alanschu

I don't have time to watch the link right now. Does the video state that genocide is social evolution? Or were you equating my perspective to being a genocidal one?

I'm not sure how you get this impression by what Obsidian wants to do.

Well, he implies he'll try before buy. How he does that depends on him.

LOL interesting way of looking at it Monte. I have been able to get to a point where Volo doesn't bother me in the slightest

Not being a woman I don't know if it's much of an issue. All of my female friends and relatives seem to have decent jobs that they enjoy though. One recently became a doctor and then almost immediately put out 2 kids afterward, so.... haha.

The grimoire's will provide some level of spell preparation too.

This isn't a very endearing comment to make. I'm 31 so unless I'm under the category of "younger player," your assumptions are falling apart. I'm certainly not a younger player that has never played the IE games. The strongest draw of people that will play this game are more likely going to be the ones that played the IE games, and those people aren't typically "younger." The "geezer" gamer category still buys lots of "modern" games. I think the real issue here is that you struggle with the idea that your classifications (and it seems as though these classifications are important to you for some reason) don't seem to be much of a reflection of reality as you would like them to be, because you continue on here: Here's the reality: the people that you thought (and hoped) loved the IE games for the same reasons you do.... don't. In spite of your rationalizations that Obsidian is making these changes to appeal to some different audience, the fact is their initially stated target audience (fans of IE games) are still very much looking forward to this. Obsidian is looking on making a combat system that the "older" IE games have enjoyed, make no doubt about it. Well, I suppose it's certainly easier and safer to just go and pirate yourself a copy and then play some mental gymnastics to determine if you should bother paying for it after the fact....

Steam does similar stuff with Valve (and some select) 3rd party games as well. I consider it a good feature TBH. As for what I'm playing: I'm all over the map. Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai campaign right now (went independent).

Since healthcare was mentioned, I did find this American's perspective different, mostly because I was able to get some sort of glimpse into what may motivate someone to feel Universal Health Care is an infringement on one's freedoms (a position I never fully understood).

Well, they have their own little section of land. I have no beef with the Chechnyans if that's how they decide wedding should be celebrated. I'm curious how that is looked upon by other Chechens to be perfectly honest. I'm mostly indifferent. I have no desire to impose my way of behaving on a different group of people. Your parenthetical remark does say a lot about you, however. Great question... why was it? Perhaps your issue doesn't really have much to do with multiculturalism in general, since by your own admission it was able to persist in a place that was decidedly NOT multicultural. How can such behaviour be allowed to persist in a place that doesn't allow it? You've undermined your own argument. Or are the Chechen's more militant because they feel they lack a certain degree of self-determination? It's funny that you mention that they cultures are "completely destroyed." Perhaps the cultures feel such displays are no longer necessary? It's not rocket science to recognize that cultures are not static and are constantly evolving and changing, sometimes due to internal pressures and other times due to external ones. Having said that, perhaps the next step of societal evolution frankly IS the dissolution of culture? Who knows if we'll ever get there (probably not), but if human beings were to identify more with being "human beings" instead of a particular nationality, I wonder what sort of changes in the types of conflicts would exist between people.

