Monte Carlo

Indeed. 'tis from the Volornian playbook. Is there such a thing as a treble face-palm? If not, I've just invented it.

^ Indeed, and to be fair to her she's certainly got her pen and paper writing spurs too. I just found myself in a whole world of WTF reading the interview and it explained a lot about the direction of travel Bio are in.

Y'see, this is where I get all controversial... it's like saying men would dig chick flicks more if you made all the garbage about dating, kissing and dancing optional and threw in a few more zombies / car chases / explosions. That is to say, stop it being a chick flick. Cue lots of angry chick flick fans who want to see Bridget Jones Diary, not Bridget Jones Zombie Apocalypse (which naturally would be cooler). You can't appeal to everybody. You just freaking well can't. Bio want a game for story fans for action fans for women for men for CRPG addicts for casual console gamers for.... everybody. They are seeking some sort of mythical alchemy of game development, the ambrosia that is the unigame that appeals to everybody. And this race to the lowest common denominator is what is killing their games and, by a process of mimicry and osmosis, the genre.

What he said.

But what awesome thing would happen every time you pushed a button?

Oil is a really, really good reason to go to war. How did you get to work this morning?

So we should hire all the toilet paper fantasy writers that don't play games and you can't tell apart - because gameplay matters more? Avellone save us. You completely missed my point.

A lot of writers when actually writing don't read much, unless it's material linked to whatever project it is they are working on. It's sort of inevitable. Difference is, most of them still love fiction, books, writing and their genre. I'm not expecting a developer after a hard sixteen hours behind a bank of monitors to kick back and play another eight of WoW. I do expect them to have been through something similar at some point in the past, understand the love and generally dig games.

It's like she sees the writing as this awesome piece of the game that's detached from the gameplay, it must be a nightmare being somebody who actually makes stuff happen in the game when this ivory-tower type tapping away on her keyboard doesn't really care about it. The game is just a coded cradle for her magnificent prose. Right? Wrong. Get a grip. The writing is, always was and always shall be the secondary to the meat and potatoes of gameplay. Bioware will, mark my words, eventually release digital novels with optional minigames attached.

Master Oner, searcheth the general RPG forum, albeit festooned with holy symbols and anointed with protective unguents lest ye catch the palsy of rabid spleen that afflicteth the dam-ned in that place. Amen. In that forum you shall see the thread I describe, it is clearly labelled, in blood and the innermost parts of exotic beasts, for what it is. I can do no more lest I open an unholy portal which I cannot control. just wanted to say thank you for writing that. made my morning

The Codex' main function is to provide a Hate Vortex from which MCA can feed off of, so it does provide a valuable service to the gaming public. Here is the link to the original article: http://www.killerbetties.com/killer_women_...pler?page=0%2C3 Love the bit when they ask about "What's the worst thing about your job" (at Bio) Answer: Playing the games. LOL

Master Oner, searcheth the general RPG forum, albeit festooned with holy symbols and anointed with protective unguents lest ye catch the palsy of rabid spleen that afflicteth the dam-ned in that place. Amen. In that forum you shall see the thread I describe, it is clearly labelled, in blood and the innermost parts of exotic beasts, for what it is. I can do no more lest I open an unholy portal which I cannot control.

I was going to link to the thread on the Codex where the Bio writer (seriously) says that Bio CRPGs should have fast-forwards buttons for the combat and fighting "for folks who just wanna experience the story." Same writer doesn't like fighting, tactics, combat, inventory... or games generally. Then I realised that the sweary, vituperative and generally hilarious responses would create a mega-hate vortex between here and the aforementioned Codex, creating something so awesomely hateful that I couldn't be responsible for the consequences. So you can find it yourselves and find out what some Biowarians are really thinking...

Crushing my enemies. Plotting new ways to crush my enemies. Reviewing how the last spate of crushing went. Maintaining my Excel spreadsheet of enemies. This, along with industrial quantities of alcohol, makes me happy.

Wow. I mean... wow. That guy blades the game to pieces. I suspect he's off the Bioware Christmas card list, and read the comments (along the lines of "about time a games reviewer stuck it to The Man").

Prom has never, ever, been a part of English education. Until now. In my day, at the end of secondary school, we used to (1) write our names in black marker pen on each other's school shirts, (2) let off flour bombs and (3) cut off each others school ties with scissors. Then we went home early and thought about applying for jobs ('twas the early 80's). Nowadays the kids have hoodies with their classmates' nicknames neatly printed on, there are no flour bombs, they'd be arrested if they were found with scissors and they, for chrissakes, have a Prom which is a direct copy of the US version. Yeucchhh. Anyway this thread isn't about Elvis and the evolution of Rock and Roll I was simply but obviously misguidedly deploying my Wand of Hyperbole. This thread is about the intrinisically evil nature of Glee (I want a Cthulu version of Glee, btw) and how awesome the Paladin of Kool, Sir David of Grohl, rode his steed of credibility into the enemy camp to do battle.

Their excuse is mealy-mouthed and hubristic. I'm obviously with Wrath of Dagon on this one, just don't buy their crap in the first place. I haven't and the sky didn't fall in.

Do you get mudcrabs at the top of snowy mountains? I do hope so.

Soccer moms, romance fans, casual console gamers and folks who used to play Farmville love it to bits, though!

Joe, why in my mind's eye do I have the opening sequence of Die Hard Six: Die Hardest But on a Train coagulating in my imagination right now? Watch out for ex-Spetznatz mercenary commando drug-dealing nuke stealing bad-asses hiding in the bushes wearing NVGs. OK?

When KoL and Dave told this guy to get lost he accused them of not caring about music or musical education or kids. And stuff. Like Glee was the primary reason why kids might like music. Kids like music because music is great in of itself. You don't have to be musical to dig it, that's one of the reasons it's so amazing. He just had this sense of self-entitlement about other people's songs, like everybody would of course bow down and let their stuff be performed on his show. No problem with people who do let their stuff get used, I respect that completely but I also respect the opposite view too. Especially when the divine wisdom of Dave is invoked, stamping a premium seal of complete Common Sense on the deal.

I think that is a hot new look, as Zoolander might say. Unleash your inner lurve dinosaur and sieze the day!

Why be paranoid when the evidence suggests that you are a pan-gender lurve god. Enjoy it while you can.

I have majikal Volo on ignore, did he talk about how fab Bioware are or did he troll the thread about something else?

It's called 'deus ex machina' DMing in pen and paper and it's in DMing 101 that you try to avoid it. LOL. Dave Gaider and Co. are so in love with their creations that you are only the fee-paying carbon based lifeform attached to their digital novel.