Gromnir

to elerond 1) anybody who cites wikipedia as a source deserves to be kicked in the head with a steel-toed boot. really 2) your post doesn't seem to have a point *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

am saying what we said. Democracy is adversarial towards notions o free speech and other liberties. the First Amendment free speech protections ensures that no simple majority decision by the people will infringe 'pon your fundamental Liberty rights. furthermore, a Judiciary (Supreme Court numbers has fluctuated between 6 and 10 over the years) that can stymie the will of the people is also not particularly democratic, is it? this is why we noted that the organization o' our government is an intended limitation on Democracy. the whim of the majority IS Democracy, and the founding fathers recognized that Individuals needed protection from the Democratic process. this is an axiomatic but difficult concept for many to grasp. many folks is taught to thinks that an inherent quality of Democracy is Liberty. the truth is that Democracy protects the Liberties of the current majority, nothing more. whatever enduring liberty protections you enjoy is due to the fact that the government of these United States is organized, in part, to combat the tyranny of the majority. as for appointing of Justices, that process is also meant to be adversarial. independent judiciary? independent from whom? the President appoints with the consent of the Senate. and once confirmed, a Justice sits for life (or until retirement.) is not surprising how many Justices act against the prognostications of Senators and Presidents once they become members of The Court. HA! Good Fun! ps perhaps an Extreme simplification is required to clarify Democracy: government of, by and for the people. Liberty: the ability to do as one chooses, in spite of the government.

*insert eye-roll here* is not that Democracy is incompatible with financial oligarchy, 'cause you know, there ain't no such ubiquitous and monstrous example in the United States. the "problem" is that Democracy is not compatible with Liberty. "citizens of the U.S. "do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association and a widespread (if still contested) franchise..." am not sure how reputable scholars get away with such fallacious nonsense. Democracy is antagonistic towards "freedom of speech and association"... to point out just one glaring inaccuracy. free speech protections insure that unpopular speech will not be limited regardless o' whim o' the majority. the majority, Democracy, is fickle and stupid. the majority can look at nutters in florida burning the koran or nazis in skokie illinois marching down mainstreet and be shocked an appalled. the thing is, the majority were shocked an appalled by civil rights speakers, vietnam war protesters and proponents o' gay and lesbian rights too. the Bill of Rights is NOT a tool of Democracy, it is a shield against Democracy. the founding fathers were very much aware o' the potential tyranny of the majority. furthermore, more than specific Constitutional protections, our government is designed to be inefficient and internally adversarial. the goal were to be making a government that would be fighting itself most o' the time. these protections weren't believed necessary to protect the majority so much as to protect Liberty, 'cause frequently Democracy is anathema to Liberty. now, we get that some folks, particularly first year college students and european socialists, is thinking it is foolish to give same/similar weight to a rich guy's liberty rights to spend his money how he will and and average joe who wants to protest unfair voting practices. to a certain degree, the Supreme Court agrees. strictly commercial speech and endeavors gots less Constitutional gravitas than fundamental rights. nevertheless, we here in the United States take Liberty very serious. many Liberty rights is functionally off-limits to the whim o' Democracy. even seemingly insignificant Liberties gets protected by the process. regardless, it is that Democracy is incompatible with Liberty that leads to the "problems" identified in the paper. HA! Good Fun! ps please note that Gromnir never suggested that all Liberty rights does/should get special protections. quite the contrary.

Our weapons' enchantments are balanced around their handedness and speed. handedness. handedness? taken literal, we find this amusing. weapons themselves can't have handedness, so... The Southpaw Spear of Destiny: when wielded by a lefty, the weapon may deliver an invariably fatal coup de grâce to any prone, immobilized or otherwise defenseless humanoid creature. a right-handed wielder suffers progressively debilitating nightmares. the dreams vary, but always end with the wielder drowning in blood. from a practical standpoint, the wielder receives a cumulative 1 point penalty following each nightmare to all ability scores until he rids himself of the spear. etc. handedness. *snort* HA! Good Fun!

well, to be fair, a 9th level cleric in 2e were not an every-town kinda personage. rogue's gallery stats for rigby list him as level 9 and serten gets all the way to 15. rogue's gallery were, admittedly, 1st edition, but leveling didn't become faster in second, so am thinking it is fair to use such well-known iconic characters as a guide. also, rez fail were based 'pon constitution and average con o' 9 is gonna result in a fail rate of 30%. if you died originally 'cause o' age or general poor health (constitution) those fail chances is gonna be even less forgiving. furthermore, any dm is gonna have the cleric beholden to tenants of faith such that random or your example spam resurrections of the aristocracy would be seeming unlikely. HA! Good Fun!

turn a corner in some random dungeon and get hit by a bus? splat. dead. game over. stupid? sure, but that is what we is talking 'bout. these unpredictable encounters that has a high probability o' causing a party wipe is not enhancing game fun. being entertaining is the goal... not to be "challenging," though only the most obtuse would see the aforementioned bus mauling as a challenge. is funny (well, is funny assuming you are English... or high,) but stoopid. HA! Good Fun!

