PixlBit

lol maybe i'll have to make an edit with an honerable mention sense everyone seems to love the the macho man so much

yea they are awesome, lol I saw that mod but wasn't quite sure if it should topple the majesty that is posh mudcrabs.

I agre with both of your statements, but it worries me that people will simply abandon games and developers that quite frankly have very littel control over these buisiness tactics. To not buy Kingdoms of Amalur doesn't really punish EA, they will continue to use these tactic reguardless. Who it does hurt however is 38 studios, a development team that made a great game. I'm not saying that people should buy the game because of that, but I think if people truly want to disuade publisher we need to find a better way to do it.

yea and doesn't get any easier from here on out lol

yea it is a ton of fun I'm glad it turned out as good as it did

JD to be honest, I think if a developer made a game that centered around in house mutliplayer they would get slammed for it. Not saying that I wouldn't want to see it, I'm just not sure if it would be well recieved.

" I'd rather lose to honorable people than defeat a bunch of barbarians." - I really liked this quote Mike, lol. Anyways I don't think I'll be able to answer everything you mentioned in that response, but I'd like to address policing communities in online games.

I understand that completely policing communities or the internet in general is a crazy idea, and I don’t suggest that we do that. However, If I could go back to League of Legends again they have a great system (it’s not perfect by a longshot), but it helps create a better gaming atmosphere. It’s simple at the end of each match players have the ability to report someone for misconduct. If people are reported enough times, then the developers will look into and if the complaints are substantial then they will take action. Usually this results in players getting suspensions from the games, but sometimes it results in permanent bans.

Now I know this is a slippery slope, but used correctly and sparingly, in line with the other instructions that you mentioned Mike (categorizing players and such) this could help greatly to foster a better community. Since the system is far more dependent on player’s being responsible for taking action when someone is being abusive etc., it takes far less resources for the development team to keep an eye on what’s going on. If you’re worried that players will abuse these programs, you could even give out warnings and suspensions to players who vote without cause or reason.

I'll have to disagree with you there Nick. I'm not saying that complete control over these gaming communties is possible, but they can foster their communties to offer better experiences for those involved. Self regulation is a perfect example of this, with the implementation of private servers and montering many games have harbored clean, safe gaming enviroments (such as TF2 mentioned in the podcast). Additonally game admins and other administrative forces have done admirable job in assuring better enviroments in many mmo's.

Again we are still no where near the point where playing online will meet you with the civlity and basic human decency that should be expected. However, things are getting better, and the games that are putting in the effort to foster these communties generally have much more enjoyable experiences.

I think as we conintue to instrument new ideas and menas of forging better gaming communites, we will continue to see progress. Of course theres still a long way to go, and it is sad that we have lost the lan parties and late night multiplayer sessions of old. But I think that there is alot to be offered and shared with the growing implementation of today's multiplayer experiences.

Yea it's a great game, I was just joking making a refrence back to our last podcast discussion lol.

Certainly Mike, it's a great experience. I think you will appreciate the time and care spent to creating the world and lore that surrounds this universe. It's one of the great modern RPG titles out there (though you might disagree with me calling it an RPG).