Shemar

I often do. Why exactly? and if I may ask... What distinction do you have between an RPG and an Adventure title? See, I can not figure out why Oblivion has a name for your PC, BG1 & 2 have names and it makes sense ~Do you pretend that you were born in Candle Keep and have a childhood friend in Imoen? [that's not supposed to be the least bit sarcastic or joking at your expense ~its a serious question]. I also play RPGs pretty much exclusively as myself. But 'as myself' means a character with my morality and motivations in the 'skin' and circumstances of whatever the game's protagonist is. Given that my real self would probably seek a comfortable, peaceful life and stay out of trouble I have no illusions that it is the real me, it is just the fantasy me. When I have the option to customise my character visually I try to emulate a version of my younger (and usually in better physical shape) self, but visuals are not a big deal for me. I can put myself in any 'skin'. I do not play female characters when I have a choice, but I would probably not pass on a good game if that was the only option. On other issues: To the people with the inane teenage level sexist comments: I pity you To the OP: As a person that does reject games due to pet peeves (and AP looks to be one of them due to the dialogue timer) I understand your position. However focusing the story on a specific character rather than a generic custom made one will probably lead to a better story, so I will support the devs on that one.

I see it the exact opposite way. The timer is what prevents me from making use of hints and fore-knowledge as it forces a hurried response instead of a considered one. Having to think ahead about what stance I should use when the timer starts running, instead of focusing on what is happening here and now is exactly what I see as an immersion breaker.

Really... try giving the game to one of your friends (siblings, cousins, kids, wife, whatever) to play it or re-selling it and let me know how that works out for you.

Hahaha! Well, transferring a game gives full ownership of a game so it would only take one person deciding to keep it for himself to break the list. Not to mention that as long as it remians one player at a time it is still legal. The same as game rentals. Edit: Not to mention that if playing a game for free is such a big deal as to wait on a months long list, there are much easier ways to play a game for free, any game.

How exactly can a transfer mechanism be misused? If you are going to the extreme case of transferring it back and forth between people to play near-simultaneously, a limit of one transfer a week or something similar would easily stop that and at the same time not impede valid transfers.

Why on earth would it be ok to pay a 'small fee' for something that should be fundamentally a given? I would only see steam as an acceptable vendor if and ony if each game could be tranferred from one steam account to another at will, without restrictions, limits or fees. The same applies for any scheme that ties games to accounts. Unlimited, unrestricted, free traferrability is a pre-requisite. That still protects the lawful purpose of restricting the use of the game to one person at a time without enforcing the unlawful purpose of preventing re-sale or loan of the game to others.

Which is why there are different games for different people, different play styles and tastes. I never said that the way I feel about it is the way everybody else does. Thinking that one's tastes are universal or that my opinion about how I like things has any bearing on how other people like things (beyond some obscure statistical meaning) would be monumentally stupid. @Zoma: I am a pretty quick thinker and I am sure if somebody was paying me to play the game I would have no problem whatsoever doing great at it. However nobody is paying me to play it so I see no reason why I should spend time and money to play a game that annoys me by design. Thankfully there are many more games I want to play than I have time to play them, so I never have to make compromises with my personal time.

I am generally ideologically opposed to any attempt to tie my game's serial number to an online account tied to me as a person in a non-transferrable way. That violates basic consumer rights like the first sale doctrine. In addition to that I have zero interest in advertising my in-game 'achievments' to the Internet masses. Seriously people, they are just games. Nothing you do in a game can ever be described as 'achievement'. Try getting something achieved in real life. Even if I did do something in a game I considered difficult or important, it is enough for me to know I did it. I feel no need whatsoever to advertise it. Finally, I consider any attempt from any service to monitor my gaming habits as a violation of my privacy. To that end, I never buy games that require an online account of any type (and yes that includes all the games that require steam). I have no problem with online activations, as long as: 1. There is no limit on the number of activations or the user has the capability to deactivate and reset the counter back to zero, if there is one. 2. The activation only happens once per install and no online activity whatsoever is required (or permitted) afterwards. Given that I never replay games and that I never re-sell my games and only very rarely lend them to friends/family, none of the above things I am ideologically opposed to would really be a problem for me. However I still rtefuse to support such effords to restrict my consumer rights; even ones I do not plan to use.

