BruceVC

Interesting points raised, so for me the whole plethora of crafting components isn't really a big deal. But for some its huge. They take there non-combat skills very seriously. I remember in Ultima Online there was this guy that just use to logon and go and chop wood everyday, thats all he did. Everyday in the game. I never understood it but he enjoyed it. He would then sell the wood in the market.

I look forward to it, I know you are very skilled at comprehensive and detailed posts when you want to discuss something pertinent @ Gorth and Nep Yes our reasons will probably be similar. It also can raise some interesting psychological factors about about our personalities, for example some people will say "you like RPG because you want to escape from reality" Now that may be the reason some do it but I am very happy with my real life. Also there is nothing wrong with escapism if its therapeutic?

Salutations All The thread heading question occurred to me during the heated debates in the various Romance\Sex threads in the PE forum. I am an advocate of Romance\Sex in games and many opponents of this concept use to say things like "an RPG is not about Romance" or " if you want Romance\Sex in an RPG play a dating sim". The hubris of these types of comments always use to annoy me as I would think " what gives someone else the right to define what an RPG is for me". Also have you ever tried to discuss what an RPG is to someone who has never played or understood the concept. Its not that easy. My current g-friend asked me recently "so what type of PC games do you play ?". I started trying to explain what an RPG is " well you have this character or party that go's around on adventures and kills monsters and gains experience. Also you get to determine part of the story". Even though it made sense to me I could tell by her blank look that she was really confused by the idea and more importantly "why I loved the genre so much". Most gaming genre's are easy to explain, an FPS is basically about killing things and proving you can kill other players in a PVP arena. A RTS is about conquering the map and the strategy that it involves, its an intellectual game generally. Its easy to see the appeal in those types of games, but a persons love of an RPG I think is a bit more difficult to articulate. We are all different ages and come from different backgrounds but we have one common hobby, RPG. Having just finished Alpha Protocol and Risen 2 I analyzed introspectively why I love the genre. For me its about Exploration of the unknown: I love not knowing what lies over that hill or what is in that ruined temple. Fantasy element: as an old fan of D&D and the Fighting Fantasy books this type of entertainment appeals to me. Fighting dragons and diabolical witches is just my thing. The Narrative: I like the concept of being part of an epic saga and being able to influence the outcome, a bit like the classic story of Jason and the Argonauts. The immersive nature of an RPG: I like the fact I can learn about my character and my party and interact with them. I identify with them and I enjoy ruminating on decisions they need to make and how they are going to effect them. I see myself as a modern day Conan the Barbarian " saving the world" and yes Romance\Sex is part of this interaction. So take the time to think carefully about why you love this genre. What compels us to spend hundreds of hours playing these games. There are many other points I haven't mentioned like the whole magic and crafting component. I am interested in understanding your reasons

Okay, that makes sense

Yes the roots of Islamic Fundamentalism are generally found in political causes. But they also follow an orthodox view of Islam , yes he was. It does show us that religious extremism/terrorism is not just something we see in Islam. But there are many examples of this. Look at the IRA, they were both a religious and political terrorist organization Also the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka were a Hindu terrorist organization But the reality is we see the greatest proliferation of terrorism lately in certain Islamic groups

I am watching Mystic River again and have been reminded what a brilliant and evocative movie it is. Clint Eastwood may be a terrible Romney public speaker supporter, but he is a genius movie director.

Thats interesting, where was it and did you go? BioWare does stuff like this. Though it's nothing formal or anything. If you're in Edmonton I could easily give you a tour though. Nice one, I'll keep that in mind if I am ever there

Well, now you wont have to do what I did: wait for all episodes to come out Though since I hardly have the time to play it now, I'll wait for the Christmas Sale Yes I can get them all together, it will be like a Walking Dead gaming marathon Well, now you wont have to do what I did: wait for all episodes to come out Though since I hardly have the time to play it now, I'll wait for the Christmas Sale Good idea and don't mean to be promoting since I don't work for Amazon, but it is on sale right now. http://www.amazon.co...sim/water70e-20 Good tip, thanks

