RPG fans, check in.

[Chovexani]

Console, computer, it doesn't matter. If you love games with compelling stories, interesting (and sometimes very pretty) characters, and magic-slinging goodness then check in.

I'm the world's biggest Final Fantasy whore and I'm not ashamed to say it. :hi: Lately I have been catching up on some of the Bioware cRPGs I have missed out on and have been very entertained (NWN:Hordes of the Underdark was one of the best games I have played in quite a while).

[Mojambo]

1. Longtime RPGer

I haven't found too many good ones lately.

Once the bugs were squashed, Temple of Elemental Evil was pretty good. I've also been playing through Wizardry 8 again.

Nothing else out there really intrigues me. I'm not much of a Morrowind guy and I wish we could get back to the party based RPG.

[Chovexani]

2. Hrm, I think I'll try ToEE

I stayed away due to the bugs but lately I have heard people saying it's an ok game. It's gotta be in the cheap bin by now, I will look for it. It's one of the few recent D&D cRPGs I haven't played (besides the new Pool of Radiance, which totally sucks ass from what I hear).

I hear you with party-based RPGs. That's one of the reasons I loved Baldur's Gate (esp. the 2nd one), the banters and feeling you were part of a team was great. Lord of the Rings: The Third Age is supposed to be like that, and I have heard people comparing it to FF so I will have to try it. Probably with Xmas money.

[Mojambo]

3. Yeah, I'm all over that LOTR game

Make sure you get some of the fan patches for ToEE in addition to the official patch.

[0rganism]

4. Be sure to try Fallout & Fallout 2, if you haven't already

Best cRPGs I've ever played -- and strangely relevant to our current political situation...

You can get a dual pack with both for $5 retail, amazon sells them for ~$10.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004ZBSX

[Mojambo]

5. Fallout is pretty good.

My favorite game of all time was Wasteland and I always thought Fallout paled somewhat by comparison despite it's obvious tech superiority.

What I really want is a complete official remake of Wasteland using a game engine similar to what Wizardry 8 uses.

I would literally pay hundreds of dollars for such a game.

[0rganism]

20. Wasteland plays well on dosbox, in case anyone wants to revisit it

My own enjoyment of Wasteland was somewhat muted by having played the Fallouts before firing it up. Heck, it was hard for me to get into Planscape:Torment after Fallout. Wasteland is still a fine game in its own right, and some say it's better from a raw RPGing point of view, but despite my own semi-addiction to primitive UIs, I think Fallout's "tech superiority" helps it create a more compelling post-apoc atmosphere than Wasteland.

http://dosbox.sourceforge.net
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?gameid=2425

> What I really want is a complete official remake of Wasteland

I agree with you, there's a lot of room for upgrades to some of the older-yet-brilliant video games. Unfortunately, the teams that programmed these gems tend to melt away like snow in a spring thaw. Some of the Legendary Games, like X-Com:UFO, have entire legions of opensource programmers devoted to bringing forth a decent ressurection in their spare time. (cf, http://sourceforge.net/projects/xenocide)

[Chovexani]

23. Cool

I always say, my favorite game developer is "$9.99 and Under". :D I will have to check those out.

[NewHampshireDem]

6. Morrowind!

IMHO, the *best* RPG of all-time. It is the only one I've ever played through more than once (except for Diablo II, but I don't consider that an RPG as much as an arcade game). If you haven't played Morrowind yet, you must.

[Mojambo]

7. I'd encourage everyone to try Morrowind.

It does a great many things extremely well. I'm not a huge fan but I recognize that it is a superior game.

If you like it, you LOVE it.

[AZCat]

8. Just FYI People

The Morrowind engine has been licensed for Fallout 3. I have no idea when it will be out and I don't have a link (it was an article on www.gamespy.com). The group that did the first three Fallout titles - BlackIsle Studios - was disbanded a while back and I don't know how many of the original group will be working on this one.

I am looking forward to news of this in the next year, as I am a fan of both Fallout and Morrowind.

