Acesahn

Yea I basically accepted most people are ok with a pretty good fantasy RPG that may or may not feel anything like BG or Icewind Dale (Though they parade those games on the games homepage) and would rather talk about silly fantasy names... lets face it, most of us have already pre ordered POE.

Well the setting, the classes, the combat system really. I MISS a complex class system... does it need to be streamlined for most audiences? Heck yea, my first cleric was awful until I read a guide on the complex numbers behind the stats and what skills to priotize while leveling lol. But in the end, Ive never had so much FUN with my class, and knowing of all the different classes and combinations I could play with on alt characters or simply leveling up my companions (If you played NWN2 and turned Khelgar into a monk... whoa, look out. He turns into a god... well like all max level monks XD)

Everyones mentioning all of the D&D games except NWN2... that was my first of all these games, and holds a special place in my heart (Oh Neeshka and Khelgar... its so clear to me you love each other like two brothers and sisters always bickering) The game had really amazing graphics for the time, and I enjoyed the combat and class system much better then BG2 even, never felt like more of a bad ass during the middle and late game, then with my 16 cleric 4 war priest, dishing out smacking fools with my 2 handed great mace I held with monkey grip with one hand, and a tower shield in the other XD. Though I admit, the camera and controls NEED to be adjusted before you play it, it handles so slugishly at first.

By lore, I meant the races and gods (Maybe cultures, like the Drow...), not to mention the fantastic classes and game mechanics. Thats another thing I forgot to mention, was how much I was looking foreword to another complicated, adaptable class system (Another thing Dragon Age was outclassed in, when put up against BG). There is SO many spells and class quirks that set it apart from modern video games. After learning the science behind a War Priest/Cleric, for my main in NWN2, learning how a cleric could be a mediocre damage and support... or a walking tower of buffs and destruction, or a mix between support and a mage, ALL without going outside of the clerics class! (Multiclassing makes the system even MORE complicated and rich to understand) I was really hoping to bring it all back, the races, the gods, the classes... I was actually shocked when everyone here on the forums realized it was never going to be that way, I was actually caught off guard.

Thats the beauty of D&D though, Obsidian owns the rights to Forgotten Realms, NOT all of D&D (I... assume? I tried to look it up but I cant find out for sure.) I was hoping the world of POE would be its own version of Forgotten Realms, allowing them to make many, many changes to the lore, while keeping the SPIRIT of BG, NWN, ect., alive. Im begining to see it wasnt the purpose of this game, HOWEVER... lets be honest. How many people kick started and pre ordered this game with BG2 in mind? People like me are not getting the game of there dreams... alas that game will most likely never be made... *Dreams of BG3*

Cantousent, you make it sound like it would be mimicking, or copying BG, when BG was a game about the lore within Forgotten Realms, which was a realm within D&D. D&D in itself, is an ever evolving, shifting story, with massive content, which will not be rivaled by a single games lore. Slavishly following is the wrong way to see it, when BG2 itself was doing the same thing, D&D is a template to build games out of (BG, NWN, Icewind Vale, Planescape) it's nearly impossible to grow stale when the world itself is changing and shifting (Popular god Tyr is dead, much to my NWN clerics despair, at least he was replaced by Torm though) Im a little sad, that I think POE potential is already limited right off the bat, rather then being a new spark, a new chapter in a long, ancient time of both pen and paper gaming, as well as PC rpg gaming, it is going down a familiar territory of just using D&D races and characters.

No multiplayer? Off to a poor start for competing with BG and NWN...

A pit fall that I hope Obsidian isn't making with POE, a supposed spiritual successor to BG, is creating a new IP which may or may not stay true to the feel of D&D. The problem with a new IP, is creating an "original" IP based off of D&D lore without using D&D lore and history... in itself isn't new or refreshing, rather its what EVERY Fantasy game that isn't a D&D game does. Lets take Dragon Age for example, DAO used its own IP, with elves and dwarves and magic, all with its own spin and ideas. Where did it go wrong? The amount of lore, races, history and over all plot potential, would fit in a chapter of a BG or NWN game. You have to save a continent from an army of undead blighted beings? That's almost like how I sealed away a Demon Prince, a being who could go toe to toe with gods, or the time I stopped the Drow from sacrificing a Silver Dragon egg to the lower planes in exchange for a demon army, or was sealed away in a multi dimensional mage chamber which later became my personal dimensional space ship. Many people liked DAO, but from a story and writing point of view, it fell laughably short to BG2. POE is going off there own path, that's fine... as long as they keep D&D themes and lore and history alive in the background, without it, we're going to have a game as much of a spiritual successor to BG2 as World of Warcraft, or Everquest... games that go "We have elves and dwarves, just they are OUR elves and dwarves" no infinite lore from D&D books, no rich, already fleshed out cultures and races, and potential world threats... just another fantasy game.