Comments on: Today on “People Unclear On The Concept”…

By: Russell

Russell — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:05:12 +0000

Reminds me a bit of Desslock’s yearly panning of UO, way back when.

By: Pluto's Dad

Pluto's Dad — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:56:42 +0000

Actually that review reminds me of the reviews of Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within. Most of them were just complaining about how stupid videogames were, just shoot everything in sight, etc. None of which had anything to do with the movie, which had nothing to do with the games, which have nothing to do with FPS.

By: Pluto's Dad

Pluto's Dad — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:53:49 +0000

hmm interesting. I have met people that still play D&D 1st ed., because it is the free-est and has the least rules. If you don’t know what you can do, just tell the GM “hey I want to do this” and he rolls a die and says “you fail” or “ok”.

Of course, i think those people are crazy But I can see their point in wanting to push all the decisions 3.5 comes with onto a DM, even an electronic DM. Especially those that are more into the adventure and role playing, but don’t want to go LARPing with a bunch of emo vampires.

By: Brask Mumei

Brask Mumei — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:07:39 +0000

“No great games ever come out of just making what is expected.”

Actually, I think Blizzard has made a fortune doing exactly that.

By: Cael

Cael — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:03:49 +0000

He’s evangelising in the wrong place.

That’s all.

By: Brent Michael Krupp

Brent Michael Krupp — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 07:03:35 +0000

Ok, kinda derailing here, but Kohs, do you even *like* MMORPGs or CRPGs? Have you ever played and liked *any* of them? I see you making the same complaints on several different MMO blogs and it seems like you really just want to be playing a totally different game from a totally different genre or possibly designing your own game.

Maybe you and Abalieno should hook up. =P

By: Heather Sinclair

Heather Sinclair — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:06:00 +0000

After playing a great deal of NWN2 over the last two days, I fail to see how NWN2 ‘shoves the numbers in your face’ – they’re about as hidden and in the background as a system based on D&D could be. The only time they’re really ‘in your face’ is when levelling up, and even then all you have to do is mash the ‘recommend’ button and you have a decent character. (I stopped worrying about customizing my characters a while ago, the ‘recommend’ stats are almost always good enough. The game really isn’t even hard enough that you have to micromanage your spellcasters either, which is the only other “d&d rules r hard” system.

As for hiding the d&d numbers beyond that – well, DDO did that unintentionally, and it was immensely frustrating for us and the fans, as they’d have to check the SRD, and still then guess whether we were working like the SRD. There’s just no way to summarize all the stats in D&D into a set of words like ‘better, slightly better, awesome, the best!’, and anyone who has actually tried to rank tiers by vaguely descriptive terms can tell you that it’s well nigh impossible for someone to reverse engineer the rankings without numbers to back it up. Is ‘superior’ better than ‘quality’ is better than ‘peerless’ is better than ‘well-crafted’? nobody knows! Just give everyone the numbers, and they’re all happier, the only ones who disagree are ones who haven’t actually tried to do it.

By: Andrew Crystall

Andrew Crystall — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 21:06:20 +0000

Kohs, well, the D&D games have allways been aimed at people who like the stats side.

The actual problem with NWN2 is the camera, the UI, the AI and the gameflow, all of which make it afaik unplayable.

But the mechanisms of the game itself do precisely what they say on the tin.

By: Saben

Saben — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 10:16:26 +0000

If you have to do the movie comparision regaring this issue, it more strikes me as giving a bad review due to finding the villain unsympathetic or something.

As for the hiding of numbers, you have to remember they are there to show relative strengths and weeknesses, something you in RL have trained for your entire life (I can probably lift that, but not that and so on). Computers might be able to simulate this in another way some day, but it would require some kind of new sensory input if you want it as intuitive as in RL. Just “hiding” them would put you at a dissadvantage against what you can normaly acomplish.

By: almagill

almagill — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:53:42 +0000

I like numbers me.

Then again, I also like old black and white movies. I don't think Bilko was improved by remaking him with modern actors and in colour, but Elephant Man really won out because it was shot in B&W. Then again, I know people who liked the new Bilko and thought Elephant Man sucked...

"It takes all sorts"