Dragon Age II

So in my Dragon Age review I began by asking “Can Bioware do no wrong?”   Apparently the answer is “Yes.”

I had originally mocked Bioware in my first review for taking 4 years to produce the first game.. Now suddenly that didn’t seem like such a bad idea, as Dragon Age II (DA2) the supposed successor, was rushed out the door in just over 8 months and it shows.  DA2 just doesn’t compare to Dragon Age – Origins (DA:O).

Now I realize that I’m giving the impression that I didn’t think DA2 was a good game, that’s not the case.. I think it was a good game by itself, but it just didn’t meet up with the expectations nor match the precedent that was set with DA:O.

So, I want to say that Yes, DA2 is a good game on its own merits.   But if you go in expecting DA:O version two, you’re going to be disappointed.

The thing I liked about DA:O was that it was an epic game, and epic in it’s story telling.  They did an excellent job in making the player feel like he was a part of a bigger world.   The game itself was fricken huge, with a lot of unique areas and places to go, things to see.. monsters to kill.. And there wasn’t a lot of repeating of those areas.

One of the biggest issues with DA2 is they constantly reused the same dungeon, cave, map over and over just blocking off areas to keep you from going there this time..  This gets old fast and the 10th time I went into a random cave only to be on the same map I have done previously, I got kinda fed up.  This was a really cheap way to reuse content and the game suffered a lot for it.   Take a couple extra months and give us more areas so we aren’t constantly walking in our own footsteps..

I did very much like how they told the story through the dwarf character, I thought that was quite clever indeed.. But it never “drew me in”.  I don’t really know why but I never really felt like I was part of the story, just an outside observer of it..

Plus they completely removed the customizability of the previous game with regards to gear and equipping your secondary characters, or even for your main character to have a secondary slot of weapons.. These things were staples of the first game, gone in the second.  Why?

Stability wise I think they missed the mark too as the game crashes on me quite a lot.  Of my friends though, apparently I am the only person that this happens to so I’m willing to accept that it’s me or my hardware.

Graphics and engine wise the game is as good as the first one, with the only notable difference is how you interact with your characters.   You can interact with your character more like a MMO than like the first game and that’s a good thing, though it may be playing a big role in how different the game feels.

Things that are better than the first game;

The Tactic System – The tactic system got better, thank you very much Bioware.  Huge points from me there.  However you still don’t have a “reset” tactic that can be used to turn stuff off when combat ends.   Still its better than the first game for sure and your characters seem to be smarter about following them.  I pretty much automated my characters completely and only played my main toon which was the whole point.  Every once in a while I had to actually pause the game and redirect, but for the most part that wasn’t necessary.   In the first game I pretty much paused every other second to redirect someone.

The Difficulty —  The game is actually fricken hard, when you play it on hard.   The first game I played on hard the first time through and impossible on the second time through without too much trouble.  This game, even hard is too dang hard.  That’s a good thing!  Hard should be hard.

Ranged Rogues — Ranged rogues don’t suck!  YAY!  Bows in the old game and ranged attacks in general were completely worthless..  The new game, not so much.. in fact not at all!  Thank you for this.

Magic — Magic in general seems much more impressive.  It not only does more damage but it does it with style.

etc..  Lots of little things that they did do better..  It’s just the feeling of the game is less epic.. Less grand..  Comparing it to another favorite franchise; Mass Effect 2 was a far better game than Mass Effect.   Dragon Age 2 wasn’t far better than Dragon Age – Origins.   It was just different…

I feel like if you loved Origins, you’ll hate DA2 or not really identify with it as much.  Where as if you really didn’t get into Origins, you’ll love DA2.

So it may be unfair to say that Bioware did wrong with DA2.  I just was expecting something different than I got..  I haven’t quite finished the game yet, I’ll knock it out and get back to you.

Napoleon Total War

I have always been a fan of the Total War franchise, but in my opinion none of them have been all that great.  Good and fun in most cases, sure.. but great?  Eh not really..  All of them have had their share of issues of which Napoleon TW shares some of them.. NTW is by far the most refined version so far and a lot of fun but, I’m not quite sure it peeks the “great” meter just yet.. I will say its pretty darn good and a lot of fun though..

