Cantousent

Holy Crap, SA, you're old enough you were probably a passenger on the Titanic. Bastard. If you report me, I'll either deny the whole thing or blame it on the Jameson. I'll just point out that, having endured three viewings of Titanic for various people, nine hours is about seven hours too long for the film.

I think Obsidz, having been on the verge of releasing an Aliens game, would have had an easier time with Cthulu and, moreover, could have made a real franchise out of it. Alas, to paraphrase, there is no sadder phrase from mouth or pen than these four words "what might have been." At any rate, my thinking is a tad dimminished right now, but I think Bloodmoney would be a better setting that Rainbow Six. Awesome setting. I really enjoyed that clunky ol' game, Dark Corners of the Earth. i can' remember who suggested it, maybe Wrath, but it was worth the money. Nevertheless, it wasn't an RPG and I'd buy an Obsidz Cthulu RPG sight unseen.

Oh, the link was bad? Well, never too late, as they say.

How about a Chtulu CRPG that doesn't suck? I would also like to see a Paranoia CRPG. I know pulling off a real comedy RPG could be tough, but it would be fun. I wouldn't mind seeing something like American McGee's Alice done RPG style. I always loved Under Dog and Super Chicken, but that could tough to license and write. An original concept would be nice, too. How about a Frasier CRPG? I think it would be crazy hard to do, but can you imagine if they managed to pull off the humor? A good sit-com CRPG would go a long way towards broadening gamer demographics.

I think I'll actually swing by. I've always thought you were ridiculously talented in video game storytelling, you bastard! lol You swine! Karate rap. hahaha Oh well, you got me. Still, good luck in the future, no matter where you end up. I think you worked on.... LotRO or one of the MMORPG titles. I don't know if that's where you go, but you'll undoubtedly do a good job no matter where it it is.

I'm absolutely unrealiable in terms of this sort of stuff, as I leave for long stretches, but I'd like to think I could join a game. I'll play the single player, lan party based, and hopefully get a chance to play online with a few of you bastards. Worst case scenario, I'll won't be on the boards here, but if I am I'm game. I'll also probably be a little... confused by consumption of adult beverages, but that probably won't make much difference in my gameplay and I don't engage in drama over loot.

I haven't played ToR, but WAR had some real issues. It's too bad, because I was much more into the Warhammer mythos. *sigh* I might, might try a Cthulu based MMORPG. Otherwise, i'm resigned to ignoring former guildied/family members trying to entangle me in WoW again.

Nice to see folks having fun on the holiday. ...And, if your fun is to find homor at my Christian expense, no biggie. I don't hold a grudge. Although I found the humor made at my expense better if it were truly funny. The nail gun was good, Wals, but I actually chuckled out loud at the weird choclate bunny cartoon.

I have to admit that the Daeva Statue was tougher, but I did have to get the hang of the gargoyle statue fight. He was a boss, for sure. To be candid, I had been drinking the night before when I made my failed attempts to do the Daeva Statue and so I tried the gargoyle a few time. The next day, I did the gargoyle statue after a few attempts and used tactics I used on the gargoyle statue to finish off the Daeva statue in one attempt. The fights in the DLC were of the variety where there is a certain tactic that made the fight easier. For example, I simply avoided damage much more in the gargoyle fight. In the Daeva fight, I summoned my mirror image guy to pummel her while I did my best to build up orbs to use for burst damage. Sadly, I have also been drinking tonight and I'm afraid I'm not being as coherant as I would like. Anyhow, to you and Alvin, it was a great game. You all did a splendid job. That ain't just the marsala talkin'.

Happy Easter, everyone! If you're a fellow christian of some stripe or another, I hope you enjoy church and have a great celebration. If you celebrate the holiday sans religion, then I hope you enjoy a restful day with family and friends. If you don't celebrate Easter at all, then may you enjoy something during the day in which you find joy, even if it's the perfect cup of coffee or a great night's sleep. I normally send wishes on the holiday, but I'm going to be out of town. Have a great weekend, all.

I'm with LC on this one. It's a question of censhorship. I don't figure I'd want to kill children in games, but I resent the hell out of the fact that we can't by reason of censorship. I don't think it does any good, either. As it seems to me, some kids are going to be abused by some adults whether game allow for the depiction of abuse or not. There has to be a damned compelling reason for censorship before we impose it as a society. I don't think it's important that you get emotional at video games, either, LC. The point of video games is to enjoy them in whatever manner you like. That's the same reason I don't care one way or the other about folks 'cheating' in a single player game. As to you, Gorth, remember doom? It had some pretty good mods way before Tombraider. I guess folks just didn't care to see a naked imp nearly as much as the hot chic from the 'raider series. That's conjecture on my part. I've never played one of the games.

