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Black & White Goes Gold
jaredcat writes "According to bwcenter.com and an article on ZDNet's GameSpot, Peter Molyneux's eagerly awaited Black & White has finally gone gold and will be shipping in North America on 3/27/01. I know what I'll be doing for spring break..." I just read that ZDNet article linked above - the ASPCA will be protesting this game, mark my words.
Hello, I'm The Kid. I run a Black & White site called "The Citadel". As of right now, we are having server issues, but will soon be relaunching @ http://www.thecitadel.net. Now that the obligatory plug is out of the way, here's the skinny on Black & White. The following is the Newbie Guide to Black & White from thecitadel.net. It's a tad dated, but I did a once-over and freshened it up a bit. Enjoy.
Welcome to the First Edition of the Newbie's Guide to Black & White. This text is a compilation of information that those whom do not know much about Black & White tend to ask. Information has been culled from many sources to put this together, most notably the Lionhead web site and the Black & White discussion board. Please note that this is NOT an official text. None of what is posted here is written in stone; Lionhead could change it at any moment.
What is 'Black & White'? 'Black & White' is a game created by Lionhead Studios. It tends to defy genres, casting you in the role of a powerful sorcerer looking over a land of primitive tribes. You derive the power you need to cast your spells from the lifeforce generated by the tribes' villagers.
Therefore, one portion of the game is impressing (either through fear or adoration) the tribes sufficiently so that they construct a sort of monument in their village. Generally, the monument is a totem or tower of some sort. By raising and lowering the totem, you tell the villagers how many of them you want to have worshipping you (and thereby giving you power) and how hard they should worship. Of course, if you overwork your followers, they will begin to die off from exhaustion and starvation, as the more villagers are worshipping you, the fewer are off gathering food, building houses, having children, etc.
Another portion of the game is trying to screw the other sorcerers in the land. You're not alone in Eden, as this land is called, and the other sorcerers will eventually begin trying to take your hard-won villagers from you. You can fight back with powerful spells, either blasting them and their villagers to smithereens or attempting to peacefully win over their villagers, thereby starving them of their power.
The third portion of the game is that of mentor. Once you begin gaining in power, you can select any of the myriad beasts you see prowling the landscape to be your own pet Titan. You will magically enhance the creature, causing it to grow to gargantuan proportions, towering meters above the land and the villagers. But the beast comes to you stupid; you must teach him what to do and what not to do. This is done simply through slapping him when you want to discourage his behaviour and stroking him when you want to encourage his behaviour. The Titans are supposedly remarkably trainable. In one report, Peter Molyneux trained a pet ape to throw stones as a weapon. Your pet Titan will also learn the spells that you cast and use them itself as it sees fit. Teach it Fireball and it can go level villages if it likes. Teach it Create Food and it can feed your villagers for you.
This description just begins to scratch the complex surface of Black & White. You'll have to play it for yourself to really experience it.
Who made it? Black & White was first conceptualized by Peter Molyneux. It was produced by Molyneux's new company, Lionhead Studios.
honestly though, there needs to be more moderation tags, both positive and negative, as the comment above would read much better as +1 Weird.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
You also get to raise an animal to become your servant. The way you treat the animal and what you teach it will determine how it grows. Oh, and after you pick the animal that you want it grows to be Godzilla size, so it's a bit more than your average animal.
The best thing to do is go to one of the fansites, the one that i visit is liongames.com. The game has been really hyped up, but from the screenshots and previews i've read it seems to live up to it, guess we'll all find out in a couple of weeks.
Since your UID is smaller than mine, I can only conclude that you're trolling. -s20451 (410424)
Especially the Ultima Series.
Up through Ultima 7, the games were great. Then EA bought them out.. And what happens?
U8 is no longer a roleplaying game, its an arcade game. Ultima Online is released with only a cosmetic similarity to the game and the concept behind the game series. Funny how a company can take a game series with a rich and powerful virtuous theme and turn it into an online game that becomes the exact opposite.
And Ultima Ascention. Don't even talk to me about how badly they screwed THAT up.
Origin had what it needed. A steadily growing loyal fanbase. People who knew how to design and tell a story through an interactive game environment. And most importantly, a strong leader who had been with the project since the inception.
And now, that fanbase has been decimated, storytelling is overrated as long as the game has the best 3D graphics available today, and of course, the leader has quit after the company he guided for two decades is destroyed because someone upstairs thought that it was best to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
And whatever happened with Sierra? I remember saving up my money as a kid and begging my parents to drive me to the computer store so I could buy a new game released by this company.
Even after a new interface was introduced, the games didn't lose their spirit.
But thats all gone now too. Perhaps they weren't making enough money. I don't know. Storytelling doesn't take a lot of money. It doesn't require a team of hundreds of programmers. It doesn't require movie studio equipment and it doesn't require blockbuster movie budgets.
What it requires is a well organized team, a leader with the appropriate vision, creative people who have something to contribute, and artists who can say more with less. Once upon a time, we couldn't render 100fps realtime 3D in 32 bit color. So we had to make up in story what we couldn't convey in realism. But it was certainly more fun back then.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Kind of a waste of news if we don't slashdot the petition and get to play the game ;-)
Yeah, that site kinda blows, but you can get the information and screenshots of the company's site:
Go here.
Note, requires Shockwave. For the unshocked version,
Go here instead.
I'd read that at one point that they were going to have two versions of the game: a black box and a white box. The white box would be $5 more, which went to charity.
Loved the idea, but I've heard nothing about it since. Anyone able to confirm or deny this plan of action?
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I don't see any reason for the ASPCA to complain. I mean really, who here believes that the game Black and White would entice youngins around the world to commit cruelty to animals? Since when is enslaving the soul of a wild beast and feeding it with pure magic until it grows in a pathetic attempt to escape the confines and restrictions of it's natural body considered "cruelty". It's doing them a favor really. What mouse or bunny rabbit wouldn't want to tower over it's former predators, crushing them into a bloody pulp under it's hideously enlarged paws? No cruelty that I can see.