Scorpia and Baldur's Gate, a discussion from 2006

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Inb4 VD/Crispy/Prosper/Codex Celeb of Choice is outed as Scorpia.

 

[Mustawd]

Inb4 Roguey is outed as Scorpia.

 

[Infinitron]

Inb4 Roguey is outed as Scorpia.

Definitely not.

Lilura is somewhat Scorpia-like, though. Her blog should be more famous: http://lilura1.blogspot.com/

 

[Bubbles]

Scorpia had a P.O. box in New York, and most New Yorkers never move out of the city. An IP check should be able to narrow down the list of suspects.

 

[Prime Junta]

inb4 a half-dozen codexers claim to be Scorpia

 

[Darth Roxor]

im scorpia

 

[Infinitron]

In addition to IM chatting with Scorpia for years, I personally met her at the home of a mutual friend after her tenure at CGW. During a Call of Cthulhu rpg session, we took to talking computer games (surprise!) and I asked her point-blank what had happened.

Her response was that she was "asked to cease submitting reviews" when George Jones took over as EIC following Johnny Wilson's graceless departure. No real explanation; just go away. No particular review was mentioned. But to be clear: She did not leave voluntarily; she was shown the door.

That was George Jones' call to make as EIC; we can argue the pro and con of such things all day long. The truly disgraceful thing was how Jones did it. Scorpia didn't get any kind of proper thanks or even acknowledgement. Also, there wasn't a single mention of her reviews, editorials or the Tale in CGW's Special 200th Issue.

Compare this with the send-off Thierry "Scooter" Nguyen got - including a Greenspeak, if I recall correctly - when he left the mag. One of the many reasons Jeff Green's EICdom was a breath of fresh air after Jones.

Speaking of that, I tipped Randy Sluganski off to Scorpia's weekly IRC chat (which goes on to this day) and so may be at least partially responsible for that Just Adventure interview. Oh, well.

For those who might be wondering, "Scorpia" is her actual, legal name and not just an online handle or nom de plume.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Definitely not.

Lilura is somewhat Scorpia-like, though. Her blog should be more famous: http://lilura1.blogspot.com/

For some reason I also thought of Lilura.

 

[Mustawd]

For those who might be wondering, "Scorpia" is her actual, legal name and not just an online handle or nom de plume.

 

[Lilura]

Lilura is somewhat Scorpia-like, though. Her blog should be more famous: http://lilura1.blogspot.com/

Hey, thanks for the plug and kinds words, Infinitron!

Lilura1 is getting a lil' more attention thanks to my SoD walkthrough more than doubling the hits to it (well, quadrupling in its first month). Still, I wish more ppl were reading my in-depth retrospectives and NWN commentaries; but then, that stuff's much more niche and not EZ reading if one isn't prone to over-caffeinating themselves..!

 

[Mustawd]

Lilura is somewhat Scorpia-like, though. Her blog should be more famous: http://lilura1.blogspot.com/

Hey, thanks for the plug and kinds words, Infinitron!

Lilura1 is getting a lil' more attention thanks to my SoD walkthrough more than doubling the hits to it (well, quadrupling in its first month). Still, I wish more ppl were reading my in-depth retrospectives and NWN commentaries; but then, that stuff's much more niche and not EZ reading if one isn't prone to over-caffeinating themselves..!

I have too much backlog to play NWN and follow along as of yet. I parsed through it a few months back and was impressed with the analysis. Keep it up.

 

[Farmer Brun's Dead Son]

Scorpia is Amber Scott, obviously. BG ruined her career and she swore her revenge. Sure, it took some time, but boy, isn't she patient. Playing SoD I couldn't but think the game's writing is some kind of revenge conceived by a degenerate mind. Did you see the bit about her inability to form a single functional relatonship at her workplace? YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME. NOBODY DOES. BUT I'LL MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND ME. She's a retarded version of The Count of Monte Christo.

 

[Fowyr]

For example, we had to twist her arm to upgrade from DOS, among other ongoing problems.

 

[Grauken]

I heard there are writers who started out with DOS word and still use it to this day, via Dosbox

considering the abomination that Dos word was, I'm having contradicting reactions ranging from respect to utter horror

 

[octavius]

Ah, here we are!

Death And The CRPG
by Scorpia in Editorials/Essays (Wednesday February 14, 2007 at 12:32 pm)

So then we had some rather hectic combat as the enemy closed and some of them jumped over to the players’ ship. It was a very tough fight, and the players just managed to squeak through it, with help from the ship’s sailors.

What they didn’t know, is that I had expected them to take out the enemy with a lot less trouble, and there were reinforcements belowdecks on the other vessel. Since there was no way the players could have handled that, those other enemies just vanished. In a CRPG, they’d have swarmed up and killed the party, and it would be restore time again.

Isn't that like level scaling?
And IIRC Scorpia hated level scaling.

 

[Fowyr]

I heard there are writers who started out with DOS word and still use it to this day, via Dosbox

considering the abomination that Dos word was, I'm having contradicting reactions ranging from respect to utter horror

I could not use Word for writing big texts and still use Word&Deed for it, old Russian DOS text editor.

 

[Azalin]

Heck, for all I know she was a pseudonymous female alter-ego for Johnny Wilson. Lol...which would explain why she never wanted to show any pictures of herself!.I don't think Johnny would have made a good drag queen.

The truth is finally revealed after so many years

 

[Infinitron]

Johnny Wilson is an interesting character in his own right. A games magazine editor who is also a professor and Christian pastor and theologian. Here's an interview with him from 2012.

Gaming journalism used to be eclectic. You can see how somebody like Scorpia would become alienated as it got taken over by the familiar specialized caste of urban liberals and money men.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

So if no one knows who Scorpia really was or what she looked like, how did they depict her as fat ugly monster in M&M3? I assume they just made that up then and the depiction had no relation to reality?

 

[Roguey]

They were deeply upset over her negative review of M&M2.

Is it just me, or was there something charming about an old school reviewer who might have been "too shy" to post pics? That's so great compared to today, where they are all trying whore themselves out on TV and youtube videos, and half of them are some cute chicks that barely know anything about games. Let's be honest here, I don't really want to see the reviewer, I just want to hear them say something interesting.

Back in the late 00s she said she had no money to upgrade her computer and no income, so more like too poor/non-photogenic.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

They were deeply upset over her negative review of M&M2.

Yeah, I know, I just meant that they didn't actually seem to have known what she looked like, did they?

 

[octavius]

So if no one knows who Scorpia really was or what she looked like, how did they depict her as fat ugly monster in M&M3? I assume they just made that up then and the depiction had no relation to reality?

It was just JVC's payback for giving his M&M2 a bad review.

 

[Sacred82]

I've always been kind of underwhelmed by her analysis -- it was certainly more nuts-and-bolts and informed than many mainstream reviewers, but if you compare it to the similar review style on the Codex, her work seems really lacking. She seemed incapable of thinking of how others would play the game, and things that to me seem quite small (or simply incorrect) would be of intense importance to her. For example, her comments about the RNG in BG -- the combination of self-aggrandizement and certitude about something that is almost certainly incorrect is pretty lame: "The RNG is cheating!!!!" is one thing to exclaim in the privacy of your own home when you a point-blank burst in X-Com or Fallout, but it's kind of dodgy in a formal Review.

I'm sure she's right as I've seen the RNG behave weirdly in Infinity Engine games too... I think it was the original Icewind Dale where improbable results were rolled for minutes.

 

[Roguey]

It's random, of course it can be weird.

 

[Sacred82]

It's random, of course it can be weird.

I've never had this impression with other CRPG's. YMMV.