Totally worth the price as it’s clear to me that Creative Assembly (the developers) are getting better at their craft but the game has one staggering short fall that it shares with all it’s siblings;  Horrible AI.

This is the 6th iteration of the game core concept and the AI is still just dreadful..  I’m pretty sure we could train a monkey to play the game better..  I know AI is very complex and as a programmer myself I’m not sure how to solve this problem, but dang..  The computer is down right bad.   Given enough time you probably could beat any army with just about any force..  It’s actually fun trying to do just that.. heh

In comparison to Empire Total War, it’s immediate predecessor, Napoleon is the clear winner.  The game is much more polished and refined than ETW ever was and it makes me feel like ETW was what NTW was supposed to be, but they ran out of time and money..  I will say that the AI in NTW is better than ETW, but when up is the only possible direction….

I will say this, NTW is beautiful.. There is nothing cooler than watching your line of infantry slowly disappear in a hazy cloud of black powder smoke as a line of enemy advance forward.. Or the small skip gashes that are cut into the scenery as a cannon ball goes whizzing by.. Great stuff..  The level of care and detail there is pretty high..

But the AI is so dumb that the enemy unit of 120 line infantry will happily walk into a line of cannon..  Or horse melee units that charge into the barriers (only to die immediately in droves)..  Or how the diplomacy system is completely pointless..etc..

The AI is the killer.. It’s just not good..

One way they got around that was to introduce the notion of “drop in battles” in which you can, during your single player campaign, enlist a friend (or complete stranger even) to play the part of the enemy during some of the battles.   I will admit.. This was a damn good and innovative idea.. Well done guys..  I love this..

Whats nice about it is that the other player when he’s playing your enemy, or when you’re playing his enemy in his campaign, isn’t really invested in the same way..  So if he loses it’s almost like it’s not a personal loss.. after all its not like you chose the force..etc..   I like it.. this was a good addition to the game..

For the next iteration of the game I hope they go more into the trading, and economy aspects of the game.   I want to be able to set individual tax rates for a single province.. or define whats being traded where..etc..  Right now its fairly limited.. you’re either trading or not.. etc..  I know this game is more about the killin and less about things like trade and diplomacy but I still would like a more rounded game experience in these areas..

All in all… Not “great”.. but pretty damn good and a lot of fun against like minded friends..

Additional;

I really think Games Workshop should get with Creative Assembly and make Warhammer Total War.. Dear god.. talk about two franchises that absolutely belong together..  This engine, plus GW’s IP?!  WIN!!  It would be like chocolate and peanut butter man..

How cool would it be to see a pack of Skaven march into a pack of Witchelves (dead Skaven)..  Or see a bunch of Jezzails take out some Coldone Knights.. etc..  Hot..

I think this is such a good idea I’m going to send them a letter…

Splintercell Conviction

I really like a good first person shooter..  But most FPS games these days aren’t about thinking or planning your way out, they are just run and gun, “zerg-fests” where you run in shoot a few.. die, respawn, run in shoot a few, die, respawn.. wash, rinse, repeat..  Boring..

The new Splintercell game isn’t this..  I would call it more of a first person sneaker.  In that it’s entirely conceivable to play through large swaths of the game without firing a shot, and that’s just cool..

As with any game it has it’s ups and downs, but over all its up and I think UBISoft has set themselves up with a game that they can kick out a lot of downloadable content for, if they leverage this correctly..

Things that make this game stand out for me are the little details, like the movement mechanics.. Frankly, I think the movement mechanics are great!   And the cover system is fantastic, unlike some other games I have played recently..  It did take a little getting used to some aspects of it; like I’d prefer the shift key to not be a toggle for run/walk but rather be a press and hold kind of thing but that’s largely because it’s what I’m used to with other games, not because its inherently wrong..

There are lots of different weapons that you can use ( or not use ) and you have options to upgrade them..  There are also a whole pack of different thrown gadgets that you can use and they all have their use..

