BruceVC

And you weren't raped or murdered? Hm, my sources on RSA are inaccurate! Yeah, I barely managed to survive this trip

GB why don't you come live in South Africa? You can bring Tommy and we don't have the money to afford programs like Prism so you won't have your privacy compromised?

This has to be one of the most relevant and insightful comments I have heard around this topic. Well played young grasshopper, well played

Nice idea Op But for me I don't have more spare time to spend on another forum and I'm happy with the level of discussion on this forum and others I visit But keep us updated on your progress

Certainly not if she doesn't make sense within the setting and its values, or if she's weaker as a character than the others, being thrown in there for the sake of it. Well I think that is obvious isn't it? Surly for a character to be memorable and to be part of your party you would have think they are appropriate to your gaming experience Ladies like Fall-From-Grace, Viconia and Isabela were all valuable additions to the party and also worth Romancing or trying to Romance

I love my barbeque, I often watch the Food Network channel and you see these various food documentaries where people travel around the USA and visit various places that specialize in barbeque. I have seen places in Texas, Kansas, Tennessee and the Carolinas that do these amazing barbeque Ribs, Brisket and Streak. They always leave me salivating and hungry Oh and smoking meat looks very common in the USA. We don't smoke meat much, we typically do them straight over an open grill

I went for lunch today in Pretoria which is another city about 60 km from where I live in Johannesburg. I had some of the BEST spare ribs I've had in ages. Meat falling off the bone and a delicious barbeque sauce. Its doesn't get much better than that

The system is legal, so the point is moot. The logic "if something ends up where it shouldn't" is bizarre. There is no guarantee that a surgeon won't accidentally sew up a scalpel in your abdomen. There is no guarantee that a policeman won't confuse you for a suspect and detain you. There's no guarantee that you won't get ran over by a car next time you cross the road. See the pattern? But if surgeon or policmen do something wrong he is controlled and will be punished, who control these agencies? + System is maybe legal in US, noone asked me or EU if we are ok with it. I starting to think that you are that type of american who thinks America is tha best and can do whatever you guys want Chilloutman you do realize that Prism is probably monitoring what you say about it right now? Don't be surprised if men in coats come knocking at your door later tonight and say " we would like a word with you"

No, all members of my party must be useful in combat and add value during the quest. But this is a thread about Romance\Sex so that is what I thought we were discussing?

Ah, but what makes you think that there will be some party member you're attracted to? I mean, I get that you push for sexy women with stripperific outfits in the game every time the topic arises because that's what you like, but so far, the art style hasn't gone in that direction. Imagine that all female characters in your party were in that style. Imagine that they were as attractive as Cadegund or Sagani, which you haven't shown much interest for. Even worse, imagine that the women of the party are of the more bestial races, like orlan or aumaua (or some sort of deformed Godlike). Would you be okay with that? Just curious to know You are 100% correct, if all the females were like Cadegund or bestial races I would be disappointed because mentally I would battle to make the mental connection that my characters would be attracted to them. Don't get me wrong I want a variety of females characters. I just think an Isabela type person can only enhance the game?

Hi. I'm. William. Hague. I. Try. To. Sound. Like. Churchill. But. End. Up. Sounding. Like. A. Bad. Impression. Of. Captain. Kirk Meh, the real Churchill would have advocated gassing the arabs for being brown and uppity, per Iraq. Okay funniest post of the week award go's to you

Its never over the top if you are not included. Its just one of the things human beings aspire to and desire to achieve

Wow that is pretty cool, I had thought they'd allow it to be free as long as you're not failing horribly - sort of like a scholarship or something. Pity you live in Canada hey Malc but at least Canada is the land of the " Moose and the Caribou" That's better than free education. Ask Ros the last time he saw a Moose?

Hurlshot when we use to go on trips in our RV my dad use to let us attach a rope to the back of the RV and he would pull us on our skateboards on the quiet roads, that's something I'm sure your kids would enjoy?