[Mojambo]

9. Seems like a strange marriage

Fallout 3 is going to be daring game, if nothing else.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what they do.

[Terran]

10. Big ol' D&D'er here for almost 30 years

Actually I haven't played for nearly ten years, and the game has no doubt left me in the dust, so to speak, but the delight of pure RP, with no computers, is still there.

[NewJeffCT]

13. If you're interested in live RPGs..

I would suggest searching online at places like www.enworld.org or www.accessdenied.net

Both places have a fairly active list of gamers on their message boards. I met a good group of gamers online through the now defunct WebRPG (edited) site back in 1997. I gamed with them until I got a job that required sweatshop like hours, and then I later moved when I got a better job.

Of course, you get your share of weirdos from those places, too. A few months after I joined that gaming group, another gamer from online tried to join up with the group. He seemed okay at first, but then decided he wanted his first character to be an oversexualized female prostitute with really large breasts who got to where she was by using her body to escape from prison. (We did have that rare female gamer in the group at the time, too...) That went over like the proverbial lead balloon. Not to mention the fact that he stared so hard at our female gamer that she felt uncomfortable, and she was normally a really sweet person who would not complain about anything.

[Terran]

14. Thanks, will check those out.

Yes, I've encountered a few crazies in my D&D career. I recall one guy was a wannabe paramilitary freak whose sole method of play was to blunder in everywhere and get violent, no matter what the circumstances. He called it roleplaying, I called it stupid and creepy. He was canned from the group eventually.

[NewJeffCT]

15. We had one of those once

He was arguing with the group about the movie "Saving Private Ryan" saying there was no way a homemade sticky bomb could take out a tank like that.

Another story about the guy that wanted to play the female prostitute... another character proposal of his was a kender (wisecracking halfling) paladin-thief based on Batman. This was back in 2E days when paladins were only single classed humans.

But, then several months after this guy left the group, we got contacted by a couple that had moved into the New Haven (CT) area. They said they were having trouble finding new gamers and related a story about meeting a strange fellow that wanted to play a kender paladin thief based on the Batman.

edited to add direct link to Enworld.

http://www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=49

Edited again to add:
Also wanted to add in – that I was out of gaming from the early 90s until 1997/98. After I got out of college in '89, my gaming group slowly graduated and moved away from Connecticut.

However, D&D has changed a lot since the early to mid 90s when the game was in its 'Second Edition'. In 2000 or 2001, they introduced a pretty big change in 3rd Edition, which has since been re-revised into 3.5. You still have some of the core there, but better armor classes now go up instead of down (meaning, AC 20 is better than AC 10, where in the old world, AC 0 was better than AC 10) and you have Skills that can be increased every level instead of Non Weapon Proficiencies.

But, my point is that I was out of gaming for a good 5-6 years and was able to jump back into it. I am sure plenty of other folks can do that, too.

[Terran]

18. I'm sure I could jump back in

it's the roleplay that's important, the rules are secondary and could be learned as I go along. I miss the days, though, back in circa 1982, when I knew virtually every detail of the game by heart. Not to brag, but I was a damn good GM (or DM, as we called them then) because I knew the game so well I could run it and spend 80-90% of my brain power on roleplay and modeling reality and rarely had to consult a book.

Interesting about the armor class rule change. I guess that makes more sense than having negative armor classes like they used to have.

[Chovexani]

24. I'm a big D&D dork too

Running a 2E campaign right now with a few friends, and falling in love with pencil and paper all over again. I feel like the game has left me in the dust and I only started playing it in 1991 (when I was 10). Don't get me started on this 3.5 bullshit...but hell that's what eBay is for. I got like 5 old Forgotten Realms books (with maps!) for $10.

I love me some video games but there is nothing like sitting around a table with a bunch of dorks rolling funny-looking dice around and arguing about who gets the last slice of pizza. :)

[DavidMS]

50. I agree

I hate Computer based RPGs. I can understand why some people like them but they are not for me. I am part of a group that meets once a month somewhere in Maryland (rotates amoung member's houses). We have a first rate GM and play D&D 3E. I don't like the system as much as some deravities of D20, but we have a first rate GM so I don't complain.

