Obsidian dev: not buying from Atari = death of CRPGs

[Anthony Davis]

DRM does not justify theft. Period.

Who says you need justification? I never justify my torrenting, that's for sure.

But, like McGinnis says, let's stay on topic.

What the fellow above here said about Dry spells is spot-on. This Davis guy is obviously an RPG newfag. What, you entered the hobby in the 90s like the rest of the brain dead rabble? I thought as much. You probably loved Oblivion and think Mass Effect is revolutionary. That's so cute.

There *is* a drought. A drought of authentic RPGs. The very last one that came out that didn't make me involuntarily regurgitate my lunch was Temple of elemental Evil. 2003.

Before that, it was Gothic 2.

Before that it was Wizardry 8.

Before that it was Divine Divinity.

Before that it was Gothic 1.

That covers the last 8 years. The current decade had five decent RPGs and the rest were elementary school trash.

See, you folks are under the impression that if you and Atari don't make us some games that we won't have any.

All I care about is Piranha byte's next game, Divine Divinity 2 and *insert whatever comes out of Europe next*.

I don't need you, and neither does this hobby. As a matter of fact Tony, we'd be better off without slope-headed troglodytes like you making RPGs for their kin anyway.

The market has a way of sorting things out though. So I'm not concerned.

You have me over a barrel because as an employee of Obsidian I try to be polite and respectful in my posts so as to not cast a negative light on my employer. Obviously there are times for some good natured snark though.

YOU however, have the freedom to sling names and act like a general douchebag. It's cool, one of the big reasons I like the Codex, unabashed douchebaggery. If insulting people is what it takes to make you e-peen swell so that you can stroke it...shit, don't let ME stand in the way of a little self-love. Go ahead...stroke it.


Now on to the somewhat gamey and stringy meat of your post:

I entered the GAME industry about 5 years ago. I've been in the software industry for about 15 years now.

As for when I entered the RPG arena officially when I got my C64 and was playing games like the original DnD Gold Box games, the Bard's Tale series, Wasteland (best game EVAR), Knights of Legend, The Ultimas, and many more. I played a slew of different RPGs on my best friend's Apple ][e also, including the original Wizardry I through 4.

I played almost every game on YOUR list, with the exception of Gothic 2. Out of your list, my favorites would easily be Wizardry 8, though the combat gets VERY repetitive, and ToEE ONCE you install the Co8 patches. Out of your oh so deep list, those were also the only two I finished (both multiple times).

As to Oblivion, you can search this forum and find my thoughts on the game, they haven't changed. As for Mass Effect, I didn't like it. I don't say that to curry favor with 3-toed mouth breathers like yourself, it simply wasn't my cup of Publisher's Cum - to use your delightful euphemism.

If you think those were the only good games released in this last decade, then you sadly have missed out on some good games, the IWD series, the BG series, Stalker, Vampire Bloodlines, Arcanum, The Witcher, and many more...too many to list here.


As for you not 'needing' me...well that simply breaks my heart...

X 10,000

 

[Anthony Davis]

If m_PROFIT > m_EXPENSE
then m_ATARI_SUPPORT++;

Ha! Incontrovertible proof you are in on FrAtari's conspiracy to kill niches through buggy software! Try

if (m_GROSS > m_EXPENSE)
then m_ATARI_SUPPORT++;

you fascists.

Shit, well that might explain why I have 30 bugs right now...I'm a shitty programmer.

:wink:

 

[ushdugery]

DRM killed my father and raped my mother! Also pirates dieing out is directly corelated to global warming you would know if you were more aware of the tenets of pastafarianism, it's not that people want to steal games it's just that they don't want the lack of pirates to be responsible for the planet dieing.

 

[Anthony Davis]

It is similar to stealing an electronic component because you do not liking the stupid indestructible plastic packaging it comes in, you know the kind, the kind that cuts up your fingers as you hack at it with scissors and a military grade laser.

No it's not. Digital media piracy does not remove anything from anyone's inventory.

It's like you have a Looney Tunes ACME's duplicator machine that you target at whatever you like and it makes a copy from thin air. I gain, but you lose nothing.

Also, if it's ATARI's game like you said, we just have another reason to torrent it.

