Naso

Never thought of Maugrim before, but as hard as it is to copy something that generic, they did it. There's Bastilla/Aribeth, the ancient overlord lizard people, plague/natural disaster ending their reign, slave revolt, the same 4 way generic run around. The NPC's generally, though, are many cuts above.

Thank you

Uh, that they'll still get wads of dough for all their sleaziness in the end?

It's curious how devs have stopped posting, even to answer the so-called legitimate and on topic questions. If there's stuff they can't say, then they can say that their contract doesn't let them say such and get on with answering real questions. If they just don't want to talk about it, they don't have to. If it's that there's nothing positive they can say then perhaps that should be considered in future business with LA. Things don't go away when ignored. If they're just too busy working on the game, then good for them!

Well, it'd be cooll if they were at least linked somehow, not necessary or integral to the story but expanding on consequences and showing the main plot affecting the setting, like saving people from a Sith bombardment or helping a resistance movement or something.

Yep, I'm pretty sure it said all international versions in Feb.

Just as a general question, whats the deal with "Winter 200x" meaning the whole season the winter begins in and ignoring the change of year in the middle? Why do companies use this system?

And buying the pc version sends what message exactly? I'll still support Obsidian. I'm definitely getting NWN2.

Wow, the sexual inadequacy insult! Good job!

Been there, done that. Gets you no reply. Hell, there was even a picket outside Lucas Arts a while back apparently, to absolutely no effect.

Well I meant more Lucas Arts. It's publishers, *usually*, who cause most of it.

Hey, I didn't mean compensation for this, and if you've read my other posts you'd see I really don't mind the delay. I'm a big fan of "when it's done". My issue is primarily with LA and other game companies to a lesser extent. As for discouraging developers to make PC games, what about discouraging developers from making functional games or releasing patches? That's already happening just as much. They can make some broken piece of crud, sell it to a few hundred thousand 13 year olds, have the few people who want their game to work banned from their boards, and then go on their merry way. The ignorant cow of a consumer discourages quality just as much. As for PC particularly, I've been watching it go downhill a bit, not because of quality competition, but because of console cashins. As for the value of a liberal arts education, I'm a classics major , though maybe some of my rage is left over from the sheer insanity of this country I live in. Anyway, this blanket defense mentality has left quite a lot of people suffering, (i know it's a game, relative term), already.

I don't pirate, won't pirate, and can't condone it, but all the same I see, considering the complete ineffectuality of boycotts, no good options. Maybe it's time to get out of gaming, because seriously, in other hobbies if you receive a defective product, you are compensated. If you have an issue with a company statement, they value your business and pretend to care. Lucas Arts is now truly at the cutting edge of the biz, spitting on those who they would have buy their products, and with the rest of the industry following a bit behind, there are no options. I'm reaching a point where I'll find something else to do, and really, I've played games for a long time and spent a lot of money on them. I can actually understand Hades' view for once.

Well, it seems we've hit upon the second big problem with alienated consumers: the militant defender. I can't understand what sycophants hope to get out of quixotically and hypocritically defending the honor of a company and why it seems to hurt their own self-worth to see anything but glowing adoration posted. When consumers have complaints they seem to be largely discredited by being linked to the small subset that will whine and moan about feature x and attack the devs because the game doesn't have realistic pancake-making mechanics and by the flames that arise out of any legitimate criticism or complaint simply because some people cannot tolerate others' views. Because of the nature of an online community, it simply isn't tenable, and is ultimately counterproductive to stifle negative opinion, and it seems to me that, within reason and the below the legal definition of libel, voicing such opinions is perfectly legitimate. Locking threads about things simply represses and increases anger. This might have simmered down by now if we'd actually been able to have our say.

Well, not to endorse thread-jacking per se, but the proper place to bitch seems to be either in locked threads or our own vibrant imaginations. Seriously, the specifics of the release date aside, I, and I hope others, are simply very tired of corporate bull****.

Ooops, I know now! Duke Nukem Forever!

