Monte Carlo

A-ha! You see, I don't actually think I'm being pessimistic. My optimistic vision for Europe would be a post-modern patchwork of nation states, themselves made up of semi-autonomous regions, living peacefully side-by-side. Breton and Cornishman, Basque and Celt, Londoners and Scots, Turkic peoples and Latvians... they would be free to make their own laws, create their own free trade areas, agreements and alliances. NATO, a European free trade area, strong Atlantacist ties to the USA... all of these things would exist. The 19th Century is gone, NATO would police the fractious borders and the small wars that lead to big ones would be history! What wouldn't exist would be a crushing political machine, devoid of accountability that is based on the Napoleonic Code. So, you see, I'm actually a starry-eyed Utopian optimist! Cheers MC

It's interesting to see how Europe looks from Australia. From there it looks like a brave new way of dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. From here, it looks like a dangerously un-democratic, elitist and economically dubious would-be tyranny. Yes, Britons are traditionally sceptical. We are an island race, and islands often produce strangely independent people. Europe as a supra-national entity was the dream of old men who feared another world war. A noble aspiration has become a technocratic nightmare run by a self-serving elite. Period. Remember this: British voters haven't been allowed a single referendum or free vote on any European legistation since the 1970's. We didn't vote for the Europe we have now. As for the UK, yep, our economy is FUBAR. We over-relied on financial services with lassez faire regulation. Our government, run as it is by left-wing ex-university lecturers who've never run as much as a hotdog stand, thought they'd tamed the beast of Capitalism and got fat and lazy on the profits. We'll be back, though, and yes it'll be tough. No more or less tough than, say France (the Euro is crippling them because of interest rates) the Italians (who've never recovered from the introduction of the Euro at an over-inflated introduction rate), Spain (their economy could go the way of Latin American countries, just like ours) and don't even get me started on the fringe countries who will soon find out what happens when a Central Bank catering for lots of countries does when the wheel comes off (q.v. Ireland). I want the European Union to become so big, so bloated and so irrelevant that it gradually and peacefully ceases to become relevant. It'll be like Rome, but without the fancy costumes. Hey, look on the bright side, you live in Oz. Throw something on the barbie for me and I trust we have your support in the next Six Nations Cheers MC

The Eagle Has Landed by Jack Higgins. Again. I've read it probably twenty times* because it's one of the best thrillers ever written. I love everything about it, even the bad bits. Did I mention how good The Eagle Has Landed is, by the way? CAVEAT: This certainly doesn't apply to the sequel, The Eagle Has Flown. Why Jack, WHY??? Am studying for some professional exams (ergo I'm goofing around posting here) so am not reading as much as I usually do. Cheers MC * Actually, now I think about it, you could double that.

Don't agree about Europe. It's already becoming dangerously akin to the 19th Century Ottoman Empire than 21st Century uber-bloc. The Euro is just at the sniffles stage of a serious dose of flu, Italy and Spain are going to suffer as Germany protects it's own economy (Euroland orbits the German economy as we do the Sun). As for the Eastern European new arrivals, well their economies are already feeling the pain. Furthermore, given that they've just spent fifty years under the thumb of an unrepresentative, bureaucratic foreign power I suspect that they'll be much warier of diktat from Brussels. I give you the already turbulent Czech Republic's presidency of the EU (I'm on their side, by the way). Personally I can't wait for Turkish membership of the EU. Why? 1. I like Turkey, there are all sorts of important geo-strategic reasons why it's a Good Thing... ...But 2. It's not in Europe. Well, not all of it. 3. So it will render the EU virtually meaningless. Hoo-rah! Back to the economy. I remember the 70's and 80's so am knuckling down for a rough five years. Has Globalisation failed? Probably not, but it will be the clarion call of the Left for the next few years. What new capitalist phoenix will rise from the ashes? There will be one, there always is. It's the people in their twenties I feel sorriest for, it's going to be tough out there with a concomitant effect on politics and society. Will we see a new late 60's-style radicalism or more Baader-Meinhof? A new Hayek-like economic resurgence or Keynesian paternalism? I don't know, sport fans, but it will be like the Chinese curse because we "live in interesting times." I'm investing in hunting rifle manufacturers and tinned food companies. Cheers MC

By the way, given that my real name is Orlando Tarquinius Von Biscuit-Barrel IV, I hope that my victory will not spoil the setting nor immersion in any way.