By the way, any improvements on the camera for SoZ? I doubt it.

It was an analogy.

Any analogy can be broken if you push it hard enough.


As for not removing inventory, that is only LITERALLY true, but not realistic.

I'm sure almost everyone here is way smart enough to grasp the basic economics of how the game company sells units to recoup development costs and to turn a profit, and stealing that 'invisible copy' is still stealing, even if you justify it by saying you would never buy it anyway.

Some people wait for price point drops before buying a game, say when it drops to 39.99, 29.99, or hell maybe even 9.99. At least even then the developers and publishers would get SOMETHING back.

Maybe you wouldn't have bought it, maybe you would have at the *right* price point- the world may never know.

Look, I have no illusions about changing anyone's mind here, certainly not yours or Dos Fan Boy, but the bottom line is that downloading is stealing. It DOES have some sort of an effect of the industry. Is it as devastating as that CRYSIS developer was claiming it to be? I don't know, maybe - maybe not, but it is a real effect.

BTW, CRYSIS was a GREAT shooter and I bought that too even with the crappy DRM it had on it. Just wanted to throw a little respect to those guys, great work.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

Anthony Davis has been playing RPGs from way back since the early 80s, including all the old Wizardry games. He is probably the most old school guy in our forum (this is not mere flattery) and about the only developer on this forum acquainted with 80s and early 90s RPGs. Have you even seen the topics where he gives his advice on Ultima Underworld or Wizardry 4?

As far my knowledge goes, he is the only old school gamer within Obsidian, or any mainstream gaming developer (or one of the few). The fact that there is someone like him at all is the only assurance that you can get the old-school style RPGs in this day and age. And that's what's happening. Do you realize that Storm Of Zehir, with its fully customizable party and overland map, is the one return to those old school RPGs? Have you seen their marketing for the game? They have themselves said that they are using features from Wasteland and Darklands.

When you go dumpster diving, you can no longer go back to the fine wine and cheese table and act as if the smell isn't there. His RPG player card was turned in long ago.

If you think those were the only good games released in this last decade, then you sadly have missed out on some good games, the IWD series, the BG series, Stalker, Vampire Bloodlines, Arcanum, The Witcher, and many more...too many to list here.

What's BG? IWD? I've never heard of these games. they must be very obscure.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'd say the key element here would be that is the game any good by itself and whether or not the DRM is in EA levels? Which is something neither Spore or Mass Effect were, leaving the customer only with a raped computer.

As for me, I will definately buy Storm of Zehir as soon as it comes out. I've been satisfied by every Obsidian game thus far, and Storm of Zehir sounds like something more along the lines of excellence like Mask of the Betrayer was. Not to mention Obsidian deserves support, unlike EA or Bioware.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Anthony Davis has been playing RPGs from way back since the early 80s, including all the old Wizardry games. He is probably the most old school guy in our forum (this is not mere flattery) and about the only developer on this forum acquainted with 80s and early 90s RPGs. Have you even seen the topics where he gives his advice on Ultima Underworld or Wizardry 4?

As far my knowledge goes, he is the only old school gamer within Obsidian, or any mainstream gaming developer (or one of the few). The fact that there is someone like him at all is the only assurance that you can get the old-school style RPGs in this day and age. And that's what's happening. Do you realize that Storm Of Zehir, with its fully customizable party and overland map, is the one return to those old school RPGs? Have you seen their marketing for the game? They have themselves said that they are using features from Wasteland and Darklands.

When you go dumpster diving, you can no longer go back to the fine wine and cheese table and act as if the smell isn't there. His RPG player card was turned in long ago.

If you think those were the only good games released in this last decade, then you sadly have missed out on some good games, the IWD series, the BG series, Stalker, Vampire Bloodlines, Arcanum, The Witcher, and many more...too many to list here.

What's BG? IWD? I've never heard of these games. they must be very obscure.

Baldur's Gate
Icewind Dale

Thought if we are going to get serious about this 'decade' thing, BG 1 is *just* squeaking in at 1998.

