Nosey and Opinionated

That would be a long delay just to record some audio. They recorded VA for both expansions since the novella was supposed to have come out. Probably still something else going on, but I don't think we'll ever know.

I think you have it right. I read it as being a really easy difficulty option. Probably not directed at the hardcore set. It was a tough game for new players, though, and the AI's gotten tougher over time. There probably are a good number of players that wouldn't mind an easier time with the combat.

It sounds like that might be what they did. From that interview Avellone did a while back, he said others at Obsidian had to "rein him in." The real question is why someone in his position, with his level of experience, should have to be reined in at all. He was the creative executive of the company -- shouldn't he be able to know when he's being wordy and adjust? If he can't do that on his own, it makes it less of a shock that he's no longer in that role.

I think that's very fair. I do think there was something, at least in torment, that gave those companions a humanity that's been harder to find since. Morte, aside from being a skull, had something very real about him. Not the wisecracks, but the lying and the guilt. He doesn't drone on and on about it, but it's there and you understand why, and when you get there it's a good moment. I'd say more than half the companions in that game had something nice and real in there, and that's a big part of why the ending came together. The post-Kreia work (including Kreia) has gone off in a direction that's much less understated. YMMV is a good way to put it.

Chris does not take credit for those characters as they were largely re-written by the other writers, so I imagine issues such as that (and whatever problems people have with GM) are largely in part due to re-writes and cuts. I thought Durance, GM (despite HORRIBLE VO), Eder and Aloth were good companions but Eder and Aloth needed more content IMO. Kana, Sagani and Pallegina were boring and I didn't use Hiravias much because I got him last. Has there been anything posted about what and how much was rewritten? I saw the interview where he said he had to be reined in. When I read those characters, I can hear that Avellone cadence. It's hard to tell how much was rewrites and how much was cuts, but they both sound consistently like Avellonian didacts. In either case what makes me sad is that I have to go so far back to find a character that he wrote that hooked me. Maybe these didn't come out how he wanted, but you'd think somewhere between KOTOR 2 and New Vegas there'd be something in there that's going to stand the test of time the way Torment has so far. I don't see it. His characters are caricatures now, barely recognizable as human. They are philosophies or idiosyncrasies that talk to you. I see skill in the things he writes these days, but no soul.

I was referring to GM. She is one of the worst characters I have seen in an RPG for a long time. Her plot is totally one dimensional, she has zero character growth, her justifications for traveling with you are paper thin. She is an absolute wasted opportunity and they should have stuck with the original concept of the Cipher companion being a part of Dunryd Row. Durance is a D Bag but his writing is fine. I didn't even get into GM but I completely agree with this. She was so flat.Chris wanted to design a mind dungeon for DM，but it was cuted. The plot was cuted too much. GM and Durance have by far the most lines in the game. I would also hazard a guess they have the most words per line. I couldn't be more grateful that they didn't have even more lines. So many of the existing ones are wasted on exposition. That's part of what I mean by him having lost his touch. Part of being a good writer is being able to edit your own work. The other thing it could be is that it could be a situation like George Lucas. Genius at first when they have a few new ideas to offer, but then the more you see, the more the limitations show through, and there's no more fresh ideas to offset the badness. This also underscores my other point, that he was the executive in charge of all creative things at the company. If his work got cut against his will, you'd think that order would have to come from above him, no? He wrote two of the longest companions in the game AND they had to make big cuts to get them to that point. That sounds very much like it was avoidable with better planning and editing on his part.

I can't imagine they'd put in a second cipher without having a barbarian first. LotER is made by a different group of people. Do you have a link on this? It's possible they meant for the companion to be card-game only and the "expansion" in question is a deck expansion. If we could see it in context that might give more insight.

Sir, you are in fact implying that the "romp" is "quick." I figured my subtle hint would have been enough but now you're defending the point. Then again, I suppose there was no Viagra back then so maybe you're on to something, if we're talking about a character over the age of 50... Elderly aside, and I hate to break this to ya, but there is such a thing as "all nighters." Especially when you've been out hunting dragons all day There should be a status debuff for "poorly rested."

I was referring to GM. She is one of the worst characters I have seen in an RPG for a long time. Her plot is totally one dimensional, she has zero character growth, her justifications for traveling with you are paper thin. She is an absolute wasted opportunity and they should have stuck with the original concept of the Cipher companion being a part of Dunryd Row. Durance is a D Bag but his writing is fine. I didn't even get into GM but I completely agree with this. She was so flat.

