As someone who lives in a country with 12 official languages (sign language was recently included) and tons of foreigners from all over (typically with English as a second language), imho its got very little to do with a practical understanding of the English language that you learn in a textbook or class.
Once you have a passing level of competency, its either an innocent cultural issue or an intolerance from English first language speakers who assume that because you are “speaking” English, you must somehow understand their interpretation rather than them realising that they should probably try and understand yours. If for no other reason than you have taken the time and are courteous enough to try to communicate in their language not your native tongue and there is likely to be misinterpetation.
But then again, you Germans are a gruff bunch anyway.
Unfortunately this applies to everything lately. No-one needs to scream “Fire” anymore, they just have to say “I am offended” and the world stops spinning until their needs have been placated.
Oh well.
Back on topic - Based on everyones comments, I am glad I didnt jump onto the D4 launch bandwagon - I do want to play it eventually, but I think I am gonna wait a season or two. Now just have to wait for Baldurs Gate 3 to settle… been waiting for that sequel for a very long time.
In all fairness, there hasn’t been much competition for the LE beta. And when there was, LE’s numbers plummeted. Is D4 as good as it should have been? Probably not. That’s what happens when you haven’t identified a target audience. D4 wants WoW’s crowd AND D3’s crowd AND D2’s crowd… while also trying to steal from POE. All of these are different games, with different crowds. So instead of a tight, focused game, we get a hodge-podge of 1/2 assed systems.
It also, unfortunately, had to compete with the hype-train. If D4 was a stand-alone game, from any other dev, or any other “title” (not Diablo), we wouldn’t hear anywhere near the amount of bitching we do. AAA shop, indie-shop… really shouldn’t matter. Either your game is quality…at the core…or it isn’t. I think D4 has a decent core game, but needs to get the ship tightened down.
The real issue, for all these titles, is the lack of innovation at the end-game. Maps, NM dungeons, monoliths. It’s all just farming the same tile sets, hoping to find the occasional needle in a haystack that improves your build so you can farm them a little faster next time. That, and the occasional OP boss-fight, that’s only there for epeen braggarts.
Heh heh… I hear there are almost 200 languages spoken there.
I’m from South Africa and the 12 are official legislated languages based on native speakers of all the southern African tribes and English & Afrikaans (a language with roots in Dutch). So you are legally allowed to request any official communication in one of the languages - not that the country can afford to print 12 copies of every document.
I wonder how many unofficial languages are actually spoken here tho, as the “rush for africa” typically means that we have everyone and their aunt wanting to set up shop and grab a piece (legally or otherwise). For all South Africas problems, we are still pretty functional compared to the rest of Africa. I’d guess maybe not as many Spanish speaking people here but everything from German & French to every dialect of Chinese, Indian and Far Eastern. Cannot assume anyones nationality here anymore.
Yeah, my last boss was Austrian. She didn’t have the nicest reputation based on her emails, but she was lovely in person and on the phone. Things improved a lot once I got out to Salzburg to meet her.
Not sure I agree with that. Personally I would expect more from a large AAA company than a small indie because the AAA has (should have) significantly more resources and experience compared to the small company. I’d expect both to be as passionate about their game since they’ll all be working long hours for it…
That’s why I said “at the core”. The functionality of the game is independent of the shop size – that’s where assets like graphics, sound, etc come into play, and I wouldn’t compare Slormancer’s graphics or sound with D4’s… ever. But, Slormancer has a great core system, and that I would compare with any other game.
I’m not after de railing anyone in any form. People simply life in their bubbels and as little as I care for smalltalk as little people care for my cultural backround. This makes enough problems and I don’t need to fuel them and simply explain myself a bit from time to time.
I can read and listen to english without issues if there are no funny accents involved like some scottish or irish accents from the top of my mind. I had a flawless history when it came to english and the english lessons but sadly I have no practice so a lot got lost.
Untill there is enough beer involved or untill we like someone .
We would but another form of bitching. Everyone got issues with certain parts of any game one more the other less. For example I had fun with Warhammer Chaosbane and thought it’s a fun little game in a universe I like and I kill stuff and collect loot. Other people who were under the impression we get something alike to the Diablo franchise talking shit about the game nonstop because they expected something the game never wanted to be.
The biggest issue is quality. no matter how you look at it everyone has quality standards and expections. If they are not met some people go batshit crazy and jump on the hate train like the devs of said game did something that can only be paid in blood. People are strange.
On the other hand many people simply call out weaknesses of a game or make fun about it and call it a day. I remember the days when there were 5 games a year that sparked my intrested a little bit and I played them nonstop even when they were trash compared to my expectations today. There was nothing else so you played games you were 60% happy with gladly. The internet simply magnifies the negativity and stupidity of humanity and the bitching about video games will never end because almost all people can’t be objective about it and have different tastes and expectations.
And thats just it. I mean, even with D4 – and it’s supposedly shit-state – I can still sit down for 2-3 hours at night after the kids go to bed and enjoy myself. Why? Because I’m no longer a try-hard gamer. I don’t care about the race to first 100. I don’t care about ladders. Is it the best game I’ve ever played? Not even close (that honor goes to either TQ:IT or Sacred2). Do I feel ripped off? Not hardly, and I bought the super-duper edition.
I probably won’t plug 1000s of hours into. But then again, I don’t have 1000s of hours to put into any game anymore.
Some of the hype was self-generated. I’ve seldom seen so much advertising for an upcoming game. I think the real problem was that at least 80% of the budget went into marketing, and on top of that, the game was rushed to release before the Microsoft acquisition.
Eh… the hype was there from the first speculation of development starting…too bad it was initially D:Immortal. Many even doubted it would ever come out. Then… wham! Here’s a release date.
My fondest ARPG memory is exploring the open-world in Sacred 1, and challenging myself in red/purple zones (monsters 15+ levels higher). I wish more games had that, instead of scaling TO the character level. Let us explore, let there be dangers, let there be places we strive to go to. Not make everything accessible, based off our levels.
Are the expansions released after Iron Lore went Tits Up (technical accounting term there) and good compared to Immortal Throne (which was awesome)?
Yeah, I thing S1 & 2 were my favourite arpgs (I had both a grave and a demon/mob to kill in S1), Ascaron was an awesome company (like EHG), full of great people who loved the genre. They even managed to put a great sense of humour into the game despite being German(!) & didn’t take the game too seriously (some of the side quests in S1 & 2).
Yeah, it was one of the games I actually enjoyed the questing… and dear lord, was there a ton of it. One other thing I liked about it was that you could really feel the difference in the difficulties. And the survival bonus was nice in S1, although it really just because a driver to save->copy character file every 10 minutes I struggled with the latest expension for S2… can’t remember it. Downloaded it, but had issues getting it to work in NA (something about the validation they used and being outside the EU). I can’t remember, but when I had to reinstall my machine, I just didn’t feel like going through that again. Then, when my HD ate itself and I lost all my saves, I lost interest completely. Been thinking about trying it out again tho.
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I struggled with the latest expension for S2… can’t remember it. Downloaded it, but had issues getting it to work in NA (something about the validation they used and being outside the EU). I can’t remember, but when I had to reinstall my machine, I just didn’t feel like going through that again. Then, when my HD ate itself and I lost all my saves, I lost interest completely. Been thinking about trying it out again tho.