FlintlockJazz

"THEIR" teams? Talk about claiming credit while doing ****-all.

You know, reading all this makes me wonder: was perhaps the writers were using the Force as an analog to player choice in games? You know, how no matter which choice you take you usually always end up in the same situation in the end, with perhaps just different nametags or colours for your enemies? Like how you always end up fighting Rachni in Mass Effect 3 regardless of the choice you make with the queen in the first one? That no matter what choices you make in the first game, they will end up meaningless in the second and made the point by doing the same in KotOR 2 regarding choices made in 1? The Force has always been a plot device used by the writers to get things to happen as they wanted when the character would otherwise not do it, a plot hammer to ensure railroading. Maybe Kreia's fight against the Force is meant to be about author fiat overriding what a character would choose to do, trying to fight against railroading?

Maybe it's because he IS a co-owner and co-founder that he is leaving? This is pure conjecture on my part but anything is conjecture at the moment and it's fun so let's go with it: perhaps as a co-owner he had obligations he couldn't get away from that got in the way of his wanting to do game design more, and felt that it influenced everything he did? He may have held off from pushing for things precisely because he was owner and was worried that it would look like he was abusing his position, and constantly having to deal with people as 'employees' as opposed to co-workers and so actually wound up exerting less influence as a result? He could be going for a more freelance role, where he can pick up work from Obsidian, inXile, and anywhere else that he fancies doing without any obligation to do things he isn't interested in, to deal with people on his terms etc. To shed responsibilities. Complete theorycraft with no relevance to reality and probably offensive, for which I apologise but I love sticking my oar in. :D

Never played KotOR 2, because KotOR 1 sucked monkey balls. Why? Because they are bad games and you are bad for liking them. Seriously, I don't know never played it.

You murdered an innocent kitty??! Why??! Why would you do such a thing??! You fiend!!!!

I've been thinking about the idea that Raedric kills his wife because 'that is the law he has laid down'. We only actually have his word that this was the reason he did it, and he goes on and on about how she 'betrayed him' and was the cause for their son being hollowborn. This sounds more like he killed her out of a desire for vengeance not justice, and is now just trying to dress it up as something just. Just something to consider, I know we have been 'taught' by games to always take things at face value (because that is how the writer tries to get his points and character development across), but maybe in this one things people are not always to be taken at their word.

What? We're not talking about the Dark Ages here? Weren't you alive in 1998? To call it so much darker than today is a peculiar claim. Unsupported by my own memories and I was already 35 back then. He may have been talking about medieval society, as in people were darker back in the period of time the games were set. Don't quote me on that, it's not too clear.

MCA barely mentions his work on Pillars and quickly moves on, while he talks at length, and, dare I say, lovingly, about Wasteland 2 and TToN. Hmm... I noticed the following: Completely reading into things obviously, nothing to back it up, but what if he is planning his own Kickstarter project?

I live in the UK and I have received all of mine. Can't bring myself to take it out of the shrink wrap for fear of ruining it but I gots it.

Thanks for the link!

Goddamnit. I know he was 93 and was fortunate to get to such an age (and still be so physically able throughout his old age), but still not good to hear. An icon not just for his work in front of the camera but his life in general.

I found him to be a great tank even before you could reconfigure his skills. I found making an uber tank, unless you are playing PotD (which I have no experience with and so cannot confirm nor deny effectiveness there) is actually not only unnecessary but actually a waste. Eder can both tank and do decent damage if built right, with the emphasis changing depending on what weapon set you equip him with.

I fookin' love the image this conjures in my mind! Anyway, could it be that Obsidian and inXile are doing the employee version of a game of wife swapping? You know, Fargo gets to bed Chris for a night and Fergus gets to bed one of their guys? Or they are like swapping people like they do with baseball cards or OMIGOD CHRIS AVELLONE IS A POKEMON!!!!! It all makes sense now! They must've had too many Avellonachus and decided to swap one!!!! You all heard it here first!

Wow, did not see this coming. I'll refrain from commenting further on this until we get more information but it is his life I suppose, his choice what to do with it... for now... *returns to world domination plans*

It's certainly a factor in the glorious gestalt that has me rolling on the floor whenever I watch it, but I wouldn't give it undue weight. I usually use DA: O as an example of what I mean by teen-dark, but I have started to wonder if maybe I have not been giving Bioware enough credit, that maybe they intended it to be hilarious....

On the other hand, that tends result in (unintentional) hilarity, which is also good. Exhibit A: As Amentep said, glorious! :D

Yeah, and I didn't contradict it. My point was merely that it's foolish to put any real stock in reviews at all. Not only game reviews, but all product reviews. If it's about a car, it's the same thing. The journalist gets to drive a fancy motor for a period of time for free. Do you think, he's going to destroy the image of the company providing it? If he did, next time he won't be on the list. And that's exactly the same with games. If there are negative reviews, apart from ad money being a concern, magazines reporting badly won't get invited to get an early sneak peak at the next game. They won't get early copies, but everyone playing ball will. So it's hurting their own business if they can't report while every oher hack does get the opportunity. That's why you hardly find any bad reviews about AAA titles. A look at metacritic and the disconnect between gamers and magazines becomes abundantly clear in many instances. And lastly, there's this thing called advertorials. Outright paid articles that give themselves the appearance of being legit. That's hard to spot for the average reader, since they don't know about the wording used in PR and the assumed psychology behind them. When I read a particularly friendly article about a certain company in a paper or a magazine, my alarm bells go off, since I know the inner workings of the business. Okay cool thought that was what you were doing and I agree totally with you but I just wanted to be clear in case people misunderstood, since I probably wasn't very clear in my original post. Agree with all your points totally.

