Profile for The Immortal
| Field | Value |
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| Displayed name | The Immortal |
| Member number | 4 |
| Title | BANNED |
| Postcount | 6936 |
| Homepage | http://www.geocities.com/terrorsmartyr/ |
| Registered | Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
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| Newbie Alert!!! in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 17:50
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And some "short" calls will actually have a result in the game- remove_char_from_party();, for instance. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Newbie Alert!!! in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 17:50
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And some "short" calls will actually have a result in the game- remove_char_from_party();, for instance. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Undead Topics Need Loving Too (aka "Give Me Your First-Born") in General | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 17:04
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I am a rude lout. :( [ Monday, May 23, 2005 20:50: Message edited by: Imban ] -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| The 7th Contest is upon us! in Blades of Exile | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 14:50
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I'm harsh enough to make it worth your while... :P Eh. I don't know- the oldbies might come out and play your scenario still. But even they are diminishing. It's up to you in part, but I'm not sure... -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| The 7th Contest is upon us! in Blades of Exile | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 09:12
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It's over 300, but +100 of them are crap. Still, a good +100 are of decent or higher quality. Anyway- it probably will be BoE's last hurrah of any decent quality (Tomorrow, Roots, NTH, Areni, etc). New designers will become more and more likely to use BoA instead. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Wha?! in General | |
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 09:07
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That's why you use Grab. It captures in .tiff, but Photoshop or Preview can remedy that. -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Progressing as an Agent in Geneforge Series | |
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:51
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quote:He's talking about the three "invisible" spawners of the final fight with Akhari. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Capitalism ho! in General | |
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:45
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quote:It's not that cut and dry- Keynesnians would argue for saving on behalf of the government in a surplus (whether it be a standalone progressive tax or withholding money); thus leakages in the leakages-injections model during a contractionary economic policy. Furthermore, the Keynesnians assume that saving will affect AD when Expectations or Wealth (two of the many factors that cause Aggregate Demand to be downsloping), and therein assume a certain degree of savings. -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Beta Testers needed for mac Dialog Editor in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:29
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Sorry about a lack of a report- but time is starting to free up now. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Beta Testers needed for mac Dialog Editor in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:29
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Sorry about a lack of a report- but time is starting to free up now. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in General | |
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:24
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What Bain said. Why say that only people who saw the film should vote, and then have a "Haven't seen it option?" —_— -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Drakefyre, Mariann, Jeff, Linda.. you're all dead. in General | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 20:12
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quote:It was a poorly-designed coprophilia joke. -------------------- 私のバラドですそしてころしたいいらればころす Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Beta Call for Mad Ambition in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 18:27
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Prospects for once aren't looking that bad- Sunday might not be too poor of a guestimate for a release date. ...for beta. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Agent vs. Guardian in Geneforge Series | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 14:58
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Shaping skills are useful to both Guardians and Agents because of Healing Skill. Ultimately, both A and G will buy this skill- so Guardians will either get the added bonus of Augmentation (which changes the HP bonus from "noticeable" to "extreme"), or they'll get another extra 2-10 skill points on the A. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 13:19
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Actually, this was initially a play on Creator's signature. Wait- it still IS. :P -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 12:18
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quote:I repeat the comment about asscovering. You are an expert, I swear it. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 04:50