Your character looks like quite a hottie, nice one

Wanting that doesn't always make sense though and you don't want to create some sort of checklist a designer has to go through because that sort of handcuffs them, no ? Guess it's just foreign to me to want a protagonist that is like me in order to enjoy a game. No its not unreasonable, in fact "those people" want exactly the same thing. I'm glad you can empathize with them

No tuition based on any conditions or just free university for all ? Sounds pretty good, though But he is neglecting to mention all students who use this government program have to walk around during the day wearing a Viking helmet. Its something to do with them having to prove they patriotic?

You've raised a concerning point, I hope there will be a few characters we don't know about.

I live in a socialist paradise remember.. Every student in Denmark who's 18+ and doesn't live with their parent gets 1500$ every month for a maximum of 6 years. and there's no tuition either, so money is not really a problem. Holy Smoke, that's really sweeeeeeeeet. Do you know that's about 6 times more than the salary of about 75% of the South African population You guys truly live in a paradise

I'm doubtful of those people being like that when they can earn a good sum from it. But also believing it and taking a pandering approach to it are separate - which is the kind of situation DE was alluding to. As for 'those people' well, those would be the ones who need to feel included in games these days somehow (why the hell are there no myopic protagonists, game designers are so short sighted). I still think you missing something fundamental in this discussion, "those people" don't want to be included for the sake of it. They want a game to represent the reality of life and the demographics of the people that actually purchase the game. Its kind of obvious and completely reasonable to me? Don't you think your generalized opinion of the people who frequent BSN is a little insulting and fatuous? Tsk, tsk, Bruce... are you trying to out-troll the troll? Okay, I don't really get trolling when people do it. I generally believe people mean what they say when they post something so I respond accordingly. I need to work on that Oh I do mean it I just don't hold it against them. :D ^See what I did there. As for the half serious part of the discussion, people occasionally complain (me among them obviously) that Bioware does more to cater to particular niche groups than its core audience. Much of it is the result of aggressive lobbying on BSN forums that Bioware allows. The problem with minority groups is not in their otherwise legitimate claim for some features or others (like gay romance for example) its in the "holier than thou" attitude that is utterly hostile to any opposing opinion that shows up. Bioware employees back them in this regard openly on the forums leading to an unhealthy "only head nodding allowed" mentality. My way of expressing my opinions couldn't be described as mild, but I've seen respectful people on BSN terrorized by other forum goers for making "dissenting opinions" with the silent approval of BW staff and this soured the whole experience for me. That comment "See what I did there" made me laugh. I don't think I will ever to be accurately determine when someone is Trolling because I know I would have thought you were being serious. I still think that the majority of people on BSN are people like you and me, normal fans of RPG who just love the virtual world that Bioware has created. A world where some of them have an identity that is more fulfilling than there one in RL. And they love to discuss this world in a place where others share there passion. I say Bioware has done really well to have created such a popular and buzzing forum