I don't really care about nudity in games, although I can see the point about the hooker in the bed. (Why not just fade to black and leave it entirely to the imagination?) Folks don't take showers in their bathing suits unless it's a public shower and they're ashamed of their bods. Not much of an issue for me, but I can see why someone might take issue. I think StarWars' point about small things drawing more out of the player than the big dramatic moments the devs usually use to force emotions. From the very same scenario in PS:T, about which my feeling are entirely identical, to the two skeletons hugging each other in FO3, I think the less in your face moments have evoke much more feeling on my part. ...And it's not all touchy feely either. Of all my companions in video games, the one about whose death I would be most enraged was always my dog in FO. There's also the other side of helping to form your world view by persuasion. You can also sway world view by disagreement. Hasn't anyone here seen an idea expressed in a video game and had nothing but contempt for it? Pushback against ideas help solidify our own, after all, and that's just as important changing someone's mind.

Everybody lurves the lotto winner, Super-Cal.

That is absolute nonsense. The most impactful part of Bioshock is the 'difference between a slave and a man' cutscene. Remember, the player doesn't actually win Bioshock. That rich billionaire could have killed him, but did not. After that, finding out the identity of the real main bad guy gives the PC a real motive for payback. I agree that Bioshock would make for a great movie, but not because of the genral backstory or gameplay. If anything, Ryan makes the story for that game. ...And it would be even better if the writer doesn't fall into a 'Ryan is evil because he's a greedy rich bastard.' Ryan is a flawed character, but his goals are noble. Give him real arguments, not the fluff movies usually put in the mouths of rich people. What I like about Bioshock is, if you actually pay attention to it, the devs say 'a pox on all your houses.' They don't back the rich capitalist or the revolutionary socialist or even the greedy opportunistic bad guy. They pretty much say they all suck.

Oh come on, my Crimson friend, you didn't kind of like the characters in New Vegas, you luuuuuuurved them! ...And I've seen the video footage to prove it! :D I think folks over-think what has had an impact on them. It's often hard to trace down every element that builds into your personality. Just because you didn't give away all your goods and join an abbey the first time you played a cleric in an RPG doesn't mean that you didn't get something out of it. I know it's chic to be jaded and deny that anything effects you, but things impact your thoughts. This isn't a vacuum here! :Cant's rueful grin icon:

Well, yeah, but who's your first favorite? <.< Seriously, I'm hoping eventually to get a shot at all of them. I always play the mage first.

Ahhh, good point my friend.

I think it's too easy to say that we don't care about games and they don't affect us. Unless you're willing to say that games are somehow substantively different from movies, television, or books, you should accept that games affect us. All media has an impact on popular culture and, whlie sometimes popular culture might be a guilty pleasure for some of us, it does have a significant impact on... well... culture. I will nod to a couple of things. Orog made me laugh out loud with the Kreia comment, for which I am grateful. I agree with the following: "[y]ou can clearly see our own biases and prejudices when you look at all the topics that are 'no-go' in a computer game." I agree with Tig that playing TNO was much more significant to me than many games that go out of the way to present 'moral dilemmas.' Finally, Gorth, you old bastard, I think I'm actually a little older than you. :Cant's **** eating grin icon: Basically, I think you get as much out of a game as you desire, but there comes a time when you just want to sit back and play a game without any navel gazing. At those times, you just don't give a crap about larger picture items. On the other hand, those ideas presented in games do have a way of seeping into our world view, whether folks want to downplay the signifcance or not. One last point: a lot of my educational background is in mythology, not only reading but also doing my own translations, and often I don't think game developers screw it up any more than the ancients did. There's a lot of conflicting or alternate mythology out there. Movies and games and books and tv shows and campfire stories and all of those fluffy things we discard out of hand are a huge part of our existence. To downplay their significance is undoubtedly misguided, but I suppose there's no point in arguing about it.

I actually like it because, while it made assumptions about specific religions, it was actually religion neutral. Ironically, what I liked about that slider is that it did something I suggested is mistaken up above. It treats religion as entirely functional. ...But I would rather games just treat religions as a function of society than have them do the oh so 'edgy' pardoy of religion (after all, it takes real guts to insult Christians in our society) and end up being completely superficial in the process.

I think a strictly functional perspective of church, religion, and faith is non-sensical. That's not to throw down the gauntlet on atheists in this thread, only an observation that the functional view of church and religion assumed that the function that religion incidently plays is the only purpose it has in the lives of the members. There are many, many arguments one could make against religion, and I would concede a lot of them in the exchange, but I don't want to devolve further into a religion discussion. The real point to me is that the world is a battle-place of ideas. Sometimes those ideas take form in activity or armed conflict, but the ideas themselves are the real power as weapons and armies only reflect the ideas in conflict. Because of that, whether an idea in a game (or novel or movie) is real-world specific or not really isn't all that important because there is no idea in a game (or book or movie) that does not reflect real-worldness. We cannot come up with an idea for a game that doesn't reflect our reality. Once formed, every idea is a real world idea. The only difference is how that idea translates into reality. If I propose that we have dragons fly us to the moon, the idea is either in jest or insane. However, the idea of flying to the moon, once conceived, is real. For that reason, the backstory of elves who become less elvish in the presence of humans and mages who draw power from the fade can still be excellent proxies for real world things like aboriginal assimilation and alleged psychic activity.

