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Son of Bitch, Shit!
I tend to use British swear words on a regular basis, but I only use big boy swears when the situation truly calls for it. Like when I stub my toe.
Even then, I generally don't get any worse than network television. But I do swear silently to myself sometimes.
Even then, I generally don't get any worse than network television. But I do swear silently to myself sometimes.
We need some Politics. Your thoughts?
author=brandonabley link=topic=974.msg13691#msg13691 date=1209580462Please don't tell me you're arguing against the theory that the quickly depletion in the number of pirates has caused global warming!
running away with a correlation or two is very bad science.
Anyway, regardless of whether or not there's more oil to be tapped, we need to stop using it anyway. No matter how much there is, it's not going to be enough, especially with China ramping up their usage.
And yeah, Him, my experience with conservatives is in line with Holb's. They think it's more or less impossible for humans to have an impact on the world's environment, and that even if we could it wouldn't matter because it would cost too much money.
...then again, the conservatives I know are Rush Limbaugh fans, and they have actually stated in full honesty that they'd willingly pay more money to do something in a way that counteracted environmentalists' efforts just to spite them since Rush said he would be. Which in all honestly doesn't sound particularly conservative (I would classify that political affiliation as "looney"), but they self-identify as conservative anyway. Speaking of which, I've recently decided that Rush Limbaugh isn't a real person, but a satirical character being played by a liberal, like Stephen Colbert or Archie Bunker. He's too cartoonish to be real.
DISCUSS: NPCs
author=loki123546 link=topic=970.msg13279#msg13279 date=1209183910But avoid using them unless they're sensible. Because you don't want every character to sound like yourself, especially if you're a nerd who has a tendency to use words that only about 20% of the population knows. That's one of the biggest mistakes that amateur (hack) writers make--thinking that just because they know obscure words, they're obligated to use 'em. I speak from experience here, but I at least like to tell myself that I sound more like a cloudcuckoolander than I do someone with Asperger's.author=Nightblade link=topic=970.msg13270#msg13270 date=1209177211
Whether or not the game world is interesting or not, it's pretty much necessary to have NPCs in every town, so you may as well take at least five minutes to make them a little more interesting than "That sky looks like ground".
That's the thing you DON'T want in NPCs. All sorts of bland dialogue, like the following (do not use these!):
"The morning is nice!"
"The evening sky is fading."
"I wonder... (etc)"
Learn interesting words.
Anyway, using normal words in interesting ways makes for more coolality. Especially if you can make the ideolects unique to the characters who use them....but only the major characters need this sort of thing. It'd make things less interesting (not to mention it would approach the impossible) to give Johnny the Janitor Whose Only Purpose in the Game is to Give the Player the Blue Key a unique and interesting way of talking.
Every character sounding like a nerdy high-school-to-college student (*cough*The Inheritance Cycle*cough*) or worse yet, an old british Historian (*cough*Lord of the Rings*cough)is way more bland than a party full of people who talk, variously, like a chav, a pop culture junkie, a stoner, an airhead, a looney and a scholar.
Also, hooray! I got to use the word "chav." Chav, chav, chav.
DISCUSS: NPCs
I've never really gotten into dialog trees. I'm not sure exactly what my issue with them is, but it really feels like they take something away from my personal immersion in the game world.
I suppose what I should say is that I'm not into dialogue trees the way Bioware does them. Technically I guess Phoenix Wright's system of dialogue forms a tree, but they feel a lot better to me.
There's every possibility that the typography involved is key here. Or the lack of numbers and a simple list of dialogue choices--the ability to have many different dialogue chains without specifically choosing from a small number of choices might be part here. I hear Mass Effect gets around this, but I haven't played it, so I don't know how well I'd respond to it. I suspect I'd like it more than NWN or KotOR's way of doing things, though.
I realize these thoughts have had more to do with the interface than the NPCs themselves, but I feel like it's basically on-topic. But just in case, I'll comment on the other stuff that's come up in here.