Srsly man, I do feel you pain over the temporary death of turn based, isometric PC gaming, really I do. Shit, man I remember the death of 2D top down RPG gaming (*sniff* Wasteland, Wizard's Crown ). You don't see that anymore! Well, outside of handhelds these days, and on DosBox.

If 2D RPGs can make a comeback on handhelds, maybe TB/ISO ones can too...someday

Speaking of turn based ISO, I *JUST* reinstalled Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic on my laptop. Turn based strategy with RPG elements, sweet delicious good times.


You should not take every game coming down the pipe that doesn't meet your expectations as some sort of personal insult, just let it go, don't buy it, insult it, write letters, emails, blogs, whatever it takes to show your disapproval. I mean I know this is the Codex and you have to tow the line, so by all means be as profane as you need to be.

Just don't try to tell me that you only steal because of the DRM or that the game sucks and you wouldn't buy it anyway. That kind of logic stinks of moral relativism and frankly, even the Codex should be ashamed of that. At least have the balls to admit that you steal it because you are a fucking thief and don't care who it hurts.


As far as development goes, as you said, there will always be someone out there to fill in niches. Go try these guys:

http://basiliskgames.com/index.html

I enjoyed the hell out of the Eschalon I.

I guarantee though that if everyone had stolen that game, there wouldn't be a Eschalon Book II, thankfully it looks like the game is selling and we will get a sequel.

 

[Darth Roxor]

How about all you Obsidian devs just stfu and go work on Storm of Zehir? :evil:

 

[Anthony Davis]

I'd say the key element here would be that is the game any good by itself and whether or not the DRM is in EA levels? Which is something neither Spore or Mass Effect were, leaving the customer only with a raped computer.

As for me, I will definately buy Storm of Zehir as soon as it comes out. I've been satisfied by every Obsidian game thus far, and Storm of Zehir sounds like something more along the lines of excellence like Mask of the Betrayer was. Not to mention Obsidian deserves support, unlike EA or Bioware.

I admit that I hesitated for several days after Spore came out before buying it because of the draconian DRM they have on it. In the end, I got it anyway. Apparently the DRM issue wasn't enough to even slow down Spore's sales either. In the long run that means that EA and other publishers will continue to use DRM.

As far as whether the game is good or not, I enjoyed it. It is not very deep, but it is very sandboxy. I like sandbox games because it allows me some freedom to play around and try different things, one of the big reasons I like the Sims so much.

 

[Wyrmlord]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AO2w7-p8WE

A big RPG video personality at youtube (he does mainly Daggerfall) just called McGinnis the "most butthurt, whiny, wambulance-calling son of a bitch I have seen in my life" and tells him to "stop trolling your own board". hehe, I love stuff like this.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

I mean I know this is the Codex and you have to tow the line, so by all means be as profane as you need to be.

You won't find me sympathizing with the pseudo intellectual RPG "Kotex" wannabes on this site. Never have, never will. They worship at a different altar, one I'd never even be so courteous as to piss on. I don't associate myself with them or their equally despicable brethren over at the RPGwatch. Though I find Watchers and Former RPGdotters far easier to piss off. Most Kotexers are too busy beating off to Chris Avellone's pics to really give two shits either way.

Just don't try to tell me that you only steal because of the DRM or that the game sucks and you wouldn't buy it anyway. That kind of logic stinks of moral relativism and frankly, even the Codex should be ashamed of that. At least have the balls to admit that you steal it because you are a fucking thief and don't care who it hurts.

On that, we agree. As I stated before in an earlier post within this thread, you shouldn't look for justification to torrent something. You do it because it can be done.

The most "recent" RPG I torrented would be Might & Magic 7. I skipped over that in the series and was never able to locate it. Though I prefer its DOS era, the M&M WIN games did have a bit of charm to them. 7 was one I always regretted missing after hearing the fans speak so highly of its class system.

My problem isn't with your gaming pedigree or lack thereof. My problem is with your blind allegiance to Atari and their DRM schemes. I could respect you and your co-workers if they would at least admit that Atari was fucking them up the ass...but you don't. You truly fear them that much. They must be some mighty scary folks.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AO2w7-p8WE

A big RPG video personality at youtube (he does mainly Daggerfall) just called McGinnis the "most butthurt, whiny, wambulance-calling son of a bitch I have seen in my life" and tells him to "stop trolling your own board". hehe, I love stuff like this.

