Diogo Ribeiro

Actually, it was silly of you to follow in Hell Kitty

They ask for fluff because they know that's what they'll get. If they keep asking for fluff, that's what they'll keep getting. If they want something else but still keep asking for fluff, then the chances of seeing such a realistically modelled planet Earth (even if such an example is a blatant exageration of the type of feature I was discussing) will be constantly grim. Except the suggestion offered wasn't made 'just because', there was reasoning put into it. Perhaps you think it could be more elaborate? That's a valid point of view, but say that instead of suggesting that all I did was claim for something without explaining why, when the reason was there. Perhaps the reason they do what they do is because they believe much more in the 'casual gamer boogeyman' than you would care to acknowledge.

I think everyone already is that guy, but some just don't want to admit it or remember others very often of the fact.

And who's to say entertaining gameplay, fun and immersion are mutually exclusive? It's pretty obvious people have different ideas of what immersion is when applied to works of fiction, be they passive or interactive; but trying to exclude the concept of immersion from a videogame because it's in the eye of the beholder while favoring fun is almost contradictory because both of them depend on the same standard of personal evaluation.

If you don't think the amount of times those features get suggested in comparison to the amount of times the feature being talked about doesn't get suggested is any tangible evidence, then I suppose that's your right to think so; but certainly not mine.

Given I don't advocate realism I'm pretty sure that it is simply a matter of my point flying over people's heads. In fact, if you go back to what I wrote in this thread and try to point out all the instances where I suggest realism you'll come up empty handed. Instead, I'll save you the trouble right now and tell you what I actually *did* suggest: more credibility and immersion, none of which are necessarily tied to realism.

And why is an overall time limit necessarily tied to the real world? Why would such a suggestion even be based on the real world, for that matter? Unless by that statement of your you mean to suggest that any element found in a videogame that has a basis of comparison with something in the real world should not be used? If you look into it, that's more crippling to a videogame than it is to the inclusion of overaching timers. There is a clear difference between trying to imitate all the rules of the real world and transposing them into a videogame (thus potentially making it more realistic), and simply adding elements which may (or may not) have a basis of comparison to real world analogues but are not necessarily based on it (thus potentially making it more credible).

You should attribute that apparent assumption exclusively to your misconception of what I said. Hardly comparable. My comment was not made with the intention or clear indication of assuming someone

Sure, there are varying degrees of just how much this can be achieved. While I'm not sure having most or all quests depend on a timer would break their plausability (though it would certainly aggravate most players), I am more partial to having more signficant events requiring the players' attention which was what I suggested previously. Sometimes the static nature of some in-game situations so all players can adapt to them - instead of having players adapt to what happens in the gameworld - doesn't really feel that satisfying.

Of course, but that was so obvious that it barely required exposition. Again, her particular position wasn't the issue, and it wasn't one to begin with. That I was expressing my enjoyment of the feature when she was expressing her dislike does not mean I was addressing her position which, as you say, is completely valid. If I was refering to her personal position, I would have taken the time to actually address her instead of making indirect posts. My post was more of a reflection of how that feature in particular rarely gets any attention from both developers and gamers alike. It barely gets mentioned in discussions pertaining to possible ways to achive better immersion and/or credibility of a gameworld, and its inclusion in games is scarce. If you're expecting a list of forum users who have expressed their dislike for that feature, you're going to be sorely disappointed because that is not what this is about. I suggest looking elsewhere for your boogeyman.

Perhaps, but by creating the sense that some of the key protagonists' actions as well of some of the major events in the gameworld are not frozen in time until you trigger something, it can lead to the creation of a certain dynamic that feels the gameworld is living and therefore reacting accordingly to what happens in it. I didn't say or suggest Di disliked timers because of the reasons you pointed. My post wasn't aimed at her, so I'd appreciate if you didn't suggest it was.

