Rob's 1999 gaming year in review
Baron Calamity
was most disappointed with. Even though I tend to buy a huge amount
of games (around 1 every 3 weeks), I can't afford to buy them all. So
if your favorite game isn't on the list, it probably means I just
didn't buy it. This is probably the last year I will be doing this.
My wife and I have a baby due in February so I'm not going to be
buying but a faction of the games I use too. I'll have to spend the
next couple of years buying only a few big games a year and spend a
lot of time scanning at the bargain bins. Plus I am getting
interested in other hobbies, such as cartooning. This year, I don't
think, was a particularly great year in gaming. In 1998 we received an
unbelievable number of high quality, must have games. I had a hard
time finding 10 games to put on my favorites list but my
disappointments list could have easily listed 25 games. Yes, I am
jumping the gun by about 2 weeks but I don't think I'm getting
anything else for the rest of the year. The only game I want to get
and probably would make my favorites list is Planescape Torment. Since
one's enjoyment of a particular game is directly effected by the
system its played on, let me show you my system specs:
Celeron 466 oc to 525
EFA 440 bx mother board with 370 adapter card
256 megs of ram
Creative labs 32 meg TNT2 agp card oc to 150
3DFX brand 12 meg Voodoo 2
Creative Labs Sound Blaster 128 pci.
56k modem
Twin 4.5 Quantum bigfoot hard drives
24x cd rom
Win 98 with permanent 512 meg swap file.
My Favorite games of 1999:
10: Star Fleet Command - Originally this was on my disappointments
list. When it first came out, there was a nasty save game bug that
pretty much destroyed the enjoyment of the game for me. Also it
doesn't like TNT cards which annoyed me to no end. However, while I
was making up this years list, I decided to reinstall SFC and get he
latest patches. This game is virtually the prefect space battle game.
A game that I've been waiting to play since I first laid hands on a
TRS-80.
9:Dungeon Keeper II - The original game was my favorite game of 1997.
While I really like DKII, I can't help but feel I did it all before.
The graphic update was the best part. The AI was suppose to be
improved but I didn't see it.
8:Prince of Persia 3D - Manages to capture my youth of playing the
original POP during computer science class on the school's Apple 2.
So, basically my nostalgia is probably the major factor as to why I
like the game so much. It is an attractive, still damn hard, and the
controls sometimes goofy but I got a kicked out of. I also liked the
ad campaign quite a bit.
7:Revolt - The cute little RC car racer kept me coming back for
another lap. The graphics were very well done. From the environments
down to the highlights on the little cars.
6:Jagged Alliance 2 - While we didn't get a new Xcom game this year,
JA2 was very close. The combat engine and the character building is
prefect. Heck, it even has aliens if you want! The only real weakness
is the campaign is kinda vague and overly challenging towards the end.
5:Midtown Madness - I just love rushing through traffic, humming Blues
Brothers tunes as the cops chase me in this title. It was rather doggy
when it came out on my old PII 233 with 64 megs of ram, but on my
current system, it flys. Wish it had a city editor though.
4:Baldur's Gate - I know some will say this was a 1998 game. A few
copies made it to stores a day or two before the end of the year but
you really couldn't find the game in stores to mid January. Baldur's
Gate is, at lest for me, the end all, be all of computer based D&D.
3:Unreal tournament - I'm really surprised at how much I like this
game. I had written it off because of the disappointment that was
Unreal. Net place is great. My best friend and I play with each other
against bots via the modem and the game is playable. Our pings are in
the 300s but the game is still playable. Can't say that for anything
else. Plus that play options built into the game are great. The music
I though was particularly nice for a multiplayer game.
2:Roller Coaster Tycoon - I'm a big fan of roller coasters and
amusement parks in general. I geeked way the hell out on this game.
It was fun, easy to get into, and deep. The best part is designing
your own roller coasters. I appreciate what the designers of real
coasters have to through more.
1:Team Fortress Classic - I know that team fortress is old but I never
got into Quake all that much. When TFC came out for Half Life, my
life was over. 80% of my gaming time was filled with TFC. I can't
pinpoint exactly what is it about TFC that made me such an addict.
The variety of classes and the team objectives are of course part of
it. Also I think the community is a bit more mature than the standard
death match fair that exist even in Unreal Tournament. Another big
draw is the "Matrix" factor. Knowing the laws of that reality and
figuring how to bend them. Things like Conc jumping medics and
floating sentry guns added to the experience. Needless to say, Team
Fortress 2 is on the my must buys for next year. I just hope it
doesn't come out when my wife goes into labor. ;)
My most disappointing games of 1999:
10:Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - C&CTS wasn't a bad game, its just
one of those games that would have been oh so good three years ago.
However the genre, and its fans have evolved. The FMV, while nice,
seemed out of place. Stale if you will. Better luck next time.
9:Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation - There was a time when I liked
Tomb Raider. Two and Three were just ok. I had hopes that Core would
have designed a new engine, maybe throw Croft into a new direction.
But alas, it didn't happen. The same four year old engine was put out,
with game play and concept limited because it was co-developed on the
aged PSX.Eidos is the house that Laura built. Apparently she is going
to tear it down as well.
8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
wasn't stuttering, locking up, giving exception errors, or blue
screening the os, the experience was marred by Tim Curry as Gabriel
Knight. I'll make no secret that I didn't care for the other two GK
games. However back then there were other games from the genre to
play and compare them to. Being desperate times for adventure game
fans, I'll relax my preferences. Besides that the 3D engine is really
good and the story very interesting. Like SFC, I imagine a patch will
make all the difference in the world. Still, don't think there will be
a patch to remove Tim Curry from the game.
7: Mortyr - The truth is, all I wanted to see an updated Castle
Wolfenstien 3D. So even though the previews looked crappy, I ignored
the warts because I wanted this game to be good. It is in fact a
poorly made shooter on the order of the old Capstone "classics". Of
course it hasn't officially been released in the US yet. I traded for
an Eastern Europe version. So its possible there will be an improved
version but I doubt it.
6: Kingpin - This could have been a great game if they didn't just
shove it out the door. There was a lot of style but nothing was done
with it. A lot of adult language but the game play was simple and
child like. There were lots of features that were never used in any
useful way. I hope that one day we'll find out what went wrong.
5: Sim Theme Park - For some reason I got it in my head that Sim Theme
Park was going to be Roller Coaster Tycoon with 3D graphic. It isn't.
There is no meat, no bone, its just a rice cake compare to the sea of
juices and flavors that is RCT. The 3D graphics weren't all that good
either.
4: Abomination - Thanks Eidos! I love the idea of naming you games
after their level of quality. Now if you would have only called Tomb
Raider: Same Crap, Different Year we would have it made. Abomination
is a squad based real time strategy game that wants to be the next
Xcom. However its just not there. The maps are less interactive than
the now 5 year old original Xcom. The combat system plays more like
Syndicate on crack than anything as quality as Xcom 1-3 or Jagged
Alliance 2. The only nice touch are the super powers. I desperately
want a squad based super hero strategy game or rpg but when its easier
to just shoot than to attempt to use your powers, it's a waste.
