Volourn

"Personally, I don't think ME2 qualifies as an RPG. It's a 3rd person shooter with some slight RPG elements." It's an Action RPG just like BL. "Sheppard has a personality, motivation and ideals?" Yes. "And how are they customizable?" Quite a bit. How you react to different situations is up to the player and your chocies effect how others react to you. "The game is a rail-road. " A lot less than other popular so called RPGs. *cough* GB games *cough* BG series *cough*

Posting in a troll thread that has nothing to do with games but has everything to do with bashing others that have a different opinion than yourself.

NWN.

"I'm not totally sure it's legal (in some countries at least) for them to take the games back. It may be considered a breach of contract : the contract being selling a game at an explicite proposed price (even 0 is a price)." iI dunno. I don't think you can have an actual legally binding contract if both parties aren't getting something tangible out of it. Plus for those who didn';t qualify for the offer had no right to accept an offer that wasn't meant for them. That's akin to fraud like taking someone's lottery ticket or better yet some sort of free raffle for whatever. But, who knows. Legal or not, it's definitely immoral.

It's one thing to trust. It's another to trust blindly.

"ope, I just say Objective-based XP is better for a story-oriented RPG instead of an action-RPG. And hey, look what PE is! " It's an RPG that's going to have a lot of combat with a focus on story and characters - just like BG2. Also, PST was story fcoused yet also had LOTS of combat, and rewarded xp for it yet it didn't hurt the game at all. In fact, out of all the complaints of the three IE series they mentioned - IWD, BG, and PST - none of them have been OMG You get xp for combat that's horrible! As long as you get xp from various sources there is absolutely nothingw rong with getting xp for combat. I think people who are opposed it are anti old skool rpging which PE is supposed to be about. They also bel;ieve others should play exactly liek them. That's bogus. You should get an xp for every battle. It's perfectly logical. And, it's illogical to think you shouldn't.

"I logged into that stream for five minutes. I read IRC messages galore of pathetic adolescents throwing unwarranted sexually inappropriate comments towards all female Obsidian employees (visible, of course, for everybody in that room and all the 1450+ people logged on to the stream), with practically no-one speaking out against that, I saw a bunch of people sitting around on couches and not doing much and I saw people downing shots of (presumably) hard liquor (accompagnied by shouts of encouragment by the rest of the staff) in front of small children. It was one of the most depressing things I've seen on the internet so far. If anything, it decreased my respect for the people at Obisidian and vastly decreased my respect for its fanbase. " Oh, please. Women goggle and catcall men all the time and nothing is said. Why? It's not a big deal. So, people think certain women are hot. Big deal. Do you cry when girls stampede after Justin Beiber? Do you pout aboutf emalkes beings exist when they watch soaps for the sexy men or football for their tight uniforms showing off their asses? The list goes on. Big deal. Nobody was hurt. Buck up, squirt, nothing to see. P.S. Don't blame me as I didn't watch the stream. But, hey, next time I'm walking down the street, and some gal catcalls my ugly butt 9and boy am I ugly); I'll sue her for sexual ahrassment and call her sexist! Deal?

"And if you play them, you surely can agree they would be better than their "kill everything for XP" counterparts." Nope. BL is not better than FO or BG2. Good game but not that good. And, its xp scheme made its subpar combat even worse. Any system that has you literally avoiding things by just running past them and ignoring them is the epitome of poor deisgn. There was no real motivation to fight anything because of poor design and lack of xp was a part of it. "ersonally I am kinda suprised how many people can apparently no longer enjoy combat just because they can't get XP per kill. Does it change anything about the combat itself? Nope. So why do some people think it's the mysterious link between awesome and horrible. " I agree with your logic. Why bother with giving xop for quest competion? It doesn't make you enjoy doing quests more right? It doesn't change anything about the quest itself right? So why do some people think its the mysterious link between awesome and horrible? I did a project in school. I had fun with it and did a great job. I also got rewarded an A+ for it. I guess my teacher shouldn't have given me an A+ because I didn't need an A+ to enjoy doing the project. rewards for doing stuff is always a good thing. period. You should get xp for what you do - be it fighting, talking, role-playing, quest compeltion, skill useage, whatever. PE is supposded to eb an old skool game but you new age ME2 fanboyz want to ruin old skool RPIng by taking out one of the oldest coolest rpging thing ever. Why do you hate old skoolm, rpgs but like new skool stuff like ME2? WHY? And, BL isn't even a real old skool rpg either. It's an action rpg just like ME2.

