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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 13, 2000)
Top Ten Colleges with the Highest Paid Professors Rockefeller University—$129,800 Harvard—$128,900 University of Colorado Health Sciences Center—$121,900 Stanford—$121,100 Princeton—$120,000 Yale—$119,000 University of Chicago—$118,500 California Institute of Technology—$118,400 New York University—$116,100 Pennsylvania—$114,800 Source: chronicle.com; average salary of all full professors. Top Ten Colleges with the lowest Paid Professors Cornish College of the Arts—$27,800 University of the Sacred Heart—$30,300 Tennessee Wesleyan College—$31,700 Talladega College—$32,200 Trocaire College—$33,200 Concordia University-Austin—$33,200 Oakwood College—$33,700 Bethany College (Kan.)—$34,300 Bethel College (Tenn.)—$34,500 Faith Baptist Bible College and Seminary—$34,700 Source: chronicle.com; average salary of all full professors. GAMES RPG Renaissance Role Playing Games stage a comeback in Europe and America. I By Karen Zierler There’s no doubt any longer: Role-playing computer games (RPG) are in the height of a Renaissance. The September North American bestseller list, found at GameWeek.com, shows Diablo 2 in the no. 3 spot, with Deus Ex (15), Icewind Dale (19) and EverQuest: The Ruins of Kunark (20) all high on the list as well. This situation is radically different than it was three years ago, when the RPG genre was all but dead. In Europe, at the European Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) site, one finds Deus Ex in the no. 2 slot, and Diablo 2 in sixth position in the PC category (over all platforms, including PlayStation and N64). Whether it’s in first-person shooter (Deus Ex), or top-down AD&.D packaging (Icewind Dale), the RPG elements of strong character development, dungeon crawling and unique story pro gression—with a sleek presentation—are in demand. Take for example Blizzard’s Diablo 2. Not a thinking man’s game, but a true RPG, based on the old Angband, Moria and Nethack ASCII text-based titles. Fight evil in groups or alone, and figure out how best to develop your character’s stats and skills. The fast graphics (you need an excellent system) and cama raderie online at Battle.net make it one of the most addic tive forms of gameplay in five years. Black Isle’s Icewind Dale has a slower pace. Its micro-manage ment and tactical flow offers relaxing fun with optional turn-based combat allowing fans of AD&D dungeon crawling to experience trolls as they are meant to be. The story is less expansive than that of its direct predecessors, Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. However, superb voice Diablo 2 is one of the most addictive forms of gameplay to come around in five years. acting ana music along with excellent artwork help one overlook its minor flaws (a patch correcting some bugs also helps). Can the trend continue? The makers of Baldur’s Gate are bank ing on it, as Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn finally gears up for its release (expected this fall). This will be the fourth title using the now very dated Infinity Engine that lies at the heart of the original Baldur’s, Planescape and Icewind Dale. Too much of a good thing? We’ll see shortly—BG II has over 360 hours of gameplay. The soon-to-be-released Wizardry 8. While top-down viewing is hot, author D.W. Bradley and developers Heuristic Park are hoping to change all that with their first-person view, six party member title, Wizards & Warriors. It’s a return to the classic RPG viewpoint. Bradley was the author of the last three heralded Wizardry titles (end ing in 1992). Not to be out done by Bradley, Sirtech Canada (keepers of the Links to Games in this Article Diablo 2 blizzard.com battle.net Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment bioware.com/bgate2/ index.html interplay.com/icewind (for the patch download) planescape-torment.com Wizards &. Warriors heuristicpark.com activision.com/games/wizards Wizardry 8 wizardry8.com European Leisure Software Publishers Association (charts lists) elspa.com History of AD&D games gamespot.com/features/ history_add/index.html Wizardry license) are also work ing on finalizing their “official" Wizardry sequel, Wizardry 8. And I haven’t even mentioned the Diablo 2 Expansion set. It would appear there’s more life in the old Renaissance yet. •
