BruceVC

I have heard every possible objection to Romance and none of them have convinced me with there validity The objections generally fall into a few camps, I'll discuss two "Its weird that people want Romance in a RPG...that's creepy. Get a RL girlfriend " or other similar inane criticismA persons walks a slippery slope when they suddenly decide what constitutes acceptable RPG content. Who is anyone to tell anyone else what defines there RPG journey? I can easily throw the same point at basically every other kind of component that people enjoy in RPG..."why do you want deep lore around cities and races...don't you know its just a game" or " but why is the armour design important...wow that's weird". Trust me anyone can make irrelevant comments around things that don't concern them. People shouldn't judge what others enjoy in an RPG I don't like Romance because the writing is juvenile and immature.I hate to point out the obvious but this is an RPG, not a Mills and Boone love story. You can't seriously expect a development company who would have talented writers to somehow inspire you with there interpretation of Romance. If you want something that realistic watch Gone with the Wind or Cold Mountain. Also most people who claim this is the reason they don't like Romance don't really like it anyway. So I doubt even a well written Romance would have them in the promancer army. So for me this is a spurious argument and is just an easy way to dismiss Romance Finally, and this is something I have never understood. All Romance should be optional. So if its optional why would you object to the implementation of it?

But how many people in Sweden, for example, know the runic alphabet?

Nope. Swedish and Norweigan you can guess your way through with varying success. Finish might as well be Russian. Denmark, Norway and Sweden historically traded a lot and was ruled by the same kings on occasion. Iceland was a Danish possession until they decided to mine their harbor and we decided not to bother contesting their rebellion. Interesting, so are you saying that Icelandic is like the old Danish language (because it was a Danish colony) which modern Danes don't understand? Yeah Icelandic is very similar to Old Norse. Guessing it was more similar to the Norwegian dialect though, as most of the settlers on Iceland were Norwegians. All Scandinavians spoke Old Norse during the 900-1300s, but Norway apparently had a different dialect than Sweden & Denmark: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Norse#mediaviewer/File:Old_norse,_ca_900.PNG But yeah, Norwegians/Danes/Swedes don't understand old norse at all, while Icelanders can read the old sagas in norse writing fine (as far as I know). Interesting post, thanks for sharing

Excellent thread My view on Romance has been more or less consistent from the beginning. Any RPG that allows you to get to know your party members should offer Romance, this leads to a more immersive RPG experience and a deeper and more memorable interaction with those party members You notice I said "Any RPG that allows you to get to know your party members" so this wouldn't apply to RPG like IWD I also think purely from a realism perspective if you are on some epic quest to save the world and you have people with you that are prepared to die for you and you are attracted to them why wouldn't Romance develop naturally? That what was unrealistic in Planescape, Romance never seemed to flourish with party members despite the possible attraction

Nope. Swedish and Norweigan you can guess your way through with varying success. Finish might as well be Russian. Denmark, Norway and Sweden historically traded a lot and was ruled by the same kings on occasion. Iceland was a Danish possession until they decided to mine their harbor and we decided not to bother contesting their rebellion. Interesting, so are you saying that Icelandic is like the old Danish language (because it was a Danish colony) which modern Danes don't understand?

Is Icelandic ( the language) similar to one of the 4 Scandinavian languages ( yes I'm including Finland)? Can a Dane for example understand someone from Iceland?

I know I can rely on you to ask the most important question " is there going to be Romance in PoE 2 "

Amazing pictures, well played Did you camp by yourself ? And if you did camp by yourself how long were you by yourself in the wilderness?

Volo I know you trust very few people on these forums but I also know you implicitly trust me, when have I ever lied to you about anything? This game is excellent, you need to buy this game or you will be denying yourself a fantastic RPG experience. Don't become one of those people who has to stand in the street and look through the window at everyone having a good meal in the restaurant. Become part of the movement Volo...don't become an obstacle !!!!!

Agreed on everything you say. One consolation is the fact it is now much easier to decide who to support on Sunday, go Germany !!!!

Its probably more the change of scenery in a different city, you know that saying "outta sight, outta mind"

To be fair the effectiveness of the rockets isn't really the point. Do you know one country in the world , just one country, that would accept rockets been fired constantly into there sovereign territory? A direct hit by a rocket would kill someone and there have been fatalities in the past The rocket attacks are provocative and Hamas knows there has to be some sort of response. IMO this is part of there strategy and I have to ask how much they really care about there fellow Palestinians knowing there will be a response from Israel?

Well comparing Mor to arguably the most vacuous and insincere person on these forums, Oby, and then not making any constructive contribution to the topic is probably not a good way to get people to think you really care about the topic. It reeks of trolling to me as well You may not like or agree with Mor but he is consistent in his posts. He goes out his way to explain his point and he respects the etiquette of debating, he is nothing like Oby So what do you expect him to say when you make a comment like that? It surprises me that you get surprised when people think you are dismissive, trolling or overly negative

I disagree. They were quite short, which is disappointing, but I thought the Sleeping Dogs DLCs were quite fun. I agree, the Zodiac tournament was very entertaining

"Ladies and Gentleman witness this rare occurrence, an Englishmen who seems truly content with something " High praise indeed

