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Here's a few books, in the fantasy realms I think are better than LOTR

The Wheel of Time, by Robert Jordan (The first books anyway. He now is trying elongate the series as much as he can)

The Amber Chronicles, by Roger Zelazny

I'd say Terry Pratchet, too, but even in the fantasy realm, its more satire than anything else.

Enchantment, Orson Scott Card

I probably know a few more, but I don't have my collection of books with me at the moment. I'd go into sci-fi, which I enjoy better anyway, but since I have that biased oppinion, I won't mention those books.

It took you this long to get fed up with geocities? I still use them, but I update my site maybe once a year. The thinkg that threw me over the edge is when the stopped allowing me to use a FTP server unless I paid. goodluck with your search.

-MillsJROSS

I can't wait to see the third one. I'm sure I'll enjoy it thoroughly. Although, they do need an Intermission with a movie that long, and I'm kind of angry with them for not doing so. This movie doesn't dislodge any liking I have towards the Star Wars trilogy. In fact I had to choose to watch a trilogy all in a row, I'd probably choose Indiana Jones, as it's entertaining, and more importantly short.

I'd just like to say, that I've read the books, and while I enjoyed them. I don't think they're so much a masterpiece anymore. I've read better fantasy. It was the first of it's kind, a milestone, no doubt, but I don't consider it the cream of the crop. Not that the books aren't good, but Tolkien gives waay too much information about the history of middle earth, than anyone needs to know, and his work is not perfect. I actually prefer The Hobbit to the LOTR trilogy. I think this movie is a wonderful translation to the book, and while I don't consider it the best books in the world, it's a book you guys should read.

-MillsJROSS

I think the moderators should choose which game is similar to another one. If anyone else feels that something is wrong, or finds a game they feel is similar and isn't listed, they can PM a moderator with the reasons why the feel this is so.

About finishing the game thing. I think the least we should do, is tell people who vote, that if you haven't finished the game, please don't vote.

Yeah, and that average Enjoyment thing makes sense. It only stands to reason that that would be the only reason to play a game, and that it is a mixture of all factors from the game anyway.

Now, I'm wondering, should we have some sort of bug report? So people, when playing the game, can report a bug, and the author can find the bug and hopefull fix it. Or, if the author is finished with the game, and doesn't care to fix the bugs, than at least the person playing the game can see what bugs have already been reported.

-MillsJROSS

PowerPoint can be usefull for organizing a speech, if used correctly. I see two misuses of it by my professors, often times, though.

They sometimes get sooo discriptive on them, that they might as well just use Word and scroll down. They lose the concept of what powerpoint is for. The don't organize it well enough so the student can see the main idea and than the elaboration of that idea without having to look for it for a while.

The other mistake, is they underuse the powerpoint. They simply put up a topic and DON'T elaborate enough. So that the Powerpoint is rendered useless. The points don't bear any meaning what-so-ever, as they have so many possibilities as to what the point might mean.

The last problem of a Powerpoint is that some people use it to substitute note taking. This is actually the opposite of what powerpoint is for.

I don't think PowerPoint is crap. I think it's a powerful utility, that most people don't know how to use effictively. A powerpoint should give you your main points and then eleborate enough on where you should spend your time studying within those main points, but not eleborate too much. A powerpoint presentation should mix audatory and visual learning combined.

-MillsJROSS

Perhaps sound should  be a rating, but it shouldn't be averaged in. Because who refuses to play a game if the sound rating is low? Who decides to play a game because the rating is high? Sound is important to the atmopshere, but it usually does not make or break a game. I think the best thing to do would be just to comment on what you think of the sound/music, and explain if it helped create the atmosphere or damaged the atmosphere.

Perhaps when an author puts his game onto the game page he should put what the games focus is, and people could rate it accordingly. So if his focus is to make a comedic game, then the reviewers will review the game based on that. If he was going for drama, same thing. This allows for a more accurate review of the games set goal, and whether the author did a good or bad job of it.

I think I agree with those four categories to rate a game. Only I think that whenever a person reviews a game he should explain why he/she thinks that this game deserves that rating in each category. If this take up too much space, you could make it so that the reviewer will make a short comment and put it onto the games page, and then send an explanation to the author via e-mail.

I think we have to start from scratch for the review of the games, because how can we convert this old scale into the new one? With the knowledge that the old scale doesn't do an accurte job of showing people how good or bad the game was, it should be scrapped. Or, as an alternative, you should show the old score , but not use it to average in the new scale. However, do keep the responses that people have written.

I think the scale for judging a game's length is mostly accurate. But I only wonder, does the gameplay include cut-scenes and dialog. Because some games I could beat very qiuckly if I skipped dialog and just went straight to puzzling.

