Tigranes

The theft of weapons is random, I believe, but it does screw you over if you are a one-man party - if you are a normal one, it's not that bad. You might as well cheat back your equipment and try and fight through it, maybe - but yeah, I always thought the Tactics Irenicus was some sort of an ensemble of pain.

Or, 'as the resident Chinese in these forums, welcome!' Don't make a fight out of everything gais I wonder if Rorie envisions his role as a PR agent in the sense that he is the primary interface with which the rest of the world (fans, press) interacts with the company - which, in other cases, has led to the developers themselves being more removed from the fans, or their responses being mediated and filtered into more 'packaged' forms. While dev diaries/interviews are nice, for example, it can't beat informal everyday interaction. I originally framed this as a question, but I imagine that turning this thread into a never-ending cycle of questions would not be nice on poor Mr. Rorie.

A torture skill would probably offend some special interests groups, though an intimidate skill with practical applications would fit the game. Cyc and Krez, point-not-person, s'il vous plait. I can't comment on whose interpretation is likely to be right or whatever, but just assuming Obsidian does make pistol skill, machine-gun, etc., I do think that would be a bad move - either you're spread too thin or you end up with lots of points, which just makes leveling up a silly job.

I like it, actually.

Let me just pop in with this - the argument that "if you can afford to play ME you can afford to connect online every 10 days", and its variants, are very one-dimensional in the same sense as the following example: "if you have enough free time to play ME you can surely afford to perform securom's requirement of doing fifty push-ups every ten hours you play the game." It has never been a question of just availability / possibility (though Di single-handedly proved the 'universal availability' myth wrong, too). It's about the level of invasion, and the manipulation of a standard of basic expectation for the culture of video games in general.

I would stick with XP Pro SP2 as well, though I can't comment on the architecture due to lack of knowledge. The only short-term advantage to getting Vista is the 'pretties' and 'dumb-proof' features, and in most cases, sticking with a stable, mature Windows will give you the least headaches, if not always the best in squeezing out the last ounce of performance or features.

BG1, I did most things but skipped the werewolf island (I don't particularly enjoy it, though the setting was great the first time). Finished Durlag's Castle and now I have something like 150k xp, wonder how I will do against Improved Sarevok. Best moment was finding out Greater Dopplegangers now have chance of causing Confusion on successful hit (difficulty mod) - Tiax then proceeded to wander all over the first floor of the tower triggering all the traps, before dying in a blaze of TIAX WILL RULE.

So if you reformat, and/or replace your video card, etc, etc? How are they going to tie it? If it's anything like the original XP Home that's going to be annoying.

Wait, are you guys saying they removed the 10-day thing?

No more 'sad face' spam, people. I find it quite surprising that Hillary wasn't able to do any better in the Indiana/NC primaries. A 2% win and a 10-something? loss is quite dismal at this point, when a resounding win in any one of the states might have still done something for that 'tide' everyone keeps talking about. Is there a particular reason to that? Was her gas tax cut thing a flop and a show of a desperate hand?

Of course, and it's not like we can just change this fact, but some of us sure make it easy for the dev/pubs to set whatever rules they want.

Zur was indeed awesome in BG2. I thought the new tracks were decent, as I already mentioned. But I think a lot will hinge on how he does battle music, that'll be the real kicker and have a huge impact on atmosphere if he, say, goes with war drums, synth rock or epic.

Interestingly, skuld, those were the exact same examples that were debunked a few pages back. I won't go through it in detail, but suffice to point out that your examples would actually be parallel to a one time CD Key check, which nobody has a problem with. Now, what are you going to do if they decide every 10 minutes in a bar, pub or night-club you h ave to present your darn ID?

Perhaps reading Slavoj Zizek and playing EU:Rome was not the best idea, but at least I have a big empire. Normal difficulty, played from 536AVC (Second Punic War).

Oh, definitely, but I think it's just slow progress. More and more people are waking up to this sad fact now, and I think in a decade or less, it will become the norm to avoid buying games on Day 1 unless you're really desperate or you really trust that particular company. I bought MOTB before it even came out in NZ, with a US friend's help, but I was aware of Obsidian's admittedly patchy track record with bugs, because I'm one of those people that are hardly bothered by many bugs if the game is good. I mean, hell, I played NWN2 OC at 5fps (not bugs or anything, my PC is just crap, it couldn't handle K2 either), and I enjoyed it. Hah!

*shrug* the only way to change that social fact (that you dont' make a difference) is to pretend as if it does. Right now we are locked in a discourse of "this is wrong, but I know I can't do anything about it, so I accept it." Which is distinctly different from "this is wrong, and I know I can't do much about it, but I will act as if I can, and refuse it.", even if they both have very similar short/medium-term results in terms of market forces and consumption habits in general. Gromnir's point applies in the sense that we can't expect companies to just be nicey-nice and not look at the $ in front of them, but I don't think it's benefitial in any way to accept the violation of the principle because the principle cannot be advanced. Besides, if someone calls you stupid and naive, what does it matter? In this case it's okay to be 'stupid and naive' because you don't really lose anything. In other circumstances, where you do, you are forced to fold your principles, but not here.