"Every case is different. They would probably come down extremely hard on the hacker in the name of national security. In those cases you want all the help your embassy and your legal system can provide. Extradition treaties also allow for nationals to serve prison sentences in their country of origin. " Don't do the crime if you cna't do the time. "This. There are few circumstance where anybody should have to suffer extradition to the USA. You just can't trust that country to protect someone's human rights." Says someone who comes from country built on criminality. L0L I bet if situations were reversed you'd be wnating justice as well. The US has done more for human rights than the vast majority of countries in the world. That is a FACT.

I ended up at $250 tier. Better be darn good game. L0L

Sounds immoral and illegal. Typical internet pieces of crap.

"the designers have every right to set the tone and feel of the game by eliminating combat XP" What a silly argument. They also have the 'right' to give a mil xp per encounter. they also have the right to makeyou do what NWN2 does and 0hp = unconcious not death. They have the right to do a lot of things. Who is debating otherwise? Posters have the right to state their opinions as well. Your garbage adds nothing to the discussion. "because they won't have to worry whether the player is level 5 or level 15 because he spent three weeks next to a rat hole killing ratsies. Yes, 3.x scaling XP is not bad, but it's not a perfect solution because when rats stop giving you XP, you'll just move on to the orc spawning spot." What a weaka rgument. A game shouldn't have an x spawn point that replenishes after awhile unless it is a Gauntlet wannabe. That is not Obsidian's intention here since they plkan to place encounters and items anyways so that just won't work. Giving xpm for killing enemies surely didn't hurt the classics like FO, BG2, or the GB games. But, not giving xp for killing enemies was a weakness of both ME2 and BL. 8shrug*

"Objective-based XP incentivizes you to go to new places and do new things." No, it doesn't. Besdies, I thought the key argument against battle xp was that you shouldn't need xp to motivate you to do things.. so, why is xp needed to motivate you to explore?

But, it isn't new or innovative. Other games have done this.

Yeah, I can live with it. Not the first game not to ahve raises. To me, it just weakens magic but at least the 'soul' thing can lend credence to it somehwat.

The huge gap is because that big city is gonna take up lots of resources - espicially if they still intend to complete the game in a timely manner.

"Just think, if you go through an long hour plus long fight, at the end of it did you feel accomplished because you achieved something that was truly worth it and fun to do, or because a number popped up on your screen? If it's the second you can just get a calculator and a graph and have plenty of that without the effort." I'd want to be rewarded for it. That's what xp does. Do i feel fantastic when I write a presumably awesome paper when I was in school? Absolutely.. but, i also want to be rewarded for it with a nice sexy A+. That's what xp does for you. That's one of the many things that makes RPGs superior to other genres. If I wanna play a agme with no xp I'd play Mario. Are you saying Mario is better than every RPg ever created because it doesn't give xp awards yet players still play it? That's silly talk. I want to be rewarded for what i do and how I do them. i wanna be rewarded for combat, dialogue triumphs, skill useage, quest completion, or whatever.

