Messages

just wanted to point out that somewhere is one word...and it makes more sense that way. Other than that, there was nothing I could find wrong with your corrections. Skurwy, it seems to me, your use of grammar and vocabulary already is much better than some of the people here, with English as a first language. The best way to improve grammar, though, is to read.

-MillsJROSS

Quote from: MillsJROSS on Yesterday at 21:04
I wouldn't consider you tying your own tubes, as it's not as safe a proceedure, from what I've been led to understand.

Yes, pay a doctor if your going to do it, much mors safe....

Why not pay the doctor to do it for you...that way your money's actually going somewhere.

And Kinoko, I feel the same way, I know I don't want to get pregnant, so I try not to be female. Best contraception ever!

-MillsJROSS

I tried to avoid replying in this thread, partly because I had other things to do, partly because I wasn't sure on how I felt about the situation. Reading through some of Fluke's posts in other threads as well as this one, it's easy to conclude that Fluke is young and immature. But at looking at some of the posts from some of the older members within this thread, it appears that maturity and age don't necessarily go hand in hand. So Fluke is a young kid, do we really set a good example by insulting him?

In regards to the picture thread that got locked. First, I don't have blame Andail, he was doing what is in his job description. To be the bad guy and enforce the age policy where necessary. That said, though, locking the thread based soley on the fact that your drawing aren't very good in a critics forum seems very hypocritical (I'm not saying this was Andail's reason, but for those using that reason, it offends me that you are so harsh as to even think along those lines). As far as I'm concerned the drawing was better than something I could do at age 21...so age and crappy drawing aren't necessarily synonymous with each other. And if I posted my drawing for critique I'd hope that someone would help me, even enough to say "Practice, practice practice! Here's some good tutorials on drawing for beginners."

Fluke, this one picture thread doesn't justify the other 20 plus threads you've started in the two plus months you've frequented here. My suggestions would be to stop starting threads. I'd even go so far as to suggest you save the threads you've made and look at them in a year or two...and then maybe you'll see our point of view. The problem isn't that I can't see your point of view, I can...I was on the internet when I was your age, and I know what it is to feel ostracized because you are younger...it sucks. However, I don't think you can see our point of view...the best analogy I can think of, is just think about kids that are six years younger than you, and how you'd feel if one of them followed you and your friends around. You could like the kid, but that doesn't mean there won't be moments when the six year gap won't become apparent to you.

So lay low a bit, post rarely, but in the meantime have fun in the real world. The best thing you can do for yourself is reading books. It'll improve your grammar and ability to put thoughts on a page, which can only help you in future forum life.

-MillsJROSS

Vasectomy's can be reversible...but that's not always the case. I believe after a certain lenght of time, say ten years, it become much harder for them to reverse the proceedure. All my knowledge comes second hand, though. I wouldn't consider you tying your own tubes, as it's not as safe a proceedure, from what I've been led to understand. As far as being finicky whether or not you'll change your mind about having a child...I don't really think that's so bothrsome of an issue. If you ever change your mind you could always consider adoption (though, the trouble that might take might be more bothersome depending on your marital status at the time, as well as, income).

The obvious choice, though, and the one you probably won't do anyway, is not to have sex. Because as everyone know, sex is only for the act of procreation, and anything else is a sin (please don't take that statement seriously, or evaluate it in anyway, since one, I am joking, and two, I don't want to start a religious thread and just wanted to be mildly funny in my own way).

-MillsJROSS

Just want to comment that the acting isn't really that bad at all. These are quality actors (the main ones), and if you've seen some of their other work, maybe you agree. I think it's just difficult to act like these characters, where the dialog isn't necessarily realistic. That said, a lot of dialog is used to move the plot, more than anything else, as the SW movies are mostly plot driven (Most movies have a plot, but the SW movies seem to follow the plot more closely).

-MillsJROSS

At least you have the internet at your job...the only computer I get to play with is my cash register. That said, though, I am highly satisfied at my current job, until I graduate with some degree, my job isn't too important.

-MillsJROSS

Just wanted to point out the irony of the quote "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Is Obi-One absolutely sure?

As far as Bush is concerned. I don't believe that SW Ep. III is a poltical statement about Bush at all. That isn't to say that there might not be elements that concievably Lucas put in from the real world, but if he did, I think it only strenghtens the story and makes it more tangible.

One thing I'd like to know, is...aren't there detailed books on all the Star Wars episodes (even 7-9 ). I've never read any of the books, so I don't know, but if there are, and they are similar enough, it might clear some things up.

I don't believe Lucas had every detail written out when he had the story planned, but that doesn't mean squat. I've held a story in my head for several years, and when I began to write it down I might come up with different ideas that may tie in better with the story. Like I don't honestly believe that Lucas had Boba Fett's character concieved for the first three episodes thirty years ago, until he realised that there was a huge fan base on such a minimal character in Ep V and VI. And if that's the case, I don't give a rats ass. If he made it 30 years ago, or made it five minutes before shooting. What does it matter? What's done is done. And while there may be a few loose ends here and there, that's to be expected for moves made thirty years apart. 

