Cantousent

I loved Seven Cities of Gold. Good Times. Really basic by today's standards, though, but great times!

I'm not worried about finding the quests boring. I didn't get tired of WoW because I'd done the quests before. I was tired of WoW because I'd done the quests ad nauseam. I can think of different ways I'd approach the quests for the Jedi Knight. I'm still in the honeymoon period. I don't want to go gonzo like I did for WoW, but I think getting to end-game content and trying out some of the raids would be a good thing. I don't know about using a random team generator, however. I think I'd rather find a guild, but since you can't walk ten steps in the game without some guild asking you if you want to join, I don't think that'll be a problem. I don't mind a little polite grinding in order to contribute to the guild, I just don't want to find that I let the game dictate my real life schedule. I think I can find balance with the force. :Cant's Obi-Wan expression icon: I think I'm going to play a little of the Agent and go all out light side responses. I think it'd be interesting to see what I end up with in that scenario. EDIT: I've been meaning to say that I think the reason your trial invite got lost, Spider, is because I used my shared acct with my wife. It's what I use for things like registering products and trial accts and the like. She says she thinks she deleted something about it as spam by accident. I'll wait til the end of the weekend to see if you want to try again in order to get the speeder or whatever it is. Frankly, you really just seemed to want to build the player base, and I can appreciate that to be sure. So, thanks for the thought, but no biggie. :Cant's broad grin icon:

I just checked and I'm on Drooga's Pleasure Barge. I think it was at the top of the list and I thought, "hmmm, a pleasure barge? Could do worse." I was thinking I would reassess the server when I purchased a subscription. I'm pretty much sold, although I guess there's no hurry. I'll probably do it sometime this weekend. Meanwhile, having gotten up to level 13 with my jedi guardian, I was thinking of trying either the agent or the smuggler next. I like the idea of a gunslinger type character. I did karazan at level as a rogue, finished off ICC as a pally tank, and I did all the Cata raids as a healer. I was thinking I could make a tank because I think they tend to be most in demand, a ranged dps because it's nice to let go and smite folks, and a healer because I enjoy that role more than any other in end game raiding.

I've gotten to the next planet as the Jedi Knight. I chose to be a guardian. Still haven't reached level 15, though. I did a couple of battlegrounds, but I thought it was strange how the levels mix. No range like WoW but completely mixed 10-40+. I was the ten, of course, and I felt sorry for my group for having a lowbie and a newbie rolled into one. Still, we won the first battleground handily and lost the next horribly, so I guess you never know what you'll get. I'm much *much* more positive about this game now. It's actually shaping up pretty well and it has something WoW completely lost for me... something new and interesting to explore. I'm actually thinking about making the purchase, but I'm going to get to level fifteen to see if Bio could seal the deal.

I really hate the way games look at light/dark sides and alignment in general. I can see why having chaotic (good, neutral, evil) and lawful (good, neutral, evil) and true neutral would make it hard on the design team. That's why the devs always seem to throw over lawful and chaotic and concentrate on good and evil. Fair enough. It's a stupid system, but it's part of DnD. ...But light and dark? Give me a break, there are only two choices, right? It should be easy to come up with reasonable options to reflect one or the other! wrong. That just means every single shade of human morality and ethics is reflected in two extremes with a really wimpy middle. It just makes it harder for the design team to make all of those decisions on a case by case basis. Of course, they could develop a good standard, but since mankind has been unable to find a universal standard, I don't see how the hell a game developer can devise one. Wouldn't it be nice, though, to see someone come up with something more creative than the whole "good = refusing payment" and "bad = indiscriminant murder?" Hey, how about this, if you have a support team and you refuse payment owing to your overweening pride, you get dark side points for taking food out of the mouths of your companions? How about this, if you refuse a powerful weapon that would help you destroy the bad guys attacking the town out of a selfish desire for reputation, you get dark side points for undermining your ability to protect the joint? You can't create a Star Wars game without a light side and dark side mechanic, but it just means a lot of silly consequences. On the other hand, I think doing all light side choices with a dark side character is fun. If I continue playing tOR, I'll do that eventually.

Yeah, it's built into the system to be sure. There's nothing you can do about it. However, I think the devs could have a bit of fun with the whole light side/dark side decisions in the game. Maybe I'll waste some time and put the thoughts together and start yet another alignment thread. I've been asked to join a guild twice already and my highest level character is level 9, and I *just* got to that level before posting this. I think tOR must have the same guild incentives they put into WoW.

