Anyway, this is not the greatest idea ever, it's not worthy of a patent or anything, and it's not revolutionary. If I get Nintendo to sign something that says they won't use my ideas without paying me $X.xx, and then I say "You should totally do Mario Basketball, Mario Table Tennis, Mario Team Fortress Classic, and Mario Golf 3", and then they make Mario Basketball, I shouldn't get any money.
"I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"
How are the morally rightous to prevail in a society populated by criminal masterminds such as this?
I don't mind single-player unlockables, but I can't stand having to unlock multiplayer modes/moves/weapons/maps, etcetera. Multiplayer is about having fun with other people, not about challenging the computer.
I seriously don't think RPGing is going to catch on again. It simply takes too much creativity for the average person. Then you have to take into account how everyone has to be in the same place at the same time. MMOing is just simpler and more convenient for the average person. I wish there were some stats, but if you asked a standard demographic of Americans whether they play MMOs/RPGs, I think you would find the MMOs hold the upper hand.
I tend to agree. I think something like MySpace, but designed around publishing art, articles, reviews, music, and videos, could be pretty cool. The only problem I would have with that is that I generally don't like reading people's fiction. It's mostly just because the stories are generally poorly written and include loads of grammatical errors.
Actually, most of us enjoy MMOs more. I enjoy the classic, traditional tabletop RPG, but when you compare figures, Blizzard is making way more than Wizards of the Coast, I would guess. RPGs are only making a comeback with the old people who remember them from the '70s and '80s. People my age (17) just don't enjoy thinking.
This guy should lose. I'm tired of all these "OMG I was the one who thought they should use Mario in a tennis game!! I even posted it on a forum, so I have proof! Nintendo ripped my idea off, so I'm suing!" type of mentalities.
Just because somebody has a cool idea and shares it doesn't mean if anybody implements that idea they can sue. Seriously, if you're not making it, and you're not fine with other people doing it, keep your damn ideas to yourself.
And, honestly, how original of an idea is it to simulate a rising star's upbringing and career?
It's not that chicks should find games they want. According to these articles there are very few games chicks dig. Chicks should be making the games. Seriously. If a woman or girl is complaining because games don't appeal to her because she's a woman, and she's not or is not becoming a programmer, she has no basis for an argument. Honestly, I'm tired of people, male or female, complaining about the lack of innovation in games and then doing nothing about it.
Also, while I'm going to be modded down anyway, I'm having trouble thinking of any women who complain about a lack of games targeted at them. It seems to be the article-writing dudes who think males should be making pony-socialization games they're not interested in developing.
They're not spyware. They're just helping you by watching what you look at and providing you the occasional helpful alert window. It's like advertising on your television or on billboards. Don't think of it as wasting your time and destroying the scenic view. Think of it as helpful messages to alert you of products and offers you may be interested in.
That would be brilliant. They could release a NWN crammed with crappy user-submitted side-quests, and nothing else. Free content, based in an engine they already have. As long as it broke even in retail, as it would, they couldn't lose.
"MMOs just take the monster-smashing, stick the monsters in random areas and make you fight them 200 times before you get to move on."
The dungeons in World of Warcraft, having been in all of them, are often meticulously structured and certainly not randomly placed.
I've only played a little of the beta of WOW, and I didn't get past level 3, or something, so I'll admit I don't know anything about it's dungeons. So, lemme ask you, what kinds of traps does it have? Are there boulders and swinging blades like in Tomb Raider, or puzzles and riddles you have to figure out, like the classic "Speak friend and enter"? Are any of the monsters in interesting positions? I mean, are the dungeon guards ever talking or sleeping, or are they always just standing there waiting for you? I'm asking, because I don't know.
Sort of like questing and then having to come out of the dungeon to move onto the next step and be progressively introduced to new elements within the dungeon your exploring? (Stratholm in WoW comes to mind)
Okay, I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. Are you saying there are a lot of dungeons that make you leave, go to town, come back, and do the dungeon over again? Sorry if I'm misreading you here. Anyway, one of the time consuming things about going back to town to sell crap is the time it takes to travel back and forth. Also, from what I've heard about WOW, you can't get rideables until level 40! If you're playing an RPG, the DM can just say something like "Okay, you leave the town and ride through the hilly countryside. You sense eyes watching you, but nothing can be seen. Soon you come to the crystal clear waterfall, and just as the map said, there is a small mound of rock by the base of the waterfall. Upon closer inspection there appears to be a small 2X2 hole in the back, hidden by moss." Boom. Good to go. Sit through 30 seconds of flavor text and you're back to treasure hunting, or back at town, or wherever the action is.
