_Q & A / Letters Column # 1_

Chaos Nyte

Spellshard was most definitely one of the better games for OHR this year. It combined old-school styled graphics with great play mechanics. My only real complaint was the complete lack of experience given in the last two areas of the game, an error which has yet to corrected. I, along with the majority of the community, look forward to the next update. Too few OHR games focus on making their games fun, and fewer still attempt to give their games unique graphic styles. A lot of OHRers could take a page from Spellshard’s book and focus on gameplay before graphics. Spellshard’s story was refreshing too, since it dealt with a basic plot and didn’t give itself complicated airs.
 
 

2. Heard you're at college now. Plan to booze it up? - Anonymous 

While I have no intention of getting wasted, I have dabbled a bit, and let me tell you all. Alcohol is what stupid people need to justify their actions. If you need to drink in order to hang out with your friends, to feel better about your self, or just to relax, then you’ve got problems no drug in the world is going to cure. Grow a backbone people. 
 
 

3. howdy.so i was thinking, in a lot of recent games, the characters just aren't powerful enough, right? right?? i mean, like the villains are able to blow up planets and cause stars to supernova, so the heroes should too, yeah? i mean, after all, god's on their side, the good side, right, so it only makes sense? don't you agree. - rufus1009 

God? Most OHR games seldom deal with religion, or if they do it’s purely for white mages. Your question is flawed at best. Rethink it and send it in again.
 
 

4. It seems that games as a whole in the OHRRPGCE community are more indicative of the author's respective aesthetic theories (or complete lack thereof) than rpgmaker2k games (or games made on any engine with premade graphics). Now, you can easily see that a lot of these designers don't seem to apply much effort in the area of developing a personal style (there are several notable exceptions, don't get me wrong). So, I was wondering, do you think its a good thing that the OHR more or less requires one to create all their own graphics? Also, what can you tell us about your own aesthetic theory? - Salamandastron 

OHR is for game designers who want to design their own worlds. Most engines that focus on premade graphics seems mainly for designers who are looking for a cheap thrill, having the chance to make a psuedo-rpg is all most people need. 

As for my aesthetic theory, since you believe it can be found in an author’s game, why don’t you go play Joke? 
 
 

5. personally, i'm not looking forward to this autumn. i mean, jesus, the halloween contest, the christmas contest, the human day contest, the etc etc.... all those contests! don't you think they go a long way towards creating community strife? i think we as a community should ban them all together. - mutter2031 

WHAT A GOOD IDEA! LETS STOP CONTESTS THAT PROMOTE GAME DESIGN! THEN WE CAN STOP CREATING GAMES WITH THEMES! HOW ABOUT WE MAKE ONLY MAKE GAMES WITH PLOTS FROM FINAL FANTASY AND POORLY THOUGHT OUT PLAY MECHANICS!
 
 

6. what profit can you reap 
if your sickle is made of wind 
and you planted dead seeds 
to grow a weak withered wood 
to make a punctual bow 
only to find out your target 
is just straw? 
- caduceus 

Profit is subjective. If your work is satisfying, then the results are immaterial. 
 
 

7. first of all, i'd just like to congratulate everyone on a great first issue. everything was put together really well, and i could find very few flaws. a top-notch publication. with that, i guess i'll get on to my question. can you let us in on what steps rinkuhero is taking to ensure that septaweekly remains on a tight schedule and doesn't end up like the amazing, but ill-fated OHR monthly? - ragnastus 

To see how Rinku goes about creating his part of Septa, check out his LiveJournal, here. [[Edit by Rinku: Reasonably Septaweekly itself also has a LiveJournal, found here.]]

As for the rest of the team, we’ve all got a time release virus on our computers. If we don’t have our parts done in time, our computers blow up.