Monte Carlo

This thread should be a guilty pleasure not productive. Although I think pleasure is productive in and of itself.

Yeah, a to-the-line victory with the VPs ticking down is always sweet. I've still to beat the Tiger Ace challenge! :[

Parts of this thread need putting into a cannon and shooting back over to the BSN.

Over here, in the crumbling but still fell Ziggurat of Gygax we are eyeing these heretics with scant, nut not complacent, interest.

Charles Bronson's finest hour. What a movie.

I'm wondering if the new Cold War will be a sort of kulturkampf between 'Western' enlightenment values and a new Eastern conservatism that allows for an Orthodox / Muslim world-view. I hope not.

Please re-read Animal Farm. The formerly oppressed are entirely capable of turning to oppression. And now, of course, we have Putin the new world champion of 'Traditional Values.' stalking the world stage like a 'B' Movie villain, giving credence to the ignorant.

This bit is saying those of us ('these people' he says, haughtily) who don't like CRPG romances are the ones with the problem. LOL. Which is why he can't handle the truth. Between your insistence in calling me butt-hurt and posting Jack Nicholson images, you failed to address any of my arguments. I apologize. You win the internet. I have no answer to the colossus that is your force of argument in favour of imaginary sexual relationships with videogame characters.

Then he accuses me of having a 'serious cognitive disability.'

I read all of it. It was butt-hurt. I especially like the bit at the start, where he lays out his stall: This bit is saying those of us ('these people' he says, haughtily) who don't like CRPG romances are the ones with the problem. LOL. Which is why he can't handle the truth.

^ LOL. D minus.

Jesus, this thread is like extreme anthropology.

I've heard of it, they use actual weaponry to fight don't they? They sound like a mix between larping and reenactment from what I have heard. It's hearing conflicting things like that which makes it confusing to work out just what the larp scene is like in the US. More re-enactment, TBH. But LARPing in the US morphed out of societies like SCA (which never formally became LARPs). The likes of Neal Stephenson and Greg Stafford represent a school of American writer / designer heavily influenced by historic veracity. RuneQuests combat system was virtually designed by SCA members IIRC. The speed and brutality of the system, plus body hit-location rules and weapon breakage, came out of that. Totally off-topic, dreadfully sorry.

If it's all about cycling and ironic spectacles then count me out.

Butt-hurt. And the most specious of your arguments is the familiar "no romance = combat simulator" lie. If you seriously think Obsidian's writers won't provide meaningful NPC interaction in this game then what the hell are you doing haunting these forums? There's the BSN, DA:I is out at the same time as this game. Admit it - you just can't handle the truth that there's no sex-with-NPCs. Tragic, really.

Please try to move past Stage 1 in the grieving process (denial) and go directly to Stage 5 - acceptance. It's the healthy thing to do. QFT

Thought I'd pop in. BTW there are no romances in this game. It's been confirmed. Y'know, just in case it was news.

I'm reading some fantasy - The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. It's OK, maybe a bit too epic for my tastes but has some cool stuff in it. I've also read another Joe Abercrombie wannabe whose name I forget. I can't help but think too many fantasy writers are staggering about in GRR Martin's shadow, in much the same way as they did in Tolkien's back in the 70s and 80s. Every book needs to be the start of 'an epic trilogy of an epic cycle of an epic trilogical cycle.' GoT is just out there, everyone digs it, its gone mainstream. if you aren't offering an omni-generational saga of feuding nobility then... feh. I know fantasy readers expect 120,000 words and their next fix double-quick, but still. IMO modern fantasy seems to write for the market too much. Also read Marko Kloos's new military sci-fi novel, Lines of Departure. This is good stuff, enjoyed it a lot and it has a nice twist about sixty per cent of the way through that changes the series in an interesting new direction. Edit: can I just say I think Marko is playing with certain sci-fi tropes in a not dissimilar way to Abercrombie. He just dumped a massive tribute to Battlestar Galactica in the middle of his book while giving the original the finger. Am re-reading Tim Willocks's The Religion. For the love of God go out and get this book. It is tremendous on every level. It is barrelling its way into my top ten favourite books, ever. The siege of Malta and the last hurrah of the Crusader Orders versus the Grande Turk. An ex-Janissary protagonist, now a cynical merchant with a barbaric English henchman. More combat and siegecraft that you could shake a stick at. A love story with a twist. A mystic-macho examination of the profession of violence. Sweeping, dense, confident prose. And action. Lots of action. Imagine Sam Peckinpah meets Akira Kurosawa. Like I say, get it now.

I've not played CK2 but I dig where you're coming from. Medieval: Total War (1 or 2) offers as much potential role-playing, and it's more meaningful because you express the king or dynasty you've created through actions, not words.

Riker is protagonist. He even managed to romance someone of a sexless race. Riker even has the blocky, slick-backed hair and vacant looks of Bioware animated characters.

It's good fun. Just tried it out.

Look, I said t1ts. Did the sky fall in?

Saw five minutes of DA2 on YouTube. There was pirate with giant **** and the sort of dialogue that makes your eyes bleed. T'was enough for this callsign to pass judgement.

Srsly, it's only a matter of time before someone 'fesses up to shooting JFK in this thread.

^ If it ain't brutally honest then the exercise is pointless. Beta testers you don't know are the best beta testers. They have to like the genre and understand it, and they need to understand the difference between a trope and a cliche. They need to know they are half meta-reading it but they also need to read it like a paying customer too. But yes, they need to be brutally honest. Sometimes you get people who just don't like the style and can't move past it. For example, "I like epic fantasy + this isn't epic fantasy = it sucks. As opposed to, "I prefer epic fantasy to be honest, which colours my view. Having said that, my reservations about character 'A' and their role in plot 'B' is tempered by the coolness of character 'C' and the idea of plot 'D.'" I beta for a couple of people, including one ridiculously best-selling, uber-successful author who a lot of folks here might have heard of. He loves decent criticism, it makes the finished product better. This is why I will provide a signed hard copy or a free download to people who take a few hours of their spare time to help.