hello all, this is my first time here so go easy on me please.
i was lucky enough to purchase beyond divinity, seeing that divine divinity was packaged with it. otherwise, i would probably not have bought it. though i have never even installed, nor started, bd, i have read very extensively into the forums. they have helped me much with dd, and i find this is one of the very few rpg forums that people actually visit ~after~ getting what they needed out of it. call me lurker/spammer/what-ever it doesn't bother me, i just wanna get a heads up on bd before i actually attempt it. you're probably wondering what qwerty is, or what i think of it, or you would not be reading this... so let's continue:
off topic*** (i will learn to use the funny faces sooner of later)
when typewriters were first created, the keys were placed as if one were spelling the alphabet. a-b-c-d... you get the idea. from top-left to bottom-right, this was what a keyboard looked like. "qwerty" came about by combining the first 6 letters of the modern day keyboard. the only reason this "qwerty" (that is the last time i will use (") marks... i hate shift key) keyboard was created was to hinder the typist. it sounds weird, but unfortunately some were so adept at recognizing and utilizing the keyboard that they had begun to jam/block the mechanical typewriters at the time.
as of nowadays, with digital communication and non-mechanical data transfer [meaning non-physical] there is no possible way of surpassing your pc based on the speed at which you type.
one man, or woman, by the name of oh-i-forget [much in the same way you'll forget mine] created an idealistic keyboard. a keyboard not limited by the speed and ability of the above average human. this was a keyboard that placed all vowels under one hand while the other had only to combine the necessary consonants. while you or i may have thought this a major setback... having to re-learn typing, it actually was not.
united states naval research found some amazing results having people trained with the new [non-qwerty] keyboard and found that typing not only became less inaccurate, but faster as well.
so why not change? same thing i asked... answer=inertia
changing such an integral part of white-collar workers nationwide would no doubt mean training. this was considered and tested. results afaik;
*re-training a typist costs money
*re-training a typist reduces their familiarity with a qwerty board
*a trained typist [via the new keyboard] can outperform any qwerty typist
*any organization that employs this new regime of typists has training issues needing to be dealt with [i.e. new employees would have been using qwerty]
*employees having knowledge of qwerty, are sceptical of training under a new board, unless it is widely accepted.
-there are other advantages and disadvantages to mention, but the point i am getting to [if you made it this far] is game design, playability and replayability.
***qwerty explanation is above***now is how i think it pertains to dd+bd***
***holds up on-topic sign, finally***
i have always played rpgs. from dragon warrior to zelda, to the ff series. i have to say it ended there. ff3 [in america and possibly europe [[the one with kefka]]] was the only one that really caught me off-guard. i have tried MUDs (ewww caps) but i need visuals... maybe i'm not the artist at heart. one thing that dd and bd [afik] hold true to is that they are rpgs with visuals.
some have called dd the 'diablo-breaker' [buster-beater-whatever] and i feel it is just that. dd was the only breath of fresh air i had after god knows how many meph runs. dd gave new items, characters, builds, and quests. items, characters, builds, quests... hmmm all you'd need for a game right? wrong sadly, you need game play. i am literally hooked to the diablo engine. i love sprites more than you can possibly imagine. skill placed learning is the only way to create a truly unique character and this is why dd and bd go above and beyond diablo.[you can use skills from *other classes* either improving yourself, or wasting points ;] in-game pause is a must, provided you wish to call upon a large number of spells. we are not machines, and shuffling through spells while the enemy has them at hand is not reasonable.
***this, in a way i guess, brings us to the qwerty phenomena***
i despise 3d rendering. i think it's fake/ugly/full of angles that shouldn't be there. in every 3d game i have ever played, up to i guess doom3 on my brothers whomping machine, i still see things that make me say 'ewwww.' small glitches, transparancies, whatever... these games seem like a huge bug test. with dd and bd... diablo, ff3, megaman, mario bros. ghouls n' ghosts, sf, sf2, sfxalpha beta theta gamma quadra nunchaka-whateva... [that's my way of saying they made far too many street fighter games] the pictures are always spot on. 3d [if it's done really well] has the ability to take me out of my 2d [qwerty parrallel here*] safe mode.
is it just me or are all of you 2d fans? long live sprites and storyline!... i'm going to try and attach a poll... hope i get it right. talk to you all later :o)
alekhine
p.s. here's the poll thing*