Well, I argue that, when people have things to do in camp (such as spell memorization, or duties like cooking, night watches and stuff like that), when they are physically and mentally exhausted from facing death on a daily basis, when there's a lot of factors that can make a person think "maybe another day", the realistic and immersive thing to do would be to NOT expect sexual conduct. Sexual needs are simply a pretty low priority, and not even everyone has needs that have to be relieved, as Faerunner detailed. Even if there were characters that absolutely had needs to relief, the realistic and immersive thing to expect would be to NOT do that with each other. That takes a lot more time and care to pull off than just doing it yourself. So there you have it: two different views of a situation, where both can feel authentic. Perhaps the former is more relatable to you, but for many others it will be what I said. Who is more right? That is for the developers to decide, according to the feel they want to give the story. But there is something I can say: if directly opposite approaches can feel realistic for people, then it means that this argument is pointless. Remember: the story comes first. What matters is that what is in the game feels appropiate to the situation, and that can happen with both. Now, you could argue "but Lurky, I play RPGs because I like indulging in the things you say are unlikely, such as getting laid with hot women that totally desire me. Don't I have the right to such fantasies?". In which case I can say "sure, but my fantasies involve not having to deal with the kind of situation you describe, because it really does not appeal to me at all". You want sexualized women with fleshed out romances in your party, I want professional women with fleshed out personalities in my party. So we're not going to be in agreement with this either, because both situations are mutually exclusive. People are quite happy and content expecting that from Obsidian because 1) they pretty much promised they would do so, and 2), they have a reasonably good track record on being able to do it successfully. In the case of romance, none of the points I said apply. Why do you keep mentioning sex, by the way? Do you expect Obsidian to animate isometric sex scenes with tiny humanoid figures getting it on or something? This is not a cinematic experience like recent Bioware games I don't think it's a matter of actively blocking this kind of content. It's a matter of priorizing content and romance not making the cut. In a world with infinite money, infinite time, infinite computing power and infinite human intelligence to implement it, I don't see why the attempt shouldn't be made. That's because a world with infinite resources would mean things like infinite numbers of lifelike potential party members with an infinity of fully fleshed out relationships routes that accounted for an infinity of NPC likes and dislikes, so having fleshed out romance paths would not diminish other parts of the game at all. (Of course, if a game was done like this, people would not like it because a lot of highly complex and mutually exclusive choices would mean that romances would be as complicated as in the real world. But that's another thing.) Alas, PE is not a project with infinite resources. In fact, they don't even have abundant resources, like AAA studios. Their resources are limited, which means that they have to prioritize. They already limited the number of companions to 8 during the Kickstarter campaign, because writing companions is an incredible amount of work. Do you know how much more work do romances take to make? Can you imagine how costly it would be to make them well? That is the reason why they get so much opposition. In order to make them justice, they would need a big effort, which would impact other writing areas. For people with romance on a low priority, it's not worth it. Of course, if romance has a high priority for you, this decision will probably bum you out. But hey, I've already accepted that the game will not push all my buttons. I'm sure you could handle that if you had to, too. And if not, you can always try mods. Speaking about mods: I'll hold you to your claim that you can do romances well, Lephys. When PE comes, I want to see what you can do there Thanks for the detailed response Lurky, I appreciate your view We will just have to agree to disagree. I think Romance/Sex should and can be implemented without too much effort. I am talking about either a DA or BG2 Romance/Sex so you don't need to show movies like in DA. Another reason I want Romance/Sex is that I always imagine and try to identify with my characters and there trials and tribulations. A journey where you have to save the world, meet people who are prepared to die for you and you are attracted to but somehow you can't date them or have sex with them would be a journey that is lacking something. Something normal and evocative. So that's why I want Romance\Sex in PE

The USA has advanced military hardware and a much bigger military budget that its other allies , you can see the huge difference this played in the Libya conflict . Also despite the incorrect perception Western countries always prefer and expect the USA to be involved in these types of conflicts. Its like having a big, strong brother in the room when you were a kid and arguing with friends. You just feel more confident

Nice life But if I'm being honest my life is pretty good as well If you don't mind me asking how do survive for money if you don't even work part time? Do your parents help out?

Don't you think your generalized opinion of the people who frequent BSN is a little insulting and fatuous? Tsk, tsk, Bruce... are you trying to out-troll the troll? Okay, I don't really get trolling when people do it. I generally believe people mean what they say when they post something so I respond accordingly. I need to work on that

The longer the war drags on more atrocities will be committed by both sides. The rebels also have certain Al-Qaeda elements that fight for them so you are correct that there is no more defined side that has the moral high ground But this wasn't always the case and Assad had months to make meaningful political change. He chose to crush the political dissension with the might of his army and police. So once again this is the result of countries not being able to intervene militarily and a civil war that drags on What is both scary and interesting is the type of ideological Syria that will eventually emerge from the ashes when this civil war is over.