justwannaddl

I wish I could leave Oblivion myself but the mods keep dragging me back. For starters 1) Oblivion mod manager 2) The unofficial patch 3) Open cities 4) Deadly reflex and/or unnecessary violence II 5) Darnified UI (Enable the grid inventory for best results) 6) Zebra (A bit OP but great for yucks) 7) Better cities 8) CM partners (Good for pack mules and cannon fodder. May be unbalancing though.) 9) Fast exit For later: 1) Nehrim

I would say casual but obsessive. I'm the type who finds a game and latches onto it until my console/computer dies and I lose all my data. I would still be playing Diablo 1, Raiden and X-com if my windows 95, 98 and 2000 machines didn't die one me.

Witcher-2-DRM-Free-Version-Was-Pirated-Less-Than-SecuROM-Version The article is basically an example of how not only does DRM not work, it has reached such a point that it provokes pirates into pirating the DRM version over non-DRM versions. Is the Witcher 2's situation the norm? Of course not. Most games do not have a DRM and DRM free version. It does prove though that the Witcher 2 still would have been widely pirated with or without a DRM free version. For the developers of The Witcher 2, it means that DRM is a waste of resources that only serves to aggravate their user base.

Forgot about that reason. Having the ability to force invisible patches to the loot drop system across the board makes a lot of sense in any effort to profit off the Auction House. Too much gold floating around? Cut drops by 10%. There really are too many angles for them to work in terms of information gathering by forcing always online DRM.

Bethesda games aren't the only games with mods. Is it legal? Yes it is. Allowed on battlenet? No. Never. Blizzard would kill your family and burn your house down before they'd allow it. They weren't too keen about people using item dupe exploits either though they never quite got a handle on the latter. That didn't stop people who played it for single player and in LAN parties. On a related note, I found a nice article by John Cheese on the Diablo launch. http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-diablo-iii-represents-gamings-annoying-future/

They wanted to push players to use the Auction House, collect usage data from players and prevent modding. No point in grinding the infinity +1 sword if a modder can easily make one that has better textures and animations. No modders mean they have no competition for DLCs like Christmas outfits and pet cow followers. The excuse to have always online DRM doesn't hurt either.

I doubt it is too much to ask a MMO to have good graphics. It isn't as if the servers are doing the rendering and streaming the video to your PC after all. It is good to see the criticism though since it keeps them from resting on their laurels and creates more pressure to put out a better product. Any thoughts on the idea that ESO will eventually become free to play? I have mixed feelings about such systems myself. The last one I played felt like a shopping mall with a game attached to it. Elder Scrolls Online will eventually be free-to-play - Analyst

Agreed on that but I can't help but shake the feeling that this is also a social experiment on their part. If the game doesn't have the same longevity as its predecessors then profits from the AH and even game sales alone may not cover the long term costs for maintaining servers to host every game. The major benefit of always online DRM is that it essential changes the game from a product into a service that they can potentially change, monitor and even discontinue at their discretion. Players do not own the game. They just have access to it. If they violate the terms of said access, they can be banned. Account activity such as play time, characters used, players killed, amount of real money players are willing to spend in the AH, etc can be aggregated and used to target the customer base with commercials, email campaigns, exclusive in game perks, etc. Should they succeed, Blizz/Activision could even tack on a subscription fee to future single player games, thus tapping into the used game and renter's markets. Of course all this means that modding is pretty much out of the question, players with poor internet connectivity are screwed and privacy is forfeit.

I am a Diablo fan going back to the original but I did't buy Diablo 3 because of the always online play requirement. I played the prequels as single player mostly and prefered the reliability of LAN and ad hoc connections for multiplayer to battlenet. Also, like pretty much anyone who comes to this site, I like having the option to mod games. Always online tends to mean no mods ever. The auction house in D3 guarantees it. Now I am left wondering, did they put the auction house in as an excuse to add DRM or did they add the DRM because they seriously believed that it would become a huge cash cow? I'd be inclined to think the latter if not for the fact that the auction house isn't working yet apparently. Then again, a lot about the game isn't working. I don't buy the argument that it was done to solve the problems of cheaters and item duplication though. Cheaters in single and even multiplayer games aren't exactly a massive concern for most games and punkbuster was invented for a reason.

The link below is of how they voted in the house of representatives. I'll update the first post if this makes it past the senate. Hopefully, it won't come to that. I'd hate to have to rely on Obama's veto promise. House Roll Call: Cybersecurity

http://www.raspberrypi.org/ Just thought that this was interesting. For those who missed it, the Raspberry Pi is a bare board credit card sized linux computer capable of playing 1080p h.264 video that costs £22 /$35. It uses low end ARM chips, a healthy number of ports to connect to monitors/TVs and outdated smartphone parts which all told make it about as powerful as a PC from ten years ago. It was designed as a low cost computer that kids could use to learn programming but because of its tiny size, price and features, it's become highly sought after by hobbyists and sold over 350000 units to date. Personally, I'd love to get my hands on one to try as a media PC for my TV. It also appears to be strong enough to run old games like Quake 3. Shame orders are backlogged well into summer.

