algroth

So, I'm not a lawyer nor am I wholly familiar with the American take on copyright laws (every country has its differences in this regard and whilst I did study some film legislation in uni, I did so based off of Argentina's laws regarding author's rights, which is closer to the French "droit d'auteur" than it is to the copyright law of the US), so I may be wrong here and would gladly stand corrected by any other user, but anyhow... To my understanding, the rights to D&D involve the game world(s), the ruleset, the characters, the stories that were written or made as part of the franchise, and the series that comprise the overall franchise as well. An Icewind Dale game couldn't be done by a company without the license to D&D not least because Icewind Dale is itself a region of one of these game worlds, and property of WotC. Pillars of Eternity is not D&D, even if it does resemble Forgotten Realms in some fashion or other (then again, plenty of standard historical fantasy settings do, and more to the point, this one in particular used the Forgotten Realms games as a template) - you'll see races, creatures and classes that may resemble or even share a common name with the Forgotten Realms equivalents, but the rules, the lore, the specifics to each are all entirely different, it's just its own thing. You can probably do something different but similar so long as you mix things up enough so that it's no longer D&D. That's pretty much the case of Pillars of Eternity, or the likes of Dragon Age and other similar titles for that matter. As to what the cut-off line is, I can't say for sure. But, you know, when you do all this you won't get to an Icewind Dale 3 even if the end result could kinda work that way. I mean, if you can gather 15-20 people to work on Unity and assemble a demo-build for Icewind Dale 3 you can go ahead and do so, but you'll only be able to release the game if you get the rights to D&D and it's up to Obsidian to say whether they are interested in the idea or not. I think you are also perhaps making the mistake here of taking D&D as a style of game more so than a brand, and it's very much the latter. You can by all means make a game in the style of D&D without it being D&D, which is what they did for the likes of Pillars of Eternity or even Tyranny, but these aren't D&D while Icewind Dale is. Chances are that if you have an idea for an Icewind Dale 3 and the manpower and resources to develop a demo-build for that idea, you'd have a better time selling the project by turning it into its own thing independent of the brand or saga, as then you won't require the additional step of getting the rights to the property you're basing yourself off. So... I think you're counting on there having been an Icewind Dale 3 in development or conception at some point or another, but even the latter seems dubious. Again, my history on this may be wrong, but based on the interviews I've seen to Josh Sawyer and Feargus Urquhart for example, I get the impression that the Icewind Dale "saga" came about in a rather accidental or opportunistic fashion, and wasn't planned as such in any real way: the first game was essentially Black Isle taking advantage of the momentum caused by Baldur's Gate's success, and make something in a similar style with the resources and properties they had available to them; Feargus came up with the idea of using of the engine and their access to the D&D brand to make a classic dungeon-crawler, and that is how Icewind Dale came to be at the end of the day. Icewind Dale 2, on the other hand, came about in a much more haphazard and rushed fashion, it followed the cancellation of the Torn project and was the result of Black Isle scrambling to get a game together very quickly - thus I don't think it was a "planned" sequel more so than a necessity of the time. With this in mind, and Black Isle's subsequent closure, I doubt there was ever any real proposition for a third part, or even really much of a plan for a *saga* or franchise as such. So, with all this in mind I doubt you'll find much of anything involving an Icewind Dale 3 beyond fan ideas and speculation and so on. Sorry.

Eder: ... Aloth: ... Eder: ... Aloth: ... Dragon: ... FIGHT! All of the above should be replaced with [glares silently.]

I have the box before me right now, and it is not at all like the above. On the contrary, the editor is mentioned twice, firstly as an additional point to the opening pitch, and then as one of the many bullet points involving features. The summary centers on the *storyline* above all else, which occupies the larger bulk of the game's summary, and proceeds in its bullet points to mention, yet again, a 60-hour single-player campaign, 3rd Ed. D&D ruleset, 3D graphics, and so on. The editor is one of several features. This is my case, it is also the original release opposed to any future release which could have made more focus on the editor tool since it's really the best and still most relevant aspect about it: So yes, I do believe the case. The editor isn't the only thing, or even the main thing, it is selling to me. And for the record, I never compared it to Planescape: Torment or expected such a thing of it. I know *that* in particular is not what the game is aiming at, but what it is aiming for (the campaign side of it, at least), which is perhaps closer to Icewind Dale for example in terms of it being a fairly linear dungeon-crawling epic, it does fail at.

Yeah, it's a non-scandal really, not least considering how issuetainment and socially aware commercial campaigns have increasingly become a thing in the last two decades or more. To me that advert just reflects a very wrong aspect that has been there for a while more so than being something new and shocking all of its own.

