Dantius

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Because the human psyche is a complicated thing, and it isn't just composed of a table of boolean variables for various disorders? Not really. The human psyche most certainly can be reduced to a table of boolean variables- there's just quite a few. I remember once working out that you'd need around 2.5E42 bits of information to perfectly reproduce a human brain using the Bekenstein bound of an adult male human- it's probably around 2E42 for an adult female, and less for children. So yeah, it's Boolean. On the subject of psychological disorders, I find that there's a tendency on the side of parents, who I do have regular contact with, to explain away thenfailings of their children with psychological disorders. Billy not doing well in school? He must have ADD or ADHD and is really brilliant in his own way, but he's just not suited to the way the school teaches. No parent ever really wants to hear that their kid is as dumb as a box of rocks, so I attribute the upswing in diagnoses of ADD, ADHD, Aspergers, etc. to a conveniet way to explain away the D's on the report card while still being able to retain the illusion that their child is somehow special. But hey, I'm just a childless cynic, so what do I know about the nuances of parent/child relationships? It's not like I can draw on my own experiences being diagnosed or anything, so I might be totally off base here, too, though I do think I'm closer to the truth this time.

I could probably show up at around 3-4 Chicago time, so that's like four hours from now. It really depends on traffic, so it could vary.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S If you were a Japanese American kid in high school in the US during the second half of WW2, what chance do you think you'd have of not being bullied? Or suppose you were an openly gay kid in a more religious area in the 80's. Again, chance of not being bullied is zero. Not to be pedantic, but the vast majority of Japanese-Americans living in the US in the 1940's would live on the West Coast, and as such would be in concentration camps at the time, not high schools. And coming out as openly gay in the 80's in the Bible Belt is a move that's so 1) shockingly stupid and 2) easily preventable that you are definitly responsible for the abuse that results.

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires short version (only main quest) for those who don't like long games and long version (main quest + alot sidequests) for SW vets and those who like long games. doubt that happens. Can we please stop encouraging Jeff to make his games more like Dragon Age? I mean, really. I know I seem to yammer on about this, but there is already a company that makes the games that you're describing. Jeff should stick to making the games he makes, not the games other people make.

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith Originally Posted By: Nikki. I wish I still got excited by birthdays. :'( Yeah, after 21 it's basically just a reminder that you're running out of time before your body turns to crap and you'll never become a rock/movie star and get to roll around in a sea of beautiful women like you had always wanted. Well, maybe that's just me. Well, if you play your cards right, you can still roll around in a pile of money Scrooge McDuck style when you get older. On a semi-related note, it's always bothered me that Mick Jagger can still sleep with any women he wants. The dude's like 75, surely a exceptionally or even just moderately-good looking woman could do a lot better than a decrepit old man who uses more drugs than Charlie Sheen.

There was a medium-sized stink about this when the game first came out. Jeff more-or-less stated that if Avadon did well, he'd change it in the sequel. Frankly, if it bothers you that much, you could always find the sprite sheets for the Sorceress in the games data files and replace them with a male graphic. It's a decent amount of work, but it can be done. Of course, that has a side effect of making all the sorceresses in the game male, which can lead to some gender confusion when Nathalie becomes a guy referred to be female pronouns, but that's just the price you pay.

On the other hand, all this gushing about how the games will drop in price and increase in quality must also be tempered with a dose of the serious and sober reality that there is now a very real danger that everyone on the forums could become Spiderweb hipsters. How long until we're all complaining that JV's sold out and flaunting that we were fans when he was still underground?

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S *shakes head* This is why having a Paladin in the party is always a problem. Weren't you just waxing elegant on the benefits of being a Paladin in some other thread? Why the sudden change of alignment?

Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith I really don't like discussing length as an indicator of quality. Originally Posted By: Darth Ernie but sometimes it needs to be long Originally Posted By: Deukalion Maybe you guys can help me out here; exactly how long are we talking? Must... resist... obvious... jokes...!

Tales (of? from?) the Tabard Inn is good, too. You don't actually level up from playing it, but you get some very useful items that can really help you out a lower levels- the Grim Mask in particular.

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S It's not dead, it's just... pining for the fjords! FYT

Originally Posted By: ToddMcF2002 Not all gamers are that stupid and are shopping for pure gaming content. Many of us play and see all of it... Dragon Age, the Witcher, Mass Effect etc. Bioware concentrates on flashy graphics and sex with dwarves while many of us really want Baldurs Gate 3. Jeff is offering real game content without the unnatural sex with dwarves. Screw the graphics. I would laugh so hard if Jeff's next game had romance options in it. The Redbeard x Shima slashfics that would inevitably result would probably be hilarious.

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan Mass Effect players: Tired of everyone calling your character by his/her last name or rank? Then pick "Commander" as your first name. Suddenly, everyone around you seems very laid back and informal. -------------------- "Commander, I-" "That's Mr(s). Shepard to you." I had to take Yahtzee's advice and name one of my characters Gobblecoque and outfit him in pink armor. He was a Renegade, of course.

I always love to beta. My email's emperordantius at gmail dot com. Always great to see new scenarios! Do you plan to enter this into the contest here?

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S Really, you're deluding yourself if you think that text messages and social networks allow the smaller and less socially fluent kids to get the upper hand. Texting and social networking does not replace the actual social networks of a community, it only extends them. The same sorts of kids who used to get picked on are still getting picked on: the kids who are different; the ones who are weak, of the wrong ethnicity, Muslims, gays, the kids who get A's, the ones who don't drink, who don't walk with a swagger -- and sometimes the ones who do, too. That so? I haven't actually had close contact with a school environment like you would have, and the minimal exposure I have with high-school students tends to be with the socially fluent ones, so I'm really going on hearsay and the occasional news story when a kid commits suicide. Now that I think about, the latter source would be exceptionally susceptible to sensationalism bias. "Antisocial introvert commits suicide after decade of abuse" probably wouldn't grab nearly as much attention as "Attractive cheerleader [photoshopped picture] kills self after e-bullying", so those cases wouldn't get reported. I'll have to check into this more and look up some statistics.

