Wombat

Thanks, funcroc.

I guess it's a part of the package for "ideal candidates." (Bold is mine) I didn't know Annie had balls to be punched...Brian must have been surprised. When I heard about ZRPG, I suspected Brian may be suffering aftereffects by writing too much Malakvian dialogues but I hope Annie is right...not about her marriage but about ZRPG. I wonder if there is a possibility that they (including Iron Tower) will release the games for portables.

Since, despite the multiple paths, the main game-play of FO series are, like other many games, still combat. So, probably, "War never changes" sounded just catchy but I felt Sawyer seems to go further in FO:NV. I know discussions over themes are by far more unpopular compared with those of game-plays but, without a certain themes, choices and consequences end up with just causes and results which lack any humanity behind them. For interactive story-weaving, I'd like to see some solid themes, too. A theme like good and evil is way overdone and I'd like to seem more various themes which we can relate with ourselves, to explore possible simulation/story/character developments in role-playing games. After all, quite many people agree that there should be "meaningful" choices rather than just Pepsi or Cola ones. PS Related with this, if karma works to realize the "you can intend to do good or evil but you cannot change the humanity" feel in FO, it would be quite faithful to the spirit.

And that's where the reputation system and hard core mode play together with the theme...I guess... Inviting the players to the designer's "home ground" seems to be paralleled with Bioshock.

However, war has come back again, as the core theme in FO:NV, where the Civil War is going to be repeated in a style Einstein mentioned (if bit parodically... ).

Yea...the match being full of violence was just the result. As a spiritual successor of Cruyff's football philosophy, Spain was successful in pressuring Netherlands by taking control in the middle of the fields. Netherlands felt keeping Spaniards free in the mid field is dangerous and began to try to take control there. Hence the result: They started mass karate match, stopping playing football and mass-producing yellow cards. However, cards seem to have worked as they are supposed to, suppressing these violent "physical contacts" . So, after all, Spain managed to go through to the victory by sticking to their principle. Of course, that goal kick should have been a corner kick but, IMO, that jumping kick also deserved a red card. All in all, I guess, against the tricky official ball and defense heavy tactics, WC 2010 turned out to be the victory of Paul the Octopus the "modern" possession football after these 36 years.

If FO3 had many more dialogues, that's all right for me and probably Obsidian, too. For reduced dialogue would definitely damage the forte of Obsidian. Tim Cain is one of the designers who found their places in a small studio of good old times but I'd like Obsidian to stay. Here is the latest of the series of the interviews to Deus Ex designers, where Colantonio and Smith talk about Immersive Sim. There are some interesting discussions. (BTW, quite many designers and some reviewers who catch my interest unanimously mention that Ultima Underground could have changed the history of the video game). Related with keeping old fans and cultivating new players(, which Troika was not so good at, unfortunately...)

Yea..., since we can put hours and hours of music in portables with compressed formats (Mostly MP3 but, for games, do they use ogg?), it sounds...er...cattle excrement. Then again, Gamebryo is Beth's engine. So, why should he tell a lie which must be transparent to those who are familiar with it?

I'm not a techie but I think there would be both. At Sammael's "the Black Hound" (also known as Jefferson) site, you can see the prototype of reputation system*. Like influence system, it's basically numerical tracking system but, probably, the designers will also include flag-based conversation tracking time to time. For generally speaking, the numerical tracking system is suitable for free roaming world since it doesn't require the players to deal with the NPCs in a certain orders while flags are suitable for more specific conversations. *However, since Jefferson's reputation system was a prototype, it had a serious issue: it had too many factors that the content couldn't be filled although I guess Obsidian must be more experienced with it and probably made it more "resource-friendly" by now. Two main factions sound quite reasonable. BTW, talking of limited resource, in an interview at RPS, Pagliarulo mentioned the limitation of consoles.

They know what kind of information should be given to a site like Gamebanshee. Talking of lore...in-world writings to make the world feel deeper without forcing every single player to read it is one of the aspects what I liked the designers to keep. In Bethesda's case, they seem to have began to spend less time on them since Oblivion. Also, Obsidian seem to have polished play-ability. I guess they did a good job in homework area. As long as the majority won't be put off from the graphics, hopefully, they will be happy with the improved game-play.