"I've mentioned this in other threads, but the treatment of 'Raise Dead' in other games has always slightly bugged me. It diminishes the impact of someone dying when all you have to do is drag them down the street to the local temple, throw a few hundred gold in the donation bowl and walk out with your dead buddy now as good as new. " Only because BG series copped out and made it too easy. PNP RD and R aren't so easily accomplished. You certainly can't lazily walk into a temple and pay a few hundred smackeroos to get someone raised. It ended up being a quest in of itself and even if a party member had access to the spell, it came with a huge price. I cna live without it but to me it dumbs down magic for easy lazy game design. All this does is make people reload anyways (unless you do iron man mode). *shrug* "If I were expecting P:E to go the KOTOR route where everyone just passes out when they've been hacked repeatedly with a lightsaber, I would actually find the lack of raise dead to be a negative thing. I think the Obsidian people are smarter than that. " Yet, they've done exaxtly that in the past. P.S. That said, they aren't going that route in PE which is a good thing. As that is lame.

"MHO, if you're not willing to engage in combat if you don't get that xp bonus shows a lot more problems. The whole point of a game is to engage you, and the main form of that engagement is having fun. If the combat isn't enjoyable enough on it's own to warrant doing it for it's own sake that's a problem. And even if that's weak the looting system and making sure that at least the currency you get from the loot is meaningful and worth having should pick up the slack. I think the backlash of "I trust what they're doing" is from that if you need xp to enjoy combat and the game overall there are so many more problems than simply the xp system. There's plenty of ways to break the Pavlovian addiction to see that xp number go up without making combat less meaningful, enjoyable and rewarding." Agreed. This is why i propose they don't reward any xp for quest completion either. If the only reason one completes quests is for xp than there's much worse problems. Why bother rewarding xp at all. Your game should be rewarding without it. Might as well make old skool adventure games and not rpgs. Maybe a Mario game. those could be fun and rewarding and you don't need xp there at all. Just playing the game itself was fun. I mean, geez, do you see how ridiculous you sound? PE is supposed to be an old school game in the light of BG, PST, and IWD. All 3 of which gave xp for combat, dialogue, and quest completion. None of thems uffered because they gave xp for combat. Almsot every old school game - pnp or crpg - gives out xp for combat (and other stuff) and doesn't suffer for it. Why do the new kidz on the block want to destroy old schooL REAL rpgness.

"The combat in Darklands was far less forgiving than Dungeons and Dragons. " No, it isn't. Combat in ANY system is more or less forgiving based on the DM/developer. It's as hard or as easy as Obsidian decides to make it. The system itself won't decide that. It's why you can play very easy DnD games and campaigns and very hard DnD games and campaigns. Same with Darklands style rules systems. P.S. DnD also has rules systems that has the same sort of 'stamina and health' slash bars. It's not unqiue to Darklands at all. P.S.S It has potential for coolness in PE to be sure if the combat is deisgned well.

"ut I think you are forgetting a couple of something... LOOT ?! STORY !? EASTER EGGS?! EVERYTHING OTHER THAN XP! Please explain, I am awaiting your answers " But, why are those 'good' rewards, but battle/encounter xp awards bad? Plus, easter eggs? L0L I don't play games for easter eggs. They can be fun bonuses but they shouldn't be the purpose of doing something. Fighting to get stronger makes snese. Exploring to find new areas makes sense. Fighting and exploring for phAt lewt makes sense. But, easter eggs/ L0L I say you should xp for combat, non combat skills, and quest compeltion. That's OLD SKOOL RPG and if you don't liek that you ain't old skool rpger.

A better poll would be one asking what xp system you prefer... a) XP by combat only b) xp by quest only C) xp by skills use only d) xp by combination of all 3 I wonder which would win... P.S. I vote for d

L0L

"YES, xp kills are for MMOs and Mass Effect and evil stuff that no self-respecting role-player should cherish!!" What an illogical comment. XP for killing (and other stuff) is as OLD SKOOL RPGing as it gets. The oldest best CRPgs and pnp do it. The hilarious thing about your comment isn your precious ME2 doesn't - it does quest experience. L0L Why are you so against old skool RPGing and so for new age nonsense?

"The fact is, in DnD, you could spam the hell out of heal spells." Only if the DM/designer fails.