Yay! Boo! I will win. Oh yes, I will.

To be honest, I was thinking about RuneQuest, my favourite ever pen & paper RPG (which was classless). Anybody could use 'Battle Magic' which were like hexes or curses that gave modest benefits or penalties (it was a pretty low-magic game). Characters could buy Battle Magic if they could find someone to teach it to them (it was mana-styled, based on a stat called Power. Ability scores were in the 3-18 range like D&D so an average stat was 11-12... you could cast two or three half-decent spells from your own stats. You could use power crystals and so on to boost this). Then there was Rune Magic, analagous to divine magic in D&D that higher-powered characters could access via joining religions (or 'cults', which I suppose in 1978 wasn't such a perjorative term). I'm seeing Battle Magic as Feats and access to Rune Magic as Prestige Class abilities. For D&D a la NWN2? My base classes would be rogue, barbarian and fighter. Period. And I'd give them all access to all skills, just with a weighted point-buy based on class. Becoming a cleric or wizard then becomes a real test of character development that you could meaningfully blend with other skills and abilities. OK, your rogue is going to concentrate on perhaps more dialogue / negotiation and your warrior on bashing things but inbetween those poles you could do anything else where magic was concerned. A favourite RQ character was a dim but quite wise and very charismatic tribal warrior / thief. He used tribal battle magic only to enhance his stealth and combat skills, rather than rain down fireballs and summon demons. It fitted the setting, I guess D&D is the high magic opposite :: shrug :: Cheers MC

Clearly you never played old school PnP D&D or you'd realize they captured the feel of such fun, high adventure modules like war rafts of kron or quest for the heart stone to the T! If thats not your cup of tea or before your time then I can see where one simply does not 'get it' with this XP. Even if it's not your thing the additions to the game engine are going to open a new era for community mods I think. Looking forward to see what folks like Adam Miller do with it. ^ What he said, to the power of ten.

There should be no organic spell-using classes, they should all be purchased as feats by any class that meets the prerequisite statistics (i.e. INT-based magic, WIS-based magic and CHA-based magic). Discuss. Cheers MC

Question, from someone who has never played (nor intends to play) an MMORPG: As a genre, will they at some point simply crash? Or evolve? Or, I'm wondering if they will in some strange way segue into social networking sites (etc) and turn into something none of is can quite predict or understand at the moment. Cheers MC

FWIW, I owned both Full Spectrum Warrior and Mercenaries on the Xbox. FSW: Extremely ambitious, polished, good-looking squad-based shooter that was perhaps too war-gamish for a console title. I loved it. Mercenaries: Sand-box action shooter set in North Korea (where Morgoth, it will be remembered, got his MBA), open world, great action, nice to look at, played it for hours. The co-op was fun too, IIRC. So, whatever Pandemic's sins, not making good games wasn't one of them. Cheers MC

Ha, just noticed that you're from NZ. There's a really funny bit about the perception of Kiwis by the Greek partisans, given that their only experience of them is meeting their commandos behind-the-lines. A quick line, beautifully written and I'll let you find it and enjoy it yourself. Cheers MC

Just a quick one. Some authors can be serious and whimsical simultaneously, writing epic prose that can also make you laugh out loud. OK, it's a very flawed novel (all the best ones are), but Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres is a good example. First time I read the bit about the sappers and the land mine I spat coffee all over a tube carriage laughing out loud. Maybe Louis needs to write a fantasy novel. Cheers MC

