Maria Caliban

Mass Effect happens 170 years in the future. Why would their guns have the same level of accuracy as a modern firearm? Now for some Dragon Age news! . This was shown at GamesCom. Looks like someone filmed it with a camera as it's rather washed out.

Incorrect. I believe that society is obliged to help all its members have necessary medical services. Why? Because the alternative is misery and/or death. Why don't I apply that to games? Because they're a form of entertainment, a luxury item. Truffle oil is hundreds of dollars. I don't consider that wrong. Going to the Superbowl is hundreds of dollars. I don't consider that wrong. Charging for cut content? If you want to tell me how that's wrong, feel free.

Games != Life saving drugs Buying game != Paying for necessary medical costs

If these things occurred in a vacuum, it wouldn't be. But the Day One DLC trend is a direct result of people being stupid in their purchasing decisions. To use your analogy, you seem to be perfectly happy paying 4 bucks a gallon for gas because hey, ~~The Market~~ or whatever. That's cool for you, but understand that it is damaging to the economy as a whole. TBH your reasoning seems like unfettered approval of whatever corporate trickery comes down the pike, so long as you get to play the game. I don't have to point out what is wrong with that. Yes, you do have to point out what's wrong with that. Let's say EA has a perfectly fine single game and decides that since its part of a popular franchise they'll break it into three parts*. They then charge full price for each installment. And they laugh evilly while doing so! Then they go on IGN and are like "Yeah, we were originally going to release one game but decided three would be even better. We're sure you guys will still buy it." Now, explain how this is wrong. Don't tell me how you don't like it or how consumers get unhappy. Tell me how it's *wrong* for them to do so. DVD royalties and shipments are not the main cost of games. Employing people is. The prices are rising because the number of developers working on titles increases. * Like they do in some other businesses.

NKKKK continues to encroach on my territory. I shall have to ally with Tale and have him voted off the island. <.< Also, I like this idea. And yes, as a PC gamer I'll likely use this.

I don't know how anyone could call this immaterial. The way in which the DLC is produced, released and eventually sold has a lot to do with how it is received. Purchasing content that was "cut by greedy executives" is simply rewarding bad behavior. In this respect, the quality of the DLC is what's immaterial. The real question becomes one of ethical business practices, and whether or not we as gamers (bleh I hate that term) are going to let ourselves be fleeced by disingenuous crapbags. I remember when gas was 99 cents to the gallon. Now I'm happy if it's less than 4 bucks a gallon. I remember when I could go to the movies with a friend and only paid eight bucks. Now I see movie tickets for 15 bucks each. As a consumer, I react to the market. I use my car less. I go to the movies less. Whether the forces changing the price tag are legitimate or not isn't a matter of great concern. If EA executives are the most ruthless, greedy sonsofbitches who walk the earth doesn't really matter. I buy it when it comes out, I buy it when it goes on sale, or I don't buy it. For the majority of games I pick up, I don't buy the DLC. If I dislike a game, I might speculate as to what went wrong, but DLC is usually just more of the same.

I have no problem with the existence of DLC. I get more stuff, they get more money. There are lots of games I've never bought DLC for. There are games where I bought DLC months after release because there was a sale on Steam. Personally, I don't think there's any DLC that will turn a game I dislike into one I like, so whether it's cut content, made by a special team, or ruthlessly plucked from the finished product by greedy executives is immaterial. I ask myself the same questions now as I did when I first started buying games: Is the game good? Was it engaging? Was it satisfying? If yes, awesome. If no, I don't believe DLC is to blame. The Stolen Prince added little to DA II. From Ashes had some interesting content, which I consider good for DLC, but even with it, I found ME 3 ultimately unsatisfying.

I hope to pick up Weeks' tie-in novel The Masked Empire.

I read all kinds of fantasy.

In the comics, Alistair behaves like Christian Bale's Batman. Isabela and Varric hardly joke with one another. I loved Paradise Lost, but I'd never want to reread the entire thing.

David's been pointing out people abusing these terms since the DA:O days. And it's possible for someone to both mock some critizism and acknowledge the validity of other critizism. Thing is, the lore also said that the Maker resides in Golden city, which was desecrated by the Tevinter mages, turned into Black City. But that Tevinter Mage you met in Awakening said that the city wasn't golden when they entered it, meaning it was always black. That has nothing to do with whether the Chantry has to deal with the problem of evil. Yes. Are you familiar with Sturgeon's response to that same claim about science fiction? Sturgeon's Law is an awesome way for a science fiction writer to dodge the problems with his genre.

