Jump to content
The Community Blog (An Invitation)

Oblarg

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    873

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Oblarg

    A question regarding the character of Michael Thorton.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    This thread is reason enough for Obsidian to make the story in AP based on personal motivations rather than geopolitical ones. More individual antagonists motivated by greed/love/lust/hate/revenge/etc. and fewer organizational antagonists motivated by politics, please!

     

    I agree that it should be more personal and less political. One of the things I really enjoyed about the Bourne series was that Bourne worked for himself, not any particular government. He was a man alone.

    Dialogue Choices

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Oblarg

    From what I can tell, using a different stance won't necessarily make the game harder, it will simply change how you progress through the game. There's no "right" way that optimizes everything.

     

    Yea... I think people don't understand this concept. There is no "right way". Play how you want to play.

     

    In the recent walkthrough preview, the narrator mentioned that a particular character "was a fan of being treated aggressively". That's where my concern stems from. If someone is a fan of being treated aggressively, how much is the player punished for using the suave or professional stance?

     

    I may be missing your point, but there is no difference between the "guess the stance" and the "guess the dialogue" that was in earlier games? You should be able to play "suave" throughout the entire game to your hearts content. It may however, not work on all people. From watching the video's.. you just need to guess what stances each NPC is responsive to. Or don't, and have a completely different experience.

     

    It's slightly different. "Guess which stance will get you free guns" is not the same as "Guess which dialogue option is read in a sarcastic tone". If I have to guess the tone of the dialogue, then that impedes my role-playing experience and makes it harder to realize the character I've imagined I want to play, let alone trying to guess which option the NPC wants me to use. Both are annoying, but "guess the stance to use" is a puzzle, hopefully with available clues, while "guess what tone this is read in" is poor design for an RPG.

     

    I'm very excited for what Alpha Protocol can bring to the table with dialogue, even if it's not implemented perfectly.

     

    Yes, but you see, treating her the way she likes is not necessarily more beneficial than not treating her the way she likes. Everything is connected. Perhaps there is the possibility of it ending up as "guess the stance needed to make these guys like you," but when said people like you, other people will dislike you as a result. Of course, if you go into the game thinking "I'm going to be friendly with this faction" rather than "I'm going to have this attitude towards the situation," you end up having to "guess" the stance needed to please that faction, but I don't believe that's how they intend the game to be played, and that's not how I'm going to play the game. There still is no min/maxing, because while you may benefit from, say, treating said character aggressively in certain ways, the people you lose standing with by doing so makes the overall gain balance out.

     

    Edit: In short, whom you end up being friends with and whom you hate, based on what obsid has said so far, seems to be intended to be a result of the stance you take. If you really like a specific faction, then of course there will be some "guess the stance," but you have to choose to play a specific way for that to really be a problem.

    I have some serious reservations about this game.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    Errr, sorry, I meant that it was so obvious that I felt the need to ignore the fact that he is a troll and respond as if he wasn't one. It's weird.

     

     

    But anyway, At this point after reading his latest response, I think it's best if we don't talk to him. Then he'll go away. :)

    Let us suppose, for a moment, that I am a troll. I am obviously rather intelligent and aware of the game (if I do say so myself). As such, it seems to me that this hypothetical troll-me would actually be quite well informed of the game, perhaps even to the point of being a regular poster using a proxy. But which regular poster? Well, obviously, Walsingham.

     

    Of course, I am neither Walsingham, nor a troll, so this thought exercise is useless... or is it?*

     

     

     

    * It is.

     

    GODDAMNIT.

     

    I ****ING HATE YOU.

     

    I lose.

     

    I hadn't lost in WEEKS.

     

    You just killed my evening. I HOPE YOU'RE SATISFIED!

     

    Meanieface.

    I have some serious reservations about this game.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    Oh and, the Jews couldn't avoid a genocide because the borders were closed to them and it's hard to get out of Europe when almost all of it is occupied by Nazis. Duh.

     

     

    lol, your trolling is so obvious that I just had to ignore it and respond. :)

     

    Wait...

     

     

    wut?

     

    Errr, sorry, I meant that it was so obvious that I felt the need to ignore the fact that he is a troll and respond as if he wasn't one. It's weird.

     

     

    But anyway, At this point after reading his latest response, I think it's best if we don't talk to him. Then he'll go away. :)

     

    You want him to go away?

    I have some serious reservations about this game.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm finding it difficult to imagine how you can't realise the reason why so many people are referring to you as a troll. With an opening statement like "it's gonna be bad" (which, incidentally, appears to be based on a fairly tenuous grasp of the incomplete knowledge currently available) you surely must have expected to be accused of trying to cause an argument - such an unfounded statement, supported by such stubborness in response to the few people who have decided to try an form a discussion out of this thread screams "troll" to me.

     

    Nevertheless, if you are willing to have a decent discussion then I'll reply to some of your points.

