Fresh, unexpected impressions from a new player

[Draco18s]

They did intentionally do the exact opposite of what everyone wanted, and wrote it on the fly, so the "They didn't plan it all out" criticism is exactly correct. They did that on purpose

Wow, that's dumb.

Also: hey, another ShadowRun fan.

[Panopticon]

You guys criticize BSG for being "dumb" but then turn around and praise Shadowrun in the same conversation?

Heh. Okey dokey.

[Draco18s]

You guys criticize BSG for being "dumb" but then turn around and praise Shadowrun in the same conversation?

ShadowRun has done dumb things too.  The most recent book is...pretty bad.
Fully of typos, inconsistencies, contradictions, and for a book that describes a city at war, it has no maps.

[chemical_art]

I may just be crazy, but despite knowing most of season 4 and the finale were written on-the-fly, I thoroughly enjoyed BSG. I felt like it was certainly moving to end the series, but the ride was enjoyable all the same.

I admit I never read forums for any show I seriously watch because that almost instantly destroys the fun for me. After-the-fact, I may read a few reactions, but that is only after my own opinion has been made. I never let another person's opinion ruin my own fun of a show.

[Echo35]

You guys criticize BSG for being "dumb" but then turn around and praise Shadowrun in the same conversation?

Heh. Okey dokey.

No, actually, I'm not. I love BSG and Shadowrun.

[Draco18s]

I should mention that I never "got" BSG because the original series was before I was born.  The new series was a continuation, of sorts, so I didn't understand it.

The only reason I want to watch the last episode is to go "ok, so THAT'S why it was a good idea I didn't watch it."

[Nalgas]

It's not that listening to fan feedback is a bad thing, but you can't let your audience run the show for you, they've no idea what they actually want. I'm entirely convinced, for example, that this is what happened to Heroes.

Oh dear.  Don't even get me started on Heroes.  Such a good 3/4 of a season of a show that was.  As far as I'm concerned it had already started going downhill by the end of the first season, and the second one wasn't really any worse to me than the end of the first.  The third was a complete and total disaster, which I only kept sort of watching out of morbid curiosity to see how badly they could ruin it and because my friend and I liked making fun of it together.  And yeah, they pretty much explicitly said that what they changed for the second season and then what they changed again for the third was based on fan feedback, from what I remember, so I think even the creators of the show agree with you on that.

This is a problem in other media too, it's even destroyed a few otherwise promising games. One of the great things about AI War, actually, is that Chris has so successfully managed to balance the integration of player feedback and ideas without allowing that to compromise his own vision of what the game should be.

Also true.  In fact, I've even been guilty of it myself and added features to things that weren't particularly great ideas just because so many people were bugging me for them and I was bored.  The overwhelming "meh" I got in response taught me that the hard way.  It can be hard to keep that sort of balance between listening to what people want and putting your foot down when they want something stupid when there's as much direct contact/communication between the devs and players as there is here, but it seems to be working out well for AI War so far.

[Vinraith]

I should mention that I never "got" BSG because the original series was before I was born.  The new series was a continuation, of sorts, so I didn't understand it.

Err, no it isn't. It's a completely new show based (very, very loosely) off of a couple of the same ideas. Even calling it a remake would overstate its connection to the original series, it's certainly not important (let alone necessary) to have seen the original to understand the new one. If the new one doesn't make sense to you, it's just because the new one doesn't make sense.

[Draco18s]

I should mention that I never "got" BSG because the original series was before I was born.  The new series was a continuation, of sorts, so I didn't understand it.

Err, no it isn't. It's a completely new show based (very, very loosely) off of a couple of the same ideas. Even calling it a remake would overstate its connection to the original series, it's certainly not important (let alone necessary) to have seen the original to understand the new one. If the new one doesn't make sense to you, it's just because the new one doesn't make sense.

Alright, fine.

I also only ever saw two episodes in the middle and was just kinda, "....bwuh?" about it.  I didn't keep watching because I didn't know why the show was cool.

[Vinraith]

Alright, fine.

I also only ever saw two episodes in the middle and was just kinda, "....bwuh?" about it.  I didn't keep watching because I didn't know why the show was cool.

Yup, I just wanted to clarify.

[Nalgas]

I also only ever saw two episodes in the middle and was just kinda, "....bwuh?" about it.  I didn't keep watching because I didn't know why the show was cool.

That was my initial reaction to B5 when I caught a couple episodes somewhere in the middle while it was still airing on TV.  Made no sense and seemed kind of silly.  My friend forced me to give it a second chance and watch it from the beginning when he got it on DVD, and I'm very glad he did, because it turned out to be great.

I am by no means suggesting that you should do that with BSG, though, just that it makes even less sense if you haven't been following along and don't already know what's going on or have anything invested in the characters.  Not that it always made sense for people who had been watching all along...  Heh.

[Entrenched Homperson]

Ahrrmmmhrrmmhrmmm.

Buck Rogers.