22 August kl. 18:10

Dagens Nyheder: Søndag d. 22/8

Der er ikke mange nyheder at hente rundt omkring, så jeg har lavet lidt opdateringer. Specielt er Release-listen ved at være klodens bedste database for informationer om CRPG'er! Jeg har ordnet alle spil fra "I" til "W", og derudover har jeg lavet links så man kan komme direkte til spillenes features! Tryk på spillets navn, og man kommer til den bedst tilgængelige side om spillet, officiel eller fanside, det er lige meget, men det bliver til et sted med konkrete informationer om spillet. Der er til masser af timer der. Derudover er det hele fra "I" til "W" nu også genreinddelt, og jeg har tilmed skrevet hvilke spil der blive online-CRPG spil. Jeg regner med at nå "A" til "H" inden Onsdag, så er listen helt komplet. Klik her for godterne.

Så er der en Baldur's Gate tegneserie at finde I multimedia-sektionen. Derudver er der nogle scripts til NPC'ere I BG, samt lidt nye animationer fra Torment. Du kan læse mere om det hele lige her. Der er også et nyt Baldur's Gate desktop-tema at finde lige her. (Det er 2'eren)

Sidst men ikke mindst, fandt jeg et sjovt stykke på Bioware's hjemmeside om GenCon, og hvad Bioware oplevede på spilmessen. Du kan læse stykket længere nede på siden.

I morgen er der forhåbentlig lidt nyheder, men om ikke andet er der et nyt Ugens Spørgsmål, PLUS, jeg fortæller om min holdning til piratkopiering m.m!

Tilbage I morgen :-)

Fredaens nyheder:

Der er relativt lidt at fortælle idag, faktisk er der kun 2 nyheder. Den ene er et interview med hovedproduceren på Vampire, det kan du læse mere om længere nede på siden.

Den anden nyhed omhandler de stakkels mennesker der bruger en 800x600 opløsning, og som derfor ikke kan nyde Torment-sektionen til fulde. Yep, jeg har lavet en speciel udgave af det hele for 800x600 resolutioner, og det kan du finde herfra.

Gamle nyheder:

RPG er tilbage, og idag har vi ligefrem rigtige nyheder om... [Gisp].. COMPUTERROLLESPIL!

• AVault har lavet et lille interview med en af designerne på Pools of Radiance II. Det er ikke meget nyt man får at vide, men det kan læses ved at klikke her.
• Nyt Diablo II Screenshot of the Week at finde længere nede på siden.
• Der er en ny spell-effekt fra Torment at finde I Planescape-sektionen.
• Thrustmonkey, et meget populært CRPG-site, som bliver vedligeholdt af bl.a Ben fra Bioware er tilbage I storform. Du kan besøge siden lige her.
• Release-listen er blevet opdateret. Jeg har endvidere linket til de bedste steder for informationer om de individuelle spil. Læg mærke til at jeg har startet revideringen NEDEFRA (Dvs. spil hvis titel starter med s,t,u,w), og jeg fortsætter I samme stil de næste dage, indtil det hele er en stor informationsdatabase, med links til de bedste nyhedssites jeg kan finde om de individuelle spil. Klik her.
• Endvidere er der netop blevet annuleret to spil, nemlig det ellers så lovende "The Lady, The Mage & The Knight", samt "Third World". Det førstnævnte vides det ikke hvorfor blev skrottet, men folkene bag "Third World" kunne simpelthen ikke finde en udgiver til deres spil. Det er jo ærgeligt.
• Alle spilsektionerne er opdaterede mere eller mindre, mest hovedsiderne med småting, lidt links og diverse rettelser.
• Masser af nye Planescape-links I den sektion. Klik her.
• En walktrhough af Darkstone er oppe, og der er også en ny walkthrough af Fallout 2 at finde lige her, fordi den vi havde var simpelhen alt for dårlig!
• Langt om længe er vores E3-feature fra Maj kommet op sammen med de andre features, lige her.
• Til slut har jeg sat nogle flere links op I RPG's link-sektion, så der SKAL man checke, for der er kun links til rigtig gode sider/programmer osv. at finde der.