I also really like the color vs black/white mechanic..  At first I thought this would be jarring and break the suspension of disbelief but the opposite was true.. I feel it actually helps a lot..

Lots of textual help everywhere which again I thought would be distracting or break the suspension, but actually they way they worked it in was great and made it sorta feel like a movie..

Really my complaints about the game are minor;

1.  The game is short — I finished the game in 11 hours, and I was going slow.. I’m pretty sure you could finish it a heck of a lot faster than that if you tried..  It seemed really complete though in that the 11 hours was packed with stuff to do, but I kinda wish games were longer.. they seem to be getting shorter and shorter.

2.  Very linear — to be expected really.. There is usually only one way to go..

3.  A couple of the levels need more direction — the car garage sneak event annoyed me and really was the only level that kinda pissed me off, but primarily because I had no idea where I was supposed to go and it took me several tries..

4.  PRODUCT PLACEMENT!!  Dear god..  I wonder how much Cisco and the producers of the new Nightmare on Elm Street paid to get their product so highly and obviously placed in the game..  Frankly this was jarring.. I didn’t like this..  All computer monitors can be destroyed!! uh.. unless there is a Cisco logo on it, then no..  etc..  There were others.. it was annoying..

5.  And finally the AI, while not dreadfully stupid the enemy aren’t too bright.. For example I was right around the corner from a guy who knew I was there.. he had the brilliant idea of throwing a frag grenade at me.. it basically dropped at his feet and I just remained hidden while he died.. heh  it was amusing, but kinda dumb..   The biggest issue is that they are constantly yelling what they are doing which they took directly from FEAR and was a problem in that game too that I know folks complained about..  Oh well..

All in all it was a great game.. and I will likely play it again on hard..

I think I actually give this one 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The best part is that my wife has been playing it too.. And even more surprising is she likes playing drums!!   That actually came as a shock to me.. I expected her to enjoy guitar or bass.. I never thought she’d like the drums because frankly they are the hardest part..

But she loves it so we play together and do fairly well..Good times!!

Now they just need to add a lot more Journey songs.. They only have 2?!  TWO!!!  *sigh*  More!  I want more damnit.. hehe

Good game.. I highly recommend it..

Some might wonder why the single most popular science fiction franchise in the history of media has taken so long to be turned into an MMO, myself included — But I think it’s a better use of our efforts to instead not speculate too much on the why of it but rather to channel that raw emotion and energy into the heart felt desire for STO to not suck.

Let’s be honest here, Cryptic Studios is very good at bringing out games that look kinda keen, but have zero long term playability.   City of Heroes and City of Villains suffered from this, and the successor Champions Online (City of Champions?) was even worse.   They looked great, but for whatever reason they just didn’t have the sticking power to keep players interested.

Will STO be the same thing?  Look good initially and maybe be fun for a week or two, but rapidly drag down into a grind-tastic mess?  God I hope not..

I can’t actually put my finger on what it is about CoH/CoV and CO that make them lose their fun.  I will say that of the three, I think City of Villains was the best with regards to game play but that was primarily due to the controller character architecture.  What can I say; I enjoyed having a pack of zombies at my disposal..

Game play wise though, all of them got very boring and repeatative very very quickly.

One of the main cool points about the game was the ability to make all your characters 100% unique, but at the same time I can’t help but wonder if that was part of it’s downfall too..  When you look at games that have a more ridgid class structure you end up having a sort of community around that class, and with that community you have competition.  “Oh yeah? Well I’m a better Warlock than you are.. and I’ll prove it!!”  etc..

Players end up putting a lot of time and effort in to trying to make their cookie cutter class stand out from all the other cookie cutter classes.  That in and of itself forces a person to form a bond or an identity with their character making them want to keep playing..

When you can start your characters virtual life as being 100% unique, you have one less thing to strive for..  So while it’s really cool I can go out of my way to make my character look completely different.. it doesn’t lend itself to longevity..