That was actually funny. Why does the bad guy always get the best lines? I've tried at least a few levels of every class now. I think the Jedi Consular and Sith Warrior are my faves for low level. I can see playing a light side Sith Warrior with a lot of funny consequences. I like the voice over work best for the Imperial Agent, but I like that starting world the least. I think, after all that, I'll play the Jedi Knight. I'm going a bit farther with that character. I did like one of my options for dialogue: I helped this chick by finding her dead husband and getting the necessary materials to craft medicine to save her daughter and she says she doesn't know what to say giving me the option of "Don't say, just pay." hehehe I didn't choose it, of course, but I did enjoy it. I have seen some pretty bad dialogue in the game, but I've actually been impressed with some of the writing and dialogue. The whole light side/dark side always irritates me, just like alignment irritates me in DnD. I've been thinking of some ideas of how to approach it, but I don't want to gunk up this thread with the discussion. I'm going to play to level 15 and see how I like the game. I'm surprised in that I was far more excited about Diablo III, but this game has worn much much better that D3 did at this point.

I've played the majority of the classes so far. I think my favorites are Bounty Hunter and Consular. Yeah, I get the complaints about the Consular, but I like how the light side dialogue isn't insulting. You can play the good guy without sounding like a complete idiot.

Okay, Cal, I'll give it to level 16 then. Any suggestions on the class I should play to level 16 considering I'm a boring light side sort of guy who's open to any of the classes? I mean, if the dark side character is cool enough, I might enjoy it, but I tend to prefer being light side. I did notice very early with the... agent, think? I got light side points.

I've tried the smuggler/scoundrel, bounty hunter, and Jedi Consular classes. The game really isn't half bad, and I still intend to get someone to level 10, but right now I can't help but fell like it's the same ol' grind I've found in other MMORPGs. Frankly, although I've spent the most time grinding WoW, my favorite of the MMORPGs is probably City of Heroes. It was great fun and the players tended to be friendlier. Still, I'm going to play up to level 10 somewhere along the line to give the game a fair shake. I can definitely see why a hard core Star Wars fan would love the game. No way in hell would I say that anything reaches the level of either KotOR game in terms of fun factor or story. On the other hand, I never expected an online grinder would compete on the same playing field. The cinematics are pretty damned good, though.

I normally avoid WoT these days, but I would like to point out a couple of things about the games and the ceremonies, both opening and closing. First of all, I'm an American. I'm not ashamed to say it. I love my country. I volunteered to serve in the armed forces, I vote in every election, I keep abreast of the issues of the day. ...But, like virtually all Americans, my ancestors came from somewhere else, and that means I have family in Britain. I have always been an Anglophile, but over the past several years I've been dismayed and disappointed by the hang-dog defeatism of the Brits. To paraphrase the Bard himself, self-love is not so great a sin as self-neglect. I see the great things about America as having their first expression in Britain, and it pains me to seem them moping about and, even worse, acting apologetic for creating the grandest empire the Earth has ever known. For shame! This Olympics, the Brits looked like a people in fighting trim. They wanted some gold and went out to get it. They didn't care that the days of grand empire are over. Instead, they waved some flags and showed some pride and won some medals. Through all that, they cheered other nations for their efforts. Noble spirits and good sports, that's what I saw and it made me happy. In our day and age, with so many people willing to write off western democracy as if it weren't the one thing that has lifted the greatest number of human beings out of poverty and despair, I was heartened to see Britain being proud of the many splendid things she has contributed to the world. I know I know! How laughable that anyone should be positive about anything in this forum, but I am optimistic. Sure, 'Imagine' is pie in the sky fantasy, but who cares? It was only one of many songs that demonstrate the grandeur of British literature and art. Be proud of it. Most of the people I personally know have agreed that these ceremonies are special. I think, with so many dark clouds on the horizon, we were all British from the time the ceremonies opened to the time they ended. I have never been moved by any ceremonies as much as I have these, even including the ones in Los Angeles, which were local, to the ones in Seoul South Korea where I was stationed at the time, or even the Athens games, which were special for a variety of reasons. The London games were much more of a success than I anticipated they would be. Congratulations!