-MillsJROSS

Overall, I was entertained by the movie. It was entertaining and had the action I desired. It did have minor things here and there. For the most part, like most people have already mentioned, the mood was kind of ruined by some of the "comic reliefy" stuff.

I actually giggled when darth vadar yelled out "No".

As far as unnatural dialog is concerned, there has rarely been an ounce of realistic dialog in any six of the movies. The characters are just too fictional to allow it. Many of the situations are just unbelievable no matter that it was a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. But you just have to accept that it's a movie and get over it.

The only thing I can't stand from fans is all the lucas bashing that goes around. He wrote a decent space opera, and has provided me with six movies of entertainment. They're not the best movies I have ever seen, but I take them for a light movie with some nice action and a bit of comedy, with science fiction, and I'm happy. Sure there are some mistakes he's made, but I think for anything bad he's done he's done just as much good to a movie.
But I'm rambling now, so I'll stop.

-MillsJROSS

I think it's the American Goat Society's shirt. Which is probably why it's one hundred percent cotton!

-MillsJROSS

It isn't that, it's the fact that what you posted was generally common knowledge. Coke and Pepsi have been doing the on-line code thing for a while. You apparently didn't realise that it was common knowledge, so it's probably not mature for people to be making fun of you for it, but take it as light criticism. Evenwolf was just using sarcasm to make the same point...pretty much everyone knows about the lottery, and pretty much everyone knows about coke and pepsi's bottle top schemes.

I'm glad you enjoyed what you found...while I have never endevoured to use the codes (because I usually lose the bottle top or don't even look at it ), I'm sure there are benefits aplenty.

-MillsJROSS

Probably wouldn't do it...smoked many times before,  but don't like it anymore.

But I don't have super mario anyway...sonic the hedgehog, though, might be entertaining to watch under influence. Or in the very least make you throw up.

On a side note: I hate when people go off on how drugs are horribly bad for you, and then wash that logic down with an alcholic beverage. Don't want to start a long thread about drugs, it's been done. But it is one of the things that really irks me about people.

-MillsJROSS

Ace Quest has to be on there.

Where are you, MillsJRoss? Pimp, damn it, pimp.

Here I am...and here is the link for AQ!

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/games.php?action=download&game=3

-MillsJROSS

It might also be a good idea to get everyone of your team members phone numbers, so you can directy contact them if they've been MIA. Other than that, teams are hard to keep together, mainly because someone loses motivation, and you never hear from them again, or real life kicks in, and they no longer have time. So try to keep everyone motivated as much as you possible can.

-MillsJROSS

It has been said that puzzles in games just seem to slow the player down from experiencing the story. No.  A game, by definition involves play, and for play, there must be challenges and rules of some sort and these interfere with total immersion.

I really think we're talking about certain puzzles. Puzzles that don't enrich the story, or propell it in anyway. Puzzles that just elongate the game because the creators have it stuck in their head that the game needs to be a certain lenght. There is nothing wrong with the puzzles, as long as they're constructive. I know I like puzzles, but there are some times in certain games where I feel that even with in the game universe that I'm playing, it doesn't make sense for my chartacter to even be doing what he/she is doing.  Sometimes there are puzzles that just seem to detract from the game, and while yes a game shouldn't be reality, that doesn't mean I should have to be taken out of the game. I'd rather be immersed in the game.

As far as the biscuit on your head to open a door, I don't necessarily disagree. But I would like to see more physical ways of getting things done. Sometimes you'll have a puzzle that goes to an elaborate lenght just to do something that a normal person, would honestly try something else. It all depends on the game universe you're playing in, and while I can enjoy both scenarios, it seem that a lot of puzzles are designed against doing fairly simple physical actions.

There is nothing horrible about reality, and games shouldn't be trying to emulate what our reality is. But they should be making a new reality for us to go to. A place that we can actually put outselves in, instead of looking at everyone through a window. It's like a good book/movie whatever, where you feel the emotions trying to be portrayed to you. There are some times you should step back and compare it to the reality you live in, but it should break it's own rules of what reality is. It shouldn't do something that within it's own logical structure, doesn't make sense. It's puzzles like that, that detract from a game, and take me out of the universe of the game with nothing but annoyance.

As far as comercial game go. To me it seems there are a lot of good games comming our way. They're not being made by the big corporations known to us, many are new companies, and many of those come from the big companies. I don't think the genre is dead...it still sells, but you can't blame a corporation who can get 100 times the profit for making a game that's probably no-where near as good. Adventure game just don't sell as well. FPS games and RPG games are easier for many people to get into, because they use basic simple rules that follow throughout the game, wheras in an adventure, though pointing and clicking is the same, you have to come accross the same conclusion as the creators. In RPG's and FPS, there might be some logic to be had, but you know that if you hit enemy with your weopon enough, for the most part, he will die and you will win.