Also: as a lot of wRPGs and Final Fantasy 12 (probably others as well, but I can't think of many off the top of my head) have shown, you don't have to be able to talk to every NPC in the game. I think it's entirely fair to just have NPCs as decoration and only give lines to the important ones.
There are other options, too. While a lot of people tend to forget or look down on Radiata Stories, one thing I enjoyed about that game was that so much of what went on was centered around a single central hub (with a few populations centers elsewhere, but basically it was a small world with only a few major NPC areas), and was able to make basically every NPC in the game fairly significant. A huge number of them were potential PCs, but even those that weren't often had vignettes, daily schedules, and lives outside of the hero's activities. Majora's Mask did the same thing. Basically, because the raw number of NPCs was reduced, and the hero could be expected to run into the same ones a bunch of times, they were able to do a lot more with them than you generally see.
Personally, I felt like that made for a much stronger move than dialogue trees do. The characterization was strong(relatively speaking--it was strong for fairly insignificant NPCs. If we were talking PCs, it'd obviously barely register, even less so if we were talking a purer storytelling medium), just more or less set in stone--that's sort of the trade off, and it seems to be the biggest difference between jRPGs and wRPGs in general. jRPGs sacrifice some player freedom for better characterization. Generally, they feel more personal to me, and that's a feature I find more important than being given a plague of options. But it's a matter of taste, so your experience may vary.
I suppose what I should say is that I'm not into dialogue trees the way Bioware does them. Technically I guess Phoenix Wright's system of dialogue forms a tree, but they feel a lot better to me.
There's every possibility that the typography involved is key here. Or the lack of numbers and a simple list of dialogue choices--the ability to have many different dialogue chains without specifically choosing from a small number of choices might be part here. I hear Mass Effect gets around this, but I haven't played it, so I don't know how well I'd respond to it. I suspect I'd like it more than NWN or KotOR's way of doing things, though.
I realize these thoughts have had more to do with the interface than the NPCs themselves, but I feel like it's basically on-topic. But just in case, I'll comment on the other stuff that's come up in here.
Also: as a lot of wRPGs and Final Fantasy 12 (probably others as well, but I can't think of many off the top of my head) have shown, you don't have to be able to talk to every NPC in the game. I think it's entirely fair to just have NPCs as decoration and only give lines to the important ones.
There are other options, too. While a lot of people tend to forget or look down on Radiata Stories, one thing I enjoyed about that game was that so much of what went on was centered around a single central hub (with a few populations centers elsewhere, but basically it was a small world with only a few major NPC areas), and was able to make basically every NPC in the game fairly significant. A huge number of them were potential PCs, but even those that weren't often had vignettes, daily schedules, and lives outside of the hero's activities. Majora's Mask did the same thing. Basically, because the raw number of NPCs was reduced, and the hero could be expected to run into the same ones a bunch of times, they were able to do a lot more with them than you generally see.
Personally, I felt like that made for a much stronger move than dialogue trees do. The characterization was strong(relatively speaking--it was strong for fairly insignificant NPCs. If we were talking PCs, it'd obviously barely register, even less so if we were talking a purer storytelling medium), just more or less set in stone--that's sort of the trade off, and it seems to be the biggest difference between jRPGs and wRPGs in general. jRPGs sacrifice some player freedom for better characterization. Generally, they feel more personal to me, and that's a feature I find more important than being given a plague of options. But it's a matter of taste, so your experience may vary.
Top Ten Topic: TV Theme Songs!
Speed Racer and Underdog.
Really, I could name others, but chances are that anyone who opened that box now will have them both playing in a constant loop in their brains for the rest of their lives.
Also: the Blanks do amazing acappella versions of both.
