Kaodi said:
What exactly is it that defines a console RPG vs. a computer RPG, and why would one wish for a console over a computer, quality being equal?
I'm still hoping for a real Eberron CRPG. Hopefully the next people with the license will try to do wonky plot things instead of wonky mechanical things. Wonky plot things have half a chance of working.
minor threadjack:
Console games are usually more reliable and less likely to lag or give other problems. I've had constant problems trying to play computer games on any of my PCs (this one, the older previous one, and the much older one before that). There's also no stupid installation junk to deal with. Also, to make a good gaming computer you need to spend obscene amounts of cash, before even spending money on games.
Then you have to replace it around 5 years later, give or take a few years, to even be capable of playing new computer games without undue lag/other problems (if you can even run them at all on the old comp). This is likely to include buying a new monitor too, whereas you don't generally need a new TV to use new game consoles. Unless you're going from a really, really old TV and an NES, to a new TV and an Xbox 360 or something. My old Playstation ran fine with a very old TV, even though the picture quality was subpar.
A game console is considerably cheaper for little recognizable difference in quality (being mass produced an' all), and has long replay value with little maintenance. Plus, the games will run smoother, and the controls are considerably less cumbersome for most video games.
......Oh, er, Eberron? Ummm, yeah, I dunno. Some of the novels are good. I'm on the fence regarding the whole trains and robots in D&D thing, and the whole execution of it in Eberron. Kinda like the setting otherwise, and the dream-related aspect of psionics in Eberron (merely as an alternative way of handling it, since I'm fine with the traditional form of psionics in D&D). Some of the sourcebooks have been duds, and had too much filler or unneeded/hurriedly-thrown-together mechanics, but I got the impression that overall the Eberron supplements are kinda good (some great, others blah, a few so-so).
I'm rather disappointed in the design of D&D Online: Stormreach, and whatever that computer strategy wargame was for Eberron, which I've forgotten the name of already. Of course I wouldn't expect anything less (-terribly designed, that is) from the developers at Turbine. You'd think they would have learned a lesson from Asheron's Call and AC2, but I guess instead they somehow learned the (rather mistaken) belief that they're awesome and never make/made any mistakes with MMORPGs.
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......I would've preferred DDO to be based in Planescape/Sigil or part of Greyhawk/Oerth, anyway, and definitely not handled by Turbine. SOE/Verant would probably have botched it up as well, but at least made it interesting. The makers of UO (forgot the company's name) might've done alright, seeing as UO2 had looked like it would be an awesome game, until the EA bigwigs shot it in the forehead for no good reason, just as it was beginning to stir into life. Blizzard might've handled it fine, except it would probably be too much like WoW with a purely cosmetic facelift, and the fact that Blizzard wouldn't bother anyway since it already has World of Warcrack (to play on the old Everquest/Evercrack joke) being peddled to the masses. The companies that made Shadowbane, Dark Age of Camelot, or Anarchy Online might've done okay but I can't be sure, having little experience with them and having read little about how they've done. And they probably wouldn't have much reason or desire to make a D&D MMORPG, anyhow.
*finishes grumbling and muttering out loud, withdraws into his Lurker Hermit Crab shell, and scuttles away*