I came across that image before in this video:

Actually, to my understanding Louisville and Chicago are only a 4.5-hour drive apart, and given that the flight was delayed for two hours following this incident, there's a good chance that getting a cab for the employees or even *offering* one to any takers in the plane would have possibly been quicker in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV28_ENzFog

The the best of my awareness there is no Icewind Dale 3, at least by Obsidian. I believe they've lost the rights to D&D a while ago and so I wouldn't expect any D&D game to come from them soon. The new Black Isle, such as it exists right now, has nothing to do with Obsidian, and failed in its original Kickstarter to even gather the money for its forum (or so I understand, anyhow). There's the occasional post on their Facebook page but they are few and far between and there's very little evidence to indicate there is any legitimate intention on Interplay's behalf to revive the studio (even in brand only). Also you shouldn't expect developers to answer in these forums, some lurk about but they don't really engage too much with the community via these means. For #4 I would suggest looking at some videos on Obsidian's YouTube and some of the posts on their Fig campaign for Deadfire, in those you'll find some reference to the production and so on.

Sorry, but no. The equivalent to the keyboard would be the engine, in this case Aurora, or even the computer itself, not the end result which is by all means comparable to music. In music too, some pieces have different purposes than others, études for example acting largely as practice material, but it doesn't make them any less subject to review as musical pieces. If Neverwinter Nights ought to have been all about the editor, and existed as a tool opposite to a game, it should have been all about the editor: that is simply not the case, however, and it is still a *game*. As such, it is not a mistake to evaluate it for its campaign, which is by all means dire, if the editor is nevertheless a part of the whole and can be looked at as well.

Jesus, it's like they've told you the whole movie. Looks interesting though.

Well, the only time I remember it coming up in my playthroughs was when talking with Eb, if I recall correctly. I can recall it coming to effect on a subquest involving a woman that owned Lethian's Crossing's lands, but I don't remember this being explained with much detail there, more like "she's the only daughter remaining of this bloodline, hence she inherited all this land that I want for me". Regardless the problem in both cases, I think, has a bit to do with one of my personal overarching criticisms with the game, which is that it paints the world and experience in pretty broad strokes and seems pretty lacking on plenty of the finer details regarding interactions, lore, certain options and resolutions and the likes. To me the case you mention above is something akin to the lack of recognition a priest of Eothas got for worshipping Eothas in Pillars: it's just the exception to the rule that would have required its own dialogue trees to account for your character's background and wasn't given them. With this in mind and considering the fact that depending on which faction/storyline you follow, any of the four regions may appear as first for you, I reckon the chance of each of these encounters being the first time the player could come across this bit of world lore is what made the devs be more expositional in each case, more so than wanting to lecture the player on feminism. I mean, to this regard of repetition I felt it a lot more tedious to hear the Disfavoured and Chorus members repeating ad nauseam their thoughts on each other, or the Tiers for that matter.

True, I perhaps misunderstood and assumed this applied to all of the Known World and not just the Tiers. Though, echoing my initial thoughts and the game's argument, if this is a more universal split then it also makes sense that a woman should lead the defense and a man should lead the conquest. All the same the above seems to apply more to titles of property than specifically of power, as several of the leaders outside the Vendrien Guard are also male (e.g. Stalwart, the Unbroken, the Bronze Brotherhood, Halfgate... Lethian's Crossing is an intriguing example because the "mayor" or elder of the town is male but the one to own the lands is female, for example). Generally, though, I think the "gender politics" are pretty well-justified and sensible in this case, so as to not present an issue of pandering to feminism and whatnot.

I would agree on other titles but I do think that the way they justify this in Tyranny is pretty solidly done (i.e. men rule the seas, women the lands, due to one's interest for conquest, exploration and expansion and the other's maternal instincts anchoring them to the "nest" so to speak). I think the line of thought here is more practical than simply "wimin are strong", and probably explains why, despite what seems like a matriarchal society, the military/conquest branches are run by men (Nerat, Ashe, Tunon).

Great trailer! Cate Noirette? I'll have some of that, yes please.

ROBUST stuff, of course!

I would agree with Katarack about this, but having said that I also think the conditions are there to deliver another such "fluke". But yes, to expect it will reach that level of greatness is probably a mistake.

Personally I found Pillars much bigger than Baldur's Gate II, with expansions especially. That is not a dig at the latter, mind, I still think it's a better game overall, but I'm not too worried with the size, and as much as I like my RPGs to be sprawly and ambitious there does come a point when they may burn one out, regardless of how good they are.

The Bags of Holding were awesome back in the day because they helped reduce the incredibly frustrating mechanic of inventory management. I think making the inventory unlimited was a good move, and it doesn't really break my immersion since I can always accept it as a gameplay convention. The reason to why is because I imagine a lot of us are the obsessive types who would have likely picked up EVERY LAST PIECE OF EQUIPMENT until their bags were full, and proceeded then to sell everything at the nearest merchant before venturing into the dungeon once again: in the end it's less a challenge than a grievance that is tediously but easily bypassed by backtracking. I think the best solution to the above, which is already being applied into Deadfire, is to not have every xaurip drop a spear when killed. In a way, randomized enemy drops makes it harder to properly gauge how much money one could make by the end of the game, but it also keeps that final number more in check opposite to having *every* creature of a kind drop the same loot. I like the idea of being able to invest on certain companies and the likes, but my one issue here is how it is applied: I think that the more "automatic" gold collection becomes, the less meaningful it is, and by this I mean, if all you have to do to see a steady trickle of gold is to buy some stock here or there, then you'll get to the point eventually where just buying time will get you the gold you need, and don't need. Now, if these are tied to a more meaningful and complete game mechanic, by say, being able to have a say on how the business is run in each company you invest in, then maybe the income can become meaningful once more, and you may even experience losses if you handle the businesses poorly.

