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Deus Ex - The Nameless Mod

Solivagant

Novice
Joined
Feb 4, 2007
Messages
27
The teachings of the Llama High Priest are almost upon us. Why no buzz yet? 7 years in the making, and just a few days away!

http://www.thenamelessmod.com
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,886
Yeah, alot of mods are "almost" finished right now, so I tend to have trouble paying attention. :D
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
7 years to make a MOD? This is the part where I have to ask myself: what's the point? You could use that time to make your own game from scratch.
 

Gerrard

Arcane
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
11,927
Hobo Elf said:
7 years to make a MOD? This is the part where I have to ask myself: what's the point? You could use that time to make your own game from scratch.
:3DRealms:
 

yes plz

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,158
Pathfinder: Wrath
I'm rather unclear on why we should care. It sounds pretty awful.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,999
Location
Platypus Planet
Gerrard said:
Hobo Elf said:
7 years to make a MOD? This is the part where I have to ask myself: what's the point? You could use that time to make your own game from scratch.
:3DRealms:

You don't actually believe that they've been working on Duke, do you?
 

coaster

Liturgist
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
222
I just read the "story" bit of the website. Is this some sort of internet joke I haven't got? A mod...set in cyberspace...about some forums...about the game Deus Ex. Erm...ho ho ho. And shit.

They could have done a proper sequel to DX, and instead...this?
 

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Yeah this mod sounds like crap - and they dedicated 7 years to this shit?

Tell me this is just a joke.
 

Gnidrologist

CONDUCTOR
Joined
Aug 30, 2005
Messages
20,856
Location
is cold
Interwebs reveal all the wicked dorment secrets of the human soul and it's tormented nature.
Internet is a beautiful cesspool.
 
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
6,207
Location
The island of misfit mascots
The reason for the buzz has been the scale of what has been promised - lengthy game with branching plot-paths, reactivity if you kill almost any of the games' 200 NPCs, all NPCs being killable except where there is a very good lore-reason why they are aren't (i.e. where that NPC can just immediately pwn you if you attack), killing shopkeepers will result in store closure, FO1 style ending closure for each area, multiple factions, non-violent options, 'murder-both-sides' options etc - basically the hype has made all the right claims regarding C+C.

But yeah - why do all that, plus voice acting etc (not self-done thank god), for such a retarded plot-line? Don't get me wrong - if Tom Stoppard was writing it, I'd be thinking that it just 'might' be some interesting trope-breaking, convention-tearing look at video-game plotlines and fandom, ala 'Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead' using a break-down of theatrical conventions ('a death is just a man walking off stage'), 4th wall shenanigans etc to do a comic turn on the whole existentialist angst theme. But I highly doubt that the mod-makers have Mr Stoppard, nor a writer of comparable quality, working among them...which puts us back towards the 'why the hell would you do all that work on such a retarded plot' idea.

It hasn't come out yet, so obviously I'm pre-judging, but it really sounds like exactly what happens when you leave the writing to guys that go 'I'm an AWESOME writer! My friends who I run PnP sessions for say that I'm GREAT!!, rather than having any actual independently-reviewed work. Pity - I've played Deus Ex constantly enough since it came out that I mentally overlook the ugly graphics - I still find it stylised and graphically enjoyable (despite being aware that everyone says it looked ugly, even at the time, on good grounds:)).

Still, it's a mod by and for the Deus Ex community - if it's what they dig, then congrats on getting something of that scale finished after so long.
 

denizsi

Arcane
Joined
Nov 24, 2005
Messages
9,927
Location
bosphorus
Somewhere, in a dump dark spot, Warren Spector is tearing his hair and skin apart, crying inside, and out. "IS THIS *MY* FAN BASE!? IS THIS WHY I'VE DONE THIS, RELEASED THE SDK?!".
 

Jonas

Campfire Cabal
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
So let me get this straight, rather than a quirky, self-referential riff on / tribute to Internet communities, which is admittedly a weird concept but I hope you'll find to be executed with a pretty thorough internal consistency and logic, you'd rather we'd made another bland military near-future shooter or even just tried to stick to the Deus Ex universe, doubtlessly brutalizing it as only the worst fan fic is capable of?

It's hard to explain why TNM works, but I can give it a shot - bearing in mind that I'm the lead designer, so I'm not exactly unbiased. I know your legendary elitism around here, which is fine by me, but bear with me.

We've worked on it for 7 years because it took us 2-3 years to learn how to mod in the first place - we estimate that pretty much nothing of what was done in the first 2 years is still featured in the game, everything has been redone. That constant iteration over such a long period has allowed us to develop the setting and the story quite organically instead of sitting down at the beginning of the project and figuring everything out, which would doubtlessly have made it easier to develop, but a lot less fun for everyone involved.

That also means we've had plenty of time to get people other than ourselves to look at it, and though the final plot isn't entirely free of holes and weaknesses, I think it actually holds up pretty well and has some decent punch where it counts.