3: Interstate 82 - Someone needs to pay for this one. They could of
just taken I76, made the models look like 80's cars, did a few
different movies in the same style as I76 and missions and it would
have been cool. If they updated the graphic engine, even better.
Instead they copied Twisted Metal, used a graphic engine on par with
the ones on the PSX, and (I'm only guessing) hired some preschoolers
to produce movies on par with the Misfits of Science TV show. Oh and
the game is buggy. Not buggy as in it crashes. I mean buggy as the
game logic falls apart and weird crap starts happening.
2: Ultima IX: Ascension - Actually this isn't a bad game. At lest as
far as I can tell. It feels like a deep Ultima game. The
disappointment come from the bugs that prevent the game from running.
Also the game engine is a dog. Look at my system specs, even in glide
mode on my voodoo2 with all the details down I would see frame rates
in the single digits. Then there is monster AI. For some reason the
monster AI got the tree AI instead and they just stand there. I'm
just glad this is that last Ultima since the series would have been if
this was the first.
1: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine - Oh the mighty have fallen.
LucasArts put out my favorite game last year, Grim Fanadango. Just 11
short months later, they put out this travesty. The only good thing
could say about this game is that its stable. The graphics are down
right primitive. For a hardware only game they manage to use less
polygons and worse texture quality than the original Tomb Raider game
in software mode. The animations are some of the worse I've seen this
side of a Walmart bargain bin. The music, except for the good old
Indy theme, grates on my nerves with in 30 minutes. The worse feature
is the control. They couldn't have designed a worst control.
Actually, I'm wrong. They did design worse controls. The mouse control
method had to be designed by someone on crack. Luckily it isn't the
default method. I had more fun playing the Atari 2600 Raiders of the
lost Ark game.
I would like to take a moment to recognize the fallen. The amount of
layoffs and killed projects are mind boggling. It seem like every day
some bad news was been put on the game pages.
Sierra - They had two rounds of layoffs that killed off many great
projects and killed forever many other potential ones. We will never
see Babylon 5, Orcs, Leisure Suit Larry 8, another Dynamix sim,
another Quest game, and many others.
Microprose - Their owners closed down two studios. Games that were
effected include Xcom6 Genesis, Master of Magic 2, the Falcon series,
and etc. Also probably means then end of any hopes of an Agents of
Justice game being built on the Genesis engine.
Williams Pinball - WMS closed down the pinball unit leaving Stern the
only maker of pinball machines. This meant the end of the Pinball 2000
series that showed great promise.
Access - was gobbled up by Microsoft and now produces just golf games.
No more Tex Murphy
There are more games and company layoff that I'm forgetting. Many good
people lost their jobs. I hope they all find happiness this holiday
season.
Lastly, I would like to list some of the games I'm looking forwards to
in the year 2000:
The Sims
Duke Nukem Forever
Team Fortress 2
Black & White
Floigan Brothers (dreamcast)
Good & Evil - Ron Gilbert's RPG
MDK2
Simon the Sorcerer 3D
Force Commander
Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria
Oni
X-Com5: Alliance
American McGee's Alice
Max Payne
Planet of the Apes
Sid Meier's Dinosaurs
--
Baron Calamity
Pushing Daisies, another damn web comic:
http://pushing_daisies.tripod.com
Michael Zier
you needed more proof that you were an idiot:
>8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
>adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
The only graphic adventure released this year? Huh? What planet are
you on?
To name a few: Faust, Discworld Noir, The Forgotten, The Crystal Key,
Amerzone, and more.
Oh yeah, you forgot about those, right?
Starkenfast
one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
little there, buddy.
J
Michael Zier wrote in message ...
>Crossposting this crap to an adventure newsgroup is bad enough, but if
>you needed more proof that you were an idiot:
>
>>8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
>>adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
>
Michael Zier
<justi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>Wow. Why the volatile reaction to such an innocent post? Did you work on
>one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
>little there, buddy.
It has more to do with the fact that the message was cross-spammed to
the adventure newsgroup even though this person wouldn't know an
adventure if it bit him is the ass.
Look at the games on his list -- I feel sorry for when he finally
grows up and realizes that he lost out on engaging experiences.
Ghostbuster
>Lastly, I would like to list some of the games I'm looking forwards to
>in the year 2000:
>
>The Sims
>Duke Nukem Forever
>Team Fortress 2
>Black & White
>Floigan Brothers (dreamcast)
>Good & Evil - Ron Gilbert's RPG
>MDK2
>Simon the Sorcerer 3D
>Force Commander
>Gilbert Goodmate and the Mushroom of Phungoria
>Oni
>X-Com5: Alliance
>American McGee's Alice
>Max Payne
>Planet of the Apes
>Sid Meier's Dinosaurs
>--
I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
Baron Calamity
wrote:
>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
To be honest, Diablo never did anything for me. It was ok, till the
cheating PKers came in and ruin it. There are quite a few RPGs I am
looking forwards too, but thanks to the desire to name them really
wacky names, I normally don't keep track of them. Like the one the
producers of fallout are making set in the industrial age. Others,
like Baldur's gate II, I'm betting are 2001 releases.
Baron Calamity
<mic...@gt-adventure.com> wrote:
>Crossposting this crap to an adventure newsgroup is bad enough, but if
>you needed more proof that you were an idiot:
>
>>8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
>>adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
>
>The only graphic adventure released this year? Huh?
You missed the word "classic."
>What planet are
>you on?
The one where if you go into a store and look for an adventure game,
the only ones are Grim Fandango, GK3, Myst, and maybe Blade Runner.
>To name a few: Faust, Discworld Noir, The Forgotten, The Crystal Key,
>Amerzone, and more.
>Oh yeah, you forgot about those, right?
I thought Discworld Noir came out last year. If it did come out this
year, then I can say I forgot about it.
Faust isn't a classic graphic adventure.
I never heard of The Forgotten or the Crystal Key. A quick search of
sites such as gamespot, ebworld, and ign show no sign of them.
Amerzone appears to be yet another sub par Myst clone. More of a
puzzle with a plot than an adventure.
All of these I would have to order as I've never seen them in the
stores.
Andy Moore
If BG was one of your faves, then how could you have left out Baldurs
Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights, especially NWN. How could a RPG fan not
look forward to a game where you can play over the internet on a module
while your friend DM's it all in real time.
--
Andy_Moore
email: andym<at>midsouth.rr.com
REPLACE <AT> WITH @
Baron Calamity
wrote:
>In article <385abf00...@news.abs.net>, rob...@bcpl.net says...
><snip list>
>
>If BG was one of your faves, then how could you have left out Baldurs
>Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights, especially NWN.
As I said in another post, I really don't expect them out next year.
All Interplay's RPGs have slipped significantly in the past. With
both of those games due out late 2000, I can see them very easily
getting pushed back out of the year.
Stalker~||AE||
included a nice 50mb Halo trailer that left me speechless. Oni was on there too
(yawn). Diablo 2 is going to be incredible as well...Im just hoping that
Blizzard gets their shit together on the cheating issues (they could learn a lot
from Bungie)
Stalker
Stalker~||AE||
you decide to try MP Diablo again, go to channel "JustUs" and you will find many
of the regulars from the alt.games.diablo newsgroup there (I helped create the
channel) We are strongly anti PK and you will find a great many folks to enjoy a
good co-op game with. You might also consider protecting yourself with "code"
(dat files) or play password protected games even though that kind of takes away
from the MP aspect :-/
Stalker
Baron Calamity wrote in message <385b0e89...@news.abs.net>...