Pillars wasn't dark and gritty. And the part that were dark and gritty were done in an adult and mature fashion, not like a teenager's concept of dark and gritty that is the usual version we get in games.

I'm sorry but just what are we supposed to be discussing here then? I asked for clarification on what you considered an RPG because you repeatedly stated it as counter-reasons, but now you pull the "There's no hard and fast definition!" card? One that I had already pointed out to you? I already explained why I considered it one, and was asking you why you didn't, and you evade the question. For someone who keeps throwing out claims that people are dogmatic or narrow-minded in their views you are certainly coming across as very dogmatic and narrow-minded yourself. I wasn't referring to GELFs when I asked you to start responding to questions, but you saying that you don't have an opinion and that they are plot elements also makes me question why you started making out that I was after some hard sci-fi if you consider them as such, since I explicitly stated that I didn't want it hard like 2001, I never mentioned being against FTL or many other things. Is it because I wanted the game to look into how things like genetic engineering would impact society? Pillars looks into how knowledge of the soul and reincarnation would affect society, it's not hard sci-fi is it? Is it because I said I wanted it harder than a lot of the sci-fi we have been getting? There is a degree of hardness and again I explicitly stated that I didn't want it hard like 2001, I just like there to be better worldbuilding and more thought into why they have certain conventions than the typical fare we get. I feel like you were strawmanning me, making it out that I am standing for some pet peeve of yours so that you can tear it apart. And are unwilling to consider that people may not like your pet idea of reskinning Pillars, rather preferring they build a system around the world rather than forcing the world to adhere to a system not designed for it. This is not an attack I am just genuinely confused as to what it is being debated here and what I feel is happening.

As far as I am concerned, most if not all reviews by magazines and game sites are worthless. You can still learn something from reading them by looking at the authors preferences. If they happen to coincide with your own and the review is positive, it's probably a game for you. Personally I rather look at reviews by the gamer community and actual ingame videos to make my own judgment. In most cases, this has proven to be the right approach for me, since working for a special interest magazine myself I know first hand how ad money influences stories. Um I was making a reference to how people were arguing about a review from the Codex before (one in which they slagged off PoE) and are now arguing about it again (this time one praising it) and how it all feels pretty much the same, just to be clear.

IT WORKS!!! MY TIME MACHINE WORKS!!!! BWAHAHAHAHA! FEAR ME MORTALS FOR I COME FROM THE FUTURE TO TELL YOU ALL TO DESPA- Wait, this isn't the past? People are just talking about yet another worthless review from the Codex? Oh, well, carry on then...

Psionics has been debated as space magic for years, suggest you do some further research yourself. It is considered a bigger sign of fantasy than FTL, as at least FTL could maybe be possible but is unlikely, psionics is considered magic especially when it goes beyond mind reading and into the capabilities such as those used by biotics. I am not going to further discuss your other points since not only do I not feel the need to defend my tastes for hard sci-fi from your apparent belief that it is BadWrongFun that I am starting to feel talking to you (all I did originally was express what I wanted in a sci-fi game, I never said what you wanted was invalid just not to my tastes), but I have noticed that you seem to ignore half my posts, such as my questions about why you consider Deus Ex not an RPG, a question I was genuinely asking you since I wanted to understand where you were coming from, indicating that you are just trying to 'beat' me rather than converse with me and are only responding to things that you can prove wrong and trying to avoid answering things yourself. Good night.

Have you actually played Mass Effect? Because from your comments it sounds like you haven't. Mass Effect includes magic from the get go (called Biotics), has giant cthulhu monsters (the Reapers), includes resurrection from complete death using magitech (Reaper-tech), has space-zombies (husks), etc. Space Opera actually does attempt to use "realistic" science in order to explain stuff, with the degree that it uses determining how far along the Space Fantasy - Hard Sci-fi axis it is. So what does a game need to be considered an RPG in your eyes? Because most people consider the first Deus Ex to be an RPG even if they don't classify the later ones as such, it has stats that influence all aspects of the game including shooting (you won't hit your target if you don't have enough points in the skill even if you are pointing right at them, so no it's not a first person shooter), choice and consequence (moreso than most other RPGs), does it need to be isometric for you to consider it a RPG?

I don't dismiss it. I like Space Fantasy, I love Star Wars, I just think it's important to distinguish the two because they are actually quite different and appeal to different tastes. I would classify Star Trek as Space Opera and Mass Effect (especially 2 onwards) as Space Fantasy, there's a scale between the two extremes of Space Fantasy and Hard 2001 Sci-Fi. But hey, if we are pointing out narrow definitions then I think your definition of RPGs is also very narrow and dismiss anything else as 'shooter with token RPG elements'. In fact, which Deus Ex are you classifying as shooter there? Just the last one? All of them?

Got mine ages ago. Maybe they have gotten lost?