Slowtrain

that would appear to not be the current paradigm of AAA game development though. WHich is try to make more money by spending obscene amounts of money on a game and needing to sell x million copies just to break even. The obvious way to make money developing game is to develop niche titles and plan your budget accordingly and not back yourself into a corner in regard to having to sell a ridiculous number of copies. But that's not the way the AAA publishers are going about it. My guess would be that anything less than a siginifcant percentage of WoW numbers will be a failure.

Going to do it! erm...soon as I get to the library that is. And given it's going to be 35c plus for the next few days, probably won't have the energy until it cools off next week.

I always liked Lenny's "I am the master, you are the learner" combat taunt. Good for a chuckle.

I keep stopping at about the time the kid gets tossed off the roof. I always seem to run out of steam at that point. But I'm always game for another shot.

That's definitely the sane and rational approach to developing an mmorpg in the Age of WoW, but given the power of the force as an IP, I can't believe that it isn't being targeted as a WoW killer. Or, if not a WoW killer, than at least a product that will compete at WoW's level. Which of course means they're going to have to sink in a ton of money on everything from promotion to infrastructure to support to development. If it fails, it would be pretty painful. I don't think failure is pre-ordained however. WoW must be getting a little long in the tooth for players at this point.

I can't my copy of Game of Thrones. I probably threw it away. Now I'll have to see if the library has it.

Star Wars is a pretty powerful IP no doubt. Is it powerful enough to throw down WoW? It'll have huge numbers at start-up no doubt. But for how long? Will this be end the end of WoW's otherwordly dominance? It'll be cool to see what happens.

GRRM is sufficient at what he does. I've got no problem with it/him/his writing. As I said before he's better than most who work in that genre. To some degree he's simply hamstrung by his apparently preferred choice of genre; high fantasy is pretty moribund in general. I have a problem with his poor use of language, and his prose. He can string a good yarn, but he sure a **** can't write it in a way that flows, isn't jarring, or just plain bad. It's like he's got these wonderful concepts, he just fails to get it onto paper in a way that isn't disturbingly cack! I don't recall it being that poor, but you never know. If I can dig up my one and only GRRM book, maybe I'll give it another try. This would be like the fourth time I've tried to get through it. Maybe this is the one!

I dunno. I think if one reads a fair bit, not everything that's ever been done, but just enough to get a sense of the possibilities within the field of written narrative, I think it becomes possible to get a sense of when a writer is doing (or has done) something different from normal or somethig worthy of notice. It's not even a matter of like or dislike really: there are probably more writers that I think are brilliant who I really don't like than writers who I do like that I think are brilliant. And a lot of writers that I like who I don't think are even remotely brilliant. To your point about having writers write about their day: a lot of writers do in fact write about the utterly mundane and turn it compelling or at least intriguing. Not that such is better than writing epic imaginative fiction, of course.

They need to add xcom and system shock.

This is how we toy with you in your absence

GRRM is sufficient at what he does. I've got no problem with it/him/his writing. As I said before he's better than most who work in that genre. To some degree he's simply hamstrung by his apparently preferred choice of genre; high fantasy is pretty moribund in general.

The last 2000(+) years of human history are filled with writers who could possibly be labeled as brilliant, depending on one's preferences or beliefs in the art of the written narrative. GRRM isn't one of them, not even by the longest, remotest, most questionable stretch of the word brilliant.

Transformers.

I have no particular dislike for GRRM, but that anyone would consider his writing brilliant is just pretty sad. His writing is functional and does what it needs to do, which for this kind of fiction is more than good enough.

Pacing is really only an issue in a linear game that keeps the player on rails the whole time. Half-life for example. not important at all in rpgs and strat games. When I play a game I prefer to set my own pace anyway.

rpgs tend to leave pacing more up to the player. You can always rush through if you want. Or take your time and explore every nook and cranny. It's why they are generally more more interesting that shooters. shooters by and large tend to be stunningly dull.

Based on the horror stories we hear from devs about their miserable experiences at major studios, it seems to make perfect sense. This indie game and browser game nonsense isn't going to make them much money on the long run. That's probably true, but it may be a situation where less money in an independent environment is better for the moment that more money in a big AAA project. Some of these developers we hear about worked in what appear to be pretty miserable* conditions for years while trying to complete a project. Those are years of your life you'll never get back. Maybe for some the money isn't worth it. *when I say miserable I'm not comparing it to working in a coal mine for 50 years or starving in a refugee camp. There are a lot of people in the world who suffer a lot more genuine misery than game developers. I'm just talking miserable in a relative sense.

I was pretty shocked by the Fitzgerald hate. I was also shocked that Tolkien was called a bad writer. I can understand being bored by a great writer's choice in subject matter, that is all about personal taste, but there are reasons these folks are legends of literature. SOme of it I think is just the passing of time. I think if people today were forced to read Henry James without any guidance or support they would find it a miserable experience and probably hate him as a writer. Not because he's a bad writer per se, but the gap in tiem is just too vast now. I remember when I first read Moby ****, it was an impenetrable mass that I could barely comprehend. Now, many years, later, its one of my favorite novels. The only thing that really changed for me was time, compehension, awareness.

Based on the horror stories we hear from devs about their miserable experiences at major studios, it seems to make perfect sense.

what is that? some new-fangled kid's invention, I'll bet. Yeah, it's not like HoMM VI is going to get released in a few months. I though HoMM VI had all ready been released and everybody hated it. huh. Must have dreamed that.

what is that? some new-fangled kid's invention, I'll bet.

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises are my two favorite novels. Probably the wrong thread for that statement though.

Nothing in my toilet has a radioactive glow. Just a kind of funky smell.

*shrug* I do. Not out of any overly developed sense of altruism, perhaps, but because their own of the few developers that still makes games that I tend to like. Even though I can't say that anything that they've done over the last few years is an all time fave or anything, still the hope is always there.