Any time an economy has been structured to be 'separated' from the larger international (or in this case real) economy people find a way to bridge that gap. Its not just an MMO thing, look at countries who have closed internal currencies (China.. for now) its a HUMAN thing.
Okay, when's the last time you were sitting around a table prepping for a game, and somebody handed the GM a fiver and gave him a wink, and the GM said "Ahem, Todd starts with an extra 5,000 gold pieces."? That's never happened to me, simply because people who play RPGs enjoy the act of finding gold, and they're willing to go out and risk life and limb (well, you know) to get it. RPGers even complain if things are too easy and there's too much gold. MMO 'sploiters have nothing on RPGers.
You could look at Dark Age of Camelot where certain weapons work more effectively against certain types of armor. It radically changes the PVP experience, I would argue, and the targets you choose if you are (for example) Blunt (Mace) vs Pierce spec on a class like a Blademaster or Warrior.
That's not really what I'm takling about. I'm discussing the aspect of having to carry a backup weapon because your spear doesn't fit into a small, twisting passage well, or hitting somebody in the back of the head with a mace, trying to knock them out instead of slicing their head off with a sword. MMOs have no actual combat-like situations. There is no taking into account high ground (that I know of), you never have to duck under a spear to get closer to your target, you never have to even connect with a weapon to hit. I know these are impossibilities with the current state of bandwidth people have access to, but that's just another reason RPGs outclass MMOs in most areas.
I'm not sure which MMOs you've played but I've provided a counter example to each of your points, perhaps you are playing the wrong ones? Don't get me wrong - there are significant flaws to MMOs. Being in a raiding guild in WoW
I didn't say anything you said was illiberal. I just think, just like the Communists for Kerry campaign wasn't helping anything, somebody with the name "Profane MuthaFucka" isn't going to encourage people to take liberal views seriously.
Who have you been talking to? Every gamer I know, child, teenager, or adult, who doesn't know anything about computers or technology is into the flashy, new games. Gameday 2005, Farcry: Instincts (or whatever that game's called), and that kind of thing. They think it's cool as long as it looks cool and has just came out. That's who they're selling the XBOX 360s to (primarily), and that's the crowd who will continue to purchase most of the games.
It's not a problem with most games. There are plenty of people willing to fork over $40.00 or $50.00 for a new game without even blinking an eye. Three months later the game costs $20.00, maybe less if it sucked.
I haven't payed $40.00 for a game since The Sims. If I buy a game, I'm checking EBGames, eBay, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, wherever, and I'm finding the cheapest copy I can get. Most of the games I buy are older, simply because they're cheaper, great games, and I've never had the chance to play them. Who's going to pay $60.00 for a game when there are plenty of excellent games you can grab for $5.00-$20.00? Would I pay $30.00 or $40.00 for a new game I was anticipating? Sure, I guess so. Any more than that, and more than $200.00 for the console, is just plain greedy.
That's pretty insightful.
It would be interesting if there was a fully open-ended city exploration game, where you could move back and forth in a burger joint all day, attend classes at a university, or rent an appartment.
Now, you could also buy guns, stab people, visit hookers, run people over, and rape people. These actions, along with all the other actions, like flip burger and read book, would be available, and assignable to your controller, through a drop-down menu.
It'd be interesting to see the critics cry bloody murder over what they chose to make the game do.
You can nearly do everything you want to do. Unlike MMO where you are constently block by the coding difficulty of imagining that someday a player will want to "Jump over an ogre, while throwing a firebolt at an arrow throw by the archer of the team while another ride by there to catch you in your fall."
Or, you know, climbing a small hill. Or jumping over a fence. Or crossing a shallow stream. Or walking down a steep cliff... but you get the point.
MMOs are like all that is boring extracted from a traditional RPG, and shoved into a small space with thousands of people trying to have fun in the same area.