[inner monologue]Don't get jealous. Don't get jealous. Don't get jealous.[/inner monologue] Dammit, I'm jealous! With all these Sierra alums coming out of the woodwork and having successful Kickstarter campaign it's like I'm going to get to relive my childhood. Add to that Tex Murphy, Broken Sword, Double Fine Adventure... and they said adventure gaming was dead. I like this post, its honesty really appeals to me I am also jealous, thats one of the advantages of living in the USA. You get to visit places that many of us just read about or use products that these places produce. But it does make my visits to the USA exciting so I can't complain And I concur, long live Adventure gaming !!! By the way, what do you think of this adventure game on GOG? http://www.gog.com/gamecard/the_book_of_unwritten_tales

You are the second person today that has noted that the Walking Dead leaves an indelible emotional impact, I must get these games they seem worthwhile from what everyone is saying

Thats interesting, where was it and did you go?

I'm not sure if this is necessarily an advantage or not. It makes the game universe predictable and consistent, but you're basically just describing metagaming. To the point where "I can effectively break the game because I know where to go to get all the best stuff." Breaking the game is one of the most enjoyable things you can do in Morrowind. Because you are ALLOWED to do it in so many different ways. It's actually one of the reasons you want to play it again. Rising to godhood, killing an important character and still complete the main quest on a different path. BUT it's still work to get there... (btw a guy completeded the game trough the "emergency" main quest in 7mins using advanced knowledge of where to find what, but that's also fun to do :D) Also I think "...I know where to go to get all the best stuff." is actually valid for all the games ever played trough more than once, you know exactly that after the next corner there's a boss and it's gonna drop loot exactly matching your lvl, the only difference is that in an open world you can make use of this kind of knowledge. Mmmm, you have raised some good points and made me ask myself "why do I enjoy Bethesda games so much? " I like the fact that you have this large, immersive non-instanced world where you have all this lore and places to explore. I also like the fact that you are not forced to follow a certain predefined path in the game. So in the example of finding a hidden crypt that contains Daedric Armour I have no issue with that. You could just place a difficult creature in the crypt that only allows you to retrieve the items at a later stage when you can beat it? Also as far as I remember items aren't enough to win the game in Morrowind, you need skills and attributes? Of course, Daedric items without the specific skills and atributes are nearly as useless as their low lvl counterparts. Just slightly better than a normal sword, also if you get quality heavy armor at the start, you are just unable to carry anything else xD So there is level scaling of some sort... That hidden crypt is guarded by 2 dremoras and the door is locked but if you get 2 invisibility scrolls/potions and an open 100 scroll, you can fool them easily, but that is also part of the game, how to fool high level enemies with all the fun spells (for example calming down attackers is always funny) Your points reinforce the view thats its not cheating to find these types of items early in the game. I see it as a type of strategy.

Hi All Okay I have just finished AP, and I loved it. I didn't think I could enjoy a non-fantasy RPG as much as I enjoyed AP. I highly recommend it to other lovers of RPG. My game points are:

Nice update, its great to get to know the people involved in PE through these types of interviews

I hope Vampires are in PE. I would love to battle a really hot Vampiress who inflicts one of your party members with Vampirism and you need to find a cure before they turn into one of the eternal creatures of the night

This is my opinion, I generally develop an empathetic bond with my characters. This is based on 2 factors, there contribution towards combat and challenges in the game and the interaction or Romance\Sex I share with them. So I would miss a character in the party that I am use to seeing. Hence I would reload a saved game if a party member died who I like.

Wow, thats ingenious. Great idea

I'm not sure if this is necessarily an advantage or not. It makes the game universe predictable and consistent, but you're basically just describing metagaming. To the point where "I can effectively break the game because I know where to go to get all the best stuff." Breaking the game is one of the most enjoyable things you can do in Morrowind. Because you are ALLOWED to do it in so many different ways. It's actually one of the reasons you want to play it again. Rising to godhood, killing an important character and still complete the main quest on a different path. BUT it's still work to get there... (btw a guy completeded the game trough the "emergency" main quest in 7mins using advanced knowledge of where to find what, but that's also fun to do :D) Also I think "...I know where to go to get all the best stuff." is actually valid for all the games ever played trough more than once, you know exactly that after the next corner there's a boss and it's gonna drop loot exactly matching your lvl, the only difference is that in an open world you can make use of this kind of knowledge. Mmmm, you have raised some good points and made me ask myself "why do I enjoy Bethesda games so much? " I like the fact that you have this large, immersive non-instanced world where you have all this lore and places to explore. I also like the fact that you are not forced to follow a certain predefined path in the game. So in the example of finding a hidden crypt that contains Daedric Armour I have no issue with that. You could just place a difficult creature in the crypt that only allows you to retrieve the items at a later stage when you can beat it? Also as far as I remember items aren't enough to win the game in Morrowind, you need skills and attributes?