This also completely ruins the whole sense of community around a given class which is a problem.. What’s more community is completely thrashed by the total lack of classes where group play happens..  The open architecture of characters, while initially cool, makes group forming painful because suddenly you can’t say “We need a healer” and know that there are only 3 or 4 basic classes that heal..

STO appears to have classes with regards to ships; tanks, dps, and support ships.  So that’s a damn good sign.  I’m hoping the realize the issues I described above and are working to correct the issue.. But I still have fears about the game as a whole..

For example; I absolutely cringe at the notion of wandering around a space station and having random NPC’s run up and yell about how awesome I am like they did in CoH/CoV and CO..  Please rip that page out of the CoH/CoV/CO hand book and burn it..

I also worry that the game’s look (read: graphics) are dated even before the game has been released.  Cryptic has always intentionally made their games sort of “middle of the road” with regards to hardware requirements so it’s very likely that the game will not be super high quality, but even so they screen shots look very lack-luster.   These could all be beta shots with poor textures or something, but I doubt it.

I’m the first to admit that gameplay comes over graphics every time though, so if the game play is good then I can forgive just about any graphics decisions.. But then they aren’t known for their game play so its easy to jump to conclusions..

I guess my greatest fear is that Star Trek Online will end up being “City of Star Trek” and will be to Star Trek, what the original Star Wars MMO was to Star Wars. (Read: Horrible)

Dragon Age Logo

I ask you — can Bioware do no wrong?  Every game of theirs that I have played, I have loved.  Neverwinter Nights was kinda “Feh” but the concept was excellent even though the editor was horrible.   Mass Effect was fantastic forcing me to play it through like 4 times..  And of course the Baldur’s Gate franchise was awesome.. I played that game until my eyes bled, sought healing and then played it some more..

So when Dragon Age was announced at E3 way back in 2004 I was stoked..  Finally a spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate done in a completely new style with modern graphics, fully voice acted and by the same developer.. *Gleeeee* I anticipated more costly eye healing.. As I was sure to play that game as much as I played Baldur’s Gate..

And then we waited.. and waited.. and waited..  Set the way forward machine now to 5 fricken years later… And FINALLY we have the game to play..

And it’s pure liquid awesome.. but I get ahead of myself..

I have to admit I think most game companies release information about their games way too early.. Bioware is extremely guilty of this and they still haven’t learned their lesson..  They released information about Neverwinter Nights way too early and it caused this massive hypefest that dwindled down to sarcastic jokes and disappointment by the time the game was finally released..  I don’t know for sure but I am more than willing to put money on the fact that it hurt their sales..

It also hurt them that Neverwinter Nights just couldn’t live up to type hype that was generated.. It was supposed to be a new kind of awesome, and it simply wasn’t.   Dragon Age on the otherhand didn’t get quite as much hype and it deserved it!  It’s a really good game.. I mean.. it’s stunningly good..  It’s quite possibly one of the best games I have ever played, and let me tell ya — that’s saying something..

Firstly, the game is beautiful.. Their engine is really coming along nicely and it serves the game extremely well..  Plus it’s not a CPU hog.. I play the game at 1920×1200 on a dual monitor system at max graphics 8xAA and get a solid 60 frames per second.. (I have v-sync turned on)..

Secondly, the entire game is voice acted.. and well too..  I like that.. suddenly you don’t have to read tedious story lines for hours and hours just to get some concept of whats going on in the game..

Thirdly, the game is fricken huge!!  They say it has 200 hours of play time, but I think it’s more.. I know I haven’t played 200 hours yet, but I have done quite a bit and my character isn’t 20% through the game yet .. (there is a stat that tells you how far you have gone).. Plus the way they have added downloadable content was clever so the game is forever expandable.. More over, when they announced the name change from “Dragon Age” to “Dragon Age: Origins” it sort of let us know that they have a lot of plans for this engine.  I anticipate quite a lot of new games / expansions to be released under the Dragon Age title..  But not only that, I am willing to bet that the new games (say for example the new Star Wars MMO) will use this engine too..