Three major factors in MMOs, combat, finance and stats, are the three most boring and time consuming parts of RPGs. In RPGs it's better to have half a dozen fights in two dozen rooms, and have the rest of the rooms be cool treasure areas, trapped areas, puzzles, and the occasional NPC. Shove monsters in the remaining rooms (in interesting positions: sleeping, playing cards, and other exploitable situations), and you've got a dungeon. A cliche dungeon, but a fun one to play in, none the less. MMOs just take the monster-smashing, stick the monsters in random areas and make you fight them 200 times before you get to move on. RPGs make you earn your gold and treasure and then go back to town and reap your rewards with cool weapons and armor and spells. That's fun. MMOs are so boring in the treasure-grabbing department that people are willing to pay actual money for in-game credits. We're not going to even get into "town runs". RPGs make you sort out your own stats, which is necessary. But once you get your equipment set up, you're good to go until you level up or get something cool, in which case you're more than glad to fiddle with the rules. It makes math fun. MMOs make you constantly min-max. They have plenty of items, but they're all the same. A spear works the same as a short sword works the same as a mace. Boring.
If you like those aspects of MMOs, go ahead and play 'em. I recommend a good RPG any day. I've recently started an RPG forum with some friends. We play with the rules of the game (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), there's a 24 hour chance to give your orders, and it gives me plenty of time to work up flavor text and look up rules. I'm having more fun than I've ever had with an MMO.
The real problem with Legos is they're too expensive for what they are. Little pieces of plastic shouldn't cost that much.
And, sure, the original sets had class and style, but I would like to see sets based on cool current licenses. No, not Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, '60s Batman, Indiana Jones, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, 50 Cent. Those would sell at least as good as whatever Bionicle crap they're pushing nowadays. Well, maybe not that last one, but I think it would be funny.
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Sorry about your friend, man.
Anyway, this is not the greatest idea ever, it's not worthy of a patent or anything, and it's not revolutionary.
If I get Nintendo to sign something that says they won't use my ideas without paying me $X.xx, and then I say "You should totally do Mario Basketball, Mario Table Tennis, Mario Team Fortress Classic, and Mario Golf 3", and then they make Mario Basketball, I shouldn't get any money.
What was your friend's idea, anyway?
"I will NEVER EVER DO THIS EVER AGAIN and I am once more terribly sorry," Baldino wrote in a statement for police. "Please let me go for I am terribly sorry!!! I'm only a kid! Help me out. I just want to go home. I did this not knowing of the serious penalty that lies behind it. Please! Please! Please!"
How are the morally rightous to prevail in a society populated by criminal masterminds such as this?
I don't mind single-player unlockables, but I can't stand having to unlock multiplayer modes/moves/weapons/maps, etcetera. Multiplayer is about having fun with other people, not about challenging the computer.
I seriously don't think RPGing is going to catch on again. It simply takes too much creativity for the average person. Then you have to take into account how everyone has to be in the same place at the same time. MMOing is just simpler and more convenient for the average person.
I wish there were some stats, but if you asked a standard demographic of Americans whether they play MMOs/RPGs, I think you would find the MMOs hold the upper hand.
I tend to agree. I think something like MySpace, but designed around publishing art, articles, reviews, music, and videos, could be pretty cool.
The only problem I would have with that is that I generally don't like reading people's fiction. It's mostly just because the stories are generally poorly written and include loads of grammatical errors.
Actually, most of us enjoy MMOs more. I enjoy the classic, traditional tabletop RPG, but when you compare figures, Blizzard is making way more than Wizards of the Coast, I would guess.
RPGs are only making a comeback with the old people who remember them from the '70s and '80s. People my age (17) just don't enjoy thinking.
This guy should lose. I'm tired of all these "OMG I was the one who thought they should use Mario in a tennis game!! I even posted it on a forum, so I have proof! Nintendo ripped my idea off, so I'm suing!" type of mentalities.
Just because somebody has a cool idea and shares it doesn't mean if anybody implements that idea they can sue.
Seriously, if you're not making it, and you're not fine with other people doing it, keep your damn ideas to yourself.
And, honestly, how original of an idea is it to simulate a rising star's upbringing and career?
I'm sure Google will be paying for the call directly.
Ewww. You want unlockables? That you have to buy two games and two consoles to use?