>On 18 Dec 1999 03:38:16 GMT, ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster)
>wrote:
>
>
>>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
>
>To be honest, Diablo never did anything for me. It was ok, till the
>cheating PKers came in and ruin it. There are quite a few RPGs I am
>looking forwards too, but thanks to the desire to name them really
>wacky names, I normally don't keep track of them. Like the one the
>producers of fallout are making set in the industrial age. Others,
>like Baldur's gate II, I'm betting are 2001 releases.
>
Bradman
>
> My most disappointing games of 1999:
> 10:Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - C&CTS wasn't a bad game, its just
> one of those games that would have been oh so good three years ago.
> However the genre, and its fans have evolved. The FMV, while nice,
> seemed out of place. Stale if you will. Better luck next time.
>
> 9:Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation - There was a time when I liked
> Tomb Raider. Two and Three were just ok. I had hopes that Core would
> have designed a new engine, maybe throw Croft into a new direction.
> But alas, it didn't happen. The same four year old engine was put out,
> with game play and concept limited because it was co-developed on the
> aged PSX.Eidos is the house that Laura built. Apparently she is going
> to tear it down as well.
really sick of Tiberian Sun getting heaped with praise when it would have
been a great game in 1996. And Lara the Gaming Icon is much, much bigger
than the sequels nowadays. I agree with the Eidos comment as well. Maybe a
case of too many eggs in one basket? Or sitting back on one's laurels?
> 7: Mortyr - The truth is, all I wanted to see an updated Castle
> Wolfenstien 3D. So even though the previews looked crappy, I ignored
> the warts because I wanted this game to be good. It is in fact a
> poorly made shooter on the order of the old Capstone "classics". Of
> course it hasn't officially been released in the US yet. I traded for
> an Eastern Europe version. So its possible there will be an improved
> version but I doubt it.
Never played it, but this is about the best thing I have heard said about
it.
> 6: Kingpin - This could have been a great game if they didn't just
> shove it out the door. There was a lot of style but nothing was done
> with it. A lot of adult language but the game play was simple and
> child like. There were lots of features that were never used in any
> useful way. I hope that one day we'll find out what went wrong.
Agreed. There is nothing worse than a game that has great and interesting
ideas, but poor implementation.
> 4: Abomination - Thanks Eidos! I love the idea of naming you games
> after their level of quality. Now if you would have only called Tomb
> Raider: Same Crap, Different Year we would have it made. Abomination
> is a squad based real time strategy game that wants to be the next
> Xcom. However its just not there. The maps are less interactive than
> the now 5 year old original Xcom. The combat system plays more like
> Syndicate on crack than anything as quality as Xcom 1-3 or Jagged
> Alliance 2. The only nice touch are the super powers. I desperately
> want a squad based super hero strategy game or rpg but when its easier
> to just shoot than to attempt to use your powers, it's a waste.
Poor Agents of Justice <sniff>
> 2: Ultima IX: Ascension - Actually this isn't a bad game. At lest as
> far as I can tell. It feels like a deep Ultima game. The
> disappointment come from the bugs that prevent the game from running.
> Also the game engine is a dog. Look at my system specs, even in glide
> mode on my voodoo2 with all the details down I would see frame rates
> in the single digits. Then there is monster AI. For some reason the
> monster AI got the tree AI instead and they just stand there. I'm
> just glad this is that last Ultima since the series would have been if
> this was the first.
Same for me. As a sum up - TNT2 + Celeron = Ultima IX poor.
As for great games this year, too many to list: MM7 (I love the series),
Heroes 3, Rage of Mages 2, Delta Force 2, Unreal Tournament, Baldur's
Gate.....I'd say Planescape but it's due in Australia on the 23rd, so I am
only dying to get my hands on that one.
For my 5 cents worth, I'd put Diablo 2 at the top of my wish list for 2000,
followed by any of the Bioware, or Black Isle games that make it out.
Nice post......should create some good discussion.
Christopher Tew
>Wow. Why the volatile reaction to such an innocent post? Did you work on
>one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
>little there, buddy.
The particularly sad part is that I'm fairly well informed as to what
games are coming out and so on, and I never heard of a single one of
those games. I don't feel particuarly sad that the genre is becoming a
niche, though, as I've never had much fun with any adventure game,
from Zork to Space Quest to Gabriel Knight to Sam n' Max...even Manic
Mansion 2 grated on me. I've never had much of a problem with
hyperlinear gameplay or arbitrary puzzles, but when the two are
combined to the degree that they often are in adventure games, I can't
stand it.
Adventure games are like hardcore flight sims to me...they're games
that I feel I *should* enjoy because I'm a hardcore gamer, but I don't
and I feel guilty about it. I guess I'm a *neurotic* hardcore gamer.
o_0
>J
>
>Michael Zier wrote in message ...
>>Crossposting this crap to an adventure newsgroup is bad enough, but if
>>you needed more proof that you were an idiot:
>>
>>>8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
>>>adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
>>
>>The only graphic adventure released this year? Huh? What planet are
>>you on?
>>
>>To name a few: Faust, Discworld Noir, The Forgotten, The Crystal Key,
>>Amerzone, and more.
>>
>>Oh yeah, you forgot about those, right?
>>
>>
>
>
--
This post by:
Christopher Tew, Pure Sweetness and Light!
{Arbiter of Funny. Sexy Boy, not yer Boy Toy}
http://www.lvdi.net/~tikicat will be updated in December.
Christoph Nahr
(Christopher Tew) wrote:
>The particularly sad part is that I'm fairly well informed as to what
>games are coming out and so on, and I never heard of a single one of
>those games. I don't feel particuarly sad that the genre is becoming a
>niche, though, as I've never had much fun with any adventure game,
>from Zork to Space Quest to Gabriel Knight to Sam n' Max...even Manic
>Mansion 2 grated on me. I've never had much of a problem with
>hyperlinear gameplay or arbitrary puzzles, but when the two are
>combined to the degree that they often are in adventure games, I can't
>stand it.
Yes, I thought GK3 was a really good game... except for the fact that
it was a traditional adventure game. Go to every location, talk to
everyone, try every object on every other object, until you solve a
puzzle and/or the plot takes another step forward. Repeat until done.
The most intuitive and logical actions either don't work at all, or
only at a specific time when the plot is ready for them. I guess I'll
never understand what some people enjoy about these games.
>Adventure games are like hardcore flight sims to me...they're games
>that I feel I *should* enjoy because I'm a hardcore gamer, but I don't
>and I feel guilty about it. I guess I'm a *neurotic* hardcore gamer.
>o_0
Well, I bet you don't enjoy hardcore naval sims either. :-P
--
Chris Nahr (christo...@uumail.xxde, remove xx to reply by e-mail)
Please reply either on Usenet or by e-mail but not both!