[PittPoliSci]

11. workin' on Fable myself right now.

fantastic game. Bought Morrowind yesterday for five bucks.

[Bjornsdotter]

16. So you would...

...recommend Fable? I'm thinking of buying it.

Cheers,
Kim :toast:

[PittPoliSci]

21. it will definetly keep you busy for a while!

I love it, there's so much to explore, and you can play it over and over again!

[NewJeffCT]

12. I prefer face-to-face tabletop RPGs, a la old school D&D

Unfortunately, moved out of range of my gaming group recently to make in person live gaming practical the past few years. And, the group DM/GM has been suffering from various medical problems and has not been able to DM as effectively as before.

[Bjornsdotter]

17. I love FF

I love that game! My kids laugh at me...I'm like a little kid when they come out....I stay up all night playing.

Cheers,
Kim :toast:

[mourningdove92]

29. me too. I am currently playing Star Ocean.

[Streetdoc270]

19. Pen and Paper RPG'r

Played a LOT of 'em, AD&D,D&D,Traveller, Shadowrun, Rifts, Gurps, Call 'o Cathullu, Robotech, Battletech, Warhammer RPG, Heros, and Toon.

(probably lots of others I can't recall at the time)

[Exultant Democracy]

22. Did Morrowind and fable ruin each other for anyone else?

I was in love with Morrowind for a while, but then I got fable and for ten hours I was hooked. Then it was over so I decided to go back to Morrow ind for something more substantial, but I can deal with the slowness anymore.

Right now I am looking forward to KOTOR2, the first one got so close that with just a little more depth the second could be amazing.

[Kellanved]

25. P&P and PC

Pen &Paper I play (or rather played) the German System "Das Schwarze Auge" (AFAIR there is an English translation available, "The Dark Eye") and Shadowrun.


For Computer Based Games my Top List looks something like this:

-Ultima Underworld II
-Realms of Arkadia
-Morrowind
-Gothic
-Gothic II
-Ultima VII
-KotoR




I'll leave out the Final Fantasy Games until they manage one with an acceptable PAL conversion or I buy an US PS2 (the new design should be usable in Europe, due to it's external PSU).

[Chovexani]

26. I always feel so bad for PAL console gamers

They always get screwed...the PAL version of Final Fantasy X looked like complete ass. My boyfriend is an Aussie and didn't even bother getting a PS2 for that reason.

OTOH they ported the International version of FFX with the Dark Aeons and whatnot, which was cool of them (not necessarily for us though, hehe).

[Kellanved]

27. yup, we're getting scewed

It is really mind-boggling: thanks to the PAL60 mode they could just use the NTSC US version with an European region code and it would work fine - no borders, no slowdown, no added programming necessary.

But no; having a joke at the expense of PAL gamers is more important to them.
Anyway, if the dollar drops a little more, I'll buy an US PS2.

[Kellanved]

28. BTW: I a have picked up the new "Vampire the Masquerade" game

Gameplay-wise it is a lot like Deus-Ex 2; sadly this also applies for the technical aspects: jerky graphics, bad controls, small levels, long loading times; also quite buggy: showstoppers and crashes are not entirely unheard of.

The story is pretty well done, the voice acting is very good. Also it has a nice humor; for instance:

"He is writing a screenplay about an society of ancient evil creatures trying to conquer the world -sounds familiar?"
One possible reply was: "He is doing a movie about the Bush Administration?".

[ralps]

30. Are any of you all playing any of the White Wolf games?

:hi:

[Chovexani]

31. Hmm

I haven't played any of the Vampire computer games, but years ago I used to go to a Vampire LARP all the time.

I also played Mage: The Ascension for a hot second, but that group broke up due to people moving and stuff. I always thought that game had the best magic system of any RPG besides Ars Magica.

[AmandaRuth]

32. Long time fan, too!!!

I love RPGs. I'm currently playing Tales of Symphonia and my all time favorite RPG is Skies of Arcadia Legends for gamecube.