Finally, the game has good re-playability.. This game is basically 6 games in one in that you can play through it six times and have six different experiences.. Each “Origin” gives you a whole new perspective on the game and its cool..

I have a ton more I could talk about, like how the tactic system is cool and how the game can be played over the shoulder or isometric..etc.. But posting about this stuff is keeping me from actually playing the game and that just wont do..  Look.. go get the game.. this is one game that you must go get..

Champions Online

Okay I know I’m not supposed to talk about this yet, but it’s near enough to open beta that I feel I can safely talk about the game without giving anything important away — or at the very least I think I’m safe from being sued..  (Please don’t sue me..)

I have been in the Champions Online closed beta pretty much since day one and I can say without much hesitation that the game is not horrible. In fact I would go as far as to say its pretty good and appears to be getting better with each patch..

I certainly can say that as the beta has progressed the game has gotten Waaaaayy better and will very likely continue to do so for a good while yet..  And I can further say that it’s good enough for me to actually purchase and play the game after release, but there are issues I hope get solved..

From day 1 when I started in the beta I had extremely high hopes.   Extremely high..  Like.. Too high.. heh

I wanted Champions online to be exactly what Champions is;  a “sky is the limit” paper and pencil role playing game where the player can create any kind of hero they want and effectively play within the realm of the GM’s imagination..   If you as a player could imagine it,  then you could do it!  Booyah baby!

I pretty much had the same hopes for City of Heroes previously and of course was let down for many of the same reasons which I’ll get to..  (Note;  I liked City of Heroes and played it for a good long time but it never had the freedom and versatility that it had originally promised. )

Champions Online suffers from this exact same issue — our expectations are too high.  It’s completely unrealistic to think that they could create a game where players could be ANYTHING..  I mean how do you even create the framework that can encompass a whole generation of players imaginations?!  Powers, Abilities, Costumes.. etc   You can’t.. Period.. There’s just no way..

This problem isn’t really a problem, it’s a matter of the player needing to lower their expectations a tad..   But they did call their game “Champions” online so of course that makes people hope for just such a thing..

So instead of trying they went the same route that they had used with City of Heroes, which is a good thing to be honest.

What they did was to limit everything down to a set or subset of powers that you can choose from when building your super hero.  They do the same thing with costumes in that there are a finite number of elements you can choose from.

In City of Heroes you could spend days just playing with the character creator designing your hero.. Not powers or attributes, but just creating what your hero looks like.  Multiply that by a factor of 4 and you have the new character creator.  It’s quite nice in that you can create just about anything.    I had a lot of fun tooling around in the character generator and made all manner of silly to serious characters.  The creator had some bugs of course, its still early in development, but it was still pretty neat.

The power sets right now seem somewhat limited..  I wish/want there to be way more powers.. I also was under the impression that we would have more control over what powers looked like..  I swear I read somewhere that you could have the same “blast” power that someone else had, but you could control what it graphically looks like or what color it was etc.. and that’s not the case..  In some cases you can control where the power originates (hands, head, chest..etc) but that seems to be it..

Maybe later in the game you can control how powers appear but for now I don’t see that ability..

The game play is sort of what you’d expect from “City of Heroes’ 2″ which is all Champions Online is.  Its fun, but don’t expect anything super awesome like..

My major complaint with the game at this point was a graphic setting that defaulted to on, and made the game look horrible..   They had “Depth of Field” turned on, which meant that the farther away from the camera an object/item/scene was, the blurier it was.  It got so blurry during one scene it was hard to look at.. it actually made me a little ill..  I had to turn DOF off completely..

I’m not sure I fully appreciate the cell shading thing to be honest.. I understand why they went that way, and I believe in the long run it will stand the test of time better than a more “realistic” theme..  I just don’t really like it yet..   I have the same issue with the stylistic graphics of World of Warcraft.. its just a personal opinion thing really..

All in all I think the game is good..

I very much recommend it.. and if you liked City of Heroes I think you’ll really like Champions Online..

Wow versus War

I love the Warhammer universe.  I have been an avid player of the various table top miniature games as well as the couple RPG games in the same universe.   So when Warhammer Online came out a year ago, I was stoked!

