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Schazzwozzer

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Everything posted by Schazzwozzer

  1. Blizzard probably came down hard and merciless on this guy simply because it was so prominent. The Twin Blades of Azzinoth are those two big crescent sword things, the iconic weapons of Illidan -- Illidan being sort of the "final boss" of WoW currently. I'd suspect there are only a handful of players, perhaps under 100 out of millions that actually possess those things. As far as I know, Blizzard has steadfastly maintained an anti-real money trade (RMT) stance, and I think this is appropriate, as the majority of players consider it unfair and feel it cheapens their own experience. I think it'd actually be more of a surprise if Blizzard hadn't acted upon this.
  2. Games are overwhelmingly commercial products that fulfill real consumer needs/wants. A developer ignores player input at his or her own peril. And who says the Reavers being cut out was due to public pressure? I'd be really surprised if a Blizzard employee actually confirmed this. All I saw was this bit of news drop at Blizzcon, and it's hardly surprising. Starcraft has always been a very tightly designed RTS, and it looks like Blizzard wants to cull redundancy whenever possible. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
  3. I mainly wonder who they could get to actually develop this thing. Are there any veteran (at least one title under their belt) MMO teams out there with their hands relatively empty? There are probably a lot of interesting directions in which one could take a Fallout MMO, but I don't think you can just trot out an IP these days and say "hey, we're making an MMO!". You've got to identify a reasonable gap in the marketplace you look to target. For example, consider Warhammer Online. They look set to fill the gap between WoW's PvP-lite and the hardcore PvP of games like EVE. If you're just making paint-by-numbers MMO, then you're going up against WoW, and I don't think you'll make a lot of headway there. At this moment it unfortunately sounds like, "let's milk this cow while we can", but we'll see, I suppose.
  4. Ohhhh, okay. I've actually had access to the 3dsmax/Granny plugins for a while (was in the beta test), so I didn't make the connection. It's worth saying though that both of those "walls" I mentioned were overcome in the past couple days, when I revisited them after at least a month of putting it off. One was an error on my part and one was solved when I patched NWN2 (I had neglected to for a while). Huzzah huzzah!
  5. Walls? Whutchu talkin' bout? I ain't no Soviet Russia all up in here!
  6. You know, this bit about Infinity Engine/Elder Scrolls type modding versus Neverwinter Nights modding is actually really interesting. I understand why the Neverwinter Nights series has taken the approach it has -- because one of the central selling points is that users are able to author their own Dungeons and Dragons modules. However, I think the IE/Elder Scrolls approach is probably superior. The major reason is that completely new, authorial modifications (i.e. entirely new modules) are almost always going to be more difficult to create than additive ones (a mod that simply adds a new creature, NPC, or item). For this reason, among others, the majority of modifications are going to be smaller, additive ones. It makes sense then to implement a system that will make it easier for the majority of modders and end-users. It's interesting to note that, even though the NWN2 OC isn't as free-roaming or expansive as an Elder Scrolls or even Baldur's Gate, and the game itself is not set up to support it, a lot of the most popular modifications are still additive ones. Look at what is one of the most popular haks on NWVault. That's an additive release. It allows players to have their female characters in the NWN2 OC (and any module, I imagine) half-naked. This is a problem though because additive content uses the Override directory. I won't go into it here, but this is not a user-friendly solution and is a giant headache to mod authors, because it's MUCH more prone to bugs and conflicts. By the way, for Morrowind and Oblivion (and I think for the Infinity Engine games, but I am not certain), you CAN create you own entirely new worlds. Yes, it's more difficult than with the Neverwinter Nights games, but I expect that anyone SERIOUSLY commited to authoring their own epic role-playing experience will overcome those hurdles anyway.
  7. The big question on my mind is, does it feel like the MOST EXPENSIVE GAME EVER CREATED? Like, if it were an article of clothing, would it be a money hat?
  8. A couple nuggets of anecdote from my end, as an artist modder: - My experience with NWN1 definitely did jade me a bit, or at least make me less willing to spend hundreds of hours on something that isn't personally compelling in a very immediate sense. I was very lucky and had the opportunity to work on two commercial projects with/for Bioware. Both were unceremoniously cancelled and everybody involved was left empty-handed, as far as I know (for the record, Bioware was great and not to blame for the cancellations). Now, the number of people with similar first-hand experiences is probably pretty limited, but I'm sure loads of people closely involved with the NWN1 community, perhaps with their own dreams of modding grandeur, saw much of this play out, and I imagine it left them a bit jaded as well. - Everything is harder with NWN2. Yes, you can do more, but it doesn't change the fact that things just plain are harder. Personally, I've had a couple pieces of work that I put a solid amount of time into, a few dozen hours each, perhaps, only to get near implementation and then hit a wall. Not like an obstacle, where you can sort of puzzle out how to proceed, but a flat-out wall, where you have no clue how to get around it. And I might be flattering myself in saying this, but I think I'm one of the more knowledgeable people involved with NWN2 art-side modding, so I can imagine the experience is only worse for people who are just starting out. Anyway, the big thing there is, when you hit a wall, you lose your momentum, and momentum is hugely important when you're not getting paid. I expect this is true for the actual design-side of modding too.
