Monte Carlo

Which is why aVENGER'S mod is so good. The Dagger of Venom and game-shatteringly powerful Kiel's Buckler (I too have quivered at the way that +1 DEX bonus alters the game) are both available to buy in the Shadow Thief guildhall, as well as other roguish goodies. Cheers MC

What you end up with is market saturation and stuff like this: http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo...number=FGSWRRBF Just because people will buy something, doesn

Chris Avellone: (My italics) To answer the question posed by the original poster look at this quote in the context of Planescape: Torment. 2EAD&D is, to many, one of the most inflexible and moribund incarnations of the D&D game. Yet many see PS:T as perhaps one of the most enthralling uses of the game ever to appear on the computer. Go figure. OK, they took some interesting liberties with the rules, like the dynamic alignment and stuff, but that only added to the feeling of difference. I will ponder the new rules-fascism seemingly practiced by the current licence holders later, as this is another way that this question can be looked at (for example, I remember MCA or Dave M mentioning that the old TSR people were pretty laid back about Planescape 'canon' when they were designing PST, as well as not bothering too much about the class-switching and other deviations...an attitude that served the final product and the reputation of the brand well). So, does D&D hold back "better game design" from the standpoint of... A. D&D as a gaming system on which to base a CRPG? - or - B. D&D as a phenomenon, and the way the licence has been used over the past few years? Both have a direct bearing in my opinion. As far as 'A' is concerned, well others here have answered the question, really. A good developer can always make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and a good gamer will see a fun product for what it is and not worry too much if it bears the D&D moniker as long as it's fun. I also concur that D&D has set a sort of hackneyed standard of what constitutes "fantasy" in the genre: we have to have elves and orcs and grumpy Scottish dwarves (etc). The brand leader is always going to have that sort of effect...heck Wendy's make square burgers but they are still reminiscent of the stuff available under the Golden Arches.... 'B' is more of an untapped issue, and it is in this context that I think that D&D is having an adverse effect on CRPG development. Why? Well, both Hasbro and WotC's management of the licence over the past two years could be generously desribed as mendacious. Developers have privately cited numerous examples of nit-picking by (especially) WotC who are pen & paper gaming guys, not CRPG developers. OK, it's their precious IP but unless they try to relax and introduce a bit of the "Rule Zero" philosophy that is preached for the tabletop game and extend it to developers then we'll continue to see the D&D slump on the PC that has recently occurred. Really, did Sawyer's IWD2 alt.ranger really threaten the entire fabric of the Dungeons & Dragons game? Palpably not. :: Armchair Business Guy Mode Activated :: If I were the licence holder for electronic media for the D&D game I'd have the following guidelines for awarding a D&D licence to a CRPG developer: 1. Is the game fun and a quality product? This is the primary consideration that all subsequent rules serve to facilitate. 2. The licence should be treated totally as a franchise...issue as many as there are people who can make quality product that fulfils the premise of rule 1. No exclusivity deals. 3. Developers should be given latitude to play Rule Zero as they see fit for their product. A liaison at WotC should OK radical rules-changes to preserve the integrity of the IP, but generally speaking new classes, races, house rules and so on should be treated with a "can-do" attitude. D&D is a thirty year old, venerable game system...not your sixteen year old sister going on a date with your best friend from the football team. It'll survive a few liberties being taken. Until Hasbro/WotC change their stance on these issues then, yes, D&D is in my view contributing to the atrophy of CRPGs in general, especially those being developed in North America. Cheers MC

Many CRPGs have raised the general awareness of the following brands... Heckler & Koch Glock Walther Barratt Colt Mattel (yes, that Mattell, original manufacturers of the M-16 rifle due to their advanced plastics/ mouldings techniques) etc. Cheers MC

So, basically you're saying hang on for a while? I'm looking to upgrade in the next six months....is that long enough d'you think. I've got a bonus due and I was going to splurge out on a mid-life crisis, leery Alienware rig with bells & whistles. Of course, the problem is I'm not an expert and I'll end up with something sub-optimal. Or do I leave it until next year, by which time my wife will have spent my bonus on something pointless...like food or mortgage payments. Cheers MC

A few pointers from a computer-user who is by no means any sort of expert, just your average-or-garden PC owner. 1. When buying your rig, make it clear that you want something with sufficient space/ slots to allow you to upgrade. Remember that your computer isn't really the plastic box all the gubbins sit in...it's the stuff inside that counts and you just need something to put it all in. Oh, and fans, heatsinks and all that jive. 2. Have a reasonable idea about how future-proof your purchase can realistically be given the amount of skillz you have. Also, know what type of stuff you need to do...gaming? Art? Video? 3. Don't buy a laptop. I know it's obvious, but I was once tempted until a colleague got stung on that one. 4. Find someone with 733t skillz in McGuyvering 'puters and make him or her your New Best Friend. --- Cheers MC

