to put more energy into getting it released while the releasing is hot. MOW, in the grand scheme of things, is simply super small potatoes.

"secondly, since there's not that many CRPGs being made, CRPG fans are hardly in a position to exercise much leverage. so what if Oblivion has lousy writing? it was also the first CRPG in a few months, and when otherwise playable CRPGs are few and far between, most CRPG fans were gonna buy it regardless." Funny enough, I'm a CRPG fanboy but I managed to avoid buying Oblivion. And, I've managed to survive without it. People who bought Obloivion obviously like ES games. *shrug*

EA is awesome. They make some of the best games ever (NHL 09 4 THA W!) so they could do whatever they want as it seems to be working consideirng how successful they are. They seem to be giving what enough customers want to be so successful. Good on EA for doing what their fans want - make awesome games that are vastly better than older games. P.S. NHL 09 > NHL Original ('92?) - NHL 07.

"I know you're trying Volourn so I'll give you a softball. 1,333 yrds. rushing + 771 yrs. receiving = more then anyone else. You're trying in earnest to troll and I get that," Your claiming that Westbrook is a sueprior player compared to guys like Manning (either one, actually) or Brady yet I'm the troll? Give me a break. Westbrook isn't even in the top 10 for top players in the league. Westbrook is possibly not even the best player on his own team. Let alone the division, conference, or entire league. Stop trolling such nonsense if you don't want a response next time. L0L

No. they shouldn't listen to fans at all. They should listen to dollars. Dollars > Fans

L0L Westbrook as NFL's best player. HAHAHAHA! That's even funnier than defending the NFL's right to 'curb' free speech. And, don't deny it. That's exactly what they are doing.

"Do you guys pass to the point?" Despite my 90% pass rating, my passes to the point tend to go wild or when I do pass it right, the D acts like an idiot. ie. They have alreayd elft the zone. This even happens soemtimes in 'normal' mode. L0L The AI plays too rigid sometimes, and doesn't use creativity. (not too surprising, though). "And my team doesn't like to shoot pucks at the net" Wweird. My teammates have no problem shooting the puck.

They're not changing it because of the screaming. They're changing it because they feel it is in their best business sense due to the overall customer base not just the loud ones. If screaming was all it took, companies would be changing their policies all the time.

*yawn* It's about free speech. The NFL is about treating people like servants. And, wrong. The Favre situation did effect how the NFL was perceived. Nice try, though.

"Wrong. If you are in a business that provides goods or services to people for money, you damn well better listen to their feedback." L0L To a point. You most cetrianly don't kiss their butt. The voal minority rarely speaks for the majority. Sorry. "Some fans are, some aren't. Dismiss them all at your own risk." Funnily enough, many companies are accused of 'ignoring' the fans and customers yet remain successful. LMAO Your theory loses luistre when history disproves it. "The devevlopers skill and knowledge only has value because there are people willing to pay money for it. No customers= no money." No skills and no knowledge = no business = no customers = no money. Skill, and knowledge in getting soemthing people want is the most important thing to success. Customers will be there as twe all know there are is a customer base base for games. That's not going to change anytime soon. We gamers have to get our gaming fix somehow. Therefore, logic dictates those companies who cna make games we'd want to play will be successful and that takes talent. Down with the selfish, scummy, egotisitical, arrogant, and pieces of crap who cna't see the big picture and realzie their one loud, obnixious voice is nearly irrelevant.

I'm not interested in MOW. Unless it's released in stores. I refuse to buy over the net except in the rarest of circumstances. For the record, I haven't even bought any NWN1 premium mods over the net. That's why i don't care about MOW. But, I was simply stating things from Atari's viewpoint, because you sounded like you were shocked that SOZ is seemingly getting higher priorty than MOW.

"in all likelihood, we will end up getting SoZ - an expansion announced after MoW - before MoW ever gets released." And? tariu will likely make little to nothing on MOW. They'll likely make a decent profit on SOZ even though it'll sell like than MOTB.

I'm a playmaker, and I have 11 goals, and 9 assists in 24 games. L0L I try to pass; but *shrug*. What can ya do.

"Developer should always listen to the fans. Its part of the job." No, it isn't. Devs' job is to make games. periods. It's the media types' job to 'listen to the fan'. The point is that fans are selfish, scummy, egotisitical, arrogant, and pieces of crap who never see the big picture, and are more likely to screw up your game than help it. "Its not like the fans are buying the games and allowing the developers to make a living or anything." Actually, it's the devs' skill that lets them make a living not the fans. The fans only buy the games they wnat to play which are made because of the devs' skill. Period. The success of a developer (or any company) is because of them not because of some selfish, scummy, egotisitical, arrogant piece of crap. Sorry; but it's true.

Ahh.. NFL.. trying to control what their employees do on their free time including their rights for freedom of speech. That's just barbage. If I were him or any other NFLer, I'd tell them to zip it! A big star should do it.. let's see how much NFL will flex their muscles there.. I wonder what NFL would do if it was Peyton Manning or Brett favre doing it. Oh yeah, nothing. Favre was talking all summer, and not one word from the NFL except the usual "I hope GB, and Favre can come to some sort of udnerstanding." HAHAHAHA!

People who send hate mail over soemthing like this are scumbags, and are dumber than any ref who makes a horrible call. Period. P.S. My Giants seem a tad confident... maybe, too much...

Yeah, Will is right. I enjoyed the game immensely, but the plot was spoiled big time. Hard to have a 'plot twist' when its revealed before hand. L0L