Gromnir

is good that they went out of business. talent that were being wasted at troika gots dispersed to other more viable developers. the system works. huzzah. most o' the folks who has been applauding arcanum in this thread is part o' the same dozen or so that has been building arcanum's non-existent legend over at codex for the past decade. in their addled estimation, arcanum appears to have actually become better in the last few years. strange. nothing new. if one feels like sharing hugs with like-minded fans, make an "I LUV ARCANUM" thread over at codex. no doubt it will leave you all warm and tingly. http://www.rpgcodex.net/index.php is nothing being developed by obsidian save dungeon siege iii, which hardly even counts as a crpg. absence o' casual fans leads to more concentrated hardcore pov... which may not be a good thing now that we consider. HA! Good Fun!

the plebeian crpg fans with no sense o' history or pov would fail to recognize white box is original d&d rules.... though Gromnir had the wood-grain version. bishop/sawyer still posts, if a little less often. fergie almost never posts. war never changes? *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

am not doubting that da2 were rushed. in spite of all the bio commentary 'bout improvements, so many o' the changes from da:o to da2 had the appearance o' being little more than resource saving moves to aid the developers in meeting a deadline. the change in the camera were clear not benefiting pc players. the adoption o' a dialogue wheel and a fixed protagonist may have been welcomed by some, but it also were a time-saver for the writers. recycling maps were also a resource saver. but some folks is checking their objectivity and sense o' fair-play at the door. the quote that folks is slamming mike for is not deserving venom. does it suck that da2 were a rush job? hell yeah... is why we were complaining for the year leading up to da2 release. nevertheless, recognizing that da2 were rushed, mike gots a choice 'tween recycling maps and giving players more quests, or using unique maps and cutting content. is a tough choice... is a no-win kinda choice. even so, as 'tween substantial cut content and recycled maps, we would choose map recycle. and this ain't directed at enterix, but we believe that many folks is purposefully ignoring just how much me1 recycled. am not sure why that is so. HA! Good Fun! ps you is wrong that nobody would be complaining if da2 were costing $30.

you mentioned me1. folks seemed to suffer through me1 ok. also, as noted, is a resource saving approach. so, if game had been X hours shorter, then how many additional people would be complaining 'bout shortness? me1 and iwd2 prepared us for considerable recycle. sure, mike has shown how myopic he can be regarding fan-base feedback, so we ain't surprised he didn't learn lesson from me1, but the either/or scenario being presented seems reasonable. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind that Gromnir were at the forefront o' those complaining that so many announced da2 features appeared to be little more than resource saving features. the entire approach the developers took regarding da2 bothered us and we complained when many others remained silent or asked for understanding. am disappointed with the da2 economy approach. that being said, the fact that the aforementioned quote results in hate does not appear justified.

am not certain where the hate comes from on this issue. don't get us wrong, we do Hate some o' the things mike has done to the franchise, but recycling maps to so that more player quests were possible seems like a reasonable point to debate, and is a tough choice to be making. having not played da2 we don't know the degree to which maps were recycled, but we assume it were substantial to be causing so much venom. nevertheless, bio recycling o' maps has been common in many o' their offerings. bg, bg2 and mass effect is all games that used considerable recycle. heck, look at iwd 2. the obsidian developers recycled much o' their iwd maps no doubt to be saving resources. more quests at the expense o' recycled maps? some other mike nonsense regarding end bosses, camera pov, and the bio reliance on, and misinterpretation of, data mining makes us a little queasy. even so, the statement you folks quote is hardly gonna inspire our hate... 'cause is sounding like a reasonable design choice with no perfect solution. yeah, after the first mass effect game one would assume that bio had recognized that their fans could only tolerate so much map recycling. biowarians can be inordinate obtuse. nevertheless, it would be interesting to hear just how much content bio estimated would needed to have been cut if all unique maps were incorporated. HA! Good Fun!

you could be right. anybody know when santa's elves became popularized as pointy-eared faeries? HA! Good Fun!

as a dyed-in-wool curmudgeon, Gromnir longs for the days when elves didn't even have pointy ears. is seemingly a single obscure and posthumously published tolkien reference sends us down the slippery slope. oh, and while we is on the subject o' perverted elves, we insist that dark elves=dwarves. am blaming d&d for the ebony or purple skinned freak-show fey with the s&m inclinations. *grumble* HA! Good Fun! ps we recognize that the popularization o' the pointy-ear thing may actual be walt disney's fault more than tolkien, but why blame an American when there is an englishman available?