Canada huh? I heard good things about privacy there but horrible things about download caps. Considering all the talk about throttling and caps by the damned cable and phone companies though, unlimited bandwidth in the US ain't as certain as it used to be. Then again, a lot of promises about the internet in general aren't as concrete as they used to seem around here. How is Vancouver this time of year and how tough is it to get citizenship there? Note: I use around a half a gig to two gigs of bandwidth a day depending on how much I abuse video sites. I need my fix of the Daily Show, Colbert Report and South Park every week, not to mention the random hour or three of youtube and Hulu clips.

Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote House Roll Call: Cybersecurity The last link is a list of how the people voted in the house. :facepalm: I'd give my opinion on this but swearing isn't allowed on this forum. Thank goodness for emoticons. :wallbash:

CISPA Veto Threatened By White House The White House threatened a veto if the bill goes through without better protections for personal information. The debate on the house floor will happen tomorrow and the vote will be on Friday. Hopefully Obama's administration isn't just blowing hot air.

The main reason I play Bethesda games is that I can personalize them. If a Bethesda MMO allows mods, then I may be interested. If it does not like virtually every other MMO, then I won't give it a second look.

CISPA’s Latest Critic: The White House mashable.com/2012/04/18/white-house-cispa/ Gist of article above: The White House wants more privacy protections and more focus on securing networks for critical infrastructure like power and water on any cyber-security bill. No word on whether they will veto CISPA if it passes the house and senate in its current form. Not exactly the resounding rebuke of CISPA that I would like to see but at least they didn't come out trying to defend the garbage. On greek exiles, I believe exile won't work since back then, it was more or less an extended death sentence. Nowadays, a rich bastard in exile would just set up shop in another country and possibly even continue screwing us from afar. I believe the old colonial practice of hot tarring and feathering followed by a parade out of the area they controlled is a suitable substitute for our failed leaders. For failed presidents, I'd suggest dumping them in the ocean.

I like my privacy.

I don't have a Facebook account. As a self avowed tin-foil hat wearer, I never really understood the appeal. On that note, the idea that you have to give up your usernames and passwords to a potential employer so that they can spy on your account info is disgusting. How this could possibly be legal is beyond me.

Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act Civil Liberties Organizations Launch Protests Against CISPA As summarized in the usnews article above, "The bill would allow private companies to access classified government information to help protect them from cyber attacks that bring down their networks. In return, those companies would be allowed to share users' private information with the government, as long as it constitutes a "cyber threat" or relates to homeland security." Looks like this is coming to a vote in the House of Representatives sometime next week. It's funny, I never would have thought this wave of crap (further) violating privacy rights and net neutrality would come up and even have a chance to pass, especially so soon after SOPA. Any thoughts on the likelihood this tripe will become law? edit: House passes CISPA bill Insanity: CISPA Just Got Way Worse, And Then Passed On Rushed Vote House Roll Call: Cybersecurity The last link is a list of how the people voted in the house. :facepalm:

Early on, unrelenting force and run for the hills. Later on, ethereal shout and run for the hills. I run away a lot since my first experience with Skyrim involved a 100HP no armor mage build.

I actually disagree with two points: Rune Master and Bribery. As a pure 100HP unarmored mage, I found any extra range on a spell very beneficial. At a safe position, I toss a trap at say a closed door and if it blows, I am far enough away to either run, hide or commit to an attack. If not, my mana would have recharged by the time I am at said door. As for bribery, it really is a major pain to reload every time I go on a crime spree and I don't always like being part of the Thieves guild and going through the hassle of making all the cities comply so the perk makes sense. Ultimately, the real useless perks are a lot of the dual cast perks. Dual cast conjuration is especially pointless since all it does is raise duration. Double summoning duration just doesn't fly in the face of the master lvl thrall spells.

I agree with a few of the previous comments. The current Skyrim, modded or not, just pales in comparison to a fully modded Oblivion. I do feel though that Skyrim simply lacks the same openness that Oblivion had. I could walk and climb any place with relative ease in Oblivion including in Dagon's realm. In contrast, It feels like you are being funneled into the roads in Skyrim because of all the damned mountains and impassible rocks. Really, if there was an option to climb the currently impassible crap, I may have enjoyed vanilla Skyrim more vs vanilla Oblivion. Couple that with Skyrim's ongoing growing pains and it really is tough to get into the game for a lot of Morrowind and Oblivion vets since both games have fully matured long ago.

Morokei annihilated my 100HP low lvl unarmored mage with one or two lightening bolts while turning my flame atronach against me several times. I only beat the freak after the tenth time with dual cast firebolts+impact. Even then, I only survived because he glitched out and froze. Otherwise, he would have simply one shot me with his lightening after I ran out of magicka.

The DB? They died in that raid. The Emperor was probably killed by the Thalmor. What? That Motierre guy was like that when I got there. I got this loot off the back of a cart. :whistling:

@spork542- I know what you mean about not having any in story option to take down the thieves guild. Look on the bright side though, there's always plan b. Set every guild member and affiliate to non essential and pretend you are playing a GTA game. :devil: