StaceyPowers

Not yet. why, is that a specific concern I should have?

So … I am totally flummoxed by the persuasion wheel mini-game in Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I’ve tried to find explanations online, and I kind of get the gist … but for the life of me, I can’t reliably get this thing to work. Can anyone provide a step-by-step explanation of what to do to get through it? I think maybe I just am not fast enough. Alternately, what are some ways I can work around having to do it at all? The entire mechanic irritates me, as I don’t see what it has to do with actual personal/persuading skills. It seems to me it is simply a puzzle where one must think ahead and move quickly. I don’t know what they were thinking when they put this in, but I assume they just hadn’t thought of a more logical way to make people like or dislike the player based on their actions. Perhaps at the time it came out, it was some kind of step forward. Anyway … help, lol. Nobody in this game will talk to me about anything.

I’ve been playing Elder Scrolls Oblivion for a little more than a week, and I’ve noticed that the game stutters a lot in certain locations, especially inside buildings that have several floors. It’s annoying, and it also worries me, as similar stuttering in Fallout NV is game-breaking on my PS3. Does anyone know anything about Oblivion stuttering on PS3 or what can be done about it? It doesn’t look like there are any graphical settings I can modify.

@kingpotato @The Blackangel I think I like the triangle as the jump key both because it was the first one I got used to, and because it's on top, so my brain goes, "Jump = go up = key that is located upward in the direction I want to go." And it is a triangle, which feels like a vector pointing up ... so it just feels logical to me.

@kingpotato I just realized that by default, I usually don't pick human, unless the stats or aesthetics for other species are annoying me. I think it's the "but I'm human IRL, how boring" thing for me. And often, humans are the majority/conquering/asshole race in a game, and I'd rather play the reasonable/oppressed/just-trying-to-live-my-life species.

When I looked up the specs, the answer I was getting was a "maybe." Thus why I figured I'd ask if anyone had real life experience with playing it on a low spec laptop :)

@kingpotato He actually irked me personality-wise, but when I learned more about what he was trying to do, I concluded that he really did care about his mission to save humanity. But I just couldn't bring myself to spare him.

@killamch89 Good point lol. @kingpotato What personal issue? =D I had kind of a funny moment with this the other night while playing Oblivion, which I recently started. I walked into a village and someone started a conversation with me, but I couldn't see him. I was right about to try and come up with an in-game explanation for why a glitch was making him invisible, when he announced to me, "I bet you are wondering why I am invisible." I was honestly shocked it wasn't a bug.

Just started Elder Scrolls Oblivion the other night. It’s easy to jump into being as I play Skyrim a lot, but I’m wondering if anyone has any useful starting tips (i.e. recommended quests, resources to stock up on, towns to visit first).

I started The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for the first time a couple nights ago, and I’m kind of surprised by how beautiful the game world is even with the graphics being primitive in comparison to Skyrim. It’s not the first time I’ve been impressed with visuals on an older game, even after being spoiled by much more realistic graphics (and honestly, even Skyrim is starting to look really dated). It got me to thinking about factors besides graphical realism that make visuals in a game appealing. Like in Oblivion, I’d say the richness of the colors and the particular palette of colors feels really lush and soothing, especially at night. I think Dragon Age Origins also is visually beautiful despite primitive graphics—there I’d say it’s a combination of the geometric forms, the lighting, and something about the way the forms are angled. What are some factors which you think make a game visually stunning, even if the realism is low?

When you start a new video game and you are able to put together a character with a custom sex, race, appearance, name and so forth, how do you choose all these traits? Do you pick a character who looks like you (i.e. the same sex and race as you)? Do you choose one that looks different? Do you pick based on aesthetics? Do you choose based on in-game perks (i.e. Argonians breathing underwater in Skyrim, etc.)? Do you select based on how your choice might impact your in-game situations and choices? On my initial playthrough of a game, I often pick based on a combination of in-game perks and aesthetics. On future playthroughs, I tend to choose based on other considerations. I like to experience variety, so I usually won’t pick the same sex or race twice in a row, in case choosing differently leads to new experiences. I also might pick based on what I know about the game world. I.e. in Skyrim, on my second playthrough, I picked orc because I found their situation easy to identify with. I can’t play a Forsworn as that isn’t a faction option in the game, but the orcs seem to be in a similar social situation with their long-time presence in the land but subjugated status.

Awesome, thanks! You're the second person who thinks it'll work, so that's encouraging :)

This is a thread for sharing some real-world thing you learned by playing video games recently. It annoys me when people say that playing video games is a waste of time or keeps people (i.e. kids) from learning. For example, the other night I finally played through Vault 11 in Fallout: New Vegas. While looking up some clarifications on the story of the vault, I found out that the film that is played in the vault’s final room is a reference to the Milgram experiment IRL. This led me to reading up on that, thus teaching me more about history, psychology and experimental design. What have you learned about RL recently from playing a game?

Are there any quests you have never completed in games for reasons unrelated to bugs or boredom, but specifically because you didn’t like the choices offered? For example, right now I’m arguing with myself about finishing Veronica’s quest in Fallout NV. I’ll probably go through with it, but it’s hard to bring myself to bring the BOS destructive technology. I could see myself never completing it despite being very curious how it will turn out.

I’m trying to figure out if I can play FTL on my laptop since I don’t have a proper video card. Here are my computer specs: CPU: Intel Celeron, 1700 MHz Video adapter: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400 (1839246 KB) up to 1684 mb dynamic memory Physical memory: 3976 MB I feel like it is probably an iffy prospect, but maybe still viable. @DylanC I figure if anyone has a good guess at this, it might be you.

Now I have. It's got a nice heft to it and looks perfect.

Have you played any games which felt unresolved at the end, whether in terms of world events or some kind of emotional payoff? If so, what would you have wanted to have resolved, and how would you have wanted it to be resolved?

I’ve noticed that there are some controls which are usually pretty consistent from game to game, but other button choices seem utterly bizarre to me. Like for example, “triangle” as the jump key is usually what I expect, but some games have it as “X,” which is just plain weird to me since I think of that as the “use” key. It got me wondering, if you could configure buttons for every game you play, what would your default setup be? I would probably go with the controls that are in Skyrim, more or less.

My first playthrough of New Vegas glitched into oblivion. On my second playthrough, I’ve been prioritizing the main quest line so that I can actually complete it this time. I got to the point where I had to decide what to do with Mr. House, and I wound up trying really hard to spare him. But I got stuck murdering him because of his attitude toward the BoS. I’m not a BoS fan by any stretch, but I just couldn’t walk in there and murder all of Veronica’s family just because he hated them. I found his character elicited a mixture of pity, admiration and disgust from me, and deciding what to do with him was one of the more complicated decisions to weigh out in a video game. New Vegas fans, what did you think of Mr. House? And what did you decide to do with him and why? @kingpotato @DylanC

When you are playing an RPG, do you prefer your character to be a complete “blank slate” onto which you can fully ascribe a personality, or a character already well developed? Or do you prefer something in between?

Is there a game you have played which is so obscure that you think nobody here has likely heard of it? @The Blackangel @Executor Akamia @killamch89 @kingpotato @DylanC @skyfire

Do you ever try to think up workarounds for things in video games that would otherwise bother you by coming up with an explanation in your own head? For example, I find the voice acting of the Inquisitor in Dragon Age Inquisition to be extremely monotone. So I have told myself, since I am playing a mage, that she is a Tranquil, and that this is why she speaks like this.

Thanks!!

Oh yeah, that got downright confusing at times! "I've been in this cave before ... or have I?"

I'm glad to have brought a moment of levity to your day =D