I think one of the more interesting effects releasing his games on Steam will have is drastically changing the demographic makeup of the forms here. If we get a thousand new users in the next month, even if only 10% stay on permanently, that ought to really shake things up here. Wait and see, I guess.

Originally Posted By: And man grew proudly Now a fair amount of bullying is online gossip campaigns, and more people have no attackers to face down, really. There's no recourse. Suicide is more common. Are kids less tough? Is the psychological bullying harsher? Does the anonymity and arbitrariness make children just give up? Have I mentioned that the Internet is a perfect example of how when people lack a common power to keep all in awe, they immediately resort to doing whatever they like with no care for others? It's war of all against all in such a textbook format that it's almost like it was planned that way to vindicate Hobbes from the outset.

Originally Posted By: The Turtle Moves One slith duo I have were eventually named Cannon and Tank. Which is better than Tank's original name: Luggage. Dude, the Luggage was a badass. It ate people it didn't like. And it didn't like anyone!

Originally Posted By: Shizuku Hairstyles is fine, thank you very much. Did you see the flak Valve got when they tried to use optional hats as DLC content for Portal II? I think Jeff's more than learned his lesson from them- cosmetic fashion DLC is out.

It's amazing how bullying has sifted after the advent of anonymity over he Internet and social newtowking. Not to sound old, but when I went to school, the kids that were bullied were the smaller, weaker ones, and they were oppressed by the bigger kids- physical force was more-or-less the sole factor in bullying. Now, with cyberbullying, it's not only equalizing the oppressors and the oppressed, but even reversing the trend- it's now the smaller, weaker kids abusing the larger ones, and everybody now seems to be so concerned over this! The amount of anti-bulling rhetoric has increased exponentially as I've gotten older, to the point where I wonder if this reversal of roles has caused it. Of course, I may simply be becoming more aware of such issues as I got older- elementary school students don't tend to pay much attention to state legislatures!

Originally Posted By: And man grew proudly Here's hoping for good download numbers. Bastion's currently winning, but Bastion is also much newer to PC. —Alorael, who now demands Avadon DLC. How about more hairstyles for your character? Hmm. Jeff, what if for your next game, you take the superbosses and challenge zones and package them as DLC or addons? That way, you won't get frustrated players going where the aren't supposed to and ragequitting, and also scoop a $3 to $5 premium off all your hardcore fans, enabling you to lower the base price, maintain current profits off your main fanbase, and avoid unhappy new adapters? It's a win/win!

Then Guardian is probably your best bet. Shock Troopers would rely more heavily on creations supplemented by their own strength, whereas Warriors would rely on their own strength supplemented by creations.

Originally Posted By: Skwish-E I hope his sales are in the hundreds of thousands rather than the tens of thousands, but the real point to all of this is: If I am satisfied with their product and they sell it for a price I am willing to pay, then t does not matter to me how much money a person/company makes. This is not a land where we should be looking at others and saying, "He shouldn't charge that much for his product, he doesn't need the money." He posted his sales figres for Geneforge 4: Superfluous Subtitle on his blog. Here's the exact figures: Quote: Total Copies Sold of Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: 3979. Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 as of March 13, 2009: $111412. Total Geneforge 4 Hint Books Sold as of March 13, 2009: 807. Total Gross Sales Geneforge 4 Hint Books as of March 13, 2009: $5649. He also stated in another post that the total development costs of G4, including salaries, was $120K. So after about two years of sales, his game was in the black. But keep in mind that when Jeff releases a new game, he does so to essentially pay his salary and offset dev costs. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of his profits come from older games that people still buy. If we presume that people have more-or-less stopped purchasing the original Exiles and the original Nethergate, and maybe BoA, he still has the sales of the 5 Geneforges, the 6 Avernums, and N:R to draw upon for profit. Even if each of those games pull in a mere 100-200 sales a year, that's still in the neighborhood of 3, 4 thousand dollars per game per year- times 12, thatanother sixty thousand dollars per year! And he's said that G4:SS was an average game in terms of sales, whereas A6 and A:TBF were hits. If that means 150 or 200 k in sales, then that's a substantial packed of money, even after tax, for three people.

Originally Posted By: Death Knight Im thinking of trying a new class possibly in g4. I have however, never played as either the servile and shocktrooper or the other 3 original identical shaper classes. Is there any difference between the agent and the infiltrator and warrior/guardian for that example in this game and previous. I want to play as a shaping/missile or melee character. The past games relied on magic for me and this time i want to give it a go with a warrior or shocktrooper. The only problem is i cant decide which. I only want to take a monster from the ground and power them up through the game and rely on me for the rest. I read the posts and this is not a good idea. Should i play the warrior or shocktrooper? The shock trooper is a fun class that basically enables you to play as a Shaper without magic but with 8 combat-ready creations (the last one being the PC, who can actually stand up to front line combat). I played one on my first G4 play through, and the only real weakness is a lack of mental magic. The Warrior is basically a tank with a few support creations. It requires more careful one-on-one engagements and tactics, since you lack the army of the Shock Trooper. It's probably harder to play, but certainly is more powerful as a singleton. All in all, I'd say that you should go with the shock trooper. I certainly had a lot of fun with that class!

Originally Posted By: corallus " i hope Spiderweb makes millions of dollars in profits, They deserve it. " I agree In fairness, they probably already have- seventeen years in operaion pulling in around $100k a year is a lot of money, even after taxes. They just don't have it lying around .