Game News KOTOR wins again, and again, and again...

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

<a href=http://www.gamespot.com>GameSpot</a> <a href=http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6092216.html>reports</a> that <a href=http://www.bioware.com/games/knights_old_republic>KotOR</a> received tons of awards of all kinds at <a href=http://www.gdconf.com>Game Developers Conference</a>:
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<blockquote>The Fourth Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are as follows:
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<i>Game of The Year
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Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic (BioWare Corp.) </i>
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<i>Original Game Character of The Year
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HK-47 from Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic </i>
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<i>Excellence in Writing
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David Gaider, Drew Karpyshyn, Luke Kristjanson, and Peter Thomas for Writing in Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic </i></blockquote>
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It's interesting to note that trigger-happy HK-47 is everyone's favourite character. Hopefully, that would give Bio good reasons to pay more attention to the evil path in the future.
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[Volourn]

Everyone? Don't exaggerate. Beinga robot, he's too one dimensional for me to really like. He's funny 'cauyse of the attitude; but that's it. Of course, he ebats out the other robot which has absolutely no personality.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Let me rephrase, anybody who's somebody which rules out you, me, and everyone else who understands that HK-47's just a robot with a couple of one-liners. Btw, welcome to the club, Volourn, that's how it feels when people praise Bio's role-playing :wink:

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Everyone? Don't exaggerate.

No, not everyone, but you'd be hard pressed to find a group of people in a forum which didn't think of him as their favourite, or one of the top dogs.

 

[Volourn]

Then they aree dumb as he's not even a dog.

 

[Sol Invictus]

What? Come on, you have to admit that HK-47 was pretty memorable for a character. Hell, I even imitated him for awhile. Remember this?

Statement: HK47 is a very cool robot.

Explanation: I like HK47. His behaviour and his dialogue tickles my funny bone (so to speak) in a way that very few other characters have managed to do, with the exception of Jolee, of course.

Conclusion: Disagreement will lead to the perforation of your fleshy skull, meatbag!

 

[Sol Invictus]

In all honesty, despite KOTOR's HUGE shortcomings (which I've stated before), there were no other games last year which could actually contend with it. I would certainly argue that Beyond Good & Evil had a much better storyline and character chemistry than KOTOR, but most of the world didn't even play that game until January of 2004 due to the extreme lack of hype or even press given to the title.

Beyond BG&E there weren't any mainstream (e.g. non-Geneforge 2) games which featured any interesting characters or even good writing for that matter. TOEE had pretty poor writing even though the gameplay was a lot better than KOTOR's was. Certainly, the first category (game of the year) is up for debate, but I don't think there were any other games for the PC that could have in any way competed with the quality of the character design and writing of KOTOR.

 

[Vault Dweller]

HK47 is a very cool robot.

No doubt about that. Cool robot, mediocre character.

His behaviour and his dialogue tickles my funny bone

Precisely. His psychotic agressive behavior was funny, especially comparing to Garth or Carth (whatever) or Bastilla. Yey he couldn't even be compared to any of the PST characters, and calling him the most original char of the year just shows how dull and boring gaming industry has become.

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Then they aree dumb as he's not even a dog.

... I'm assuming the funney didn't want to be included in your post.

 

[Volourn]

And? :shock:

Exitium: Sorry, other than the way he spoke; there was really nothing that good about HK. he reminds me too much of that stupid kobold, and Minsc. I hate that 3 of BIO's most popualr characters are ones thata re just plain annoying. Beh.

 

[Vault Dweller]

And? :shock:

 

[Azael]

I think HK-47 was a memorable character because of his voice (good voice actor), the way he spoke and because of what he actually said. I don't know about you, but I find a bloodthirsty droid amusing. To compare him to a braindamaged ranger who has a sexual relationship with his pet hamster is a bit unfair.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Yeah, I don't much care for Minsc or that Kobold in Shadows/HOTU that even had his own romance because the fans wanted it. In the words of Mr. Slave (of South Park fame), Jesus Christ!

HK-47 was humorously written, especially with his pleas to destroy meatbags, though Jolee's constant zinging and tall stories certainly tops him. I liked the one about the Jedi and the vent.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Jolee has to be my favorite NPC in an RPG to come along in quite awhile. I wasn't a big fan of HK. Jolee was the shit. Bad ass fighter too. Kept him in my party at all times. He was such a lovable smartass.

