Cantousent

I have a copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone translated into Attic Greek. Does that count as a scarey nerd?

Ugh, as long as I don't have to sit through an episode of Reel World. I hate MTV. I've hated it since it stopped being about music videos and became a channel about nothing... absolutely nothing. It's not that I watch much TV anyhow, but if I did it wouldn't be G4.

I have to admit that the games haven't been the best thing about my x-box. I hooked it up to my home theater system with optical sound and I've got a huge number of songs on it. No more switching cds. Still, the Dark Alliance series, the KotOR series, Magic Battlegrounds, Crimson skies, and a couple other titles have been great fun. There's something to be said for being able to sit in my recliner and play a game. On the other hand, I have everything set up for playing music and movies already and so the games must wow me before I'll be willing to shell out the clams for a new xbox system. I'll have to see. The biggest problem with the xbox are the controllers. Great for some games, but I can't get the hang of the FPS controls. That leaves out a lot of the big titles for xbox. Maybe I'll take a week, when I have one (HA) and just play an FPS (maybe Doom 3) until I get the hang of it.

Alas, I had to go to a stupid conference and so I couldn't have seen it. Sounded stupid anyhow. The new xbox might be cool, though. I use my current xbox mostly as a stereo, but some of the games have been quite fun.

I guess my biggest complaint isn't that other people complain. That's human nature. I gripe about games just as much as the next guy. The real beef for me is that almost everyone has a stake in the argument, and it isn't to educate or inform the reader. Instead, the main purpose is to convince others. Often folks praise a game because they're fans of a particular company. Often folks rail against a game because they are fans of a competitor. ...Or fans of a different genre. ...Or, rather than trying to inform the reader about what a game does or does not do, they wish to impact the market to ensure that the features or genres they prefer don't end up vanishing. Sometimes, they want to ensure that a feature they hate does vanish, a clear example being Steam for some folks. I think all of that is legit. What I won't concede is that any of these folks (or, hardly any) have only one agenda: to tell the truth. Folks in reviews advocate. Sure, paying for a positive review is worse than speaking from the heart, but neither one is a simple and balanced view of what folks in general might think. I think hunting games are a perfectly reasonable way for folks to pass time. I wouldn't review one because I doubt that I can remain impartial. I simply don't like hunting game. I think they suck, and so I can't claim impartiality. It happens that advocacy can be quite informative, but let's call it what it is, no matter the advocate and no matter the object of advocacy.

I'm more commenting on the big blow out party Microsoft has scheduled for the release. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but it just seems so... excessive. Whatever sells x-boxes, I suppose. I might buy one myself.

I haven't even heard of this company... and I'm considered a hard core gamer judging by the number of titles I purchase in a year. (Note: 15-20 titles in a year counts, from what I've told.) Now, I'm not saying that G4 doesn't have some impact, but I doubt that it has greater impact than the so called "bought" critics. Furthermore, I doubt they have any more legitimate feedback than the player rankings on any number of webpages. Moreover, while some good games don't fare well and some terrible games are blockbusters, generally good games sell well and bad games don't. For all of these reasons, I don't know why I should substitute G4's judgement for my own, especially after playing the game? Why should I give more weight to G4's opinion than any of the other factors under consideration? I can understand why the game disappointed some folks. There are aspects of the game that were disappointing to me. ...But it passed the fun factor, and that's what I try to find in my entertainment. In fact, I don't doubt that I would buy KotOR 3, should Obsidian (or Bioware) deicide to develop it.

Who is G4? ...And if a sizable and vocal group railing against a game signals that it lacks quality, then NWN must be terrible. The folks camplaining about KotOR 2 just don't have the same bloodlust that folks did over NWN.

Not to derail the thread further, but I have to agree on the Wizardry thing. What a complete pain. The random encounters are just ridiculous in Wizardry 8. I thought the turn-based combat was fun, and I certainly didn't mind facing a group of nine monsters... the first hundred times, but there was no feeling that the party was actually making headway in the world. I mean, why worry about invaders from outerspace when the native monsters spawn faster than the average insect? The world was going to be overrun by random monsters anyway. A logical twist would be to have the bad guys join forces with my party for their very survival! ...And it wasn't that the battles were tough. Indeed, it was a tough game, but I was working through the quests. No, it was having to fight for every stinking inch one way only to discover that I had to fight for every stinking inch going back. Don't think there wasn't a lot of walking, either, which doesn't bother me as long as I don't have to face the onset of old age before I can make it twelve feet across the damned map. Wizardry 8 had so many good ideas. Too bad it sucked.