I went through the initial movie and both the dark and light sides. I will observe a few things. First of all, the graphics aren't bad for an MMORPG. I thought the videos looked good and, even though I've always been impressed by the Blizzard attention to polish, I was quite happy with the production quality. Very well done for all three, although I thought that the dark side was a bit monotone. Even so, both the light side and dark side videos did show how non-force users are useful in combat. There won't be any of this idea of standing around as a non jedi or sith while things happen around you. I started both a Republican trooper and the Imperial agent. It's standard MMORPG fare in terms of fighting. As a Havoc soldier, I pretty much wasted everything in my path. I had a couple of BoE items that didn't seem all that impressive, but they were also no more than level 2 anyway. I don't remember seeing any level requirements at all, to be honest, but I'll admit I wasn't looking. I'm one of those overgrown teenagers in that I play females because I would rather look at a female backside than a male for the entire time I play. In that regard, although she was a bit disproportionate, I was satisfied with the toon. It played smoothly and I did see a number of noobs running around like me, shooting at stuff and gathering loot. I was able to run off without training mobs on other players, and there were other players for both the light and dark sides when I played. All good. As the Imperial agent, I only had time to get the first quest and two optional quests. Still, I thought the voice over work sufficed. The contact for the Imperials didn't seem nearly as bad as that wet noodle Lt. on the Republic side, but more on that below. I chose a lighter female build for the Imperial, and her proportions were more 'normal,' although I did rather like the Republican. What can I say, I like big butts and I cannot lie. Here's probably my only real complaint: I played a human female regular grunt and I would have been scared ****less the first time the Lt. opened his mouth and convinced me he was an idiot. He wouldn't have put up with the crap my toon could spew. Nevertheless, I think that's probably true of the other MMORPG games I've played, but it was still jarring. Anyhow, not a big deal. My gut instinct is that I won't continue playing after the trial period, but I was surprisingly impressed by what I played. I think the videos really did get me in the mood to play. I'm not a dark side sort of guy, but I'm going to do a couple of levels as both the Sith Agent and the Republic commando just to get a feel. If it continues to impress, then I'll think about putting in payment info and starting a real account.

I thought Wizardry 8 was a dreadful slog of never ending respawns. It ruined the game for me. I know it's that Wizardry thing going, but the game could have been a lot more fun with a breather to enjoy the exploration a little bit.

I don't understand why there's animosity over it in the first place. If some of us like discussing the ruleset, why is that bad? I guess I don't take it personally. I just don't get it. On the other hand, I tend to have fun either way. I think different design philosophies appeal to me at various times. Sometimes I want something with a lower learning curve. Other times, I enjoy something where I have to think about my build more. At least it's not like WoW or some other MMORPG where you're forced to go read up on class build theory and read over number crunching data for every single talent in order to create a decent character for late game raiding. Folks in the what are you playing now are discussing the tough time they had with the rescue part of KotOR 2, but I don't think I've played a single player CRPG where you completely and utterly screwed if you messed up your build as much as you can screw up an MMORPG build. I mean, I think it's a perfectly legitimate point of view to say you don't like getting in the weeds on (version x) of Dungeons and Dragons, but for some of these games, I've enjoyed discussing them here more than I have had playing them. That might be sad, but having paid for them, at least I'm getting some mileage out of them one way or the other.

No problem. You have to go with what the majority of the group wants, so that's fair. I'm not really all that excited by doing a DA game, but best of luck to you guys!

I never got the email from Spider about the trial, but I gathered that it wouldn't do much to help him anyway and he just genuinely seemed to want folks to try it, so I figured I wouldn't bother him with it again and instead I'm just downloading the trial version from their webpage. I don't know if I'll end up purchasing it or not, but I can play until level 15, so there really appear to be any reason not to give it a shot. If I don't feel the game by then, it's not my cuppa jo anyway.

So, to do hard core raiding, do you still end up need add-ons? One of the things that was a drag in WoW was the fact that you were often screwed without add-ons and, even if you could handle some things with them, guilds would *require* you to use certain add-ons. Nothing like having to spend time making sure your add-ons are up to date on top of other things like that. Of course, the real answer would be 'just don't get so hardcore you need the things.' Sadly, my problem is that I can't play a game without eventually wanting to get to the hardcore stuff. :Cant's sad admission icon:

I actually love fpses, but even those have rules. I'm going to go forward into the ridiculous, and so I'll point out that I'm going past where it would be charitable to suggest mkreku meant to draw the line. With that said, here goes: Even in an fps, we need to know that w goes forward and s goes back. We need to know that d strafes right and a strafes left. In one particular game I can think of offhand, w runs forward, s walks forward, and x goes backward. I find that frustrating, even though I know the reason to put it in is because in this game, stealth is just as important as speed. In some fps games, you just run over stuff to use it. You can't save anything for later use. In other games, you save up things and must access them later. Do you do it by a quick use button or by accessing the items through a menu. Even if the rules are exactly the same in all other respects, the way the devs use the rules of their own devising can make a huge difference. For example, the original doom engine was great for run and gun, but if ammunition were far more scarce, it could have been used as a survival horror game instead. I guess my point is, for every single game, there's still a curve for learning the rules. ...And, for every single game, there's a point where you can forget the rules a little and just move forward. In DnD, you need to know how to build up your character by deciding on class, allocating stats, choosing skills and feats, donning kit, arming weapons, etc. Once you do that, you can almost forget most of those things and just hack, slash, spell, or sing your way over, through, or around conflicts. You don't have to think every second of what your next stat bump will be. I know that was probably confusing, but I'm a bit tired today. I guess I'm just pointing out that there's no getting away from the rules in a game ever. At some point, on some level, the rules will make the game. Sometimes the rules aren't the intrusive things that kill the point of the game. Sometimes, the rules and how you use them are almost the point of the game in the first place, which is why some games license certain rulesets in the first place. They can be just as important as other licenses.