     

    I don't get wy you can't pick up cruddy old AK-47s off of random Saudi criminals to replace your customized M-16 (and by "replace your customized M-16" I mean "sell"). Why woulld you make this design decision, Obsidian?

     

    I think that the answer to that is contained within the question. As you said, the AK-47s are "cruddy". Really, while a reasonable choice of weaponry for any paramilitary force, I can't imagine that these would be of any more use to Michael Thorton than his own, cutting-edge weaponry and I certainly don't understand why he'd trade this. Explain to me an advantage of allowing MT to pick up these weapons. If it was for pure realism's sake the I can't understand the appeal either. To me, the idea of a soldier/ operative/ spy or the like picking up a dead enemy's weapon to use in place of his own seems to align more with action movies than any sort of real-life tactics.

     

    Another disadvantage of this game is that there are no clear "barrs" which inform me of whether I'm a good guy or a bad guy - without these, how am I supposed to know which one I am? I don't want to have to wade through six ours of gameplay before I see the consequences of my actions. I prefer to save and reload until I figure out which choice will give me the maximum results, am I right? (I am right, just FYI.)

     

    You're supposed to think about your choices and think about how you want your character to act. The morality bars are usually meant as more of a reference point, not as a moral compass. It's this particular part of the post that makes me think that you're an idiot (if any particular part of the post needed to be singled out to show this.) I'm not quite sure what you're looking for in an RPG but I don't think that you're likely to find it here. Or anywhere.

     

    I also have heard you cannot hide bodies, which seems to me to be a load of crap! Why, bodies have to be easily carried and hidden (just like in real life), that way I can stick a dude in a closet and noone will ever find his body, making it like I never killed him (just like in real life). Except I don't have to hide from him.

     

    Moving bodies works in Splinter Cell because it's fairly slowly-paced. AP, however, is not meant to be. Stealth, of course, would mean a cautioned approach, but I really can't see the fun in adding this as a gameplay dynamic to AP. Besides, I get the impression that this sort of stealth is more takedown-and-move-one than takedown-and-clean-up-so-that-no-one-detects-you. With that in mind, I don't think that lingering around, moving bodies and attempting to hide them, while you are forced to suspend your disbelief that Serkhov has not been killed yet, would be conductive to this kind of gameplay.

     

    Additionally, I hear that you can have sex... with multiple women, presumabli (?). This is bigamy, and it is against my religion. Why have you forsaken good, old-fashioned morals, Obsidian? I'm afraid I don't understand.

     

    What are you, Fox news?

     

    It's a gameplay choice. In a game. Don't like it, don't chose it. Object completely to it? Don't buy the game and get on with your life.

     

    Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh

    I have some serious reservations about this game.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    Your sarcasm detector isn't broken, it's just a bad troll.
    Yes, "you're a troll," definitely the most epic of all arguments.

     

    Only difference is that you can completely avoid a video game if you don't like the content.
    Pretty sure you can avoid a genocide if you don't like it. Why didn't those jews just move out of Germany (and Europe)? Hmm?
    If the game seems terrible to you, don't buy it. For someone who tries to have an intelligent conversation, I don't understand why you haven't made that realization already.
    Oh, so I can't complain about games I'm not going to buy, then?
    And like I said, you don't have to have sex with anyone in the game.
    And? You don't have to commit crimes in GTA either.
    And there is no "good" or "bad" side, which is why there are no bars. You seem like a fundamentalist, a troll by nature, not by purpose. Only a fundamentalist would choose to side with the clearly defined "good" side, when in fact, good and evil is relative to the observer as I mentioned before. Or maybe you're not a fundamentalist, rather just another troll.
    Ugh, yeah, all religious folks are "fundamentalists" and "trolls." Why do you insist on this persecution?

     

    And of course, good and evil are all relative, right? Like, hey, to some people, Hitler was good and Lenin was evil, so it's obviously "relative." Rolling my eyes again.

     

    You've broken out of your original character.

     

    Nonetheless, good job. /salute

    I have some serious reservations about this game.

    in Alpha Protocol: General Discussion

    Posted

    Isn't that a rather slippery slope? First it's "just a game" then it's "just television" then it's "just news" then it's "just politics" and before you know it it's "just genocide."

     

    Only difference is that you can completely avoid a video game if you don't like the content. If the game seems terrible to you, don't buy it. For someone who tries to have an intelligent conversation, I don't understand why you haven't made that realization already. And like I said, you don't have to have sex with anyone in the game. And there is no "good" or "bad" side, which is why there are no bars. You seem like a fundamentalist, a troll by nature, not by purpose. Only a fundamentalist would choose to side with the clearly defined "good" side, when in fact, good and evil is relative to the observer as I mentioned before. Or maybe you're not a fundamentalist, rather just another troll.

     

    /sigh

×
×
  • Create New...