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There was a photo to drawing tutorial by...  jannar(?) on the AGDzine too.  It wasn't for AGI backgrounds, if I recall correctumundoly.

Speaking of which, any chance of the AGDzine coming back soon Mods?

Although Planescape: Torment sticks in my mind more because of it's brilliantly unique setting, I have to say Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn is a better RPG in my opinion.

Aside from the hugeness and variety of the quests and locations, the brilliantly written story, and the clever 'stronghold' quests idea, the fantastic NPC system is what really struck me.  To be able to choose from such a variety of characters to accompany you, and then see them communicate with you, with each other, individually respond to important game events, and even follow through a love story, is simply brilliant.  It brought a whole new level of personalising your game experience to the genre.

P:T easily sticks in my memory more than BG2 due to its startlingly originality, but for me on every other level (plot, gameplay, personalisation, variety, replay value) BG2 is the better game.

Louis Theroux's programs focus on the "isn't this weird?" aspect.  Michael Moore focuses on the "isn't this wrong" aspect.  Theroux is great, but he's no moral campaigner.

I don't find Moore aggressive - he's confrontational, but that's not the same thing.  Every day the government and big corporations are screwing people over, and the media in general is lazy as shit about it - hardly bothering to report most of the stuff that goes on.  Moore is a guy who's prepared to go to the people in charge and say: "Look at this shit!", and we complain that his doing that makes him too aggressive??

I don't find him whiny or self-important at all.  Pissed off and incredulous is the first description that comes to mind.

Heh, I just got a new computer with WinXP and this is the very first thing that happened to me.  I was freaking out - I thought I'd frigged up my comp within half a day of receiving the bloody thing.

* Nellie rips off his mask to reveal...

I AM Shylock!

*DUN DUN DUUUNNNHHH!!*


Seriously.  I changed my name when I came over from
the old boards.

There is a scenario - if you stretch this argument a bit - where the same thread is started each week by new members, because they didn't get a chance to partake in the previous ones.

Hehe, true, but I think you should credit me with a little common sense, here .  Of course it would be stupid if these threads were regular, and I would support the locking of a topic that had been discussed recently.  But in the current situation, the last Creation vs Evolution thread is so old it's fallen off the board.

Nellie, let's say there was a thread restarted repeatedly about something you really cared much about.
You wouldn't feel any joy in participating after a while, but since there is a public debate going on, you'd still feel the need to defend your stance, which will become tiresome after some 9-10 times.

Yes, if I had to defend even my most passionate belief every half-a-year or so it would get boring.  But I don't think it would be fair to expect that other people should stop talking about it, just because I'm fed up with it.

Additionally, the last creation vs evolution thread was poorly motivated, it didn't bring up any new viewpoints, merely an open invitation for people to start all this tedious arguing once again.

Since the mods know that such a thread will only be frequented by those few people who aren't already fed up by it, thus any worthwile reading is unlikely to take place, they locked it.

It didn't bring up any new viewpoints to us,  the debate was tedious to us, and none of the reading would be worthwile to usbecause we've seen loads of these threads.  But the forum is not the exclusive domain of us oldbies.  There were plenty of new members then, and now, for whom the debate is still fresh.

Furthermore, such a thread will always result in flaming and name-calling

The thread will carry that risk, as it carried the risk when we used to debate it.  Personally, I can't remember any of the bad-blood that must have gone on in those Ezboard threads, but I do remember the good stuff.  Because of this, I think the benefits outweigh the risk.

The crux of the matter is that we Oldbies are not the only people who exist in this community.  When the big issues were fresh to us, we debated them.  Now the big issues are fresh to new users, and they want to debate them.

The trouble is, although we were able to talk about these things, now that we're the Establishment we've taken that ability away from Newbies.  Isn't there anybody here who thinks that's a tad hypocritical?

The Creation vs Evolution thread was partly the trigger for this thread (the mp3 thread being the other part).  Whatever Scummbuddy's intent (which I did read), the response to these threads made me realise that even if a newbie were to post a new Creation vs Evolution thread, it would get locked.  That's why I started this thread.

If the sole purpose of forum debates were to reach a resolution to the issue, then I would agree with you all wholeheartedly.  In fact, most 'big issues' that get debated will (as some people have pointed out) never ever reach any sort of resolution.  However, the debates exist for a wider variety of reasons than to find an ultimate answer.

Firstly, debates within a community help us to learn more about our peers within that community.  We learn what they think about certain important issues, and also how they think, which is also interesting.  This is why I don't think the 'go to a different community if you want to debate X' argument works.  If I wanted to debate a big issue, my first choice would be to debate it here, in my 'home' community.  I know (and like) you people more than in any of the other communities I visit, and so am naturally more interested in what your take on the matter is.

Secondly, a debate that cannot reach a resolution is not automatically fruitless.  There are still interesting ideas to be heard along the way.  For example, in one of the Creation vs Evolution debates on Ezboard, Helm told us of the 'Can God create a rock so heavy he is unable to lift it?' objection to the concept of omnipotence.  I can't remember any of the other points made in that debate, but I remember that one, because it was a way of looking at the issue that I'd never encountered before.  This idea stuck in my head, and I'm damn glad I was part of that debate, because I would never have been exposed to the idea otherwise.  Debates don't exist purely in the pursuit of a resolution, but also as a way of sharing ideas.