I feel like I'm missing some sort of reference here? :D What website gives you access to many many stores and shops?

Rewatched some films the last couple of days... Don't Look Now - I still have trouble getting into Nicolas Roeg's schizophrenic sense of pacing, but it does aid this film really well in generating an eerie and tense mood. The chase sequence at the end of the film is some truly wonderful stuff. Demolition Man - Here's a film I wouldn't mind seeing a remake of, seeing that it's a topic so applicable to the present day and which is really in the end a good premise very poorly executed. The film too readily opts into favouring the Stallone action vehicle side of things over the satire, and the film suffers heavily for it. It could have been much smarter and acerbic than it is, but it as it is it only "has its moments". Blade - One Wesley Snipes movie led to the other. I really enjoy this despite the fact that it has clearly aged poorly: the CGI is horrendous even for its time, and 90s fashion in general just seems dorky in today's context. Despite that, there are some interesting ideas and clever moments, the action setpieces are nicely shot and choreographed, and overall it's a film that doesn't bog itself down with unnecessary set-up or franchise teasing (even as the film does indicate to there being a greater world and overarching conflict out there), it just feels like it limits itself to telling a good two-hour story and works well just as that. There are some people who view this film as the start of the comic book movie craze but I think it's quite distinct and formally different to the genre as we've known it since X-Men to say it was something of a curious precursor but less so than it might have been for the bullet-dodging trenchcoat-wearing martial arts movies that would follow. Arrival - Spoke about this before, it's just brilliant and still likely my favorite film of last year. I like how it echoes the conflict of understanding time in Western culture and certain Eastern ones, whereby one understands time linearly and the other cyclically. Very interesting stuff, very moving, and it's criminal that neither Amy Adams nor Johann Johannsson were nominated at this year's Oscars.

It's a zero sum game because if the item on the merchant isn't the relative *best* item of that type for that part of the game, it won't get bought, and if it is and gold is plentiful, it will be. Why would you buy incredibly expensive items if you can get a better one from somewhere else? This is where the limited gold comes in handy; you can't simply buy all the best stuff, you need to make choices on which items you buy and which slots you'll depend on drops to fill. So: there are only so many inventory slots to fill, and the ones you can fill with drops, you won't fill with vendor items, and the ones you fill with vendor items will prevent you from fully enjoying their weaker drop-based counterparts. Hence, a zero sum game between vendors and drops. The point is, gold becoming so abundant that you'll be able to afford everything isn't something that just happens automatically. Dragon Age Origins for example had a very limited supply of gold and you would never be able to get everything you wanted, considering that there were those 'mandatory' skill and stat books and back-bag extensions that already devoured a huge chunk of your treasure. Unless you exploited that double-sell glitch of course. That glitch was way too easy to do for my liking, and I found myself struggling not to use it on every single play-through. The thing is that item quality isn't necessarily a linear scale, more so than a pyramid of tiers: many items offer different abilities which may or may not seem better to the player according to the use and strategy they give to these weapons, as well as their own preferences. Yes, there may be the occasional Carsomyr or Celestial Fury that is simply better than any other weapon of its kind available, but then which is a better set of armour, Shuruppak's Plate, Red Dragon Plate, or maybe just the Firecam Full-Plate Armour? Those are some Baldur's Gate II comparisons, but Pillars of Eternity has also made it so that it is easier and more convenient to carry several different types of weapon as primary, secondary or terciary sets, since not only do weapon use bonuses apply to a gamma of weapons instead of a certain specific kind, but with weapon-type resistances (which, granted, were a thing in both games) it is also strategically convenient that you should keep sets of different weapons that are of similar quality as well. In the end, it's true that there are so many slots to fill, but this doesn't imply a zero-sum game if nothing else because how to fill them up may differ wildly from player to player. What's more, if one side or the other is entirely underwhelming, then there is definitely a loss: why explore, why sell things at all or accept to do things for money? Items sold by merchants are only easy to acquire inasmuch as the gold necessary to purchase them is easy to gather, but it doesn't need to be. You put forward the example of Dragon Age: Origins - that right there is an example on how both aspects can be strong and rewarding all of their own. If these unique and really good items are truly expensive, then they will be a challenge all of their own to acquire. Maybe they can be a little cheaper than Dragon Age, but all the same they would require work to purchase, and act therefore as another incentive for questing. I see both aspects as being enhanced here, not one or the other.

George Bellows

Georges de la Tour

Faustino Bocchi

Rosie Hamlin RIP