In PnP terms first mistake: is not pnp. am recalling when josh had to point that seeming obvious fact out to tim cain. in pnp, you sit around a table with a handful o' other folks and got a dm, all of whom is reactive. gotta let go o' the notion that playing a single-player crpg is playing a pnp game in a computer environment. HA! Good Fun!

*eye roll* http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26786213 even if the masked men outside the synagogue were part o' some elaborate ruse (russians do love conspiracy theories after all) to make Donestk look bad (*snort*) such a ploy only works 'cause it is believable. HA! Good Fun!

got a good example o' such a single-player crpg? you know, with no storytelling save for what you interpret from killing goblins and opening chests? HA! Good Fun! Nethack *eye roll* sorry, but nethack has story same way does pong. HA! Good Fun! ps say that you don't need, care or want story elements. is fine. is honest. nevertheless, you mighta' noticed that pillars claims to be using the IE games as role-models, so... you is perhaps barking up the wrong tree if you want text based adventure game from the 80s.

... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ect-kgxBb4M little kids can do this, but llephys can't? okie dokie. HA! Good Fun!

Some of those do look good. I liked the Lenin look best. http://www.xoxma.lv/uploads/posts/2013-04/1366178765_putin_moustache_11.jpg Edit: actually, he should grow a matching goatee. Mind you, some of the other mustaches make him look like an actor from a certain genre of movies. Shall we say, "nature documentaries". another pic of putin with facial hair. http://hdstarspics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/timothy-dalton-10.jpg HA! Good Fun!

sorry. am recalling back in iwd2 were developed and people were asking for all kinda wacky kit suggestions with superpowers n' such. struck us all as sad and funny, so Gromnir, demanded that we able to play a bladesinger/anti-paladin drow who could dual wield halberds and cast fireballs. there were actual a few folks who responded serious to our demand. in any event, your description sudden reminds us o' our iwd2 suggestion. HA! Good Fun!

got a good example o' such a single-player crpg? you know, with no storytelling save for what you interpret from killing goblins and opening chests? HA! Good Fun!

The only time I've ever had problems with repeating music is when I didn't like the song. If I liked the song and was tired of hearing it, mentally I just stopped paying attention to it. am thinking that the repetitive nature o' a game can lead to almost Pavlovian disgust of the music. there is games wherein game combat is perhaps not as engaging as one would hope. first time one hears the hypothetical "enemy is sighted" theme, perhaps they think that such music is ok... better yet, they don't even notice. sometimes good music is not perceived but simply experienced. the thing is, after some undefinable number o' combats, the player gets sick o' the thought o' another seemingly pointless flabarrgen encounter and the "epic" music being played in background feels a bit silly. disgust with the combat spills-over and now you not even need the combat-- "enemy is sighted" starts playing and already your teeth is set on edge. congratulations, you has been conditioned to loathe the music when you is in fact irritated by the combat. however, and perhaps unfortunately, the reason you dislike the music is inconsequential. is now a concrete fact that the music irritates you and knowing the reason don't change a thing. regardless, Gromnir is able to envision good music gone bad based 'pon its ubiquitous and incessant nature. am recognizing that this is more of a gameplay issue than music, but we will observe that if you does plan on having a particular theme play over and over and over and overandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandoverandover, it might be better to shoot for understatement. HA! Good Fun!

