Keyrock

Hear, hear.

I didn't think that was blasphemous. I thought the majority of us felt that way? Anyway, here are some of mine: RTwP is actually slower and far more tedious than TB 95% of all cRPG combat is filler and completely unnecessary I often like games that aren't perfectly balanced and have exploits Elanee is one of the worst companion characters ever written Mass Effect 2 is the best game BioWare has ever developed not named "Baldur's Gate 2" The Witcher nudie cards were awesome And the big one: D&D doesn't just suck as a base for cRPGs, it's also a fairly lousy PnP system.

I'm the opposite. When I'm just walking around in a Elder Scrolls game, I like to be in 3rd person, but as soon as I get anywhere near a battle, I immediately switch to 1st person. Way more comfortable for me to fight in first person, whether it be melee or ranged. Frankly, combat sucks in the games regardless of which view you use.

Globetrotting with George and Nico. Good times. I hear you, gramps. I like a fairly firm mattress too. Nico schmoozing up that dirtbag Laine.

That's sooner than I expected.

I didn't think so... but then touch screens are not a positive feature for me; for one thing the level of control goes down, and for another a keyboard & mouse (aside from offering superior control); are a LOT cheaper to replace if they get messed up with finger oils/dirt/cheetoes cruft, and the like. Well, the touchscreen would mostly be beneficial for spellcasting. Trying to draw the spell symbols with a mouse or trackball was an exercise in frustration for me. It would have been infinitely easier with a touchscreen. Ideally, you'd have a touchscreen along with a mouse and keyboard.

Have you thought about running for public office? You sound like you'd fit right in.

Ohhh, I forgot about Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. And Arx Fatalis. Those were pretty bad. Sound in terms of gameplay concept, horribly executed. At the very least Oblivion, for all its flaws and depth-free combat, didn't have realtime classic grid-style inventory management in a game with real-time first person combat. Arx was a top notch RPG with few peers IMO. The game had great art (for its system requirements), and great rule mechanics, conversation, the spell system is unmatched to this day; the undead were actually scary; the stats & skills actually did their job. The spell selection included undocumented spells that the player goes deduce and then use; the secret passages were actually functional and not arbitrary... I could go on... but I'll stop with the note that the banker in town even sold shares in the mine, that you could sell back to him! incredible! *Hell... you could get the bards drunk, and they'd play their tunes drunk & off key. (And curiously, Arx also had the most credible 'jump' in FPS games that I've played) The concept was terrific, but in practice it was terrible. Arx Fatalis is one game that's just begging for a touch screen.

Yeah, I got a kick out of that play on Sonic Youth too. The Secret World slips in a few fun references like that, and nice and subtle, they don't clobber you over the head with them. It's too bad the mechanics of the game are so crappy and the combat so dreadfully boring, because the writing is fantastic, light years better than any other MMO I've ever played (granted, that's not all that many), and better than the vast majority of single player games.

In uniform getting jerked around by the higher-ups: In the field:

Woot! I'm off to Egypt in The Secret World. The best part about Egypt is that it's not New England. I didn't do every single quest in New England, but I did most of them, the solo ones anyway. I could go back there to finish those up, but, frankly, I live in New England in real life, I don't need to spend any more virtual time there. As an aside, I only wear my Illuminati uniform when inside the Illuminati headquarters. Once I'm in the field, I change into civilian clothes. I do still like to wear Illuminati colors (I look good in dark blue anyway), but at least I'm not wearing a sign advertising that I'm Illuminati while trying to blend in with the locals.

Sweet mother of excess, $200 million is one helluva budget. That kind of model is unsustainable. For ever GTA V record shattering success, there's bound to be a handful (or handfuls) of failures. As the budgets climb higher, the failure to success ratio will just get more and more skewed.

I kinda liked Arx Fatalis. I'm not a big fan of Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, but it at least had the redeeming value of the hilarious awesomeness that was the Kick of Doom.

I thought the general public ate Binfinite right up? Everybody was all GameoftheYearing it up. I guess that doesn't necessarily translate to massive sales?

Scooped it up mostly for Antichamber (I love puzzle games). I already own Giana Sisters (it's quite good). Guacameele looks like it might be cool. I have no clue what The Swapper is. I've heard of Dust, but have no clue whether it's any good. I have no interest in Monaco. This is just adding to my already ridiculous backlog (someone stop me, I need help!). It will be a miracle if I actually play any of these games in the next few months.

I certainly wouldn't call it an RPG, and yes, it was bloody awful.

They weren't even trying to be subtle with Closed Fist. Most of the Closed Fist options were basically MUAHAHAHAHA! *tie damsel to railroad tracks* *twirl mustache* Yet I still love the game.

I liked the pre-color coded system of smile for Open Palm and Grrr expression (aka Old School Lara Croft weapons drawn expression) for Closed Fist dialogue option. It was disappointing how early on they go out of their way to beat into your head that Closed Fist wasn't necessarily "evil", when in practice Closed Fist was very much evil.

Sure, but ankle deep in Wuxia is still better than fully immersed in most other settings for me.

Jade Empire is awesome. On a serious note, I can definitely see why some people hate that game. I love the game dearly, part of that is no doubt my irrational torrid love affair with Wuxia. I'd saw my own leg off* for a Wuxia RPG with top notch controls and combat system. * blatant lie

I think I have about 30 hours of playtime in Skyrim. I enjoyed those 30 hours, but I have no desire to return to it, for whatever reason. I'm not sure what it is, as I recognize Skyrim to be a better game than Oblivion, and better even than Morrowind, in some respects (worse in others). I played both the previous games for hundreds of hours, but not Skyrim. I think I may just be tired of Elder Scrolls in general.

Not really. (Also, the 98% number is a figure I pulled out of my ass, figuratively speaking. Suffice to say 'vast majority') As Zor stated, they serve a purpose. The problem is that of the "bad trolls", I would guess that almost every single one of them thinks they are a "good troll". It takes sharp with and a good grasp of subtlety be a "good troll". A lot of people think of themselves as being witty and subtle, very few actually are.

A good troll is a thing of beauty. It speaks to the human condition, it illuminates the darkness and is an integral option in ecommunication. A good troll is satire, it is well thought out, it is intelligent. A bad troll is a pointless exercise in futility; lazy, facile and worthless. Of course, you can say the same thing about any style of post on the internet, they range from a potential "oh wow, Road to Damascus the scales fall from my eyes" to "please give me that 15 seconds of life and 20 IQ points back". A good troll pokes the self righteous, self important and self serious streak everyone has, and commits the worst crime imaginable to those people- making them look silly. That isn't always possible to do with impeccable logic and Socratic method. People need to be trolled, on the internet and in real life. Everyone needs their fundamental beliefs challenged at various points, if for no reason other than to affirm that you still believe them. And if your fundamental beliefs include the sorts of trivialities that people typically get trolled over then... well, a bit of self examination would not go amiss about whether Pikachu really could take Darth Vader in a fight is a truly important argument to have. The problem is that roughly 98% of trolls fall into what you defined as the bad troll category.

I did know you were joking and it was no problem at all. I joke with people as well and I believe that if you are going to do that you must be prepared to take it. Also we sometimes engage in discussions that get heated and emotional as people take there views seriously. I think that is all part of what constitutes healthy and lively debate and is not Trolling by any means Overmoderation will drive people away as much as undermoderation - whether its official mods or the community policing itself. Eventually those places where the moderation becomes a barrier to communication with whither and either stagnate or collapse entirely, IMO. Agreed on all points. Being a moderator is kind of a thankless task (*ePats moderators on back* Thanks, mods!) and one where you need to make some judgement calls and walk a fine line. A bit of fun, some playful poking the ribs, if you will, is part of a healthy forum community, as is spirited discussion on a variety of topics. However things can escalate quickly and run off the rails even if those who originally began the debate had nothing but good intentions. Taking a hard line and cracking down on every little thing can lead to a forum becoming a police state, which isn't any fun for anyone and can turn the forum into a ghost town quite easily. At the same time, if you let the inmates run the asylum things can go out of control, which can turn your forum into a ghost town just as quickly. *ePats self on back for using a bunch of idioms*