Shadowstrider

The maturity, or lack thereof, of game development has no real bearing on whether or not it is art. I wouldn't tell my kid that her finger paintings aren't art. I won't tell my writers, programmers, or artists that their works aren't. The producers... well, we don't like to talk about them.

Creating games is an artform. Writing is art. Music is art. Painting is art. All of these are combined when making a video game. They're all art. Playing games is not an art.

A college degree gets your foot in the door. Thats it, really. If anyone actually thought a degree was a hole-in-one, get a job now thing, they're sadly mistaken.

Not how it works. A degree shows that you have met the standards set by the school in a field of study. People infer a dedication and determination associated to the subject of your degree, not in general. If everyone followed your line of thinking (thank god they don't), having a degree in chemistry would make them excellent programmers. Since, as you know, "It takes years to complete, just like a major game." By your logic, it doesn't matter what your degree is, they might as well hand out "dedication and determination" awards, rather than degrees.

And many more do not, and many work to avoid violence, even standing in front of the extremists and trying to defuse the situation. Should these people be dismissed simply because the media has to focus on the extremists? Are we saying that it's understandable if a non-Muslim viewer comes away from this with the impression that 'Muslims are violent', and if so, is that the fault of the extremists, the moderate Muslims, the media or the viewer? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Once again, I'm waiting for the part where you point out that it isn't ironic. To prove muslims aren't violent, muslims protest violently. Doesn't matter how many did compared to how many didn't. Irony is still present. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that this is completely lost on you, since some muslims don't see the irony, either. *Shrugs.* You can squeel your "but there were other people too!" lines from the rooftop all day long. Meanwhile, some muslims are out acting violently to prove they aren't violent. Edit: I'll let you get away with casually brushing aside the fact that people are dying over a cartoon, in favor of spewing out liberal catch-alls. Its not that I didn't notice, just that I am not going to debate with you on the merits of your position.

As wonderful as that is, Steve, that doesn't disprove what I said. Cartoon portrays muslims as violent. Outraged, many muslims protest violently.

* at the beginning of the game, you chose a special skill. * also, there was decent dialogue. * in-game choices that affected the flow of the game (getting married affected the game in a significant way. * there was at least one stat (such as reputation) that could wax and wane. it was a not a numerical stat but a stat nonetheless. basically, what it did not have was: * numerical stats * leveling * class system <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That sounds like more of an RPG than any game I've ever played. P.S. numerical stats, leveling, and a class system are not RPG-defining.

Epiphany didn't disappear. I placed him on permanent moderated status for trolling, and then he left because the man (me) was holding him down. I do not think he was a plant.

Epiphany had most of his facts right. Sure he liked to troll, and some of the things he said were completely fallacious, but most of the things he said were either true or held some shred of truth.

Possibly off-topic, but does anyone see the irony of this whole scenario? Cartoon depicts muslims as violent. In order to prove that they aren't violent, muslims incite violence... maybe its just my feeble human brain. I don't think all muslims are violent, but causing a riot to prove you aren't kind of, you know... contradicts the statement.

Why did you bump it then? Secretly you love it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well it WAS a secret. Way to go.

I h8 this thread.

I'm sticking with 360 on this. The 360 is much more developer friendly.

These message boards are Invision Boards. Efficient and fast. Not perfect, but they work well enough. Of all the board software I've used (UBB, vBulletin, YaBB, phpBB) I like Invision the best. vBulletin is another good one, but it tends to write slower and read faster than Invision, at least in my experience.

Personally, I found the game entirely boring. I was more interested in watching the Yes, Dear marathon on TBS than I was watching the Super Bowl. Pretty sad. The first half was pretty good, I suppose. The second half just bored me too tears. At some point during the third quarter I just gave up, turned off my T.V., popped in my document CD and began typing. I had a productive sunday.

Dear god no.

lawl

You don't have to buy it. The reps in publishing companies buy it, and that is all that matters.

NEITHER IS THIS!

You've convinced me.

All I really got from this article was "I'm being stifled by the man." I know you put a lot more into it, but thats all I could get from it as I read. Unfortunately, all industries have this problem where money is more important than originality. It is unlikely to change until it can be proven that you don't need to follow past successes formula to be a success... or, someone is brave enough to fund a project that doesn't follow a "winning" formula and is a success.

ADVERTISING ON THE INTERNETS??!?~??! Since when has this occured?

Neverwinter Nights does not have a free-roaming camera. It is locked on the PC, allowing you to zoom in and out and turn the angle at which you view the PC/World. Baldur's Gate, Silent Storm, etc... have free roaming cameras.

We know. We know. Everyone knows. You can stop "discussing" them.

It would be better if the main character wasn't put at all in situation where he miraculously escapes. That way, the story will remain more credible. Even if Salvatore doesn't want to kill the source of its income, he should make some of his main characters die instead of killing only ancillary ones... for example, Wulfgar and Bruenor should have remained dead. Just look at the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies... at least, some of the main characters die there. Those novels are good fantasy books (as opposed to Salvatore's average soap opera stories). Maybe we just hate because of companions, after all... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The Dragonlance Chronicles are mediocre at best. The main characters were essentially a test to "see how many cliche characters we can throw in at once." The "tortured knight," "beer-swilling and crass dwarf with a heart of gold," "chosen one mage and his simpleton brother," "outcast hybrid." Besides, it isn't hard to kill off a main character when you have a small army of them. Never really felt a connection to any of these characters anyway, except Sturm. Then it kind of fell apart when they started going into the Solmniac (or however it is spelled) drama, all this build-up about what seemed to be a dying order of knights, only to reveal they weren't dying at all, really. The original (those written prior to the Homeland series, but taking place after them) series, the Crystal Shard through Halfling's Gem, had roughly half the score of "main characters" than that of the DLC. As for James Bond's death... so what? Superman died once too, and what a horrible story that was. Comic book fans have hated those stories for sometime because none of the villains who deserved to kill Superman did, instead it was some prehistoric killing machine from Krypton which served no purpose, other than killing Superman and a bunch of other things. Killing off the main character does not a good story make. Drizzt would be uninteresting without the tales of the few friends he has (not like he is interesting to me now). Salvatore knows that. Most people should know that. Shame that I have to explain it. These are books about the adventures of an emo dark elf, a dwarven king, the girl raised by drunken dwarves, a crazy halfling and a barbarian. Thorw in an emo human assassin, an almost-rebel drow, and generic villain 097 and you've got a story. Not the best stories, not the worst stories. Just stories, stories that make someone a lot of money. I'm sure he'll throw that away, though, because some small faction DEMAND that a main character die in order for books to be good. If you kill off a main character, you lose a lot of folks who have invested a lot of thought into them. People reach a sort of false connection with these names and places. Wipe them out, and people lose interest. Fact of Life. Fact of money.