Tale

As long as he's not falling into the haunted nice guy. Maybe he can be a chain smoking womanizer. Or an ambiguously evil eunuch. With a moustache!

I prefer "relevant archetype" to be honest, but it's ultimately variations on a theme. Give the player a consistent set of choices so they can try to be consistent. Especially important in voiced games where the player can't just fill in the gaps between text and delivery. It's a combination of consistency, budget, and console UI design. Most dialogue options aren't choices, they're just opportunities to react and express the character. So the player can pick whether he wants to react as a sarcastic **** or a nice guy like he's been doing all along. I blame voicing the PC. Still not a fan. I can see the motive behind wanting to be cinematic and have voiced dialogue, but it's not worth what you lose. They're still using basic shot-reverse shot for dialogues. It's not worth losing what my imagination can contribute, the expanded word count, or the clarity of knowing what's actually said just so the game can look and feel like a cheap TV show (or the Star Wars prequels).

The basic rule I have for any character is they must try to grow or they must go away. That's my rule 1. Beyond that, the best characters have interesting stories to tell. And I enjoy seeing characters in conflict, ones that speak up their mind about differing opinions on issues they feel are important. I like them to have their own motives that tie into what's going on.

There's a popular quote attribute to Socrates through Plato. The attribution is certainly false. In some brief research, the earliest citation I can find is 1953. But I hope we can agree it is not a sentiment that started there, but is likely one that has gone on for much of history. And that in this constant issue of children experiencing the world wrongly according to their elders, it is a surprise that humankind has not yet gone extinct. Why, I shudder to image what those kids who grew up on rock and roll which made them think the world would be nothing but sex and parties will turn out like. Surely the disaster of their adulthood will be any moment now.

Only speculating, but sometimes it's a regional distribution issue. Regional publishers with their own dates, if ones even been signed yet.

I always find this idea interesting. On one hand, people who engage in offensive behavior see themselves as somehow stronger. On the other hand, they can be seen as people who lack in self-control, which is unquestionably a weakness. And by that same token, people who self-censor can be seen as lacking assertiveness. But being kind and considering others in how you behave is not a weakness. All in all, we should endeavor to be like Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson. I hear they're both terrifically nice guys, but you'd be foolish to mistake them for wusses. I'd have a hard time imagine them spurting out passive aggressive insults on message boards. Or even just the regular kind of aggressive commentary.

Same here. DA:O was one of the very last, if not THE last, Origin-free EA games, wasn't it? Dragon Age 2 also released on Steam, but was pulled once the DLC came out. Crysis 2 is on Steam (pulled once, then put back with a DLC bundle). It's an EA partners game. Amalur Reckoning is an even more recent EA partners game.

This is why I hate having to do best or worst. You guys keep reminding me of why I hate other games here. For all my hate of Neverwinter Nights, at least I was able to complete it that one time. Though I had two or three failed attempts that made it to Act 2 before boring me to tears. Two Worlds I had to cheat through or I wouldn't have lasted 3 hours. Two Worlds 2 only lasted as long as it took for me to finally experience the magic system, it's awful. Which of these three is the worst? Find me a six sided die, we'll roll it, and I'll be content with that.

If Trey is to be believed, you can get a girl skin after completing a particular level.

Riiiiiiiiiise So I started The Hero with a Thousand Faces. I'd heard how important influential the work was and my only personal familiarity was wiki summaries. Well, I'm not far into it and I have to say that I have trouble taking seriously any work that counts psychoanalysis among its influences. I'm hoping this changes when we get deeper into the comparative analysis, but if he's going to continue with the idea that these myths are commonly rooted in Oedipal complexes and makes use of dream analysis, I might have to put it down.

I'm kind of with JFSOCC. Shared universes tend to venture into Too Many Cooks very quickly. If some of the actual game writers want to do a tie-in novels, prequels to the games, stuff in other parts of the game setting, I can get behind that so long as they have a really good editor.

I really should have followed NWN1's development. When it came out I still thought I could transfer my Baldur's Gate character. And after it turned out I couldn't, I was further surprised that I couldn't make my character an assassin. It only went downhill from there.

We need more sexy cosplay.

Agreed, we've lost developers that post, but don't gain as many.

Aha! I think I've identified the real problem.

I think Eurogamer specifically mentioned not finding a narrative fork in the hour they had with it. I recall hearing we get a choice between which army we support, Cartman vs the elves, at some point. But I could easily be misunderstanding what I heard a year ago.

I can agree with that. So I'd have to change Too Human to Neverwinter Nights' original campaign.

Too Human was awful and I remember it having progression and loot systems. I don't know if it counts as an RPG, though.

Is it just impressions or are we getting a full embargo lift on reviews?

This is one of those moments where a cane appears and drags someone off stage.

Whatever it is, it better be a thinly veiled reference to colonnades. What's a game about pillars without architecture puns?

From what I've gathered in various interviews, the basic process is that they get something like a month to write a script if they're lucky and then they spend the rest of development implementing it. They're doing things like dialogue trees, triggers for events related to their script, they may even be scripting out sequences having to do it, providing feedback for other writers especially when it involves their characters or relates to their material, and necessary revisions. And all that work ends up amounting to sometimes 2 characters and 2 sidequests. For like a year or more of work. I can see that being intimidating. And having spent my share of time with multiple attempts at mods that never see the light of day, starting off with grand ambitions, then actually getting down to the work, always scoping down and cutting material until it actually becomes something that can work. Two months in and I finally have like two actual plot driving scenes implemented and I hate them.

The armor is seriously impressive. That Morrigan is no Claudia Black, but she'll do.

FALSE. Unless of course you make romance an out-of-the-blue option after 5 dialogues without any buildup like BioWare. If you want romance you need to pay; * Writer for a full year (say, 10K) * Actual gameplay dev(s) to implent said writing (triggers, script, writing) (another 10K) * If aside from just the writing you want more (say, a quest)... add 30k minimal (for a short one) Total cost; 50k (and as stated, this is a low estimate). Feel free to pay OE that for the romances. I won't stop you... but I doubt you will. I don't see 10k getting anyone for a year. An amateur for 6 months, maybe, but I wouldn't want to live in California at that pay. Nitpicking aside, I'm a big adversary of too many cooks. Adding a secondary writer to do major character arcs is a complication that gets my eye twitching. We're essentially talking about someone who has no involvement or investment in the character's conception and themes turning around and trying to add new themes without affecting the old. I suppose it's possible. TV shows do an approximation of it all the time since they cycle writers throughout a season, but checking the writing credits I often see show runners do the major character episodes and leave the others for filler.

People who were happy with...say, the original NWN2 campaign romances must be setting their expectations really, really low. Do it right or don't it at all, I say. Handmaiden wasn't terrible. Visas Marr, on the other hand, made me wonder about the mental health infrastructure in a galaxy far, far away.