Yeah, but rules are the mechanics, and that dictates gameplay which means that you like how things are done under some systems but not as much under others. For example, I like the Bethsoft Elder Scrolls titles, but I much prefer Fallout 3. The way the rules handle things is better. ...But I suspect that we're just splittin' hares (or hairs, whatever). Sometimes I enjoy the game because the rules are way in the background and I can just enjoy the story and gameplay. Sometimes I enjoy the game because I like to figure out cool things to do with da rulez. As long as it doesn't deteriorate into a puerile session of abusing the rules so you can brag aimlessly about your character, I'm pretty happy. That's what killed my PnP Dungeons and Dragon group. I'm a grown man. I don't talk in a high pitched voice to mimick an elf, I don't use optional homebrewed rules to create uber characters who are impossible to kill with level appropriate monsters, and I don't brag about my ubermensch character. That's why computer games can sometimes stack up well against PnP games. Unless the design team completely sucks, you are limited by what they allow. You might find exploits, but generally video games are balanced. I know Sawyer is always concerned with balance and, while I don't think it's the singularly important aspect, it does prevent the players from constantly breaking the game.

Well, at least Sargallath isn't dead. I have no comment about the other stuff, but: "TNO escapes" sounds awesome. Maybe not the Nameless One, since some stories are best left resolved, but something like PS:T would be awesome.

I love Call of Cthulu and I've resolved myself that I'll never get to play a PnP session of it again unless it's online. I can't stomach the DnD group at all, and so I might be interested in an irc game. Post the schedule and the basic rules here and I'll see if there's even a chance of getting onboard. I might be able to make most of the games.

Naw, rules *do* matter, even in a computer game. They don't matter as much and can certainly be more complicated without worrying about the poor bastard running the thing, but they still matter. After all, the rules dictate how you engage in combat, cast a spell, or even travel from place to place. You can simplify travel, let's say, but do you want to simplify spell casting? Do you want to keep the travel rules because it's a space based sci-fantasy game, but maybe streamline the magic? Space combat is still robust, but small party combat is simplified? ...But I think the question of Dungeons and Dragon rules might not be as big a deal because, from what Monte and others have told me, 4th edition might be better as a computer game than a PnP game anyway. I would love to see a really good sequel to BG2. I'd love to see a really good sequel to IWD2. Hell, I'd love to see a good game altogether, even if I don't play as much as I used to. I haven't played Diablo three for about a week I think, and that was my last big purchase.

Well, Vol, to be fair I haven't been following games as much over the past year or two.

What I find odd is that I was going to purchase DA2 on STEAM after someone assured me it wasn't bad as all the negative commentary I'd seen, but STEAM doesn't seem to carry it. I mean, I can understand some games not using STEAM, like Diablo 3 and such, but DAO is available. Why not DA2? ...And are they planning to expand the DA franchise or is it dead or is EA going to disolve Bio or what?

Today is my first day back after a trip up to San Francisco to meet a dear Canadian friend I've known for about 12-14 years but never met until Tuesday. He's also a member here, but we didn't talk much about the Obsidian board and I never asked him about posting pics. For myself, having put on a hundred pounds over the last few years as I fought my own inner demons, I'm not all that excited about posting pics myself anyhow. ...But, having exorcised said demons, losing weight, and found a return to productivity, I'll have to get back into fighting trim and meet up again so I can post pics, assuming permission of course. As for my Canadian friend, he's a lean, mean, fighting machine. Definitely in good shape, and I was sure he could whup me, which is why I made sure to keep him liquored up the whole time. We hit wineries in Sonoma, Taverns in Mill Valley, and drained many bottles of wine at a retreat with his wife and several pastors from all around North America. Of course, we didn't want to be 'one note,' so we downed several pints of beer also. The drive up the 5 continues to be brutal. I haven't traveled these last five or six years like I did in the past and yet this year I made two trips to Tahoe and one to San Francisco. It's the first time I've really felt my age sneaking up on me, to be honest, although I can still throw down the booze. My liver might be cryin' home to momma, but, after the last round, I'm still over the table without being passed out on it. :Cant's huge grin icon: Anyhow, most of my days are filled with things that aren't really noteworthy here at Obsidz, but I thought it was interesting to meet another one of the members for a few days.