JamesL

One reason I always preferred GuildWars over WoW was the way you could slap on the right set of skills and run around pretty much the entire world without ever doing more than a couple of the main storyline missions. There are actually few physical barriers between the different areas of the game. I always found running myself and taxi-ing other people about the world and checking out all the environments as much fun as any of the actual missions.

Booyaa! Gives every modder the incentive to work towards excellence (and a job at Valve!).

I think he's wrong Frie. As you state in your post, that comment is probably more of a reflection on his own outlook on life and perhaps, given the hours you said he worked, a degree of burnout and disillusion. I fondly remember games from the past just as strongly as I do old songs or movies. The love I have for Star Wars having watched it as a kid in the late 70's is matched to the exact same degree as the memories I have of playing Elite on the BBC model B, Dungeon Master on the Atari ST or Counter Strike for the first time. I will never forget these games and I think many other people feel the same way about games they grew up with. In many respects I believe that the games we have made, and continue to make are if anything, more important than products of other media industries. Interactive entertainment is still very much in its infancy, and our generation are the trail blazers.

I don't see how they can drop the servers. The game is still out there on the shelves and people are still playing it, so shutting the servers is not really likely to be an option for the immediate future. It's all going to become a bit lawless in there for a while now I expect. A friend of mine who still plays it said the servers appear to have been swamped with botters trying to sell gold/items. I guess no one is administrating the game right now ...

I'm a bit late to the thread but I think it's a very interesting question. In the seven and a half years I've worked in games dev, most of the designers I know have come through one of a few routes. These are: [*:19gn4xzg]Designers who have a computer science or equivalent degree, who wanted to work in a games development environment but didn't want to code. [*:19gn4xzg]Testers who paid their dues in QA then, having showed some aptitude for it, got into junior levels of design and worked their way up. [*:19gn4xzg]Graphic designers, product designers architects or CAD operators, who after qualifying, or working in their respective industries for a while, decided to move into games. Usually because it was a hobby in the first place. At a guess I should say over 90% of designers I have worked with come from one of these backgrounds. As for why these people don't post, a quick poll of the people around me here in the office gives a fairly telling answer. "I get enough of it at work, I don't want to read forums about it too." I guess we are in a minority. My take on it is that the people who work in the industry and have done for a while, but who still make maps outside of work and are involved in games related projects in their free time as well as professionally, these people (us) are the hardcore. We all have a little bit of the obsessive in us.

Shame, despite its major flaws (there were many) I quite enjoyed playing it and got at least 30-40 hours worth out of it. Another case of a project's ambition outstripping its development timescale and funding I think.

With this sword, just for the irony of it

Ever wanted an Halo style energy sword? (Apologies if repost). http://www.trueswords.com/covenant-energy-sword-video-game-sword-replica-type1-p-4030.html Some crazy ass stuff on this site. All frighteningly cheap too :S

Not necessarily. GuildWars and Hellgate both used similar systems and there is plenty of trade in those games. Personally I far prefer drops being reserved for each party member. Memories of Stormshields, Ist runes, Tal's armour etc dropping in front of me and being nabbed by someone else are just to painful to re-visit in the next version of the game.

That's a nice timescale. I am sick of editors that demand months of your life to make a map. Edit: Where can you get the editor from, or does it ship with the game? Cheers.

Noooo it's drawing me in .... can't resist ..... must buy Zero Gear ....

Nice work Dux. Boy I love CoH it's such good fun. Gonna have to re-install it and have a blast at this. How much time did it take to build the map?

That wouldn't have stopped me from playing it, but I am hella glad they didn't. I agree with Minos, the website is ace. Tyreal in the background with his glowing wings looks awesome! Anyone come across a release date yet? I couldn't see one on the page (though I didn't look too hard ..).

/Happy Dance

Fives runes on the floor, all start glowing together and then boom Diablo appears! It's straight out of the game If they don't announce it today I think I may just be inclined to pop down into town to Gamestation and trash all their other Blizzard products.

Never say die Frie. At least not till they can your project. Grrr

Arthas similarities are just a cunning ruse to throw us off the scent*. C'mon D3 ...... (*I may be slightly deluded).

That's that cleared up then

Nice. I love 2D scrolling shooters me. Got an alpha for us to play?

Please don't destroy my dreams HP

Leg in town!!!!!!!11 Who opens?????????

Get in there Minos!

Arf. The multishot lightning enchanted council members always used to scare me. Zzzap insta death

Those words make me happy inside. Nope me too. I played through the majority of GuildWars (twice) using the AI companions. http://www.diabloii.net seem to be pretty convinced its going to be a D3 announcement, and reading around the subject I would be inclined to think they are right. It's def a game announcement, a Blizz VP and the writer of the Diablo series of books has hinted towards it, the hirings mentioned above have specifically cited Diablo 1 & 2 and just this month Blizzard acquired the http://www.diablo3.com domain from one of their largest fan sites (hit the site for background info about it). Man I am excited. Pindleskin runs ftw.

Shit happens and things break. Good work on getting it up again Thrik.