Profile for EDWARD, HAMMER OF THE SCOTS

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Good-bye in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #14
Don't let the fact that ADoS is an imbecile distract you from the fact that you're one too.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
What makes a good quest? in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #8
*points silently at his displayed name*
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Next Spiderweb Game in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #39
Maybe they aren't in that world, but last time I checked, I live in this world, where they are.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Next Spiderweb Game in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #37
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

Maybe it was the completely new spellset that he never recycled for anything else, which made the gameplay interesting. Maybe it was the novelty of the iso-3D system that debuted with Nethergate. Maybe (most likely) it was the coolness of the missions: not just "kill this bandit fort that's causing us trouble," but "recover this treaty that will tell us about the alliance between our enemies," and "journey to the land of the dead to fetch an artifact of tremendous power." Those are awesome missions.
Really? The former is a standard Eradication quest, and the latter two are both standard Fetch missions. Perhaps the scale is larger, but I'm afraid "journey to the land of the dead" and "fetch an artifact of tremendous power" are both so intensely hackneyed as to be laughable.

Simple quest-driven gameplay is no longer interesting. It was ceasing to be fresh almost two decades ago. We've all done so damn many Fetch missions that they all start to bleed together.

Missions themselves are rarely cool anymore. When it comes down to it, you'd be hard-pressed to find a mission type that hasn't been done to death -- and Vogel is not one to be pressed hard.

I mean, I'd be pleased if he even showed the basic depth of, say, an Eradication mission where it turns out that the Pests are not necessarily so. Fallout did it, NWN did it -- it's nearly as cliched, but not quite. Beyond that -- what's the tension? Would you be rewarded better for eradication, but you feel it's wrong? Perhaps neither side seems to have truth on their side. What effect does your choice have, even on a local level?

I see nothing but the most elementary, one-sided missions from Vogel, and that's been true since he started making games.

(By the way, perhaps you should play Final Fantasy. You go into lands of the dead and recover artifacts of power three times before breakfast in those games.)
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Exile vs. Avernum in The Avernum Trilogy
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #19
Sorry you're a spluttery neophile, then.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Exile vs. Avernum in The Avernum Trilogy
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #17
quote:
Originally written by Kelandon:

No, he means that standards changed as technology improved, and by more recent standards, the game fares worse in a judging of its merits than it did by the standards when it was released.
How would that prevent "decent play"? I don't see how that changes the experience at all. A person who enjoyed Exile in 1996 shouldn't be prevented from enjoying it in 2004.

Perhaps the average or new gamer's expectations are different now, but Micael basically suggested that the game is actually worse now.
I know Ultima 4 is as fun as ever, and it was released in 1987.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Next Spiderweb Game in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #30
Nethergate only sucked slightly less than all of his other games.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Exile vs. Avernum in The Avernum Trilogy
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #15
quote:
Originally written by Archmagi Micael:

The Exiles are nice, I used to have them before I had Avernums, but the entire system is just too out-dated for decent play anymore.
You mean that somehow as time went on, the game actually changed and became harder to play?

Wow. Talk about bitrot.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Next Spiderweb Game in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #25
I don't like Jeff's games either. The only one I've ever bought was Blades of Exile, and that was saved by the fact that he didn't do most of the work.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Next Spiderweb Game in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #19
Jeff Vogel is a lousy programmer, a lousy storyteller, and a lousy businessman. Of course he's going to make A4 and BoG; he doesn't have the creativity necessary to do otherwise. I think Kel's right, too -- he's probably going to stretch out the series further. That is, unless he comes out with another series of remakes.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Vahnatai in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #15
I don't think so, Alec. Generally, that applies when the races are monocultural. Most fantasy refers to humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves, not Humans, Elves, Orcs, and Dwarves.

However, I think we have unsufficient information as to what the aliens should be called. Specifically, it's never made wholly clear whether they have a single culture, or whether there are multiple nations of the creatures.

In either case, though, it's probably safe to refer to the Vahnatai nation that consists of the vahnatai the party meets in Exile 2. I think the distinction is subtle but important.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Team America: World Police in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #39
I question the use of the word 'bias', period. It's lost all meaning -- it's been twisted into meaning "lack of balance."