Ironically I find that many other types of games already do things that do catch the eyes of people that like RPGs. For example, I haven't picked up a sports game in years to actually focus on playing the sports aspect of the game. There's some level of GM mode (where you can try to focus on improving the players, the team, the market) that has always intrigued me, and even more recently the idea of "Be A Pro" where there's character progression by accomplishing milestones and performing while that leads to character growth. While NBA 2k11 totally did the "I'm going to get Allan to buy this game" by making game modes that revolved around Michael Jordan's career, the MyPlayer mode is what kept me coming back. It was improved upon in 2k12, allowing more variability in how the player directs his career including even negotiating salaries and frankly just making the mode deeper all around. 2k13 seems to be upping it up a notch even more, by really expanding the level of options the player has OFF the court. Including little details like getting feedback from fans on Twitter and deciding which companies you wish to endorse for extra money (which can be converted into training sessions for more attributes, or doing charity events to raise your fan awareness and stuff like that). It looks insanely deep and I'm really looking forward to it, and it's pretty much the only reason why I'll be picking up the game. A lot of other games offer RPG like elements with character progressions and whatnot, including XCOM (the new AND the old... although the new seems to focus a bit more on it!), various shooters (going back, there's ones like NOLF2, Deus Ex, and DEHR... the Deus Ex ones arguably being just First person RPGs in many ways). With respect to "enticing the CoD crowd" (or perhaps more generally, atypical RPG players), part of the motivation is that they are already playing games that feature some level of RPG elements and (unfortunately) there is a stigma that many have towards RPGs just based on their reputation going back which makes people avoid them when really many of the same elements that they like in other games are present in RPG. So yeah, DA2 was a bit of an experiment in that regard. One that didn't seem to hit its mark, unfortunately. Looking at the other BioWare game, I think ME3 did a bit better with it. Say what you will about the story itself, but I think offering "Story mode" and "Action mode" are interesting elements that, if designed from the beginning, shouldn't take away too much from the "RPG mode" since they're just leveraging assets that exist for the standard RPG mode. I think the MP is an interesting idea too because it is mildly related to the story, allows the level of character progression, and has a more "viral" effect in that friends will be proactive in encouraging friends to pick up the game so they can play together (although I think I may overestimate this. I am constantly surprised by the impression that most people seem to associate MP gaming with playing with random people, which is something I almost never do...). It's also had a benefit of giving some of the "core" fans more enjoyment, as there are definitely non-trivial numbers of people that have stated they weren't really too keen on MP being included, but after playing it have really enjoyed it. I am curious if there are any that picked it up because they were always sort of on the fence, and MP tipped the scales for them the same way MyCareer tips the scales for me in NBA 2k13. If so, do any of them decide to go back and pick up the previous games after playing ME3's single player? I'm not saying MP is necessarily the way to go, but I think from a mechanics point of view, it's probably a way to experiment with alternative gameplay styles without disrupting the core single player experience. Annoying EMS dependencies not withstanding... (so glad that's finally resolved).

I agree that Tuchanka and Rannoch are the highlights (this leads to the ending seeming even worse IMO, juxtaposed next to those). To answer Gorth's question, I'd agree that any sort of feedback has these two parts being the most highly revered. I believe they have been complimented in public forums like PAX and whatnot as well (just a guess based on things I hear. Unfortunately I have never been to one of the big shows. Sadly I can't go to Edmonton's ComicCon either ). Hmmmmm. I never got the impression that Shepard's disappiontment is due to Thessia being attacked, but rather that Kai Leng was able to take Shepard's only real lead for stopping the Reapers in general. So it wasn't so much "Thessia is doomed" but rather "The galaxy is doomed." Unless I'm not remembering it at all (I haven't played it since release).

I find the inclusion of Kai Leng and Allers to be confusing too. I believe Kai Leng is more prevalent in the books, but I don't think a key antagonist should be brought in without more development. I actually have less issue with things like plot armor (although it is a bit silly and I can understand those that don't like it), but it really just seemed like Kai Leng wanted to be all badass and was jealous that Shepard was more badass. I can only assume Allers was some sort of popculture inclusion to have Chobot in because I didn't find her character particularly necessary either.

I wouldn't worry about Obsidian exercising some "self-criticism" towards their decisions. If you're hoping for them to be publicly discussed, you may be disappointed however. Especially since they're still early in development.

Snagged Vampire: Redemption (meh. Dialogue is laugh out loud funny though) and Ultima 4+5+6 and was running around in U6 last night.

YES! I can totally see how appointing a minister of culture that is muslim will immediately allow to the extreme slippery slope where people can now go on Jihads and subjugate women and basically result in transplanting Syria into Norway! Or, is what you did capitalize on a slippery slope? Is preventing the wedding ceremony you displayed truly a representation of repressing multiculturalism? Heck, is the video you show even an accurate representation of a wedding in Chechnya?

Haha that made me laugh too.

I'm sure Obsidian will still appreciate your sale when you buy it after release

Re: Mail Armor Real combat isn't quite as rigid as the attack on the dummy. Though protection from arrows was a huge win in and of itself, the chain mail is still going to protect against a more glancing blow and when you're fighting in formation (which was typically superior to not), attackers aren't going to be able have all the space to generate a maximal force for their attacks very consistently. Give the target leather armor, and little "poke poke poke" is sufficient. Give it chain mail, and suddenly you need to up it to STAB! And it still does a good job against a slashing attack (which, if the weapon is a sword, is effectively what a glancing piercing strike becomes). From wikipedia: It's a cited reference, so there's some conflicting opinions on its effectiveness.

