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[Kagus]

Yes, it expands the game from being Neverwinter Nights to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 in its near entirety. I might also add that the story surrounding Aribeth isn't too stereotypical, it does a good job of forcing the player to ask 'did I do the right thing?'- sure you're forced to kill her, but that makes things doubly awkward when you meet her in hell in the second expansion pack.

I think I remember poking around that point later on in the editor, and finding some interesting conversation paths that would hint towards it being possible to convince her to change her mind.  Again.

Still though, I never really understood why she went over to them in the first place...  I mean, sure, attempting to exact revenge on the bloodthirsty mobs who ordered her lover's death is one thing (which I also thought was a left-field development), but joining up with the guys who STARTED the whole mess and provided the reason for him to get killed?  Uhh...

And then, when you go to hell in Baldur's Gate 2, you have the choice of killing a part of yourself, as manifested by the body of your half-brother and taking the name of your father.  Shit just got f'ed up.

Not a particularly disturbing moral dilemma, however...  Seeing as both your half-brother and your father were evil pricks who liked punching people to death.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

In other news, I've been playing Neverwinter Nights. It's pretty fun. Long live the campaign creator, that no amount of bad writing can force itself upon an otherwise good game!

What part of the game is good?

The editor.

Oh, I thought he meant an actual part of the OC and was rather confused.

I completely agree that news should be impartial and trustworthy, but unfortunately the only people who have the luxury of reporting without care of funding is the Government.

The simple reality is; people need to make money, to that end they will do what they need to to make enough money to live a decent life, and if you're a journalist, then what you need to do is create news or skew news to make it more interesting. If you're a games journalist, then you need to land that money from the big game companies, and to do that you need to give them favorable reviews.


Twisting or outright fabricating news may be unacceptable, but it's reality, and it might be unacceptable to you, but the mainstream industry (including mainstream gamers, reviewers and developers) all seem fine with it.

Do you understand the implications of what you're saying?  Do you realize that you're saying that news organizations must intentionally fail at their primary function just to make the bare minimum amount of money they need to stay in existence and pay their employees enough to keep them out of poverty?  This is reality?

[yamo]

yes, that is reality.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

yes, that is reality.

Um.  I'm asking for Neruz's opinion.  I've never even seen you before.

[Neruz]

Do you understand the implications of what you're saying?  Do you realize that you're saying that news organizations must intentionally fail at their primary function just to make the bare minimum amount of money they need to stay in existence and pay their employees enough to keep them out of poverty?  This is reality?

To make the bare minimum they need to stay in existence? Probably not, to make enough money to make the job worthwhile and mainstream? Most certainly yes.

Toady has shown that one does not need to sell games to make a living as a Developer, but there's a far cry from 'making enough money to stay out of poverty' and 'making enough money to live comfortablely'. Most people opt for the second.

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Do you understand the implications of what you're saying?  Do you realize that you're saying that news organizations must intentionally fail at their primary function just to make the bare minimum amount of money they need to stay in existence and pay their employees enough to keep them out of poverty?  This is reality?

To make the bare minimum they need to stay in existence? Probably not, to make enough money to make the job worthwhile and mainstream? Most certainly yes.

Toady has shown that one does not need to sell games to make a living as a Developer, but there's a far cry from 'making enough money to stay out of poverty' and 'making enough money to live comfortablely'. Most people opt for the second.

Uh huh... so what exactly is "comfortably"?

[Neruz]

Do you understand the implications of what you're saying?  Do you realize that you're saying that news organizations must intentionally fail at their primary function just to make the bare minimum amount of money they need to stay in existence and pay their employees enough to keep them out of poverty?  This is reality?

To make the bare minimum they need to stay in existence? Probably not, to make enough money to make the job worthwhile and mainstream? Most certainly yes.

Toady has shown that one does not need to sell games to make a living as a Developer, but there's a far cry from 'making enough money to stay out of poverty' and 'making enough money to live comfortablely'. Most people opt for the second.

Uh huh... so what exactly is "comfortably"?

Ovbiously that varies from person to person, but i'd imagine that most westerners would consider somewhere in the realm of ~20 - 30 grand per year per per person to be pretty good.

Lets go with 'upper middle class', fairly large house, 2 decent modern cars, possibly an expensive sports car, wife, two kids, private school fees (maybe, maybe not), probably somewhere around ~130 grand a year, say 60 grand per year each for the wife and husband? Pre-tax. Give or take 20 grandish from each, maybe.

But it'll vary significantly from person to person, for example i am quite comfortable living in my parents house and fully intend to continue doing so until i finish my university course and land a solid job somewhere, but i know people who moved out at the first opportunity and are pretty comfortable in a 4 room apartment, and i know people who wouldn't be comfortable in anything short of the white house and fully intend to make seven figure salaries before they're happy.


I would imagine most people want more money than your standard freelance journalist can reasonably expect to earn however.

[Asehujiko]

Experience so far:
-launcher talks about DLC.
-config screen talks about DLC
-main menu talks about DLC

game played: 0%
desire to uninstall and throw a brick through a window at an EA executive's mansion: 56%

[KaelGotDwarves]

Yeah, I think we're fast approaching the point where everyone is doing DLC and microtransactions to nickel and dime consumers into paying for content because if companies have one big release, it just gets pirated.

:/ That means the golden age of easy modding is passing too, since they're going to make it hard for free content to be released with paid stuff. Damn you EA, Activision, and Sega. It was so apparent in Empire: Total War's lack of console and modding limitations. Big fucking middle finger to the lot of you publishers. Mods are what keep games fresh for years after the initial money grab.