I don't mean this as a flame or anything else, but just would like to know what is and what is not acceptable since the disappointment thread was locked with no explanation. I appreciate that Obsidian does own this and the mods have to walk a fine line, but I'd just like to know exactly what I can and cannot say, or if there's a permanent happy-face rule or something. Thanks!

Maybe everything that comes out ever before I play this one?

AARRRRR! Me point be lost amidst this sea of whateverthehellthisbe! Topaz, since what I've said has been buried would you care to respond to it? Perhaps not in a KotOR 2 way but in a redefinition of the role of the video-game consumer in 21st century America way? If you're trying to discredit all anger you're doing a pretty good just by forcing it to fit your unreasonable mold by simple pigheadedness. I agree with you insomuch as the delay of getting KotOR2 is largely immaterial. What caused it, however, is not and you are destroying any possibility for discussing that.

Personally my anger has nothing to do with when I'll get, (if ever now), the game. It is based solely on the attitude of these companies, the waste laid to their reputations, their abuse of their customers, and the total failure of the capitalist system due to an overly large buffer of apathetic idiots. This has simply one more example of an endemic problem.

Remember the days when you got a game on 5 -10 floppies and it actually worked? In some ways with graphics they should have an easier time now with 2 types of hardware trying to act the same way being supported. As for the complexity of games increasing, not so much when pc games even are just higher-res console games......

It's not so much an issue of any one person making it for the length of the boycott, it's that the market is big enough they don't give a @E$)*(. There were a ton of people boycotting LA after the Sam and Max 2 mess, but hasn't done anything. There will always be millions of little kids getting the starwars game in their stocking so LA doesn't have to care and so what I meant was the only impact it has is on you yourself. Capitalism is nice in theory, but it just doesn't work so well with an uneducated and apathetic consumer base. Unless the games light on fire and burn houses down. That might cause a stir. Maybe.....

EUGENICS!

I'm sorry I tried to read a lot of the posts but don't have time for all of them, so here's my 2 cents.... KotOR 2 is just a game and I really am not upset about the release date per se, but in two concomitant trends: the console/whack-a-mole reorientation of gaming and the complete lack of responsive and responsible software companies. For the first, the evidence is fairly obvious. When you look at *most* console games you see they are fairly simplistic and highly repetive. KotOR overcame this with immersion and was a great game regardless, but it is a fairly rare exception. The console-based design is evidenced by the simple rules, interface, few textures even in the pc version, and the overly repetitive nature of combat. KotOR was great enough that these design issues were largely immaterial, but most games aren't quite so exceptional. Look at Deus Ex 2 for instance. Even Halo, judging from the pc demo I played, (don't kill me please), doesn't quite compare with something like UT2004 in terms of possible depth. A game doesn't have to be deep to be fun, but removing the possibility places a great limitation on game design and to those of us with PC's who are outside of the rebellious teenager demographic, this is getting very very tiresome. We saw space-sims and adventure games die already, and it's looking like gaming depth may be next and companies can then expect a drop in sales as older players get bored. The second trend is what has really angered me. There have been more and more games released unfinished. Even Doom 3 had barely functional multiplayer. Id is working on fixing things, but some companies just don't. There was a very long period of time with Raven's Jedi Academy being not particularly playable and there was no response or acknowledgement aside from a couple of non-dev mods on their boards banning everyone who didn't shiver in ectasy over the non-functional product. Some of you may have had problems with the original KotOR, and while it has been patched, some problems remain and Bioware refuses to acknowledge these issues and the same cadre of militant syncophants patrol their boards. (Thankfully I've not seen any of that here). Lucas Arts' cash-ins also contribute to this decline in quality, and the cancellation of Sam and Max 2 and that such a large outcry did nothing shows that software companies are becoming less and less responsive. As this carries over into the actual functionality of products I think we have a lot more to worry about than just the release dates but I don't see how there's much we can do. Realistically we'd have to boycott almost all the publishers and go off games for a while which isn't really tenable. Who are we kidding saying we'll boycott the game we've been waiting for? By the time it comes out, any of us who do try that'll probably cave, as the fact we're even bothering to post here shows. So,.... anyone have any good ideas on what to do?

Ya know, floppies don't have an acronym. That means more soul, right?