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"I'm just calling it like I see it. Your first post in this topic amounted to a flame against Kelandon's scenario, which you don't like." There's a fundamental difference, though. (Which you apparently haven't divined yet.) The "complements" for Kel's works and the "critiques" for other people's works are both totally inane and anachronistic. Not that I would expect you to know this- but that's also part of why I'm clamoring to keep us out of the stone age. "This isn't a business; you didn't apply for this job or get hired for it." You're right. It's not. Involvement in the business world is motivated to a good extent by money, whereas what I and so many others here have done, do, and will continue to do is motivated by a love of the game with no strings attached. It's not a business, it's a volunteer project, and therefore even MORE worth my time to preserve. "Anyone can volunteer his time to write and release a scenario if he wants to" Anyone can go to a soup kitchen and serves meals if s/he wants to. "you're better at it than most " And have put time and effort into both design and extensive community development "but there's nothing you can do about 'the direction of the community.'" Hence my anger. "It's not worth kicking up a fuss over" You may be right- my audience is too asshatedly cussed to listen to anything I have to say in any form whatsoever, despite any credentials of my sincerity. "and it's certainly juvenile to pin your rage on one person" Which is why I am venting at players and scenarios which are avatars of the detrimental effects I've spent this whole topic describing. Do you somehow not understand my concern here? I have seen the community change for the better through the acts of devoted designers and players who were both critical and constructive. Now, the metaphorical nuclear apocalypse has come, and I'm being shouted down for trying to reconstruct civilization. Do you not understand why this irks me so? I swear. A divorce indeed. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Hello Everybody! in General | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 20:04
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*waits for Khoth to post his signature* -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Hello Everybody! in General | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 19:20
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quote:I find the fact that you're saying this is rather ironic. -------------------- 人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 18:43
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Valley of the Dying Things. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 17:54
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Alec- Crown princess? More like "respected member" as a result of tons of hard work. I repeat the comments I made before: "This is tertiary, but the "TM only cares about ratings" inanity is also getting on my nerves. It's almost as if my patience isn't being tested by this degradation. I'm not trying to inflate any scores, especially mine- although don’t confuse me, I still think that the score ratios are off- I'm here to deflate scores and prevent a deflation of a community I've been working for roughly 4-5 years in." It is, for cheese and crackers, the point I've had to repeat myself on more often than any other. Can we not just leave this "pighead" the benefit of the doubt that he is genuinely ired by the state of things rather than whoring for ratings? My goodness! "and once people start fighting to the death under the presumption they're doing it for the lordly right to reshape an entire design continuum at will, it's definitely time for a reality check." There ain't no way I'd aim for that position- it hasn't happened yet, and it won't happen in the future. I have 20+ scenarios, and the only person to significantly copy features from any of my scenarios both stylistically and technically is Bain-Ihrno. I'm used to not being a role model. But I'd think you of all people would be one in opinion with me that this right which Kel already has needs to be used properly. "I think we could improve the BoX community a lot by taking the more pigheaded designers - TM, Creator, Kel, et al - out and shooting them. They've done relatively good work, but their intolerable arrogance isn't justified based on that" Oh yeah, just a question... What "intolerable arrogance" have I been responsible? I'm not against taking this point, but I'm left wondering why. EDIT: Nice asscover, Kel. No, really. [ Wednesday, May 18, 2005 17:55: Message edited by: Kirk Johnson ] -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 15:00
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That's a valid line of discussion- just not a relevant one. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Suicide or Not? in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 13:25
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I wish there was an "only do it if it will be good" option. -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 13:19
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"The entire rest of that post is not worth my time responding to" (Edited out) How about this- when you've spent as much time and effort into this medium as people you address, then try being that arrogant. Not before. "EDIT: And heck, as Alcritas might point out if he read that post, what good is it to make spectacularly good, advanced, amazing scenarios if no one ever sees them? A designing community with no player base is a sad thing indeed." We were never starving for a player base and never will be. The most ambitious and spirited design existed when there was no player base- Tatter in BoE's later era would be a solid work but not very ambitious. Those flippant neophytes like myself are evidence of this. A player base only counts when you are selling something, and if BoA involves selling anything, then there is nothing but loss for all parties involved except for the adventurerX007s and attention magnets out there. "TM, your analysis of Kelandon's goal of popular success seems to be flawed, in that what you describe is a process in which the designer solely seeks popular approval and attention... ...They do not create and share scenarios merely to get the highest ratings, but because they are proud of what they have made and want other people to get to enjoy it as well." I never said Kel's goal was this- but it WILL affect designers in some way or another. I'm not sure how people think designers are stoic icons of permanency who will keep on pumping out scenarios to an ingrateful audience regardless. The thrill of creation is one thing- and of course, there should be people to read it. But just as good writers can be popularized out of publishing, so too