Roderick

We have now learned it really is Toblix in his avatar. Wouldn't have startled otherwise!

For the past five years I've never stopped feeling quite 23. It's one of those ages that you tend to stick in. Anyway, congratulations Kroms!

I finished Torchlight and discovered a truth: in both Torchlight and Diablo 2 I have been playing a game within a game that was pretty much separate from the main offering. It was called: collect and fuse the gemstones. Have you heard of this game? Collecting gems and fusing them in either the Horadric Cube or with the sprightly lad in town is super addictive and cool. In both games I was obsessed with it and at the end would have a massive store of gems... that I hadn't and wouldn't use. I'd always end up not using any of them, just finished the game with the gems untouched. It's like I'm playing two games at once that don't really have a lot to do with each other. Super weird! Maybe at higher difficulty levels where equipment starts becoming really important those gems would be important, but not for a normal run. Still, it's so much fun!

I can relate, Tanu! Since my Xbox 360 died I've spent more time on other machines playing games I might not have touched otherwise. Such as Torchlight, which turned out to be a really nice game to help me over to D3. That reminds me, I have something to say about Torchlight for the other topic.

There should be a new law that specifically allows the murder of neighbours if you can prove they were shit.

That's a damn interesting question, OssK. I thought about escapism, but that didn't seem particularly true or insightful. I think, on a fundamental level, I like interaction. I press a button and something happens. I control a thing. As I grew older I started expecting and demanding more complication and more interesting ways of interaction, but what draws me is still the concept of inputting an action and something (hopefully exciting! Hopefully original and surprising!) happening in the game. This is why I like picking up coins in say, Mario Bros. I don't care about points or a score, I never did. That doesn't interest me. I don't give a crap about the competitive side of gaming. I like it because picking up coins is an interesting interaction with the game. Something happens, I hear a sound, the game has changed because of my actions. I also realize that this is the primary reason I love(d) adventure games so much. The amount of (contextual) diversity in interaction is by a long stretch the largest there. You have a fully fleshed-out world to interact with. You can discover things in the background, explore characters on screen, pick up objects, solve puzzles and do tons of other things. Almost every other genre is lacking in comparison. Most games treat a background as eyecandy, as atmosphere, without any interaction possible. Assassin's Creed offers at least the possibility of climbing scenery and using it to strategic effect, but even that's not as good as an adventure where you just didn't know what would be important and what would be possible at the next turn. It's interactivity, plain and simple. The more variety and surprise a game can offer (Psychonauts, adventure games, Resident evil 4, Half Life 2), the better. It is ultimately what drives me to pick up a new game and start playing. Who knows what exciting new interactions it will offer?

Cool, Ossk! Painting your own t-shirt.

I got pretty excited when Mohawk jumped through a decorated room. Is it a weird question to ask why the character sounds so American? I thought at this point everyone still had a British accent, or a German accent or whatever. I could be mistaken.

UH OH, ElMuerte has found his new ''orange and teal"! Hide your kids.

Kingzjester: making a concerted effort to look like Orson Welles since 2008.

The current German PC Games came with a 'Diablo Drei Exklusive Enzyklopadie'. Apart from that, RTFM from D1 and D2, it'll get you far.

I saw Se7en yesterday, for the first time, so yeah, but there was a scene in which Morgan Freeman explicitly questions certain methods of obtaining information. I thought that was pretty insightful considering how most movies approach the subject.

Done. Can I expect the FBI at my doorstep in a minute? Whoops, guess you can tell what I answered now

The Phantom Menace

Members of the EU have full employment eligibility in EU countries, but Norway isn't a member (boo-hiss!), so I don't really know how that works. My bet is that it won't be a terrific problem. You're still faced with SOME paperwork of course, but nothing as bad as the trouble you'd face trying to get into the US. I researched that and it really is next to impossible, requiring expensive sponsorships and many hoops to jump through for you and the US-based company. On a political note, I'm very curious what will happen with France now that president Hollande (what is inside a name, am i rite?) is elected. The general feeling is that he'll cooperate with Merkel for stability's sake, but there is a strange and frankly dangerous current of ideas running through France that is much alike an ostrich putting his head in the sand. Crisis, what crisis? We can still live like we used to and don't need cutbacks!

Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. And in any case, you're young and you have a ton of options available in your future. Working a few years as phone support won't do any harm and will let you be with the person you love. That's a pretty good trade-off! And you're not even that far away from home.

Wowsers Hermie, that's a conundrum. There won't be an easy answer for this. You could try writing the options down. That might not help you though. I'm all for drastic, grand changes in life, but moving to Brazil if you have little future over there might be pushing it. The thing is; work is so fundamentally important to having any kind of life that it might not be a choice at all to go there. So, I gather that even with your new job it'll be next to impossible for her to settle in Sweden? I'd hesitate to enter Brazil without work, but you might be able to support the both of you in Sweden.

Vimes, only now do I notice you are actually in Singapore, despite it having been clearly there underneath your avatar for a long time! What are you up to over there? Infinite Jest is one of those books that I do want to read at some point. Bone too. OK, pretty much everything in this topic too >_>

Awesomenauts :tup:

With EVE being the most kerrazy dynamic 'anything is possible on Halloween' type of MMO and World of Warcraft being the least, I wonder where Elder Scrolls will be. Putting an emperor on the throne could be pretty fun if it entails the sort of realtime powermongering EVE offers, but perhaps it'll simply be down to PvP-rating or somesuch quatsch. How about holding a popular election, where players need to actually campaign, gain popularity, amass wealth to pay for their rise to power?

I think I spotted one of them briefly raising their eyebrow.

Yeah, I noticed that particular geographical oddity. Skyrim is directly adjacent to Morrowind. I weep for poor Summerset! Anyway, here's the deal. I don't play MMOs for their gameplay - as long as it's moderately OK I'll be fine. I don't always play MMOs, but when I do, I am an explorer and all I want is super-atmospheric landscapes and good music. If they get that right, I'll be fine. Look, I know this all sounds really bland, but I'm trying to keep an open mind here. I've enjoyed too much time in Elder Scrolls games not to do them at least the courtesy of waiting for some footage.

Ouch Twig, that's a mess. I hope he accepts the paper. Do I sense you may still pass if he accepts? Castorp: I am about as far away from 'the wall' in Germany as you could possibly get. BUT, if I find myself heading east, I'll bear it in mind. Scrobbs: That's fine. We can meet up pretty much whenever, should I remain in Germany for that long (pending on job offers &c). Aforementioned German magazine came with a DVD bearing the full version of Torchlight. I'm now playing Torchlight. In German. The town is still called Torchlight. Pronounced like a German trying to speak English.

Not a bad idea! If you're visiting in the summer, make it a point to visit the Gamescom at the end of August. It's an overwhelming, but fun, event. I'm a regular, so we could meet up.

Is that your professional medical opinion, doctor? Twig, you better listen, son! In other news, I've moved to Germany, in with the ol' parents. Looking for work. But it's really pretty nice to be here, actually. I get along with my parents splendidly and there's so much ROOM and PEACE & QUIET and COUNTRYSIDE here, I love it. I eat delicious homecooked meals every day. I'm just across the Dutch border in a hamlet called Pfalzdorf. Today I bought a German gaming mag to brush up my language skills and installed Windows and that was pretty much it. Lovely.