BruceVC

*shudders* Sorry man. EDIT: I understand the concept but, no not interested. Your entire example is tailored to a certain audience. Why would she be dressed up in chainmail bikini? Why does she have to be hot? Why is she imprisoned by the family, is the family entirely good? How long has she been a prisoner? Would she not be given a prisoner's outfit or would the family keep her half-naked in their basement? EDIT EDIT: How long have I known the family and the prisoner before the house started burning? Is this something the prisoner is yelling at me as I'm walking by? "If you save me you can lay with me!!!!" or what? How much time did I have, up until the time of the house burning, to assess and gain a relationship with these people? Osvir I appreciate your logical rebuttal to my concept but don't you think you are over- analyzing the scenario. Remember its a fantasy RPG, not everything is going to make sense?

* sigh * Yes, having no bananas is exactly like having no moral choices, because it takes away from the experience. Re-read your post, forensically, and try to tease out a few micrograms of sense. No? Me neither. Example: OMG. That building is burning. I can only save either (a) the family sleeping upstairs or (b) the prisoner locked in the cellar who's as evil as sin. But, the prisoner has vital information that might allow me to save more lives. But I can only save one... Now, it's not the greatest example. But at least there's a moral choice and there's no romance. Da-daaaa. As for "it takes away from the experience..." Two things: (1) Please figure out the romance ratio of the precursor titles to P:E. 5%? If I'm being generous. (2) The experience? Waaaa! Don't break my immersion!!! Waaaa!!! If you like dating sims then come out and say it, don't dress it up in terms of moral choices and immersion. Feh. But Monte you are missing the obvious correlation with your analogy and Romance\Sex. Allow me to elaborate OMG. That building is burning. I can only save either (a) the family sleeping upstairs or (b) the prisoner locked in the cellar who's as evil as sin. But, the prisoner has vital information that might allow me to save more lives. But I can only save one..." However the prisoner is a hot female Dark Elf in bikini chainmail armour who has promised you sordid sexual fantasies if you free her.... And the family aren't attractive at all...who do you save? So there can be links between Romance\Sex and moral choices?

So does having no evil/morally ambiguous options. Having no option to do anything bad detracts from the experience of doing something good, in my opinion. You might not believe me, but that's exactly my point. When I suggested removing the evil options I was being obviously sarcastic. Or so I thought. But yes, having no romance is exactly like having no moral choices, because it takes away from the experience. Hence, you can't simply leave this stuff to modders. Nude skins is what they are good at, not romance. I like the argument that not having Romance\Sex in the game makes your character feel like an emotionless robot, and we aren't playing a Sci-Fi RPG so what would be a the point of that? Nice one

Nice post, this is one of the reasons I really like these forums. You guys have a legacy and are a real community. I also appreciate the honest and fascinating insights people share around there lives. I am a refugee from the Mortal Online forums, I use to frequent the Off Topic section there for several years. The game never really succeeded and the community got smaller and smaller but the people on Off Topic stayed on. Eventually sections of Off Topic got closed off to any non-paying member and more people left. So for me it was time to find a new forum that was game related but had an interesting Off Topic section. These Obsidian forums have become one of my new hangouts, and the community is a big part of why I come back

I have just bought the following games on the Interplay special. I should be busy Fallout 2, Sacrifice, MDK 2, Die by the Sword + Expansion,Kingpin: Life of Crime,Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader ,Fallout, MDK and Messiah

I have just started Alpha Protocol and I am really enjoying it so far, I just need to get use to a few things around gameplay.

What The ****? Why is obsession called dedication? That guy clearly has a problem, there is nothing to admire. If I was bioware, I would be happy that there are people like him paying me, for whatever **** I throw at them. Well end of the day this boils down to a completely subjective opinion of the guys behavior. I don't know enough of the context to say he is obsessed. So I prefer to say he is dedicated. In life I tend to see the glass as half full. I cannot see any positive spin to a man trying to discover what a fictional alien character's sweat and urine smell and taste like. Because he's sexually attracted to the character and wants his sexual fantasies to become more vivid. Would you feel the same way if he was trying to figure out what the sweat and urine of a female celebrity smell like? What about just some random woman he spotted on the street? I don't think you'd call it admirable dedication so much as perverse mental illness. This is the opinion of someone with a long and storied history with mental illness. Okay I have to admit when you put it that way I agree his comments are disturbing, you make a convincing argument. But you do agree that his opinions and research doesn't represent all of the people on BSN, so he is an exception and extreme case?

Hi Guys Thanks for the tips. Okay I need some input. I admit I am not very good at these types of games, or rather I take time to get use to them. A couple of points I am now comfortable with hacking and other mini-games I am battling to use my grenades effectively. I am confused by what is the quickest way to activate them? I normally select them from the Inventory but it doesn't always seem to select the right grenade when I need it. I also found that using the C keyboard option brings up the Grenade screen but that then vanishes so I have to use Inventory to select. This is obviously a slower option. I noticed in the Safe House I bought loads of ammo for my pistol and assault rifle but when my second mission started I didn't have the amount of ammo I bought? Is there a limit you can have on a mission. I bought loads of ammo because on the first mission I ran out of ammo Finally I understand that this is a stealth game but is it wrong to just "shoot your way through the missions" I am enjoying the game thoroughly and it makes a nice change from my true love of gaming, fantasy RPG

What The ****? Why is obsession called dedication? That guy clearly has a problem, there is nothing to admire. If I was bioware, I would be happy that there are people like him paying me, for whatever **** I throw at them. Well end of the day this boils down to a completely subjective opinion of the guys behavior. I don't know enough of the context to say he is obsessed. So I prefer to say he is dedicated. In life I tend to see the glass as half full. , I doubt it. PE will never have the level of Romance that will draw this type of Romance personality.