The greatest problem in describing TNM is the humour. Most of the humour in the game comes from the strangeness of the setting rather than the actual plot. The plot is weird because of the setting, but replace the faux-internet factions with real-world conspiracy groups and it would probably transfer pretty decently into Deus Ex's near-future-real-world, uh... world. What "jokes" we do have in the mod generally aren't punchline-based but carried by humourous phrasings or intelligent quips - I like to say I prefer humour based on intelligent people being intelligent rather than stupid people being stupid. In general though, TNM is not a comedy game, it attempts to find a balance between being serious enough to immerse you and not taking itself too seriously. I'm definitely not the right person to judge whether we've succeeded on that count, though, so I'll happily leave that up to you once you've played it :)

Finally, I would like to admit that I am certainly not Lawrence Kasdan, but of the ~195,000 words of dialogue in The Nameless Mod, about half of it was written in the first 2 years of development, and all of that has since been rewritten - the script has undergone constant changes and ruthless editing, most recently as our (surprisingly good, if I do say so myself) actors have put their own spin on the characters, lending them personality that I didn't always have time to infuse into the writing.

tl;dr: Please give it a chance, our attempts to describe what makes TNM good don't really do the project justice. If you still think it sucks after you've played it, so be it, but in theory at least, this mod should really hit the RPG Codex sweet spot*.


* Well, okay, it has no turn-based combat, but aside from that...
 

denizsi

Arcane
Joined
Nov 24, 2005
Messages
9,927
Location
bosphorus
Nice of you to sign up here and post this. Your mod shall be submitted to the Temple of Trials for sure. I was intending to replay DX very soon, so I'll certainly give it a shot after DX.
 

Wyrmlord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 3, 2008
Messages
28,886
No, dude, no. No. NO!

It's fucking retarded.

It's. Not. Funny. No no no no no.

The plot of this game -

is that it is a parody of internet forums.

Internet forums are themselves silly places where people kick back and have fun. They are inherently a non-serious place.

To make a parody of internet forums is to make a parody of a parody. Which is awful. It is contrived.

Don't get me wrong - our very own Warriors Of Diversity was funny as hell. But it in itself was made as a message board topic. It was something by a message board for a message board.

But a full fledged conversion mod where the only thing to make fun is the thing that you are making fun of - it is something hollow and empty that I do not even want to imagine the fail it would produce.

I believe Alginon was the name of the poster who did a very legendary Let's Play of Deus Ex on your beloved forums, right? The one you guys worship as a god? Yeah, I think your god is smart enough to be facepalming at how ridiculous the whole premise of this mod is.
 

Jonas

Campfire Cabal
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
Heh, well we had fun making it, and from what I hear from our testers, it's well enough executed that you don't have to have ever been a part of the Deus Ex community to appreciate it. I would still appreciate it if you'd give it a try before announcing that it's not funny though ;)
 

Jonas

Campfire Cabal
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
That trailer is 6 years old. Remember what I said about everything produced in the first two or so years of development? We really should remove that trailer, but unfortunately it wasn't uploaded by one of us, and well... it's an interesting historical artifact.

We have more recent trailers and random PR footage, but I think I'll wait until we're putting out the launch trailer. It was actually just finished today, so we'll probably release it some time over the weekend, I'll post a link here when it's up :)
 
Joined
Jul 30, 2006
Messages
5,933
Location
Scotland
The premise puts me off, so I definitely won't be paying full price fo-

Really, while I'd definitely prefer a "serious" story, or at least one that wasn't a parody of a community I'm not part of, the rest of the mod sounds really promising. Worst comes to the worst, play it for the gameplay and CnC and ignore the plot; it's free, it's worth giving a shot at least.
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
6,992
Jonas said:
replace the faux-internet factions with real-world conspiracy groups and it would probably transfer pretty decently into Deus Ex's near-future-real-world
So why didn't you?
 

Jonas

Campfire Cabal
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
Because Deus Ex already did. We're already ripping off DX's gameplay, structure, and certain of its themes, so we wanted to try something original in the story/setting department.

Plus, the whole "you can have a character in the mod" gimmick has been invaluable in attracting people to help out with the mod. The only way that should really impact you is in that people will have some pretty weird names, though.
 

Fat Dragon

Arbiter
Joined
May 24, 2007
Messages
3,499
Location
local brothel
Admiral jimbob said:
Worst comes to the worst, play it for the gameplay and CnC and ignore the plot; it's free, it's worth giving a shot at least.
Yeah, same here. I was really put off at first by its setting and story, but now that I've taken the time to check out more of the site's feature list it sounds like it might be good for a few hours' worth of entertainment, assuming that's how long the mod is. Might check it out once I finish up with SS2 again. Sometimes these big mods turn out pretty good, like that Thief 2X.
 

Jonas

Campfire Cabal
Developer
Joined
Mar 5, 2009
Messages
68
Location
Denmark
Well an average playthrough of TNM takes 15 hours, though you can do it in 6-7 if you skip all the optional content and side missions and such. Of course if you decide 3 hours in that you can't stomach our concept, nothing will prevent you from quitting in disgust rather than suffering through the rest of the game, but for what it's worth, most of our testers enjoyed it enough to start over and play through the second storyline too :)
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,079
If they actually manage to make a good story out of this silly setting, it will really be an achievement. I'll definitely try the mod just to see what the hell they've been up to all these years. Judging by the fact that they kept on going all this time and that they convinced many voice actors to help them I don't think that the mod will be as crappy as some people seem to think.

Anyway, Codex is our name and bitching is our game.
 

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