Steele Johnson wrote on Dec 13, 2012, 19:42:
Here we go again. The insatiable gamer trying to sway any hope that a currently unfinished game is destined to fail. Geeze, just by watching youtube vids of the gameplay shows that this game definitely requires skill-based strategy. Looks good to me so far!

xXBatmanXx wrote on Dec 6, 2012, 21:41:
whoa. Saw some stuff was on sale at Steam today (A LOT OF STUFF ACTUALLY) and was price checking the stuff I bought on autumn sale vs today's sale, and while checking my email (which I NEVER CHECK for my steam account) - I am now a part of the DOTA2 test!

Sepharo wrote on Dec 5, 2012, 12:55:
Why are you assuming everyone is responding/arguing to you?

PHJF wrote on Dec 5, 2012, 09:03:
Yeah I don't know where this idea came from that you have to see the actual person to play an RPG with them, wtf? Video conferencing??? The whole point of the RPG is the players assume avatars, something we've long been doing in video games.

If somebody were to make a D&D toolset and let users easily craft dungeons and whatnot for groups of people to have at, I'm sure a lot of people would climb on board.

The fact Magic: The Gathering has a successful online game that is completely identical to the physical version is proof enough it could work.

Sepharo wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 23:30:

Stormsinger wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 22:41:

Sepharo wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 22:31:
I have friends who get together for table top gaming nearly every weekend. They almost always have one, sometimes two, phone players sitting nearby propped up on a screen facing the board/table. I'm sure it's not ideal but it's there. There's plenty of functioning multi-user video chats out there (Google hangout, stickcam)... just do the same thing with a game.

I know it can't replace it but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be done.

Go back to the OP. The question he posed was "Isn't it time to retire PnP?" If today's tech can't replace tabletop environment, then it isn't time to retire the tabletop gaming.
At a minimum, any real replacement has to offer life-size HD faces for the entire group. That's a hell of a lot of monitors, and more bandwidth than most people have.

Neither of things you mentioned there were points I was trying to make. Didn't quote the op or any other post for that reason.

Was just pointing out that there are people already playing actual "tabletop" games with a virtual presence and the other was that a videogame could be made featuring working video chat with a crowd of players.

Sepharo wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 22:31:
I have friends who get together for table top gaming nearly every weekend. They almost always have one, sometimes two, phone players sitting nearby propped up on a screen facing the board/table. I'm sure it's not ideal but it's there. There's plenty of functioning multi-user video chats out there (Google hangout, stickcam)... just do the same thing with a game.

I know it can't replace it but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be done.

PHJF wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 12:44:

Online gaming is years from recreating the social setting of tabletop gaming.

No, the tech is all there, the bandwidth, the market is all there. The only thing missing is a developer with the balls/money/desire to do something about it.

PHJF wrote on Dec 4, 2012, 09:19:
I've never played a tabletop game (though in high school I got dangerously close to buying into WH40K) so speaking as an observer...

Isn't it time to retire PnP? We're well past the point where, given tools enough, the PC can be used to carry nearly all of the tabletop experience online. NWN was hugely popular and had tons of fucking wacky servers, from a bunch of LotR realms to a mock Diablo clone to full-on original servers. The success of WoW clearly shows a market for this sort of thing, and at the same time its (many) shortcomings highlight the need for something much better. Enough with the clones and knockoffs and incremental updates to a long-stale formula, somebody needs to get off their fucking asses and make a REAL, WORTHWHILE MMO not to compete with WoW, not to dethrone it, but to show it as the simple, uninspired, boring game it has long been. What better way than an established, esteemed IP like AD&D to do this?

Just don't let Turbine near it because they don't have the balls or abilities for so grand a project.

Cutter wrote on Dec 3, 2012, 23:04:
The reason its important - to me at least - that they get to utilize the Planescape universe which is pretty damn interesting - e.g. City of Brass, etc.

Sugarman wrote on Nov 10, 2012, 19:16:
Anyone else getting a redirect when first visiting bluesnews.com? Just checking to narrow down if I have spyware or if it's the page.

Jivaro wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 12:40:

Stormsinger wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 12:12:

LittleMe wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 10:13:

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:
This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

At the very least, someone lied about taking care of mortgages and moving expenses for the employees, you know, the folks that were assured their old houses were taken care of. It may not be a criminal matter (or it may), but it for damned sure is at least a civil matter. Some of those folks have been ruined financially, while Curt's day-to-day life doesn't appear to have been affected at all.

The cynical side of me says that nothing will be done, that Curt is rich enough to be one of the system's "good guys", and his employees will be considered to have brought this on themselves. I hope I'm wrong, but...

Your assertions that Curt's day to day life has been unaffected and that he is still rich are both wrong. This has been written about in great detail in the press...both from people who gloat about it and people who sympathize for him. He did an interview on ESPN (also his current employer) where he admitted that he was broke as well.

He screwed up, but portraying him as the rich guy that walked away untouched is not correct.

LittleMe wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 10:13:

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:
This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

Sugarman wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 05:51:
...were victorious on one fine evening of troll posting, because you good sir, being the pinnacle of all we have come to achieve as a species, expressed your disdain towards something many others enjoy.