Monte Carlo

Codex echo chamber. I'm hitting the sack i'm sure we can all resume this tete a tete tomorrow.

Lord almighty you are insufferable. I try my best, although you rather prove my point.

You basically described a typical sandbox RPG, then proceeded to claim that you "hate sandboxes". I...don't know what to say to that. I'd better get out of this thread before I get warned by one of the mods. Later dude, I'm sure you'll grace us with your cuttingly acerbic wit another time.

You are the hipster. I am going to, in the circumstances, have to take that as a compliment.

Hello? This is a dungeoneering IE game romp, not emo vampire story-tyme.

The faintly patronising tone of the hipsters on this thread amuses me.

Not really.

Well then, I'm pleased to inform you that there's a very successful developer named Bethesda that caters to tastes precisely such as yours. Funny, I hate sandboxes like Skyrim. Loathe first person games. hahahahahaha I can't let you get away with that one ... how can anybody enjoy a Bethseda games combat mechanics?

And? It might be easier for a restaurant just to serve chicken soup all day too. This is about the customer, right?

Well then, I'm pleased to inform you that there's a very successful developer named Bethesda that caters to tastes precisely such as yours. Funny, I hate sandboxes like Skyrim. Loathe first person games.

Compromise for how many, though? I think there are like, what, four of you in this thread disliking this? Why should the devs compromise with such a tiny group? I'm not saying your tastes and opinions aren't important - just that the developers have a vision, first off, that they should stick to despite what the community wants, and that, secondly, if they tried to compromise with each and every small group advocating for something you get a monstrosity like Dragon Age 2. Says the guy who likes romances.

It's about design and reward. I like random stuff. Exploring. Wandering monsters. I like to wander on and off the critical path. I like gaining power at different rates of progression (you call it grinding, I call it enjoying the game's combat mechanics). Some players want perma-story tyme, but I don't. It's an XP system I think works and I'm comfortable with, it's simple and fairly elegant and i'm a small 'c' conservative when it comes to these things. I am also a passionate advocate of how I choose to play a game I paid for is nobody else's concern.

the point is that you can still kill everything on sight. or do you just kill for the xp as josh described? The point is that I choose not to abuse the system, unless in another play-through I feel like it. This thread is an existential struggle between gaming libertarians and Utopianistic-gaming Maoists.

D minus kiddo. Back to troll skool for you.

Ask yourself the same thing. If killing by the millions rewards more, eventually everyone will go for that to reach the maximum. With the Sawyer's suggestion, every roleplay option is available. Point not Found

I'm glad that the manner in which a complete stranger chooses to enjoy a piece of digital media has become such an important source of schadenfreude for you.

BUT WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO YOU? It's a single player game for chrissakes.

Some people view these games as very story-driven / experiential and some people view them on a far more granular level. Most people are somewhere in the middle. I tend towards the second category, although clearly I enjoy the plot / objective / NPC aspects too. I see no problem, whatsoever, in a hybrid of those two extremes.

Srsly, why is this so difficult to understand?

* sigh * the XP model. I view it as very restrictive.

I love how folks who, by implication, can't help meta-gaming and exploiting systems are advocating a restriction of those of us who can.

It's still re-inventing the wheel from where I'm sitting. Getting a reward in terms of experience and treasure for the risk of expending energy, time and resources to fight it is a no-brainer for me. If people are exploiting XP loopholes then close them. Don't care how - divine intervention, the cavalry, giant Monty Python foot crashing down from the clouds. It's redolent of being in school - one kid didn;t do his homework so we all get detention.

We call that a self-licking lollipop. Why over-complicate it? NWN2 was great. Kill an orc at level 1 and get 50 XP. Kill one at level 10 and get none. It's simple.

With respect, how players behave in a computer game is a matter for them. I've played a game with a paladin where I stole nothing in-game. My choice. I've played a game where I've Chaotically-Neutralled and meta-gamed everything. My choice.

Thanks for the answers Josh, that clears a lot up. I'll be honest, at the moment it doesn't sound like my cup of tea but I'm pretty set in my ways around stuff like that. For me, part of the fun of the old games was wandering around, finding cool encounters, fighting and gaining power for me to tackle the next bit of the critical path. This seems like it's a step away from that.