I prefered Kotor 1 to Kotor 2, but mostly because I cringed when I read the dialogue in the sequel. BIS dialogue was almost always better than Bioware dialogue. What happened when the writers went over to Obsidian? I'm not just talking about grammatical errors. Much of the writing was simply aweful. Nevertheless, the backstory was much better in KotOR 2 and it was also the first release for Obsidian. So far, I'm happy to try NWN2 simply because I think KotOR 2 was a fine effort. It wasn't an A+, but it was a fun game and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Great fun.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/news/2005/0411-mtv.htm http://www.xbox.com/en-US/news/2005/0506-overviewstory.htm What gets me is that they don't have anything to say about the x-box in the articles. They just talk about the entertainers who will unveil the x-box. I guess Frodo will be hosting the show.

Pretty much my reason as well. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> So, fora provides an opportunity to discuss games with folks who know and care about the subject? Still, you're here in Way Off Topic. Is this kind of a place to go inbetween talking about games? I ask because I used to hate Off Topic but it seemed to grow on me after a while.

That puts us at the same age, then.

That was quite... poetic, jaguars. I mean it. Weird, but poetic. At any rate, I liked both, but I thought they had different strengths. I was quite surprised about where KoTOR2 did well and where it failed.

Knights of the Old Republic is a complete mess? Let me guess, they're burying their unsold copies out in the dessert right now? I paid full price for it on the X-Box and found it worth it. Mostly, surprise surprise, I hated the writing. I couldn't believe it. They got the backstory better, the actual game goodies better, and the characters better but Bioware had superior dialogue and flavor text? Good God, everything is backwards in the world nowadays.

You silly Rabbit. Hopefully your screenplay is a great success. I've thought before of writing a story all in message board format. Kind of like an epistolary novel. I've seen some clever things done using email, but how could we create the story using the characters from a place like this? ...And make no mistake, we are all characters here. Whatever we are in the flesh, in this place we are an assortment of characters, writing stories that hardly anyone will read. Sometimes the stories are compelling, even if only to the few of us here. I remember one time getting into a terrible flame war with Gromnir on the old Interplay boards. That was ugly at the time but it seems funny to me now. ...Or the countless Gaider baitings when Neverwinter Nights first hit the shelves. I never took part in that, but it was funny. newc, JN', the Visc and Vol comedy 24 hours. There's a compelling story in all that somewhere.

I wield arcane magic in one form or another, always! Actually, I've gone for thief, cleric, and a paladin or two, but I always gravitate towards a mage. ...And like Mr. Chu, I tend towards fast talking smoozers.

Ah the robot Jesus is just a scam. ...And believe the Vixen is a she, judging by things I've seen in her posts.

Trolling is fun, but I know that's not why you come here. We're all just a bunch of message board cowboys. We come here, get drunk, and shoot up the place. The reason I come here is simple: I've been working on my trick shots.

I don't know what metadigital just said, but I'll pray for you. :D

Sorry, I knew it was a perjorative, but I was just goofing around anyhow. Still, the hard core are pretty scarey for any of those groups. ...Except I really haven't ever seen a Harry Potter group that was actually scarey.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> I guffawed at this one.

I've often wondered why I come to message boards. First of all, I only go to one message board at a time. Sometimes I visit a few but I only actually "camp out" at one board at a time. In the past I've talked or argued about games. I was interested in design and development. For the past few months, however, I have had no time for message boards at all. When I had a little time on my hands, I decided to click on that little tab in my favorites: Obsidian Forum Community. I'm shocked to say that I haven't really paid much attention to games, though, and none at all to Obsidian games. Oh, I thoroughly enjoyed KoTOR2 and I plan on playing NWN2 just as soon as I can. ...But still, the first place I visit these days is Way Off Topic board. Why? Well, this is my reason. Message boards give us the best opportunity to interact with the broadest spectrum of folks possible in a safe environment. There are people on these boards from all parts of the world. Sure, we probably have a lot in common, such as language (at least here on this message board) and interests (at least in computer games), but there is still a wide variety of viewpoints ranging on topics from religion, to politics, to music, to theater and beyond. The forum is truly international. Metadigital wrote, "My self-determined purpose is the pursuit of knowledge." I dont' think that the purpose of coming to the forums is to gain knowledge, but you do get a rapidfire dose of opinions, perspectives, and sometimes even facts. Message boards are quite good at sharpening rhetoric, forcing members to adapt to new arguments. So, in a nutshell, I enjoy the interaction with folks I would otherwise never know. Why do you guys come here?

No one beats Trekkies. Simply no-one. I mean, Klingon as a language? Ridiculous. Anyhow, everyone knows that Tolkien rules. I'm making an Elrond costume for next years renascence faire. It's soooo much cooler than stupid Klingon costumes!

35 and utterly flabergasted by the preceding posts.