Gorth

Here's hoping someone doesn't come up with "I don't have the time". Rogue Trader game fell apart like that, le sigh. Maybe he just found we sucked at RP'ing though I hope not. Merlance (the guy running the campaign) has been around for a very long time where I'm playing, so I don't expect him to disappear just like that.

Discovering the the novelty (for me) that is playing "Online P&P Games", participating in an ongoing campaign run by a DM. Quite fun actually (I've never played "real" P&P games before)

Got my free Realms of Arkania 1+2 Took me forever to figure out where to claim the gift. Bought IL-2 1946 too in the hope that it doesn't need to awful GFWL that my disc version of the game requires.

Downloaded the demo from Steam. Might give it spin. The coop, phat loot stuff isn't really my thing, but hey, you never know if you get surprised.

Just out of curiosity, did SWTOR go F2P or is it intended to? I can't deny a certain curiosity, wanting to take a peek at the game.

He's either an idiot or a troll. I haven't quite made up my mind yet...

Icewind Dale. Just finished Kresselacks Tomb and is now heading off to find the Heartstone Gem that those negligent druids lost.

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but as a thought experiment I thought it funny to try to visualise the Fallout deaths in a fantasy version. Nothing that slows down game play, but just the odd over the top death animation, like bisecting, decapacitating, tearing limbs of enemies, disembowling etc. It gets tiresome when overdone, but Jagged Alliance 2 did it nicely because it was so rare, that you went WTF? when a full auto salvo shot off an enemys head resulting in a geyser of blood from the neck.

I would like to see a mix. Some things, like bracers, robes, soft fabric stuff you could rationalise being reused. Metal armour? Leave it for the scavengers to collect, melt down and make pig iron ploughs from. In Gorth's ideal fantasy world, armour would only be available from the master of the arts so to speak, whether that be a blacksmith or something like it that can tailor it to you (at a rather hefty price). Found a piece of legendary armour somewhere? Great, it will look good on the wall of your trophy room. But then, I usually don't like loot rich game mechanics in the first place.

This.

That just means you are good at killing goblins, not necessarily good with a sword Icewind Dale (was it 1 or 2?) handled it nicely by giving your character less and less xp, depending on how much of a challenge they provided.

I've yet to beat the guardians of the Holy Avenger sword in a fair fight in Icewind Dale 2

I wish the tutorial part was skippable in the demo. I tried it but failed at the terminal boredom check before getting to see much of the game. Never got to see how effectively they've implemented destructible terrain. Might just give it a second try tonight (especially after having downloaded 5+ gb).

My name is Allan Schumacher. Sylvius was able to ID me! (the hint is in the username!) Though I do know that some of the skeptics do think I work in marketing. I remember reading a post that stated that my posts on the BSN "clearly" have had editing passes done on them before going live. I took it as a compliment I assumed it was you or Epler: I should have thought about the username. I like your posts on the BSN. The viral marketing part was just a provocation. My point is simple: you should not assume that I'm just a random person who likes to toss mudd about "my" Bioware. Maybe I'm wrong and I'm not using the right world but I'm honest. For me is quite painfull to see the direction you are going as a company since you have been bought by EA. Then I would recommend you head to BSN and express it, because frankly it gets a bit repetitive here...

Rannoch:

It helps if you can mentally compartamentalise (spelling?) the business side from the technical side of things. I've had my share of fist fights (before I became a moderator *cough*) with people, who came barging in with a "If I had made this game, then I would've..." without having worked on a single project to meet a deadline in their life and flinging insults against people who are bound by NDA's to not answer back as it might reveal "confidential" material. Few things rub me more the wrong way than people randomly flinging around insults like lazy or incompetent without having the slightest clue what they are talking about. Often the people they target are the ones who did what they were told without choice. Doesn't mean that some of the suits sometimes cut corners with their ethics and management of expectations. I deal with CEO's, CFO's, CIO's and board of directors on regular basis. What goes on behind closed doors should be 'M' rated sometimes. I can easily understand if severe disappointment in something means you feel "burnt" out and just can't bring the necessary energy and initiative to bear anymore. I'm actually quite envious of somebody who is in a position to do a career change involving studying beer.

I'm surrounded by shrinks

Paralytic sycophants, effete betrayers of humanity, carrion-eating servile imitators, arch-cowards and collaborators, gang of women-murderers, degenerate rabble, parasitic traditionalists, playboy soldiers, conceited dandies. East German Communist Party's approved terms of abuse in 1953 for East German speakers when describing Britain Shamelessly stolen from a website with a collection of insults targeting England and Poms Yes, I realise this is getting slightly off topic, but I suppose some things are better talked through than left to fester. No, I'm not a psychologist.

Yeah, Rugby is the "real" mans sport.

I was just about to enter Kresselack's tomb last night before heading to bed Hmm, somebody once mentioned a post apocalyptic fantasy setting. I wouldn't mind a bleak and hopeless world along the lines of WH40K, just with medieval technology levels. Gothic structures, flagellants preaching doom and gloom in the streets, limited resources that petty lords squabble and fight over, zealots burning every heathen and heretic they can put their hands on, generally a setting where human (and non human) life is cheap and often brutally short. Heck, it should be a challenge to survive a trip to the nearest well for a bucket of water without being eaten by mutants and outcasts.

What a scary thought Hmm, cheesy cliches. Sounds like an obvious target for Obsidians deconstruction tendencies.

Wouldn't "woman" imply somebody older than 16??? Yeah, just kidding. No twilight androgynous characters in my video game please. I once saw 15 minutes of one those on free-tv. Who would have thought commercial breaks a blessing so I could tear myself out of the shock induced paralysis (a traumatic experience). I would like to say that taste improves and refines with age, but I would lie if I didn't admit to some very base desires occasionally, but I like to think it doesn't necessarily come at the expense of appreciation of the more sophisticated things. It does call for some eye-rolling when you see the more juvenile expectations and preconceptions of gender roles.

I deliberately didn't do it as a poll because I hate them and try to stay clear of them. If people feel like something, let them crawl out of the woodwork and present their view rather than an anonymous choice of an option and then hitting the 'vote' button. I don't think anybody has ever taken poll numbers seriously anyway

I would like to know more about the game mechanics before setting my mind in stone so to speak. I was one of those who liked how it was done in VMBL and to some degree in Icewind Dale too. The former gave you "points" to spend for achieving objectives. Bonus points for particularly sneaky ways of reaching your objectives. The latter gave you a small handout of xp for killing monsters, but the bulk of the xp was for completing each "phase" of the game. Probably to ensure that your party had the necessary levels to survive the next part I don't like a pure xp for kills/lockpick/trap disarm/insert trivial thing here, as it is no different from Oblivions learn agility by jumping all over the place like a rabbit thing. It's a tedious grind to gain some arbitrary number to increase. In the end, for me (and I am the most important person in my universe), what matters is that I feel like I make progress in the game. Whether I get physical improvements or just get to keep the loot from killing enemies as reward depends on what the alternatives are. Does anybody know if there is even going to be xp? I don't remember the exact quote, but I'm fairly sure that the interview mentioned rewards for accomplishments, which is not necessarily equivalent to quest rewards. Heck, you could get bonus xp for playing true to your characters nature just because it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy

Funny choice of words since the majority of "romances" so far seems to have been targeting male gamers.