Thief Classes

Quick reply:

Yorick, Napster is just as everything in the world: good if used, bad if abused

It's true there ought to be some difficulty percentage associated with size, or perhaps value. Stealing something the merchant prizes should be harder. Stealing something bigger should be harder. Each item could have a pickpocket percentage code, wouldn't be too hard. I think it'd be possible to steal armor. Imagine if Minsc were talking to the merchant and you picked up a suit of armor and took it outside. It's just a matter of distracting and sneaking out.

[Desdicado]

Maybe some sort of minus on the percentage for a successful "steal" as the item get larger or heavier ?.
I reckon the original D&D rules were about as good as it gets in a lot of ways.

As G.W says it could be possible to steal a suit of plate, if somewhat noisy !.
But as Moriartty says, it's a bit unrealistic as it's possible in the game to pinch maybe half a dozen suits at once.

[Tobbin]

Well, I don't really know that much about the Napster deal, but I do like to preview music before I buy. Due to my hours at work and stuff, I don't really get to listen to the radio that much. I've tried buying just certain bands and stuff hoping that the sequels will be as good as the music that I have heard.

Unfortunately, I've been rather disappointed of late and have resorted to donning some headgear and picking a CD at random at our local Wal-Mart. I've had some success with this, but overall, it would be great if I could d/l a snippet of a song or so to get a feel for the music. Most of the music that I download or listen to (streaming) isn't the best quality anyways, so I can't really understand the argument over allowing this.

Granted, it should be authorized by the artists, but some of us really need some kind of sampling that we can use. When I do find a song that I like, I go out and buy the CD. You will notice that I didn't say song(s). I don't know why, but a lot of CD's have only 1 good song on them. Why is that? I really wish I could take some of the songs I have across my CD's and make at least 1 good killer all the way through CD.

One last ramble before I go though, why is it that I haven't seen so many CD's with music VIDEOS? They have room on the CD's. They don't have to put every song on there, but they could do 1 or 2 maybe. Doesn't have to be ultra-high resolution. A regular 320x200 or something video would be cool. I've captured some music videos from MTV at my sister's and put them on CD, so I know you can do it. I record medium resolution (640x480) with CD quality sound and I can fit about 14 songs on a CD without filling it (about 1/3 still free).

To those offended by anything that I've said, I apologize, just kinda hit a nerve cause I've really been frustrated in that never ending search for the best music out there. If anyone knows of a site or suggestion that offers what I have just said, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it. And thanks for the offer Yorick. I hope to be buying some of your work soon.

[Yorick]

Tobbin, great reply mate!
This dialogue has got me thinking about various issues on the matter. What you say about needing to sample before bying is very true, as is the quality issue. The CD/Video idea is a great one. I don't know why they don't do it more. Multimedia CDs do exist, but they are rare. In late 2000 I produced an album to raise money for a school (commissioned by their music department) that contained Video footage, but it's definitely in a minority.

In answer to your great songs point I reckon there's more than one answer to that. The first is, the artist possibly think they're great songs (LOL) and that taste is in the ear of the listener.

On a more serious note and to the point of my reply, the fact that you can buy music, in my opinion has lead a detrimental effect on the writing and production of music. Because music is competing in the marketplace, not only with itself, but also against films, videos, books, sport, plays, games etc etc. it has to follow market principles if it is to survive. Those being image, packaging, product awareness, value, placement etc etc. ultimately shifting music from an ARTFORM into a marketable CRAFT.

Make no mistake and please note what I'm saying: Much 'art' is made from music. Such beautiful artistic works exist in abundance, but in my opinion these exist IN SPITE of the music industry rather than supported by it. (I'm not saying anything original here by the way)

I realise this perhaps contradicts what I said in an earlier post that music needs money to be created, and it does. I stand by that statement. The negative effect caused by demands placed on the music to pay off that investment seem to work inversely to the benefits gained from the luxury of time, gear, players and everyone else that that money buys. The risk factor.

In short I'm thinking if the net enables artists to distribute work, and somehow they make some sort of a living from it, it'll be a beautiful thing.

No artist needs to sell the ridiculous volumes that get sold to survive. The example being bands that record their own CD themselves and own it, making a larger margin than those on a record company roster. With a larger margin Cds could come down in price and make buying some not such a big deal.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts guys. I'm still formulating my own opinions on an issue that potentially affects my profession greatly.