I'm not a big fan of fantasy novels either. The problem, as I see it, is that there is marked tendency towards portentousness. They play it too straight. I tried one of those big Robert Jordan books on a plane once, and it was a much better way of getting to sleep than the pills the doctor gave me. Interestingly, in a movie, this can work. LotR only works as a movie when played on a completely straight bat, if they'd tried to be humorous of campy it would have crashed and burned. Anyhoo, Dave G (who I actually really rate in his day job) falls straight into this trap. Why is Terry Pratchett one of the most popular fantasy writers? OK, apparently he's a good storyteller (As I said, I don't read much fantasy) but also he's funny and makes people feel comfortable with the genre. My favourite fantasy, BTW, is 1970's acid trip 'Science Fantasy' a la Moorc0ck (language filter!), with guys with flame lances riding giant flamingos (honestly, man, I like saw that for real!). For me, Ian Fleming is a better fantasy author than Tolkien. Thing is, given the medieval and / or ancient culture influences of a lot of fantasy, why is it so serious? Chaucer is full of jokes. Cheers MC

I have a pristine copy, in 1990's shoe-box size packaging, only played once. Any offers? My astigmatism is worse now than it was in 1999, in no small part down to having to read all that tiny text. Cheers MC

Dave Gaider wrote:

Was reading in the business pages that video games and delivery pizza are the economic phoenixes rising from the ashes of the Credit Crunch. OK, there will be restructuring (and by getting into bed with Microsoft should know exactly what you're letting yourself in for in that respect) which will very sadly result in job losses. But, in the whole, the industry is better positioned to ride out the current crisis than many others. It's like an epidemic - when others are dying you should consider yourself lucky that you've only got a headache. Volourn is right to be steely-eyed about it - a few in the creative industries have a tendency to see themselves as a breed apart from civilians..."but we're creatives..." Er, no.

Dave's writing fanfic for his own game. This has to be a first!

Where did you do your MBA, North Korea?

Indeed, all though it does seem strange that you've been indulging in the argument as much as anyone else. Hey, it's 2009, remember?

NWNs graphics were, and are, hilariously bad.

:: shrugs :: I suppose it's just another trademark Biowarian straightjacket: linearity in all things. I am completely aware and relatively chilled out that some people like that, and that the mythical 'Joe Gamer' (to whom mainstream developers have built an altar that must be replenished with vanilla-flavoured design decisions every day) likes it that way. It's just that I don't, and as CG points out, it's technical design decisions like the ruleset that informs the flavour of the game as much as other considerations like NPCs etc (if not more so). FWIW, I couldn't get into Oblivion for reasons that have been oft-discussed here, but the open-class-with-templates system was on the money for me. So, I choose a class with the option of a kit or prestige class. It's too D&D flavoured for my liking, sorry. The only thing they've done is dump a cleric / healer class (as Tolkienesque as the orc-like blight monsters). As ever, am reserving final judgement until I play it, the rest of it could be so elegant that it doesn't matter. Cheers MC

Classes, eh? Or, dare I say it, kits (cue sinister balalika music)... You get to create your own ruleset for your own IP and you go and choose a class-based system? How... retro. I'm surprised alignments didn't make the cut.

They always do that, I think it's a provisional date. You have EB in the States, we have a shop called 'Game.' They hit the Magic "Release Date" Eight Ball and post it up on their website.

I have Campaign Cartographer, an older version that I used to use for P&P games. It's pretty awesome. When I look at the world map for Medieval TW2 it pretty much reminds me of what I could come up with after playing around with CC2 - in fact I wonder if the Creative Assembly actually used the same software. I don't know how you could segue it into a NWN2 mod, except I suppose send it out as a separate file to provide a nice presentation of what the game world looked like. All I will say about the older CC is that it wasn't the easiest thing to play around with straight out of the box - lots of messing around with X and Y axes etc. Cheers MC