Nethergoat

when my mighty +REP powers recharge, I'll give you a comment worth reading. =D

Ah, my old friend the Magic Pony plan...how I've missed it!

If more people WANTED to play villains, they'd do it.
The historically stable villain population indicates that the playerbase prefers heroes by a wide margin, so the play moar villains "solution" amounts to wishing for a unicorn to bring you a magic chocolate milkshake that turns you into King Midas.

This is a COMPLETELY ridiculous statement.

Villains already pay as much or more for 'the good stuff' as heroes do.

Even if we pretend you have a point, those imaginary higher prices would benefit villains when they sold their junk on a combined market.

Actually, I don't think I am. I understand that it's a huge selling point for the gaming press and a lot of gamers. Certainly, there are more bad games with nice graphics that become 'hits' than vice-versa. In the commercial arena cosmetics matter, however little nutritive value they deliver to the final product.

But just as a personal preference, I'd like it if they'd leave the graphics be and put all that energy into something more substantive. I realize this is a Quixotic position, akin to your desire for vast, expansive zones to explore. It's personal preference- I understand that a lot of people get super excited about graphics, and I understand why they would include an upgrade in their new expansion.


We're the gaming yin/yang of this topic Sam, because I genuinely wouldn't care if we were all still wallowing around with the graphics we had at lanuch. =D

I disagree.

Graphics are passive, prose is interactive. The grammar & structure of a game are the actions you can take to advance the 'story' of whatever it is you're doing- beating up freakshow, zipping around looking for badges, whatever.

Graphics are the cover for the mechanics of the game you're playing, an inert layer of color over the meaningful content.

As with any metaphor it is not 100% applicable.
My point is that graphics have no effect at all on gameplay, they're pure cosmetics. There's nothing "fun" about cool graphics beyond the first few hours of exposure- they get tuned out and become visual wallpaper.

Gameplay & story trump graphics every time. Half Life is still a great game, System Shock II is still a great game, heck Super Mario is still a great game...and not because of the graphics.

l337 graphics are a percieved necessity within the industry, nothing more. I'd prefer that energy be spent on other things, although I understand the rationale behind this sort of upgrade. It will placate the gaming press and flightly players and generate buzz for the expansion, which is a valuable function even though I personally won't get any direct benefit from it.

I pointed that out on day one.

It's a fun game, too, I'm glad we have it.
Reading goofy rep comments (my own and those posted by others) is almost as entertaining as checking out thread tags.

In the abstract sense than they're a diversionary entertainment, yes.

But if we think of a the game as a novel (another form of diversionary entertainment), graphics are the cover. They have no impact on the quality of the prose or how engaging the story being told is.

I'd prefer more energy be spent on the inside of the book than the outside, while understanding the need for 'rack appeal' to attract potential readers.

The poor suckers are swimming against the tide here- I've got plenty of +rep to spread around.

=P

given their philosophical opposition to an open market, skepticism is entirely warranted absent some kind of concrete statement that they've realized the error of their philosophy and are dedicated to a merger.

Even if they let you take over whatever your slots will bear when you finally 'switch over', I doubt the process will be so casual that ferrying junk from one side to the other will be an efficient use of time.

They may not allow us to take anything at all- who knows.
We don't have enough info yet to determine if there's any change in their historical anti-market position, but what we do have doesn't look good.

What exactly are your expectations if side switching, two new ATs, a new gamespace with multiple zones populated by all new and re-engineered enemies & a renovation of the low level game don't impress you?

Personally I could do without the graphic update, although I realize it's a nice selling point for the legions of magpie gamers who are mesmerized by pointless shiny. But as far as that nebulously defined thing "content" goes, this issue is already bursting at the seams with it.

I don't understand why anyone would waste tickets on salvage, unless they were allergic to making money.

Yes!

This would make RagMan very, very happy.

Oh c'mon now- even he admits some of them are garbage.

Threads like this do so compliment my rhetorical style.

=P

The view from under your bridge is unsurprisingly limited.

BZZZZT
wrong.