I figured it would be pure liquid awesome and finally give me a computer version of the game world I have enjoyed playing in for so long.

Of course I was let down quite a bit in that the game was lacking..  but I get ahead of myself.

When I learned that Warhammer online was licensed to Mythic Entertainment, I was less than thrilled. Their only other game of note is Dark Age of Camelot which was a one trick pony (realm versus realm combat) that has no long term play associated with it.. And while the game is still around, it’s just not fun. There is nothing there to keep players like me playing the game.. I just don’t enjoy it nor does it have the massive fan base that it could have if they had bothered to keep innovating.

WoW on the other hand has gobs and gobs of things to do long term as well as lots of mindless achievements and other end game elements to keep players attention.  They are adding new content and new fun things to the game all the time and this is from a guy who really doesn’t like WoW..

When it comes to long term play, WoW is the clear winner. I play it still today and have for a while now. My guild has killed the end game boss (Yogg) many times at this point and is starting to work on getting to the next guy..

I’m playing WAR too at this point, but it’s just not that fun and my interest is waning.. As I played WAR originally (and as I am relearning more recently), I realize it is exactly the same game as DAoC just in a slightly different universe. It suffers the same issues that DAoC did and really brings very little new to the table..

What WAR does wrong:

• The PVE aspects of the game are absolutely horrible.. The questing is painfully linear and just about always forces you to venture into PVP areas even if you don’t want to.
• The zone’s are confusing and poorly laid out which makes navigation with out the flight system near impossible.
• The flight mechanic from zone to zone is long loading and lame — considering that you must use it, it needs an overhaul.
• The models are pretty bad, but the animations are down right dreadful…
• I can go on and on but will leave it be as otherwise this list will be too long…

What WAR does right:

PQ’s, SC’s and PVP.

The public quest system is neat and I wouldn’t be surprised if blizzard “adopts” such a system in the near future.. It’s well thought out and works quite nicely. This I think is likely to be the single innovation that folks will remember WAR for in several years..

So far the majority of the scenarios (SC’s.. Think battlegrounds for you WoW players) are a lot of fun. Again way more so than any of the BG’s in WoW which I find to be tedious and boring.

DAoC’s big plus was the Realm versus Realm thing.. Mythic of course followed that same model in producing WAR and as such their PVP model is excellent. The realm versus realm thing is a lot of fun.. for a while.. it becomes tedious and boring fairly quickly, but still the PVP is very good.

The PVP in WAR is far far far better than what is offered by WoW. Period. Full stop.

The reason for that is how the classes are balanced as well as the fact that blocking is turned on. In WoW it’s perfectly reasonable for a frail clothy to stand toe to toe with a fella in full plate and win. Generally in WoW PVP any one class well played, can defeat any one other class.. What’s the point?

In War, this is unreasonable and usually punished harshly. As a bright wizard (weak clothy) I know that if a tank (guy in plate) charges me I have only a few seconds to react before death.. I better make them count! Each class in the game has a specific function and is only really good at that function!

With blocking turned on (collision detection) the tanks can stand in front of the more frail classes and prevent them from being slaughtered..

The only place that this fails WAR is you have a lot of WoW players playing WAR who don’t realize their place and as such just charge in and die, or refuse to block, or simply wont heal..etc. I can’t fault War for the players being stupid..

The problem here is that the game somewhat encourages players to play stupidly in that even if they don’t work together in a SC the losing team still gets’ a lot of experience for it.. but that’s an aside.. again I really can’t fault Mythic for morons..

What I can do though is fault Mythic for producing a game that is so completely unrefined. There are so many little things about War that is a complete fail..

The Macro system is bad.. The map system sucks.. The models are lame.. The animations are really bad.. The PVE content is tedious.. Some of the classes seem out of balance.. The crafting system is horrible and pointless.. etc.. It’s just not that fun of a game and a lot of that is due to these little things..

