metadigital

Pretty much none of those is a requirement for the CRPG genre, much less traditional elements. If you go with tradition you'll find nearly the opposite of what you pine for in some of the first CRPGs out there. Back then turnbased shared the same space as realtime and phasebased; isometric, firstperson and 'bird's eye view' were all contemporary; and a "good story" often translated into subtle variations of Doom's "kill thing, find key, kill big thingie, you win". Also, much as I like turnbased it isn't required for a CRPG. You only need a combat system that, like turnbased, allows a distinct enough separation between character and gamer; otherwise we enter the usual situation of not playing a character but instead playing myself (ye olde character skill vs. player reflex). Turnbased, phasebased and some implementations of realtime manage that. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ah, the olde "kill thing, find key, kill big thingie, you win" strategy ... they don't make them like that, anymore!

Greg Costikyan has designed more than 30 commercially published games in various genres and platforms. He has written about the game industry for publications including the New York Times, Salon, and Game Developer magazine. At present, he works for Nokia Research Center's Multimedia Technologies lab as a games researcher. ... But Sales are Up! Yes, they are; the games industry is the fastest-growing entertainment industry on the globe and unit sales increase year by year. There was a time that a million-seller was considered extraordinary, and now there are several every year. And if you believe, say, Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan, we can anticipate soaring growth for decades to come; surely all is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds? Why is it that sales are up? The answer is very simple: Demography. Fifteen years ago, almost nobody over 20 (and almost nobody not male) played games. These days, almost nobody over 35 plays games. In other words, a much larger percentage of the population as a whole plays games. Not because more people have become gamers, exactly - rather, because people's leisure time activities tend to be set in their teenage years, and they pursue the same activities as they get older. Thirty-five year-olds play games because they've been playing them since they were teens. Fifteen years from now, 50 will be the cut-off - and 30 years from now, the demographics of game players will match the demographics of the population as a whole. (And, by the way, we won't have idiot senators attacking games any more - everyone, regardless of age, will know how dumb that is.) So the growth in game sales is driven by two factors: The growing portion of the population that was exposed to games when young - and, of course, the growth of the population. But what we're talking about, when you get down to it, is growth on the order of 7-10% annually. Compare that to Moore's Law: 100% growth in processing power over 18 months.In other words, the growth in processing power, which drives the cost of game development, is enormously faster than the growth in the population of gamers - and while technically both are exponential curves (at least until the global population levels off), the disparity is so great that you can treat the growth in sales as a linear curve, and the growth in cost as an exponential one. And what's the upshot of that? The result is that the average game (not the industry as a whole) loses more and more money. The publishers make up the losses on the few games that hit. In other words: There is no room in this industry for niche product. There is no room for creativity or quirky vision. It's hit big, or don't try. Implications for Publishers The field becomes more and more hit-driven. There is no mid-list. You only want home runs. And those home runs have to cover the losses on everything else. ... part 1 part 2 Ultimas.

Also read The Escapist Magazine, Greg Costykian and part 2 for more editorial. I am completely happy with paying for a game and then paying more for extended content, as I cannot see another way out of the current mess of marketing-controlled gameplay-independant games being produced based on the requirements of people who never have nor ever will play a game.

Have you tried actually writing to someone like Mike Gallo? A written correspondence usually gets more recognition than a random email that's sent to a random Lucasarts email account. In any case, even if your theory is correct, I doubt you're going to get a response from a higher up at Lucasarts saying "yeah, actually, we are trying to sabotage Obsidian. But pinky swear you won't repeat this, okay?". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Everyone knows that pinkie swearing doesn't work over the internets.

So ... you're mother is a bionic cyber-mother?

Hi, apologies for the delay in transmission. I think the rules are pretty clear on the particular matter, but I will agree that it is non-trivial interpreting them. I have adopted the practice of asking the players to check my adjudications when I post them. This is a no-blame process, whereby the posted moves are auditable and available for everyone to see. It is just a matter of checking the interpretation. Archie, try not to get too hung up on the adjudication process, because none of us has played Diplomacy for long; we're all learning this together. I had an interesting problem which didn't eventuate in a previous move in OBS-2 (fortunately there was an additional support order which obviated the difficult question); I shall try to dig it up and post it to see what everyone thinks (over in OBS-2, after I adjudicate the latest moves).

Hi guys. Aplogies for the delay: normal services will be resumed shortly. (Insert unnecessary adjectival clause regarding circumstances beyond my control as and wherever necessary.)

I think you have to consider that ANS made the old geezer feel good: I think she genuinely liked him. He certainly didn't like his immediate family, that much is clear, otherwise why would he try to set her up with most of his assets? I suspect he saw them all for what they were, gold-digging nasty shallow people, and ANS was just an innocent little kid.

Guys, this is a OBS-2 discussion in the OBS-3 thread!

Sure they can. There are such things as stalemate lines remember. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Try six against one and see how effective the stalemate lines are ...

Are you hiding from LA? :ph34r:

Um, yeah. But I didn't see the fix, only the exploit.

to be get a life of luxury... and money, money is always good. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Exactly. Why do you think Anna Nicole Smith married that 90 year old guy in a wheelchair? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I think you would be better addressing the reasons why the 90 year old billionaire married Anna Nicole-Smith. And he didn't need to, he wanted to. Think about that. @Calax: why would she want to marry you? What are you bringing to the bargain? Unadulterated adoration? That will change once you're sick of the sight and sound of her. And she'll tire of it, too.

I regularly get very dizzy when I stand up quickly (must be failing circulation in the old corpse), which is indeed intriguing. If you are very ill, say with fever or 'flu, then you can have a very out-of-body experience, too (called cognitive dissonance).

I have detailed files.

Right. Until you sleep with one, then you might be a little more discriminating. This is my point, people espousing this sort of nonsense obviously aren't getting any. Does her husband look like he is enjoying himself? I would bet that he is a hot candidate for adultery, if he hasn't already committed it. She is bad news. The sooner people stop lauding her because she has straight, white teeth and an empty head, the better. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It'd be easy to cheat because she wouldn't be able to put two and two together, much less one and one. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> But what's the point? Why not just sleep with someone whom you want to sleep with?

No player can withstand every other player attacking them, so no-one is safe / certainly dead. :D

That reminds me, I saw a cement cast of some guys anal cavity, because he and his lover thought it was a cool idea to make the cast ... they managed to fluke one of the best environments for setting concrete (warm and moist), so the doctors had a difficult time extracting it from his bottom ...

All I can see is an advert for avatarity.com where your avatar should be (using Firefox).

I guess for most people it's around the neck. But some people are only governed by their pee pee, so I don't know. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Physical beauty is just that - physical. Charisma is internal. You have women like Jessica Simpson who are hot but have an air for brains, but then you have other women who aren't the most attractive, yet are also upright, sophisticated, intelligent, and charismatic. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So you'll be rubbing up against cardboard cut-outs, then? Because they are "hot"? Really, the debate is stupid; you cannot isolate physical looks from beauty without creating an exercise in futility. Watch out for splinters on billboards.

While I might be coerced into agreeing this is a tad overdone, I would maintain that tis better to err on the side of lurk than not. Welcome, too! :D

... And it shows!

That is in fact a common theme for all of human society: the desire to get out of one's skull. Even children do it; watch them spin around until they become so dizzy they fall over, temporarily senseless. :D

... And use babies as firebreaks?

They are paid in "enjoyment tokens", which are convertable into editing and deleting other people's posts.