http://www.sorcerers.net/forums en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:49:36 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/images/_bom/misc/rss.jpg http://www.sorcerers.net/forums http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50478&goto=newpost Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:08:33 GMT http://www.sorcerers.net/images/news/other/poll.gifWhat we asked: *Q: Do you spend more time playing computer games online (Internet) or offline... What we asked:

Q: Do you spend more time playing computer games online (Internet) or offline (single-player, LAN, etc.)?
(367 votes total)

Offline (279) 76%
Online and offline equally (45) 12%
Online (43) 12%

Surprise, surprise, the overwhelming majority of us (76%) spend more time playing computer games offline than online.

The remaining 24% of the votes are split evenly between those who spend an equal amount of time playing computer games online and offline, as well as those who spend more time playing them online.

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» Previous Polls ]]> Taluntain http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50478 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50446&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:27:24 GMT http://www.sorcerers.net/images/news/companies/wotc.jpg» Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Alternate Powers (Excerpts)... » Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Alternate Powers (Excerpts)
» Savage Encounters (Cartoons)
» Here's How to Write for LFR! (RPGA Report)
» The Honest Few (Features)
» Stealth Challenge (Ruling Skill Challenges)
» Gregor's Tangent (Adventures)
» Draconomicon (Art Galleries)
» City of Stormreach (Tutorials)
» Melora (Features)
» Amreth Gaunt, Master Merchant (Eye on the Realms)
» Legacy of Io (Adventure Path)
» Winning Races: Halflings (Features)
» The Winter Scourge (Fiction)
» Performing the Pact (Class Acts)
» Draconomicon: Metallic Dragons: Hall of Fame (Excerpts) ]]> Taluntain http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50446 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50444&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:39:11 GMT BioWare's owner, Electronic Arts, is implementing a restructuring plan that involves terminating lots of jobs, cancelling a dozen or so unannounced projects and relying on sequels. Here's a snip:

During the company's financial investor call this afternoon, CEO John Riccitiello gave a bleak outlook to many "risk" titles fans were hopeful for release in the next couple years. When asked by an analyst where the reduction in work force would reflect its current crop of projects, Riccitiello responded by saying the company had decided to cut over a dozen still unannounced titles, and added the company is focusing on guaranteed hits going forward in this struggling economy.

Read the rest at IGN. There's also a bit more about staff lay-offs at Kotaku, including Mythic, BioWare's counterpart in the EA empire:

Also rumored to be affected are EA Redwood Shores' quality assurance team and Mythic Entertainment. Tweets from ex-staffers at those studios indicate "huge chunks" let go at the former, approximately 40% laid off at the latter.

Rumors of Electronic Arts' plans to cull staffers began circulating last week. The cutbacks appear to have been rolled out over the course of the past few days, ahead of EA's quarterly earnings report and alongside confirmation of the publisher's acquisition of Playfish, said to be a $300 million investment in the social gaming developer. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50444 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50443&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:29:05 GMT The old Baldur's Gate is getting re-released by Interplay, tweaked to work on the computing power we have today. Resolution rejoices at this event and reminisces about the impact Baldur's Gate has had on us and on the genre:

Baldur’s Gate wasn’t a difficult game to learn. Its design allowed the modified AD&D Second Edition rule set to work its magic behind the scenes, leaving the player to concentrate on enjoying the experience of the narrative and characters. Knowing how the rule system worked and taking the time to master all the elements involved made the experience a little less punishing along the way. But the true magic behind the game was that, whatever the player’s level of knowledge, Baldur’s Gate remained accessible to all. Nothing was overly complicated, and the initially harsh combat simply encouraged a more cerebral approach. Simple controls and well designed menus kept things tidy and intuitive, all adding to its phenomenal success.

Read the rest at Resolution. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50443 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50442&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:18:19 GMT http://www.sorcerers.net/images/news/companies/bethesda.gifhttp://www.sorcerers.net/images/news/companies/interplay.jpgBethesda claims that Interplay... Bethesda claims that Interplay abuses Fallout 3 sales by selling collections titled Saga or Fallout Trilogy. Except those sales were around before Fallout 3 - at least before Fallout 3 was released - which is as early as 2004. Interplay offers documentation - that Bethesda claims was not authenticated, so one can't ascertain the dates. Except I saw some of those sagas and such on my own eyes before Fallout 3 came out and it's lame for Bethesda to do that because, eventually, sales will be documented because there will be invoices, possibly financial statements and tax stuff. And then they're going to lookd doubly stupid for questioning Interplay's counter. Here's from Fallout Wiki:

Thanks to Kevin from the Copyright in the Internet Age blog, as well as another, anonymous source, I managed to get access to all of Bethesda's filings regarding the Bethesda v. Interplay court case.

In the original complaint, Bethesda not only claims that the name Fallout Trilogy for a compilation sold in the United States and containing Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics is misleading and cannibalizes on Fallout 3 sales. They also claim that around August 2009, Bethesda became aware of compilations of Fallout games distributed under the titles Fallout Collection and Saga Fallout in other countries. "Upon information and belief" Bethesda alleges that Interplay began packaging, advertising and promoting these packages after Bethesda's launch of Fallout 3.