Damocles
<mic...@gt-adventure.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 21:58:35 -0800, "Starkenfast"
><justi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>Wow. Why the volatile reaction to such an innocent post? Did you work on
>>one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
>>little there, buddy.
>
>It has more to do with the fact that the message was cross-spammed to
>the adventure newsgroup even though this person wouldn't know an
>adventure if it bit him is the ass.
>
>Look at the games on his list -- I feel sorry for when he finally
>grows up and realizes that he lost out on engaging experiences.
Is that when he ditches adventure games altogether? Hunting pixels on
the screen and solving silly puzzles so I can advance to the next
linear sequence was never my idea of a good time. I think the last
adventure game I enjoyed was the original Police Quest.
Ryan Kuo
news:5tbm5s8bb8rscp90j...@4ax.com...
> It has more to do with the fact that the message was cross-spammed to
> the adventure newsgroup even though this person wouldn't know an
> adventure if it bit him is the ass.
>
> Look at the games on his list -- I feel sorry for when he finally
> grows up and realizes that he lost out on engaging experiences.
You seem to have conveniently missed his other post, directly responding to
your flame. Most consider GK3 the only *major* adventure game released this
year, which is why many believe its success (or lack thereof) will indicate
where adventure gaming is headed. This includes GG's Rich LaPorte, a man
who is well-informed on the gaming scene, to say the least.
His post isn't close to being spam--it's a well thought-out item for
discussion. And your last statement is an insult to everyone who *likes*
action/racing/etc. games. It's obvious that your distaste for the other
genres on his list is what compelled you to flame him. People have
different tastes in everything, including gaming. You seem to have missed
that notion, so *you* are the one who needs to grow up.
Get the stick out of your pompous ass.
K
Baron Calamity
<mic...@gt-adventure.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 21:58:35 -0800, "Starkenfast"
><justi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>>Wow. Why the volatile reaction to such an innocent post? Did you work on
>>one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
>>little there, buddy.
>
>It has more to do with the fact that the message was cross-spammed
I didn't spam. I properly cross posted messages to the correct
newsgroups. For example my list did not include one flight sim so I
didn't cross post to csipgfs. I did mention adventure games several
times so it was ok for me to include csipgadventure.
> to
>the adventure newsgroup even though this person wouldn't know an
>adventure if it bit him is the ass.
Just because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I shouldn't post to
csipgadventure. (ugh, triple negative)
Quatoria (Blah blah blah blah blah)
Joe Ankenbauer <anke...@radiks.net> wrote:
>I know Blizzard prides itself on shipping completed, bug-free games, but I
>feel that they almost wear a "red badge of courage" for missing ship dates.
>This is something that I personally feel is ridiculous, and I wonder if
>Blizzard does it on purpose to build a frenzy toward purchasing one of
>their games. Whether anyone will admit it or not, both Diablo and Starcraft
>have received numerous patches, and they weren't all of the
><game-enhancing> type.
>
That's true. Many of Diablo's bugs were the "anti-cheating/anti-PK"
type. I respect their efforts to restrict the cheating that went on in
the online product. They didn't have to, once they had made their
money, but they did, in an effort to enhance their product's
longevity. Good customer service, and smart business move. And I'll
always take a late release over a buggy, half-finished, rushed
product. Patience is a virtue.
Quatoria
--
In the pursuit of knowledge,
every day something is added.
In the practice of Tao,
every day something is dropped.
Less and less do you need to force things,
until finally you arrive at non-action.
When nothing is done,
nothing is left un-done.
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Stalker~||AE||
are talking about the 7 patches put out over 3 years to fix certain issues in
the game itself. The patches slowed down the cheaters, but in a matter of days
(sometimes less) there was cheating once again. They have left everyone to
their own devices on Battle.net. The only hope seems to be with Diablo 2 and
your option of choosing a server side character that will not (supposedly) be
"hackable". Most of the patches addressed issues related to gameplay or
features that werent working properly (like the Harmony bug or the Haste vs.
Speed issue) The game *still* has bugs (such as fire and lightning bows that
deal out too much or not enough damage) that will likely not be fixed since D2
is coming. If you want to see a company that seems really concerned about the
issues that affect their customers, take a look at Bungie and the Myth games.
They dont fool around..if you are caught cheating your account can, and most
likely, will be suspended. They dont even like you swearing on Bungie.net.
They seem quite dedicated and manage to strike fear in the hearts of those that
play there...There may not be many folks on Bungie.net at any one time, but Ill
take that over the 65k I see on Battle.net on most days.. I wonder what the
difference is. Are games that are hackable and able to be cheated more inclined
to draw players or is the honest game just not as much fun?
Stalker
Quatoria (Blah blah blah blah blah) wrote in message ...
Ghostbuster
>
>On 18 Dec 1999 03:38:16 GMT, ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster)
>wrote:
>
>
>>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
>
>To be honest, Diablo never did anything for me. It was ok, till the
>cheating PKers came in and ruin it. There are quite a few RPGs I am
>looking forwards too, but thanks to the desire to name them really
>wacky names, I normally don't keep track of them. Like the one the
>producers of fallout are making set in the industrial age. Others,
>like Baldur's gate II, I'm betting are 2001 releases.
>
Have you been living under a rock with diablo shield enabled?
Blizzard has chosen a very different server/client network
model for Diablo2 and is working hard to resolve cheater/pker
problems that plagued Diablo. Read more on www.diabloii.net
Don't comment on anything you know nothing about.
Baron Calamity
>Have you been living under a rock with diablo shield enabled?
Wel, yeah. I do know its bigger, its 2D but uses 3D cards for light
effects. However I tend to skip over Diablo 2 stories.
>
>Don't comment on anything you know nothing about.
Hello, I didn't comment at all on Diablo 2. It just didn't make my
list of games I'm looking forwards too. All my comments were towards
the original Diablo.
don
Michael Zier wrote:
>
> On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 21:58:35 -0800, "Starkenfast"
> <justi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> >Wow. Why the volatile reaction to such an innocent post? Did you work on
> >one of those games you just mentioned? If not, I think you oughta relax a
> >little there, buddy.
>
> It has more to do with the fact that the message was cross-spammed to
> the adventure newsgroup even though this person wouldn't know an
> adventure if it bit him is the ass.
>
> Look at the games on his list -- I feel sorry for when he finally
> grows up and realizes that he lost out on engaging experiences.
As a subscriber to the adventure newsgroup, I have to disagree with
you. He mentions several adventure games including the fact that Grim
Fandango was his favorite game last year. You are still ignoring the
fact that he called Gabriel Knight 3 the only *CLASSIC* graphic
adventure released this year. Maybe that's just his opinion, but he's
entitled to it.
As to the other games you mentioned (Faust, Discworld Noir, The
Forgotten, The Crystal Key, and Amerzone), you have to consider that
these games are not only not readily available but would hardly be known
of by anyone who was not the most avid adventure game fan. I haven't
seen one of them in the stores, and I wouldn't recognize the names if I
hadn't seen them on the adventure newsgroup. I'm also not going to buy
any of them because they don't sound the least bit interesting to me.