MiniAmandaRuth

[Justin54B20L]

33. Big Fallout fan here as well as. . .

. . FF of course, and D&D good ole' fashioned PnP and cRPG's (the old Gold box editions are my favorites, but I really like the Bioware stuff too, esp. Planescape Torment).

[TroubleMan]

34. RPG's are my favorite genre... I've completed about a million of them

This last year I haven't been gaming much lately, but I did take time to do KOTOR, which is a great game.

[nickgutierrez]

35. Console fan here

I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy series (for the most part -- X2 sucked ass, and I didn't like VIII as much as most), and my favorite game up to this point has been either Xenogears or FFVII.

[Chovexani]

37. Hee.

You must not hit very many fanboards (god knows I don't, I washed my hands of FF fandumb around 1998 or so), FF8 along with X-2 are the ones that are very popular to hate. I loved them both to death, then again I've been with the series from its inception but have managed to avoid the myopia that plagues other geriatric fans, and I'm actually old enough to remember importing the only Final Fantasy game you can call bad (that would be 2, with its completely fucked up and broken character development system). Which is why I've about washed my hands of the fandumb, except occasional beta reading of other people's fanfics. It's hard to argue the finer points of a game's quality when the main arguments you get from the average 14 year old fanboy on a message board are, "dude that's such a chick game" (for X-2), and "Squall's an asshole" (for 8, which conveniently ignores all the character development he went through during disc 3, when he walks across the Horizon Bridge carrying Rinoa on his back, to find a way to break her coma and of course when he went out into space to save her because he loved her so much).

Xenogears would have been a decent if flawed knockoff of Evangelion had the second disc been, you know, an actual game. I wouldn't even have minded the insane amount of slow-crawling text if said text was, you know, interesting instead of a nonsensical mish-mash of inappropriately used religious symbolism meant to be "deep". That said, it's still not the most pretentious game ever made.

That honor belongs to Xenosaga: Episode 1.

[NuttyFluffers]

38. OMG, someone who somewhat agrees with me on Xenogears!

and i have yet to play Xenosaga: episode 1. i really don't want to, i really can't stomach another hell similar to Xenogears, and i'm so afraid that's what Xenosaga will be. my friends tease me that they will force me to play it; thank goodness i've been so busy and impoverished these few years that i haven't the time/money/energy to get a PS2 and this game, or visit someone who does.

i have Xenogears as the most pretentious game ever made in my book, but i left room for Xenosaga *just in case*. seems like my suspicions may bear out true. now i really do not look forward to playing this game... i hate having to play certain games to be culturally literate in the gamer community. why must they torment me so?

[Chovexani]

40. LOL I feel your pain

I know what you mean about having to play certain games just in order to be able to talk to people. That was the only reason I played Xenogears in the first place (and the fact that, like it or loathe it, it is an important RPG historically speaking and needs to be experienced at least once).

I borrowed Xenosaga from a friend. I tried SO hard to get through that thing. It's even worse than Xenogears. At least Xenogears pretended to be a video game up until Disc 2. People like to bash FF games for their cutscenes but by the gods, there were ones in Xenosaga so long I literally went and made a sandwich and came back and they were still going. And they were AWFUL. I'm not talking about the animation, it was gorgeous, very pretty and well-done. I'm talking about the dialogue, which sounds like a hackneyed compilation of just about every bad "philosophical" sci-fi anime cliche. Xenogears was a poorly disguised ripoff of Evangelion, but Xenosaga leaves no pretentious, nonsensical anime behind.

What's worse, the entire "game" consists of almost nothing but these cutscenes. You walk around 5 minutes, days-long cutscene triggers. Walk around again for 5 minutes, another days-long cutscene. Ad nauseum.

[NuttyFluffers]

41. sounds like Xenogears to the 2nd power.

i am now quite sad. i do not look forward to this.

will you hold my hand when i finally play this? :evilgrin: "it's so bad it's scary! waaah!"

[NuttyFluffers]

36. i can finally reply to this topic!