I enjoyed the DLC, but it was part of the game from the very beginning because I bought it as a package on Steam. I enjoyed it and the toughest fights, as a lot of folks have said, are in the DLC areas.

Yeah, the devs took real care to allow the player to pursue evil options in MotB. I had to play through a lot of evil scenarios and some of them were laugh out loud funny. Others were insightful. I thought you could enjoy the game if you wanted to be good, evil, or somewhere in between without a lot of intrusive prejudgment by the design team. This really goes to Tig's main point about exposure to different cultures and histories or mythology. You don't get anything from the real world, but you are forced to make meaningful choices that rely on ideas and virtually all of those ideas are a mirror image of something somewhere in the world.

Here's a question: How often do you replay a game to change your moral actions? That is to say, you can change classes, talent trees, and other build related things, but how often do you explore a situation from a moral point of view? And how often do you think the moral choices reflect anything truly meaningful or just build into the biases of gamer culture? To be fair, I would fail dismally at this particular test. I love Bioshock, but I'm always going to save the children rather than kill them because I stop enjoying the game if I try to be the bad guy and then I lose interest and stop playing. ...But a game that is evil in its premise and doesn't beat me over the head with my own evilness isn't so bad. I enjoyed Dungeon Keeper, for example. I think the battle of idea is often weighted pretty heavily before we even begin. Just as Tigr says, his King is a Crusader from the very beginning, and so his gameplay is tailored to make the game reflect that fact. He plays a certain way to fulfill a meta-game desire rather than making the decisions he would normal make without the bias.

That's going to be useful, SW! Thanks for the heads up. I don't think DS3 is really any more corridory than the previous two titles, but I completely agree that loot drops are less entertaining. Really, I think abilities are much more of a focus in the game, but it's really quite different altogether in terms of level cap and the way the player builds a character.

Yeah, I think Europa Universalis was definitely interesting and I did learn things about various areas I hadn't known before. Of course, I would never take for granted information I learned from a game, but sometimes it's a basis for discovery and, if you can corroborate what you've learned, then it serves just as well as a book or movie. I think games, because they are interactive, are far more useful in forming meaningful opinions than movies in that you must make decisions. Books are different because you move at your own pace and can take the time to dissect an argument and assess it before continuing. Same thing with games, of course, but we have a societal inclination to take books more seriously than other media, even works of fiction. Games are great in that you have a personal investment by dictating the outcome and you can control the speed at which you move through the experience. On the other hand, because it involves more effort, I don't always have the time or energy to enjoy them. I'm also limited to where my gaming device is, whether computer or console. I enjoy a good movie because I need very little personal investment to receive the entertainment. On the other hand, unless I'm watching at home and pause, the movie moves at it's own speed. T.V. shows are the same only cut into smaller, more manageable chunks of time and much more accessible in terms of replay. On the other hand, because of the limited time frame, the need to extend the series as long as possible in order to maximize return on investment, and constant interruptions for advertisement, T.V. is generally more shallow as a practical matter, although some television is much better quality than some movies. Both movies and television are generally even more limited by location than gaming. Books are king of accessibility. You can read them in the park, in the bath, at the beach, or on the pot. They allow the reader to take as much time as he needs or desires, and he can save at any time by something as simple as turning down the corner of the page he is reading at the time. On the other hand, the process, not only of comprehension but also imagination, requires more effort on the part of the reader than either movies or television and, sometimes, maybe just as much as gaming. Hell, maybe even moreso from time to time. As far as important beliefs go, I don't think it matters if there is a direct historical reference behind the game. Most games, really most fiction, tend to be a hodge-podge of ideas thrown together. Even someone like Tolkien, who wanted to create an entire mythology from scratch, took different ideas and put them together in his own way. The important thing is that games force us to assess these ideas and make a decision. Is it better to spare Jeyne in Dungeon Siege 3, or kill her? Should we pursue science or finances in Civ V? Should I concentrate on far away colonies or build up my European holdings in EU? Of course, since developers put their own biases into the mix, it's never a real question. It's far simpler to say that corporations are big evil entities and should be brought down or destroyed. You very rarely see a game that treats issues in any sort of realistic way and, even when they try, the designers still can't escape from their own personal history, upbringing, and culture. But, what the hell, neither can I. As far as mythology or history, I think games and movies are overall a good thing. Yeah, they get facts wrong about history all the time and the mythology is often completely screwed up, but that's okay. If I find the mythology aspect of a game intrigues me, then it's my choice to learn about it outside of the game. If I don't do that, it's not the game's fault. Same with history. I have seen things in media that have caught my interest only to read about them later and find out the premise in the story was all messed up. Who cares? As a citizen with ready access to a variety of authorities on any number of subjects, at some point it's my responsibility to get things straight.