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The original BG1 is unique - it's better balanced than any modded copy, as Tutu can introduce various weirdities and summoning is broken-ish. I'm just too used to the high resolution now, though, and various modded things like faster bears and BG2-style contingency-loaded mages. That said, good old wand of fireball + oil of fiery burning hasn't failed me so far... now on to TOTSC content before returning to Baldur's Gate for the final showdown. I'd play some Icewind Dale ironman, but need to find my CDs... maybe I'll make an ironman thread when/if I do. Get BGT, n00bs. It's better supported/debugged, I hear. And it has neato transitions. I'm also starting a new game. I had planned on soloing but since Imoen is so deeply ingrained into the plot (especially as SoA doesn't seem to care if she was left dead by the side of some road...), I figured it'll be <CHARNAME> and her. So I changed her class to F/M/T and went with a F/M/C for <CHARNAME>. "Nestled atop the cliffs..."

Yeah, every single case I bring up, you can wave your hand and dismiss as a "unique success story". But you know what, you are right. I don't need Counter-Strike, as that's an example of a mod becoming bigger than its parent game... and becoming a mainstream title in the process. That is not the kind of example I should have been looking for. Want definite proof of how big the modding scene is? Go to any given major modding site, take a look at the download numbers. Not every game has a modding community that big or that active, but then again, games are a dime a dozen today. No, I don't believe I said easily moddable games are necessarily more successful, or that the contrary applies either. Either you misunderstand or are misrepresenting me. However, it is a fact that developers are aware of the potential in mods, and often even encourage it. I guess both NWN games are "unique success stories" too, as is Oblivion? Yes, well. For the average price of mods ($0 USD), I don't think this is something you can complain about with a straight face. This is linked to the point you made further down about spending $60 on a game you aren't interested in. Well, duh. Who buys a game in which they have no interest whatsoever? If wargaming in the Hellenistic period doesn't interest you, you aren't going to hear about RTR... but then RTW won't particularly attract you either. If today no game does anything for you, not even as far as themes are concerned, then maybe it's time to find another hobby. I mean this in the sense that game production has multiplied in the last two decades, and all genres are covered. If you can't find anything that strikes your fancy at all, maybe it's you who has the problem, and not the world. There are also sites dedicated to modding news you can follow. The argument isn't that mods are meant to make or break a sale (and I'd appreciate you keeping the strawmanning to a minimum here), but that they can insuflate new life into a game you'd otherwise play maybe just once or twice, placing it right up there with any of those oldies that you loved so much. Not to mention that modding processes are much easier to influence than standard development projects, increasing the likelihood that a mod will be suited to your tastes. But yeah, "stultification", indeed. Heh. Well, I miss the days when I spent all day being carried around on a stroller, suckling a teat when I wasn't napping. Good times. But I think I'd draw quite a bit of flak if I wrote a piece complaining about my rotten luck. Times change. If you don't change along, things are going to get tougher for you. Nothing wrong with sticking to one's guns, but this sounds a bit like the guy wants to have his cake and eat it, in the sense that he doesn't want to do any work looking for content that may appeal to his preferences. This is especially jarring considering that he explains that he doesn't have any other hobbies, and that lack of time isn't an issue for him.

Because it does. Hello, Counter-Strike? It's a fact that devs are making their games easier to mod, going so far as releasing SDKs for public use. Isn't that "the industry" at work? The author complains that from his niche perspective, gaming no longer offers quality entertainment, because of economic reasons. Modding and indie productions are, I think, the only alternative to the extremely limited production targeted at niche market segments. He overlooked the modding aspect, and that's all I'm saying. No, no. What I'm saying is that there is certainly a way to get your fix other than playing the same old BG2 over and over. Granted, the piece referred to E3 so that's neither here nor there, but then why discuss indie projects? How big is their presence at E3 anyway? I'm not sure how much time you spend tracking (or even searching for) mods that might interest you. That you haven't heard about it doesn't mean much -- most mod projects don't have a dedicated PR department and rely on word of mouth. I'm sure that, if you play any online game regularly wherein a certain mod has become popular you'll have, at the very least, heard about it. The weight on the market is decidedly limited, but remember we're discussing niche interests, here.