 

[triCritical]

q: why bioware makes shitty games

a: because HK-47 is used by both evil and good

You need him because he is the only character in the world that allows you to do something the good way, or because he is easily one of the most evil character. Thank you again Bioware for showing us how 1-D you asses are...

 

[Volourn]

Tri sees things black, and white. Can't have good chaarcters using an "evil" robot (how cna a robot be evil again?) because that is somehow wrong.

 

[Spazmo]

I think HK-47 would have been tons more interesting if he had to follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Obviously, the second (?) one would kind of nullify his usefulness as a combat character, but having a fully pacifist CNPC who'd probably explode if forced to commit an act of violence would be interesting.

Wouldn't work in a combat-driven BioWare RPG, of course, but someone with talent and flair could make it work.

 

[Seven]

I think HK-47 would have been tons more interesting if he had to follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Obviously, the second (?) one would kind of nullify his usefulness as a combat character, but having a fully pacifist CNPC who'd probably explode if forced to commit an act of violence would be interesting.

Wouldn't work in a combat-driven BioWare RPG, of course, but someone with talent and flair could make it work.

*BOOO* *HISS* *JEER*

Also, what are these talented developers you speak of?

 

[Psilon]

No, the First Law is what would render him useless. The Second Law is the one which makes him do what you want.

If the bot followed the Three Laws:
First Law: Cannot attack humans or allow humans to come to harm.
Second Law: Must follow orders of player except where they would violate First Law.
Third Law: Must use AC and dodge bonuses except where they would violate the First or Second Laws.

 

[Sol Invictus]

So basically he would be completely useless.

 

[Psilon]

Not entirely. It really should be "cannot harm humans" rather than attack. Mea culpa.

With proper phrasing, you could get the bot to immobilize and render unconscious anyone who directly attacks you. He'd try to stop you from killing them, though. See Asimov's Caves of Steel trilogy for examples, as well as Robots and Empire.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Man, a moralistic sidekick robot would completely suck ass. It'd be like having a PG-13 rated action movie as an advisor.

 

[Mister Takeda]

Exitium, your words paint a frightful image of a freshly castrated John Woo entering The World of American Cinema for the first time. *shudder* "No matter how many times I shoot 'em, they just.. won't.. bleed!"

I always thought the advantage of a robotic companion was their moral flexibility, not their ridged robotic ethics. I mean, after all, Asinov's Laws were a relic of the 50's. An era which simply did not understand that programing a robot to shake someone's hand was more about finding the coded nuances that seperate a gentle pump of the wrist from ripping an arm out of it's socket and waving it over it's chromed skull, than just saying "be polite, Robbie". But they just won't give up on writing touchie feely movies about sad robotic little boys and their oedipus complex, so what do I know?

If it were up to me, I'd wanna see a game where the NPC-bot's "moral leanings" are entirely under the control of the PC, who can deviously order their synthetic beast to slaughter peaceful villages or furiously masturbate their super ego by programming it to plant rainforests and raise pet bunnies for orphans. And it would be the single member of the party who never, ever gave you lip about your decisions. No "I don't think we should be doing this," or "Foolish human, I no longer wish to be part of this party! You'll find me sulking under my bridge if you need me..." No, this thing would do whatever you told it. For good or for ilk. And that would make the life of all but the cleverist of PCs an absolute living hell. That is the beauty of the robot NPC. It's a blank slate A.I. starving for input. Like a baby with rocket launcher arms. Who couldn't love that?

 

[Spazmo]

Once again, you're all locked into the mindset of a combat heavy BioWare RPG. A pacifist robot CNPC would work in a game that doesn't require you to kill everything that moves as an easy substitute to diplomacy.

 

[Dgaider]

that Kobold in Shadows/HOTU that even had his own romance because the fans wanted it.

Ummm... yeah... no, there was no kobold romance anywhere and fans never asked for that, so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Insofar as HK-47 himself goes, Asimov's laws of robotics are very interesting and all... not sure how that kind of concept would work in practice, though, but it might work (C-3PO never engaged in combat, after all). When in the Star Wars universe, however, one must make Star Wars robots and not Asimov robots... and Star Wars robots are fairly colorful individuals pretty much as a rule, it seems.

Personally, I think I'm happier with the writing I did on Jolee, but this award was for Most Original Character... which I interpret as HK-47 being funny and memorable. Certainly a lot of people liked him a lot, which is cool, and certainly recognition is always nice.