That'll be an awfully fun place to take this discussion, I bet.

Just my little old two cents.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

You won't find me sympathizing with the pseudo intellectual RPG "Kotex" wannabes on this site. Never have, never will. They worship at a different altar, one I'd never even be so courteous as to piss on. I don't associate myself with them or their equally despicable brethren over at the RPGwatch. Though I find Watchers and Former RPGdotters far easier to piss off. Most Kotexers are too busy beating off to Chris Avellone's pics to really give two shits either way.

Hey Binary and Jasede, there actually is another person who plays video games to watch little numbers go up.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

You won't find me sympathizing with the pseudo intellectual RPG "Kotex" wannabes on this site. Never have, never will. They worship at a different altar, one I'd never even be so courteous as to piss on. I don't associate myself with them or their equally despicable brethren over at the RPGwatch. Though I find Watchers and Former RPGdotters far easier to piss off. Most Kotexers are too busy beating off to Chris Avellone's pics to really give two shits either way.

Hey Binary and Jasede, there actually is another person who plays video games to watch little numbers go up.

They sound like two upright, fine young gentleman.

Do they have vaginas? Are they relatively herpes free?

I'm not.

 

[Anthony Davis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AO2w7-p8WE

A big RPG video personality at youtube (he does mainly Daggerfall) just called McGinnis the "most butthurt, whiny, wambulance-calling son of a bitch I have seen in my life" and tells him to "stop trolling your own board". hehe, I love stuff like this.

I think Boilerplate is best when he is showing the world so of the greatest video games ever made.

His rants, whether attacking Planescape: Torment and Planescape: Torment fans, and now attacking Rob are just...weak sauce.

Calling Rob out because he is Irish? Nice, way to go racist.

Because he posts a lot? Part of his JOB is to communicate with the community. Believe me, he listens to the community and he has been championing features that they have requested for a long time. When we add a new feature, Rob is the first to ask how can this benefit and be used by the community? What changes need to be made to make that happen.

Because he locks threads and and asks people to stay on topic? That place is mad house when it isn't focused. People with all sorts of various wants/desires/fetishes/hatred/whatever are constantly trying to derail any thread. Rob, and the rest of the moderators do a pretty good job there herding all those cats...and obviously, as proven by Boilerplate, it is a fucking thankless job too.

Because he locks threads when people are rude or when they start to bash Atari, Obsidian, and all the rest? Good. It isn't a public forum. You have to join and AGREE to the terms of the forum. Violating those terms and the code of conduct is grounds for banning. Constructive criticism is welcome, and we have always taken it seriously but it isn't the Codex, don't be a jacktard.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

I think Boilerplate is best when he is showing the world so (sic) of the greatest video games ever made.

Awwwww. How sweet. That'll stoke the fire in my E-peen for quite a long time.

Irish....Racist

If blacks can say the N word, an Irish/German like myself can make fun of micks.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I think Boilerplate is best when he is showing the world so (sic) of the greatest video games ever made.

Awwwww. How sweet. That'll stoke the fire in my E-peen for quite a long time.

Irish....Racist

If blacks can say the N word, an Irish/German like myself can make fun of micks.

You're Boilerplate?


You used to post *HERE* as Boilerplate. What happened?

nice catch on the (sic) with my typo.

 

[DOS-fanboy]

I have several usernames. Boilerplate is a name I use when I play by the rules, more or less. I create more "interesting" ones when I wish to troll. Besides this one, I have 3 other accounts on here, dated much older, that are still active.

All I do is either troll /b/ boards on the chans, Gfaqs, or cause havoc here. As I did a few months ago in the Alpha Protocol newspost here on the codex. It was a fine, fine troll post. Most of it was truly my opinion, but I embellished it for effect.

You got me though. I never wanted to out this account. It's a shame, really. I love sowing chaos and discord and generally pissing off people who take words and internet communities too seriously. You got me though. Very, very good. You earned my respect on that.