does a BoA community without Ezra Pound's poetry collections resemble the dry literature of the Age of Reason. Designers may hold convictions, but people can be swayed, and when the people grow more and more ingrateful, a designer has to consider why she or he is designing. Seriously. With the intent of leaving. "From what I have seen the vast majority of the people around this forum are ones who share both interest in the entertainment provided by BoA, and also imagination and desire to create something of their own... ...This in no way leads to stagnation or repetition of ideas overall, because while ideas may be reused many times and some boring scenarios may be made, most designers are looking for new things to do to keep themselves and everyone else interested... ...furthermore, if many scenarios are made this way and the designers in general get tired of playing such scenarios, they will tend to make different ones, perhaps with more puzzles or more intricate interaction with the characters in the scenario through more complex dialog." The majority of design up until the Fourth Contest was plagued with anachronisms from later perspectives. Hell, even Redemption has some problems at points with poorly imagined combat. There will inevitably be another Alcritas who wanders about and reshapes everything- but even his changes will be delayed, and his changes most definitely will not be as progressive as the prospect of never hadding needed the changes in the first place. Blades of Exile existed, exists, and will continue to exist. Even if you do not play it, you would do well to learn its lessons. "If this comes in the form of large quantities of straight forward combat, it is perfectly reasonable because even in this case there is variation and interest value in the combat itself." I and most oldbies (although not Kelandon!) have well and truly done this over and over again. If that sort of thing is interesting to you, then plenty of newbies who join later on will have to do this by default. Trust me, you are in no threat of being deprived in this (or any) medium. "I find very problematic the way in which you seem to assume that the attention of most of a large community will cause stagnation and suggest that the quality of material will improve with decrease in the size of the community." I did not say that- I insinuated it pretty strongly, though. And within good reason! After the third contest, the community whittled down dramatically, and the designers devoted to quality formed a close-knit cabal devoted to producing the best works I have ever seen. Ever. The technique development I saw as I was entering the community (although certainly not because of that fact) was incredible. When people are around, though, designers who listen to criticisms and try to adapt their style will have a tendency to accept paleophilic or backwards notions. This is not a given, but an influx of people more often than not results in an influx of people used to and thirsting for RPG cliches. "The community involved is already fairly small, with 5000 odd members of the boards (including unknown numbers of repeat accounts), and at any given time only a small fraction of these people participate actively. Also, almost all of the members of the community are designers making their own scenarios (many may never finish, but that is not really significant), and almost all think critically about their own work and that of other community members." Although I doubt what you say about designing, it doesn't help that almost all of these people are not experienced in BoE. It's a strange situation- BoE designers are making the BoA scenarios, not BoA-only designers. Unfortunately, the experienced BoE designers (except for myself and Stareye) are all well and gone. Zxquez is terrible, Kel is inexperienced, and Khoth is even more inexperienced (but he wasn't when he entered). " dislike that discussion of the future BoA often includes bases in the history of BoE, since while this history can potentially provide some information about how use of BoA may evolve, it is pointless to assume that BoA must be restricted to following the path that BoE followed." Restricted? BoE was defined by a lack of restrictions. It's like saying that cavemen should not be deprived to follow the path of making irrigation instead of hunting and gathering. "Would that even be desirable? I don't really know as I have never played BoE and only know about its history what I have read at this forum, but it doesn't sound as though it was truly a glorious example to aspire to, merely an example of something which could be done." It is a glorious example and then some. "Without having a leg to stand on here, I'll say one more thing. I read time and again that getting the scenario out to the public is ten times more important than a superb, yet unfinished masterpiece." Irrelevant. If there's one thing BoA is better at than BoE (oddly enough), it's scenario production. "I certainly didn't expect to find designers sniping at each other over philosophy or direction of a community. I certainly wouldn't want anyone to tell me how to act, think, or design." This is starting to dawn on me more and more as my memories of good design are fading. BoA has not been good news for good design- good possibilities absolutely, but not good design. As for the second bit- hence my comments on populism, although you may be coming at it from a different angle... Honestly, a call for more imagination, less homogenizing tradition and not going back to the stone age shouldn't fall on deaf ears. "And TM, to echo the sentiments of everyone else, quit being a prick." I'm rubber and you're glue... "Populism alone may be a poor reason to design, but "because I want to" is the best possible reason. Kelandon is designing the scenarios he wants to design, just like you. If the scenarios he were designing weren't scenarios he wanted to design, he wouldn't design scenarios at all. Is that the result you want?" I'm tempted to say yes, but... I am not that pissed off at Kelandon. He's not helping the situation at all, but if it weren't for the nameless masses of idiots making life hard all around, then all of this could be avoided. "Jealousy is a stinky cologne." ...how dare you. I want you to join a company and devote tons of hours to