Evening Q&As [Nov 10, 2005, 12:57 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
- Warren Spector & GTA
Warren Spector clarifies GTA critique on GameSpot offers a lengthy follow-up from Warren Spector on the coverage of comments he recently made about Grand Theft Auto (story), and how they have been used by Jack Thompson in his anti-gaming crusade: "After I got your mail, I did some checking and found that the headlines associated with some of the stories about my GTA comments were far more inflammatory than anything I said. Happily, I also found several discussions on a variety of online forums that actually made me feel pretty good--gamers are having a pretty nuanced discussion of what I think is an interesting and important topic (i.e., what our content says about us as a medium)." - Lord British
OGaming's Richard Garriott Q&A talks with the famed designer about Tabula Rasa, his upcoming MMORPG: "There are two main areas we think will breathe new life into this genre. The first is combining the pace and feel of a shooter with the mechanics and ease of play of a role-playing game. We are combining things like movement and cover affecting accuracy with character skills and attributes into what we think is a very new gameplay experience. The second is Dynamic Battlefields, where player actions have a tangible (albeit temporary) affect on the state of play. For instance, players might go on an instanced mission to deactivate a power station. This in turn will decrease the effectiveness of enemy base defenses in the persistent space making it easier to assault a base." - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
bit-tech.net's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Q&A talks with Bethesda's Gavin Carter about the upcoming RPG sequel: "The forests and grass do animate differently in response to changing weather conditions. There are also ambient effects to increase your sense of immersion like leaves falling from trees, butterflies flying around, and birds chattering in the trees above you. No cloth physics unfortunately. We found they are a huge sink for processing time and we'd rather spend it in places that really make a difference to the gameplay like AI. Arrows will shoot through the air using physics; arcing based on force and gravity. Wind won't blow them off course however. I think that would really decrease the fun of archery, and you'd start wanting to clutter the UI with things like wind indicators." - Huxley
The Huxley Q&A on Huxley-Nexus discusses Webzen's upcoming Unreal-engine MMORPG with Kijong Kang: "Vehicle usage will be very important in terms of strategy. And vehicle types are divided into three different categories: Assault, Transport and Support. Advanced vehicles might be more multi functional, but we are still investigating the most suitable and attractive form of those. We will be providing a lot more information about this to the public in the future." - Chronicles of Spellborn
RPG Vault's The Chronicles of Spellborn Q&A Part 2 continues this conversation with Barry Hoffman and Corwynn Maelstrom about the upcoming MMORPG: "We do have magic incorporated in the game, and there will be three different classes that will specialize in it. But our classes aren't as restrictive as most MMOs; other classes (including the tanks) will have magic related skills if they chose to develop them. The types of magic will differ between classes as well, so that certain types of magic are utilized by different characters." - Heroes of Might & Magic V
The Heroes of Might & Magic V Q&A on GameSpot discusses the Academy Faction from the upcoming sequel with Alexander Mishulin: "Unit generation happens weekly, as it produces an additional inside cycle in the game. Of course, some may say that visiting town every week in order to get new units is not convenient, but this provides for a better balance. Weekly generation better fits the whole concept of the series: traveling, adventures, and fights. This way, after a big army defeat, you will have to plan your actions, say, whether you should stick around to the closest city, gathering the resources and waiting for the next army to generate, or whether you should ride full speed to another town." - Myst
A chat with the brains behind Myst (thanks Mike Martinez) is an article-format Q&A with Rand Miller about the culmination of the Myst series.
More importantly, did you know you can finish DX:IW without killing anyone? Or using a weapon at all?
Yeah, well.
Have you ever actually tried to play the game that way?
I have, and it's inanely frustrating and not very fun. Heck, if anything, it teaches you that violence is a simpler and more efficient method of problem solving, not to mention more entertaining.
Plus, IW was more Harvey's work than Warren's. Deus Ex? I dunno about you, but I was one violent mofo from time to time during that game. So being an invisible, cybernetic killing machine with a laser sword is fine ... but being a street gangbanger is not?
While they might be miles apart artistically speaking, to declare Deus Ex's violence as "good" and GTA's violence as "bad" is more ludicrous than the comparison itself. Hell, in Thief I would systematically assassinate people and hide their bodies so that I could better investigate areas. What, that's OK in polite society these days?
If people are going to get all pious about violence, they should check the color of their walls. Might be more of a glassy substance than it seems.
In his clarification, at least, Warren backs off on the violence angle and strikes more of an opinion about outdated genres and motifs in general. That's a far easier pedestal to take these days, although there really isn't a need to single out GTA for it.
Yeah, well.
Have you ever actually tried to play the game that way?
I have, and it's inanely frustrating and not very fun. Heck, if anything, it teaches you that violence is a simpler and more efficient method of problem solving, not to mention more entertaining.
Plus, IW was more Harvey's work than Warren's. Deus Ex? I dunno about you, but I was one violent mofo from time to time during that game. So being an invisible, cybernetic killing machine with a laser sword is fine ... but being a street gangbanger is not?
While they might be miles apart artistically speaking, to declare Deus Ex's violence as "good" and GTA's violence as "bad" is more ludicrous than the comparison itself. Hell, in Thief I would systematically assassinate people and hide their bodies so that I could better investigate areas. What, that's OK in polite society these days?
If people are going to get all pious about violence, they should check the color of their walls. Might be more of a glassy substance than it seems.
In his clarification, at least, Warren backs off on the violence angle and strikes more of an opinion about outdated genres and motifs in general. That's a far easier pedestal to take these days, although there really isn't a need to single out GTA for it.
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