thats nice. but for an aritist, that is not all that inspiring. as much as i like to consider myself very lax on the criticism I chuck into games, it takes the right game to set me off. most games i will not play for more than a few hours simply because they are frusterating and being an artist, I like flash in some places.. I must admit that after playing ff9 i certainly belive that a well made interface adds an awful lot to a game. I dont know. I only recently got into even just playing games. I certainly havent been here as long as some of those people who remmember pong or the first text based rpg''s. on the other hand, all of what i play is consoled based. who knows maybe in not the best to ask as i have been told so many times.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

hmmm. . .

problem w. these Linux-dweeb games () is that Windows-wussies like me never play them! "Your loss" you could shrug, but if you are developing for profit, you are 100% in the wrong. It is 100% the developer''s loss if people don''t play their games! That means no food on the table, bub. Reading about NetHack, ADOM, etc. . .it sounds cool, but c''mon, DOS was more user-friendly than this-

I tried it, hated it, and judging by Diablo''s relative success, I am not alone. Ditto for text-based MUDS. They can''t freakin give the things away. Present the same thing, sans antique parser and bingo- Everquest. Now go the reverse and do a graphical MUD w. the same depth text-MUDders are used to, and you could be a millionare by the time you''re thirty.

But I could be wrong.

well, a few friends and people close to me are toying with the idea of taking a final fantasy type of game and making it episode based to be downloaded of the net. on thing that makes the final fantasy series so popular is that it apeals to so many people who play many different types of games. we were thinking of the main program that you buy which has a full game in it, and each aditional episode would be available every month on the web site. this is sort of like a pay per view subscription but instead of getting a new magazine every month, you get a new story for your rpg. this would tkae a lot of planning but hey. were working on it...

I actully do belive that the graphical mud would be an excellent idea but sort of impractical i think. It would take a great many years to develope somthing like this properly.
I really did not like the interface to diablo though.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

this is totally off-topic (sorry!)

Fantasy Edge- keep us posted on this project! I, at least, am very interested, as I was considering a similar idea for an RPG. I think it could do really well.

One possibility my (now-defunct ) team considered was to blur the lines between single and multi-player a bit more w. live "events" that would be played on-line w. small groups. The results of the event would in some way change the plotline of the next month''s installment. When we were discussing this on this board before, ahw mentioned a CCG called Legend of the Five Rings (something like that) that did something along these lines. I gather that it went over extremely well, as players really felt that they had a stake in the game''s outcome. Other options to consider would be letting players:

• make items (rarely)
  
• found colonies (very rarely)
  
• destroy colonies (extremely rarely)
  
• start family businesses
  
• own houses and "Sims-style" visit other player''s houses offline
  
• discover new lands and name them (well, obviously, rarely
  

and players would see these changes reflected in the next monthly update. Anyway, good luck!

If you see the Buddha on the road, Kill Him. -apocryphal

Think about this Quake 3 sells loads good interface good gameplay
but then Daikatana good interface but bad gameplay and it became a flop think about it

mailto:peadar_coyle@ic24.net
Apocalypse Now! Software
Games so good we''ll go to hell for it

Good interface was never claimed to make a game, or any other program.

The question is whether a bad interface and a good game can coexist together.


I think also another element that hasn''t been discussed is innovations in interface that we begin to take for granted.

Think about an RTS game, like Warcraft. Innovative interface was that units would be smart depending on what you had selected and where you ordered them.

I was fine with the Warcraft interface.

Total Annihilation comes along and says, hey, how about being able to queue up commands by holding down the shift key. - Basically just adds it on to the above interface. I didn''t even know when TA was released that it could do that, such a simple little tweak. But once I figured it out, that was my favorite feature of the entire game.

Now, I can''t PLAY an RTS game if it doesn''t have that feature. I refuse to.

Now look at what other games have done with that. A lot of them say, hold down the shift key, but when you get to the last one, click without the shift key... WTF? What if I get interrupted in the middle of the issue. It doesn''t make much sense. It''s a little thing that is interjected in there. Maybe some games it would make sense and be preferable, but in general, it''s just bad news.

Point being that as new games come out, the bar is raised on interface, and you have to be aware of those innovations.

you have the balls to say that 3s had a good interface? OMG. it was the sadest shit ever! although i will not argue that the gameplay was good. even though they were milking the series for all it was worth. Legend of mana, good interface, good gameplay and good use of 3d fx. you never think aobut it as it is a 2d game but it made excellent use of the palystation. have a look. another decent game that gains high praise from me would be starcraft. this game has been around for years and it is still massivly fun.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

This game: Siege-of-Avalon is already doing an episodic RPG... I downloaded and got hooked on it!

I warn you- the DL is something like 90MBs... not for the dial-up-connected. You can still take a look at the web site and get an ideal of the kind of game it is.

As I said, I liked the game and played for about 2 hours the first night I installed it... the next night the same - then reality hit and I realized that I was neglecting my own work I hate when that happens!


Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser

it is neat but reaks of pc rpg.

I am not text, I am not organized pixels, I am not killed by turning off your monitor, I am not isolated by turning off your computer. I just am.

Conshape Electronic Arts

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
I tried it, hated it, and judging by Diablo''s relative success, I am not alone. Ditto for text-based MUDS. They can''t freakin give the things away.
...
But I could be wrong.

You are. Several purely text-based muds make a reasonable profit.