MrHoatzin

In the light of my earlier bizarre confusion in the face of the same-old: I think it finally dawned on me that publishers very seldom have the same goals as developers. They really have never thought of themselves as necessarily parts of the same business. They are not in the business to make games, they are in the business to make money, games be damned. Looking at this situation (the fishy acquisitions and the fishier dumping of people) and looking at whatever Kotick has been saying as of late, it becomes apparent these people are even less invested in making games than book publishers are in getting books out. Thinking of them as good when they do something we like (new IP! Yay!), and evil when they don't (EA Spouse, yearly cash-in sequels, pandering to an established male cromagnon demographic, Bobby Kotik, constant anti-union FUD/agitprop, etc.) is really counter-productive. Publishers are a completely separate, semi-parasitic entity that farms developers. Just like cows and sheep get to have a relatively boring life, get protected and fed by the farmer and in return give milk and wool, so do developers. When some shit strikes the farm, the cows and sheep get slaughtered and sold to relieve the burden on the farmer. The problem seems to be that developers think the publishers are on their side, when in fact they don't really give a shit. They have a farm to run. And obviously EA is not a mom-and-pop farm that cares for each and every animal, it is some sort of industrialized abomination, the sight of which turns people into vegetarians.

Ack, I guess so. Part of it seems counter intuitive, tho. It is not like they are dropping huge and unproven creative risks, they are shelving young but promising properties that are already half-established.

Is this a sound business strategy? Running for the hills, abandoning the young and reviving the lumbering, monstrous old for a few more rounds? Is this something that big companies do? Killing Mirror's Edge 2 seems like the exact opposite of what makes for good strategy. The first game got a lot of positive buzz of the I-can't-wait-for-them-to-fix-all-this-broken-weirdness-in-the-sequel variety.

It was very classy, I approve.:tupmotherfuckers:

Man, a dude who came just yesterday is the new maître d'! This sendof seems to be doing more good for revitalizing the Idle T community than I would expect to see, the reverse of what I expected, honestly. I'm pleasantly surprised!

I don't think I am asking for much here. I am willing to let the story be relatively one dimensional, but I don't want some chick telling me that I am killing them because they are EVIL. I might be killing them because they invaded the mines from god knows where and the local Torchlightites' livelihoods are gone to shit. Maybe I just look like a mercenary and they are in need of one more pair of hands to secure this mining town and there might be neato loot down below. These are not complicated or complex things to do. Hell, there doesn't even have to be a story of any kind. It would be a more pure experience if I was descending and killing and looting simply because such is the vector of the game, because that is my nature as a video game duder. The problem with the flat good vs. evil narrative is that it is conspicuous, and when it is in earnest and not some sort of thought-through thing (I would be willing to settle to some version of they are evil because they hate our way of life) it is an instant destruction of any suspension of disbelief on my part.

Is your internet provider doing weird things with your packages? I guess not, since the other computer connects fine? I've been having similar internety woes. I upgraded to the newest ubuntu the other day and now my wifi doesn't work. They keep breaking the wifi more and more with each upgrade.

Idle Thumbs! We're surprisingly easy going for a gaggle of humourless pedants!

Nick is the one who plays games. If it is someone talking about games played, it is Nick. Seriously tho, wtf is up with the people who confuse them? Maybe in this last episode, to appease the dim/deaf, we can have Jake on the left channel and Nick on the right?

Is there no option to horizontally center-align that background? :shifty:

Not only are you crazy, but you're trolling—both without any conceivable wiggle room.

Since you use bandwidth, you must be some sort of a prevert. I am surprised they haven't called the FBI on you yet.

Soooo, he is more absorbent than the sponge? Voodoo osmosis makes no sense!

I keep wondering if the whole experience would be better served by musics that are less synthesizery and have more of that "real-instrument" grunge. Then I remind myself that it would probably be cost-prohibitive and tell that little wondering voice to shut up. Still. I am never bothered by the midi in MI2. I guess CMI spoiled me. So there's that. The episode, overall, is rad. :tup: I don't think :clap:

I had to sleep over at Charles de Gaulle a few winters ago because entire Europe was under fog and all planes were grounded including my connecting flight. I didn't have a visa, so I couldn't leave the airport. The next time I traveled made peace with the vengeful gods of travel and tried not to flip out much. Also, got a DS.

_____

I don't have a problem with plowing through things that are attacking me, but telling me in the exact words that I am supposed to go out there and KILL THE EVIL is conspicuously devoid of justification. Why am I killing things? Because them things are evil? Is that really the best they have to offer me as far as story goes?

What is LBA2?

I played a little bit of the demo and I want to like the thing because the combat is fun, but I am afraid that the same thing that annoyed me with Diablo 2 will annoy me again: will all the missions boil down to KILL THE EVIL IN <A PLACE>? I stopped playing Diablo 2 when as the fourth mission the NPC told me to go KILL THE EVIL IN THE GRAVEYARD, right after she had me KILL THE EVIL OUTSIDE OF TOWN, KILL THE EVIL IN THE DUNGEON, and KILL THE EVIL IN THE FOREST. Is it not enough that all game stories are banal and manichean as it is? Why do they not try at all?

http://it.will.blow.you.away.igndotcom.info/

Aaaaaand that was one and a half console hardware generations ago.

That said, just to mix it up, I wouldn't mind GTA: Wasilla, AK.

Whoa, that came out? I thought it was indefinitely limbofied.

GTA Mushroom Kingdom?

Good lord, wtf is this? I hope we're being set up for some sort of awesome bait and switch and we all laugh at how silly were were to fall for it and are happy for ever.