This is how the timer breaks my immersion: During the dialog, instead of relaxing (as a player who sits on a chair playing a game to get away from the real life stress) and enjoying the fact I made it through one more action phase, and immersing in the storyline unfolding in front of me, my mind is occupied with the fact that any second now a timer will pop up epxecting me to make a decision within a few seconds. If I wanted 'realistic' I would go back to work, not play a computer game. I am close minded? You bet I am. Because I know what I like and how I like to play and I don't need anybody trying to tell me how to. The dialogues are the part where I want to take a breather and relax, de-stress from the action that just happened and get ready for the next part. If there is a playable demo that proves to me that the timer does not break the game for me, I'll consider it. But on paper it does break the game for me. It is not, after all the first time design decision by Obsidian ruined games for me. The Spirit Eater turned my casual slow and relaxed play style into a hurried romp through MotB. completely ruining any interest I had in the actual storyline. I am not critisizing Obsidian for their decisions, but I damn sure reserve the right to decide when those decisions do not cater to me. I am sure they are well aware that every time they make a decision about their games they lose a chunk of players and possibly gain a chunk. I am sure I am neither the first, nor the last person that plans to pass on AP as long as the timer is there.

Anarchosyn, As I said in my earlier post I understand the reasoning. Sadly it is something that does not cater to my personal play style and tastes. Having said that if there is a playable demo I will give the game a fair shot. Incidentally, I am not too thrilled about the lack of actual dialogue choices either, but that one is not a deal breaker. Also incidentally, I am one of the 5 people that do not like 24 and find the whole 'rushed' feel of the show too gimmicky and unrealistic.

That does not really help me though, even if it is the case. I do not want to destroy my single play through of the game by playing on easy for a few extra seconds reaction time during dialogues. Unfortunately the timer is a game breaker for me until it is revised (as in optionally disabled) or modded out. I would play this game for the story and having to worry about a timer instead of immersing in the story ruins it for me. Speaking of ruining the immersion, another thing very good at that is replaying the same piece over and over. To that end the save points are also a big issue, but how big it depends on how they are done. Obviously losing anything over 3-4 minutes of gameplay if I have to stop would be unacceptable, as unacceptable as having to repeat more than a few seconds of gameplay in order to replay a tough fight. Being able to save just before a tough fight as well as just after it is finished is a near necessity for me. We'll see how they are implemented. Edit: ok, reading the other thread I realized that I only asked half a question. I assumed that 'saved game' means I can go back into any of my saved games. I am starting to fear that this is not the case and I only get a single save to the last save point. Which case is true? The whole save point issue pales in comparison to not being able to go back to older saves. Edit2: ok, that was answered by the developers later on on that thread, so so far so good... phew

Wow, two separate developers replying within hours of my post. Pretty impressive Thank you for taking the time to reply. I am not looking for a mindless action game, the fact that there is a story is a great asset to me. I would not be considering the game at all without the promise of a good story. Having said that, I generally dislike action RPGs due to control/camera ackwardness. I find the simplicity of first person shooter control schemes much more to my liking for action paced games. I hope you get a demo out at some point, so I can see if that game is for me. I understand and respect the decision to include the timer, however that is not for me. Hopefully somebody will mod it out of the game. Or maybe it won't end up being as annoying as I think. Again, a demo will help me determine that. I generally hate the feeling of being rushed into decisions. My single playthrough question involved a thorough playthrough, which means I would be actively trying to accept any quest and cover as much ground as possible. It looks like I won't miss much of the game doing so, so that will not affect my decision to play it or not. I understand a lot of people look for replayability, but I am not one of them. I believe a fresh new story is better, even if average in quality, than a great but replayed one. I am aware I am probably a small minority in this. It does not help that the way I role play, I would make the exact same choices on any subsequent play throughs anyway! Again, thanks for the reply.

Pretty bad news all around for me, but thanks for the info.

@Warren Bills: I am not sure how you are answering my question. I have very little interest in the quality of the graphics/animations as long as they are functional. My question was about how much of the game I get to play with just a single play through, as I don't replay games. @Cycloneman: That is good news; one deal breaker out of the way. But what is the point of the timer if it can just be paused?

While I don't mind the game having online options, I also don't care about them. As long as the game does not attempt to do anything online (including tracking how much I play, or what I do in-game) without my explicit consent, I am good. However any feature or function that would attempt to send any kind of information online without my explicit consent would be an instant deal breaker.

Hello, This game looks interesting, but I have some concerns. I have some very specific questions about this game, on 'features' that I consider deal breakers for myself. 1. This dialogue timer that I keep reading about, will there be an option to disable it? I really don't care about pace/mood or whatever other idea you have, I have no interest in speed reading my possible answers before I decide what to go with. In fact I have zero interest in being under any kind of pressure when I am role playing. 2. Can the game be paused anywhere and saved anywhere? 3. Is there any melee combat in the game and if so how much? For the purposes of this question, I only care about melee combat that I cannot avoid. I don't mind it being there as an option, but I detest melee combat in first person shooters and too much of it forced on me would be a deal breaker. 4. What DRM will the PC version of the game use? 5. How much of the game's content will I get to see with a very thorough single play through? For the purpose of this question I consider responses to dialogue choices I chose not to make as 'used' not 'missed'. The question refers mostly to quests/areas, cut-scenes and entire dialogues. Thanks for any replies.