The cheaters nowadays are getting too ballsy and Blizzard wants to be sure they seem as opposed to their actions as possible after such a long period of letting it happen.
A fine example of what happens when the "1337 h4xX0r" kiddies get out of control would be Ragnarok Online. Because of botters (some of them running a dozen or more at once), the market is saturated with rare items that sell for monetary amounts that only other botters could possibly afford due to the global devaluation of the games currancy. Going out and finding them yourself is quite a hassle too, considering that most maps are brimming with bots that can make finding enough mobs to effectively level on almost impossible. The game is effectively ruined and they've only been P2P for a few months now.
I honestly wish I understood why someone would pay good money to let their computer play a game for them...
This game ate my grades in high school and I never even made it to a second class character... My hat's off to the folks that manage to make it to Hero.
No, I'm not talking about #2, but I've heard that it's supposed to be on a whole 'nother level from the first game. I'd assume the same basic issue of party composition holds true in #1, but they certainly don't make it easy. Unless I want to be pidgeonholed into a Cleric or Paladin for my hero, the only healer I remember finding during the period I played was the near-useless Fighter/Druid in the second town.
Then there's the combat. I'm simply lost there. A typical battle for me proceeds thusly: "Oh boy, hobgoblins! Fighter A, fighter B, go hit that. Thief, sit there and throw things. Why is the damn Druid running up there? No, Druid come back. Back. No, don't stand there. Back. Fighters, now that you've killed your target, I'd appreciate you attacking something ELSE. How about the ones that are chasing the Thief, who cannot seem to get around that tree stump, hmm?"
I just don't get it. Maybe it was because the engine was still new and rough around the edges. I'm A-OK with fighting in Planescape: Torment...
Don't get me wrong, I love AD&D RPGs. The gold box games? Played 'em all, finished half of 'em. NWN? Played it straight through. Torment? I considered buying a second copy to have it bronzed. But I'm not going to touch Baldur's Gate with a ten foot pole.
I honestly just never got what was so wonderful about this game.
Combat was the first major turn-off for me. It just felt too much like a typical RTS scrub (a genre that I simply cannot play), but with D&D characters. D&D characters with D&D health. Which means if I ran into something that might pose a combative problem, half my party was gonna get wiped out unless I kept doing monotonous gorilla attacks. Run up, fire bow, run away... Ugh. If I did that enough, I might get a wee nugget of plot revealed. Unfortunately, it in no way grabbed my attention or even seemed VAGUELY interesting. So why suffer through all that boring combat?
...If they manage to pull off that virtues system and make it half as cool as it sounds, I suppose I'll have to forgive them for canning Ultima Online II. I'll be interested in seeing how it affects player behavior; can a griefer still be a complete ass to others, yet be able attain Avatar status?
I think it'll work well. Instead of magic swords, you beat people with pipes. And instead of treasure chests, just bash open the nearest barrel. People are always stuffing jewels and hot food in those things.
Despite being the flamboyant RPG lover that I am, I barely managed to break the surface in any of the Might & Magic games. The only real successes I had were in leaving the first town in M&M3 and advancing the plot approximately one step in M&M6. I guess I'm just happy to have the series in my collection...them and the giant print of the M&M6 box art I won in a promotion for the game. Swank.
Instead of selling my soul to Old Scratch to get so much as an interview, I'd prefer to try the do-it-yourself approach. It may not be glamorous or even well paying, but there's a certain charm to that particular branch of the industry. Sort of like a little red brick home surrounded by town house developments.
I rarely even pay more than $12.50 or so for a title. My secret? I wait until it's in the bargain bin. By that time it's cheap, all the critical bugs have been patched and my system is sufficiently powerful to run the game like a dream. If I get stuck, I can find plenty of FAQs and spoilers to see me through. Works like a charm for both PC and console games. Give it a try!
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some skulking around to do in Thief Gold...at a 1024x768 resolution!
