Hermie

I'm pretty sure I know who to blame for this.

I completed Might of Magic: Clash the Heroes the other day. I'm working on a review simply because I want to recommend this to more people. Game math: I've spent 30+ hours in a 15$ XBLA game, and I still keep going back to the multiplayer, and I'm contemplating going through the long campaign AGAIN, simply because of an achievement bug. This is how wonderfully addictive it is.

We have one slot left to fill for a traditional party. (I assume Dan prefers not to have above six, right?) We've been waiting for someone for a few days, so it's pretty much first come, first serve, I suppose. We lack a Defender type character (the Tank, in traditional RPG terms). So if you're down, look through this thread for how to get a hold of the character creator/Player handbooks, and to get links for info on the setting. Feel free to shout out questions here, no matter how menial, or PM DanJW, me (and I assume Snoogle, Gwardinen, or other more experienced players).

Whatever, our biggest director is Harald Zwart, the mind behind One Night at McCools, the Pink Panther sequel, Agent Cody Banks, and the Karate Kid reboot. =/

I was considering getting Settlers 7 a while ago, but then I remembered Ubisoft's DRM, and promptly went to Gog.com PC d/l wink to get Settlers II instead. Ironically, it seems I've had a lot of the same trouble as you. They've slowly taught me how to make the city go around, and I'm like "hell yeah, everything going like clockwork". Then they suddenly asked me to "hey, go kill those guys", which several times has ended in me not being strong enough to invade because of the soldier cap, so I just kept going back and forth on the border. Btw, the PDF manual has the credits, and there's like 6 guys. Old timey game development!

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Damnit, I could have gotten a press pass, but I was flat out broke, and couldn't afford the train. 3: Sucked to see Notch, Adam Boyes and Jordan Mechner tweeting about it this week. >__< Next year!

Ok, so who is left who is actively reading this thread? I think there are lots of people that showed interest early, but haven't said anything since then. Make some noise!

Here's what I have so far: Entertainment Prototype #6, level 1 Warforged, Bard Build: Valorous Bard Bardic Virtue: Virtue of Valor Background: Experimental Prototype FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 11, Con 16, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16. STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 9, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 16. AC: 14 Fort: 13 Reflex: 13 Will: 15 HP: 28 Surges: 10 Surge Value: 7 TRAINED SKILLS Arcana +7, Diplomacy +8, History +7, Bluff +8, Intimidate +10 UNTRAINED SKILLS Acrobatics +1, Dungeoneering +2, Endurance +6, Heal +2, Insight +2, Nature +2, Perception +2, Religion +3, Stealth +1, Streetwise +4, Thievery +1, Athletics +1 FEATS Bard: Ritual Caster Level 1: Superior Implement Training (Accurate wand) POWERS Bard at-will 1: Cutting Words Bard at-will 1: War Song Strike Bard encounter 1: Victim of the Feywild Bard daily 1: Slayer's Song ITEMS Ritual Book, Adventurer's Kit, Backpack (empty), Bedroll, Scimitar, Accurate wand, Leather Armor RITUALS Traveler's Chant, Glib Limerick Entertainment Prototype #6 is a mysterious Golem from an ancient, mechanical island that is now mostly legend. He was built to be a jester for the luxury-loving wizards that were his creators. This means he is able to produce virtually any sound through a combination of internal pipes and arcana, with perfect pitch. He is also built to showcase a full range of emotion for storytelling purposes, and his stage training makes him a much more limber and smooth combatant than other Warforged, brandishing a scimitar in one hand, and a conductors wand to channel his magical songs in the other.

Ah, so if we have healing covered, I'll spec more towards buffing and controlling. I've already spent an inappropriate amount of time thinking of my characters backstory. It's gonna be cool to play by post where you have time to think of cool thing to do or say. We still need a defender type person, no?

I'm eyeing a Bard, which is a leader. (Mostly because I love the idea of being able to play a Bard Warforged (Golem).)

My own? I usually pick news from vg247, since they post EVERYTHING, and Rock Paper Shotgun for PC news.

Stole N.

Meta-tweeted.

Nested.

So Infinite Isles is definitely our setting then? If so, I'll start reading up. I don't think I will have the money to spare on on a subscription, so whoever has that old version of the character creator, it would be nice to discreetly distribute it...

Well, the comical youtube thread is where we post about politics, so I just figured...

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Why should I listen to this? Do you have any proof that these so called developers have any internet radio skills?

Right! In my head, I kinda counted cinema and television together since they use largely the same tools, but I forgot about theatre.

Yup, games are the second big audio-visual medium, but people like Eisenstein and Kuleshov were around at the beginning of the century. Now we have this new medium, that as people have pointed out, have another layer; interactivity. Just look at the way we categorize games. While movies and books are typically classified by their narrative and structural elements - romance, western, action - we categorize games by what we DO in them; Real Time Strategy, Third Person Shooter, Match Three Puzzles. So maybe that's why you feel the width of games can be bigger than the movie? Movies range in style, technique, narrative content, etc, but since also are similarly built, you have the same range, but you have the additional factor of what you do to the game, making the variables much bigger.

I think DanJW is on the right track, the thing academics point out as being the unique feature of films is editing. The human brain tends to look for patterns and connections, even when there are none, so by putting two images after each other, we make an involuntary connection between them. If you see a clip of Daniel Craig picking a lock, and then a different clip of Daniel Craig in a room taking something from a desk, everyone would agree that they saw "James Bond broke into that room and stole something", even though the only recurring element was Daniel Craig. This also applies for editing sound and images together. In a book you couldn't have music that amplifies the feeling of f. ex. dread when something is about to happen or happening on screen (Psycho), nor could you have music and sound effect that are the opposite (contrapunctal) of what is happening, to create an entire different feeling (American Psycho).

If there's anyone who's bummed about this, it's Zipper Interactive, developer of the SOCOM that came out buried under Portal Kombat last week, and is now completely unplayable for everyone who actually bought it.

Just read on a Norwegian news site about a guy who had eleven mysterious withdrawals from PSN, with five more queued: Not good. I'm glad I didn't get a chance to buy anything with my PS3 yet. Also: Remember how everyone is always bitching about how Nintendo requires you to type your entiiiiiire credit card number each time you want some WiiWares?