David Warner's VO in BG2 was superlative and the dude managed to overcome the crumbiness of the dialogue through sheer talent. Just my 2 CP. Cheers MC

Another question to add to SP's (if he doesn't mind, seeing as it's sort of related and obviates the need to begin a new thread): How do publishers view the lifetime of a product vis-a-vis profits? That is to say, how does a title's longevity count in the broader picture. For example, Fallout budget discs, The Complete IWD, bundled BG saga bonus packs (etc)? I was in Game the other day and people were still buying budget bundled BG2/ToB some three-four years after release. How does that get factored into profit calculations...is it seen as merely an apre-release bonus if a title is successful? Cheers MC

I think a Serbian Fallout title is well overdue, personally. FWIW, all the middle-class Brits are talking about Croatia's Adriatic coast as if it's the next Tuscany. I have to laugh, as their understanding of Balkan politics seems slightly....optimistic. Personally, I'd sooner buy a chalet in ooooh.... Haiti. Cheers MC (ensconced ridiculously safely in Southwest London)

I have nothing against Latvians, Estonians or Lithuanians. It just seemed an amusingly esoteric place for a hacker to come from at the time. Of course, in the old days, all the proper hackers were ex-KGB trained Bulgarian cyber-commandos, but that's another story entirely I suspect. Cheers MC

I used to write the "plots" for training exercises for a variety of interested parties who were preparing for 'X' or 'Y' contingency. I'll freely admit that I looked to certain aspects of CRPGs to design them. This is what I learnt. When you are designing something that is going to be used by a third party for a specific purpose (i.e. a game, for enjoyment or a training scenario for learning) then that purpose pushes the design. Design cannot as easily push purpose. So, to use BG2 as an example, the purpose is to conclude the main portion of the Bhaalspawn saga. The design has to be grafted onto that main purpose, and design compromises have to be made to create the "illusion" of non-linearity (as GiK points out). To use my own example, you have to factor in occasionally unrealistic variables (i.e. deliberately curbing "non-linearity", a misnomer which I think we can replace with "freedom") to keep things on track. For example, in one scenario the team might say "OK, our communications aren't working in the engineering compound, we'll use our mobile telephones." "Your mobile telephones don't work either." Realistic? Maybe not. However, it fits the brief, which is to test contingencies beyond the obvious. The guys in that training situation have to deal with a problem sans the usual comfort blankets of mobile telephones and email to communicate. That's the entire point. In a CRPG it might be seek the McGuffin, seek revenge, fulfill your divinity or rescue your sister. The point remains that these have to be dealt with...it's how you deal with them is the art of masking the almost inevitable linearity of the endeavour. It's like life...death and taxes are inevitable and if anybody knows of a non-linear way of living that avoids both then please send me a PM. Cheers! MC

I predict that the Baltic States, beautiful (and cheap to visit) as they are, will be the travel fad of the next two years. I am planning a trip myself, actually. Cheers MC

You might feel European. Congratulations. However, you are in a factually statistical minority. One day that might change, in which case I will simply decamp elsewhere. I'm quite smitten with the Czech Republic, personally. Charming people. Or New England. Ditto. Seeing as you feel European, and, natch therefore support by default the sort of political system that makes the Borgias seem a model of upright and decent governance then you'll excuse me for not taking your opinion of my hometown particularly seriously. Troll.

Ah, but you miss my point. My initial assessment was possibly the wiser and more accurate one. My second was my newer one, but not necessarily the correct one. It's about attitude, not accuracy! Cheers MC

The Ayatollah is posting some of the worst transliterated Arabic I have ever seen. ma salaama MC

No, you are geographically and politically correct by including the UK in the Europe category. It's just that the majority of Britons do not feel particularly European. I certainly don't. Cheers MC

I think Gromnir's just getting older. Why? The older I get, the mellower and more forgiving I become. Like the other day, for example. I was walking through the park and there were these fifteen year old kids skateboarding, doing stunts and falling over. When I was, say, thirty I'd think: Annoying middle-class brats in their baggy pants...idiots...bugger off and terrorize someplace else with your sneaky spliffs and pathetic attempts to talk like "street" kids when your folks pull down half a mil a year and send you skiing at Easter..... Now I'm older and I saw these kids and thought: Wow, that skateboarding lark looks like fun...and it must take a lot of practice to do all that Tony Hawks stuff! Hey, at least they're all having fun with their friends and not sniffing glue.... See? Scary, isn't it? So Gromnir wasn't necessarily wrong in his assessment of FU or Visc. He's just mellowed a bit. Ha ha ha. Cheers MC

It is 07:43 here in London, England, city of my birth and very probably my death. What else is a man to do when he's trying to download a 20.7MB M$ critical stop-some-fifteen-year-old-Latvian hacker taking over your computer update on a cr*ppy 56K dial-up modem? Post here about my country of origin, naturally. Cheers MC