And "immersion" is not irrelevant or useless. Not any more than any other word in the dictionary anyway. insofar as feedback on a game development board is concerned, "immersion" is as useful as is "interesting." "i like it because it is interesting." "i hate it because it ruins immersion." helpful? ask 10 people on these boards what is qualities that make a game immersive and Why those qualities make immersive. you get such a hodge-podge o' gibberish and contradictions that it is painful to read. as for a god doing narrating... well, at least you cover panda's seeming preference for omniscience that way. personally, Gromnir likes our gods to be remote, but that is an issue for another thread. if narration is kept minimal like in fallout, then making the narrator a character of import is almost pointless, no? if all you had were some fragment o' narration at start and end of game, would there be a point in making the narrator a character? am understanding that if you is gonna have a feature in a game, you want the feature to be kewl. as between some kinda interesting concept narrator and a nameless & faceless minimal narrator, the faceless narrator is gonna seem dull by comparison. tougher sell. the thing is that jakk were largely correct when he identified the purpose o' a crpg narrator. the narrator is Not telling the story in a crpg. the narrator is existing to, "sum up or skim over events." less is more. HA! Good Fun!

I don't understand why the narration for IWD 1 sucks. I thought it was great. I also liked the narration for the BG games as well. the narration for iwd were excellent. as we noted above, iwd and the david ogden stiers narration managed to avoid much o' the tedious character exposition you see in other games. a few minutes o' narration at start of game, between chapters and for epilogue... well-drawn storybook slides were added to enhance the narration. done. simple and stream-lined and no expensive animation. we prefer even less narration, but am understanding the urge to provide context. folks unfamiliar with d&d and the forgotten realms could be mighty confused when playing a game such as bg or iwd. writers know to minimize, but is difficult to do so. HA! Good Fun! ps we see more straw man from panda. really. what is point of the hobbit example? tell us what is bad from a movie and say it happens in games... not any games we is talking about, and is no suggestion that such an approach would occur in pillars as there is no protagonist such as bilbo in pillars... we can't have such a defined protagonist in a crpg such as pillars. nevertheless, you say that how they did in hobbit was bad and future hobbits will be bad too. okie dokie. why you wanna beat the stuffing outta bilbo?

oh come now, you don't really wanna suggest that the limited iwd or iwd2 narration requires anything substantial... and surely not an omnipresent or omniscient. from iwd you got some background info at start. then chapter filler to explain what happened on Long journeys between locations. epilogue. we linked fallout narrator. even less, and more meorable 'cause folks is such big fans o perlman. how "tricky" were that to implement? *shrug* we got some little experience with writing as well. is not near as complicated as you suggest. in most situations, the "trick" is to do as little exposition and narration as is necessary. HA! Good Fun!

the real tragedy of all of this-- what happens to Ukraine's got Talent if this regional conflict continues? https://www.google.com/search?q=ukraine%27s+got+talente&rlz=1C1KMZB_enUS560US560&oq=ukraine%27s+got+talente&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l3.7540j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&sei=E2VPU7yqKpOnyAS3vYHICA&gbv=2#gbv=2&q=ukraine's+got+talent&spell=1 am not certain we could live in a world without Ukraine reality TV. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* the 9th level group fighting vampires has a chance. the party that a minute into combat is now the equivalent o' 4th level is pretty much doomed. level disparity is too great. if we got a reload option, chances are we don't wait for the inevitable wipe. epic battle becomes a slightly annoying reload moment. HA! Good Fun!

your examples and points is not analogous. is a game, not short story or novel. just as our lifted narration from joyce has no place in a crpg, the narrators you describe is largely unnecessary. the omnipresent narrator is Not a requirement in a crpg, 'cause the player/protagonist is gonna be experiencing the story themselves. jakk were swift to recognize that the crpg narrator need only "sum up or skim over events." the annoying and unwieldy exposition that authors believe is necessary to tell their tale, gets vomited forth by a narrator 'stead o' having the local blacksmith inexplicably describe the geopolitical situation of middle-earth and the most pressing and important current events in gondor. and why on earth did sam the knacker feels the need to remind us that we is an orphan who lost our family to a goblin raid some 5 years ago? the laundress who told us to bring the cleaned union-suit to our foster father, I'xparian The Wizard (the apostrophe makes exotic) were compelled to remind us that today were our 17th name day, and... etc. such exposition is ugly and awkward. a brief bit o' narration may make more palatable. in any event, a game doesn't need omniscience, omnipresence or any other ence worth mentioning. HA! Good Fun!

