So, yeah, I'm not terribly excited about Majestic. Something about getting phone calls at 3:00 AM doesn't appeal to me. It's bad enough that I play games instead of sleep, but at least I'm aware of my choice. If I want conspiracy theories, I'll go play Deus Ex again. Thoughts?

- Alan

One of the things about playing a game is that you get yourself in the frame of mind to play it. It's easy to believe in magic and dragons and wizards because you're sitting down to play a game about magic and dragons and wizards.

It would be easy to buy into a conspiracy theory game too, but Majestic is going to ask us to immediately switch gears and believe in it. If I'm carrying in groceries and the phone rings so I hurriedly put the bags down to grab the call, I'm just not in the frame of mind to hear someone say, "What's the frequency?" I don't think that suspension of disbelief will be as easy to accomplish with Majestic as it is with other games.

I also don't have a fax and rarely have ICQ turned on, so the game will only be able to call me and email me. I'm not sure how much that would lessen the impact of the game.

If EA sends me a press copy, I'll try the game as long as it's clear that I can stop playing the game when I want. I hope EA makes it easy to withdraw from Majestic. Can you imagine how irritating it would be if a bad game kept annoying you with email and phonecalls months after you stopped playing it?

Quote:
"Players are just pawns in the game. Once you are in it you are bombarded with phone calls to your home, faxes and e-mail messages to your office and text messages to your mobile phone. It is up to you to make sense of it."
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Actually, I don't see how being a prawn can be fun. Plus, you'd have to deal with all the other aquatic life forms calling you a "poor man's shrimp"... Oh! PAWN! Well, whatever, I hate getting phone calls now. Why would I want more?

My take on it all -- I want to play a game, not have a game play me. Once I'm in the game, great. But I don't want to be in the game 24/7, I want to be in the game when I choose, on my terms. I don't want a game imposing itself on me.

I wonder if Majestic would be more successful as an X-Files licensed game, where consipiracy theories fit, and where they could have parted many dollars from rabid fools, er I mean, fans.

I've said this before but I'll say it again since it gives me a chance to make an on topic post, for once. I might have given this a shot when I was single but seeing as I have a wife and kid, I have to be able to turn off I game when I want to. If I can't (and this includes games that don't have a save anywhere feature) then I don't buy the game. Period. End of discussion. If you don't like it bring it up with my wife who will hand you our two year old girl (who will be crying and upset at the time, even if that means she has to be pinched before getting handed over) to watch while she explains why she can't have her husband say "Just one sec! Let me find the next save point!" when she needs help.

I remember the days when EA had games like Bards Tale, Mail Order Monsters, the early Madden's...cool stuff. Have they dug the barrel dry? Majestic is a terrible gimmick of a game...who wants to be bothered by "junk" game content.

"Don't go to Pizza Hut...ITS A TRAP!"

I could see some endorsements in this game...maybe thats what theyre hoping for.

etc

Ah, Mail Order Monsters. One of my all-time favorites. I used to love playing that on my C-64 with my neighborhood friends. Playing against the computer and old "Sluggo" was kinda boring. Racing Destruction Set was awesome too. As a Zero Wing character might say to EA, "What happened?!?"

If I had more game programming skills, I'd probably work on a spiritual successor to Mail Order Monsters and even have a giant prawn as one of the monster types!

Mail Order Monsters and Racing Destruction Set were staples for me. My brother, when he came to visit (I had just finished my first stint in grad school at the time, and was working in Washington DC) and I would play for hours.

Both of those were staples at my house too... along with the grand daddy of multiplayer back then... Archon. I used to beg people to play Archon with me when I was knee high to a grasshopper.

--Dave

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Quote:

the grand daddy of multiplayer back then...
Archon.

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"Archon. I used to beg people to play Archon with me when I was knee high to a grasshopper."

But what about Dark Legions? I liked that more than Archon, even. That game cries out for an updated version for Internet play. Dang, that was a fun game.

The problem with Dark Legions was the movement. Way too many of the creatures had some sort of special movement (flying, or teleportation, or that one unit that could zip almost anywhere), and that made manuevering on the board almost pointless. It was kind of like the tactical combat in the first HoMM--it didn't really matter where you positioned yourself, because nearly any unit could move nearly anywhere they wanted to at any time.

Other than that I liked Dark Legions quite a bit, but I suspect most of my affection for the game came from the fact that it reminded me so much of Archon... =)

"Wouldn't mind seeing an updated version of that re-surface!"

Unholy War for the Playstation:

http://www.gamecenter.com/Consoles/Sony/Unholywar/

It's basically a contemporary update of Archon by the very people who made Archon.

http://www.gamecenter.com/Consoles/Features/Toysforbob/

Excellent game that I still play from time to time. And probably well worth the $60 or so you'd have to shell out for an old PS1 and a copy of the game from eBay.

-Tom

Ah, nice trip down memory lane there Tom. Great stuff as always. I remember those articles.

You know, I think an Archon-style game would work nicely for Rocket Arena (Q3 or UT). Don't you? Two players face off across a board, and each "square" marks a Q3 or UT map, inhabited with specific FPS characters. Those characters could have different health, weapons, and physics that roughly mimic the Archon stats.

I'm surprised nobody has done this yet! It adds a nice level of strategy above the basic 1-on-1 Rocket Arena stuff.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

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Quote:

"Don't go to Pizza Hut...ITS A TRAP!"

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