Tale

I don't know that any calls for civility can salvage the thread at this time. So I am closing it. The subject is free to restart in a new thread in its own time. I'm noticing a pattern with the participants and would like to reiterate that if something about the topic makes it difficult for you to be respectful, then leave the topic.

Do you have some kind of "prove" about this statement? Here's MCA on Alpha Protocol. http://www.gamasutra...lep__Part_2.php Sawyer's gone on record saying he doesn't hate romances, but he doesn't think the player should necessarily be able to win. And that people tend to want them even when the author doesn't think it fits the character, like with Neeshka. That was 6 years ago. I don't know if he's changed or if he's willing to take it up as a challenge to write some to his satisfaction.

But if something is rarely being done good it doesn't mean the whole idea should be discarded period. I don't support discarding it "period." I'm making no argument that Dragon Age and Mass Effect should stop. The publisher tends to be the one asking them to include them. I suspect your idea of a well done romance and their idea would conflict. Sawyer himself was saying after NWN2 that if they can't be done well, they shouldn't. All those conditions you state seem like a better argument for avoiding it. That said, I'm about 90% certain they'll be included. Maybe just 1 or 2. And they might not even be traditional. Won't dare guess on that, I was betting against Dwarves and Elves. But I suspect they'll be closer to Neeshka or Annah than Jaheira and Morrigan.

Please stick to discussing the topic and not each other. If you must make claims and insinuations about other people, it would be advised to ignore the thread.

Because they rarely touch it well. I hate to abuse metaphors (which is a lie, I love to), but it's like looking at macaroni pictures in the middle of an otherwise colorful painting. It's also overdone and given too much attention in the public eye. I doubt you can disagree that a rather large amount of RPGs end up having it in some capacity. And not every RPG needs to be about the same themes as the rest. People would like a game that's different.

The way they said it made it sound as if it was tied to the Collector's Edition. Even if I read that wrong, I can't see them applying such a limitation.

Yes, it happened a while ago. Seemingly during the Atari-Hasbro license transition. It stayed up at Steam longer than other places. Strangely, if I'm recalling this correctly, places like Gamersgate got it back. Then they lost it again.

I definitely want to see more narrated sequences. That said, I still generally object to sequences that take control away from the player. Narration is good for introductions, describing a region, just general setting of the table. Or even dramatic dream sequences, as Baldur's Gate did.

Same old same old. Finished repairing an infected system here at work. By "repair" I mean I flattened the thing and reinstalled everything. Got the user back up and running, e-mail, found out our server password doesn't work, fixed that. The joys of small business. I get to be the IT department.

I don't personally believe that spoilers damage enjoyment. But not to get into that, I like bug testing games. Half the fun I had with Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Mask of the Betrayer was finding bugs, figuring out workarounds, and and delving into the toolset for fixes. Though I don't think they'll let me fix their bugs here.

Or arrested. Going around murdering people, ransacking people's homes, and ruining economies. Do they even pay taxes? Carting around more gold than most people can even carry, and none of it reported to the tax collector? Adventuring teams are just a criminal conspiracy.

#4 included information on a DRM free option, so I've updated the FAQ.

I like good fun. I didn't find any in Neverwinter Nights. It's a slower Diablo with worse loot and auto-attack. I manage to enjoy Neverwinter Nights 2 because of party control and a couple of good characters.

You might want to place a sticker on your gamebox warning about it if you have trouble remembering that. My tastes change over time. I used to think poorly of KOTOR, that the story was kind of cliche and predictable, the characters boring and predictable. Then I tried it again and it was also tedious. Then I tried it yet again and it was still predictable, but it was charming. I thought, "hey, what if my opinion of Neverwinter Nights has changed? Lots of people seem to love it. Hurlshot keeps comparing it to adventure games. Surely I missed something." No. Nothing has changed. I missed nothing. On to Neverwinter Nights 2. Where I look forward to Dwarves with a punching obsession, Tiefling pickpockets, evil Warlocks with a cause, and Eldritch DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

Can we get a stretch goal for Alvin to let his hair grow?

This is simply hilarious. I've decided to abandon Neverwinter Nights for the 5th time at the beginning of Chapter 2. It's just no fun and I can't see anything to look forward to. I was so optimistic after my recent KOTOR run.

Reached Chapter 2 of Neverwinter Nights a few days ago, haven't made time for it. Chapter 1 final boss is still terrible.

Many of them don't have to, they are a de facto assumption. And others may not be notable parts of the community. Some groups you do. Or nearly so. But this isn't about every game. This is about Project Eternity. Sometimes it is based on what their audience wants. Obsidian has expressed something of a general interest in knowing what their audience wants for the game.

I don't think posting pictures of pretty girls is precisely the point of this forum. The only on-topic purpose for this thread seems better served by other threads that already exist.

People tend to like seeing characters they can identify with in various ways. If you consider that pandering, much of the game is.

I'll always remember preparing to fight Melissan and realizing that I only had one weapon out of the entire party that had any effect. These are the memories of Baldur's Gate I will never relinquish. And will continue waking up screaming to in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

I think everyone needs to take a break from this discussion for a while. This is clearly a good discussion to have, it's important to many people on both sides. But the manner of the discussion and tone is one that needs to wait for calmer passions to be taken up again.

Ahh, conversations and buffing. Another opportunity for me to promote my stupid idea. Conversations need to stop taking people hostage. The bad guy talks, the player can act. So while he's giving his longwinded speech, you're buffing up. Maybe it could check after every "page" or so and see if the talker wants to react. See if he decides to cut his speech short and start fighting. Maybe the bad guy does his buffing here too, encouraging people to shoot first, talk later. Resulting in hilarity when you kill people whose only crime was stoneskin. Second best option is time stands still. So your buffs can't run out just because the guy talked your ear off. But people might not be happy on that. I think we're undoubtedly going to get romances, so I better stop fighting that battle. Having bad romances sounds interesting enough in its own right. And it seems consistent with that Sawyer post from a few years ago.

I don't think anybody is trying to. All I see are people rallying against another lame BioWare/Bethesda relationship-o-matic simulator for people who'd rather larp than play an old school pc game. But nobody here is railing for Bioware/Bethesda-like romances. Those people would be playing Skyrim waiting DA3, we want quality romances Obsidian is known for. Like the ones in MoTB, Planescape Torment and KoTOR 2. KOTOR 2... Visas was creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepy.

Guys, keep to the topic of sex and romance in games. If the only thing you have to say to someone is to call them a troll, then just don't say anything.