Ostriig on 22/11/2008 at 17:51
Quote Posted by YuSeF
He hasn't said anything in response to your comments. He only began pouting when you had questioned him. He's their PR guy and in response to a little criticism he takes deep offense while not answering any questions laid forth.
He did no such thing, and he's already mentioned that in this thread himself. Stop flinging so much shit at the guy, he's generally been fairly forthcoming given the circumstances. As for answering, there's little you can do to respond and counter personal interpretations and speculations (some of which I, personally, find to be a bit
too pessimistic for now) when you're not cleared to reveal further information about the game. And that's not something that he gets to decide.
~*~
thiefintehdark - I've attempted to pick out and respond to those of your arguments which I earlier described as not being valid, but rather nitpicks and speculations. Have a look, and if you feel I'm mistaken in my replies, by all means, please correct me.
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[...]
"The story and conspiracy elements are every bit a Deus Ex game. It's awesome."Now, see here. If I use "awesome" to pitch a game idea at school, I get boo'd by my classmates. No marks from the teacher. You know why?
"Awesome" is a weasel-word. It is an arbitrary description with no context, the only purpose of which is to convey the speakers opinion onto the listener. This does not instill confidence in the writing.
See, you're entire gripe here is based on the fact that he used the word “awesome”. As it stands, aside from the “awesome” things, you've got nothing here.
Let me try and address this, since you keep coming back to it. If, hypothetically, I or any other TTLG member popped in here after playing DX3 and said, regarding the storyline or any other element of the game, “Dude, it's pretty fucking awesome.” I expect you'd have little to no objection to the manner of expression. Now, if you want to hold René, as a PR guy, to a different standard of communication, I could accept that. However, I think you completely disregard the fact that most of these “awesome” statements, which you call full of “weasel words”, were made on the official DX3 forums. In case you haven't had the chance to notice, let me spell it out for you - the DX3 forums are a breeding ground for cretinism. Without a requirement for the anally pretentious expression many of us practice here on TTLG, the man either let the words flow from under his fingers, or deliberately attempted what he considered the most effective way of communicating to the respective audience.
TL;DR version for above - As far as his usage of “awesome” goes, you're nitpicking. Hard.
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"The writing team at EM is made up of many talented and experienced people. And did you notice the Sheldon reference...?"Yes, in fact I did. I also know, however, that as amazing as Sheldon is, his talent is going to be absolutely useless here because a team of over-zealous managers, producers, and writers are going to overrule every mildly innovative twist the man puts in until its dumbed down enough for the masses to ingest, and thus purchase. One man cannot overrule the group.
At this point you're just being intentionally pessimistic. You're suggesting that Sheldon would have to somehow face harmful opposition from the rest of the team. Sorry, you just have no way of knowing that. You yourself later echo the fact that the team is “untried”. Without a track record, there's no reason to automatically assume that they're bad, just as there's no reason to assume that they're good. Could go both ways.
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"you will actually be able to see Adam look awesome whereas JC looked pretty normal."Actually, I think that having half my body become this mutated mass that merged flesh and steel was a horrifying prospect, and that was one of the underlying points in Deus Ex. Gunther and Anna were not made to look "awesome", Walton simons face was horrific (though he was first-gen Nano), and did you completely miss the conversation JC had with the bar lady in Hells Kitchen? Translation: Oooooo, shiny cool awesome!
Once again, the “awesome” thing. Aside from that, this is the very opposite of bad news - the idea of the player character's appearance reflecting their degree of “augmentation” is a very interesting feature and, if used correctly, it
could well turn out as a potent expression and story-telling mechanism. This is more of a matter of art direction, than anything else. For what it's worth, I also hope it goes more towards "loss of humanity" than "shiny cool".
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"I don't think it's a character in the game. I think it has hidden meaning..."Just like having your character in Invisible War be the guy in the tank at Area 51 at the end of Deus Ex, this fetus's "hidden meaning" is that the fetus is in fact JC Denton. How can I say this? All evidence points to the designers being graphical hacks and not having a subtle bone in their body.
Eh, what? So what if it were JC? I don't see how that equates to designers being “graphical hacks etc.”. It wouldn't be a great instance of subtlety, granted, but you're exaggerating, mate. Besides, note René said
“I think”. Twice.
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"Our hacking is well beyond a "mini game" and is really freaking cool."I enjoyed the multitools and command line hack. Short, sweet, to the point and did not get in the way, well explained in the games setting. Translation: Made another thing flashy. Also: Weasel words again.
Once again, your “weasel words” argument. I, for one, agree with your favourable view of the lockpick/multitool/hacking system in DX. But, in previous discussions, it's been revealed that most of TTLG
doesn't. Or at least that's the impression I was left with, as many complained about the purely stat-based and non-involved nature of DX hacking. Not all minigames have to be shitty (lol plumbing). Personally, I liked the TDS approach to lockpicking, and Fallout 3's hacking and lockpicking are made of pure win.
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"Deus Ex 1 had boss fights. Walton Simons, Gunther Hermann, etc. They just weren't the Zelda "hit the boss in the eye three times to kill it" kind of boss fight, and neither is Deus Ex 3's."Well, thank heavens for that! I mean, god
forbid you
completely follow the industry trends, when you are in almost every other aspect of the game design. What does this point tell us about the game? Nothing, really, except that it isn't Zelda, but is also
not quite Deus Ex.
So, what exactly are you complaining about here again? No offense, but it looks more like you're blowing off some steam, rather than formulating a proper complaint. The whole “boss fights” thing has seen a lot of discussion in another thread. We don't really know what it all means yet, so keep your pants on for now.
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[...]
and finally this
"The social element is huge. There are tonnes of characters to interact with and the story is massive with a global conspiracy."This is a prequel. In Deus Ex, you came up against the Illuminati, a world-spanning secret society that had been controlling the world from behind the scenes for centuries, and was essentially the most powerful and all-knowing group of people on the entire planet. Unless your plot involves that group of people, you are going to ret-con Deus Ex. If it DOES involve the Illuminati, you are going to
Highly Risk ret-conning Deus Ex. Catch-22. Translation: Weasel words weasel words cool cool awesome.
No, niet, nuh-uh. Sorry, you can easily have a deep and interesting conspiracy setting in this game without it necessarily involving the key players of DX1. They can simply choose to focus on another thematical element than the Illuminatii. And with a 30-year buffer zone, they've got plenty of wiggle room to allow for tie-ins with the later occurring DX1. Regarding the actual proposed setting, as far as I can tell it has a great deal of potential to allow a cyberpunk epic to unfold. With augmentation technology catching on, high-level corporate rivalry sounds pretty good.
Like I said, I've only addressed some of your points here - those that I felt were not valid arguments for complaining. The rest, like in regard to health-regen or the stealth system, I believe have a good basis and they've already seen in-depth discussion in other threads.