Pretty disheartening that more people don't feel the same way, really. For all the talk of immersion that's one of the things that strangely flies below people's radar. I guess credible behaviours from the big foozles just isn't as immersive as 256+ colors for my lightsber or party NPCs wanting to bang my PC after having known him/her/it only two hours ago.

I've been waiting to play anything Rifts-related for quite some time on the computer, after having heard a few things about the PnP system. Then they go out and make it an N-Gage game. Waste of development time...

From experience, Temple of Elemental Evil was much buggier than Bloodlines. And while I can't speak for others, I have seen more complaints aimed at the former than the later... And wasn't the buglist for ToEE ginnormous compared to that of Bloodlines?

No, I didn't enjoy Morrowind just the way it was, although I'm not going into lenghts to discuss that. Suffice to say, I think that aging would have made Morrowind more replayable (and in a way more enjoyable) because it would instead encourage them to actually replay it and try different character builds and try achieving other things, instead of being able to be and do nearly everything in one playtrough. This would be particularly noticeable in character builds. If you notice, any character uniqueness the PCs might have had in the beginning is lost in the later stages as nothing prevents players from working on all skills. By the end of the game, most characters will feel the same. A time limit in this case would promote a diversity of character builds and (re)playing experience.

I don't find aging or retirement from an adventuring life to be that much of a problem, really. It's just another way to look at a time limit gameplay mechanic. You could replace Fallout's time limit to destroy the Master's plans and the Mutant Base with aging for some story reasons, and this would still not matter to the gameplay nor would it really bring any negative impact. Aging can also be a good way to increase replayability and from preventing players from doing everything possible in one single playtrough. I actually would have liked to see aging in Morrowind, for example.

Well, back in the Interplay days Feargus had a reputation for believing in the so-called "SLAM DUNK" projects, which take little time to develop and bring in loads of cash. At the time no SLAM DUNK project of his (namely, Icewind Dale 2 and Heart of Winter) were that successful. Knights of the Old Republic 2 more or less continues the trend.

I propose we call ourselves 'The Knights Who Say Slam Dunk' in honor of Feargus.

Heh, very true. I am just hoping it's used more often trough the game. I'm not assuming there's little else beyond what they've shown or that the one situation they've shown is the only one, but if there are more situations like those it might not be a bad idea to showcase them.

It's not a genre that has that much of a hold on me, although I can appreciate some FPSs just fine. As an example I fell asleep when playing Half-Life and was thoroughly disappointed with the later stages. On the other hand I enjoyed Doom, Quake 2, Soldier of Fortune, System Shock and what little I could play of Half-Life 2. Goldeneye and Perfect Dark seem like good titles. I tried playing an emulated version of Perfect Dark but the controls seemed a bit iffy and firstperson shooting on a console doesn't quite grab me. The sole exception up until now seems Metroid Prime, but I may be biased. I'd have to try them again. DK seemed very good. Was it as good as Banjo-Kazooie? That's okay about the post

Whose new avatar? Mine is Zuggtmoy from Temple of Elemental Evil. Darque's is some wench from Icewind Dale. EDIT: Damn you Surreptishus for deleting your post!

Don't litter my thread with sexual innuendo

But I will burn brightly, you hear? Brighter than anyone else!!!

I tried tinkering with modding BG1 at the time. I remember creating a character (Zelthan Greywulf, lolz) and making custom skills for him, similar to those Bhallspawn get. One of them, if I recall correctly, was called Entomb and it was supposed to remove the flesh of the targetted character if he failed his save. Plus, he would also become panicked (with a nice scream in a sound file to go along with it). He also had something like a custom-made vampiric sword which would actually add a permanent +1 to his HPs on a successful hit. Ha ha, munchkin 4 life!

Majora's Mask definitely needs it. Not sure about the others, though. That's true, and I do have a bit over 100 USD to spend; but given I live in Europe, I have to order PAL versions of them. Ordering Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time, Legacy of Darkness and Paper Mario from amazon.co.uk, it pretty much goes above 209.780 EUR (a whopping 254.636 USD).