yeah... this don't make sense. troika's lack o' organizational acumen did indeed lead to many o' their development woes and their endemic tardiness in meeting deadlines, but arcanum's peculiar release were resulting in a relative unique story o' developer and publisher incompetence. anybody recall the translation debacle surrounding arcanum? arcanum were "finished" and set for a release date... but that date got pushed back months 'cause it were not translated into some inconsequential continental language... german or italian or somesuch. is understandable why sierra would not release the english version and delay the carpathian release, but the fact is that due to some ridiculous translation hold-up the publisher should'a foreseen, arcanum were having its release delayed not weeks or days, but months. arcanum lack o' polish were particularly startling given the fact that troika had far more time to bug-hunt pre-release than they had any right to expect. the problem with revisionist history is that some o' us were following the development as it happened. HA! Good Fun!

arcanum were a fantastic game, right up until we loaded it onto our hard drive. as with all troika releases, arcanum were conceptually intriguing, but the actual execution were lacking. a steampunk world as the setting for a game being built by some o' the same guys who developed fallout? sign us up. *groan* horribly balanced and often obtuse seeming rules? forgettable cast o' characters? buggier than a tijuana sweatshop? is a whole laundry list o' things that troika did wrong with their initial offering, but the most damning criticism we has o' arcanum were that it were boring. is no patch or mod or revisionist history that can fix boring. side note-- while fo and fo2 did not bomb, the sales o' those games did not justify fo3. nevertheless, for years uncle fergie struggled to find a way to get fo3 made... and bethesda finally went ahead and made a fo3. heck, according to one former interplay/black isle developer, fo sales did not actual justify fo2. is not bottom-line sales that justified fo3. actual reason for fo3 getting made is 'cause developers wanted to make fo3. has arcanum engendered that kinda passion? from the time fo2 were released until fo3 finally hit shelves, it seemed as if there were always a developer who were working on or pursuing a fo3. can the same be said o' arcanum? fo3 reveals that lack o' economic success need not forever damn a sequel. that being said, fo3 is clearly an exception. planets had to align. HA! Good Fun!

am understanding that the 1.02 patch for da2 were released. however, there appears to be more than a little dissatisfaction with the patch as it did not address any o' the awakenings/dlc import issues. as usual, be aware that any mods you gots may bork the patch. http://social.bioware.com/page/da2-patches http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7048410/1 http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7048387/1 maybe we hold off for 1.03 before playing... sometime in may perhaps? HA! Good Fun!

should make that your signature. am suspecting that vol no longer lives in kanada, but rather in the perpetual state o' point not found. *shrug* we get what we deserve for direct responding to vol. HA! Good Fun!

you mention schindler's list, but what 'bout transformers, and all the other formulaic blockbuster films? actually, the closest thing to a sure-fire win in the movie industry is family movies. why? bigger potential audience. games is expensive to develop and publish. movies is even more expensive than is games. sadly, schindler's list is an exception rather than the rule... and for understandable, if regrettable reasons. honestly, we wouldn't mind if games industry somehow became like movies. say what you will 'bout the movie industry, but by years end we typical can identify almost a couple dozen good movies (if documentaries is included). here is a couple "best of" lists for movies: http://blog.moviefone.com/2010/09/01/best-movies-of-2010/ http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/12/th...ms_of_2010.html http://www.newsweek.com/2010/12/21/the-bes...f-2010.all.html looking at the aforementioned lists, we got no difficulty finding a dozen keepers... and there is some stuff we liked that doesn't show up on such lists. how many good games does we play in a year? three. HA! Good Fun! ps am not looking forward to the day when the game industry settles on a formula: the ideal mixture o' story and gameplay elements to achieve Blockbuster status.

no, it wasn't. their first product weren't even a game... were medical software. their first entertainment software, a mech game... sucked. then they made bg 1 and had great success. their second non-crpg, mdk2, did not suck. mdk2 was an excellent adventure/shooter, but hardly anybody bought it. bio makes crpgs. that doesn't preclude the possibility o' bio making shooters, mech simulators and adventure games. even so, the biowarians apparently learned their lesson well and since the release o' mdk2 over a decade ago, they has described all of their games as crpgs. duh. one o' our recurring criticisms o' bio has been that they tries to make games that appeal to everybody, which is functionally impossible. anybody who peruses the bio boards for 10 minutes will understand the sisyphean challenge they face. bio simplifies character development choices in me2 and a bunch o' folks like, and a bunch o' folks hate. after bg1, a vast number o' people complained 'bout the pointless wandering involved with the bg1 maps, so bio largely removes such stuff in bg2 and a new group o' people show up complaining-- "How could you remove the bg1 exploration? That is what made the first game great." *snort* am not sure what kinda endemic obtuseness has seized the bio brain trust that makes 'em think that there is a perfect development alchemy whereby they can find the ideal combination o' features and elements that will result in near everybody being satisfied with their game. taste in games is no different than tastes in food. there is no perfect food that appeals to everybody... and even if there were, if people had to eat the perfect food all the time they would get tired of it real quick. try and make the perfect universal food based on feedback from customers would result in an utterly unpalatable mess... 'cause some folks like sweet and others prefer sour, while some is liking heavy while others likes light, etc. nobody would ever attempt to makes the perfect food, 'cause tastes is too varied. nevertheless, bio is trying for something similar with their games. HA! Good Fun!