I think the internet, though, is and will help the adventure game industry move forward. Look at the AGS community, it could perhaps be a launchpad for future game companies. Also, the internet allows for cheaper advertising, and quicker word of mouth about games, which might reduce costs, since companies spend gobs of their money on advertising alone. So I think the adventure game will just go through another era...everything is bound to come back, there will always be high and low waves to ride. And I think this community is evidence enough for me, that there is a demand for these games. I'll leave it at that.

-MillsJROSS

He aslo forgot to mention the P3N1S award...or Ace Quest

-MillsJROSS

It's fun, but there are definately some iffish category's, where after the answer is given you're just like "Huh?" I think palindromes is probably one of them, which is suprising, considering you only need half of the clue to find out the rest. There are a few others, but these aren't flawed enough to stop me from going occasionally with a group of bored friends.

-MillsJROSS

Not true - in order to force object-oriented programming but not get too easy like Basic most use Java (including mine).

Unless we can find some statistics to back up either of our statements, I don't think either one of us will be able to argue our points validly. I firmly believe that most college/university computer science programs will stress that C be used first. This belief comes mainly from the chairman of my computer science department, which I have no valid reason to think he made it up, who told us just that. However, I'm not about to search for any statistics on it, so I'll just concede that some university's stress C and others Java as a first language.

-MillsJROSS

I'd go through a quick runthrough of C, learn how to structure your code so it's not sloppy, Program control, Functions, Arrays, Pointers, Characters, Strings, etc... Many of the things you learn from C will be a launchpad. You said you already have a C compiler, so why not use it? It won't get you making those games right away, but it might facilitate a better understanding of programing, and therefore help allow you to make better games.

It seems most University's will be teaching you C first anyway. After that, look at other languages and choose one that fits your needs and one that you are confortable with.

-MillsJROSS

Deaths are kind of a strange area in adventure games. No one really likes to die, unless their out for funny deaths. But, at the same time, I feel better after I've died several times, and finally accomplish my goal. It seems like I've accomplished more than just random clicking. Personally, I love Sierra deaths, I think they add a charm to the game. I don't necessarily see that they made that many unfair deaths. They did make walking-deaths, which considering the size of early games, is debatably not such a bad idea. However, in the context of the lenght of games today, walking-deaths I don't think work so well. Also, many of their deaths DID make sense. If a monster/bad guy was chasing you and caught you, you died. Where as CMI, as Lechuck chased you in the end, there was no way for death. I think as of late, people are afraid to allow death, and I don't necessarily agree with it. Trial and error deaths, aren't necessarily bad, it depends on the tone of the game. In SQ there are several unpredictable deaths, but I found many of the deaths enjoyably funny. And if you don't like to die, save often. I usually have a save the game often, and if you get an unpredictable death, you die. And while yes we wouldn't do stupid things like that in the real world, but if we were concerned with the real world, we wouldn't be playing a fictional story.

As far as making things in reasonable sections, I completely agree with that. I believe Roberta Williams refered to it as a pearl neckless. Although, I think she stressed that this was a bad technique. To me this is ideal, because you don't overwhelm the player. A lot of times where there are tons of rooms, the player loses sight of what they are even trying to do, as there are many puzzles to solve. As stated, most people will reach for the walkthrough after a while. 

To me dialog makes or breaks the game. I'm the type of player who goes through all the dialog options made available. The characters are the story, I can't understand skipping dialog that can potentially help you out in a puzzle or flesh the plot out. That isn't to say that some adventure games aren't long-winded. Dialogs should be interesting and should only be used to either give the player a hint, flesh out story, or humor. The game Five Magic Amulets is a good example of bad dialog. There were many cases where the character needed to know everyone's life story, and it got boring and served no purpose. It fleshed out the characters, yes, but that can be done in subtler ways through dialog that IS import and germane to the game.

-MillsJROSS

This is especially a good debate to me, as I went through my yearly playing of Space Quest games (so far I've played to five...and waiting till finals are over to play the sixth one). I bring this up, because it's struck me that Space Quest is definately one of the adventure games that stand out. I also say this because if you look at the SQ games there are a lot of elements added that aren't "puzzley."

I honestly think commercial adventure games started going down hill after the adventure gaming industry all wanted to pander the users by stopping deaths within adventure games. To me this seems so strange, when many other games seem to flourish because you can die, and it gets  your blood pumping.

Yet, as I was playing SQ, even having played it several times, my heart got pumping as the spider droid landed on SQ1, as I was on the skimmer in SQ1, while traveling in Vohuals asteroid in SQ2, and literally tons of examples within these games. And as I got past these obstacles I felt good...it's one of the reasons I've been able to play the games as many times as I have.

These elements above, though, don't strictly fall into what most consider an adventure game element. I'd argue that they strenghthen the game. They make the game more tangible. You're in a situation where death is possible, and you begin to really start caring for your character. And I think adventure games have gotten far from those elements, and I can't understand why. Why we're afraid to use soltuions that don't involve three biscuits anymore. I'm reminded of The Longest Journey, where some mutant thing come thrashing at you, and you just stand there, and nothing happens. Completely ruined the mood for me, and I laughed when I'm fairly certain the game designers wanted me to feel fear.

I have work in a few, though, so I won't ramble on any more.

-MillsJROSS