But driven, forceful and illuminating doesn't have to involve calling people names. Hey! He gets away with it.Īlec: Absolutely. They a climate where more reasonable developers can say what they're really thinking without worrying about being torn apart, because they look at people like Vince and realise. Vince is an extreme case, but people pushing the extremes widens the centres. If we accepted the idea that developers may be angry, spiteful, driven by their obsessions and as generally as unpleasant as human beings are, we could actually get somewhere. People are always going to be dicks in comments thread - but any time a developer says even a mild opinion they're dragged over the hot coals of internet flames, and gaming discourse is fatally weakened. I actually think the idea that developers have to say the blandest things possible to avoid offending anyone is a much bigger problem than people being dickish in comments threads. well, I'm not entirely on side with the, 'You should like the creator' part of this. Kieron: I've got some sympathy with you here, but.

I didn't find it heroic, and I didn't find it hilarious. I entirely appreciate Vince's passion, share several of his sentiments about the genre, and sincerely hope he can realise what he claims AoD will be, but I simply don't think there's any call to be that unpleasant about it. More of this sort of thing in 2009.Īlec: I feel a little differently about this one. One of the most encouraging thing for about RPS is the outbursts of passion that we occasionally play host to. Jim: I'm really glad we were able to give Vince the opportunity to say his bit. I hope he pulls it off - in the same way I hoped Jonathan Blow pulled Braid off - because if he does, it gives him carte blanche to tell everyone to fuck right off.

Vince is a fanatic, an RPG-activist before going developer and about as hardcore while being human as we can get. There's an observation I recall from a music writer - It may have been Simon Reynolds: that while dilettantes tend to make the best critics, fanatics make the best (as in, the very best) music. The response in Vince's thread, as well as basic common-sense, suggests he's right. Around this time I was talking to Brad Wardell of Stardock, who noted that he was amazed no-one's done a Baldur's Gate/Planescape style RPG on a similar budgetry-approach to their Sins of the Solar Empire. Still, anyone in videogames development should have cast a glance at the comments thread where dozens of disillusioned RPG-heads found a new hero. Kieron: The idea that anyone should be thankful for me is a little scary, but after John made a few jokes about turn-based combat looking odd Vince and I had an amusingly cross-purpose interview where we were both talking about different things. Thank goodness we have a Kieron on board. But it seems I accidentally started a shitstorm I didn't even begin to understand. Join us now as we spin the Giant Wheel of Time and see which portion of history we'll nostalgically reflect upon. All the cool historical events happened back then. Remember the 80s? They were great, weren't they? And 1968 was amazing! But who can forget 1471? Man, the past was awesome.

2008 noteworthy games