it, contributing ideas, time, and even money into it. And then, when management changes, watch all of your hard-built improvements get torn down. Then, when you are mad that about what's going on and try and raise hell, let someone say something this flippant and absent-mindedly boorish to you. I swear, I have had it with people attacking my motives. "Now the first quote I probably should have put a period after "done" . As I meant combat was good. But I wanted a player to realise how many levels they might gain. The two ideas were not necessarily linked." Be that as it may, I know that many players share the same ideas that I read your sentence as promoting. " On philosophy, I simply meant that Bahss is an Avernum scenario not some tirade about social issues." ...must... resist... quoting hegel... I could go on for a while about philosophy, but that ain't the span of the discussion and shouldn't be. (My style has never been particularly "popular" in any period of time.) Eh, I may end up designing in BoE again. There's a high probability, at any rate. My interest is hitting a low regardless. I feel like I'm stretching myself, trying to restart a fiery and impassioned wedding- and it was a good one too. But it might just be time to let it die. EDIT: "Tek, yes Kelandon's is better." This is outright wrong on a factual level. But don't feel obligated to pursue that. And Silver, are you saying that I'm being cogent with BS? If so, then by all means, expound on that. [ Wednesday, May 18, 2005 13:22: Message edited by: Kirk Johnson ] -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |
| Bahss Rated... in Blades of Avernum | |
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 07:47
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This is tertiary, but the "TM only cares about ratings" inanity is also getting on my nerves. It's almost as if my patience isn't being tested by this degradation. I'm not trying to inflate any scores, especially mine- although don’t confuse me, I still think that the score ratios are off- I'm here to deflate scores and prevent a deflation of a community I've been working for roughly 4-5 years in. quote:Populism is the worst excuse to use for anything. If people like your scenario and populism is the raison d'etre, then the designers are neutered, the community slowly McCarthyizes itself into a circle-jerk mindset, and quality becomes a non-issue overall. The audience becomes less and less of an active observer, and you're left with nothing but action-packed, sex-central TV dramas with catch phrases and cliches. quote:LP is also a serious victim of the CSR slowly steeping itself in populism as well, but never mind that. Popular success is only a non-harm at its best when the populus is a conscious entity that is itself critical- which is why the BoE renaissance of the fourth through sixth contests occurred after the majority of players had already abandoned the medium. BoE was not popular when it was at its best- and BoA will continue to degrade while it is popular due to the same phenomenon. quote:Fun is nebulous and changes with the times- the so-called excitement of hacking through a legion of enemies described by Bahss' reviewers is a surefire recipe for disaster in any modern BoE scenario because the whole standard-combat deal has become second-nature. Special spells are clichéd in BoE as well- which is why you see so many overwhelming innovations, especially from the two Shark scenarios, Areni and NTH. (Alas, BoE was being put towards its limits, and future permutations of tactical variances would have run the course of the engine, so having BoA was an improvement, but that's neither here nor there.) Point is, if you set the way for change, people will come to adapt to it. There are many stories of people not liking An Apology when it was released, but the renaissance-era CSR tables tell a different tale entirely, and I think the BoE community is good for that reason alone- innovation. Fun is good, but adapting to redefine fun is far more important, which is why I think Bahss is only at its best at the altar and with the chitraches. The rest of Bahss is AtG big and AtG buff with Streila Spies elegance. The combat in LP deserves a chiding of its own, but that's not relevant to this quote. quote:Then why BoA? Why BoA, when there are a dozen other media to use? Why not Warcraft III (which I have, I must admit, considered going to- it has a surprisingly versatile campaign editor), Neverwinter Nights or RPGMaker 2000? The only reason I, and likely many others, stay in the BoX community and design for it is because of the openness to new and radical ideas. This sort of “return to tradition” that JV started with the four prefabs is bad enough- having it extend to the designing community as well is a good way to purge all previous designers from the community, though. Games exist for entertainment, sure. But if there is no intellectual or imaginative aspect towards gameplay and storyline, then fun stagnates and you're left playing your tenth D&D campaign with orcs and goblins, whereafter you settle into a mode of munchkining and getting into the nitty-gritty of the status quo without moving forwards, whereas if you think outside of the box and start doing things new and interesting, you advance the genre to something it wasn’t before and begin creating new and interesting fun, not just boring and sedentary fun. Fun is what I'm after as well- I just think that the "age-old recipes" for fun are defunct, and reverting back to them after the artistic flare of the BoE greats is a tragedy worse than the transition from Heian to Edo or Pax Romana to Byzantium. Actually, the Roman analogy is appropriate- since the Eastern Romans eventually did muster up a great deal of culture in a different shape. Unfortunately, by the time BoA will reach maturation, you and me and everyone else will have likely passed on- I'd rather skip the inflation and preserve what we have now. I'd rather people stop pretending that BoE didn’t exist. (And if people don't like 2d graphics and thus don't play BoE, I'm not sure that the anachronistic interface of BoA is the best place for them either.) [ Wednesday, May 18, 2005 07:48: Message edited by: Kirk Johnson ] -------------------- * Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00 |