Fantastic game and I'm super excited about this expansion, but like many others I'll be waiting for the price to drop before buying. I don't think this pricetag is as unreasonable as some say but I just spend a handful purchasing all of the SOASE micro-expansions.
Molyneux is one of those ambiguous developers whose work has really excited me at times, and really disappointed me at others. The truth is you can't please everyone, and I know that poor Molyneux's ideas are no doubt constrained in a lot of ways by what the publisher wants and demands. I'm interested to see what his next title is like, and I still look up to him for game design ideas.
@Tsuchikage I'm really glad to hear that the violence is avoidable. It was spectacular, no doubt, and I was impressed by the voice acting and the fluidness of it and all that but I was concerned it might take away from the game's narrative.
Very cool... I especially like his comment about the single-mindedness of purpose in a small team of developers. It makes sense when I look at the direction that the gaming industry's big names have gone and continue to go when you look at it in that light: that there's more at stake than your shared creative impulse. What's at stake is tens of millions of dollars and hundreds or even thousands of people's jobs.
@GryphonICD Well thanks for explaining (and checking the blog!). I disagree that we are violent by nature, I think human nature is a little more nuanced than that. In fact neuroscience tells us that empathy is hard-wired into our brains, not necessarily learned. I also enjoy violent video games without feeling a need to carry that virtual violence into reality: to me, the "fun" of killing virtual enemies just comes from the very obvious indication that I've "won" by killing them. In games like Metal Gear Solid or Deus Ex, for example, I'm just as happy knocking my foes unconscious as I am killing them. Sometimes the kills can be more cinematic though, and in games with blood and gore it really drives the point home and makes it spectacular.
I'm not concerned with violence in games, but I am concerned that the technology which allows us to put on this spectacle of violence distracts us from whether or not the gameplay is actually any good. I am inclined to agree with Spector though on the notion that violence should have some gravity, that when in a game the player ends a life, they understand the impact of that.
@I_are_Cake Most of the titles you list have medieval fantasy settings. A simple fact of those settings is that firearms do not exist or at least are not widespread. It may well be that these games are gunless and the violence is tasteful, but the fact that they do not include guns is not why the violence is tasteful. I would argue that the degree of violence in Age of Conan, for example, is actually a little excessive albeit realistic.
@GryphonICD Indeed, how hindered we are by the shackles of our inhibition. Alas, how my ancestral DNA longs to hold a warm clump of feces in my hand and hurl it at unsuspecting passers-by in good sport! Curse these notions of "decency" I say! Let us live how our cousins the apes do, the pure and honest way!
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