I hope it didn't come from my posts since, if so, you must have read into them with your own framing. What I was saying is, simply, that BG/IWD series allowed the players to involve in the game-play in different levels depending on their preferences. I wonder if there is an option where the players can have a control on the whole party instead of each character like in BG/IWD series and DA for these manager type players than more action-focused ones. Of course, according to the information revealed so far, DSIII seems to be more-action focused and require constant input from the players but, is it possible for the players to control multiple characters while reducing the depth of input for each character, making it play like BG/IWD series, putting more focus on special ability usages (the alternative for the spells) and deployments? There must be balance/controller issues and, I, myself, think this option is very unlikely although it sounds interesting on paper. I'm simply curious. We still don't know how exactly the multi-player functions, which leads to quite many questions/possibilities. Even for the drop-in/out MP, how good NPCs' AI should be? If AI is "too" good, then, doesn't make the contribution from human players less important? Didn't the same discussion happen to even Baldur's Gate? Isn't the effect multiplied in a game where the players are supposed to be controlling fewer characters such as AI 3: Human player1? These are flows of my thought when I was writing my previous posts here. I admit that the Infinity Engine-ish gameplay option is crazy, though.

We are not talking of preventing the player(s) from putting any input in DSIII. DS III requires some imput...but the OP is asking if there is an option of letting AI does our tasks. Since there is drop in/out system for NPCs, the option may be available to PC, assuming the player for the PC is also a human being who can be called by nature or some other daily activities. Then, if everybody were able to drop out, then, wouldn't it leave the game to All AI, would it? If someone wants to watch it, why do you need to prevent him/her from doing that especially when you don't need to drop out by yourself? Even if there is such option, it doesn't mean it robs game-play of you. You will still be able to play the game in your own way. Yes, in (A)D&D system, magic plays a great role. I don't know how it works in Dungeon Siege 1/2 and Dragon Age, though. However, I've gotten an impression that, in DSIII, the players don't need to shift among characters even if they are allowed to do so. If the AI is made like that, it is possible that the same AI is applied to PC and I cannot come up with any reason to go against that possible additional option since it seems to be a simple extension of the existing function (I'm not a programmer, so correct me if I'm wrong, though). Again, all of these are just hypothetical and we need the devs to decide about it. Personally, I don't mind either way especially since "all AI mode" would be optional.

You enjoy games that play themselves? May I ask why? Doesn't that defeat the point of a game? Sawyer may agree with you. However, haven't heard of the ancient argument that Infinity Engine plays itself? I'm a kind of real-time with pause or pseudo turn-based player, myself. However, there are those who seem to be fond of playing IE games like a sport manager game. They find fun in building a team (party), choosing equipments for while not bothering with further micro-management at all. The Baldur's Gate's spiritual successor

Through the courtesy of DAC Pale Justice with some humorous twists? This reminded me of something Avellone wrote like "Sawyer relies on the power of religion in his writings". IMHO, his writings often play as modest small episodes or for ambiances. Indeed, they cannot play in the center of the main story but, this is probably the best usage. It's like coming across a small and simple chapel in a small village without expectation rather than visiting a world-famous cathedral.

Swiss defeated Spain in that way. I wonder it can be called catenaccio but too many teams tried to copy that defense tactics. Honestly, I'm bit surprised to see the final is between possession football teams.

Please read this thread, there are many links for Dungeon Siege III previews. The game can turn out to be quite different from what you expect depending on your view. At the moment, there is a drop-in/out multi-player mode, where AI and multi-players can change any time. If the function is allowed even to the last player, it may end up with something similar to your description. Even in that case, it is quite unlikely that DSIII can be played as real-time combat with pause games such as Bulder's Gate/Icewind Dale series since the game is out for consoles, too. Technically, all AI appears to be possible but there must be balance issues, too. In any case, I have to remind you that all of these are just hypothetical.

O.K. Then, the story was, indeed, that not simple, after all.

Have you read some reviews at major sites? Quite many of them seem to have expected shooter stealth action game-play and have been disappointed by the results. Making game-plays complete is one thing and making game-plays which can be sold to the targeted players is another. If the first condition were the only one, Obsidian could be making games on Infinity Engine or something similar. As I said, Bioware has been updating their game-plays, adapting to the preferences of their targeted market. Henry Ford was equivocally said to be a brilliant innovator but GM understood the market better. However, if Ford may have come up with better ideas if he had checked out what GM was doing. The exact same thing can be said about this thread. Even if Obsidian were successful in realizing Deus Ex style game-play, if there are not enough demands, the resulted work would not be commercially successful. Simply, these arguments don't have the size of the market in their sight. This is related with the reason why Eidos Montreal has to update the game-play. Back to Obsidian, I guess it would be rational for them to stick to game-plays which can be realized by their home-brewed Onyx engine, at lest, for the time being. BTW...does this thread need to become Bioware/Obsidian fan-boy war? IMO, the story is not that simple...