(thanks Sideways, a DU member!)

yes, big RPG fan here. Video games, Pen and Paper, a touch of fan fics, and know plenty LARPers (but haven't gamed it yet). met plenty of Soc. for Creative Anacronism members, too. i travel in many circles.

Video Games: Used to love Final Fantasy oodles, but haven't liked 7,8, or 9. Love Skies (a happy RPG for once!). I got into RPGs way back in the day with King's Quest II (adventure yes, but still plenty of RPG), Miracle Warriors, Phantasy Star, Space Quest, and Text-based RPGs. yes, i'm officially old, mid 20s here. Right now wasting time with friend on Tales of Symphonia, a pleasant diversion (nothing groundbreaking, but amusing none the less). huge video game fan, love RPGs to death. most of the modern ones now blow chunks, by the way. ;P :puke:

Paper and Pencil: Grew up reading fantasy and sci-fi novels brother left around. ended up reading harlan elison's Deathbird in 4th grade (now there's a book that'll make michael stipe lose his religion!). loved flipping through older brother's Deities and Demigods DM handbook (the old one, with cthulhu and melnibonean mythos). ended up playing more actively in college. got into D&D, Mechwarrior, Cthulhu, In Nomine, Heros Unlimited, AEG stuff: 7th Sea, Legend of the 5 Rings (after i was into the card game), know waaay too much about White Wolf for someone who doesn't really play: Changeling, Vampire, Mage, always wanted to play Wraith seriously, Deadlands, Fading Suns, etc. Wonder if any of you know most of this stuff... perhaps i should stop.

have a Live Action Role Playing character already created, now i just need to get my bee-hind to the game one of these days.

And about weird characters... trust me, not creepy, but i can easily out-freak, out-weird anything you've probably come across. easily. trust me. plenty of character memories, from MMORPGs to pen/paper, that usually blew the mind of fellow players. ;) ask if you want a sample :D

[Chovexani]

39. Crap is crap is crap.

I'm around your age, and there were just as many if not more crap-ass RPGs back in the day than there are now. That's not to say everything nowadays is golden (good gods, far from it), I'm just saying a little persepective is needed. I get into this argument a lot with older gamers (read: anyone who played RPGs before FF7 popularized the genre) whose view of the past tends to be colored by nostalgia. For instance, among FF fandumb (which is what I've called it since about, say, 1998 or so, the time I left it), the popular opinion among geriatric fans is that FF6 is the best in the series. Now, this is purely a subjective thing, and I hesitate to name a favorite in the series for this very reason (though if pressed, I waver between 7 and 10), and I loved 6 as much as I loved any of the rest, but a couple of things keep it from being best. FF. Ever. For one, it suffers from something I like to call Suikoden Syndrome: there's way too many fucking characters in that game. Because of that, the characters who had truly interesting backstories got short shrift because there simply wasn't enough time to spread the goodness around. I would have gladly sacrificed a Mog or a Gau or even a Strago/Relm to learn more about Celes, Setzer, etc. The other problem with 6 is that the story, an intriguing political struggle with tight pacing, basically broke down halfway through, when you got to the World of Ruin. The urgency of the quest was completely lost because the last half of the game was basically a string of sidequests. Yes, they filled out some character development and that was nice, but it just felt disjointed and strange after the first half of that game. Interestingly, FFX and FFX-2 also fit that pattern, but they worked because they were two whole games that got to play with non-/linearity and I think they pulled it off better. Don't get me wrong, as I said I love FF6 (it was my gateway into writing yaoi fanfic, though I didn't know it was called as much at the time, I just thought Edgar and Setzer would make a fun couple and wrote stories about them), I just think that a lot of geriatric fans didn't like the steampunk feel of Midgar or Nomura's character designs in FF7, and so they heap all this nostalgia on FF6. These type of fans are the ones that scream that FF6 was the last good one in the series because it's Final Fantasy, not Final Sci-Fi (an argument as old as my Atari 2600, btw), while conveniently ignoring the robots in the very first game, Omega Weapon in 5, and the fact that there were not one, not two but three instances in 6 where you pilot a giant frelling mecha.