The truth is, I'm making my own website, equivalent to the codex. Swabble, Bloodpigggy, and Tyrion (who are also suppose to be members here) will be my main staffers. They all despise Planescape, despise the Codex, and want a more fair and balanced RPG review site. It'll have the edge of this shit-rag of a site, but without the pseudo intellectualism or the worship of dialog-heavy "Intro to RPGs" games.

Right now it's locked to be limited to those who I want to be staffers, but by next summer, it will be open to all.

For what it's worth, I do love NWN2. Not perfect, but a game that doesn't deserve such a bad rep. The SoZ expansion is more like the IWD style games I enjoy. As you already know.

Well, there goes this account. Toodles Kotex'ers! Proxies > IP Bans.

EDIT: Though I do think you and Rob should really learn to take criticism better. DRM is a valid topic, but you brush it under the rug. As you know, I buy games. I also only torrent older titles that are no longer available. I don't use that as justification, I know it's theft...I just don't care. Plus, I'm not paying some shmoe a whole 80 bucks for his supposedly "mint condition" Might & Magic 7 box on ebay.

Don't do atari's grunt work. They don't deserve it.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I have several usernames. Boilerplate is a name I use when I play by the rules, more or less. I create more "interesting" ones when I wish to troll. Besides this one, I have 3 other accounts on here, dated much older, that are still active.

All I do is either troll /b/ boards on the chans, Gfaqs, or cause havoc here. As I did a few months ago in the Alpha Protocol newspost here on the codex. It was a fine, fine troll post. Most of it was truly my opinion, but I embellished it for effect.

You got me though. I never wanted to out this account. It's a shame, really. I love sowing chaos and discord and generally pissing off people who take words and internet communities too seriously. You got me though. Very, very good. You earned my respect on that.

The truth is, I'm making my own website, equivalent to the codex. Swabble, Bloodpigggy, and Tyrion (who are also suppose to be members here) will be my main staffers. They all despise Planescape, despise the Codex, and want a more fair and balanced RPG review site. It'll have the edge of this shit-rag of a site, but without the pseudo intellectualism or the worship of dialog-heavy "Intro to RPGs" games.

Right now it's locked to be limited to those who I want to be staffers, but by next summer, it will be open to all.

For what it's worth, I do love NWN2. Not perfect, but a game that doesn't deserve such a bad rep. The SoZ expansion is more like the IWD style games I enjoy. As you already know.

Well, there goes this account. Toodles Kotex'ers!

Heh. I have watched (I think) every single video you have ever posted. Your take on retro gaming is very astute and well thought out. Don't bag on the Codex too much, I never would have found your youtube account without someone linking to your stuff here.

I think if you make a sight where you continue with THAT kind of work, well, I hope it will be successful because I know I would like it.

I would love to see review sites make better use of video and demonstrate actual playthrough and gameplay. Some do, but not enough. Even though you obviously can be an asshole, you got a good voice for narrating videos.

Also, you were still a dick to Rob, who has a thankless job and works really hard to make sure that Obsidian stays connected with the NWN community.

Which specific AP newspost were you referring to?

 

[Anthony Davis]

EDIT: Though I do think you and Rob should really learn to take criticism better. DRM is a valid topic, but you brush it under the rug. As you know, I buy games. I also only torrent older titles that are no longer available. I don't use that as justification, I know it's theft...I just don't care. Plus, I'm not paying some shmoe a whole 80 bucks for his supposedly "mint condition" Might & Magic 7 box on ebay.

Don't do atari's grunt work. They don't deserve it.

No one I know at Obsidian is like, "YES! DRM! Woot!"

The bottom line is that we are making a product FOR Atari. If they want DRM, they have paid us to do it. We do what we can to make sure Atari is responsibly informed of what the gaming community thinks, and what some alternatives are.

Believe it or not, Atari is actually open to this, and we discuss with them the alternatives. Usually it comes down to cost or something cost related. I don't think they are intractable to change, they just might not move as fast as the game community would like them to move.

EDIT: I tried to find it somewhere on my youtube account WHEN I started subscribig to your videos, but if its there, I can't find it. I would guess several months. Really, despite being a jerk to Rob, your videos are top notch.

 

[Wyrmlord]

I had a vague suspicion that you are Boilerplate when I saw that you like Gothic and ToEE.