If Avellone had little impact on the story, good. Planescape was a great game, twenty years ago. Since then, he hasn't done anything that approaches that quality. He's had some things come out that were interesting, don't get me wrong. I liked Alpha Protocol, sometimes. I thought there were some funny lines in Old World Blues. I'm not sure if he wrote the parts I liked. Nothing profound or moving, though. Nothing like Torment -- or at least, the way I remember feeling when I played Torment. tbh, I feel bad for him. He's probably spent most of his adult life trying to get back there and never really made it. It's not that he's not an interesting writer, but I'm not so sure he's a good one anymore. His characters are all didacts -- Kreia, Durance, Ulysses. They have the most to say. And they constantly talk at you. It usually has the sound of something that might be profound or interesting. But if you poke at it you realize there's not as much going on as it sounds like there is. It's the same bag of tricks every time. "Question your beliefs, Player." "What if things weren't what they seemed? Wouldn't that blow your f---ing mind?" And maybe it did. The first time. With Kreia. After that? It's just more of the same. I can't speak for everyone else, but I want something different. With Durance, he's said that he wanted to explore the mind of a terrible person and explore whether he could be redeemed. But oops, he didn't have Durance do or say anything even slightly redeeming, so it's really not the best exploration. It's funny that he calls out the linearity of the plot. Durance might be the only companion that doesn't change course at all in response to what the player does. He's completely linear. It feels like he plays himself in the same way that Call of Duty does. You hit a button on him and he starts talking and then when he's done talking hours later, the quest finishes and you get some XP. There were so many companions in NV with more heart than Cass. I loved the grandma supermutant. There was something special there. Hell I was more attached to the robot. I haven't attached to an Avellone character since Torment. There's something off when the guy whose job is that he runs the creative side of the company claims to have so little influence. Someone in his position could choose to be the lead designer or head writer on any project he wants. He hasn't done that. Either that's his choice and that's some kind of confidence problem or a lack of care, or the choice was made for him and there were concerns about putting him into those roles. I think he's said all he has to say that is interesting. He did it in Torment. I would love for him to prove me wrong because I really liked his early work. He get credited with almost everything Obsidian writes, but when I started looking into what he'd actually written, I realized that none of my favorite writing was his. That was a big disappointment at first, but now that he's no longer there, it's a relief.

Seriously though I love this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0aNxzF7MAk Still just as relevant as ever.

Yes it does. So neither of us has any proof of anything and we are just making noise.

See the part about not knowing or caring about it until it was pointed out to them. Someone had to proof-read the backer text - It isn't just machine text conversions. Sure but that someone could be anyone on the team. Probably a peon because let's face it, the actual content creators probably had better things to do. The team is not some collective consciousness. There is a hierarchy. What's more likely is that it slipped past someone skimming the stuff and never made it up the chain to begin with. Your argument treats it as though the collective consciousness said "this is a great idea, what a great joke!" and then said "oh no, Twitter! This was a terrible idea!" which would be censorship and caving into pressure, I agree. But in truth it's some little tiny BS thing and it probably was never seen by anyone with authority until now. In either case it's speculation and no one here actually knows whether it was censorship or a free choice made by the devs. So we are all talking out of our butts. What else is new on the internet?

You're either dishonest or ignorant. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censorship a : the institution, system, or practice of censoring ... : a person who examines books, movies, letters, etc., and removes things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc. A person. Not a government, not a law, a PERSON. Did a person examine this game? Yes. Did they apply pressure, directly, to the developer of said game to remove something they felt was offensive, immoral, or harmful to society? Yes. This person is a censor. They performed censorship by pressuring the developer to remove it. About to go offensive (trigger warning); if I "pressure" someone into having sex, I'm not a rapist or immoral, right? After all, they could have said no, they could have resisted, so it's alright, right? No one is arguing that the offended person isn't a would-be censor. They wanted that joke censored. What no one has proven is that Obsidian changed the content not because they wanted to change it but only because the censor made them. Which is a silly argument anyway. There are clearly butthurt people in droves on both sides of the debate. If you're going to get backlash from both sides, might as well do what you want to do.

Not an awful lot of need for that - They've either caved to minority response or shown that they care more about said minority's complaints than keeping harmless backer content that fits the universe and theme. Or they didn't care for the joke and arrived at that decision on their own.