JediMB

Mostly as a joke*, I want to suggest that the game gets two characters with romance arcs: one male, one female, both gay. Seriously, though, I'm a sucker for Obsidian-style character interaction, as well as romance subplots... so yay. *I'm all for gay romances, but I really don't have any desire to deprive straight-playing people of their arcs either.

Except the ones voiced by Tara Strong.

Well... I wouldn't want there to be an XP reward for killing bunnies or neutral NPCs, or whatever. Maybe a reward for killing a hostile group, if there are also alternative ways to acquire the XP... such as diplomacy or evasion. This would, of course, only work in encounters designed so that you can't go back and pick one of your other options after being rewarded for a first. So if you sneak past a group of bandits waiting to ambush you, the camera might move back to them and show them walking off because they're tired of waiting for someone to show up. Likewise, talking, bribing or threatening yourself out of a fight would also have them moving on and disappearing.

While all relevant information should exist in the manual, I agree with the Extra Credits assessment that the best tutorials are the ones you don't even notice when you play. The game itself teaching you new mechanics as they are introduced, and spread out throughout the game. That said, it's questionable how well that would work in a game such as a cRPG, so maybe the best thing would be having help messages popping up when relevant, and the option to disable them entirely if you're already familiar with the game.

WAT? What the hell? Am I child that needs to have his ego stroked every 5 minutes. Ego stroking is one thing I utterly hate. It's basically just a matter of the companions acknowledging your achievements. You're reading into the line too much, and missing the context, I think.

Personally, I'd rather like seeing sex left out entirely. Even implied sex. They could throw in a joke about that they don't know for how long they'll be out on their quest, and that an unwanted pregnancy would get in the way. (Bonus points for somehow making a reference to the inventory baby.)

I think "reading comprehension" would be a better use of your chalk. There you go again. It's not a matter of reading comprehension, but one of assumptions and bias. Avellone himself has, in regards to characterization in Project Eternity, made it clear how romance potentially fits into writing a character. It's all about writing good characters. If it makes sense for a character to potentially fall for the PC, then it's likely going to be an option. Heck, the guy once wrote a list of requirements for a good romantically available character. Requirements many BioWare romances don't pass, for the record. (There are a few "what were they thinking?" type romances in SWTOR, and in BG2 from what I hear.)

Never said anything was definitive. But after reading between the lines it's fairly obvious its not something they've got very high on their list. In fact...it sounds like at this moment its not on the list at all. I'm going to have to chalk that up to personal bias.

I wrote a message yesterday where I thought romances didn't take more than a week to be done. Looks like I was horribly wrong. 2 or 3 months for one character? Man, it's waaaaay longer than expected. Well, I won't look like a fool anymore at least. Keep in mind that it's writing an in depth companion that takes 2 or 3 months. Not a romance. Writing the romance would be a part of that companion-writing process, and the time will only be reduced if they decide to write shallow characters instead... which I don't believe anyone wants. I'll also refer to Avellone's recent blog entry on Project Eternity and characterization: I think everyone will just have to wait until after the funding period is over, and give the Obsidian team some time to look over their budget, before it can be expected that they say whether or not (and how many) romantically accessible characters are likely to make it into the game. They just don't want to make any promises that might lead to people paying for something that won't be delivered. People interpreting Feargus' answer as some sort of definite "yes" or "no" are quite frankly suffering from selective reading.

Actually, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was considered a success. The problem was the 38 Studios was also developing an MMO, which was funded by the state of Rhode Island, and the new Governor (who was opposed to the project from the start) decided to screw them over.

I truly loved reading this blog entry. It reminded me so much of how I enjoyed all the little surprises involved in interacting with the companion characters in KotOR II: The Sith Lords... both in how the interaction took place, and the consequences that followed. It makes everything so much more lively and organic, in contrast to, say, the Mass Effect series where you mechanically visit each of your companions once after every major mission. And it took until the third game before the Normandy crew actually did things other than stand around and wait for the player to come and talk to them. I hope that the liberation from publishers changing deadlines, as well as the extra time and money that goes into recording voiced dialogue, will bring Obsidian-style companion interaction to new levels of greatness. I'll try not to expect the impossible, though. :D EDIT: Oh, on top of my wish list for companion interaction/influence is that you do away with showing their opinion of the player and his/her actions in the form of numerical values. Sure, you can use them in some form behind the scenes, but it's become a bit of an immersion-breaking mechanic to always be shown numerical approval ratings that the player will feel compelled to adjust his/her behavior to. It's better to just let the characters show how they feel through their mannerisms and dialogue.

Perrrrrsonally, I don't care if the game uses 2D or 3D environments as long as it ends up looking good and playing well. Both have their obvious advantages and shortcomings.