Let me be perfectly clear.  I don’t like World of Warcraft.  I don’t enjoy the universe at all, the stylistic game play, the mindless grinding, the life sucking raiding..etc..    I play it solely because my wife enjoys it..  Fine I’ll play for her..  But I don’t really like it.   I do however have to say that Blizzard has made a good game.   It’s very refined in that stuff works.  It has it’s own problems too.. (the inability to launch more dungeon instances is a big one.. )   But over all WoW is a good game.

Mythic with WAR however isn’t all that good.  It really seems like they doggedly stuck to their one trick (realm vs realm) in the hopes that it would make a WoW Killer and not bother to innovate.  Okay fine, PQ’s.. but that’s ONE thing..   And of course just as DAoC’s one trick failed to make the game a success, the exact same trick on WAR also failed..

The real issue I have is, it’s been a year..  the game has done nothing in that time and at this point it doesn’t look like its going to do anything..  If they don’t care enough to fix their game, or innovate and make it better.. then I don’t care enough to play it..

Can’t fix stupid.

Surfs Up!

I have been playing with the jQuery animate functionality a bit today and it occurred to me that jQuery would likely be the perfect library to build a browser based game on top of..

I did a little browsing about the web, and sure enough.. someone thought of it before me.

The games I would want to create would be less animated than this one.. but I could totally see a Masters of Orion remake as a browser based game using the jQuery library..   Or any number of other turn based games..  You could even make them multiplayer fairly easily..

As computers get faster, and as browser trend towards threaded javascript engines.. Why the hell not?! At this point I think it would be just as easy/difficult to create a game via a webbrowser as it would via any other medium..

More over you wouldn’t have to sell any kind of client.. everyone with a modern computer has a web browser.. You trade having to create a game that works with hundreds of different graphics drivers and computer configurations for having to deal with 5 major browsers that all do things slightly differently, but big deal.. jQuery does most of that nicely, so really you’re only stuck fixing CSS issues..

As always the trick is in coming up with a game that is compelling enough that others want to play it. I mentioned Masters of Orion above because I think that’s likely one of the best games of all time and as such a perfect candidate for remake in this format.

Granted you’re not going to make the next 3D masterpiece as a browser based game.. but I say good.. Games these days are moving towards looking good with zero game play.. Give me a game that is fun to play any day over the latest wiz-bang graphics.. I think the browser game market is a good place to try this..

Okay that last bit may be a lie, but the rest is true. They stated that the disbarment was to take effect 30 days after the initial hearing back in September in order to allow him to shut down his practice.  Of course, being the douche bag that he is, he immediately filed his own emergency motion with the court in order to seek a retrial, however another Bar member would have had to vouch for him because they stated “no motion for rehearing will be considered unless signed by a member in good standing with the Florida Bar” which didn’t happen.

I think most lawyers were smart enough to stay away from this one..  And now a month later, his career as an attorney is over in Florida… Anyone wanna bet he will move?

The full press release says;

Miami attorney Jack Thompson, nationally and internationally known by virtue of his effective and successful opposition over the last 20 years to the broadcast, marketing, and sale of adult-rated entertainment to children, has just been informed by the Florida Supreme Court that he has been disbarred from the practice of law today.

—

The timing of this disbarment transparently reveals its motivation: This past Friday Thompson filed a federal civil rights action against The Bar, the Supreme Court, and all seven of its Justices. This rush to disbarment is in retribution for the filing of that federal suit. With enemies this foolish, Thompson needs only the loyal friends he has.

Thompson looks forward to successfully litigating his federal claims, now before US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke in the Southern District of Florida.

Thompson always wanted to own a Bar. Now, armed with multiple US Supreme Court rulings that no state bar can do what it has done to Thompson, he is set to own that Bar.

All in all I think its somewhat amusing and I’m sure he doesn’t realize that this whole thing is his own fault.  After 30 years of being an attorney in Flordia, the court finally had enough of his shit and he is officially “Not Eligible to practice in Florida”.

I’m sure he isn’t done.  He will continue to weasel his way around the game industry causing problems and being a general annoyance.   I’m sure he’d blame my opinion on games.