It's not that chicks should find games they want. According to these articles there are very few games chicks dig. Chicks should be making the games. Seriously. If a woman or girl is complaining because games don't appeal to her because she's a woman, and she's not or is not becoming a programmer, she has no basis for an argument.
Honestly, I'm tired of people, male or female, complaining about the lack of innovation in games and then doing nothing about it.
Also, while I'm going to be modded down anyway, I'm having trouble thinking of any women who complain about a lack of games targeted at them. It seems to be the article-writing dudes who think males should be making pony-socialization games they're not interested in developing.
They're not spyware. They're just helping you by watching what you look at and providing you the occasional helpful alert window.
It's like advertising on your television or on billboards. Don't think of it as wasting your time and destroying the scenic view. Think of it as helpful messages to alert you of products and offers you may be interested in.
That would be brilliant. They could release a NWN crammed with crappy user-submitted side-quests, and nothing else. Free content, based in an engine they already have. As long as it broke even in retail, as it would, they couldn't lose.
"MMOs just take the monster-smashing, stick the monsters in random areas and make you fight them 200 times before you get to move on."
The dungeons in World of Warcraft, having been in all of them, are often meticulously structured and certainly not randomly placed.
I've only played a little of the beta of WOW, and I didn't get past level 3, or something, so I'll admit I don't know anything about it's dungeons.
So, lemme ask you, what kinds of traps does it have? Are there boulders and swinging blades like in Tomb Raider, or puzzles and riddles you have to figure out, like the classic "Speak friend and enter"?
Are any of the monsters in interesting positions? I mean, are the dungeon guards ever talking or sleeping, or are they always just standing there waiting for you?
I'm asking, because I don't know.
Sort of like questing and then having to come out of the dungeon to move onto the next step and be progressively introduced to new elements within the dungeon your exploring? (Stratholm in WoW comes to mind)
Okay, I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. Are you saying there are a lot of dungeons that make you leave, go to town, come back, and do the dungeon over again? Sorry if I'm misreading you here.
Anyway, one of the time consuming things about going back to town to sell crap is the time it takes to travel back and forth. Also, from what I've heard about WOW, you can't get rideables until level 40!
If you're playing an RPG, the DM can just say something like "Okay, you leave the town and ride through the hilly countryside. You sense eyes watching you, but nothing can be seen. Soon you come to the crystal clear waterfall, and just as the map said, there is a small mound of rock by the base of the waterfall. Upon closer inspection there appears to be a small 2X2 hole in the back, hidden by moss." Boom. Good to go. Sit through 30 seconds of flavor text and you're back to treasure hunting, or back at town, or wherever the action is.
Any time an economy has been structured to be 'separated' from the larger international (or in this case real) economy people find a way to bridge that gap. Its not just an MMO thing, look at countries who have closed internal currencies (China.. for now) its a HUMAN thing.
Okay, when's the last time you were sitting around a table prepping for a game, and somebody handed the GM a fiver and gave him a wink, and the GM said "Ahem, Todd starts with an extra 5,000 gold pieces."? That's never happened to me, simply because people who play RPGs enjoy the act of finding gold, and they're willing to go out and risk life and limb (well, you know) to get it. RPGers even complain if things are too easy and there's too much gold. MMO 'sploiters have nothing on RPGers.
You could look at Dark Age of Camelot where certain weapons work more effectively against certain types of armor. It radically changes the PVP experience, I would argue, and the targets you choose if you are (for example) Blunt (Mace) vs Pierce spec on a class like a Blademaster or Warrior.
That's not really what I'm takling about. I'm discussing the aspect of having to carry a backup weapon because your spear doesn't fit into a small, twisting passage well, or hitting somebody in the back of the head with a mace, trying to knock them out instead of slicing their head off with a sword.
MMOs have no actual combat-like situations. There is no taking into account high ground (that I know of), you never have to duck under a spear to get closer to your target, you never have to even connect with a weapon to hit. I know these are impossibilities with the current state of bandwidth people have access to, but that's just another reason RPGs outclass MMOs in most areas.
I'm not sure which MMOs you've played but I've provided a counter example to each of your points, perhaps you are playing the wrong ones? Don't get me wrong - there are significant flaws to MMOs. Being in a raiding guild in WoW
My original post was meant to be funny, of course. There's no need to take everything that's said on this site so seriously.