I think how one interprets them is often influenced by the preexisting opinions someone has of either Gaider and/or BioWare, as well, however. I suspect there's a gap between people who spend a large amount of time on the BSN and those who don't.

It has no wings, so I believe it's a drake.

Sure, that's David's twitter. I have no problem with David criticizing the use of words. I have done the same at times.

BioWare Round Table: Vision for the Future Can't watch it here. Seem only minimally related to DA:I.

The Chantry doesn't have the Problem of Evil because while the Maker is good, he doesn't have perfect knowledge. He created his first children - spirits - and expected them to be creative. When they just copied what he'd done, he was surprised and upset. He created his second children - mortals - and imbued them with a creative spark. When they created pride, desire, greed, rage, etc, he was surprised and upset. As time goes by, his children continue to piss him off. Then they kill Andreste and he leaves for good. The whole point of the Chantry is that if they can convert the entire world and sing to the Maker, he'll return.

This shouldn't be an issue for PC. They could be scraping saved games for something else though.

We don't know how DA:I is handling world state information. We know there's a default and method for world state generating that BioWare won't talk about at this point. Save games may or may not be imported. I'm not even sure how they'd do save game imports on PS3 to PS4 or X360 to XOne. Why does your brain hurt?

There isn't any canon Hawke or Warden (at this point). We know the default Warden for DA 2 was a male human noble who accepted the Dark Ritual while the default for DA:I will be a female dalish elf who sacrificed herself to kill the archdemon. I believe the current default Hawke is beardy. Male mage who sided with the mages.

I've noticed that when I put my snipers on top of trucks, they end up dying horribly as every enemy targets and hits them. I swear there was a way to make them lie down and be harder to hit.

A new article today - Creating Dragon Age Party Members - which I found perplexing in parts. Here is an excerpt: “As they progress, the descriptions get more elaborate, giving the artists more to consider with the design. For instance, a coat can say something about a character’s history, and as most know, BioWare is infamous for hiding trinkets to tell stories. “We always love hiding stuff on a character, like really big important things that are huge aspects of [them],” Rhodes says. “We love hiding them somewhere, having some trinkets so when the revelation hits, you’re like, ‘That’s what this has been this whole time!’…” Okay, BioWare is infamous for hiding trinkets to tell stories? Rhodes is a character artist and he’s suggesting that the companion designs have ‘hidden trinkets’ that lead to revelations. But I can’t think of a single Dragon Age companion where that’s true. I mean, not even minor things and he’s suggest that they’ve hidden ‘really big important things.’ This entire section appears to have come from an alternate universe. Another excerpt: “[We] decide, ‘What does this character think of all the others? What do they banter about? And do they even like each other?’” Kristjanson says. “And that illustrates the main themes of the game even more. Sometimes in surprising ways because, maybe [you would think] that two characters would obviously hate each other, but maybe they don’t. Maybe those two liking each other says something even bigger about the games or themes in play." Laidlaw adds, "Or them growing to like one another. That’s essentially Isabelle and Aveline.” Yes, Isabela and Aveline grow to like one another, and it’s one of my favorite relationship developments… but how does that say something bigger about the game or the themes in play? The best companion relationship that illustrates the themes on the game would be between Fenris and Anders. They meet, they hate one another, they constantly bicker, and as the years go by… nothing changes. In Act 3, you get the same bitter sniping you got in Act 1. I don’t know. At best, they’re talking about things they’re attempting to do and for some reason the article treats it as something they’ve already done.

I enjoy Miéville's works a great deal. After reading it, I asked David about the editing process it went through. Apparently, he submitted a draft and it went through a single revision before the final. I know a woman whose debut cozy mystery novel went through about ten revisions with the editor, and previous to it being submitted to any editors, I her agent had her make some changes to the plot and alter a few character. That's standard for a debut novel published by her house.

I like Alpha Protocol, but also think reviewers had every reason to hammer it.

I think Sanderson is the one epic fantasy author working right now who actually outlines his multi-book epics beforehand releasing the first book. For that alone, I am grateful.