alanschu

Sorry babaganoosh, but I doubt the lack of capital letters affects anything haha. I don't think I played any game by the name of Dark Sun.

Can't this work equally for all games? I know that this doesn't work for me. I can understand that. There's evidently some differences here in our expectations and interpretation. I'm typically of the mind that the PnP experience is best left to PnP, because of the inherent restrictions that get placed. For me, the closest analogy is that the game designer is effectively the DM for the game, but must come up with the entire campaign and all of its potential tangents before even presenting the campaign to the player. Hence, I see a game like Torment as one where the game designer has afforded us a wide range of choice (and even consequences), but in the end we can only meaningfully choose the choices that the game designer provides for us. Very, very rarely are we able to choose our own path, and while deleting the saved game might still be satisfying for you (You should check out a chap here that came from the BSN, Sylvius the Mad, as he seems to be an RPer much like yourself and you'd probably get along with him), it certainly wouldn't for me... though in exchange I'm much more okay with accepting that I likely don't have full control over my character in a video game; I only have access to that which the game allows me to do. I feel this applies to most RPGs barring sandbox games, and as you say, even sandbox games struggle with the consequences. It's a large part of the scale with CRPGs. Branching factor becomes unwieldly, and the more choices you have the more difficult it is to have meaningful consequences represented. Anyways, in this case I think the difference in how we see the games is pretty established at this point. It's great that you can see PST as a game that is as open as you feel it is.

Given that I am not familiar with the name....

Precisely, and Fallout is a game that awards the player a huge degree of freedom. No choice that I make in Planescape: Torment is a choice that the game designers didn't allow me to make.

So how do you reconcile wanting to do something, but the game developer not accounting for it? For instance, how do you reconcile Kreia in KOTOR 2, yet still adhere to your definition? The game prevents you from giving your character the motivation of "I want her off my ship" or rather, performing that motivation. Is it just a case where, in the case of Obsidian's games, they happen to have allowed you to play your characters in the way that you want? (This is still effective. The original Deus Ex had good enough writing that, by the time the player had to choose between UNATCO and the NSF, most wanted to say "Eff UNATCO." So that the choice was merely an illusion is inconsequential to most people... they still feel like the game is granting them a choice.) I agree that the story is more than just dialogue choices. Still, by your description, it'd sound like you'd consider an Elder Scrolls game to be superior to Planescape: Torment, since Torment has a pretty defined narrative, whereas Bethesda's games do not. (It's fine if you prefer them, I'm just trying to understand your perspective, because I consider Torment's strength to be it's fantastic writing, because through the fantastic writing I am able to empathize with the characters, even if my TNO does not). At least with Planescape: Torment you have amnesia (or rather, a whole new persona), but in other games like KOTOR 2, you have a defined history that you cannot ignore. Your character MUST have followed Revan to Malachor. You can spin reasons within the context of the game as a form of justification, but that's just rationalizing the decision. It's allowing you to place your influence on the character, but in the end there's nothing the player can do about the fact that you traveled to Malachor V.

Haha, again it's a human element (and I agree). "Why should it matter if you hide the names? Are you implying I can't be impartial!? :@:@:@:@" And I've seen the name expectation occur, although as an anecdote. I remember a B student submitted an essay for an elective in Grade 8. She got about a 70. An A student (the top student in the class actually), literally copied the essay and submitted it the following year, and was given a 90. That's not to say that the teacher went "Oh look, it's this person. Well, I should give her a high mark." I wouldn't at all, however, be surprised that a statement that is more ambiguous could be better interpreted if the marker has an expectation that the student is keen, as opposed to poor.

I enjoyed Cracked's response to this. http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/a-30-second-guide-to-how-gay-marriage-ruling-affects-you/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

Agreed.

Which one would that be? In PST, you can decide what the story of TNO is. In KOTOR 2, you can decide what the story of The Exile is. In NWN2, you can decide what the story of the Spirit-Eater is. In FONV, you can decide what the Couriers story is. The way I see it, all of the games he has worked on that are hailed as "RPG Gold" do that. How do you define "what the story of the character is" because for each of your examples I see "You're allowed to make the decisions that the game allows you to make." Decide to say "Eff this, I don't care about tracking down my past" in Planescape: Torment, and you get an absolute shell of a game that requires you to miss out on a ton of the content. Decide that you hate Kreia and want nothing to do with her in KOTOR 2, and you literally can't. She comes with you, and there's nothing you can do about that. You must go to Malachor. You must visit the planets before hand. You can't decide to visit Coruscant, or Naboo. You are inherently restricted by what the game allows you to do. Fallout New Vegas is a game that grants much, MUCH more freedom for what the player may want to do, and due to the open world nature of the game, you are certainly free to neglect the primary plot of the game and still accomplish a lot of things. I wouldn't consider this to necessarily be the strength of the game, however. The strength was a great merging of open-world gameplay yet still having a strong narrative that allows for player choice.

