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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
| Scot Noel (SSI): Interview @ E-Boredom |
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E-Boredom dropped us a line to point out an <a href="http://eboredom.20m.com/features/interviews/noel1.html" target="_blank">interview</a> with Scot Noel, a designer previously with SSI on games such as Menzoberranzan and the Ravenloft titles. Here's a snip:<blockquote><em><b>E-BOREDOM: How much of an influence did R.A. Salvatore's "Dark Elf novels have on Menzoberranzan?</b>
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<br>SCOT NOEL: We read everything we could about Drizzt Do'Urden and the drow elves of the Underdark. I can only hope it showed. I still have a little figurine I made of Drizzt's black panther companion, Guenhwyvar (which I kept at my side throughout production). We made every effort to develop plot, characters, and situations more extensive than any offered by similar games of the time, and some of our reviews reflected this. PC Gamer said that, at times, Menzoberranzan was better than Eye of the Beholder.</em></blockquote>Ah, the memories! Thanks, Mathew. |
Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:15 am |
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Drakton
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 14 Oct 2001
Posts: 195
Location: Monterrey, México |
Can't help but notice the coincidence. (Check out my signature) Right now I'm reading book 3 of The Dark Elf Trilogy. This book is awesome. I just finished reading The Icewind Dale Trilogy, and have the Paths of Darkness Collector's edition sitting in my bookshelf to be started some time soon. R.A. Salvatore is fabulous.
I'd love to see some of his books turned into movies like the Lord Of The Rings. 
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"You may win a thousand fights, but you can only lose one" (Zaknafein to Drizzt - The Dark Elf Trilogy.) |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:20 am |
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Lucky Day
Guest
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I'm not sure what the hype is about Salvatore's books. I've stopped reading them a long time ago. I suppose he got a reputation for doing unusual characters after deliberately starting with the cliches. Drizzt reminds me too much of Elric though. Adn that character doesn't thrill me either. Ok, yeah, a good Drow. I got it for the millionth time. And what's with all these drow houses fighting all the time. It doesn't seem to me with that kind of backstabbing anyone could live for 800 years let alone a decade.
As for this fellow these games didn't look bad for ht etime. Unfortunately, by the time I found out about them they were too primitive to be worth playing. Big jump on the Gold Box games though. SSI in those early, early gold box and pre-gold box was always into number crunching and huge tedious tactical cimbat simulations (hence their name). To me it took all the life out of it. What those gold box games did do different was an interesting thing with 3d (now called isometric) perspective for the combat that X-Com was later to emulate. |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 8:32 am |
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Guest
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R.A. Salvatore is a good author, though he sometimes abuses story too much to make moral points. I have read Icewind Dale Trilogy, Dark Elf Trilogy and two books from Cleric Quintet (Canticle, Sylvan Shadow).
Apart from "Sylvan Shadow" I can recommend all of them. "Sylvan Shadow" is just a very bad case of a story made for another purpose than storytelling (in this case showing a young cleric that the world is hard and cruel place) - the worst Salvatore's book I have met.
Mirek |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 9:56 am |
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Deshrill
Village Dweller
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 2
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Hey, I'm Mat, the guy who did the interview with Scot Noel. Thanks for reading it!
I've read a fair number of the Dark Elf books and am a bit burnt out on them. Some of the later books in the series, particularly, are nothing but fight scene after fight scene with little character development or plot. I still think that the first book in the Dark Elf Trilogy, Legacy, and all of the Icewind Dale Trilogy are very fun reads, though.
Lucky Day, a lot of these older CRPGs look primitive today, true. Their sheer difficulty is somewhat refreshing when compared to modern day RPGs that tend to be too easy, IMHO. Your point about the combat is well made, though-- a turn-based approach is more fun than the FPS click-fest style of fighting in an RPG. |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 3:16 pm |
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Wolfgarou
Guards Lieutenant
Joined: 29 May 2003
Posts: 163
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RA Salvatore? WAY too much fighting in his novels. The Cleric's Quintet was the worst. Can't remember which book, but there was one with fight after fight after fight (the one with the dragon). After that, I read my last Drizzt novel, The Legacy. Never went back since although I might continue later on just to finish things up.
Btw, anybody noticed that almost nobody (the GOOD main characters) dies in the novels? Horribly unrealistic when you're fighting battle after battle! Even the characters in Dragonlance eventually grew old and died! That's why IMHO, the dragonlance novels are way better than Drizzt's. 
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The world is small, nasty and complicated, and everybody dies alone... - Sam Fisher |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:04 pm |
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Deshrill
Village Dweller
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 2
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Wow... I actually have a copy of the trade paperback containing all books in the Cleric Quintet, but haven't got around to reading it yet. A friend highly recommended it, but if the fight scenes are *that* much... :/
As for the Dragonlance novels, I do have a collection of the first three Dragonlance Chronicles novels by Hicks & Weiss-- I remember liking reading most of the first book, but didn't get around to finishing it... So many fantasy books, so little time!
I will advise people to read a great fantasy book that's not a D&D title: George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords. Lots of characters, great story, and it's written by someone who is not afraid to kill of his characters! |
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Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:49 pm |
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