rjshae

Books are immersive because you surrender your disbelief and absorb yourself in the story and let it lead you through it. However, in a RPG, you assume the role of a character. It is your thoughts are decisions that are influencing the story. Yet your entire involvement in the outcome boils down to a handful of menu picks. When I only have a few cookie-cutter choices for how I respond, and none of them fit my concept for the character, then it is can be completely immersion-breaking, regardless of the quality and maturity of the writing. The result is that I have no emotional involvement, no concern about the characters, and little interest in the outcome. This is the inherent flaw in the current generation of menu-driven CRPGs, and no amount of panning of that argument is going to improve the experience for me. Can you prove to me that this problem can be fixed? If not, then it is hardly spurious. This is also why I want something completely different from the run of the mill romances, because it adds a deep level of the unexpected to my choices and engages my interest.

Another update: Snow White - An Adventure for Pathfinder RPG and D&D 3.5 -- A hardback edition of our fantastic, five-star adventure Snow White, a faithful rendition compatible with Pathfinder RPG and D&D 3.5. $9,990 with 28 days to go. Necromancer Games: Back for 5th Edition! -- 5th Edition Rules: 1st Edition Feel! Monsters, Adventures, and Spells for 5th Edition! Succeeding at $28,657 with 55 days to go. d6xd6 CORE Role-Playing Game -- Quick-and-easy 5-minute character creation. Tactical combat rules. Three dozen professional settings so far. Succeeding at $3,200 with 23 days to go. Fragged Empire, Tabletop RPG -- Betrayed by your creators, you are a genetically engineered remnant emerging from the ruin of genocidal war. Succeeding at $52,995 with 22 days to go Ponyfinder: Griffons of Everglow Pathfinder Expansion -- Expanding on the Ponyfinder Campaign Setting, Griffons of Everglow takes a closer look at how these majestic people work in Everglow. Succeeding at $15,684 with 23 hours to go. Rhune: Dawn of Twilight (Expanded Primer & Adventures) -- Bringing Stormpunk to the Pathfinder RPG! Inspired by Planescape, the Iron Kingdoms, Tesla, & Norse Myth. Are you ready for Ragnarök? Succeeding at $9,822 with 20 days to go. Chronicles of Ramlar RPG, Pathfinder Edition -- Chronicles of Ramlar RPG comes to Pathfinder! Explore the exciting world of Eranon with innovative game mechanics like One-Roll Combat! $1,173 with 32 days to go. Fear The Living RPG -- The world you knew is gone, consumed by the hungry dead. This is the story of what happens next. $1,972 with 22 days to go. The Lost Territories -- Tabletop RPG with a unique character system, strange powers, and a gorgeous setting. Flintlocks and fireballs, together at last. $2,602 with 21 days to go.

Correction: people like good games. Using this logic, not trying to be completely asinine, but Doublefine would be making millions on Broken Age. True, people like to play good games. Tastes vary, of course. But I do think that many of us suspected there remained a latent market for old-school CRPGs. The people who didn't seem to know it were many of the corporate suits in charge of deciding what games get funded. D:OS and others will hopefully demonstrate that there is at least a niche market that may be worth some funding. At least until they saturate it with a pipeline full of fodderall.

Mundane romances in CRPGs just feel contrived to me. If there is any romance at all, I think I'd prefer to see it have some surprising novelty. How about a romance with a soul trapped inside a strange creature, or even an inert object? To interact personally, you'd need to travel to a spirit realm where physical substance has less influence. Or you could have a romantic interaction with a person from another time period (through magical means), then try to track down the current form of the person and have to deal with the consequences of their current condition.

It looks like the physical copy of the 'Making of' DVD doesn't even kick in until the $140 level. For contributing that much, I think they are entitled to some special treatment.

We all have ideas. It's implementing them in an enjoyable way that's the hard part.

Heh, funny how all the 'crap' and 'overrated' teams made it to the elimination rounds. People must have especially rosy memories of past WC tourneys.