1) I have no idea. And frankly, I don't care. I know I did, and that's good enough for me. 2) Depends on who you ask, I guess. To the people who liked vanilla RTW, I'm going to assume it's not so bad. And not for me either, as the mods were there when I needed them. I might have a different opinion if the game didn't have such a modding community around it. 3) I reckon it's a fairly popular mod (though I liked Europa Barbarorum better myself), so I don't know the proportion of RTW players that have tried such mods. Not everyone has the same tastes, so not everyone is in the mood for edutainment when they fire up a game. I know I'm not always. I'm not really too fond of opinion pieces that are just *RANT!*, and go on about how bad things are... while actually ignoring how things are. The author stopped playing X-Com when it became real-time. But there was a "X-Com" game by fans that was essentially a total conversion using the Quake 2 engine. It looked fairly promising last time I checked.

Nice article, but I think he has failed to consider the immense weight that modding has on the industry nowadays. Case in point, RTW is fairly "pop" in its depiction of the Hellenistic period and rise of the Roman Empire, but this is fixed, for those that want it to be fixed, by mods. I don't think I'd be able to stomach many modern games without mods.

Seriously, do you even think before delivering your inane one-liners? I'm betting you could do it asleep. How is not installing unwanted software and not participating in a deal you don't think is advantageous to you "futile"? How is it even a "gesture"? Uh...

Oh, right. So that doesn't count because... it's an exception. Robben's dive doesn't count either because... that's another exception. Van Bommel's constant kicking and stomping don't count because the man is an exception unto himself, and so on and so forth. Hahaha, but yeah, everyone but you is biased, quite obviously. Van Bommel should have been sent off before half time, and Heitinga's cards were well deserved. While it's undeniable that the corner kick that the ref didn't grant is pretty inexcusable, it's a bit of a stretch to chalk up Spain's victory to bad refereeing.

No. I'll grab my rifle, a bunch of ammo, rations for three days, and head for the hills. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Is it GOG that provides DRM-free content you can administer yourself? Do they now? I wonder, have you played AvP?

Dear TrueNeutral: Kind regards, Xabi Alonso You could, oh, I don't know... Support Netherlands?

Well, yeah. Until all we got was cheap DVD cases. A game collection is like a well-sorted movie collection on the shelf, or a library of books. Except that they are, you know, video games. [...] That's exactly the kind of thinking that has put gaming in this cultural slump. To expand on this: Popular pieces of literature such as this one fill many a bookshelf

Huh? So what. People collect all sorts of weird things ranging from keychains to bottle caps. A VG box collection is somehow something not worth the space it occupies? Outside of install speeds, I don't care about having a "physical" copy, as a physical copy is as likely to fail as an electronic one stored in a server elsewhere, if not more likely, perhaps. For me, it's a matter of control. I'm giving up a great deal of control over something I've paid for, to someone else, to accomodate commercial interests that likely infringe on my rights (first sale doctrine). I depend on them exclusively for access to the game, I depend on them exclusively for access to updates, and backups are useless. And, as far as I know, they don't have a contractual obligation to fulfill their promise to patch DRM out of games if they ever go out of business or otherwise close shop. And, on principle, I don't trust corporations.

I didn't know about this Steam bull**** in NV. That's one less disbursement I have to plan for, then. I guess rant threads may have a purpose. Even if that purpose is only tangential to the subject, if at all.

Gio's: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/goals/video/v...9644/index.html I haven't watched all matches in the tournament, but that is by far the best shot I've seen. BOOM!

I think you should watch it again...

