Tale

I thought RoE was pure fanservice. Not fanservice like upskirt shots and lots of cleavage, but fanservice in they simply put in a load of stuff that players asked for. Old beta models, double barrelled shotgun, a gravity gun ripoff, more time in hell, more boss battles, bullet time, etc. Also, I finally finished Condemned. Great game, though the story did take a dive. The overall setting had me expecting some sort of crime mystery, but it ended up just being supernatural horror. I might finish No One Lives Forever 2 next. Or FF IV. Maybe I'll finish Shadow Hearts. Or get around to my next replay of Xeno-mofracking-gears.

Any hot Tiefling chicks with scottish accents?

The bugs obviously decided to call in backup.

Did we even consider the possibility of exporting cute cartoon characters as an alternative? I know hindsight is 20/20, but I'm pretty sure it would have worked. This is Japan we're talking about here.

I don't see what's there's to be torn over. I'd probably go for the male it-consultant before I went for the furry.

Get a gigantic bong and fill it with the most noxious substance you can find. Then invite people over for parties.

Fire ants would work.

People must say that explicitly to make fun of that movie. I saw 3 different people say that, seriously, in another thread on another forum. The silliness of it, to me, is that the distance between planets alone, even within our own solar system, is enough to qualify it for an awful lot of wasted space. What movie Contact

I thought I made that clear. That would fall under unsound perception. I even referenced one such of your examples. Unsound perception can mitigate the morality of the perpetrator, but does not alter the weight of the act.

No, thats not what Im saying at all. What Im saying is that the influence system inadvertently encourages players to metagame. Just like the example Tale brough up where you're encouraged to metagame in Kotor and JE in order to get enough 'good' or 'evil' points to get a bonus. IMO, a system that encourages metagaming is a faulty system. Especially in a game where you are supposed to be immersed into the story/setting, because metagaming draws you out into reality where it's Kaftan playing a computer game, not Bertil the Barbarian saving a dragon in distress. However, all systems encourage metagaming that offer multiple choices. So, as I said before you can not loft the fault upon the system. It's a feature inherent in choice.

They are certainly not equivalent - but they are both cruel murders. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is, after all, "just" a father on his way back from war practice. I don't know what reasoning these killers might have but I know their reasons will make sense to them but likely not to me. The one who kills the general might imagine that he is cutting off the head of a hostle snake. The other who kills the civilian mother might imagine that he is weakening the support provided by the feet of a huge hostle giant. In both cases the killers minimize the positive value of the regular life of their target and focus on other "values". In the case of suicide attacks the killer even minimizes the value of their own life. Sometimes people kill only themselves - like the monks who burned themselves in protest during the Vietnam war. Crazy. You are muddying the difference between perception and reality. The killing of an individual is not exclusively weighed by the unqualified perception of the killer. The soundness of that perception, and the subjective morality of that perception are both factors to be considered. A man who shoots another man to prevent him from viciously murdering and raping another should not be looked at in the same way as one man who shoots another man because he thinks he has the right to because of his race. One is doing something to save other's lives and if indeed the situation is as he percieves, both the perception is sound and the morality of saving lives is found to alter the weight of a killing. The other is killing because of a faulty perception of other races as animals or otherwise immoral racist belief. This is an example of unsound perception. It may mitigate the moral judgement upon the killer, but it does not have the same effect of weight upon the killing that a sound and moral perception would have.

If cheat codes were still proliferating as they once were, I'd have beaten Condemned: Criminal Origins long ago. I hate being so ridiculously tense all the time and often cheat my way through scary games. I cheated through: Resident Evil Resident Evil 2 Doom 3 (but, I blame this on Doom 3 being too long) Resident Evil Remake (using the infinite grenade glitch) I have not cheated through: Resident Evil 3 (they started adding action elements) Resident Evil Code Veronica (You could kill anything with just the knife) Resident Evil 4 (almost full action game at this point) Silent Hill 1-4 (and have never gotten even halfway through one) Eternal Darkness (and have not beaten) Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth (and have not beaten) Condemned: Criminal Origins (almost have beaten!) FEAR (action game, barely scary when you understand it) What I'm pointing out here is that, for me, cheat codes help ensure I can finish a game, experiencing the story and mechanics (even if muted mechanics). It's becoming common knowledge in gaming that relatively few players seem to complete any individual game. I think encouraging cheat codes to be included can result in more players being able to finish. I think that the more players that finish, and the more the developers can trust the players to finish, the more effort they'll be willing to put into the end game. This is a train of logic I like to follow for "cheat codes = good ending."

Radical feminists will have a field day. http://kotaku.com/gaming/instruct-them/ubi...lace-287100.php

Fable! post>

So, this basically goes to a larger issue not exclusive to the influence companion system. Limited access content, content that has qualifiers, often used to encourage multiple replays or display multiple choices vs open access content, which is accessible to everyone regardless of any other actions. I don't think giving roleplaying options that can be metagamed through is counterproductive to roleplaying. You can't pigeonhole someone into roleplaying. You don't encourage roleplaying by eliminating cause and effect, by turning all choices into the same one with different letters. This same thing also applies to Jade Empire and KOTOR as well as NWN2. In Kotor, for example, you are encouraged to metagame character responses for light/dark side mastery buffs. Jade Empire encourages metagaming responses for a similar purpose of obtaining new Open Palm/Closed Fist moves.

Because people choose to be influenced by their environment. Or y'know... not.

People must say that explicitly to make fun of that movie. I saw 3 different people say that, seriously, in another thread on another forum. The silliness of it, to me, is that the distance between planets alone, even within our own solar system, is enough to qualify it for an awful lot of wasted space.

Johnny 5 is alive!

The only aliens I believe in impregnate a living host with their young and have concentrated acid for blood. And believe me, you don't want those to visit Earth.