You sound like a villain with evil plans when you talk about your upcoming website. "It'll have the edge of this shit-rag of a site, but without the pseudo intellectualism or the worship of dialog-heavy "Intro to RPGs" games."

But either way, I genuinely enjoy reading your comments on your channel. A contrarian voice that isn't deliberately being contrarian.

"These posers of RPG fans at RPGCodex don't know what a RPG is. They tout Torment as a highly intelligent game, and then dismiss Diablo for being a hackfest. Pfft. The intelligence required for playing Diablo is far greater than any reading comprehension skill. You know what a RPG is? Let me tell you what a RPG is. A RPG is a game that you play after reading 300 page manual with long hard turn-based combat. It ain't a game where you just browse through a bunch of popup windows of text."

 

[DOS-fanboy]

Ok, you'll get me out of character for this, which is extremely rare. Don't gloat.

To be honest, the DRM doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't have control over the OS. the "Phone home once" thing doesn't bother me either. What does bother me is DRM akin to what we saw in Starforce. I lost my boot sector to a series of nasty reboots caused by Beyond Divinity's Starforce. I also found out that the reboots somehow fudged up my RAM, causing me to drop 400 on two new sticks. It really soured me to the whole thing.

What bugs me is I don't know how invasive MoW's DRM will be. The 1.13 patch has already borked the game for a lot of folks and has a nasty habit of causing explorer (file browser, not net browser) to lock up if you right click over an .EXE file. That tells me this DRM is going to be particularly nasty...and with so much money poured into my PCs every year, I don't like to have them come under attack from a 50 dollar game that I innocently installed on them.

As for the site, it's "Gamers Against Phail". Tyrion came up with the name. Leave it to a limey to come up with something that crazy and yet so catchy. I hired a good "real life" friend of mine to do the heavy coding (He does web development for a living) and the reviews style is something revolutionary. Reviews will be sorted according to staffer taste, and rather then select a game, you select a staffer who most represents your preferences. It allows the user to only see reviews written by "their guy". Currently, I have 15 different reviewers ready to go. Console elitists, oldschool gamers, a kid who loves the new stuff. All bases are covered.

Oddly enough, I'm the "Fair guy". My hatred of Oblivion and Bethesda, but my kind review of it are sort of what you can expect from me. The others fellas? Probably not as forgiving.

You're right though, I should stick to gameplay vids. I only wish I could do recordings of Arcanum. I won't lie, I raged uncontrollably when you told me Arcanum was one of the games I "Missed out" on.

I'd die for that game. Or anyone at Troika. they understood the importance of difficult combat in an RPG.

You're an old school Wizardry fan though, so I'm preaching to the choir.

BTW, when I heard SoZ was an IWD-style game, I had a nerdgasm.

EDIT:

As for the AP post, not sure. I think the staff here deleted it. You'd have to search my post history.

All I know is one of my GAP staffers-to-be came in to the channel one day and said that the Codex was going nuts for AP and planned to buy it so that Avellone would make another Planescape-style game with the gobs of money codex'ers helped him get in sales. Or some silly shit. Naturally, I hit the roof and decided to cause some chaos and also blow off some steam.

So I posted some nasty, well written vitriol directed towards the "dialog-lovers" and ripped them as best as I could, then backed out of the thread completely. It was a news comment post, not a forum post.

I went back a couple days later and noticed massive amounts of butthurt. I felt much better.

I still think AP has fail written all over it. It's too watered down for my tastes. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from Mass Effect. I could never stomach a 2nd playthrough. It was almsot as bad as Jade Empire.

 

[Anthony Davis]

I had a vague suspicion that you are Boilerplate when I saw that you like Gothic and ToEE.

You sound like a villain with evil plans when you talk about your upcoming website. "It'll have the edge of this shit-rag of a site, but without the pseudo intellectualism or the worship of dialog-heavy "Intro to RPGs" games."

But either way, I genuinely enjoy reading your comments on your channel. A contrarian voice that isn't deliberately being contrarian.

