Thorton_AP

For me choices in games are never difficult because I'm roleplaying a character. Unless I'm roleplaying a character who struggles with every choice or something bizarre like that. Extra credits made newbie error - Because it's all about the "game" these days, they forgot that some of us don't reflect our own moral and values to the main character. What on Earth does roleplaying the character have to do with it? Or are you just so poor at roleplaying characters with an actual character than none of your characters have issues with moral dilemmas? Roleplaying a character that "struggles with every choice" has nothing to do with the fact that some characters, whether it be putting yourself in the game, or roleplaying a character, are going to have struggles with choices. I'll just ignore the "newbie comment" since placing yourself in the character role is a valid and acceptable mechanic for a roleplaying game. There's no grand poomba rules against inferring yourself on a character you control in a roleplaying game. I'd argue it's impossible unless you are trying to roleplay a character in such a way that you're just making suppositions for how they should act without drawing upon any of your own personal experiences in the process (good luck with that). Maybe you just roleplay uninteresting characters?

Played some Dead Rising 2 with a friend. A goofy amount of fun hahaha

As I have learned, almost every game already on sale will, in fact, be on sale for even cheaper if I wait for a while.

Meh, I liked that part of Mass Effect 2 a lot and wished that more games would do stuff like that. The one thing I dislike is the need to quantify the consequences as something tangible in game. I think there are merits with a choice like that, even if you never hear of the results of the decision. In fact, putting forth some sort of outcome runs the risk of indicating what is the "right" or "wrong" choice for that situation. Something that I think is best avoided.

The uber-loot stuff is cool bragging rights, but ultimately a worse gaming mechanic IMO. On the plus side, the new changes to WoW means that if someone were to want to play the game to experience some story, they could. Well, up until the Outlands wall

Skinner boxes ftw? (Reference)

Ah sorry, I was referring to a toggle option (since it seemed that was what you were referring to). Also, for DAO consoles, Normal did not have FF and it was only set to 50% on the PC.

Just as a note, such an option has never (as far as I know) existed in any BioWare game. Including the IE games.

If that's your criteria, WoW and Diablo are virtually identical games. The loot grind for endgame stuff is still there, but you're given currency and tokens that can be used for gear that you want. Currency is typically handed out per boss. The tokens are dropped for particular sections of gear (chest, shoulder, etc.) and apply to a variety of classes from specific bosses. That is, boss X will drop the shoulder token. That token can be used by Death Knights, Druid, Rogues, and Warriors (for example). You take that token and turn it in for the class specific gear that you wear. They cleaned up a lot of the drops. Though my info may be a bit outdated as I just picked up cataclysm and haven't done much instancing yet.

I'd argue that Miyamoto and Kojima especially far, far, FAR, exceed people like Romero (it was always Carmack as far as I'm concerned anyways. I never even heard of Romero when he called me his bitch), and especially Spector, and especially Avellone (how he even made your list is beyond me. Consider Meier and Miyamoto also predate ALL of the examples you gave further weakens your argument. Even during the heyday of the names you mentioned, Meier and Miyamoto were bigger names. And yet, the three that I mentioned are promoted. Sid Meier's name is attached to the games he makes right on the front cover! Miyamoto owes his legacy to Donkey Kong (and has effectively been knighted in France!), and Kojima's name exploded with the release of one of the most successful cinematic game franchises ever. American McGee's Alice was named so in hopes of the game taking off and McGee getting the same sort of influence. Unfortunately the game wasn't the influential hit they were hoping for and McGee faded away. I love people like Warren Spector, but he's a small fry. You had to be gung ho and hardcore to hear of Carmack, let alone John Romero, and Chris Avellone has a following from such a tiny, niche group of the gaming community I have no idea why you even suggested him. Black Isle Studios was never even a big name, with its biggest exposure coming from a game franchise made by BioWare. Feargus probably has more name recognitio than Chris does. Sorry Chris! "Back in the day" indeed. Here's the thing about Meier, Miyamoto, and Kojima: I only play games made by one of these guys. Yet I certainly know who Miyamoto and Kojima are. Will they be as big as movie-celebrities? Unlikely. The complete lack of screen time has a large part to do with it. This only applies to the actors though. I do think that you will start to get game designers that reach the level of influence as directors and so forth. People like Spielberg have been plying their craft for longer than the games industry even existed. It's a bit early to write it off.

Depends. Sid Meier, Shigeru Miayamoto, Hideo Kojima, and so forth have become some pretty recognizable names.

by the way, this is exactly how I played WoW... I'd gotten to lv.50 before it got really boring. seriously, the zones are too small, the mobs too few, the quests too repetitive. playing it as a single-player game (I wanted to fill the void between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3) is a miserable attempt at a computer game. definitely not WoW's strengths. Yet you seem to think that WoW is about running dungeons with people to get that 0.3% drop item that you need. WoW is very different now.

Just curious if you have ever actually played WoW. It's probably the only MMO that really doesn't actually require you to actually interact with any other human in the game world. O.o

If only the communist revolutionaries understood this.

But he does. You just didn't explore all the options. I'd have to play through the Yes Man scenario myself to really see what it's like, but to me it always seemed that as long as the NCR is in the area, they will pose a threat to the autonomy of Las Vegas. I suppose it would have been better to have the player make that compromise with the NCR, but it'd be an interesting ending if it still ended up with a subpar result for Las Vegas in the long run.

I am confused. I did collaborate with the BoS when siding with the NCR.

When does something become mainstream?

Yes, let's blame socialism. Couldn't it be more capitalist? Just creating jobs for people right?

I do hope the success of games like Minecraft can help convince devs that money into graphics isn't necessarily that important. Due to the technical differences though, I really think that indie games suffer from a larger disadvantage than an indie movie would. Making a game for $60k is basically paying 1 guy for a year to work on a game.

When I say so!

There is a world of difference in sheer asthetics between an indie game and an indie film, when comparing to their mainstream blockbusters. An indie movie still contains real people in it and a well done indie movie doesn't have markedly different looks to them than a "blockbuster" sans things like special effects. That's not to say an indie game can't be successful (many are) but from a general observation point of view there's a ton of difference between how A Big Fat Greek Wedding compares to other movies, compared to Minecraft.

I don't see an iron wheel... I do wee what looks like an upside down Yield sign haha.

The big place where euthanasia becomes a question mark is when people are incapable of giving informed consent. I remember hearing about someone that carbon monoxide poisoned his daughter because she suffered from a horrible case of some brain disease, and spent most of her life suffering from pain. As she's a child, legally we don't give them the right of informed consent to begin with, coupled with the nature of the illness. I think it was Cerebral Palsy which actually isn't degenerative. But the guy mercy killed his daughter because she was suffering most of the time. It spilled over and became hard on the family as a result. If someone is able to give explicit informed consent, however, I typically don't have an issue with euthanasia. I don't think I would be able to perform it, but if both parties are okay with situation then it is what it is.

At the time of writing he said it was at the top of his list for game of the year (though he wasn't done).