Editorial Baldur's Gate is Game Developers' All-time Favorite

[Jaesun]

Fucking Faggots.

Should have voted for the Gold Box Games.

 

[thesoup]

These lists are depressing. I think I'll find another hobby.

 

[Satan]

I won't even read the votes because I just don't care anymore :gamer'sdepression:

 

[commie]

interesting theory.

I disagree. They are both 2D isometric party based games and stat heavy. BG is closer to TOEE than it is to Mass Effect wouldn't you agree? That's why I mentioned that should they have followed the BG cloning route rather than going for the third person ARPG route. You'd have a lot more chance of someone developing a TB or TB/RTwP or TB/RT iso stat party game if they were all using BG as a starting point rather than Half Life or Mass Effect.

Fucking Faggots.

Should have voted for the Gold Box Games.

If I had the talent to make a game, this would be my inspiration too.

 

[Black]

Not really different from any other pop-list.

 

[Jaesun]

These lists are depressing. I think I'll find another hobby.

Honey, the cRPG genre has been dead, the corpse raped and a liquefied organic smelly mass for years now.

Granted only (a few) indie's are the ones making them now.

 

[thesheeep]

Good list.
Lots of good series in there.

I'm not surprised BG is first, it's like the holy grail of game development. I don't know a single game developer who is into (c?)RPGs and would not want to develop another BG...

 

[Kz3r0]

Good list.
Lots of good series in there.

I'm not surprised BG is first, it's like the holy grail of game development. I don't know a single game developer who is into (c?)RPGs and would not want to develop another BG...

 

[Excidium]

These lists are depressing. I think I'll find another hobby.

If that list depresses you, you should check what the Codex picks for RPG of the year.

 

[Daemongar]

To be honest, BG was a very good game and hats off to Bioware for being recognized. It was a great game in '98, and is still playable now. It really was head and shoulders above it's peers. Also, it helped revitalize D&D 2nd edition.

Seems every BG complaint boils down to the repeated mantra of: it should have been turn based, it should be non-linear, it should let you create all your characters. Well, tough. The die was cast with Diablo's success in '96. Linear action rpg-lite hybrids sprang up everywhere. BG's release in '98 is the only thing that saved us all from complete Diablotization of the genre. Diablo came out in 1996, two years before BG, and thanks to BG's success, every rpg didn't have to go in the Diablo direction.

Again, BG was approachable, revived D&D rules, was easy on the eyes, and was funny to boot. What do people really expect for first place? PS:T as the best game ever? It's an awesome game, but it sure as hell isn't for everyone, and for commerical sales, it was a failure. Who on the voting list would have played it?

Fallout's release in '97 was a hellova departure from the Diablo framework, but it never busted out into mass market appeal. BG expanded the market for D&D games, while FO sold really well with it's core market. BG compromized some for that appeal, but maintained it core, as compared to a FO3 which compromized just too much. I never felt BG alienating me with RT combat or linearity.

Not saying mass market appeal implies good/bad, just that if a game only appeals to a core group, who else would vote for it or play it? On balance I'm also happy that Civ II was included on a couple lists. I still play Civ II and it's still an awesome game.

 

[felipepepe]

Re: Baldur's Gate is Game Developers' All-time Favorite

Deadspace (20th)

Deadspace being one of the 20 favorite games of developers is mindblowing. I can figure an (weak) argument for any of the 19 previous games, but for this shit?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I never met any cRPG player from the end of 90s period who played BG but not Fallout. Also, vanilla BG had so shitty combat and character development that I quit playing it out of boredom after the first 1/3 of the game.

 

[Cassidy]

Considering the average wage, work conditions and life quality of being a "game developer" compared to other fields where one can use his coding and design skills for cash, I'm not surprised that the kind of person willing to cope up with countless unpaid crunch times is the same that is stupid enough to be milked to oblivion with DLCs and to enjoy popamole shit.

Doing the same kind of poll with the best paid types of programmers rather than the people who take the worst career path ever so they can be code a dragon would be interesting for comparison purposes.

 

[Daemongar]

I never met any cRPG player from the end of 90s period who played BG but not Fallout. Also, vanilla BG had so shitty combat and character development that I quit playing it out of boredom after the first 1/3 of the game.

Well, the 100k people that bought FO when it came out would probably agree with you on how great it was. However, the poll wasn't of a miniature subset of game developers. It was a cross section of them, and the fact that BG won is quite a statement.

Also, I was around when BG came out, but maybe I missed something: what was that other rpg with better combat and character development in '98?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I never met any cRPG player from the end of 90s period who played BG but not Fallout. Also, vanilla BG had so shitty combat and character development that I quit playing it out of boredom after the first 1/3 of the game.