I also see this mindset all the time with Chrono Trigger, a game that while it was very good and one of the best games for the SNES, has become a sacred cow for reasons that are still a mystery to me, and I bought the game the day it came out. The story was alright but I've never really been a fan of time travel plots (FF8 was one of the few I did like, mainly because the entire game is one big time loop), and I've always found the "silent hero" cliche to be one of the stupider character gimmicks in RPGs. I hated Akira Toriyama's character designs except Lucca, and thought he should have stuck to the monsters; my heart weeps when I think what Amano could have done with a character like Magus, who was just begging to be drawn in Amano's style; instead he ended up looking like a cheesy ass Dragonball Z villain. The only thing in that game that really made me squeal like a fangirl was the kingdom of Zeal, which reminded me so much of Netheril in the Forgotten Realms. I even use it in my homebrew D&D campaign, that's how much I loved it.

So I don't really get some of the obnoxious vitriol I've heard CT cultists spew at Chrono Cross. I mean I've heard people bash CC for the stupidest shit, just because they can't handle the fact that it's a different game than Chrono Trigger. If you're going to hate it, hate it because of the Lavos retcon, the fact that they killed off the entire cast of the first one, and the fact that it is basically one big sidequest to find out what happened to a relatively minor character from the first game. Don't hate it because "Nikki's a fag" (like that's a bad thing, but whatever). I thought it was an alright game, and even played through it four times in order to get every single playable character (god talk about Suikoden Syndrome) but a) I got it for $20, b) I never drank the CT koolaid, d) Nikki. Is hot. e) Naked, dripping wet Serge in FMV glory. Is hot.

I don't begrudge people their opinions, like I said this a very subjective thing, I just hate when people ignore facts or trash something without knowing anything about it. I mean, I hate Xenogears like nobody's business but I made an effort to get through the game at least once, so I could come up with intelligent reasons to hate it besides ChuChu (the crucifixion *almost* made up for her).

I think people tend to let nostalgia gloss over some of the real stinkers from back in the day, too. As bad as some of these RPGs are today (*cough*Neverwinter Nights:OC*cough*)I'd rather play them a hundred times than play through Menzoberranzan a second time, and I'm a huge FR and drow fan (which is why I hate that game, heh). Curse of the Azure Bonds & Pools of Radience were phenomenal games, the pinnacle of achievement for their time and they still hold up well after all these years. But I just have to question people who feel good RPGs stopped being made after like 1995. 'Cause there are just so damn many:

-Vagrant Story (the best damn game you've never played, with the best localization of any video game. Ever.)
-Planescape:Torment
-Ico (not an RPG per se, it's an adventure game, but it is a true work of art)
-Baldur's Gate Trilogy (ToB not so much, but still great overall)
-Suikoden 3
-Vandal Hearts
-Skies of Arcadia Legends (I could do without the insane number of random battles though)
-Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark (can't pimp this game enough)
-Dark Cloud 2
-Disgaea
-La Pucelle Tactics

...and that's off the top of my head. In short, if you can't find any good RPGs lately, you're not looking hard enough.

[NuttyFluffers]

42. hated vandal hearts and vagrant story too :)

yes, there were really bad games along with good games in "the golden age" (i just love the hubris this casually invokes from some of those geriatric gamers). but it was a bit easier for good games to get recognition back then than it seems to be now. blinding graphical flash and "Xtreme! CustomiZation (TM)" seems to be the new mantras of the day, and the insulting thing is, it sells truckloads. i don't like that. i want a bit more refinement in our consumption, but then just like music, pop shite will rule the day.

it just seems the tide is that much higher nowadays and it's getting harder to wade through it. also has to do with the flood of games too. before, games with cartridges took a lot longer to push into market, you wouldn't have the flood of 20 something games a month, each month. but now... it's like a deluge of "me too!" copycats and everything under the sun has a sequel, or 5. with that amount of turnover into the market one is going to find a far more unfair share of crap than they should be exposed to, at least in my opinion. it also explains why the sequels are rising with such prominence. people are confused and scared about all the choices so they choose old stand-bys so they don't have to think and be a thoughtful consumer (a horrible trend in any facet of life).