The folks on the Game Maker forum are generally open with spriting assistance. You've usually gotta have something code-wise to entice them into helping out, but that'll probably be the case in a lot of situations when you need media handouts.
Anyone else remember this one? It might not have the most devilish puzzles or difficult combat, but the setting really managed to draw me in. Even buried deep within the Shadow Weaver's citidel, the NPCs seem to have scraped together their own little society. Even when surrounded by Demonic Hordesâ, you can find a sculptor chipping away at his art.
I'd like to see all of Event Horizon's early isometric RPGs remade, really. I know I'd gladly shell out for updated versions of DarkSpyre/The Summoning, Dusk of the Gods and Veil of Darkness.
Can GameFAQs reviews really count for much? I find it hard to take them seriously when I see things like this:
Overall, as a graphic aficionado who NEVER plays games with poor graphics (this is why I NEVER play american games), i have to say graphically, FFXI matched my expectations and even surpassed it in some areas. --A report from Vana Diel
Maybe they're good for a 'man on the street' perspective, but I'd hardly let these sway me about any game.
I graduated from their Computer Animation course (Heyo, CAP graduates of 11/01). Before even CONSIDERING going to this school you, have to ask yourself one important question: Do I want this to be my life?
If you're not willing to toil for years as the coffee bitch of the industry, scraping and clawing against hundreds of others with your exact credentials for some vague semblance of recognition...don't bother. Seriously. The school starts up a new class every month that averages about 30 people per degree program. That's 360 new people per year who know the same things you do. Who all see the same job openings you do.
I've kept in contact with a few of my friends from my course. One of them now does characters for Disney; you may have seen him in the televised parade this last Christmas. He was one of the Goofy players, if I recall. One flat out gave up and joined the Marines. Another had a recent interview at EA and was told word for word "If you actually want a job, lie. Don't say you went to Full Sail. Everyone knows it's a cookie cutter school." Enlightened by that, she's currently preparing to go back to school this summer to learn how to groom animals. I myself had an interview with a small company here in the DC area that does video editing and military simulations for the government. The interviewer told me (as nicely as possible) that their company had already received several dozen applications from other Full Sail grads, many with more current knowledge than I possessed. Needless to say, I didn't get the job.
A few good things did come out of it all. I wound up with my "war buddies" (never hurts to have references). I obtained an intimate knowledge of how to jaywalk on University Blvd. (FYI, the key is to cross halfway between the lights, just after the big wave passes). I learned how to function at any period of the day, with or without sleep. AND thanks to some of my more unscrupulous classmates, I've got a stack of burned software that would make any warez kiddie plotz. Not that I ever use any of it, of course. I'm a good boy.
If you're still quite adamant about going, all I can say is this: use the school as a stepping stone in your education. Don't come out of it expecting to have Pixar duking it out with Dreamworks over who gets to hire you. Go on to higher education, such as an architecture major at an actual college. Otherwise you'll be like me, who is currently praying to every available diety that the local library system will hire me for an aide position.
Unless, of course, you've got fourty grand burning a hole in your pocket and you've just GOTTA know how Bullet Time works. Then go for it.
One of the amusing things to note is how much of an uproar American otaku will cause whenever anything at all is taken out of a Japanese game which makes it to the US. Mind you, a lot of these fanboys probably are looking for the prurient detail, but I can understand if it was a major plot point. I rather pity anime fans every time certain companies (read funimation) picks up an anime, because it ends up edited to the point where it's no longer recognizeable.
I guess you could say we're purists, but isn't it like that for fans of every genre? If, say, Spock's death were removed from Wrath of Kahn, you'd have trekkies cursing a blue streak in Klingon. If a soap was edited so that it was never revealed if that floozy Brenda was sleeping with Chad or Thomas, you'd have cliched and stereotypical Housewives up in arms. And I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers hearing about that near-riot in a theatre when the film broke halfway into Matrix: Reloaded. Now, if I found that the final scene of the Cowboy Bebop series had been altered to make it more kiddie-friendly, I'd be demanding someone's head on a platter.