Lol, okay some of these BSN comments about Romance are really hilarious. I do find them extreme but it does show a real commitment to the game and I admire that. However you guys are using these examples as a reason Romance\Sex is a bad idea in PE, well I assume you are? But I think we all agree that the Bioware implementation of Romance\Sex is not what the majority of pro-Romance people want in PE. So they just made me chuckle but hasn't detracted from the overall objective of Romance\Sex in PE As someone who has personally delved into the BSN, I can tell you that these "gems" are not the outliers or exceptions to rational discussions. But my point was in posing the question, did romances in video games turn people into these.... things, or did romances in video games attract an existing group of troglodytes out of their caves? Either way, the boding. It does not go well. You have asked some good questions. I think that people that take Romance\Sex this seriously always had it in them and Bioware just provided the medium. But I still maintain that these people are the fringe element at BSN. I have played all the various Bioware games and made sure my characters participated in Romance and enjoyed it but I never took it this far. I am sure most people on these forums are in the same category as me. Finally I have to admire someone who is prepared to spend his RL time to create a semblance of realism around the sweat of a virtual character. I know most people will see this as weird but it does show dedication. If you were Bioware surly you would be proud of creating a game that has so much impact on peoples lives?

Wow, that sounded like an amazing and therapeutic camping trip. How far is Mississippi from where you live. I have always wanted to go to Mississippi , I have a very romanticized view of the state from reading Tow Sayer and Huckleberry Finn when I was young. I use to dream about the majestic Mississippi river and camping and fishing all day. And that fish meal sounded delicious, simple but perfect under the circumstances

Lol, okay some of these BSN comments about Romance are really hilarious. I do find them extreme but it does show a real commitment to the game and I admire that. However you guys are using these examples as a reason Romance\Sex is a bad idea in PE, well I assume you are? But I think we all agree that the Bioware implementation of Romance\Sex is not what the majority of pro-Romance people want in PE. So they just made me chuckle but hasn't detracted from the overall objective of Romance\Sex in PE

Personally I am really happy with these poll results, only 8 % of people don't want any form of Romance\Sex. But lets be generous and include option 3 (boring friendship) in the anti-Romance numbers. We get to about 36 % at this stage that are opposed to Romance\Sex. I hope this finally puts to rest the age-old debate that the PE community doesn't want Romance\Sex in the game. Once again this poll proves unequivocally it does

It's a Multi-Choice poll Whoops I also didn't realize either, I voted for Romance and Sex

Interesting poll, I voted for Sex but I also think Romance( Option 1) needs to be part of the necessary courting process in the game. I hope the poll results don't become skewered because of this.

Holy Smoke, I didn't realize the Marine Corp was that old. Happy B-day

This is good idea but we know already that the response would be a resounding yes as we saw from various polls. So that would create a dilemma, " what would all you anti-romance say and debate in your spare time" And that would be unfortunate as I enjoy these Romance\Sex discussions

As long as the discussion is not about game romance. Nice post Op. I have noticed increased vitriol around some of the comments in the various Romance\Sex posts from people against Romance\Sex. But apart from that I think these forums are generally cordial

I agree with this, the only game I really wanted to play on PC that was console only has been Red Dead Redemption

Unfortunately I am the master of bad hangovers, I have worked out 2 things on how to mitigate them Shooters generally increase the likelihood of them (but Tequila is so festive I can't resist) If you drink about 1 liter of water before you go to sleep you can avoid most hangovers ( the problem is I sometimes forget to drink the water before sleeping ) You see, by taking electrolytes you don't need a litre of water. Now I am an old fart ™ a litre would have me up pissing every hour. Interesting, and when you say electrolytes what exactly do you mean? Edit : Okay I see the photo. I get it

I stopped with my very first post. The rest were defensive (and pointless in retrospect) posts when I was called up to provide some basis for it (which I did). Imagine a world where people weren't allowed to provide comments to topics. At most (and I didn't expect that in the least) I wanted to be helpful. Sorry, if that offended you. Again. I am not offended at all, but thanks for the apology. I am also trying to help you see that nitpicking the heading of a topic isn't what a forum discussion is about. Its not constructive. We should be discussing the topic and in this case the link. I absolutely support discussion and debate but surly it should relevant to the topic

Unfortunately I am the master of bad hangovers, I have worked out 2 things on how to mitigate them Shooters generally increase the likelihood of them (but Tequila is so festive I can't resist) If you drink about 1 liter of water before you go to sleep you can avoid most hangovers ( the problem is I sometimes forget to drink the water before sleeping )

As with every nitpick, no real one. Just give a small information/ minimal constructive critisism. Certainly nothing worth the argument here. Though, I'm quick to defend myself. Imagine a world where we all felt the need to question the accuracy of headings on forums based on our opinions of that accuracy, personally I prefer just commenting or not on the topic. But please you carry on nitpicking.

No, but it very much implies there is *some real* science in the game. *some* Some. And these aren't claims. How are these claims? What? It's broad because the word *science* has a really broad definition. It does not only refer to physics etc. How is the englisch language used in the game not *real* especially since this isn't a fantasy world with made up words? How? Again, this is a NITPICK on the wording in the title. Nothing else! I'm not even remotly arguing that games or narratives in general are *realistic*. Hell, I agree generally with your opinion and on the space fantasy thing (Which wording you probably *took* from George Ziets formspring, right?) I'm interested, whats your reason for nitpicking? Just so you have something to say for the sake of saying it?

Nope I didn't hate the ME series, I wasn't even that disappointed with the ending because I am not an avid follower of the ME series like I am of Fantasy RPG. So for me I didn't have high expectations, I was entertained by the game and enjoyed it. Thats all I ask from any game