Thirdly, a debate forces you to put your opinion across in a concise and readable manner (otherwise few people will be arsed to read and respond).  A worthwhile bit of practice for anybody in their life, and one of the benefits of being on a forum.

The bottom line is, I used to participate in (and enjoy) 'big issue' debates on Ezboard.  I learned a lot about my fellow forum members, and took some ideas from the debates that I would probably never have encountered otherwise.  Now when newbies want to do the same thing, we lock their thread.  That makes me uncomfortable (do as we say, not as we used to do ourselves...).

If we find a topic a cliche, or dislike the resolution-less aspect, or are fed up because it's been done before here so many times, all we have to do is...  ignore the thread.  Let the people who don't think those things get on with the debate.

So I ask again, why the locky locky?

Just because oldbies have seen these discussion topics before, does that mean newbies shouldn't be allowed to discuss them?  If an oldbie is bored of the topic and thinks it's fruitless, then all they have to do is ignore the thread and let the newbies get on with it.

Why the locky locky?

Ah shut up, Anal ID.

The rule I follow with game objects is:

If there's no reason for the player to investigate that particular spot, then it's unfair.

So if the object is small, but still big enough to be clearly seen, that's fine by me.  For example, in Pleurghburg: DA I initially missed an object in the scientist's house and so got stuck.  When I found out about the object, I immediately thought 'pixel hunt!', but later realised that was bullshit - the object could clearly be seen and the only reason I missed it was because I was being lazy and not looking carefully enough at the screen.  Another good example of small objects that can still clearly be distinguished is Rode Quest 2.

Or if it's not big enough to be clearly seen, but there's a clue in the game telling the player to look at that particular spot (or around the area), fine again.  Eg, in an online adventure some of us played a while back, there was a room where you had to take a pin that was holding up a flag.  The pin was tiny, and I would never have discovered it by accident.  However, the puzzle required me to pick a lock...  which made me think of finding a long, thin object...  which led me directly to look at the corners of the flag to see if it was held up by pins.  Tiny object, but still not a pixel-hunt.  A damn good example of this is in 6-Day Assassin.

Conversely, there can be huge areas of interaction that I would still class as a pixel-hunt.  In Gabriel Knight 1, it is essential to interact with the ground in one screen.  The ground 'hotspot' is a large area, but it looks completely and utterly insignificant - just a part of the background scenery, and there's no clue anywhere that directs you to check it out.  Why would you interact with a bit of ground for no reason?  This breaks my: 'If there's no reason for the player to investigate that particular spot, then it's unfair' rule.  What's funny is that GK1 is chocka with small objects, but I don't consider a single one of them pixel-hunts because they're all clearly visible and/or clued.

To be honest, I don't care whether hotspots are labelled or not.  In fact, I prefer unlabelled hotspots, because I feel more rewarded when I solve things solely using my observation of the objects in a scene, rather than having everything significant pointed out to me when I move the mouse around.

I like Evenwolf's tough new image.

He used to be all forgiving and tolerant, like in some sappy Robin Williams film.  But now he's like...  like...   The TERMINATOR...  yeah!

* Nellie imagines Even in leather on a Harley Davidson.

Does that mean we get to be all suspicious and accusative and start pointing fingers at each other?

It was Pumaman!!1!

If you want to recruit an artist to work on your game, you'll have to supply them with lots of details about that game.

Make a thorough design document which lays out the entire story, puzzles, descriptions of the backgrounds, etc.  Perhaps you could make a version of your game in AGS using placeholder graphics (stick figures and such) to show it all in action (and show that you have the programming ability), then replace them later.

When you show that you have the capability and stamina to finish all the non-graphic work on your own, people will be more willing to help you.  That's if they like your ideas of course.

In Butcher's absence, I think Andail should start using the catchphrase:

"I'm NOT WEARING any SHIRT!!!!"

The scariest bit for me was the description of the super-tight space, and seeing his head and shoulders sticking out of it.  Yeek!  I'm not claustrophobic, but...  *shudder*.

The rest of it was good too, though.

Spoiler

If I believed any of the scary bits were real I would be absolutely crapping myself right now.  Good stuff.

[close]

Was it 'Abandon Loader'?

In the news section.

That hatemail and court case stuff is funny as frig.

I thought it was funny.  A big improvement over the last one we saw.  CyCL0PPz0Rz!!1!

I hope nobody's going to invade their forums and pick a fight again.  

For THOSE of you who HAVEN'T heard the news, Revolution SOFTWARE has given the SOURCE code of the classic BENEATH a steel SKY to the people at SCUMMVM, and made the game FREEWARE:

www.scummvm.org

The game can be DOWNLOADED in both the floppy DISK version or the FULL CD version (with SPEECH) from the scummvm downloads PAGE.  It will run on all SYSTEMS that scummvm RUNS on and the annoying scroll LOCK bug has been ELIMINATED.


Be vigilant, citizen!