I think it's just simple logic that if you're a fan of something you want to see the whole shebang, pure and unadulterated.
Does this aforementioned saving the world involve wire-fu combat with the fighters duking it out while wearing Power Gloves? If not, I'd hardly call the guy the most "beloved" gamer of them all. That's just the kind of title that carries certain expectations of a Power Glove-y nature.
Slashdot Mirror
A fine example of what happens when the "1337 h4xX0r" kiddies get out of control would be Ragnarok Online. Because of botters (some of them running a dozen or more at once), the market is saturated with rare items that sell for monetary amounts that only other botters could possibly afford due to the global devaluation of the games currancy. Going out and finding them yourself is quite a hassle too, considering that most maps are brimming with bots that can make finding enough mobs to effectively level on almost impossible. The game is effectively ruined and they've only been P2P for a few months now.
I honestly wish I understood why someone would pay good money to let their computer play a game for them...
This game ate my grades in high school and I never even made it to a second class character... My hat's off to the folks that manage to make it to Hero.
[insert witty jab at Daikatana and John Romero's bitches here]
Then there's the combat. I'm simply lost there. A typical battle for me proceeds thusly: "Oh boy, hobgoblins! Fighter A, fighter B, go hit that. Thief, sit there and throw things. Why is the damn Druid running up there? No, Druid come back. Back. No, don't stand there. Back. Fighters, now that you've killed your target, I'd appreciate you attacking something ELSE. How about the ones that are chasing the Thief, who cannot seem to get around that tree stump, hmm?"
I just don't get it. Maybe it was because the engine was still new and rough around the edges. I'm A-OK with fighting in Planescape: Torment...
Don't get me wrong, I love AD&D RPGs. The gold box games? Played 'em all, finished half of 'em. NWN? Played it straight through. Torment? I considered buying a second copy to have it bronzed. But I'm not going to touch Baldur's Gate with a ten foot pole.
Combat was the first major turn-off for me. It just felt too much like a typical RTS scrub (a genre that I simply cannot play), but with D&D characters. D&D characters with D&D health. Which means if I ran into something that might pose a combative problem, half my party was gonna get wiped out unless I kept doing monotonous gorilla attacks. Run up, fire bow, run away... Ugh. If I did that enough, I might get a wee nugget of plot revealed. Unfortunately, it in no way grabbed my attention or even seemed VAGUELY interesting. So why suffer through all that boring combat?
Though it did have Boo. So it wasn't ALL bad.
...If they manage to pull off that virtues system and make it half as cool as it sounds, I suppose I'll have to forgive them for canning Ultima Online II. I'll be interested in seeing how it affects player behavior; can a griefer still be a complete ass to others, yet be able attain Avatar status?
I think it'll work well. Instead of magic swords, you beat people with pipes. And instead of treasure chests, just bash open the nearest barrel. People are always stuffing jewels and hot food in those things.
Despite being the flamboyant RPG lover that I am, I barely managed to break the surface in any of the Might & Magic games. The only real successes I had were in leaving the first town in M&M3 and advancing the plot approximately one step in M&M6. I guess I'm just happy to have the series in my collection...them and the giant print of the M&M6 box art I won in a promotion for the game. Swank.
That all depends on what street corner you're passing by at what time of night.
It turns out that I can't sell my account on eBay. They don't seem to have any qualms about items, but characters are strictly forbidden.
One deck of the "Iraqi Most Wanted" playing cards. Mmm-MM! That's g-oooooood profiteering!
Instead of selling my soul to Old Scratch to get so much as an interview, I'd prefer to try the do-it-yourself approach. It may not be glamorous or even well paying, but there's a certain charm to that particular branch of the industry. Sort of like a little red brick home surrounded by town house developments.
...Or just a marathon session of "Truth or Dare"?
Now if you'll excuse me, I have some skulking around to do in Thief Gold...at a 1024x768 resolution!