How you can say this post was "cross-spammed" is beyond me. It isn't
spam at all because it was only posted to the relevant groups, it is on
topic for those groups, and it is something which is of interest to many
of the people who read those groups. In fact, it's the best written
year-end review I've seen this year, and reviews are all about people's
opinions which may differ from yours.
Are you angry because his opinion of GK3 doesn't agree with yours and he
was disappointed with the game? Just because your site gave it 5 stars,
it doesn't mean that yours is the only valid opinion of it. One only
has to look at all the reviews that give it 2.5 or 3 stars to see that
many people are disappointed with the game. Yes, look at the games on
his list, and you'll see a very well rounded gamer who enjoys many
different genres including adventures. I'm sure he would have purchased
more pure adventure games if they had been available to him and were
given decent enough reviews to make him want to buy them.
Joe62
1) System Shock 2. Best game of the year, no matter what genre it's
compared to.
2) Rogue Spear. The first FPS I've ever enjoyed playing online.
3) Midtown Madness. Great racing game.
4) Dirt Track Racing. Ditto.
5) Fox NHL Championship 2000. A hockey game with decent AI and
physics. FINALLY.
6) Roller Coaster Tycoon.
7) Requiem. Loved that "time warp" power.
Games that stunk the joint out:
1) Hidden and Dangerous. Never have I spent more time fighting the
user interface and less fighting enemies in the game. P.U.
2) Heavy Gear 2. Bug-ridden junk that STILL doesn't properly support
joysticks. Activision proves there's still a sucker born every minute
by selling me a game in the first place.
3) Jeff Gordon Racing. Primitive, boring, and annoying.
4) Q3A. Blech!
5) UT (no flames on this one please - I understand it's a great
deathmatch-style game, but I'm pissed that Epic didn't use this
technology to build a great single-player FPS.
Joe
"In a mad world, to think oneself to be free of madness is itself a form of madness."
Steve Kostoff
Baron Calamity <rob...@bcpl.net> wrote in message
news:385b28ed...@news.abs.net...
> On Sat, 18 Dec 1999 06:12:16 GMT, Andy Moore <lo...@sig4email.address>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <385abf00...@news.abs.net>, rob...@bcpl.net says...
> ><snip list>
> >
> >If BG was one of your faves, then how could you have left out Baldurs
> >Gate 2 and Neverwinter Nights, especially NWN.
>
> As I said in another post, I really don't expect them out next year.
> All Interplay's RPGs have slipped significantly in the past. With
> both of those games due out late 2000, I can see them very easily
> getting pushed back out of the year.
Planescape: Torment was on time, I believe.
Steve Kostoff
Dominator's Reviews @ www.sonicstate.com/dom/reviews.htm
"Bradman" <jasone...@ozemail.com.au> writes:
>> 6: Kingpin - This could have been a great game if they didn't just
>> shove it out the door. There was a lot of style but nothing was done
>> with it. A lot of adult language but the game play was simple and
>> child like. There were lots of features that were never used in any
>> useful way. I hope that one day we'll find out what went wrong.
>ideas, but poor implementation.
Well I loved it. It filled a gap while everyone else is producing endless
bloody deathmatch variants and I want another first-person shooter full
of mindless violence.
dOM Happiness is an option...
/* http://www.sonicstate.com/dom/reviews.htm --->> Dominator's Reviews <<---
/* ..Pet Shop Boys in Concert...First Look: Lock Stock Dir.Cut & Arlington Rd
/* 157 DVDs, 142 laserdiscs, 35 games, 26 videos, 13 cinema films, CDs & news
/* >> nomad soul, ben dover, judge dredd, god of gamblers 2, citizen kane,
/* >> quadrophenia, the world is not enough, the fifth element, the krays
/* Reviews + DVD, widescreen VHS & Laserdisc lists & release schedules online
Jasper Phillips
>In article <385b0e89...@news.abs.net>, rob...@bcpl.net says...
>>
>>On 18 Dec 1999 03:38:16 GMT, ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster)
>>wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
>>
>>To be honest, Diablo never did anything for me. It was ok, till the
>>cheating PKers came in and ruin it. There are quite a few RPGs I am
>>looking forwards too, but thanks to the desire to name them really
>>wacky names, I normally don't keep track of them. Like the one the
>>producers of fallout are making set in the industrial age. Others,
>>like Baldur's gate II, I'm betting are 2001 releases.
>
>model for Diablo2 and is working hard to resolve cheater/pker
>problems that plagued Diablo. Read more on www.diabloii.net
>
That's a bit presumptous; how can one not know about one's own tastes?
Like he said, even before the PKers, etc. "it was ok". From what
I've seen of Diable 2, it looks like essentially the same game as
Diablo. If you didn't care for the first one, you'd be quite reasonable
to expect you won't like the second one. I know it's certainly not
on my top 10 list -- I'd rather play the text based games upon which
Diablo is based. They're free, and have more depth.
--
/\ Jasper Phillips
/VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV|~"~"~"~"~"~"----------........____ jaz
j^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\/"~"~"~"~-----------........._____ ~"~--.
* http://www.engr.orst.edu/~philljas/ "~"~'--`
Mark Asher
<stalker_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Well, Blizzard has failed miserably at preventing cheating unless of course you
>are talking about the 7 patches put out over 3 years to fix certain issues in
>the game itself. The patches slowed down the cheaters, but in a matter of days
>(sometimes less) there was cheating once again.
The problem doesn't stem from the effort Blizzard put forth but from
the basic scheme of the game, which allows stats to be stored
client-side.
Look, it's not really Blizzard's fault. If people are looking to bash
Blizzard over cheating in Diablo, they're digging pretty deep.
Personally, I liked the scheme Blizzard used. I was able to play my
Battlenet character in solo games offline. I just found players to
play with who didn't cheat.
>They have left everyone to
>their own devices on Battle.net. The only hope seems to be with Diablo 2 and
>your option of choosing a server side character that will not (supposedly) be
>"hackable". Most of the patches addressed issues related to gameplay or
>features that werent working properly (like the Harmony bug or the Haste vs.
>Speed issue) The game *still* has bugs (such as fire and lightning bows that
>deal out too much or not enough damage) that will likely not be fixed since D2
>is coming. If you want to see a company that seems really concerned about the
>issues that affect their customers, take a look at Bungie and the Myth games.
>They dont fool around..if you are caught cheating your account can, and most
>likely, will be suspended. They dont even like you swearing on Bungie.net.
>They seem quite dedicated and manage to strike fear in the hearts of those that
>play there...There may not be many folks on Bungie.net at any one time, but Ill
>take that over the 65k I see on Battle.net on most days.. I wonder what the
>difference is. Are games that are hackable and able to be cheated more inclined
>to draw players or is the honest game just not as much fun?
The difference is in the popularity of the respective games. While
Myth did ok for Bungie, it did nowhere near the sales volume that
Diablo did.
Diablo is a target with a big red bullseye painted on it. It's the
game that people want to hack.
Mark Asher
Stalker~||AE||
Mark Asher wrote in message <385bd9da...@news.primary.net>...