"These posers of RPG fans at RPGCodex don't know what a RPG is. They tout Torment as a highly intelligent game, and then dismiss Diablo for being a hackfest. Pfft. The intelligence required for playing Diablo is far greater than any reading comprehension skill. You know what a RPG is? Let me tell you what a RPG is. A RPG is a game that you play after reading 300 page manual with long hard turn-based combat. It ain't a game where you just browse through a bunch of popup windows of text."

I'm heading to bed, gotta get up in the morning and go make an RPG for you douchebags, so this will be my last comment for the night.

I like Torment AND I like Diablo 1/2/3.

I like System Shock 1 & 2 (SS2 is, like Wasteland, the greatest game EVAR) AND I like Bioshock.

I like Stalker AND I like Deus Ex.

I also remember codewheels, and the old "turn to page 37 and read paragraph 112".

...I don't know where I was going with this. Fuck you, I'm tired.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Ok, you'll get me out of character for this, which is extremely rare. Don't gloat.

To be honest, the DRM doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't have control over the OS. the "Phone home once" thing doesn't bother me either. What does bother me is DRM akin to what we saw in Starforce. I lost my boot sector to a series of nasty reboots caused by Beyond Divinity's Starforce. I also found out that the reboots somehow fudged up my RAM, causing me to drop 400 on two new sticks. It really soured me to the whole thing.

What bugs me is I don't know how invasive MoW's DRM will be. The 1.13 patch has already borked the game for a lot of folks and has a nasty habit of causing explorer (file browser, not net browser) to lock up if you right click over an .EXE file. That tells me this DRM is going to be particularly nasty...and with so much money poured into my PCs every year, I don't like to have them come under attack from a 50 dollar game that I innocently installed on them.

As for the site, it's "Gamers Against Phail". Tyrion came up with the name. Leave it to a limey to come up with something that crazy and yet so catchy. I hired a good "real life" friend of mine to do the heavy coding (He does web development for a living) and the reviews style is something revolutionary. Reviews will be sorted according to staffer taste, and rather then select a game, you select a staffer who most represents your preferences. It allows the user to only see reviews written by "their guy". Currently, I have 15 different reviewers ready to go. Console elitists, oldschool gamers, a kid who loves the new stuff. All bases are covered.

Oddly enough, I'm the "Fair guy". My hatred of Oblivion and Bethesda, but my kind review of it are sort of what you can expect from me. The others fellas? Probably not as forgiving.

You're right though, I should stick to gameplay vids. I only wish I could do recordings of Arcanum. I won't lie, I raged uncontrollably when you told me Arcanum was one of the games I "Missed out" on.

I'd die for that game. Or anyone at Troika. they understood the importance of difficult combat in an RPG.

You're an old school Wizardry fan though, so I'm preaching to the choir.

BTW, when I heard SoZ was an IWD-style game, I had a nerdgasm.

Alright, one last post because, and I'm gloating here, I got you to break character. :twisted:

Starforce fucked me too. I got those UFO:something games, the ones that were similar to X-Com. They all had Starforce and that screwed up my OS so bad that I had to nuke the entire OS.

I don't know a whole lot on what is going on with MoW, so I really can't comment on it.

Arcanum is a great game, Chris Jones who is my boss' boss wrote just about the entire game engine and toolset. We have had several lunch time discussions over that game and he even gave me one of the original Arcanum cloth maps. I love that game, even though guns are underpowered... well, at first anyway.
>_>
<_<


Troika made some great games and I am pleased we have so many Troikians working at Obsidian.

Brock Heinz - Gameplay Programmer on Aliens, veteran of Troika
Justin Cherry - our new Art Director for all of Obsidian, veteran of Troika - super crazy good artist
Jesse Reynolds, former Lead Programmer for Fallout 2, former veteran of Troika

and many more.

I look forward to your site - you should review the old games too (re-review I guess).

SoZ does draw on many elements from IWD, plus some new ones. I worry sometimes, not about SoZ being good, I know it is good. I worry about pleasing the old skoolers. You'll find out in November if our gamble paid off.

ps.
Yeah...Wizardry, that game ruled. Wizardry 4 though...man. I was heartbroken when Sierra went under and Wiz 9 got cancelled though.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'm sad that the Planescape rant video was removed. It made me smile.