This utterly baffles me. Having shooting being tied to a skill which you must use skill points to increase to make it better, is a bad thing? I have never understood this. [lots of stuff seemingly unrelated to crpgs] bio makes crpgs. is an admitted niche market, but nowhere is it written that crpgs has gotta use shooter mechanics. in fact, for a looooooooong time, what set crpgs apart from the shooters is that success or failure o' the crpg gamer's character were dependent on the character's skills and not the gamer's reflexes. you got G-level skill in handguns and you is getting slaughtered? perhaps you needed J-level skill... or better tactics. regardless, whether or not you got Mad Gamer Skillz were irrelevant... not need to punch x and y button simultaneous while holding right trigger and left bumper while strafing. crpgs typical boasted more choice in character development and gameplay aspects than other genres precisely 'cause there were no mad twitchy skills necessary... what made gameplay engaging were not players hitting the correct combo o' buttons fast enough and accurate enough, but rather the tactical and strategic aspects o' the game. oh, and so there is no misconception, we ain't suggesting that crpgs is for smarty and cerebral folks while shooters is button-mashing baboons. any snot-nosed pre-teen with a little patience can successful complete fallout w/o much difficulty, so don't assume that we is ascribing some kinda intellectual superiority to crpg gamers--we ain't. now perhaps bio wants to make shooters, or crpgs that has more shooter elements. perhaps doing so is more economic lucrative? dunno, there is already a multitude o' developers out there who is making very nice shooters. if bio wants to make shooters or they wants to make games that attract shooter fans, then niten is at least partial correct. the thing is, the computer game genres has developed separate precisely 'cause fans o' rpgs is not necessarily fans o' shooters. there is no absolute and obvious need to makes games that is more shooter-like. heck, the sims games still do very well, no? is not as if gameplay, by its very nature, must be as niten suggests. am happy that folks like greylord post. obsidian is a crpg developer and their boards is understandably gonna attract a more hard-core rpg fan element than would a board dedicated to madden football or a nascar game. rpg fans can gets a bit moribund in their thinking. popular local misconception: crpgs IS. some o' the locals (particularly the codexians) suffer from a kinda reactionary approach to crpgs. crpgs IS-- there is a crpg ideal, and only the chosen few gots a clear enough vision o' the ideal crpg to give it shape and life... and apparently only such chosen has the right to comment 'pon crpgs as well. *shrug* in our estimation, there is no perfect crpg ideal, and we recognize that the genre is constantly evolving. greylord likes some crpgs, but he likes 'em for reasons far different than does Gromnir. good. is good to hear and recognize that a crpg need not appeal only to the codexian groupthink, or the obsidian majority. that being said, if we wanted to play a shooter, we would be unlikely to play obsidian or bioware games. is already a legion o' shooter games and developers inundating the market. HA! Good Fun!

bio has embraced concept over character. actual character development is difficult to achieve in a crpg such as the ones released by bio and obsidian. there just isn't enough text/dialogue available to writers to develop an original character. consider how many dialogue encounters you gets with each character over the course o' a game. if you ain't romancing the jnpc, then you gots prohibitively little opportunity to build someone unique and compelling... so bio don't try. bio (as does obsidian) focuses instead on embracing a familiar concept, and then tweaking to make kewl. am not against the writers using a concept to initial develop a character, but we expect something... more. make alien. give wings. give telepathy. *snort* consider one o' bio's most popular jnpcs. hk-47? an assassin robot with a "meat bag" line? is nothing else. even gaider has conceded that hk-47 were a one-trick pony. nevertheless, hk-47 were the mostest popular kotor jnpc based on those ubiquitous Favorite Character polls. you not think bio takes notice o' such things? garrus is the good cop who has the seen The System fail and is teetering on the edge o' the abyss... etc. the shtick writes itself, no? given the limited resources available to the writers, we do not blame them for embracing concepts/archetypes/clich

*chuckle* the irony is sweeter than the candy. HA! Good Fun!

Those "girlie" nations are the smart ones, as they don't waste tax payers money on playing a bit ol' Imperialism. Soon the US and UK will be bancrupt, and nobody will shed a tear. Good riddance. ... was gonna to respond, but this bit o' wishful thinking mixed with equal parts amnesia and insanity is too silly to bother with... but we will note that in the unlikely event o' the twin collapses o' uk and us economies, we expect that there would be considerable tear shedding in austria and the other girlie nations. HA! Good Fun!

you is mostly correct. however, as is montes characterization o' uncle sam (sans the brits) that inspired our response, we is willing to follow his lead. you can't have it both ways. HA! Good Fun!