>On Sat, 18 Dec 1999 10:18:44 -0600, "Stalker~||AE||"
><stalker_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Well, Blizzard has failed miserably at preventing cheating unless of course
you
>>are talking about the 7 patches put out over 3 years to fix certain issues in
>>the game itself. The patches slowed down the cheaters, but in a matter of
days
>>(sometimes less) there was cheating once again.
>
>The problem doesn't stem from the effort Blizzard put forth but from
>the basic scheme of the game, which allows stats to be stored
>client-side.
agreed.
>
>Look, it's not really Blizzard's fault. If people are looking to bash
>Blizzard over cheating in Diablo, they're digging pretty deep.
>Personally, I liked the scheme Blizzard used. I was able to play my
>Battlenet character in solo games offline. I just found players to
>play with who didn't cheat.
Well, Blizzard made promises it had no intention of keeping. It knows the
limitations of its code and the fact that so many folks are cheating. The
Admins dont care and there is a lot of jerks on Battle.net. I pretty much stay
with a private channel that myself and some others created a while back. We
play with only those we know and in private games if we are alone.
>
>>They have left everyone to
>>their own devices on Battle.net. The only hope seems to be with Diablo 2 and
>>your option of choosing a server side character that will not (supposedly) be
>>"hackable". Most of the patches addressed issues related to gameplay or
>>features that werent working properly (like the Harmony bug or the Haste vs.
>>Speed issue) The game *still* has bugs (such as fire and lightning bows that
>>deal out too much or not enough damage) that will likely not be fixed since D2
>>is coming. If you want to see a company that seems really concerned about the
>>issues that affect their customers, take a look at Bungie and the Myth games.
>>They dont fool around..if you are caught cheating your account can, and most
>>likely, will be suspended. They dont even like you swearing on Bungie.net.
>>They seem quite dedicated and manage to strike fear in the hearts of those
that
>>play there...There may not be many folks on Bungie.net at any one time, but
Ill
>>take that over the 65k I see on Battle.net on most days.. I wonder what the
>>difference is. Are games that are hackable and able to be cheated more
inclined
>>to draw players or is the honest game just not as much fun?
>
>The difference is in the popularity of the respective games. While
>Myth did ok for Bungie, it did nowhere near the sales volume that
>Diablo did.
Agreed, but I also think that because its so hackable, its more fun to "mess
with".
>
>Diablo is a target with a big red bullseye painted on it. It's the
>game that people want to hack.
Very true although Myth is hackable as well and there are many ways to cheat in
it...the real difference is that Bungie kicks your ass for screwing with other
players games and not playing fair. One thing that I think is great is that
Bungie encourages you to make your own maps and have fun with what they have
produced.
Stalker
>
>Mark Asher
Joe Ankenbauer
> In article <385abf00...@news.abs.net>, rob...@bcpl.net says...
> >Lastly, I would like to list some of the games I'm looking forwards to
> >in the year 2000:
> >
>
[snip list of cool games]
>
> I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
Maybe he didn't list it because he didn't think Blizzard would ship it in
2000.
I know Blizzard prides itself on shipping completed, bug-free games, but I
feel that they almost wear a "red badge of courage" for missing ship dates.
This is something that I personally feel is ridiculous, and I wonder if
Blizzard does it on purpose to build a frenzy toward purchasing one of
their games. Whether anyone will admit it or not, both Diablo and Starcraft
have received numerous patches, and they weren't all of the
<game-enhancing> type.
JMA
Quatoria (Blah blah blah blah blah)
ma...@cdmnet.com (Mark Asher) wrote:
>
>Diablo is a target with a big red bullseye painted on it. It's the
>game that people want to hack.
And it will be hacked again, and easily, unless they cap possible
advancement, as BIS is planning to do with their server side
protection for NWN. Otherwise, it's pathetically easy to load your
character, futz with the stats as you please, and let it be resaved by
the server. Remember, just like in Diablo, all of the character's
in-memory statistics will be vulnerable to editing unless
encrypted...which would, so far as I know, be prohibitively expensive
in terms of cycles. Especially for a multiplayer game.
Marko Mokkanen
>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
I played Diablo through, and tried multiplayer a bit, without even
encountering any PKers. The other person I played with was apparently
cheating though, because he could magically 'create' kickass weapons
and shields for me, but at least he wasn't using the cheats against
me.
Overall, I thought the game was a bore (both single and multiplayer),
and I completed it only for the great music/sounds/graphics/
atmosphere. It was just a mouse click fest with too simple gameplay.
It tried to be a bit like NetHack or ADOM, but can't be even compared
to those classics.
So, yeah, here's another one who is not looking for Diablo. Different
tastes and all that.
Grimfarrow
Marko Mokkanen wrote:
> I played Diablo through, and tried multiplayer a bit, without even
> encountering any PKers. The other person I played with was apparently
> cheating though, because he could magically 'create' kickass weapons
> and shields for me, but at least he wasn't using the cheats against
> me.
>
> Overall, I thought the game was a bore (both single and multiplayer),
> and I completed it only for the great music/sounds/graphics/
> atmosphere. It was just a mouse click fest with too simple gameplay.
> It tried to be a bit like NetHack or ADOM, but can't be even compared
> to those classics.
> So, yeah, here's another one who is not looking for Diablo. Different
> tastes and all that.
Totally agree, except for the fact that I never even bothered to finish
it,
because I was SO bored by it. IMO the graphics and music isn't
great either. Good thing I just borrowed it from a friend.
Grimfarrow
Amarok
Grimfarrow schrieb in Nachricht <385CDAD6...@calpoly.edu>...
haha, I just wanted to reply to the previous message saying the same like
you and then I read your reply. 100% like me, I even didn't bother to play
one level on my PC finally. I played the game at a friends house about 2
levels maybe. Then I said, ok, I will buy with you the game together. I
never ever played it for one second since then. Quite stupid by me to pay
some money for a CD which never made it into my PC. Should have known
better, but after I was thinking about WHY I should play the game I couldn't
get one really attractive argument though I played it before...
Amarok
Michael Duffy
Marko Mokkanen <mma...@hopmail.com> wrote in message
news:385caeb5...@131.228.6.98...
> ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster) wrote:
>
> I played Diablo through, and tried multiplayer a bit, without even
>
> Overall, I thought the game was a bore (both single and multiplayer),
> and I completed it only for the great music/sounds/graphics/
> atmosphere. It was just a mouse click fest with too simple gameplay.
> It tried to be a bit like NetHack or ADOM, but can't be even compared
> to those classics.
> So, yeah, here's another one who is not looking for Diablo. Different
> tastes and all that.
As you said, different tastes for different people. I never got into Diablo
multiplayer because I've never been big into multiplayer gaming (except for
DukeNukem 3D on the LAN at the last company I worked for). I didn't think
there was enough maneuverability in Diablo to do a good deathmatch game, and
cooperative play didn't work well with the guys I played with because the
fighter in front hogged all the potions and gold.
But I still load up Diablo single player on occasion and have a run at it.
As someone else pointed out in one of the newsgroups, Diablo engages the
same part of your brain as whittling. It certainly isn't super deep or
super difficult, but sometimes you just want some nice viceral carnage with
some simple exploration. It is also a nice game to load up if you only have
an hour or so of free time to game. I myself avoid the games that take 100+
hours to finish because I simply don't have that kind of free time to play
games. I much prefer a game that either has multiple levels/maps that can
be completed in two to three hours or that takes 20-30 hours to complete and
is replayable.