While a lot of Bethesda's arguments in the filings are reasonable, this claim is entirely false. Saga Fallout has been sold in Poland by CD Projekt since 2004, and the White Label Fallout Collection has been available in the UK since 2006, while a previous Ultimate Fallout Collection was released in 2004.

Read the rest at Fallout Wiki. There's also some court stuff at Duck and Cover. Some of the writing looks rather personal, e.g.

There is no dispute between the parties as to the plain and ordinary heaning of the language setting forth the conditions in the TLA, or that both of the conditions—“full-scale development” and the minimum financing requirement of $30,000,000—had to be met before April 4, 2009 in order for Interplay to retain the MMOG rights. Interplay does not seriously dispute that it failed to meet both of those conditions. Instead, the Opposition argues that Interplay should not forfeit the conditional MMOG rights because, in the personal opinion of Herve Caen, Interplay’s CEO, Interplay “substantially” satisfied the conditions, Opp. at 4, by entering into an unauthorized development agreement with Masthead Studios, another violation of the TLA. As a fallback position, Interplay asserts that “the [$30,000,000] funding requirement serves no material financial purpose.” Id. at 18. Interplay is wrong.

While I'm not an American lawyer, it doesn't take one to know that, no matter if Interplay's reliance on it is justified or not, substantial completion is not a bizarre construct in contract law. It exists specifically to prevent all-or-nothing oops delivery is one minute late lawsuits. On the other hand, Interplay won't likely get far arguing that the $30M requirement doesn't serve any material financial purpose...

Read more at Duck and Cover. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50442 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50441&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:47:27 GMT There's been one more interesting article at The Escapist recently. This time, the author gives a run-down of options you have when starting a new game. Here's a snip:

If you're willing to play any version of D&D, you have at least nine different editions to choose from, and arguably many more. If you toss in the D&D variants that the Open Game License for Third Edition spawned, you have countless other choices.

You can even find and download versions of these older games for free. If you like the original D&D, check out OSRIC (Old School Reference & Index Compilation). If 3rd Edition (or the updated 3.5) is more your style, you can find lots of copies of the d20 SRD (System Resource Document) around, including the excellent Hypertext d20 SRD.

Read the rest at The Escapist. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50441 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50440&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:40:12 GMT Well, we're all skeptical about the end of something news. Let's take a look, however, at what The Escapist thinks about the tendency by publishers not to host dedicated PC servers. Here's a snip:

3. End of the Server-Based Community

The end of dedicated servers means the end of the communities they supported. On the PC side, lots of people frequent favorite servers. The servers act as a meeting place and a hangout. They have forums and regulars and moderators. People form friendships and rivalries, clans and communities; none of which is possible in games based on friend lists or random strangers. There is an entire multiplayer culture that is being abandoned here.

Well, in some sectors of the games industry, we've never really had dedicated servers, such as our part of the world: the Roleplaying Games sector (as opposed to the Rocket Propelled Grenade sector). Wonder what this is going to mean for us, if anything. Are we going to see a more vivid multiplayer when we've switched to consoles (those of us who will... yours truly doesn't even have a mobile PC, much less a console!)... or are we going to take some kind of a hit in some other area? After all, we can point out things that seem to be due to money cuts on projects. Short play times, dumbification of system rules, recycled area design and all other counterparts of a big fat polygon that wouldn't be acceptable in today's flashy graphics.

Anyway, enough of my brooding and voila, the link. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50440 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50439&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:17:57 GMT Apart from the "V13" (project name?) concept art that I wrote about the last time, it seems three actual screenshots have apparently leaked as well. You can view them at Kotaku. Is it just my impression or does the graphics look like it's from the old times when Interplay was still big, except higher resolution, naturally? It does have a certain very specific cartoonish feel. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50439 http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50438&goto=newpost Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:10:42 GMT http://www.sorcerers.net/images/news/sw/tor.pngOutfitted in the smartest, sleekest, high-tech gear, the Imperial Agent always has the right tools at... Outfitted in the smartest, sleekest, high-tech gear, the Imperial Agent always has the right tools at the right time. Using their abilities of subversion and subterfuge, these covert operatives infiltrate and assassinate enemies of the Empire with deadly efficiency.

Besides the obvious James Bond cliché, remember Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker's eventual wife? She was one of those until she went rogue some longer time after the collapse of the Empire, finally to become a Jedi Knight. Speaking of, they also have a story by Drew Karpyshyn, who, apart from being the Lead Designer of the first KotOR (Knights of the Old Republic), actually wrote a couple of Star Wars novels. This gentleman is working on the Jedi for Star Wars: The Old Republic as well. So here's some:

And let’s be honest: the Jedi Knight is *the* iconic character in this universe. Nothing says Star Wars like a brown-robed figure brandishing a shimmering energy blade of righteous destruction. The Jedi Knight is the classic take-charge, smite-evil, save-the-girl action hero. We’re all familiar with Luke Skywalker, of course. But he wasn’t the only lightsaber wielding champion of virtue to flip, spin and somersault his way across the big screen. Young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu both proved you can kick ass and take names while still valiantly battling to uphold the ideals of the Jedi Code.

Links: one, two. ]]> chevalier http://www.sorcerers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=50438