Du kan som sædvanlig finde gamle nyheder og overskrifter I vores arkiv..

22 August kl. 18:07

Bioware på GenCon

Jeg fandt dette da jeg tilfældigvis surfede Bioware's side I dag. Det er deres egen rapport fra computerspilmessen GenCon. Værsgo':

Gencon in Brief

Here's a short summary of the wacky adventures of the BioWare troup as they visited Gencon '99! Four hardy BioWare adventurers from the Lands up North (that's _Canada_ to you Americans in the audience :) recently travelled south to the fair city of Milwaukee, WI, to attend the Geneva Convention (Gencon) from August 4-8, 1999. Trent Oster (Producer, Neverwinter Nights), James Ohlen (Director of Writing and Design), Casey Hudson (technical artist, Neverwinter), and Ray Muzyka (joint CEO and co-executive producer, Neverwinter) were the four chosen lads.

Our trip started comparatively easily - the last time we sent people down to visit WOTC in Seattle (meeting up there with a few people sent up from our publisher, Black Isle/Interplay), you might recall that one BioWarian attempted to fill out the 20-page US immigration form (rather than the one page Visitor form that most people prefer to fill out), and another was detained and searched for looking "generally disreputable."

This time, the only mishap came about at customs as one BioWare employee told the customs agent that the luggage he was carrying was actually the luggage of the person _ahead_ of him, then decided to change his story on closer cross-examination to say that it was really the luggage of the person _behind_ him. The customs agents were not visibly amused, but DID appear to be quite interested in hearing more about these humorous luggage antics, at least based on the length of time said employee was talking to them. The employee's electric razor (in his bag) happening to go off during this conversation probably didn't help events...in retrospect, we duly noted that this was the same employee who tried to fill out the 20-page US immigration form in the last trip...probably just a coincidence though, eh?

After we finally boarded the aircraft we stretched out in all of the luxury that economy class affords (hey, not only do we try to make good games, but we're cost effective too!). The first night in Milwaukee was uneventful aside from an unpleasant experience with a chicken-fried steak (don't ask).

Day 1
We were hardly able to contain our excitement as we prepared to enter the hallowed halls of the Great Convention. Table upon table of people playing pen and paper RPG's and trading card games filled the entire first floor of the center, with the demo areas up on the upper floors. (It sent a shiver up our collective spines, let me tell ya). We made our way to the Black Isle/Interplay booth where we installed the computer we brought down with a Neverwinter Nights demo on it, and for the first day of the show we ran Baldur's Gate since NWN was scheduled for announcement on August 6 as part of the WOTC 3rd edition announcement. Black Isle/Interplay also showed Planescape, and on the other side of the Interplay booth Interplay showed off their new Startrek game. We toured the exhibit hall and admired the gigantic WOTC castle at the center of the pavilion. The highlight of that day had to be the microbrewery we stopped at with the Black Isle/Interplay folk - there was a great selection of brews that helped to slake our thirst.

Day 2
Somewhat groggy from the previous night's microbrews, we woke early and made our way back to the convention hall. At just after noon, the Big Announcement of 3rd edition D&D was made by WOTC, and Trent and James ably represented BioWare on the stage. The announcement of Neverwinter went over extremely well - the crowd of nearly 1000 people was very excited to hear of the possibility of designing and DM'ing their own modules on the computer. For the rest of the day we demo'd Neverwinter Nights and talked and talked to the many people who stopped by the booth. We visited a second microbrewery that night but wisely largely forsook the pleasures of alcohol, preferring to be well rested for the events of the next day.

Day 3 - *The Day of Cheese*
Day 3 passed by in a blur as we demoed then talked, and talked and then demoed. Trent and Ray proceeded to lose their voices, though James managed to retain his despite talking continually, and Casey stoically demoed the art prototype without complaint for the entire duration of the show. If anything, his useage of the word "Awesome" only seemed to increase the more he demoed the game - it was truly (no, really, it was) an inspiration to the rest of us. Especially since he was the only one of the four of us who had a chair to sit down on the entire show. *One of the Interplay marketing people, Stacy, insisted that we should use the word "cheese" somewhere in this summary, so we thought we would take this opportunity to mention that Wisconsin _is_ the Dairy State.