And last. I think it should be made clear to any person who votes for a game that they must complete it before voting. I've thought of two ways in which to make sure the reviewer has done this. One they take a five question little quiz that asks them relevant information dealing with the game, that anyone who finished should know (but don't make it trivia, like "what color was the toothbrush?"). And the other idea, which I think is the best, is perhaps that there should be a set password to vote for each game, and the password is only given upon the completion of the game. The author can make the code, and have the engine, upon completing the game, make a text file with the code on it. This idea, of course, requires the most work. Because, CJ, you have to either add it into AGS, or have all the authors do it manually, and then we have the question about older games.

-MillsJROSS

Speaking of shows being axed, I was informed from several friends that they're going to make more Family Guy episodes.

-MillsJROSS

Let me start out with saying that I am indeed glad that Suddam is captured. He is an evil man.

I do want to comment, however, that I've noticed a lot of the news reporting Saddam as a rat living in a hole.  So he hid/(was seized) in a hole for protection/(or held for ransom). I doubt if Bush was in such a situation he would be any better. I think any one in there right mind would hide somewhere from the thousands of men with guns looking to kill you. Bush would hide in a twelve foot thick shelter if any threat came so close to him. Not that Saddam isn't a rat, I just find it funny that people say that it's cowardly to fear for ones life and to take steps in order to preserve oneself in such an extreme situation.

I'd also like to comment, that I don't honestly care if he's real or not. I'm fairly certain he is the real deal, but if he's not real, he hopefully won't have any power to strike back.

I'd also like to put this question into play here. What the hell does the U.S. have to do with freeing Iraq? Why should my tax money go to a bunch of people, I personally don't give a shit about. I don't desire any badwill unto them, however, shouldn't they be the ones to pull themselves up and on their way to a better life? What does the U.S. really get from pumping in my tax money to help these people form a firmer better state? Friendship? Better internatonal relationships (because Bush is soooo good at that)? Is it for goodwill? If so, I say get out of there. If the U.S. has nothing to gain from staying there, I say we leave. Does democrisizing a county really keep off a threat, or does it fuel the fire for those who loathe the U.S., like Osama? If someone can give me an answer that shows that the money poured into this endevor will give us more money back, than I'm all for staying there. I'm all for taking out Saddam and his regime  (although, let's state the right reasons, we should kill Saddam, not because of his future threat, but because he has used physical force and brutality and the people should be free of anyone who uses such methods to establish a means to an end). I think all we should do is give the Iraqi's the knowledge to rise up and become prosperous and free, and that's it. The Iraqi's have been treated unfairly and unjustly, the U.S. should indeed do something to get them on their feet, but we should just loan them some guns to control any person who wishes to take a country by force , let them do all the rest, and get the troops the hell out of there.

I'd also like to argue that yes, Saddam brutaly killed people, but that Bush isn't absolved of all guilt because Saddam was a bad man. He might have been had he approached this war differently. Had the puplic not been informed of untruths. Here is a site of the tally of Iraqi deaths.
http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/casualties.html#count

Note, I do not equate Bush to Saddam. Saddam, is no doubt evil. However, I don't feel Bush went into this war with intentions not good enough to justify these deaths.

I'd also just like to say that Bush is an idiot. I do not like the man at all. I don't blame him, totally, for the economy. 9/11 kicked the economies ass. However, I do not think that Bush's main focus was on the economy, and that under another president our economy might have grown back faster than it currently is. I don't think the U.S. could afford a war of this nature at this time, especially when many people objected to this war. A president's actions should take account the will of the people, the state of the economy, and how imminent a threat there is when undertaking such a huge war. What of the threat of WMD? There are many countries that haven't allowed the U.N. to check to WMD. Why were they not attacked? Isreal is one of these countries, why not attack them? The justification for this war was wrong. So, yes, I am glad that Saddam is killed, but I don't think this war was initiated for the right reasons (Not to say that Isreal would attack the U.S. with WMD, but to use that as a partial reason for attacking should apply to every country that breaks that code.)

The funny thing is, I would be less opposed to this war if it were said, "We're going in there to kill a bastard who is sub-human and doesn't deserve to control people in such a way." Let there be no other reason than this, and the war is justified.

And now I am blabbing...

-MillsJROSS

What I cant stand about the simpsons, is that the first fifteen minutes of the episode will lead to a completely different story than the last half. The older episodes did not do this so much. Mind you, I've never beem a huge fan, I haven't watched the show regularly for about seven years.

-MillsJROSS

Not really. It's really up to the author of the game. I believe there are some medium games that are the same size as a few of the full games.

-MillsJROSS

I played the game through to the end.

I enjoyed your graphics. Very unique. Your characters weren't as good as the background, but I couldn't do any better. I think the bar backround was my favorite, too (as someone mentioned it earlier).