I hate to answer questions directed at other people, but yes, Alan is a long-time member (longer than me) of the community who now works for Bioware. You've forgotten the last mission of Contracts, then... And the first mission of contracts! I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting, too. Thanks Nep. Its good to get the opinion of someone who actually works at a big gaming company like Bioware. There is loads of conjecture about how a company like Bioware operates and for me its interesting to get information that can be shared, obviously somethings are confidential and I respect that

If you look at DAO it can be seen that there are aspects of the game that aren't really sequel friendly. Though at the same time, the game was expensive to make and much more of an unknown for how successful it would be. So there are choices in the game that really don't lend itself to happy times for sequel production. When making a sequel, we do have to decide on what level of canon we have in our games. For BG2, for example, everything was assumed canon and the starting party was basically made up of the most popular group make up (Imoen, Minsc, Jaheira, Khalid, Dynaheir) and other NPCs that could be dead typically had "But I killed you" dialogues to which the NPC would respond "Aha! You thought so but I wasn't" or something similar (thinking of Xzar here). So with Leliana survive, my presumption (I haven't taken part in the writing meetings for DA2, and don't particular care to waste their time talking about old news at this point) is that Leliana was seen as a character that could be used as an interesting tie in because: 1) Defiling the ashes was a rare event. Most people didn't do it, and it's possible they did it without Leliana present to boot. 2) It can be rationalized that she was simply left for dead, not outright killed. This is where the "whoops, we forgot that our system had deathblows in it so people would see that Leliana had her head cutoff" becomes an issue, however. (Although I think some people actually figured we kept a different plot state based upon whether or not she was deathblowed which is a bit silly...) The issue really comes in that we wanted to try a plot import. It was something being considered that ended up seeing a reasonable about of positive feedback from ME2's release. There's a lot of people that feel that if we don't provide such a feature, it makes them feel that their choices in the previous games are irrelevant (this is not a perspective I believe though, for the record. I have no issues replaying Fallout 1 knowing that Fallout 2 has a set canon). I think if it's done really well, it could be very interesting. I don't think BioWare has done it very well yet though. The big hurdle is, of course, the same hurdle we get within a confined game: how do we reconcile branching narratives and reconverge the storyline at some point. The big advantage of Fallout is that you can make these extreme decisions that ultimately would have very different ramifications if done, and for the sequels they can just go "Well canon is this." This opens up the various "I have destroyed everything and everyone" types of playthroughs. Dragon Age intrinsically cannot do that, since reconciling that branch would be pretty fundamentally impossible. There are pros and cons to each, and frankly depending on the mood you catch me in I would probably say I prefer one or the other. Although if it were entirely up to me, I'd probably go with "choose a canon" and not do imports. Not out of spite for previous player choices, but because I do miss some of the more out there types of choices you could make in other games. Brotherhood of Steel completely wiped out? That's cool! Was fun to boot! And so forth. That said though, I think a well done "import" process is a better ideal. Whether or not it is achievable is a different question I suppose. But it's not inconsisent of me to think that's a better ideal, because I think the ideal RPG would be one that doesn't bother with reconciling player's choices and actually allows a more free flowing narrative. The idea of mutually exclusive choice is one I love, and even if the basic plot points sitll all get achieved, I'm okay with the concept of showing very different aspects of the plot based upon player choices, I do understand that it poses very serious scope risks. Alan you make some insightful and interesting points. This is probably a stupid question but do you work for Bioware or are you some sort of developer? I think I remember someone mentioning this but I am not sure

Hi All I was working this weekend so I didn't play AP that much Anyway I am at the last stretch, I have had some surprises in the game, but I'll include those for discussion in my summary at the end

You are funny Cant, but you are right. Every contribution towards a project like this, whose KS goal was borderline, counts. So thanks

Yaaaaaaaay, good news. Another KS game to look forward to

Thanks for the tip. I'll buy this one

Nice one Shady, you won't regret it