Day 4
On the last day of the show, we left early, but not before a number of very cool things happened. We had a surreal experience with Gary Gygax at Gencon - his wife came over to ask if we wouldn't mind signing a Gold box Baldur's Gate for her and her family - and we said, "Sure, no problem, just send it to us and we'd be glad to!" (having no idea who she was at that point). At which point she pulls out a business card and we notice the name 'Gygax' on it and say, "Hey, you're not related to THAT Gygax, are you?" After which, she tells us that Gary (her husband) is a huge fan of what WE did on BG. (I mean, he's a fan of what WE did? wow - we were totally blown away). Gary was (is) one of our childhood idols (check out the last screen of the credits in BG where we thank Gary Gygax as well as Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber, coincidentally both of whom are favorite authors of Gary and Ray/James it turns out), so it was quite a thrill to meet him. Weird having him ask for our autographs though...

To top off the day, we ALSO got to meet Dave Arneson (cocreator of AD&D with Gary) at the show! We came away with the autographs of Gary and Dave, so though we lost our voices it was still a worthwhile experience.

In summary, as Trent so aptly summarized the trip: "When you gotta Geek Out, you gotta Geek Out!"

Det var nok noget nær det længste stykke tekst vi nogensinde har haft her på hovedsiden :-)

20 August kl. 14:37

Vampire interview med masser af facts

Vault Network afholdte en lille Q&A med hovedproduceren til Vampire, Ray Gresko. Hvis du ikke kender så meget til Vampire, så er dette lige noget for dig. Jeg overlader ordet til jonric fra Vault Network:

Jonric: For those who aren't familiar with it, please summarize the tabletop Vampire: The Masquerade game.

Ray Gresko: Vampire: The Masquerade (known as V:tM for short) is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game created by White Wolf Game Studio in which the player takes on the persona of a newly created vampire. It is set in the 'World of Darkness', a world like our own but one in which vampires exist, and have been engaged in their efforts to control humanity whilst warring among themselves in a subtle Jyhad. It is primarily inspired by the many contributions to the vampire mythos, and adds a large amount of unique elements of its own. Since it's debut in the early 90s, the game has captured a large number of fans, and is second only to AD&D in terms of playership.

Jonric: What is the principal focus of the game, and how does it differ from other role-playing systems?

Ray Gresko: The license has a large focus on storytelling, and challenges its players to experience the 'personal horror' at becoming an unliving entity which is slowly losing the remaining strands of humanity. So each character comes pre-built with a tragic flaw, making for more interesting and dramatic roles. In addition, the player is thrust into a world rife with conflict, as each vampire 'Clan' seeks to promote its own ideology and control over ach other. It's this focus on truly playing the role of your character on a personal level that I think has helped to capture the large audience, in addition to the depth and creativity used in setting the background setting and story.

Because of this focus, and the minimal rules systems, V:tM is played in a variety of ways. Games range from dice-rolling tabletop sessions to full-on 'live-action roleplaying' (LARP). Vampire and it's players have taken live-action play to a new level, and you'll find troupes playing in the streets of towns and cities across the world.

Jonric: What roles do players adopt? What are Clans and Sects, and how do they differ?

Ray Gresko: The player adopts the role of a newly-created vampire within one of the 'Clans', essentially vampiric 'bloodlines' issuing from the original vampire, Caine. It is for this reason that vampires as a whole refer to themselves as 'Kindred'. Each clan is unique in its ideology and structure, and also has access to it's own set of 'Disciplines', which are spell-like abilities the vampire can draw upon. There are 13 core Clans, and these are broken into two main sects, The Camarilla and The Sabbat. The Camarilla Clans are the largest sect, and concern themselves primarily with the 'Masquerade' - the attempt to hide themselves from the mortal world by effectively 'blending in'. The Sabbat conversely, no longer clings to the trappings of human philosophy or morality and revel in their vampiric unlives. Added to this, each individual Clan represents their own beliefs and personality.