I hope the editor here actually allows you to edit unlike CA's tools.

[Zangi]

Yeah, I think we're fast approaching the point where everyone is doing DLC and microtransactions to nickel and dime consumers into paying for content because if companies have one big release, it just gets pirated.

:/ That means the golden age of easy modding is passing too, since they're going to make it hard for free content to be released with paid stuff. Damn you EA, Activision, and Sega. It was so apparent in Empire: Total War's lack of console and modding limitations. Big fucking middle finger to the lot of you publishers. Mods are what keep games fresh for years after the initial money grab.

I hope the editor here actually allows you to edit unlike CA's tools.

That is bad from a business stand-point.  If they make a sequel, they need to make it better...
Bad news if they churn out similar games of lower quality...

They want to make it just good enough for people to buy... and its DLC portions, but not good enough to keep players enthralled by the next release... where they drop the game like trash and take the next one and its DLC like a good consumer would...

EDIT: On another note: Empires sucked... compared to its predecessors...

[Ivefan]

Experience so far:
-launcher talks about DLC.
-config screen talks about DLC
-main menu talks about DLC

game played: 0%
desire to uninstall and throw a brick through a window at an EA executive's mansion: 56%

Talking to a fellow asking for my assistance, saying the gray wardens will get a keep or whatever if i do.
replies:
 -Not interested
 -Let me think about it
 -Alright(Download new content)

Wtf. I've barely gotten out of the starting chapter and they want to sell 'expansions'?

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Do you understand the implications of what you're saying?  Do you realize that you're saying that news organizations must intentionally fail at their primary function just to make the bare minimum amount of money they need to stay in existence and pay their employees enough to keep them out of poverty?  This is reality?

To make the bare minimum they need to stay in existence? Probably not, to make enough money to make the job worthwhile and mainstream? Most certainly yes.

Toady has shown that one does not need to sell games to make a living as a Developer, but there's a far cry from 'making enough money to stay out of poverty' and 'making enough money to live comfortablely'. Most people opt for the second.

Uh huh... so what exactly is "comfortably"?

Ovbiously that varies from person to person, but i'd imagine that most westerners would consider somewhere in the realm of ~20 - 30 grand per year per per person to be pretty good.

Lets go with 'upper middle class', fairly large house, 2 decent modern cars, possibly an expensive sports car, wife, two kids, private school fees (maybe, maybe not), probably somewhere around ~130 grand a year, say 60 grand per year each for the wife and husband? Pre-tax. Give or take 20 grandish from each, maybe.

But it'll vary significantly from person to person, for example i am quite comfortable living in my parents house and fully intend to continue doing so until i finish my university course and land a solid job somewhere, but i know people who moved out at the first opportunity and are pretty comfortable in a 4 room apartment, and i know people who wouldn't be comfortable in anything short of the white house and fully intend to make seven figure salaries before they're happy.


I would imagine most people want more money than your standard freelance journalist can reasonably expect to earn however.

You only need two SUVs, a sports car and a five bedroom house for a four person family as much as you delude yourself into thinking you need those things.  What you need, is food, water, shelter, and for most of us companionship.  When it comes down to it, your argument is just rationalizing harming others for personal gain.  The journalist's job is to inform the public so that they can make informed decisions.  If the journalist is misinforming the public because it will give him more money to get that second sports car he "needs" to have for a comfortable life, he's still just betraying the public and the basic function of his profession for personal gain.  Not survival, gain.  If he thinks he'll finally be happy after one more car he's deluding himself.  That's not how it works.

I think the problem is that you don't realize just how deluded some people are.  They think they will be happy with just one more expensive thing they don't need, that they'll finally be content.  But that's never the case.  If you are collecting shit, and you get more shit, all you've got is a bigger pile of shit.  And once again, it's 'OK' to screw others over for it.

[Neruz]

When did 'need' come into the equation? I said want.

The journalist's job is to inform the public so that they can make informed decisions.

Unfortunately the news outlets of the world disagree with you; they feel that a journalist's job is to make money by selling news, and if there isn't any news then they'd better damn well find some.

I think the problem is that you don't realize just how deluded some people are.  They think they will be happy with just one more expensive thing they don't need, that they'll finally be content.  But that's never the case.  If you are collecting shit, and you get more shit, all you've got is a bigger pile of shit.  And once again, it's 'OK' to screw others over for it.

Not only are you going way off topic, but you're strawmanning to boot. I do not agree with the way journalism is currently handled, which is why the only news i ever pay the slightest attention to is the ABC as they are government funded and operated and thus don't need to fabricate stories for funding. I have repeatedly stated that i do not agree with the current journalism methods; i find them not only short sighted, but pretty stupid as well.

I do, however, accept that at the moment such subversive journalism techniques are the unfortunate reality of the situation. I don't like it, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, so to speak.

[Servant Corps]

DLC may be a good thing if they decrease the price of the original game. It means that people can save money by not buying the content they don't want, and only buying the content they do want.

Still...

Talking to a fellow asking for my assistance, saying the gray wardens will get a keep or whatever if i do.
replies:
 -Not interested
 -Let me think about it
 -Alright(Download new content)

Wtf. I've barely gotten out of the starting chapter and they want to sell 'expansions'?

I thought this DLC is free, but seriously? Breaking the fourth wall? For money?

[Ivefan]

Well, i assumed it cost money like everything else EA touches. But I got a login window when klicking that so i just thought bugger off.