Arclayn

Hello, my name is Arclayn and I joined on 9th Jun 2009

Recent Posts

Artists and Engineers vs. Beancounters and MBAs: The Saga 17 Jan 2010 06:47:48
An Effectively Massive RPG 05 Dec 2009 01:28:21
Introducing Arclayn's Tech Bench 30 Oct 2009 05:16:42
Planet Earth: Prime Real-Estate, Minor Human Infestation 16 Oct 2009 06:37:44
A grab bag of thoughts 15 Sep 2009 17:28:55

Recent Comments

Just like you say, video game magazine/website/blog editors are between yours and my age. But more importantly, they are paid to play games (and write about them). This gives them access to a wider variety of games, and with that comes much broader experience and greater insight to gaming as a whole.

The typical player is more likely to limit himself/herself based on the recommendations of their social clique and favorite brands. Typical players don't have the free time or money to keep up with an editor's vast experience. From that, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that something like Kingdom Hearts dominated the reader's picks while Nintendo's staff made picks that lent the spotlight to several different titles.

I wouldn't say that these two groups are "out of touch" with each other. Instead, this poll demonstrates the difference of experience between those who make gaming a profession compared to those who make gaming a hobby.

On another note, I have some personal praise to Nintendo's editorial staff: Muramasa: The Demon Blade and (I suspect) A Boy and His Blob are games truly worthy of recognition on their own artistic merits. Add that they did not pick one or two titles to be the High Master of 2009 (that's what the readers did!), this implies that marketing favoritism on Nintendo's end was non-existent at best and minimal at worst.

It's frustrating when fanboyism clouds judgement. I feel the same way about the /Halo/ series.

Sounds like Squenix tried something a bit "experimental" again. They're the kind of game development studio that would rather influence convention than follow it. However, not all of their experimental ideas work out so well, and this wouldn't be their first experimental fail.

The ability to save anywhere is a design staple for Bioware games. It is a convenience, but also important part of the challenge. Especially with their early "infinity engine" games (i.e. Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc.), one small error can snowball into immense disaster for an unprepared player. Being able to save right before a difficult encounter becomes a godsend.

Reflecting upon how Sonic has evolved, it struck me... who created Sonic The Hedgehog, and is he/she/them still involved? From what I dug up, the answer to the first question is generally credited to three people: Naoto Oushima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, and Yuji Naka. Turns out, all three people left Sega some time ago for other endeavors. Oushima-san and Naka-san started their own studios. Yasuhara-san went to work for Naughty Dog. So answering the second question is easy: "no".

I believe this is a big reason why Mario still remains a cultural powerhouse while Sonic stutters to remain relevant. The original talent that made Mario great, Shigeru Miyamoto, still supports Nintendo. The original talent that made Sonic great no longer supports Sega (and this has caused other of Sega's series to suffer as well!). Even when The Super Mario RPG was in development by Square, Miyamoto-san had provided considerable input to the game. Oushima-san, Yasahura-san, and Naka-san did not, and probably could not assist Bioware. Unfortunate as Oushima-san and Naka-san have worked on RPGs before, notably parts of the Phantasy Star series.

That said, it was probably better for Sonic that Sega outsourced the project to a studio like Bioware.

No, but you did say, "Ye Olde Dayes of Medieval Kingdomes and muddy brown colour palettes" a few days back. So I extrapolated a little. I don't think it matters. The very first Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are the original JRPG genre defining games, and they are both guilty of "Ye Olde Dayes of Medieval Kingdomes". And I think that Valkyrie Profile is somewhat guilty too with its many medieval-like city-states. After many years (starting with #7), Final Fantasy certainly has moved away from traditional high fantasy, but Dragon Quest has not.

Play what you like, whatever it is... it's why we're gamers. It just seems to me you might re-think your position at least a little. European Medieval themes are the established convention of high fantasy. Established conventions are used, reused, and re-reused some more ad infinitum, regardless of the context. It's the way it is.

However, if you're turned off by something, there is no point in playing a game you won't enjoy, regardless of why. Games should be fun, not work.

I still offer Jade Empire and Planescape: Torment as WRPGs that have nothing to do with high fantasy European medieval themes or science fiction.

Planescape: Torment bears special mention: The game's plot and setting is really twisted, and I don't think there has been anything like it before or since. Planescape is one of a very few D&D settings that is not traditionally high-fantasy, and Planescape: Torment's rendition is both stellar and humorously disturbing. i.e. one of your potential party members is a succubus named "Fall From Grace" and she heads a brothel for intellectual desires. Seriously! :D It's a very old PC game (about 10 years old), so it'll likely be difficult to find.

Recent Replies

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. :D If you have questions about the D&D rules implemented in Torment, please throw them my way. 2nd edition Dungeons and Dragons is my D&D specialty, and it never was the "easiest" of the D&D editions to pickup.

I have no idea. As Halo is a game series I could care less about, I don't read community forums centered around it.

IMO, when you take the fanboy glasses off and take a look at what else is out there in FPS land, Halo really isn't all that groundbreaking. Never was. It's just similar feelings to what you brought up about about Crisis Core. That's all I was getting at.

As I've written, I don't think the development team at Runic were blessed with time and funding. They needed a product quickly, and they already knew how to build a hack-and-slash game being the original people behind the /Diablo/ series. To make matters worse, they had to build a whole new game engine as well as a whole new game from scratch. These things usually take two to three years. /Torchlight/ was birthed in one. "Lack of originality" was likely an unfortunate inevitability.

I don't think "complicated" is as apt as "unintuitive". D&D statistical relationships are not difficult to understand, but the are unorthodox in D&D 2nd edition (and thusly in Planescape: Torment). Remembering when higher numbers are better vs. lower numbers are better takes getting used to.

As for the actual game of Planescape: Torment... gameplay is not difficult. All the die rolls and statistical calculations are done in the background. The interface itself is pretty decent and the mouse controls follow the basic standard conventions established by the popular real-time-strategy games.

"So...if the result of an Asari mating with any other species is an Asari...wouldn't that mean that the Asari would simply end up "borging" humans (and possibly other species) out of existence? Since they're much longer lived than humans and all that?"

I don't think so. The Salarians are one of the three authoritative races, and they have a life span of about 40 years. They seem to do quite well for themselves. Oh, and the Krogan have much more to worry about as they can barely reproduce at all due to the "Genophage". :D

I can't say this for Mass Effect specifically, but I have observed a convention in fantasy and sci-fi that longer lived races usually reproduce slower than shorter lived races.