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1  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: AOD Voted #2 Best RPG of Past 5 Years by Rpgcodex on: March 12, 2017, 03:52:52 pm
Not sure if you've discussed this recently, but how are things going overall? If I remember correctly back in the day you said that you needed something like 20k copies sold to break even... don't remember the exact numbers. But the game did make it a lot better than you expected, right? Although of course your expectations were pretty low.
2  RPG / RPG Discussion / Re: Demon's Age, another promising TB RPG on: March 30, 2016, 10:35:41 pm
Yeah, as always there's no way to tell if an RPG will turn out to be trve or just a commercial dummy, until it it released.

What? Of course there are ways to tell. Not as if we're playing the lottery here, there are signs to read - the course of the development, the company itself and its track record, the intended audience, the culture of the developers and their priorities... the advertising, the budget, etc etc.
3  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Questioning the Commercium and the economy of AoD on: October 18, 2015, 09:14:10 am
Wonder if this was discussed before, but I can't help but notice that the Commercium, as a social force, does not make any sense in the world of AoD. It is obviously modeled after modern bankers, but this makes it a huge anachronism...

How would money be such a powerful force in a decaying world? Where does this money come from? What state backs it up? What does it represent, exactly? Why would people need money if there is very little to buy? The economy in AoD seems to be mostly about survival... in fact you have to wonder how the cities function at all. To have a big city, you have to have important importations of food, grain ; there is no such thing mentioned in the game.

You have to wonder here. Money in itself is not powerful ; it merely is a symbol of something. I feel like the game does not take account of that simple fact. This is also why the economy seems to be based on a contemporary state of affair : in today's finance world money doesn't necessarily represent anything. There is more money than there are actual resources and goods, which doesn't stop the market to be all powerful... but such oddities would not make sense in a pre-capitalist world.

It is mentioned by Linos at the end of the Teron quest line, but in fact in the world of AoD merchants or bankers would be very fragile. No regulation stops any of the lords, the fighting men, to come and take their riches. The thing is, to have a strong economy, you need a strong state, you need regulations. This goes beyond everything that is said about the free market, but it is a simple historical fact. Before states where powerful and rationalized enough to support a free market, money was not that of an important social factor compared to noble status.

Since there is practically no state in AoD, I feel like we have a problem here. It's as if the game wanted to represent a wild, anarchic libertarianism, where companies become so huge they take the monopoly and become more important than national states - but there are no such states to be found. There are basically not even any peasants around producing riches; the world is dirt-poor! The money these companies make would not enable them to "control the state" : the state is basically a bunch of feudal lords who couldn't care less about money. They'd care much more about grain than money. And this money would not have any kind of universal use.

I feel like this tension is not represented enough in the quest line. The Commercium as a guild is far too smug and far too powerful, where in fact their power should always be represented as very precarious indeed... I feel like there are a few key points where you should cross some powerful people and they should just laugh at the idea of you putting them in debt. Why should they care about debt when they can just kill you, exactly?
4  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: Released! on: October 17, 2015, 07:51:34 pm
I have no words about how it all came out, congrats guys, this game is a really big deal. It was worth waiting 9 years.

Wrote a positive review, I am now your loyal soldier, ready to die miserably in the wastes for a lost cause!
5  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: My Bug Thread on: October 15, 2015, 10:27:29 am
Noticed a little bug yesterday I believe -

Say you're at maximum carrying capacity and want to buy an item. Press buy, you'll loose the money but you won't get the item...

I guess this wouldn't happen very often!
6  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: Steam keys for those who pre-ordered via BMT on: December 15, 2013, 07:15:31 pm
Would like a key, thanks.

What's the email you've used for preordering? It doesn't seem to be the one from your forum profile.

Will send by PM
7  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: Steam keys for those who pre-ordered via BMT on: December 15, 2013, 06:50:14 pm
Would like a key, thanks.
8  RPG / RPG Discussion / Re: Geneforge? on: August 07, 2012, 11:25:27 pm
Avernum - sandbox. Geneforge - much more focused and faction driven. Geneforge 5 is the best game in the series, so start there. If you like it and want more, start with GF1 and work your way up.

Don't. You'll never get used to the primitive interface of the first games if you start with 5. GF1 is a plenty good introduction, and yeah, it's the first one.
9  RPG / RPG Discussion / Re: Diablo 3 beta weekend on: May 29, 2012, 10:53:41 pm
The difference between Diablo 3 and Torchlight 2 is that D3 will sell over 10 million copies and I'd be surprised if T2 sells a million.

D3 is a hollywood mass sheep affair. It's not meant to be deconstructed by loosers who know too much about video games.

I think the game does some things okay, it's a good time waster and is addictive, and can be fun when played with friends. There's not much more to it than that. The game does nothing surprising, it certainly is not gripping me in any way, but I don't regret spending the money so far. I'm not sure why I should spend a word more talking about it. I am right now, because the fucking servers are down. FFS.
10  RPG / RPG Discussion / Re: Diablo 3 beta weekend on: May 02, 2012, 09:40:46 am
I pitty the fool coming in here expecting a discussion about D3.

For fuck's sake

Guys. Jesus fucking christ
11  RPG / Public Beta Discussions / Re: Is this game any good? No... on: May 01, 2012, 04:25:16 pm
the excellent writing (the text describing how you died in particular)

Yeah. Death screen tailored-made for every possible scenario. A feature to be incorporated in rpgs of the future, I hope.

I suppose I'm being half ironic, I do enjoy them but then... I don't
12  RPG / Public Beta Discussions / Re: Low-Combat Assassin Playthrough [WARNING: heavy spoilers] on: April 14, 2012, 11:01:44 pm
Hopefully 4 str 4 con will not be viable in the full game. This basically means you're a terminally ill old man with these stats, it's ridiculous. Of course, con will always kind of be a dump stat in a single player rpg, not sure how you can get around that - except by making it count in other places than combat. I'm waiting to see scenarios where a low str/con will get you seriously fucked for a reason or another, just like having a low int or char in situations can mess you up. That would calm down the min maxers
13  RPG / RPG Discussion / Re: The Witcher 2 EE - April 17th on: April 12, 2012, 11:51:27 am


The console trailer. I liked it.

That was kickass. Letho was a cool character.

I really liked Witcher 2. Shame the game is not getting huge numbers, it's certainly everything a modern mainstream rpg should be. It tops Bioware and Betheshda by far. Even the damn graphics were better. It's like the game is not selling as much as Skyrim just to offend me - because it had an entire branching chapter, because the plot was about politics and intrigue and cultural tension, the morons just aren't interested. It was just too good for them I suppose, even if it was streamlined and if the combat was all-out action oriented.
14  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: Pre-order The Age of Decadence on: April 12, 2012, 11:39:19 am
Pre-ordered, of course.  Salute

How much are we at? 200? I expected more too. Gnnn.
15  RPG / The Age of Decadence / Re: AoD March update on: March 30, 2012, 11:08:54 am
Glorious
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