There is no way to establish what the people in your examples might have or not have accomplished had they not done drugs. So, their value as "proof" is, let's say, debatable, as we don't have a "zero-point" to compare against. "Сum hoc ergo propter hoc" They both also had mommy/daddy issues, and were possibly closet homosexuals. Are we to assume that means that those things also foster "creative thinking" (whatever that means anyway)? edited for extra smugness

Yeah, don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Oh, so I guess all those posts where you quoted me directly and addressed my points weren't really directed at me, but at "people in general". Heh, okay. It's interesting, because this links with what I've been saying all along: Oh, but wait. You did claim that ANY real name is at risk of being abused. That includes my own. Here, in case you forgot:

Hahaha. How else are they going to get it, pray tell? I have never made any details about myself public, except for irrelevant facts about my military career. I consistently lie in all registration forms that ask for anything more personal than an e-mail address. I don't own property. I don't appear in the phone directory. I don't have a presence in social networks. I don't have public profiles anywhere. Oh, right. I forgot about that method. Damn, foiled again!

Er, it does, because the only way one is going to get my personal data is by breaking into a government DB. Which you can't do with just "targeted datamining". It's pretty funny that you made these inane claims without having any idea about what my line of work is or how security conscious I am with regards to my personal data. But hey, you guaranteed it, so it must be true!

Uh, read your own posts? Wow, yeah. Then why aren't you mass-stealing credit card numbers? Practically they are there for the taking and, after all, it's only a crime if you get caught. The ZILLIONS you can make from this could easily cover your legal expenses! I'm sure you could also easily bribe a few judges and ministers, if push comes to shove! Is this some scam you're trying to sell here? I, for one, am not buying.

I don't know where you live, but over here, bribing public officials or servants to obtain private data is a criminal offense and will likely land both you and the official in jail. Yes, it's possible, but unlikely -- unless one lives in your nightmare world of asian elite haxors and teenage criminals that will empty your bank account without a second thought. For the nth time, there's nothing new in all this. How do you thing PIs work? Do you know how arduous and tedious a PI's work is? That's a full-time job, fyi. No, you got it all wrong. You post bull****, I call you on it. That's how this works. If you don't like it... you can stop posting balls at any time. I can accept that the WoW boards membership isn't exactly the cream of the crop... but hey, are they as a collective more inclined towards crime? Because the sort of paranoia you're putting forth involves breaking some laws... not that you'd know that, from your posts. Which is, I concede, a very real cause for concern.

Obviously, logic doesn't mean what you think it means. Ridiculous, am I? Wait, who was it that used asian elite hax0rs breaking into secure govt databases in minutes as a vehicle to support his arguments? You, sir, are a ****ing joke. This is bull****. "The truth is in the middle" is a useless aphorism and trivially easy to disprove... as is the case with sweeping generalisations. If I said "blacks are inferior" and you denied it, does that mean that "some blacks are inferior", because "the truth is in the middle"? As for people being harassed... that will continue to happen (yes it is happening already *SHOCK!!!*), regardless of policies adopted by Blizz on their boards. Stalkers aren't anything new, in case you didn't know. Sorry to break it to you, but that doesn't even make sense, mate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalizatio..._the_particular Yes, yes. The world is a really dangerous place, and it's full of tech-savvy pro stalkers with "connections"... that rely nonetheless on you leaving your personal data in the open. Seriously, that guy could not find me unless he was an Interpol agent. But yeah, I guess Interpol agents have lots of friends with nothing better to do than prank calls on some nobody on the other side of the world... But I'm ridiculous. \o/

No, I read it just fine. I just see it as one of the obvious possible consequences of posting private information in a public forum. I'm surprised you don't. I repeat the question: how is this, again, a qualitative jump in risk from having your name and phone number appear in the directory? Or posting wedding announcements on the newspaper? I find that doing that sort of things and complaining about one's privacy being at risk are incompatible. But hey, I may just be paranoid, right? Because WoW boards users are like a Biblical scourge, or something. I already admitted where this could be a real risk, and it's with regards to data mining ops by HR depts. But as another poster said, if playing WoW is going to get you fired, maybe it's time to quit.