Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I remember when playing FF7 the second time around, when I essentially "do everything" by talking to everyone, checking all options, obtain all items, max out all materia, etc. the time caps at 99:59, but with FF8, they have a way of guilt tripping you into realizing how much time you've wasted away playing by going into RED NUMBERS once you hit past the 99 hour mark lol.

Good thing FFXI doesn't do this xD

suddenly baby ducks

no <.< they just convert your hours into days, days into weeks, weeks into months, months into years... :|

I suppose that's just as bad. But the whole red numbers thing glaring at you, as if to say "You really should turn the system off and go outside now."

Yeah this makes it so much worse >_>;;;;

FFX did the red number thing as well.

But XI just taunts you.....

"hey buddy....psssst,you've wasted 500 days logged into this one game,kill yourself"

To be fair though, the friends I've made, the times I've had with them, and the fantastic experience with immersible storyline, music and environments, help diminish the regret of spending so much time in a silly game.

It's not like you're sitting there everyday, 12 hours a day.

When I was playing FF games before 11 it would take me months to finish them because all I'd do was go around talking to NPCs and doing everything possible in the game.

That hasn't changed, but I miss that NPCs had multiple things to say. Now all they really do is say 1 thing over and over again lol.

I guess they have their dialog change as you progress through the game, but it's not like past games didn't do that. They just have less to say overall now.

I've always wondered, as far as MMOs go, or even in single player RPGs, how do you help make NPCs interesting? Granted, I'm the type of player who loves to see what everyone has to say, regardless of how menial it might be. But I am without a doubt that a majority of players just skip to the ones that pertain to the matter at hand. So with that said, how do you make people worth talking to?
I was thinking maybe having a sort of "eavesdropping" feature, similar to hearing idle conversation like you do in Elder Scrolls games, but having a way of jumping into the conversation and possibly even taking action for whatever it is they're talking about.
Or at the very least have conversation you've overheard left as a sort of potential quest marker so you can run back to it later.

Spending time regretting it is an even bigger waste of time. Staaaaahp.

I liked talking to npcs several times to see if they had some extra dialogue and I'd go back later in the game to talk to random npcs too, see if they said anything new >.> If they did it made the world seem more alive

I think developers try to get people to talk to random NPCs by giving them a small lil quest, even if it's something like delivering groceries to someone or picking up a plant to bring back to them.

Amen. Wasting time enjoying it sounds much better.

But if you're doing something you enjoy it's not really wasting time, is it :O

I mean it doesn't have to be necessarily quest related or important, but sometimes there's little quirks that are really funny, adorable, or awesome. For example, I can't help but chuckle when I do the Jeuno back alley quest on my mules, because the little mithra girl you do this quest for sings along to the melody of "wheels on the bus", but replaces it with "little yellow rocks" and "meow meow meow".

Then someone comes in and asks "what if I enjoy smoking crack?"! No but really, if it's not severely harmful and you're enjoying yourself, no use in complaining about wasted time. :|

Aye, productivity isn't necessarily a mandate to determine whether time is wasted or not.

video gaemz they eats muh soul!!!

People don't seem to think reading a book is a waste of time but video games are fairly similar imo :7 Far more social as well

No NO! You sit in a dark cave, playing those demon games and never see anyone!! This is nothing like reading a book!!!!!!

...You have to have light for that. Or an e-reader of some sort. Nevermind, d.feeted.

LOL That pancake video was funny, Eagle.

I found that the old FFXI missions were interesting...the developers put in a lot of attention to NPC dialogues. For example, I noticed that Zubaba (the Star Sybil's lady-in-waiting) and all of Zubaba's attendants (all the various Tarutaru on the 2nd floor of Heaven's Tower) would all have different things to say whenever you advanced a mission. This NPC chat change occurs on every single Windurst mission, and is honestly fun immersion into the story for me.

IMHO, that's a huge level of attention-to-detail that would be ignored by a large portion of the follow-wiki-steps-to-complete-mission crowd that would simply run by all of these NPCs and never bother to talk to them, because their dialogues aren't core to advancing the mission.

Certainly since then, I've wondered how many other optional dialogues I've skipped over in FFXI...but sadly I suspect with dev time being at a premium now, that level of attention-to-detail on new content won't have such nuances. ;_;

Decided to give Evangelion a shot last night. Does Shinji ever stop being a ***?

Nope.

Thanks Val that'll be the last ep I watch then.

It's part of an existentialist character development progression for him to be the whiniest/moodiest/most self-analytical and sensitive person on the planet. :p

Neeeeeeat. Photoshop CS2 is free on the Adobe Download page. :O

Kinda old, but it'll likely do anything I'd want it to do anyway.

Yah, they didn't really intend for it to be "free" insofar as they were just too lazy to create a new activation service for old software...

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/grab-photoshop-and-cs2-for-absolutely-free-right-now/

...but the end result is it is free. :/ (They put that red-text disclaimer in after their site crashed from so many people downloading from that location when the serial numbers were first discovered.)

Eh I prefer my main chars a little more manly and badass-esque.

I liked the concept of Evangelion but Shinji was a shitty protagonist. Worst I've ever seen I think.

Ah, I love some of the stuff my friends post.