Jonric: What are some of these Clans and their beliefs?

Ray Gresko: Brujah: The Camarilla's anarchists, the Brujah have fallen from their position as philosopher-kings of old to their current state of rebellion and defiance. They're the Camarilla's firebrands and agitators, and usually reserve questions for when the fighting's over with.

Nosferatu: The Embrace hideously deforms the members of this Clan, twisting them into literal monsters. They normally hide themselves in the dark and forgotten areas of the city, and have reputations as information brokers and harvesters of secrets. Their horrid appearances have forced them to perfect their mystical stealth-abilities, which aid them in their acquiring of hidden knowledge.

Tzimisce: Formerly the tyrants of eastern Europe, this Sabbat Clan possesses a peculiar nobility, coupled with an evil that transcends mortal perception. More so than any other vampires, the Tzimisce revel in their monstrousness. They practice a 'flesh crafting' Discipline that they use to disfigure their foes and sculpt themselves into beings of terrible beauty.

Jonric: Can a player play a non-vampire character?

Ray Gresko: In addition to playing a Vampire, there are supplementary guides that detail play as a human (e.g. an FBI vampire hunter, or a modern-day zealot Inquisitor), a Ghoul (a human servant to a Vampire master, fed on vampiric blood and given some vampiric abilities), and several of the other strange inhabitants of the World of Darkness.

Jonric: How do character creation and development work?

Ray Gresko: When creating a character, the player is directed to consider what the vampire's human life was like, and even to roleplay her Embrace. You then choose your Clan, and aspects of your persona's Nature and Demeanor (how the character appears to others, and how she truly is inside). Afterwards you get into some stats, organizing your Physical, Mental and Social traits. Points are spent in these areas based on how you prioritize them. The same is done for the Abilities your character has learned. Next you choose the starting Disciplines, some Background attributes and spend points on your Virtues (composed of Conscience, Self-Control and Courage). Finally, you fill in your Humanity (how much of your human morals/appearance you've retained), Willpower (you're inner drive and competence at overcoming unfavorable odds) and Blood pool (how much blood your undead body can hold) stats.

But, as White Wolf mentions, "the character-creation system is intended more as a persona development device than as a strict system of mechanical codification". Much focus is spent in the manuals on helping players create deep and interesting characters that are fun to roleplay.

18 August kl. 18:43

Diablo II: Screenshot of the Week

En Paladin I fuld færd med at kæmpe imod utallige fjender. Det ser virkelig godt ud, og læg især mærke til skyggespillet omkring karakterens "line of sight". De overdrevent mange monstre tiltaler mig ikke, men forhåbnetlig vil RPG elementerne snart være mere synlige.

16 August kl. 10:30

Ugens Spørgsmål: Analyse

Spørgsmålet lød: "Hvor kommer RPG's læsere fra?". Resultaterne var faktisk ikke som jeg regnede med. Jeg ville umiddelbart tro at de fleste CRPG fans boede i- eller omkring København, men der er faktisk endnu flere fra "det mørke Jylland". Kun 5 mennesker kom fra Mars, mens Bornholm og Fæøerne som forventet, ikke havde nogle stemmer. Det sjove ved denne afstemning er, at RPG for mange intenationale besøgende igennem tiden, som man kan se lige her. Det er måske de 2 fra "et andet sted"? Nå, jeg har vist ævlet længe nok, så nedenfor er resultaterne af stemmerne:

• Sjælland (Minus Kbh) (5) 15%
• København (7) 21%
• Nordjylland (Herning og nordefter) (8) 24%
• Sydjylland (Syd for Herning og ned) (6) 18%
• Fyn (1) 3%
• Mars (5) 15%
• Lolland-Falster-Møn (0) 0%
• Bornholm (0) 0%
• Fæøerne (0) 0%
• Et andet sted (2) 6%

Det nye spørgsmål der er oppe, handler om piratkopiering af spil/programmer, og hvorledes RPG's læsere forholder sig til sådan noget. Jeg vil tilkendegive min mening når afstemningen er ovre :-)