What the hell? Why in the world would Lionhead Studios release extra content for Fable (an x-box only game), but only release it on PC? There is no way that I’m paying another $50 just to get a few extra levels, which I then have to play on my PC, meaning I can’t use my existing saved game or characters. This is idiotic.
Daniel: Any insight into this decision from someone inside the gaming industry?
“This was designed to be a TV series because I wanted to tell the boring stories about Han Solo smuggling when he wasn’t involved with the Rebellion, I wanted to tell the stories about the people who live in between and the stories themselves that live in between the greater stories. After the initial idea for the pilot, I increased the cast from five to nine members so that I could generate stories from within the ship and not have to constantly go out to new and exciting worlds and guest stars that we couldn’t afford, and I made every planet Planet Earth so that we didn’t have to go to Yucca Flats and pretend it was an alien planet every other week. It was a deliberately television idea.”
— Joss Whedon, talking about Firefly
The latest RPG I’ve been playing doesn’t have very good graphics. In fact, it’s text-based. It’s UrbanDead.com, and it’s a “Massively Multi-Player Web-Based Zombie Apocalypse.” It’s simplistic, but fun. Basically, you create a character by choosing a profession, which decides which skill you start the game with. Military and Policemen start with a pistol and know how to shoot, while Scientists start with first-aid kits and know how to heal people, for example. You are limited to 50 “actions” every day, which includes shooting, healing, walking, etc. Action Points regenerate one every half-hour, so you can’t spend all day playing, and it’s built around the idea that most people will only log into their character once a day, so it’s very low-commitment.
There’s no quests or goals other than gaining experience to get better skills, but it’s still suprisingly fun, and they’re tweaking the rules and adding new features on a very frequent basis.
But the best part is that if you die, you wake up again as a zombie, and keep playing the game from the opposing team. It’s a little frustrating the first time your character gets zombified, but playing as a zombie is fun, too.
Check it out, and if you see Gary Dirin online, say hello, because that’s my Doctor character.
According to Wikipedia, The term “filibuster” originates from the Dutch word for pirates!
Dutch pirates were known as kapers or vrijbuiters (“plunderers”), the latter combining the words vrij meaning free, buit meaning loot, and the ending -er meaning agent. The word vrijbuiter was corrupted into the English freebooters and French flibustiers. It came back into English as filibusters, who were not pirates, but adventurers involving themselves in Latin American revolutions and coups and then finally came to mean the disruptive parliamentary maneuver of talking without stopping.
– Wikipedia article on Pirates
Ahoy Matey! Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Be sure ta snarl menacingly at landlubbers, and pepper yer speech with a few “Avast!”s and some “Aaaarrrgh”s! For reading on th’ subject, check out the website, or go plunder the incredible book The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.