metadigital

But once the AI is changing itself, then all bets are off. It's free-form learning, surely? For a moment there I thought you were implicitly stating the case for a creator ... "

You still haven't explained why you can tolerate the OoC solving of puzzles but cannot tolerate the fact that you can metagame aiming (and you must be metagaming, because other people don't seem to be able to duplicate your amazing feats).

Because that will make his observation more or less accurate? QFT

Don't go outside in the rain in your socks.

Are you suggesting that free will cannot spontaneously appear?

It behooves one not to use the same word twice in the same sentence; I couldn't very well say "the target of well-targeted marketing."

How exactly does "I don't enjoy that type of design but can tolerate it" even get near "I am quite pleased with dealing with"? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Try answering the point, rather than nitpicking my sentence structure and choice of analogy. I have to paraphrase your writing because it takes several paragraphs. Excellent. Brevity is the soul of wit, after all. Who said the game has to choke up? Are you seriously trying to say that the gameplay of Deus Ex is below your expectation? Aiming is hard? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Um, it is harder when there are penalties attached to it, yes. That's the point of bonuses and penalties, so working as designed, really ... you are the only one that has stated that you can circumvent the penalties with your metagaming mouse twiddling. "

WTF? See, that's the problem there, then. Blizzard are renown for perfecting games, not inventing new mechanics. They did it with Warcraft before the MMORPG. That's value-add; it also gets them the cash-register choir singing. Artistic merit? Your sounding a bit like a forlorn "tr00 gamer". What sort of artistic merit can you put into a MMORPG, anyway? PS You forgot Guildwars. PPS genera: plural form of genus.

Aren't those Bettys the planes that were sent over in the first wave of the Battle of Midway, that got completely wiped out by the Japanese carriers (before the second wave of better planes destroyed those same carriers)?

Ok, here's the issue framed in small paragraphs. You are saying that the fact that you have learnt a technique to help minimize the physical (in the game) penalty to the PC, yet it doesn't bother you that you can solve the Towers of Hanoi puzzle on Korriban in KotOR because you have encountered it before as part of your life outside this particular game. You are quite pleased to deal with the latter conflict, but find the former a huge problem. And that's leaving aside the fact that I think you are exaggerating the former in Deus Ex, because, personally, I find the more powerful weapons in that game unusable without some PC skill. I have to concur with Volourn here. Numberman is the loser in this argument. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks for your valuable comtribution!

Oh, alright, I'll check my DVD. *goes over to the DVD* *selects "Japanese with English subtitles"* Yes, it does!

You're just a cyberbigot!

Looks like you've got the entire Pacific fleet in the Java Sea!

So you see the inherent inconsistency in your argument, then?

I dunno, but Gabe and his band of Valvers are almost finished re-building Source to use a hybrid multithreading (a mix of both coarse threadings

EVGA NForce 680I

Blame the British.

Is there English subtitles with the native language? (I could check, but that would negate my laziness.)

Abstracted vs. direct control. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Fallout. It's possible. They pretty much maintain the necessary levels and differences between player control and character role. I'm not asking for a complete separation of both, neither would I want to. I want games that go for attempts at combining a sense of character and direct player into the same context to do a better job, or at least a coherent one. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But the only point of contention for you, then, is the player's direct control over the character in combat. Because the player is directly controlling the PC in Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Fallout from a cognitive perspective. I.e., the player can still recognize that the terrain looks like a perfect trap, or use their mathematics skill to solve a puzzle.

But I don't think that is possible. The character that YOU create, is a part of you (to a lesser or greater extent). You are arbitrarily creating a very limited character. As I said, I think that is an arbitrary and unnecessary limitation: you play the game via your PC, it is true, but the puzzles are solved using the player's brain, and the player's knowledge of >spacial conception / learned behaviour / knowledge / whatever< so the player is always ineluctably inextricable from the PC. You can never divorce the player from the PC, lest you end up with WATCHING a play.

It does look very interesting.

Mmhmm. Lovely fairytale. I'd say Idi Amin or Pol Pot, to name just TWO from the last few decades, are pretty good examples of EVIL.

Hasn't been too forthcoming about his brother ... "

The New Statesman is equally as biased as Fox News (just for the left), so I would take their spin with a pinch of salt. I'm not sure what your point is, though, still. That there might be some other information that isn't released to the public domain, in the time of war? Not a big surprise, really. That the coalition is some sort of evil invasion force trying to kill Iraqis just because they have a surplus of munitions?

Do you watch them with English dub, or in Japanese?