For whatever it's worth, I decided to withdraw my votes from this poll. I must have read them completely backwards when I voted, and as they are I think they're too biased to deserve a response. As for the talk about BioWare... Yes, I play BioWare games. I bet you can't look at my nick and guess which game of theirs drew me in originally. I also play Obsidian games, Bethesda games, id Software games since 1993, Nintendo games since the 80's, and I used to play Square games... before they totally lost me partway through Final Fantasy XII. Indie games too, of course. I play games of pretty much every genre out there, and I really don't see any value in limiting oneself to a specific formula. Sure, one has to weigh the advantages against the disadvantages when it comes to things like text-based or voiced dialogue, but having a preference on an issue is no reason for being dishonest about the consequences or meaning of a disliked feature. Romance does not equal sex, it's not any more of a "minigame" than any other character interaction, and it won't consume more time or resources than other forms of dialogue or events with your companions. If you don't think Obsidian's writers are capable of writing good (optional) romance arcs, just say so. EDIT: And people sure have been posting things while I've gone back and forth between typing my post and doing other things on the side...

What about stuffing heterosexuality down people's throats?

I voted "multiple", but to be fair it's not like I was thinking about any specific games. It's just the overall image of Obsidian Entertainment that I have developed from playing the Fallout games (incl. New Vegas), KotOR 2 and a little bit of Planescape: Torment. I know they do interesting stories, fantastic characters and comparatively deep RPG mechanics.

If you repeat it a thousand time it won't change the fact, they are. Otherwise bio would have 20 of them You're comparing something that would likely consist of only text-based dialogue and simple scripted movement to the BioWare romances that require tons of work on character models, voice-recording and cutscene animation. BioWare's romances are restricted for the very same reasons that character interaction in general is restricted in modern RPGs, and that's because they're made in a style where content takes much more time and is very expensive to produce. Adding dialogue in an unvoiced isometric RPG is mostly a matter of adding a few lines to a script (depending on what sort of scripting system the engine uses, of course). These things were often done much more spontaneously in the isometric RPG's golden age (circa 1998), but that's simply not possible for modern "cinematic" games.

Okay, to be honest I seem to be drawing blanks when I try to remember DA2's marketing, specifically. Beyond the jokes about pressing a button for something awesome to happen, that is. But I guess it would make sense to focus on the relationships with the companion characters, since character relationships was one of the few things I dare say DA2 did better than its predecessor. >_>

Then you haven't seen Bioware, its forums and its marketing. Do you know what one of the first threads upon announcing of DA3 was? http://social.biowar...14140424-1.html Yeah. Of course there are going to be fans who want to know these thing before anything else, but that doesn't make it the main focus of the game itself. Heck, at this point it's one of the few things they can actually safely expect from the game. And, shiz, as much as I can enjoy a romance in a BioWare game, I only will if it has the right context and if the rest of the game is enjoyable. I've wanted to replay Mass Effect 2 for the romance stories with Tali and Miranda (although I suppose you can't really call them "stories" when they're little more than a few lines of dialogue), but I just can't be arsed to because I'm frankly tired of the rest of the game. That said, I can't recall BioWare's marketing people making any noise about romance, unless specifically asked about it or responding to accusations.

Is this the school of role playing where Gears of War is an RPG where you play the role of gritty steroid addict? Because I have heard about that. Listen, it does not matter that some VN might have limited stats and some branching (although it does matter that lately they have more stats and branching than most wRPGs) - that does not make them traditional cRPGs. Romances might have started as an aside to adventure but lately they have evolved into the main focus and while it's true that it might not be the case here it's better not to take the chance and to sacrifice them on the altar of more quests. Also they tend to summon a certain sort of... fans. Did you miss the part where I talked about role-playing? I thought I was obviously referring back to PnP RPGs, and the various attempts to emulate them in video games. I only mentioned VNs having RPG mechanics because of the vague and hyperbolic nature of gongal's post. And you may want to note that he never did try to define what he meant by RPG elements, but rather thought an immature insult would suffice as a substitute. Lastly, I dare say I haven't seen an RPG where romance was the main focus... unless you count Final Fantasy VIII, but that's questionable both whether one considers it an RPG and if its love story can be considered romantic in nature. Plus, it's from 1999, so it's not exactly "lately".

I'm all for this. It could add some interesting twists and replay value.

I agree with Moonlight Butterfly. I'm all for co-op in all sorts of games, but after my poor experiences with Baldur's Gate co-op I definitely can't say that story and character-driven RPGs are among those.

Define "RPG elements". I'm pretty sure "role-playing" could be an essential part of the experience, and when you're role-playing as a hero out on adventures with people s-/he potentially grows close with... Yeah. And, really, visual novels--in my limited experience--tend to be fairly stripped-down RPGs, mechanically, so it's not like those mechanics have no place in an RPG. Thank you, captain obvious. Oh, gee, that sure made you sound like a smart person with a well-presented argument. Maybe next time you can simply refrain from replying when you don't have anything to add?

Hey, at least they're all fully armoured, which is quite rare in itself Good point, but still. The armor in the first of the three pictures looks a lot more functional, and less silly. Largely because of the lack of boobplate.