I figure Diablo II will take up more of my gaming time next year than any
other game.
Later,
Michael Duffy
mdu...@ionet.net
Ghostbuster
>
>ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster) wrote:
>
>>I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
>
>cheating though, because he could magically 'create' kickass weapons
>and shields for me, but at least he wasn't using the cheats against
>me.
>
>and I completed it only for the great music/sounds/graphics/
>atmosphere. It was just a mouse click fest with too simple gameplay.
>It tried to be a bit like NetHack or ADOM, but can't be even compared
>to those classics.
>So, yeah, here's another one who is not looking for Diablo. Different
>tastes and all that.
>
Goto www.diabloii.net and read more information on DiabloII.
Unlike Diablo, Diablo2 will have multiple towns and multiple
dungeons in each town. It's much much larger than Diablo.
And there will be more NPCs to interact with. Some NPCs will
even join your fight. There will be new skill trees with
multiple branches to choose. From what I see, DiabloII will
be anything but bore.
Ignorance is bliss.
Richard
out before Christmas?
As for Force Commander... To quote Han Solo "I have a bad feeling about
this". It would be nice if it worked though.
see ya,
Richard Lloyd
Ben Flieger
Christopher Tew wrote in message <385e5b54....@news.lvdi.net>...
>Adventure games are like hardcore flight sims to me...they're games
>that I feel I *should* enjoy because I'm a hardcore gamer, but I
don't
>and I feel guilty about it. I guess I'm a *neurotic* hardcore gamer.
The only adventure games I enjoyed are the Monkey Island series, and I
play them for the humor. I cheat for the puzzles. My mind just doesn't
work in the right way for me to figure them out. Once I find the
stuff, I'm usually pretty good, but I never think to open the toilet
to get that little chain thingy so I can use it to do whatever thing
that no one in their right mind would use a small chain for.
Thomas Nguyen
Baron Calamity wrote:
> On 18 Dec 1999 03:38:16 GMT, ghost...@nowhere.com (Ghostbuster)
> wrote:
>
> >I am really surprised that you are NOT looking forward to Diablo II.
>
> To be honest, Diablo never did anything for me. It was ok, till the
> cheating PKers came in and ruin it. There are quite a few RPGs I am
> looking forwards too, but thanks to the desire to name them really
> wacky names, I normally don't keep track of them. Like the one the
> producers of fallout are making set in the industrial age. Others,
> like Baldur's gate II, I'm betting are 2001 releases.
>
Richard
Baron Calamity <rob...@bcpl.net> wrote in message
news:385b0f70...@news.abs.net...
> On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 19:43:43 -0800, Michael Zier
> <mic...@gt-adventure.com> wrote:
>
> >Crossposting this crap to an adventure newsgroup is bad enough, but if
> >you needed more proof that you were an idiot:
> >
> >>8: Gabriel Knight 3 - It's a shame that the only classic graphic
> >>adventure game released this year was such a bugfest. When the game
> >
> >The only graphic adventure released this year? Huh?
>
> You missed the word "classic."
>
> >What planet are
> >you on?
>
> The one where if you go into a store and look for an adventure game,
> the only ones are Grim Fandango, GK3, Myst, and maybe Blade Runner.
>
> >To name a few: Faust, Discworld Noir, The Forgotten, The Crystal Key,
> >Amerzone, and more.
> >Oh yeah, you forgot about those, right?
>
> I thought Discworld Noir came out last year. If it did come out this
> year, then I can say I forgot about it.
> Faust isn't a classic graphic adventure.
> I never heard of The Forgotten or the Crystal Key. A quick search of
> sites such as gamespot, ebworld, and ign show no sign of them.
> Amerzone appears to be yet another sub par Myst clone. More of a
> puzzle with a plot than an adventure.
>
> All of these I would have to order as I've never seen them in the
> stores.
Kevin Kramer
>
> Williams Pinball - WMS closed down the pinball unit leaving Stern the
> only maker of pinball machines. This meant the end of the Pinball 2000
> series that showed great promise.
Wow, I have been out of the pinball loop for a few years now and
did not know this. This is truly a sad thing...
Sigh, now I really want to go out and pick up an Addams Family
machine... Maybe I will buy one for my birthday :)
Kev
Baron Calamity
They have shot up in price lately. Probably one of the most desirable
pinball machines out there. I would love to have on to sit next to my
Williams High Speed.
Lynda Thornton
action/arcade genre.
This newsgroup is for *adventure* games - please would senders and
responders try and remember that and use the other groups for threads of
this nature.
--
Lynda Thornton
Trina Borras
//snip unpleasantries//
>As a subscriber to the adventure newsgroup, I have to disagree with
>you. He mentions several adventure games including the fact that Grim
<...>
>As to the other games you mentioned (Faust, Discworld Noir, The
>Forgotten, The Crystal Key, and Amerzone), you have to consider that
>these games are not only not readily available but would hardly be known
<...>
>How you can say this post was "cross-spammed" is beyond me. It isn't
>spam at all because it was only posted to the relevant groups, it is on
<...>
>Are you angry because his opinion of GK3 doesn't agree with yours and he
>was disappointed with the game? Just because your site gave it 5 stars,
<...>
Sorry to snip most of your excellent post, Don, but it's right up
there for people to read in its entirety.
I've nothing new to add to what you've said so succinctly and
commonsensically and agree with all your sentiments completely. I
simply want to weigh in on the side of reason with you and thank you
for your clearsighted post.
See threads that don't interest you? ... then don't read them. It's
that simple and painless and guaranteed to reduce your stress level!
I am quite selective about what I read here and so I'm not even
tempted (heh) to frown upon what I consider endless, immodest babbling
or too many threads about some game I'm not interested in or that
so-and-so who's a troll and likes his lines unwrapped has got quite a
captive audience who argue w/him to absolutely no purpose instead of
just ignoring his posts (actually, I find that quite amusing), or you
name it (your own poisen). None of us is the center of the universe
and this is a publc forum, and, besides, we have reached no consensus
on this issue (about whether it is disgraceful and wicked to make
allusions to action and other game genres on the "adventure" group
where around a third of the posts have nothing whatsoever to do with
*any* games at all anyway) and we *never* will have. It got old a
long time ago.
Plus, I've always wanted to ask this to those who complain that
"their" group boasts too many threads they couldn't care less about.
If you want to read more posts, don't you have any other interests
addressed in other newsgroups (or in, ahem, books)? Or, lacking same,
why not take those opportunities when the pickings are slim to just
play some games. [Just something to think about, I don't mean to
pry.]
Am enjoying this thread and would love to add to it on topic but since
I don't have win95 I haven't played any '99 games. However, my hunch
is that were I to have been able to play some those that would have
most appealed to me would have been: Outcast; Isabelle; the reissue by
Adventuresoft of the Elviras/Waxworks; Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill;
and, probably, Discworld Noir.