So angry, mkreku. If we turn that logic on its head, I could accuse you of not taking any criticism seriously just because they are directed at FO3 and they are coming from 'hardcore fans', irrespective of the legitimacy of that criticism. It would be unfair on you, yes, but the point is that major games that are not sequels are scrutinised closely as well, and it's just part of the industry's culture now. In Obsidian at least I don't see a lot of pointless rabble-rousing - I read Beth forums, Codex and NMA on a regular basis and in comparison this is a lot more moderate (even to the Beth forums!). I listened to the tracks before reading anybody else's comments and I thought they were pretty well suited to the Fallout mood, though the main theme has always been a piece of generic crap. But then I never really considered Morgan's music to be 'amazing' like many others do - it was music that I would forget was even there, so as an ambient it was very accomplished, but I didn't feel it was 'super awesome'. I think as long as they avoid having too many of those main theme-style epic tra-lalas and synth rock or something equally stupid for combat, the music should be alright and it'll be interesting to see how Zur does it, he's definitely a good composer.

In terms of online 'noise', there are just as much such disavowals (This is wrong but i buy anyway) as much as actual refusal to buy. Or are you saying consumer habits of video gamers are absolutely unchanged by personal complaints and always up to the media hype? It's tempting to say so, certainly, but it's not true, and I think there are a lot of grievances currently 'not enough' to break the camel's back, but certainly not nonexistent. Wait, what? The comment said Di will not buy on May 28. Also, the fears are not 'largely unfounded' caused by 'alarmists', I have no idea how you come up with that. The problems are real: what is at dispute is the consequences of these very real problems/issues. Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Edit: For Di: SecuROM has never had the 10-day activation requiement up till now. SecuROM is actually a very common protection mechanism, and generally has revolved around needing the real CD in the drive to play (a very standard thing). What Prisley is doing is classic disinformation, and he should be kicked in the nuts for it: SecuROM isn't SecuROM of the days gone by anymore, saying that it still has the same name is stupid. ME SecuROM has the 10 day activation, thus it is very much different.

Haha, probably a case of wrong thread - somebody will move it soon enough.

Gromnir keeps repeating arguments that have been dealt with already for some curious reason, but most strikingly, I am not sure why he disregards the possibility of a number of people who might have considered buying the game, but now will not, because of this move. It is then irrelevant whether they pirate the game afterwards or not. For myself, Mass Effect is a game I would have liked to play, but not so much that I will a) put up with the idiocy on a personal level and b) participate in the collective activity of disavowal: I know this is wrong, but I buy it anyway, I know this is bad, but I buy it anyway, I know it's annoying and offensive, but I buy it anyway. Which is never a conscientious or socially positive thing to do in most circumstances. From the point of view of the company, sure, you're right, it is cost-effective to screw a small number of customers to (possibly, maybe) harness a greater number (casual players/pirates). But are you really saying, then, from the point of view of that 'infintesimal' (that, btw, is an exaggeration) crowd, they should stop complaining or being concerned or acting on their concern just because their concern is not shared by a huge majority? Just as you say that it is understandable for the company to do this, it is de facto understandable for the effected community to cry foul, and do their best to bring the issue to public knowledge and attack the image of the company.

I seem to remember them doing so, yes.

My parents are finally convinced that our cats are too fat. You'd think they'd have realised something was wrong when you look at them from behind while they walk, and the fat swings freely left and right of the spine.

Excatly Tale - it is the discursive trap in the purest sense. You have a specific discourse which demands a certain way of interpreting reality, which attains such a level of authority that it becomes universal (piracy hurts PC game sales, so, all PC game sale declines are due to piracy), and even if that idea was never true to begin with (who knows? It's not so relevant, at this point), the real actions taken on the basis of this possibly imaginary discourse makes that discourse more real than reality itself. All the while they spend their own money to rob themselves of money. Classic. I should think that it is only deserving (though I cannot be gleeful about this, rather, worried is the better term) of an industry and culture which is based on the 'eternal present' - statistics are not fully released, even the basic sale of game units is left in the dark, and the game industry forgets its past on a regular basis, only to say and do the same things again and again.

My first contact with the US in person was LAX. First I thought I actually ended up in Stalin's Russia, except the shops actually had stuff in them. Anyway, nobody really complains about CD-Keys, do they? That's equivalent to ID checks. The 10 day thing is like you're having a drink int he bar and every 10 minutes someone checks your ID.

Continuing also from http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?sh...5&start=165 , where I raised the issue. Krezack the insolent upstart shall be dealt with appropriately. I think that is really the crux of the matter. The discursive dominance of the Piracy=End of PC Industry argument, which, in terms of empirical evidence is just as much a fallacy and disinformation as Video Games=Violent Mass Murders and Iraq WMD, is making sure that the real issues get buried under a wave of "YEAH ITS THE PIRATES". I'm not saying piracy doesn't hurt the industry at all, but even that originally crucial fact is made irrelevant by this amazing flood of discursive foot-stomping. A boycott, indeed - you need an organised group that can project the appropriate, correct discourse to fight this obstinacy. For all that you might say against NMA, that is exactly what they are trying to do with Fallout and it's more effective than the silent withdrawal of cash. In this case, anyway.