Well, the 100k people that bought FO when it came out would probably agree with you on how great it was. However, the poll wasn't of a miniature subset of game developers. It was a cross section of them, and the fact that BG won is quite a statement.

Also, I was around when BG came out, but maybe I missed something: what was that other rpg with better combat and character development in '98?

Fallout/Fallout 2 with its perks, skills, traits, stats that affected lots of things? Fallout that allows to choose between various attack types and targeting body parts and using an item, instead of just passively watching character attack and using an item?
ADOM with lots of skills and special abilities and choosing various tactics that allow to choose between focusing on hitting and damaging opponents and focusing on not getting hit?

 

[Volourn]

BG is overrated. I can see BG2 as it's awesome but BG? LMFAO

 

[thesheeep]

Though the princess is probably trolling, I will point out that I think Baldur's Gate in that list represents BG/BG2/ToB.
If not, we would certainly find BG2 also in that list.

 

[curry]

BG is overrated. I can see BG2 as it's awesome but BG? LMFAO

Though the princess is probably trolling, I will point out that I think Baldur's Gate in that list represents BG/BG2/ToB.
If not, we would certainly find BG2 also in that list.

You're both dumb as fuck

 

[MMXI]

Also, vanilla BG had so shitty combat and character development that I quit playing it out of boredom after the first 1/3 of the game.

Better combat than Fallout. Better character development than the Gold Box games.

 

[Jaesun]

Also, vanilla BG had so shitty combat and character development that I quit playing it out of boredom after the first 1/3 of the game.

Better combat than Fallout. Better character development than the Gold Box games.

Indeed.

 

[SCO]

The game with the one of the most horrendous script languages i remember seeing is a dev favorite.

In Bgscript there are no useful returns - every function returns bool and there is no aritmetic.

Well, there is, but it's hidden in the functions - you set a "global" variable and then operate on it.

HA! I lie. You can't operate on it, because the genius at bioware decided you CAN'T operate on variables (except add globals), multiply them, copy them, promote them from global to local and vice versa, or even get A FUCKING NUMERIC VALUE WITHOUT USING A PREPROCESSOR THAT DIDN'T EVEN EXIST WHEN IT CAME OUT (WeiDU), AND THAT ONLY ALLOWS YOU TO LINEAR SEARCH THE POSSIBLE RANGE UNDER A FUCKING STATE MACHINE BECAUSE BIOWARE THOUGHT THAT ==, > AND < ARE ALL THE OPERATORS IN THE WORLD; CONVENIENTLY MISSING THE MOST CRUCIAL Var1 = Var2.

Basically, whenever you save a variable to runtime memory in bgscript, that shit aint ever coming out (even for functions that take numeric arguments).

 

[thesheeep]

BG is overrated. I can see BG2 as it's awesome but BG? LMFAO

Though the princess is probably trolling, I will point out that I think Baldur's Gate in that list represents BG/BG2/ToB.
If not, we would certainly find BG2 also in that list.

You're both dumb as fuck

We disagree with you. We must be!

The game with the one of the most horrendous script languages i remember seeing is a dev favorite.

In Bgscript there are no useful returns - every function returns bool and there is no aritmetic.

Well, there is, but it's hidden in the functions - you set a "global" variable and then operate on it.

HA! I lie. You can't operate on it, because the genius at bioware decided you CAN'T operate on variables (except add globals), multiply them, copy them, promote them from global to local and vice versa, or even get A FUCKING NUMERIC VALUE WITHOUT USING A PREPROCESSOR THAT DIDN'T EVEN EXIST WHEN IT CAME OUT (WeiDU), AND THAT ONLY ALLOWS YOU TO LINEAR SEARCH THE POSSIBLE RANGE UNDER A FUCKING STATE MACHINE BECAUSE BIOWARE THOUGHT THAT ==, > AND < ARE ALL THE OPERATORS IN THE WORLD; CONVENIENTLY MISSING THE MOST CRUCIAL Var1 = Var2.

Basically, whenever you save a variable to runtime memory in bgscript, that shit aint ever coming out (even for functions that take numeric arguments).

Haha, I never dared to work with that engine, but that sounds overwhelmingly awful.
Their scripters must've turned mad over time...
Or they didn't even have scripters and the coders did all the scripting as nobody else could live with that crap.

On the other hand, I don't know if there were any other games in 1998 that had better editors and scripting languages than that.

But they obviously learned their lesson. As fucked up as NWN looks, its scripting and editor are quite okay.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I do so enjoy the kaleidoscope of wrath that comes from a long time spent with something you despise

 

[Metro]

I just don't understand the appeal of Mass Effect.

 

[shihonage]

I remember thinking Baldur's Gate "new dumb crap" when it came out. Only in comparison to "today's horrors that pass for RPG" can it somehow stand out.