Fair enough. In that case, however, it's still no different than had the name been shared (i.e. it's not a detriment by hiding the name). The place where I would (logically infer - i.e. I may be wrong) that there'd be benefits would be for reviews done for newer people in the field. Or in the event where one person got lambasted for something (justly), but has since made some good findings. Are there any overt negatives for hiding the name?

Ironically I would consider his best RPG to be the one where he doesn't do that.

Or just start annoying the right people! >.>

Didn't go through the whole thread, but anti-water voodoo! http://techland.time.com/2013/06/24/neverwet-what-kind-of-strange-sick-and-wonderful-water-repelling-voodoo-is-this/

Was it a legal thing, or a public opinion thing?

I got that vibe too. Based on the article, he only reinforced that reviewers should be anonymous. Though it was also a good point that there's really no reason for the submitter to have his or her name shared either. I mean, some here judged the original article based on where it was originally submitted. Peer review, like anything with a human element, is not going to be immune to human corruption. I do not think that unmitigated submissions would be ideal, however. Since peer review is a human endeavor, however, I think it does lead into the idea of the original article of enabling rationalization. Since the peer review process is innately fallible, it now becomes possible to be dismissive of evidence based on a general belief that the system is corrupt. Though, myself included, our confirmation bias has us less concerned about the system when we agree with the findings.

Nah, has to be the Predator handshake. Much better than a brofist. I would buy the game just for that. I literally just told a cindesigner that he needs to make this happen.

I really think how MoMX does will probably be the real test case; the Kickstarters - while successful - by their funding nature might make it an attractive but unsure area to dabble in. If MoMX does boffo, I think that added with the Kickstarter success, then yeah I could see more publishers looking at smaller budget but strong-selling niche games. The thing that most excited me about Kickstarters is that it'll serve (hopefully) as a point that "forgotten game styles" are still quite viable. I'm still trying to figure out who I need to plead to to make another X-Wing/TIE Fighter game!

I actually prefer the squad respawn points to just the squad leader. I found if I was squad leader, it made me too passive (and not really "leading the squad") in BF2.

That's us, not Aussie. There's a documentary on the subject called 'Black Sheep'. Australia may have an R18 classification now but it seems to be pretty much exactly the same practically as the old MA15- and due to the way most distribution is handled we get saddled with their classification or lack of it as well. Great documentary!

Broken Age was mismanaged?

Thanks for affirming the thesis of the paper! (I wish I had actually written down my prediction of your response, in retrospect) Reading your link: Can you think of any good reason why it may be advantageous to not pay reviewers, and for them to be anonymous? EDIT: Why would it matter what someone's sense of humor is like, like the author supposes?

For me, it's not about listening quality; it's about using a lossless data container. While I may not be able to hear the difference, I can definitely see it when examining the raw frequencies, (which, by the way, would easily show which of yours were upscaled and which ones weren't). I just don't...listen to music in lossy containers, (such as .mp3). Not entirely sure why. Probably an OCD thing. Doesn't really matter on the actual game for me, but having true .flacs SOMEWHERE, I think, is a necessity. Also, .ogg vorbis is superior and free, so if we're using a lossy format, we should probably use that instead of .mp3 garbage. Is it necessary to watch your audio?

Sword of the Stars 2

I agree, well grounded. I find articles like this more interesting for my own introspection. Being cognizant of it. I'm less inclined for some of the more preachy aspects (yes, studies can be wrong). It reminds me a lot of this Cracked article (posted this one before), especially point #1: http://www.cracked.com/article_19468_5-logical-fallacies-that-make-you-wrong-more-than-you-think.html People *really* hate to be wrong, and I know I have been like this as well. The the point where I am pretty sure I have argued "black is white."

It really made me appreciate Chuck Daly as a coach. Sounds like he did some savvy things, especially in the games against the college stars.