Hey now, dont look at us. This is France and the UK jumping up and down for war. Funny, when the US is jumping up and down for war everybody else is expected to ask Uncle Sam nicely "how high?" Situation reverses.... actually, we thinks monte mischaracterizes greatly. when the US goes to war, the rest o' the world seems to thinks it gots a right to tell uncle sam, "how high". is understandable why the rest o' the world would do so, but we sympathize with American military commanders who gets the fuzzy end o' the lollipop as American politicians, at the request o' foreign powers, force ridiculous constraints on the commanders in the field. is almost refreshing to sees montes "situation reverses" as nato bumbles and stumbles in libya while attempting to achieve military goals that seems opposed to political ones. even so, as there is no "good guys" in libya, we is content to watch this bit o' regional mayhem progress without an end in sight. bunch o' tribal factions with only one thing in common: they hate the US. let 'em beat each other into oblivion. let the other nato partners take some o' the heat for a change. as long as this stays a libyan conflict, let it burn so that whomever ends up in control will needs spend the next 20 years rebuilding infrastructure. and if the libyans start cursing the English Satan or French Devil with venom approaching what they reserve for the US, then we will shed few tears. sounds horrible? good. HA! Good Fun!

While I spent most of ME2 quietly rooting for him to be proven right, with Shep running through an elaborate self-delusion, egged on by credulous moonbat conspiracy theorists like TIM and Anderson. Sadly, they probably put too much supporting evidence to make this the case, outside of pulling a full-on Newhart or "Incident at Owl Creek Bridge" ending. bierce story were short, and from the start you gots increasing clues that reality don't mesh with what is going on in the story. not even the biowarians would attempt a "who shot jr" bit o' flimflammery with me3 'course you weren't serious, but is simple far too late to pull back from the precipice o' Total Galactic Warfare. needs make the best of it. ... am still not seeing a point for the second game insofar as plot advancement. HA! Good Fun! ps am recalling that the only twilight zone episode Not authored by the incomparable Rod Serling was, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". were a frenchie short film. pps apparently the entire short film is available online at numerous sites http://www.viddler.com/explore/nzgmediefag/videos/12/ we were disappointed with "Jacob's Ladder" as we were hoping for a modern reinterp that would do the material justice.

... for a moment there we thought monte were a texan. HA! Good Fun!

your original observation were as follows: "I still can't believe they haven't used Andy Hamilton as the dwarf (Tyrion?)" really? sometimes you argue just to argue. tyrion is the youngest lannister sibling... so maybe get judy dench to play cersei? and it would look damn silly for hamilton/tyrion to bemoan his dwarfism as he stared down at some o' the stark children. *snort* HA! Good Fun! I merely made an observation that I saw a very wry, devious, short man as Tyrion. Having him older wouldn't pose the least obstacle to a film adaptation. On the other hand YOU immediately launched into yet another of your poorly punctuated and bafflingly aggrandised half-orc broadsides. You can't be arsed to type capital letters, but you can be arsed to repeat your tired catchphrase repeatedly? Get off your damn high horse. *chuckle* you has really gone off the deep end. your initial observation were not that hamilton were wry and short, but rather that you were baffled ("can't believe") that hamilton were Not chosen for the part o' tyrion. by now it shoulds be quite obvious why hamilton would be excluded from the short-list o' candidates for the role o' tyrion, nevertheless you continue to rail and wail. hamilton is 56 years of age and he is NOT the dwarf you thought he was. end o' story? no? bah. oh, and am suspecting that our posts are 'bout as accurately punctuated as is yours. spelling and capitalization, on the other hand... HA! Good Fun! ps our left hand is functionally paralyzed, but thanks for asking.

your original observation were as follows: "I still can't believe they haven't used Andy Hamilton as the dwarf (Tyrion?)" really? sometimes you argue just to argue. tyrion is the youngest lannister sibling... so maybe get judy dench to play cersei? and it would look damn silly for hamilton/tyrion to bemoan his dwarfism as he stared down at some o' the stark children. *snort* HA! Good Fun!

am suspecting you answered your question without realizing. "30 years of comedy writing and performing behind him." duh. the guy is probable in his mid-50's? HA! Good Fun! ps we checked the bio for hamilton. he IS old and surprisingly tall at 5'3"... which makes him not a dwarf and taller than some o' the other non-dwarf members o' the cast.

martin is fat and old... which is pretty much the same as being ill 24/7. also, the geek grapevine has suggested that martin's efforts these last couple years has been focused on the tv series. am not certain if such rumors is based on anything other than wild speculation and dubious hearsay. HA! Good Fun!