I dislike this stereotype a lot. It's pretty much just a meme at this point: "There's something I disagree with/don't like on the internet. It must appeal to folks that are young and presumably immature." While it is frustrating to see that publishers typically don't look at these styles of games due to their scale, I don't think the idea is to appeal to "the kiddies." Heck, when I was 15 I was probably a more hardcore gamer than I am now because I just had more time. I was playing Fallout and Ultima 7 and Baldur's Gate was only a few years away and I loved it then. Gaming as a kids pastime I think is an element of the past. You can fairly get on the case of a publisher for trying to make their games more generally appealing to draw in the benefits of economies of scale, but I'd take out huge loans from loansharks to place a bet on the fact that most of the Call of Duty players are over the age of 20. That someone acts immature is more a reflection of internet anonymity than their actual age (which is depressing but that's neither here nor there.

Well, given my occupation, it'd probably be hard to say that I'm not a "BioWarian." Having said that, I can sort of see where you're coming from with the hunger analogy. I certainly wouldn't contribute $250+, mostly because I just can't afford it. After that though, I find things start to fall apart. I don't think your two factions are really that mutually exclusive. I like the games BioWare makes, but I still like the old IE style games and recognize the advantages that they have. I also love Obsidian's writing style and frankly, the idea of having a bunch of geeked up Obsidianites that are passionate about making the game that they want to make without any restrictions seems very much like a game I would enjoy. I love the IE games. Though I am not a particular fan of the AD&D ruleset, and find things liek Vancian magic to be absurd. But the stories and characters in BG2 and PST are so memorable to me, and that's what I'm looking for. So I couldn't care really two teets about what their combat system really is. I didn't mind BG2's combat, but Torments was pretty blah and frankly since BG2 I haven't even been a big fan of BioWare's combat. I still love their games though. My ideal RPG is one that minimized combat! One thing I've definitely seen since this project went live (and I saw it on Wasteland 2) is this misconceived notion that because there's a non-trivial amount of gamers that want a game like the IE style games, they must want them all for the same reason. This idea that there was a consensus just isn't true, though. There isn't even a consensus over how the IE games themselves are presented. IWD is story-lite and focuses on being a dungeon crawl. PST is narrative driven * infinity! BG2 is kind of in between. Someone can contribute to this with PST being their favourite game while loathing IWD but they still consider themselves a fan of the IE games. So the idea of the "spirit" of the IE games is still somewhat nebulous. What I do know, is I've enjoyed every Obsidian game I have played (never played DS3 though). I am a huge fan of their Black Isle legacy too. I am not super rich and made a reasonable donation that advantages me (I probably get the game less than if I bought it after release) and still benefits Obsidian (they get money up front which they can leverage into future money by making a fun game to sell). Obsidian has their vision and I trust them implicitly to make a game I enjoy. So I am willing to let them go at it.

I feel compelled to post: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ0LAs9KiXc I like Fight On from FF7 (I think mostly due to nostalgia now, but it just fit so well with the boss fights). This track is probably a key cog for the scene that converted me back to a PC gamer back in 1999. I think Bloodlines had some catchy ones that seemed to fit the scene so well. There's something about that has some tracks that I for no particular reason! And while many may feel it reminds them too much of something they didn't enjoy, is a great piece IMO.

Slight aside, the new server software still has issues with large threads? (or perhaps it's just a cosmetic change?)

I did play them. BG2 in particular I tend to recal stacking many instances of a few (often one) spell at the same instance because I couldn't predict what was coming up in the future and I tended to pick spells that were the best balance between most versatile and effectiveness. I don't think that this means that every battle is exactly the same. It only is if you have spells that are clearly superior. Though if that's the case, then you're not solving that with a Vancian system anyways.

Unless Obsidian is offering some sort of delivery themselves, it's probably not actually costless. Depending on their arrangement with the distributors like Steam and so forth, there will still be additional expenditure for them to give out more licenses through whatever distribution service since Steam is unlikely to do it for free.