I didn't say anything you said was illiberal. I just think, just like the Communists for Kerry campaign wasn't helping anything, somebody with the name "Profane MuthaFucka" isn't going to encourage people to take liberal views seriously.
Who have you been talking to? Every gamer I know, child, teenager, or adult, who doesn't know anything about computers or technology is into the flashy, new games. Gameday 2005, Farcry: Instincts (or whatever that game's called), and that kind of thing. They think it's cool as long as it looks cool and has just came out.
That's who they're selling the XBOX 360s to (primarily), and that's the crowd who will continue to purchase most of the games.
It's not a problem with most games. There are plenty of people willing to fork over $40.00 or $50.00 for a new game without even blinking an eye. Three months later the game costs $20.00, maybe less if it sucked.
I haven't payed $40.00 for a game since The Sims.
If I buy a game, I'm checking EBGames, eBay, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, wherever, and I'm finding the cheapest copy I can get. Most of the games I buy are older, simply because they're cheaper, great games, and I've never had the chance to play them.
Who's going to pay $60.00 for a game when there are plenty of excellent games you can grab for $5.00-$20.00?
Would I pay $30.00 or $40.00 for a new game I was anticipating? Sure, I guess so.
Any more than that, and more than $200.00 for the console, is just plain greedy.
Dear "Profane MuthFucka",
For god's sake, please stop trying to represent liberals. You're not helping anything.
Dude, it's a totally great investment. If you do manage to hack it, you can make, like, $20.86 (Fees not subtracted).
That's pretty insightful.
It would be interesting if there was a fully open-ended city exploration game, where you could move back and forth in a burger joint all day, attend classes at a university, or rent an appartment.
Now, you could also buy guns, stab people, visit hookers, run people over, and rape people. These actions, along with all the other actions, like flip burger and read book, would be available, and assignable to your controller, through a drop-down menu.
It'd be interesting to see the critics cry bloody murder over what they chose to make the game do.
You can nearly do everything you want to do. Unlike MMO where you are constently block by the coding difficulty of imagining that someday a player will want to "Jump over an ogre, while throwing a firebolt at an arrow throw by the archer of the team while another ride by there to catch you in your fall."
Or, you know, climbing a small hill. Or jumping over a fence. Or crossing a shallow stream. Or walking down a steep cliff... but you get the point.
MMOs are like all that is boring extracted from a traditional RPG, and shoved into a small space with thousands of people trying to have fun in the same area.
Three major factors in MMOs, combat, finance and stats, are the three most boring and time consuming parts of RPGs.
In RPGs it's better to have half a dozen fights in two dozen rooms, and have the rest of the rooms be cool treasure areas, trapped areas, puzzles, and the occasional NPC. Shove monsters in the remaining rooms (in interesting positions: sleeping, playing cards, and other exploitable situations), and you've got a dungeon. A cliche dungeon, but a fun one to play in, none the less.
MMOs just take the monster-smashing, stick the monsters in random areas and make you fight them 200 times before you get to move on.
RPGs make you earn your gold and treasure and then go back to town and reap your rewards with cool weapons and armor and spells. That's fun.
MMOs are so boring in the treasure-grabbing department that people are willing to pay actual money for in-game credits. We're not going to even get into "town runs".
RPGs make you sort out your own stats, which is necessary. But once you get your equipment set up, you're good to go until you level up or get something cool, in which case you're more than glad to fiddle with the rules. It makes math fun.
MMOs make you constantly min-max. They have plenty of items, but they're all the same. A spear works the same as a short sword works the same as a mace. Boring.
If you like those aspects of MMOs, go ahead and play 'em. I recommend a good RPG any day.
I've recently started an RPG forum with some friends. We play with the rules of the game (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), there's a 24 hour chance to give your orders, and it gives me plenty of time to work up flavor text and look up rules. I'm having more fun than I've ever had with an MMO.
Do NOT show this man eBay.
The real problem with Legos is they're too expensive for what they are. Little pieces of plastic shouldn't cost that much.
And, sure, the original sets had class and style, but I would like to see sets based on cool current licenses. No, not Harry Potter. Lord of the Rings, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, '60s Batman, Indiana Jones, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, 50 Cent. Those would sell at least as good as whatever Bionicle crap they're pushing nowadays. Well, maybe not that last one, but I think it would be funny.