The obsession with balance in American media is pretty sickening. It's more or less destroyed analytical journalism. Look at that Crossfire episode with Jon Stewart -- Paul Begala pretty vehemently claims that Crossfire is a good debate show because it features "both sides."

But what are the sides? Paul Begala is a moderate Democrat; he worked for Clinton. Tucker Carlson is a relatively conservative Republican. Both tow the party line. Even from the flawed "left-right" analysis, that isn't balanced.

Numerous viewpoints are totally lacking. There are no Greens, no fascists, no Communists, no libertarians. The show is essentially representatives of the two parties yelling at each other. That's 'balance' -- two opposing forces.

In reality, you can't have a debate show with representatives of two factions. Any debater will tell you that the point of a debate is to debate a single point. Thus, Crossfire is not a debate show -- one side claims they're right. The other side claims they're right. Insults are slung. Snide remarks are made. Begala says something about Bush being voted out. The audience cheers.

It's sickening.

Regarding Michael Savage. He's probably the single worst representative of conservatism there could be; his entire schtick is based on harassment and insults. And, of course, he's an explicit homophobe in a way that must make Fred Phelps proud.
He doesn't just think homosexuality is wrong. He doesn't just oppose gay rights. No, he literally hates gay people. Witness the unprovoked attack on a gay caller to his television show: "What I think is you should get AIDS and die." Perhaps the single most odious words ever spoken on the medium. Got his TV show canceled, but he still has his radio show and his books. He's scum.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Team America: World Police in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #9
I know! His ability to spell and construct coherent sentences must be devastating to you.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Team America: World Police in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #5
What, South Park?
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
After all these years, WTF in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #39
Really?
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
After all these years, WTF in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #36
In short? No. The image is transferred through a separate connection from the client to the image's server. None of the image data is ever handled by the Spidweb server, period.

IMAGE(http://djur.desperance.net/cgi-bin/avatar.cgi?.png)

If you watch carefully, your browser connects to desperance.net to download that image. The only data that the SW server handles is:

<img src="http://djur.desperance.net/cgi-bin/avatar.cgi?.png" alt=" - ">

Literally, that string, with the URL replaced with whatever the image's URL is.

So no, external avatars would cost SW essentially nothing in bandwidth and hard drive space -- and I thought they had unlimited bandwidth, anyway? Narrow pipe, maybe?

The concerns about big/inappropriate external avatars are fair, but no more so than concerns about big/inappropriate external images in threads. Nothing that the mods can't and shouldn't handle.

[ Saturday, October 16, 2004 22:08: Message edited by: Quest of the Avatar ]
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
After all these years, WTF in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #24
Except that once you've loaded a given avatar, it's stored in your cache; since the number of posting members is relatively small, especially within a single thread, you'd only have significantly longer load times for a few pages.

Avatars, if kept relatively constant, are a great way to identify someone without having to deduce from their displayed name or remember their member number.

The skin I use on Desp Forums manages to fit the maximum amount of information in a minimum area as simply as possible -- it displays, on the left, merely the name, the avatar, and title. Those three items make it easy to instantly -- even without looking directly -- figure out who's saying what.

I guess I'm just needlessly symbolic. I often have trouble telling all of the members with somewhat long names (Alec, Thuryl, BtI, etc.) apart; if I didn't usually recognize their personality and writing style, I'd have to spend more time checking their user number, etc.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
After all these years, WTF in General
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #18
Right off the top of my head?

There's no "go to first unread post" link, like in Invision or phpBB. That's a real nice feature, especially if you've been away and there's been a lot of activity.

Invision's "Find New Posts" feature is also really fantastic.

UBB is the only forum I know to support changing displayed name, which is perhaps a blessing and perhaps a curse.

In general, IPB feels a lot more powerful, but UBB is significantly more simple. I didn't like what I saw of UBB's control panel, though; it seems to me that IPB has the best hands down.

I dunno how IPB scales compared to UBB, though. Its default skin is pretty lavish, and I don't think "skimpy with resources" is one of its selling points.

And, of course, SW would have to buy a license to the tune of $200 for IPB, and they've already bought UBB.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00

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