do i miss the old days? yes and no. it's hard to go back to playing Phantasy Star 2 and honestly feel the same old thrill. too much has changed. is it a good game? hell yes -- for its time. would i go back knowing nothing i know now? possibly, there was a greater sense of community among those interested in video games. there was also a greater sense of company loyalty and interest in what their fans had to say. there was a sense of adventure exploring the boundaries of imagination (which still exists, but feels horribly stifled of late). there were more mavericks on the scene (or at least felt that way), companies who were willing to buck trends, conventional wisdom, rehashes, and polling data. now, we get mostly pop culture consumer entertainment -- but so many still crave the diversity and experimentalism of those artistic days.

and that's just the thing, i shouldn't have to look *that hard* to find something worth buying. can i do it? yes, just like i can do it for any market. is it easier than before? no. think it'll get better? doubt it. do i like it this way? no. tired of having to stay out longer at sea to catch the same thrill.

[Chovexani]

43. If you hated VS, I don't know what to tell you.

I agree with you on company loyalty, but I'm wary about listening too much to what so-called "fans" have to say. I say this because of my experience with Final Fantasy fandumb in the last few years. So many goddamn SNES-worshipping fanboys (many of whom probably weren't even old enough to remember FF4-6) cried on the internets about FF7 and FF8 and how they were too different, and unfortunately Square listened to their bleating and subsequently churned out a formulaic, by-the-numbers FF game (9). And, of course, many of those same fanboys whined about FF9 because it was too easy and they didn't like the character designs, etc. Then there was all the complaining about Kingdom Hearts before it came out due to the Disney characters, and it turned out to be one of the best games they made in years...have I mentioned lately how much I hate that fandom? :P

The industry is a bit of a catch-22. With the expansion of the gaming market, there are a lot more casual gamers out there who will pick up an X-Box and Halo 2 because people say it's cool, and less people willing to try games like, say, Rez or Ico. Oversaturation of big name titles means smaller, more niche titles are being crowded out of the marketplace. At the same time, many of the big name titles in particular genres are singlehandedly responsible for the number of those niche titles being translated and brought over from Japan. For instance, all the RPG snobs who dismiss Final Fantasy as mainstream pap need to recognize that, without FF (and FF7 in particular, which made gobs and gobs of money), stuff like Disgaea, Star Ocean 3, etc. would never have been translated.

[NuttyFluffers]

45. Oooooh, Hated Kingdom Hearts with the fire of 10,000 Suns!

gawd, that game was flung back to the store so hard it left a crater. all three of us who were there waiting to play it were repelled. one friend and i were a huge Disney fans, another was an anime junkie (we are still trying to wean him off, but it's like crack addiction, unfortunately), and the repulsion was immediate and didn't let up. in fact later another friend and one who was there with us(who tried again) went through half the game and just was completely turned off. the more patient one, an absolute disney buff and muppet freak, beat it, but admits it isn't a good game and was sorely disappointed and insulted.

but i love rez.

and i'm still interested in trying ico.

by the way, let me get this out of the way, i also cannot stand evangelion, dragon ball anything, and ninja scroll (but it has the funniest headbutt sequence in history!!!).

:)

yes, i'm a heretic, but i'm happy that way. did i ever tell you my favorite PSX game is Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy? that game rules!!! i'm just dying to get Hello Kitty Tea Party, I heard that was the genesis idea for the game Get Colonies. but alas, i am on a budget. my big splurge is now a bunch of Vampire the Eternal Struggle preconstructed decks. great multiplayer CCG.

[Chovexani]

47. Dude! I think we found common ground!

I can go on for hours and hours about Evangelion, Dragon Ball, and Ninja Scroll hate. Yay! *hugs*

Hello Kitty puzzle games are awesome. And completely fucking insane. The last time I played Hello Kitty Cube Frenzy, I was left quivering on the floor in the fetal position. OMGSOHARD. Those things are for kids?!