tomb of horrors were the classic sucker punch adveture. a popular module for d&d fans, but am not understanding why. the module is a series of insta-kill traps and monster encounters and it is not as if a clever party has some particular advantage over a foolish party. many groups has gotten through pnp tomb o' horrors with nothing save luck and the liberal use of the PMD approach to dungeon clearing. using summoned critters and/or low-level characters to set-off and/or test traps is effective if crude. the thing is, a computer version o' tomb o' horrors would be almost pointless. oh, so there is sphere of annihilation in that hole? okie dokie, reload. tomb o' horrors, as ridiculous as it were, cannot survive the computer reload. as an aside, our personal fave for the jerk dm/gm is level drain undead... particularly when such undead has access to polymorph. d&d vampires got loads of special weakness, none of which is useful if you do not know you is being attacked by vampires. a polymorphed or disguised vampire is gonna get in amongst your party and after you waste spells protecting against the wrong kinda foe, you sudden realize that you is facing vampires. fun? not really. negative plane protection were effective against vampire level drain, but it had a ridiculous short duration in d&d 2e. death ward were a better option in d20, but a smart vampire who waits til party spells is depleted before attacking is gonna have a field day. and in any event, chances are you only get 1 player protected by death ward before the vampires is turning your party from a very capable 9th level group into the equivalent o' a bunch o' 4th level n00bs. unlike the gotcha monsters such as rust monsters and disenchanters, vampires is a staple. if a dm plays vampires as smart as they is 'posed to be, virtual any level appropriate party is gonna get serious sucker punched by vampires. in a computer game, reload. everybody suddenly gets protected by deathward and has vampire killing weapons at the ready. etc. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

up until mass effect 3, Gromnir purchased bio games contemporaneous with the first patching. this were no criticism of bioware as there were no pc games we would purchase earlier than a first patching. the thing is, we waited a bit over a year to finally play me3 and our anticipation for that game were 'bout the same as we have for da:i. ... a game wherein we play an inquisitor has some unique appeal, for as much as enoch wants to punch riddlemeisters, Gromnir has always wanted to be able to say. "today, i smote heretics and ate apple pie." the fact that heretics is necessarily people and we find most forms o' violence to be barbaric does not change the fact that the idea of smiting with righteous indignation is on our bucket list... am thinking it is the word "smite" more than anything else. after all, when does one get the chance to well and truly smite nowadays? unfortunately, bioware releases has become something we look forward to with the same verve as we does a michael bay film . is not as if we is gonna go to a cineplex and see a transformers or die hard movie on day 1, but if is on tv and it not happen to be conflicting with reruns o' mash or barney miller or a shamwow infomercial, we will take a peek. perhaps. HA! Good Fun!

nobody will ever doppelganger vol. first, am suspecting that nobody would wish to, but second, am not sure how one could do so. if Gromnir attempts to be random like vol, we would string together gibberish and then pretend that it makes sense. "And so he says to me, you want to be a bad guy? and I say Yeah Baby! I want to be bad! I says Churchill space ponies I'm making gravy without the lumps! Ah ha ha ha ha haaaaa!!!!!" -- The Evil Midnight Bomber what Bombs at Midnight the thing is, you can tell that vol ain't trying to be random by design, and there is little fragments o' coherence mixed in with the doggerel that is distinctly vol. some small part o' us questions whether or not vol is an act, but what would be the point? is an enigma. not a particularly compelling enigma, but a mystery nonetheless. HA! Good Fun!

"offer" is exact word we were looking for... obsidian offers to do X if fans contribute Y additional dollars. is nothing mysterious about it, particularly when one looks at the previous stretch goals. it would appear, based on the vague nature o' the final goal that obsidian simply ran outta gas-- they didn't plan ahead for a $4 mil stretch goal, but they sure as heck weren't gonna turn away free money. HA! Good Fun!

we noted already that reality is a bane of fun. am recalling a treatise we read 'bout armoured combat-- duels in full plate. now, don't get us wrong, full plate is great protection a horseback, and perhaps when storming a fixed fortification wherein your foe has gotta stand and fight you, but it ain't really dueling garb. the typical armored combat were looking little different than a couple o' 8 year olds with with buckets on their heads and broom handles for swords... save for the ugly end. the combatants would beat on each other, ineffectually, hoping to concuss their foe or find a weak spot in armour... finding weak spots were made all that much more difficult as the combatants were wearing plate armour. now in spite o' the romanticism 'bout articulated plate armour and how youtube videos show that it is possible to do cartwheels whilst wearing such protection, it were still relative cumbersome. so armour guy 1 and 2 would swing at each other till they got fatigued or somebody inevitably slipped... in point o' fact, wrestling moves became far more important in armoured duels than were swordsmanship. one brave knight would wrestle the other champion o' justice to the ground and then drive a weapon through the prone foe's visor. very romantic. am doubting we see such stuff in pillars. am not a fan o' reality in our fantasy games, but the katana mythology has always irritated us. HA! Good Fun!