  9. I think I know what you're talking about, but I was alluding to a different case, in which a different ex-designer made some critical posts in the official Elder Scrolls Lore forum (where many of the most hardcore TES fans would gather), shortly after Oblivion's release. To be fair though, I think he deleted his harshest criticism.
  10. Just wanted to express my agreement with this quote. Well, perhaps not the "lack of focus on quality/fun" (that's for the devs to judge), but the general idea that these games are simply trying to do too damn much. I really think that, in terms of sheer number of classes, character abilities, character customization options, both NWN games aspire to MMO levels of scope, but just don't have the budget or development cycle to bring that vision to fruition. Moreover, NWN has to provide things that MMOs never have to worry about: a satisfying single player experience and the toolset, to name a couple. It's almost a hopeless battle from the get-go. Also, this may not be entirely comparable, but I recall shortly after Oblivion's release, an ex-Bethesda writer/designer (was around for Morrowind and Tribunal) was quite openly critical of the game. I think lots of development studios have these sort of things going on, but you have to be a savvy fanboy to ever hear about it. I recall also a couple instances of Todd Howard (head Bethesda guy, I believe) acknowledging faults in Oblivion. Not exactly Josh's Straight-Talk Express style, but it was also not pure PR.
  11. If you're not averse to user-made modules, you may want to keep an eye on Mysteries of the Moonsea: Melvaunt. It's one of the modules I'm most keeping my eyes on, as his screenshots are perhaps the most visually stunning I've seen come from NWN2, and he sounds like just a plain smart guy, who enjoys what he's doing. Some images: Thar 01 02 City of Melvaunt 01 02
  12. Deng, only $5,750,000? All us forum jerks probably coulda raised that much! Like, maybe an internet bake sale or something.
  13. Yeah, if you're shooting for a design position, showing that you know your way around game editors and toolsets would no doubt be a huge boon. Morrowind, Oblivion, and NWN1 & 2 all would be good choices to dig into if you're interested in creating RPGs. NWN1 may be the easiest to learn and begin from scratch with. Try to find tutorials where you can, and use those. There's a wealth of information on the web, if you know where to look. Here are a few links... NWN1 tutorials Official Oblivion construction set wiki [ here is the Tutorials section ] NWN2 tutorials Also, since you're young, I'd recommend taking some beginning programming classes in high school. Knowing at least basic coding would no doubt come in handy in a lot of design positions. You may also want to learn about modelling and art creation at some point as well. I think, perhaps even moreso than programmers and artists, designers benefit from having a holistic grasp of game development.
  14. I don't know if I'd agree with the better custom content support line. At least, if you're talking about support from the devs. It took Bioware quite a long while to get official 3dsmax exporters out to the public. Obsidian has quite a few things that could be worked out to be work more smoothly, but I'd rank them as equal or better than Bioware's support. I am, however, slightly perturbed at the apparent lack of new modules and custom content. Personally, as an artist and creator, I see virtually no reason to stick with NWN1, with its dated, muddy graphics and limited toolset potential. Yet, NWN2's community just hasn't seemed to take off yet. It's strange, and I wonder if it's just taking a while to heat up or if it just doesn't have wings, for whatever reason. One thing Bioware definitely did better though, was they had their Neverwinter Wednesdays, when they'd highlight new community stuff and the sort every week. I think that kind of stuff goes a long, long way in terms of keeping the public engaged and interested. Agreed on NWN2's poor optimization, but NWN1's engine was never a prize horse either, I felt.
  15. You had the trial, and the whole struggle between the thieves and the guards of Neverwinter, and the scenario wherein you were protecting the old guy, and managing the stronghold, and you had to hunt down the Gith lady. Perhaps "character-driven" isn't exactly the right way to phrase it, but these things felt personally compelling to me. At least, much moreso than enchanted statues sword shards and shadow kings or whutevah.
  16. QFT. Actually, and this may cause harsh glares to fall upon me, I haven't finished the NWN2 OC yet for exactly this reason. I got to the five ritual statues point and that, combined with the fact that Guyven wasn't showing up at my stronghold even though I had done everything right (I'm a completionist, so missing out on this kind of stuff bums me out), just seemed to bring the game's momentum to a halt. Up until then it was all very character-driven, and then all of a sudden you're seeking out stupid magical doohickeys and listening to people ramble about ancient Illefarn. Oy! But I look forward to the Unapproachable East. I hope Obsidian can make it feel really, truly foreign.