The folks on the Game Maker forum are generally open with spriting assistance. You've usually gotta have something code-wise to entice them into helping out, but that'll probably be the case in a lot of situations when you need media handouts.
I'd like to see all of Event Horizon's early isometric RPGs remade, really. I know I'd gladly shell out for updated versions of DarkSpyre/The Summoning, Dusk of the Gods and Veil of Darkness.
That could be it...
Down the tubes? You've gotta be kidding me. As far as classic quotes go, "I love the Power Glove" is right up there with "Do you want to play a game?"
What I'd REALLY like is an adapter that'll let my play my carts from their older systems. A working Game Boy I've got. A working NES I don't.
</ignore concept of emulation>
Overall, as a graphic aficionado who NEVER plays games with poor graphics (this is why I NEVER play american games), i have to say graphically, FFXI matched my expectations and even surpassed it in some areas. --A report from Vana Diel
Maybe they're good for a 'man on the street' perspective, but I'd hardly let these sway me about any game.
If you're not willing to toil for years as the coffee bitch of the industry, scraping and clawing against hundreds of others with your exact credentials for some vague semblance of recognition...don't bother. Seriously. The school starts up a new class every month that averages about 30 people per degree program. That's 360 new people per year who know the same things you do. Who all see the same job openings you do.
I've kept in contact with a few of my friends from my course. One of them now does characters for Disney; you may have seen him in the televised parade this last Christmas. He was one of the Goofy players, if I recall. One flat out gave up and joined the Marines. Another had a recent interview at EA and was told word for word "If you actually want a job, lie. Don't say you went to Full Sail. Everyone knows it's a cookie cutter school." Enlightened by that, she's currently preparing to go back to school this summer to learn how to groom animals. I myself had an interview with a small company here in the DC area that does video editing and military simulations for the government. The interviewer told me (as nicely as possible) that their company had already received several dozen applications from other Full Sail grads, many with more current knowledge than I possessed. Needless to say, I didn't get the job.
A few good things did come out of it all. I wound up with my "war buddies" (never hurts to have references). I obtained an intimate knowledge of how to jaywalk on University Blvd. (FYI, the key is to cross halfway between the lights, just after the big wave passes). I learned how to function at any period of the day, with or without sleep. AND thanks to some of my more unscrupulous classmates, I've got a stack of burned software that would make any warez kiddie plotz. Not that I ever use any of it, of course. I'm a good boy.
If you're still quite adamant about going, all I can say is this: use the school as a stepping stone in your education. Don't come out of it expecting to have Pixar duking it out with Dreamworks over who gets to hire you. Go on to higher education, such as an architecture major at an actual college. Otherwise you'll be like me, who is currently praying to every available diety that the local library system will hire me for an aide position.
Unless, of course, you've got fourty grand burning a hole in your pocket and you've just GOTTA know how Bullet Time works. Then go for it.
I guess you could say we're purists, but isn't it like that for fans of every genre? If, say, Spock's death were removed from Wrath of Kahn, you'd have trekkies cursing a blue streak in Klingon. If a soap was edited so that it was never revealed if that floozy Brenda was sleeping with Chad or Thomas, you'd have cliched and stereotypical Housewives up in arms. And I'm sure I'm not the only one that remembers hearing about that near-riot in a theatre when the film broke halfway into Matrix: Reloaded. Now, if I found that the final scene of the Cowboy Bebop series had been altered to make it more kiddie-friendly, I'd be demanding someone's head on a platter.
I think it's just simple logic that if you're a fan of something you want to see the whole shebang, pure and unadulterated.
Daikatana, Daikatana, Daikatana!
...Watching something like that is what puts the kink in her knickers. Then you're made in the shade.
Does this aforementioned saving the world involve wire-fu combat with the fighters duking it out while wearing Power Gloves? If not, I'd hardly call the guy the most "beloved" gamer of them all. That's just the kind of title that carries certain expectations of a Power Glove-y nature.