The music you chose for the game worked well, and was catchy, but not so catchy it was annoying.

The dialog, in some places, had some mistakes, but most of it was pretty good.

I liked you inventory gui, and your options gui. Also, the interaction/look at mouse thing was very easy to learn.

The puzzles were all logical (for an adventure game), and I don't feel I ever lost site as to what I was supposed to be doing.

All in all, I think this was a very enjoyable game. Can't wait to see more from you.

-MillsJROSS

I got the same thing.

-MillsJROSS

I still would argue that our rating system needs to be more specific. It's a topic that's come up more than once, but I don't think we can correctly categorize subjects by highest rating. The ten point scale isn't specific enough, where my judging can be radically different from someone elses, and thus the final score isn't really comprehensive. We need to have a category based scale system (ie. Graphics (1-10), Music(1-10), Gameplay(1-10), Did you finish the game(yes, no)). And then average all that up. (Where if you didn't finish the game your score doesn't count, only because you can't correctly judge a game until you've played it to its entirety). Why would this be a better system? Because some people decide they don't like a game based purely on one subject (usually graphics), and to me that can ruin the rating of a game that deserves better. Where as this rating system would make it so the game isn't as effected by one area, and it would allow those who look for certain things to not play the games that don't get high ratings in those categories.

As far as most downloadable. Just look up Porn Quest in joke games section to see that the most downloaded isn't necessarily accurate.

-MillsJROSS

I was waiting till I got home to buy this game in a week. Is there nothing that can be done?

-MillsJROSS

Ah...this Florida weather is soooo nice...

Actually I wish I could get some snow for a day. I used to live up north, and I miss. Of course, I never had to drive in it, so I don't know how I would feel towards it then.

-MillsJROSS

Why listen to him any way? He's a noBODY?

But seriously, I just delete chain mail, and send a letter to my friends who do send me crap like that, and tell them not to do it, that I don't appreciate it.

-MillsJROSS

First off, I'd have a menu screen before the intro, so you could skip the intro (if you haven't done so already). Also make text skippable, unless you want it timed with the music. As far as interactivity, I'm all for it. When I'm making my cutscenes, with a good bit of talking, I make it so that every once in a while the player has to click something, even if there's only one choice. I also try to make several responses to something, where each can still carry the story forwards, but it allows the player a choice, and in the end, makes the game more replayable (as someone is more prone to see what would have been said had this option been chosen instead. While more applicable in a comedy game, I think it could be used quite succesfully in a serious game). You could offer both options, if you want. The main thing is not to bore us. If the intro is interesting and compelling, having interaction may not be necessary. Goodluck with whatever route you choose to take.

-MillsJROSS

I hate newer games that make the character walk over to something to use it. But only when, lets say, the character goes up to something to flip a switch, so they walk there and their is no animation of the character flipping the switch, it flips on its own. I think older adventure games, it was more accepted, because the games were so short, and you could only fit soo much into a game, that it made the game take longer (which for some old games, works well, considering today you could beat them in an hour). With new adventure games, that are long, though, this isn't needed. The game is long enough, just have the switch do it's thing without the character moving, or have the character move to the switch, just make an animation where the character does just that.

I also don't like games where you don't have a map, or a fairly easy way to get everywhere in the game. If it takes me more than three screens to get somewhere, it aggravates me, more so, if I have to go right back. This is also tied in with, characters that go accross the whole screen, where one isn't able to simply double click and go to the next screen.

I also don't like when I play a game, and can find a solution that makes more sense than the one that actually is involved. I don't blame anyone, because different people think in different ways, but sometimes I'll be stuck thinking logically, and that doesn't always work.

Looooong cutscenes, where you can't save.  A gripe about ags, and actually any game engine, it would be nice to be able to save while using a diolog. Becuase I can't count the times (in TLJ more than any other game), where a cutscene would start and it would be sooo long, and I'd end up having to leave for something, and having to quit the program and restart the cutscene from a previosly saved game, some other time.

Walking dead, but only in new adventure games. I think sierra's walking dead were needed, when one considers the length of the games.

Bad voice acting, or just bad diolog. It just pisses me off (unless its a free AGS game).

Not enough hotspots to interact with. An adventure game should open up a world to you, not just only really allow you to solve the puzzles (Syberia).

No music. I like to listen to something while I'm playing a game. Mind you, I don't want anything that makes me want to tear my hair out. Something catchy, or just something that provides atmosphere.

And this has more to do with amatuer games, but games that don't provide a menu screen so that everytime you play them you have go through the intro cutscene.

That's all for now.

-MillsJROSS

New update...bump

-MillsJROSS

A menu screen, for what? Elaborate, please. Is it a menu screen the player will be able to go back to at will? What options will the menu screen have?

-MillsJROSS