Tale

Except, I'm not. Applied to gaming, we have Bethesda's Oblivion with it's Speechcraft system which utilizes facial body language to indicate worst/bad/good/best choices and VALVe's Half-Life 2 series of games where character personalities are more than transparent through body language (especially Alyx). Most people seem to think Speechcraft too easy in Oblivion. And it lends tons of credit. Then we have the studies. Ekman & Friesen (1972; 1984; 1994) have identified 6 emotions that are identifiable with facial expressions. These are transparent enough that they're recognizeable across cultures (Elfenbein & Ambady, 2002). I wish I could remember the name of another guy who has done studies on body language. The eye roll is another universal symbol. It stands for contempt. "It works" is no excuse for lack of examining alternate systems. Especially when there is a desire for change as shown in this thread. Games aren't all about function. If you look at the posts here, you see people interested in the form. Form which can be applied functionally. It adds to the characters, which is especially important for anyone who wants to consider "immersion." Do we need to get into a games as art debate, perhaps?

People are naturally incredibly adept at recognizing patterns and getting information from body language. And further, it's also an important part of game design to teach players. These two things actually work incredibly well in practice. Teaching how to recognize cues. Games teach their systems to the players all of the time. Natural systems are the easiest among them. You seem resistant to the idea because you think some people just won't recognize it. But, you have little basis for this beyond speculation. There's no way to tell if people will recognize it, be able to learn it, or at least a particular implementation of it without testing. To simply throw an idea something aside because you don't know if it'll work and you just assume it won't is silly. If anything, numbers are counterintuitive to players. They're worse feedback. A +6 is genuinely meaningless to someone who's not already familiar with it. They won't know there's meaning to it beyond "oh, I did something good!" The effects are completely unknown. A smile and a pat on the shoulder convey a lot more recognizable information to most people than +6. And if that smile exists in a later conversation, they understand permanence. If that smile changes, they'll recognize mutability.

Day 6: Still not arrived. Anyone have experience with USUK mail?

You speak as if the concept is foreign. When the idea of characters responding differently because of previous interactions, and their own moods as a result of these previous interactions, is quite natural. There's no reason people wouldn't understand the system except simply it not having been utilized significantly previously. In fact, quite a number of people constantly make jokes about a system such as has been described not existing. It's like knowing that you can look up and down in an FPS. It's not something that was always around, but that doesn't mean it's hard to grasp when it is implemented.

This announcement does not mention MMO. It's reasonable that it's KOTOR, but jumping to it being an MMO is senseless. They've had that up for longer than a few days, since 2006 if I recall correctly. http://www.bioware.com/bioware_info/press_...6_03_15_Austin/ What is new though, is the "new next gen game" item on their games list. Which is distinctly seperate on that list from the MMO.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. The question in regards to Lucasarts is if it is even an MMO AT ALL. Not what brand of MMO it is. This would only apply if you've seen or heard anything. You've seen nothing and the only thing you've heard is a rumor from a non-reputable source. If it looks like nothing and you heard it's a duck from a drunken hobo, it might be a duck, but it also might be a tubesock.

God willing!

http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=48210 http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showtopic=48249

I've bought it. I just have yet to receive it.

Get the 120.

Can you store porn on a 360?

Unless you're paying for it.

I looked at it a bit yesterday, seems to be primarily multiplayer focused. Can't say I'm too keen on that.

For the record: There's already a hollywood celebrity in the very video that Wals posted.

What's the purpose of this cull? Edit: Apparently it's a hunt. For food. Thought I'm also reading that there's a claim that it's to less competition for fish. Seems kind of reasonable. At least one species appears to be endangered in that area, but I'm curious as to the population numbers of the rest. I recently visited a Dolphinarium in Mexico. These animals are remarkably well trained. I'm surprised that we don't consider some populations to be domesticated.

What should I ask people for for Christmas? Uranium or a Chemistry Set? Of course, the set might be more useful. On the other hand, real men own Uranium. Just imagine going up to a chick in a bar and saying "hey babe, I own Uranium." You'd have to beat them off with a stick.

You speak that like it's fact. It's loose speculation based upon two things: 1) Bioware has an MMO studio. 2) They want to play a new MMO. Neither of which is decisive evidence. Neither of which makes the rumor significantly above baseless. I was talking about my own personal views. I would be very surprise if Bioware's MMO doesn't have monthly fees. If it doesn't, then good. What the heck does monthly fees have to do with it? I'm not talking about monthly fees. I'm saying this game, meaning the collaboration between Lucasarts and Bioware, is not necessarily an MMO.

You speak that like it's fact. It's loose speculation based upon two things: 1) Bioware has an MMO studio. 2) They want to play a new MMO. Neither of which is decisive evidence. Neither of which makes the rumor significantly above baseless.

Day 5: Still not arrived.

EVE Online does GM run events. Number of players becomes an issue in that game, sometimes, too.

I don't think the the mechanic is meant to be difficult to a remotely competent player. Just keep people from resting too often. There are plenty of undead, Telthors, and elementals, plus Okku and Suppression for good players. There's plenty of Telthors, elementals, and humanoids, plus an AoE devour for evil players. Heck, with the AoE devour, you can manage high craving pretty well if you only rest at full spirit energy. Once you get used to the system the only place I could see being hard would be the academy for a good character. And that's only conjecture.

Yes. All that would happen is that she'd send half her army all the way over to attack us, then just as they arrived Zara Yaqob would declare war on her and conquer her undefended territory, thus emerging as a major rival to ourselves. Let's not do that, eh? At which point his main cities would be undefended and we could take them! I see no flaws in my stratagem. Edit: Okay, okay. I doubt anyone will like my idea despite how perfect it is. BUT! I still don't trust Wals not to sell us out to Elizabeth. So, he still needs to prove himself! Perhaps he could try extortion and threats against England. He needn't declare war directly, but he should undermine them in some fashion to our benefit.

With SWG I was able to incite the hatred of player Jedi. I take full credit for it, even if it seems unreasonable and I have no evidence to back up my claim. I'm not sure how I would repeat that performance in a KotOR MMO...

Walsingham, as a sign of loyalty to the Empire, when it comes your turn you must declare war against... Britain.

Apparently HMV.co.uk is having 15% off this wednesday (today) and Thursday with a promo code. Too bad most the crap they sell won't work with the stuff I own.