From what I see, it doesn't need to end up with zero-sum with two extreme ends. Indeed, Obsidian shouldn't try to be as original as possible, as some of them did when they were making Planescape: Torment, for bigger projects targeted to larger segments than just old school RPGamers, who cannot cover all the cost. However, since the majority doesn't care about story, paradoxically, I think there are much more room for originality in terms of content if not the game-play. In fact, I don't think Bioware is successful because of their story-telling. They are more or less repeating the same old formula in this area while they are very good at adjusting their game-plays to the growing market. Even a new comer like CD Projekt Red seems to be studying hard in adapting to modern game-plays (Actually, CPR seems to be more conscious of what they should do to keep their business than Obsidians, seeing their business strategy such as flash multi-players and gog.com... ). These are like Apple cultivated their current share of portable device market by making the interface more intuitive and thus accessible. So, IMO, as long as Obsidian can make the game-play experience more friendly for the majority, I think they can keep the content original, at least, to some extent. Like many people here, I think Obsidian should concentrate on what they have been developing for these whole years, means, story and character development. As long as they keep their works in fantasy and Sci-Fi area, I don't think they would feel too much restrictions (For my personal taste, I have to look for some other group who can prove that role-playing games can be separated from these settings, though). That said, since Fallout: New Vegas and Dungeon Siege 3* seem to be promising, I don't think we need to be so pessimistic. However, when, next time, Obsidian are going for areas which they are unfamiliar with, they need to a lot of homework in analyzing what other companies have and what they have. For, if they cannot control themselves, they will gradually lose their control in competitive market. Indeed, they have their original "assets" accumulated by the years of experiences but they need to make many more people notice their value. Also, if Obsidian manage to penetrate into the growing portable market, hopefully, they would be able to make more original works while it would be reasonable for them to start with something they and most of their existing fans are familiar with. Probably, Obsidian need some one/people who is/are good at both objectively analyzing the markets they are aiming at and managing "logistic" area while having deep understanding of the works of Obsidian (They definitely don't need yet another marketing/management guy). * Although Obsidian is going to reduce the amount of text, they seem to be planning something crazy such as story-development reflected by dialogue choices of multiple players. Good graphics and pleasant gameplay in one hand, and these original innovations in the other. So, they seem to be right on the track. It's since Baldur's Gate. They have never gone to the direction like Fallout. What bugs me is that, while they are keeping the same formula in the story area with, at most, two major story-paths and still considered to be one of the best-maker for story-focused RPGs. To my eyes, they are not much different from majore JRPG makers at least in this respect.

You are right about TO. I meant CT in that passage. Yea, I'd like to see Obsidian's version although this is just a light chat among designers.

If the title had been released with ME2, then, it could have been worse. So, I don't think it's the problem. Also, why Obsidian need to stick to Alpha Protocol? They don't seem to have writers who'd like to write real world dialogues especially Brain is no more. Obsidian hadn't had the resources for pulling off Shooter action/RPG hybrid and lost resources to do modern dialogues, too. Things are needed to be start out from scratch. I wonder publishers will be interested in the concept of Chris Avellone, though.

Hey, "Paul" is just "predicting"...

Yea, it's just a casual chat. That said, Chrono Trigger is an oddball for JRPGs. Choice and consequences with time travel factor were interesting. Also, NPCs had their own issues and, if the players care enough to solve them with sub quests, they are reflected to the "ending." To me, why not Obsidian? Except that...style. Characters may appear too anime for Western audiences. That said, I cannot think of CT without those cute characters. They are drawn by the same artist, Akira Toriyama, who are infamous of his Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest series (yea, that spiked hair "style"). Can you imagine Brian Menze drawing like this. The below is my favorite. I like the style of Toriyama in slapstick comedy (Yea...Dragon Ball is a slapstick comedy if you look at it in that way ). Maybe, a different type of humor? Another thing is, as Feargus pointed out, Western RPGamers tend to like choices in building characters with a through rule-set. While the players can choose which characters they can take I Chrono Trigger, there are no choices in character advancements. If CT is too light-hearted, how about Tactics Ogres, which involves some serious themes such as ethnic conflicts? The story has some choice and consequences, which severely affect on the endings. Also, the game-play is turn-based tactical combat. I haven' t played many JRPGs but, I think, these works have some factors which Obsidian designers may like to play with. Dragon Warriors are Dragon Quest. Enix couldn't use the name for American market since there was a PnP RPG classic called Dragon Quest.

Even for relatively small projects for portable devices? Obsidian may put more original and experimental ideas into the less risky projects. If the ideas turn out to be successful, then, they may put them to "bigger" projects. For diversification, too, it doesn't sound to be a bad idea since it's still risky for them to single-mindedly concentrate on either market.

Teams with quick counter-attack were mass-produced in this WC but, Germany is probably the most completed one, which would keep Sawyer happy as well as Merkel...