What's your opinion on "cliched" games?
author=brandonabley link=topic=906.msg12996#msg12996 date=1208961892Oh, like you don't do the same thing when the discussion turns to music. =P I just went with classic examples because it's less likely that someone's going to chime in with "Michelangelo was a hack!" than "but Shadowtext, there is no redeeming aspect to FLCL!"*author=Shadowtext link=topic=906.msg12961#msg12961 date=1208921754
LOOK AT ME I AM AN ART MAJOR
* - unless I specifically say that it's less likely, then the chances of it happening are nearly 100%.
What's your opinion on "cliched" games?
author=brandonabley link=topic=906.msg12856#msg12856 date=1208881189I know you've sort of already covered this with harmonic, but man, this sort of thinking would only come from a country where everyone's descended from a bunch of tight-assed puritans.author=Ocean link=topic=906.msg12828#msg12828 date=1208848962
So what if busty characters that don't wear much are used often? That's the type of girl I want to see in the game. Or do you want the love interest to be a fat ugly girl? I don't.
Jesus man there are so many things wrong with this. There are basic ideas in film and literature that are well-established that you cannot have sexy and meaningful at the same time. If you do, it is only in rape scenes, and if you find those sexy you are a sociopath.
You can't have explicit and meaningful at the same time maybe, (even then, I'd be hesitant of saying it's impossible, but I'll admit it's pretty darned unlikely), but your argument here seem to be confusing "sexy" with "trashy."
You only have to look at the art of the old masters to prove that sexy and meaningful can coexist. Look at basically any figure drawing or sculpture by a good artist like Michelangelo or Rembrandt. David is a pretty classic example. People who deny the sexuality of these works just because they're art are missing the point as much as people who insist they be covered up are.
So yeah. Don't confuse "sexy" and "whorish." There are plenty of situations where you can have a sexy scene that also has a lot of meaning behind it. Hell, if nothing else commenting on sex could be the meaning. Heck, just to screw with Puritan values a little more, how many of you have read The Song of Solomon? I haven't personally, but this was essentially an erotic poem considered significant enough to be included in the canon of Jewish belief. It's generally interpreted as being an allegory for God's love for the Hebrews, or in Christian tradition, Jesus's love for the church, but looked at purely on the literal level, it's a song about love and sexuality between a married couple. Whether or not any individual sees meaning in that is obviously up to the individual, but clearly there's a significant number of people who see meaning in it.
That said, I'm not defending things like putting girls in stripperrific costumes or giving them unrealistic body proportions solely to titilate. I'm just saying not to rule out all sexuality just because a lot of people use it in an ugly way.
What's your opinion on "cliched" games?
I'm with Him and WIP. One's first goal should be to make an enjoyable experience. Worry about the artistry or the originality after you've got that down.
So I bought a PS3 [Recommend me some games]
While there were a lot of good games for PS1 and PS2, the only games I can think of off the top of my head that you really need are Legend of Mana and Katamari Damacy. Especially Katamari. Mana is hands down the best thing Squenix ever made, but Katamari is hands down the best thing ever made.
Top Ten Topic: Bands, Music Groups, Artists
In alphabetic order, since as always I don't really care to rank them.
Boston
Cake
Elton John
matchbox twenty
The Pillows
Pink Floyd
Queen
Rush
Styx
Yasunori Mitsuda
Beat THAT, nerdy hippies! Although I realize it would've been more of a challenge to hippies if I'd included some of my honorable mentions like Cat Stevens and Jimmy Buffet. Does Journey count as hippy? It might count more as nerd....and way in the "Ha! You like JOURNEY?!" category.
Boston
Cake
Elton John
matchbox twenty
The Pillows
Pink Floyd
Queen
Rush
Styx
Yasunori Mitsuda
Beat THAT, nerdy hippies! Although I realize it would've been more of a challenge to hippies if I'd included some of my honorable mentions like Cat Stevens and Jimmy Buffet. Does Journey count as hippy? It might count more as nerd....and way in the "Ha! You like JOURNEY?!" category.
Games - Tester
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