My understanding is that the contract signed with TSR made certain contractual allowances for the use of the name 'Baldur's Gate'. Thus it could have legal ramifications that may make it more financially feasible to create a Baldur's Gate 3 than, say, a Waterdeep 1. It wouldn't necessarily need to be connected to the original, in the sense that Icewind Dale 2 told a whole new tale. Or it could have some loose connections. *shrug*

They'd go like all Brazil on us...

I wonder if, in retrospect, Bioware may have been better served in regards to the Knights of the Old Republic 'brand' if they had avoided making it into an MMO and instead just kept making engrossing story-centered single player games. As I recall, the announcement there would be no KOTOR 3 and instead we would get an MMO was met with much the same contempt that's being heaped on the concept here. I think its become very common for people in general, not just the RPG geeks gathered here, to react to the announcement of a new MMO set in their favorite franchise with a groan rather than any enthusiasm. Whether it's fair or not, I now associate a company's decision to make an MMO with the kind of myopic stupidity you'd expect from a senior EA executive or some other such figure who doesn't understand games beyond the potential they have for milking customers dry. I expect that Obsidian is smarter than that. Remember, there was a time when WoW was going gangbusters and it looked like a good model for game production. You'd have to assess the state of the market at the time the decision was made to determine whether it was a sensible choice. The market for MMORPG will undoubtedly follow the hype cycle and at some point stabilize. In the meantime, hopefully gaming companies will better recognize the unique story-telling strengths of single-player and co-op CRPGS.

Nice work! It's good to see original creatures like these. The animated form of the Rain Blight seems too stable given its watery nature, but perhaps that's because it is stationary. Otherwise they look good. A digitally downloadable copy of the documentary is fine with me. Thank you for the update.

I'd rather see an updated NWN2 done right... along with a builder's toolset. It's still the best game around for party-based D&D CRPG module building.

Wow. 7-0.

I think it would be a financially risky move, unless Obsidian partnered with somebody to spread the risk. First, though, they should establish the PoE brand by building a dedicated following with single-player games.

Note to self: grab asbestos umbrella in preparation for s***storm of grumbling about disabled functionality in the beta release...

Wake me up when the Delta release is out.... Thanks for the update.

Essentially this. If I'm designing a realistic medieval merchant who sells magic items, then does he keep lots of cash and magic on hand without a suitably powerful guard? Probably not. He'd have a safe location somewhere. If you want to buy an item, he'd have a list of available stock. You put down a deposit, then he makes arrangements for delivery at a time and place of his choosing. At that point he can hire suitably powerful guards for a short interval, using your deposit. This saves on costs--he doesn't need to pay for the elite guard services full time. It would be the same for you selling an item. It's the same principle as why merchants use the armored truck. This means that every time you want a magic item transaction, there's a built-in latency where you sit around waiting for some period of time. You don't like that? Well tough beans, it's a realistic simulator. There's some benefit in having a level of abstraction in a multi-character game like this.

I suspect the benefit of a "bag of holding", given the current equipment mechanic, would be a larger Pack capacity. Possibly there could be similar but more limited gear that you could equip, like a 'belt pouch of holding' for potions.

A Bester thread? Rot-ro...

They are allegedly a rather mediocre team which is led by one very good player, whom some people also think is overly hyped. To me they certainly don't seem mediocre; I just think the rest of the world is catching up, skills-wise. It seems like more of a balanced contest now, even if the big powers are still dominating.

I have a concern about the physical media being planned for this game. If the master disk is based on the bits from the initial release of the game, then it is likely to need patching. However, if Obsidian waits until there is a generally stable version (say after 3 months), then the media should be good to use without requiring any network access. What is your preference?

Somebody wandering in and looking for a PoE discussion would probably be very confused at this point...

What I wouldn't mind seeing is the Tim Allen approach to dialogue; various vocal utterances indicating the mood of a response, such as hmm, err, uhuh, or ohohoh...

Many role-playing games tend to abstract certain tedious elements, such as trading. I don't think they need to show every little detail of the merchant accessing the secure vault in the cellar where the gold and magic items are stored.