Sand

Darth Darth Binx!

Even though I do disagree with parts of it and agree with parts of it, I did find it an interesting read. More interesting and reasonable that what is usually posted at the Codex.

How would you write it? If it were me, they made the decision to kill off Starbuck, right or wrong. If she is not a cylon then she is out of the story except for flashbacks. First off remember way back when she was on Caprica and the Cylons took one of her ovaries? Female egg cells and other tissue samples can be extracted from this in order to produce a clone or a Cylon. Now Starbuck may have died but that does not stop the Cylons, devious as they are, to make a simulacrum of Starbuck. A cylon model that has the physical appearance of Starbuck, and knowledge of what the Cylons could gleam from their intelligence reports on her behavior and mannerisms. This new "Starbuck" would be the replacement for the Number 3 model that they boxed. Starbuck would still be very much dead and gone, but the Cylons would have a "Starbuck" model to mess with the Colonials and specifically the Adamas.

Iraq is only costing us an arm and a leg because our President was an idiot and kept our forces in that country to help "rebuild." A whole lot of good that did. Costing billions and billions and what happens on his watch? The country goes down the toilet in civil war. While the invasion was wrong we should have bugged out after the job was done.

Hell, we couldn't even fight the Cowled Wizards or able to grab Imoen and run.

A teenager that is easily amused by explosions?!?!? QUICK! Get Jack!

The trial might be starting soon... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_...ish_seized_iran

How about putting the sailors on trial, then when they are found guilty, executed. Do you think that would be provocation enough?

In the original Battlestar Galactica Starbuck was killed and then came back. I was kind of expecting it. I know how I would write it up but I am currious what BSG crew will do with it.

So, in terms of cut scenes, good cut scenes are ones that are independent of the central player controlled character that gives background information and shows characterizations of NPCs and those which have a direct effect on the game world caused by the choices of the player controlled character. Examples would be the Black Garius cut scenes in NWN2 and the Vats in Fallout 1 blowing up. Bad cut scenes are those which take control away from the player even though he or she should have the ability to control the actions of his or her character, but can't because the designer wants to place a forced event to happen no matter what. Examples of that would be Darth Malak on the Leviathon and Imoen casting magic missile in the beginning of BG2. At least that is how I am getting the general gist of what people are saying here, and if so I agree.

If the HD DVD was built it, it would almost be worth it.

Its no more contrived than anything else on television right now. Besides, I was expecting them to bring Starbuck back. She was signed up for the TV movie and season 4. The actress is also working on the re-imagining of the Bionic Woman to boot.

Of course it would be a trick. Its what Cylons do. Here is the thing about Jason Todd: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd#Re..._from_the_Grave

That is assuming, again, that she actually died.

You do have a point there. The point of playing a CRPG is to actually be playing the CRPG. There are two things I hate about cutscenes 1) I view them as exposition, and exposition is annoying and breaks up the action of the story. If timed right it can be very effective but sorry to say this but not many games have the timing just right. 2) They often do not make use of the game engine and use Bink video or some other nonsense, thusly breaking up the action even more, especially if the video in question is in much lower quality in visual presentation than the rest of the game. Prime example of that was Jade Empire and KotOR2. That is one thing I liked about NWN2's cutscenes. Some were very appropriate and used the in game engine which I liked. Ideally there should be only two cutscenes in a CRPG. The starting cutscene that sets the tone of the game and the ending cutscene (which there should be multiples of depending on the story paths allowed). Everything in between, while still make use of dynamic cinematics, be in the control, at least control of his or her character, of the player.

That is assuming of course that she actually died which I do not believe she did.

I still didn't like it. As for your article itself, which I think it is structurally sound, it focuses on a false premise. In Wasteland and the Gold Box DnD games the player is often refered to "paragraphs" within the rule books. These paragraphs were well written to be sure but had zero interactivity even though within the game we could interact with in order to gain specific paragraphs. In my view these are no different than cutscenes. Both take control out of the player's hands and give us specified events. The only difference is that the cutscene is done so in a cinematic fashion while the paragraphs mimic that of a novel of short story. Both share the same function, but different in presentation.

Unless it wasn't meant to be a joke. This is all useless speculation anyway. I think we will just have to wait till the BSG tv movie to get any sort of answers.

No. Independents aside, today's market is whatever the publisher thinks will sell and orders from the developer, not what the developer decides to make. That is the reality, with very few exceptions. Oblivion is a sandbox action game with very little CRPG aspects in it. At best it is a simplified Action CRPG with a large area, though repetitive, to explore in. I rather play NWN1 than play Oblivion.

Well, if Joss is on board with this then all is good.

Just go back to "Consoles bad. Trees pretty."

Why? It was perfectly plausible, given the scope of BSG story line, that Starbuck is still alive. Also, who says that it is the real Starbuck? Cylons could have easily done cosmetic surgery on a six to look like Starbuck and the whole being to Earth a lie, yet another falsehood from the Cylons, which they are getting good at mind you.

The question, fi I read RP's essay right, is that he claims there is little role playing in role playing games nowadays. That computer role playing games today are more focused on telling a story in linear form with a moderate level of interaction where computer role playing games in the "good ol' days" allowed more freedom. With few exceptions majority of the CRPGs from the good ol' days were hack and slash titles with very little interactivity. More akin to Diablo and the Gold Box games than Fallout and Planescape Torment. I think that RP has a pair of very thick rose colored glasses on based on his arguments, and when you are trying to make a solid critique of a subject matter the rose colored glasses need to come off. The level of interaction between the game and the player has not overly changed in the past decade, but the type of interaction has. From being told what is going on with text, we are now shown through cinematics and voice. The level has interaction has not changed at all. Just the style in which it is presented.

Depends on how quickly the Cylon ship picked her up.