I think Ico is Greatest Hits now, or at least it should be since it's been out like forever and a sequel is on the way. It's very short, but satisfying. The strange thing is, for a game where the script can basically be fit onto an entire page (and most of it is in a language you can't even understand), I got really, really attached to the characters. Especially Yorda...whenever the shadowthingies snatched her, I would totally freak out and wail wildly at them. And lord help me if she went under, I'd be inconsolable. I haven't felt guilt like that in a game since the first time I played FF6 and let Shadow die on the Floating Continent because I didn't know you could wait for him. I'm weird like that, though. *g*

[NuttyFluffers]

49. Sweet! a venting partner! (and i'll try to play Ico someday)

and we both don't like Xenogears, too. :hug:

i totally love HKCF, some of those bonus levels on harder settings are an absolute gas. *overtaps trigger buttons* "kitty! nooooooo!!!" *kitty runs off a cliff* ha ha ha, great game. i just love those challenging ones where you juggle hello kitty on a lone block descending block and rocket her across the screen to capture that difficultly placed prize -- and do it before the piece doesn't go down too far! heh, a great game for kids and adults. it also sends out cuteness death rays withering them rambo-esque, 1337 g4m3rZ hopped up on testosterone poisoning. (a little too much testosterone poisoning ends in disaster. it starts innocently enough with smack talk, it ends in tears... carry protection, i suggest HKCF :evilgrin:)

and i always called dragon ball, "sailor moon for guys." one ends up with characters staring at each other longingly with their eyes, brimming with unrequited love; the other ends up with characters staring at each other longingly with their eyes, brimming with fury... and unrequited love! ha ha ha ha!

[HawkerHurricane]

44. YO!

Dungeons and Dragons, Battletech/Mechwarrior, Champions, Star Wars (1st edition only!)... I'm involved in active campaigns of all of them.

[NuttyFluffers]

46. Whoa! a "real" rpg gamer :D

heh, i love to ruffle a few feathers. hey! I haven't been active in any of those games for a while, but have great memories of them, all of them. are you inner sphere or clans in mechwarrior? what edition or campain universe for D&D? i totally loved the campy-ness of champions! and yes, star wars 1st edition is the only version in my eyes. it definitely had that heroic streak to it.

have you played Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, 7th Sea, anything White Wolf, Fading Suns, L5R, In Nomine (my fave universe!), or Doomtown?

[HawkerHurricane]

51. Didn't see your answer until now...

Mechwarrior campaign is set in 3025, pre clans. I'm a Free Worlder, piloting my trusty Clint.

3.5 for Dnd, the DM's own universe. I'm a elven wizard of 3rd level.

Haven't played any of the ones you mentioned... well, Call of Cthulhu once, but it's depressing.

[NuttyFluffers]

52. depressing is somewhat appropriate description of CoC.

but a delightful depressing. everything is horrifying and far more powerful than you -- and you have an unsatiable desire to learn more so you get ever more dangerously closer :D great fun!

one of my favorite DnD characters for 3rd ed. was a gnome priest with charisma of 5. couldn't turn due to low charisma, couldn't cast inherent illusion spells in battle due to full plate armor -- it was great! i ran around and tackled things to the ground while the rest of the party killed it! :silly:

[Chovexani]

48. Hey, a Champions gamer!

I used to play in HS. It was the only superhero PnP game I could ever get into. Unfortunately the kids I played with either moved or graduated and that was it for that.

It's weird, I love sci-fi books, tv shows and movies but for some reason when it comes to RPGs, I'm all about the sword and sorcery. Sci-fi games bore me to death; I think it's because most of the systems I've seen place such a heavy emphasis on stats/charts/rules lawyering and techno jargon that I don't get the same "wow!" factor that I do when I'm in a game with elves and magic flying around. Even in D&D, where there is lots of die-rolling and a fair amount of min-maxing (even more so in that Lolth-forsaken 3rd edition), I can still lose myself in the atmosphere of the setting.

Or maybe it's just that the DMs I've had playing sci-fi games just really sucked. I dunno.