  17. Well, I grew up on those tales too, but they were the Disney or Nickelodeon versions, and I've always heard that the original Brothers Grimm ones were not quite so G-rated. Also -- and this may be unique to me -- I like to go through a pretty thorough research phase before I start any project, consuming all the information I can about the topic at hand. Like, maybe I'd find out where a certain tale originated and then use that as a setting for the module, rather than a generic medieval fantasy land.
  18. If by "lame" you mean "even radder than your rad uncle, Uncle Steve, who has a bitchin' moustache and drives a really cool party van". I'd be hugely interested in making an MMO that had actual player-owned, player-run kingdoms. It'd be a little like Civ, but players would actually inhabit the world. They'd run around doing their silly WoW-type things, but if you zoomed out, you'd see a world map like Civ. Player governers would be charged with keeping their realm safe for noobs and bluebies. There would be wars and there also would be dragons maybe i dunno. Also, it would be keen to make a Final Fantasy Tactics style, grid-based turn-based strategy using D&D rules, on the Nintendo DS or something.
  19. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to devote to the module contest these days, and even if I did, I'd have to actually sit down and learn the toolset and then familiarize myself with Brothers Grimm tales, all before the end of the month. I definitely want to try my hand at module building though at some point. I have this vision of an Epic, Sprawling Dark Sun module, but because that is insane and I would never be able to finish it, I'd really like to try to do a nice little multiplayer dungeon romp-type module. Some of my most fond moments of playing NWN1 were on a LAN with a couple other people, just running around in a hack 'n slash mod, trying to figure out what to do because none of us had actually paid attention to the storyline. Some light roleplaying elements, maybe implement a couple interesting game systems, sprinkle on a bit of custom content. I think it could be just dandy, if I ever get around to it.
  20. Hey, I just wanted to point out that I didn't make that manticore! I don't want there to be any confusion, as I already got one message about it. That is the work of a guy that went by the moniker of BatintheHat, who I used to work alongside in my NWN1 mod group days.
  21. My end goal in all this custom content stuff is to segue into a career from it, but I also get major warm fuzzies from knowing folk are out there using my stuff in their modules and PWs, so I'm actually pretty wary of producing anything that might be rendered obsolete in the near future. If you're a lowly custom content dude, you really just can't compete with an official commercial product, so even if your release is a dozen times better than the official stuff, the overwhelming majority of builders are just going to go with whatever is already in the game. And I'm actually a pretty competetive guy, deep down. Basically what I'm saying is that the life of a custom content artist is sad and full of tears.
  22. Yeah, it looks like that crazy head-scanning technology they used near the beginning of the project has really paid off.
  23. To toss out something a bit more nuts 'n bolts, the act of FLEEING can actually be a pretty enjoyable gameplay experience, if handled correctly. For instance, I can recall at least two console platformers that have you running away from some big, bad enemy that you have no way of defeating, or even attacking. I've also played numerous real-time strategy games with missions in which you're supposed to successfully retreat from or hold out against an overwhelming enemy. Blizzard games in particular like to do this, it seems (several missions in Warcraft 3 and at least one I can remember from Starcraft). The question this brings up is, do the game mechanics support this sort of gameplay? I think it works well for console platformers because, in these games, it's just plain fun to maneuver your little guy around the screen. It works in real-time strategies because so much of the core gameplay revolves around fielding armies of disposable units. Conversely, in your typical Black Isle/Bioware style of RPG, maneuvering around isn't really that enjoyable, and your party members are far from being expendable. So another question to consider is, even if you get the player to accept that they can't fight their way to victory, how do you make sure the scenario is going to be enjoyable to play through?
  24. Forced failures are just crummy no matter what. Presenting players with scenarios which can't be "won" by simply conquering all opponents is another matter, but in the end, it all depends on the rules a game has established for the player and the behavior it has encouraged. If a game has been telling the player to fight and win every single battle for 20 hours, and then throws out an enemy they can't defeat, that's crappy game design and the player is gonna be pissed. A game has to play by the same rules that it's been forcing the player to abide by.
  25. I, perhaps unfairly, still see Obsidian as the TRUE scion of the Fallout bloodline. And I say unfairly because there may only be a couple people at Obsidian who actually worked closely on either of the Fallout projects for all I know. Obviously the Fallout IP is in different hands now, but I still hold hope that Obsidian will come in and create something that fits betwen the free-form play of Oblivion and the tight, controlled design of Bioware games, which is exactly what I think Fallout did so well. So, perhaps I'm a little disappointed, but I understand why they would take the two projects they have. And I appreciate a lot of the design decisions in their games. The execution in both has obviously left a lot to be desired, but the spark of potential is clearly there.
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