Trina
(writing from the adventure group)
P.S. I have often thought that when people are contributing to
crossposted threads it would be enlightening if they identified from
what group they write at the end of their posts.
don
Trina Borras wrote:
> See threads that don't interest you? ... then don't read them. It's
> that simple and painless and guaranteed to reduce your stress level!
Precisely! Lately, I've been too busy to read a lot of posts, and I'm
probably ignoring more threads than I'm reading. Fortunately, my news
server blocks most of the real spam, so I don't have to be bothered with
screening out the commercial ads and porn.
> I am quite selective about what I read here and so I'm not even
> tempted (heh) to frown upon what I consider endless, immodest babbling
Which is proof in itself that there simply aren't enough new, readily
available adventure games to keep even a majority of threads in the
adventure newsgroup on topic. Even the threads which start on topic
seem to degenerate into personal conversations which not only stray far
from the topic but often seem to make no sense whatsoever.
> and this is a publc forum, and, besides, we have reached no consensus
> on this issue (about whether it is disgraceful and wicked to make
> allusions to action and other game genres on the "adventure" group
> where around a third of the posts have nothing whatsoever to do with
> *any* games at all anyway) and we *never* will have. It got old a
> long time ago.
Plus, the blurring of genres is making it more difficult to pigeonhole
games into distinct categories. Is the new Indy game action or
adventure or both? Does it have too much action to be discussed in the
adventure group or too much adventure to be discussed in the action
group? If it is indeed a Tomb Raider clone, it must be an adventure
game considering all the TR posts to the adventure group over the years,
and yet, people in that group are mostly calling it an action game. And
what about System Shock? I've seen posts about it in the action,
adventure, and RPG groups. What does it matter so long as there are
subscribers to any of those groups who enjoy discussing it.
> Trina
> (writing from the adventure group)
>
> P.S. I have often thought that when people are contributing to
> crossposted threads it would be enlightening if they identified from
> what group they write at the end of their posts.
That could be a bit difficult since many of us subscribe to more than
one of these groups. I'm replying as a subscriber to the adventure
group, but because the action group comes first alphabetically, I'm
actually reading these posts and responding to them on the action
group. Of course, if I wanted to, I could read the groups in reverse
order and reply from the RPG group too. ;-)
Lynda Thornton
>that simple and painless and guaranteed to reduce your stress level!
Hi Trina
Unfortunately, in this case, when I saw the thread title I thought it
*would* be interesting - until I downloaded it and discovered that it
really was of very little interest or relevance to me as a subscriber to
this newsgroup as it turned out to be 99% about *non*-adventure games.
My point is that this very long thread was misleading - it was posted to
the Adventure games newsgroup, but was really off-topic, and that was
not made clear by the sender. He would have shown 'common sense' as
well as netiquette consideration by mentioning that fact ...
Now I'm getting flamed for daring to speak up and remind him/others what
the newsgroup is supposed to be about!
--
Lynda Thornton
Lynda Thornton
>>
>As a subscriber to the adventure newsgroup, I have to disagree with
>you. He mentions several adventure games including the fact that Grim
>fact that he called Gabriel Knight 3 the only *CLASSIC* graphic
>adventure released this year. Maybe that's just his opinion, but he's
>entitled to it.
>
to his 1999 'gaming' year).
>As to the other games you mentioned (Faust, Discworld Noir, The
>Forgotten, The Crystal Key, and Amerzone), you have to consider that
>these games are not only not readily available but would hardly be known
>of by anyone who was not the most avid adventure game fan. I haven't
>seen one of them in the stores, and I wouldn't recognize the names if I
>hadn't seen them on the adventure newsgroup. I'm also not going to buy
>any of them because they don't sound the least bit interesting to me.
One of the great things about subscribing to a newsgroup dedicated to
adventure games is exactly so that you can find out about adventure
games you might not have heard of/know much about. However, I would
have said that it is not reasonable to use this newsgroup to discuss
action, racing or even RPG games, especially when there are specific
newsgroups set up for topics like these.
>
>How you can say this post was "cross-spammed" is beyond me. It isn't
>spam at all because it was only posted to the relevant groups, it is on
>topic for those groups, and it is something which is of interest to many
>of the people who read those groups. In fact, it's the best written
>year-end review I've seen this year, and reviews are all about people's
>opinions which may differ from yours.
Cross-posting is often much disliked by many people, precisely because
newsgroups on related topics (ie different kinds of computer games) are
often subscribed to by the same people, and it's annoying to
see/download the same duplicated threads many times - it's a netiquette
thing - the whole point of having differentiated newsgroups is to stop
them being swamped in this way. IMHO the only really relevant part of
Baron's thread was his mention of GK3 and he could have easily shortened
the post to reflect that, but he didn't and cross-posted the whole thing
instead.
BTW, it appears that Baron is just operating on 'send' as he hasn't
responded to any comments in this thread - perhaps he thinks we are all
just here to soak up his wisdom ;)
--
Lynda Thornton
don
Lynda Thornton wrote:
> Hi Trina
>
> Unfortunately, in this case, when I saw the thread title I thought it
> *would* be interesting - until I downloaded it and discovered that it
> really was of very little interest or relevance to me as a subscriber to
> this newsgroup as it turned out to be 99% about *non*-adventure games.
>
> My point is that this very long thread was misleading - it was posted to
> the Adventure games newsgroup, but was really off-topic, and that was
> not made clear by the sender. He would have shown 'common sense' as
> well as netiquette consideration by mentioning that fact ...
>
> Now I'm getting flamed for daring to speak up and remind him/others what
> the newsgroup is supposed to be about!
In Trina's defense, I must say that her post wasn't directed at you
personally. If you thread the messages, you'll see it's a response to
my post which was written several days before you entered this
discussion. The only person who flamed you was Toony, and he just
apologized for sounding so mean.
I understand that you're one of the people who must pay for your time
online by the minute, and I understand that finding long, off topic
posts in your downloads would upset you, but I still insist that even if
there is only one game for each genre in his list, the post is on topic
for each of the newsgroups Rob posted to.
don
Lynda Thornton wrote:
> Cross-posting is often much disliked by many people, precisely because
> newsgroups on related topics (ie different kinds of computer games) are
> often subscribed to by the same people, and it's annoying to
> see/download the same duplicated threads many times - it's a netiquette
> thing - the whole point of having differentiated newsgroups is to stop
> them being swamped in this way. IMHO the only really relevant part of
> Baron's thread was his mention of GK3 and he could have easily shortened
> the post to reflect that, but he didn't and cross-posted the whole thing
> instead.
I find it odd then that only the members of the adventure group are
complaining about the crossposting. I don't see anyone in the RPG group
accusing him of spamming because there were only two RPGs in his list or
members of the action group complaining that he had an adventure game in
his list.
> BTW, it appears that Baron is just operating on 'send' as he hasn't
> responded to any comments in this thread - perhaps he thinks we are all
> just here to soak up his wisdom ;)
But he has responded several times both as Baron Calamity and as Rob
Merritt. There's where your method of downloading and reading the posts
puts you at a disadvantage. I can see the whole thread from beginning
to end and see exactly who responded to whose post. I guess you must
just look at the posts by date since you thought Trina was flaming you
even though her post precedes yours in the thread.