The villains and the NPCs were the memorable characters of course. It always comes down to romances with you eh? True you make your whole party but my party was awesome and full of memorable characters. Because, you know, I made them. I even had a mole who turned on us at one point. I mean I really enjoy when the game premakes the NPCs and you get to explore them but I also really enjoy making my own party. Heck that was one of my favorite features in IWD and IWD2 because you hardly ever get to do that anymore. I am rather floored by the notion that a RPG MUST have premade characters for you to interact with because to me, in my mid 30s, this seems like a rather recent innovation hehe. I also consider this to be not the main focus, which are the people and challenges your party encounters in the world, but a side thing. Fair enough I guess. Yes Romance is always part of deeper interaction but it doesn't have to be. I am talking about just being able to talk to your party members and see how they interact in your quest. It adds more layers to the overall RPG experience But you are also right, there is a market for your IWD type game. I must acknowledge that as not everyone wants to interact with party members

but BG II is also dungeon crawling. only it has filler quests in between dungeons in the first half of the game Maybe so, but if more recent BioWare games are anything to go by, I would expect BG2 to have more dialogue? I have been given to understand IWD is only dungeon crawling, and that's where the problem comes from. IWD is amazing. I think it is unfortunate people think it is some sort of Dungeon Crawler. I mean there is lots of Dungeon Crawling but it has an amazing plot and memorable characters and gorgeous environments and music. Its reputation as a dungeon crawler seriously hurt its release and reputation to people who never played it forever. If you loved BG you will love IWD. Anybody who played both disagree? Sorry to say this but I played the IWD about 18 months ago and I'm much more critical than you, what were the memorable characters? But more seriously the game lacked something obvious, there was no interaction with your party members. Your party consisted of dull and forgettable characters that you didn't relate to on any level and it made difference if they died or not ( expect the obvious disadvantage in combat). And of course no Romance A RPG is suppose to be about a journey where you should be able understand the motives and objectives of your party members, Even if you don't like Romance you can't tell me you don't enjoy interacting with party members that you have selected for ideological reasons? IWD was a good game but the fact it was an epic fail in the party interaction department it never achieved the great heights it could

I enjoyed DS3, I thought they improved on everything in the last 2 games. Like the crafting and the side quests. But end of the day I just think the whole concept behind the series is getting a bit tired now. The narrative isn't as exciting but I still thought the game was very entertaining Indeed, I enjoyed the game. I just think that knowing more or less what is going on kills the suspense the first had ("WTF did I end up in here?"), kind of like the F.E.A.R. games I guess. The sidequests, well, the single player ones all turned out rather similar ending with you having to fight of a bunch of waves of Necromorphs while a box comes down on an elevator (except the last one, which has some of those annoying Regenerators, I really hate those things), though the logs you find make them more exciting as you try to figure out what went on all those years ago (archaeology while shooting evil stuff, yes please!). I hear the co-op ones are more interesting, but I didn't get to experience those (and I seriously doubt my gf is interested in playing co-op Dead Space ). I found the crafting idea in itself interesting, but I thought it was a bit too hard to figure out what you were gonna get before you actually made it. A better UI would have made experimenting a lot less tedious imho. In the end I think I only really used a few different weapons throughout the entire game: * the Planet Cracker, an improved plasma cutter (which I received for playing DS2): * the regular line gun * a shotgun with an impact hammer, which was my mainstay for most of the game (and replaced the line gun) * I had a short stint with a pulse rifle when I started encountering humanoid enemies again * the Pitch Black 392 a chain gun with stasis module (and knock back thingy as secondary fire), this gun is beyond awesome and can probably count as "the one gun you'll ever need". And at the end I experimented a bit with a flame thrower/ripper combination which proved only really useful against those skinny Necromorphs that like to swarm you (due to the flamer). The ripper really lost a lot of feathers since DS1 though and I used it more for old times' sake than because it was awesomely useful (maybe with a stasis module, though, but I couldn't figure out how to do that). Btw did you play the DLC, what did you think of it? Nah I didn't play any DLC. I only play DLC of games I really enjoy, like Sleeping Dogs

Let me guess, you ended up Romancing Geralt and when you woke up you realised you enjoyed the experience. Nothing to be embarrassed or feel guilty about, he is kinda hot in his own monster-slaying and mutant way

I enjoyed DS3, I thought they improved on everything in the last 2 games. Like the crafting and the side quests. But end of the day I just think the whole concept behind the series is getting a bit tired now. The narrative isn't as exciting but I still thought the game was very entertaining

I wanted to say earlier that those pictures you took around slavery and the civil rights movement were both evocative and haunting for me, it reminded me of other museums I have seen around similar topics. I can only imagine what emotions must have been instilled by being there in person

I should "fix my reading comprehension" while you're writing about two different things, then lecture me on something i don't care about. Corpses eating durability is FINE. It's the the fastest way to get true Santier's spear. Not to mention that not every enemy leaves a corpse behind. I don't care about your durability problems hitting moving enemies, i only asked about the CORPSES. YOU KNOW, THE UNMOVING THINGS ON THE GROUND! Why you so angry? Its....you know....like just a game

Well welcome to these forums, I hope you have a long and happy stay And don't worry we welcome Bioware outcasts with open arms. Many members here are basically opposed to BSN and dislike them in there current form so you won't be alone in your view of Bioware, I still like BSN and I think it offers a good forum to discuss Bioware related topics like Romance.

I was thinking where are you so long, been on holiday or something? I went away this weekend and I've been busy at work

Good post Op I have always maintained that Romance adds to deeper interaction with party members and also a more memorable RPG experience in respect to your party members I have had numerous discussions on these forums trying to get people to understand this but it has failed most times I guess what we can hope for is that Obsidian includes Romance in PoE 2 ?