The Sharmat

You keep writing about "slave mentality". Avellone was in upper management at Obsidian and, apparently, had a falling out with others in upper management for reasons that we will never know. Obsidian, as an entity, said nothing bad about him when he left. If you think Obsidian started this, you are imagining things. If you think Obsidian is retaliating against Avellone, you are also imagining things. The class struggle you seem to think is happening here is happening only in your head. In the real world, Avellone is venting his feelings of resentment in public. He is mostly hurting his own reputation and he is attempting to hurt his former co-workers. There is the part they forced an nda on his neck that everyone keep forgetting may be true or not He's an idiot then because if he had one he's basically used it as toilet paper.

A manifestation of Ravel.

I'm optimistic about all the relationships but the romances.

That's exactly why this story doesn't add up. EDIT: Unless as some say above pretty much everyone hated him and voted him out with their combined controlling interest in the company. But in his story somehow Feargus (AKA Moloch the Devourer) can just magically make this happen on his own.

Law suits are expensive and can worsen all sides. Also at the beginning of all of this he said that at the time of his departure he had a lot of family issues, the most serious his mother battling with cancer. I think the last thing he wanted is a lengthy legal battle. Chris said that instead he worked like a madman to save enough money to be fully free from debts and Obsidian's grasp. That would explain why he wouldn't pursue legal action then. It doesn't explain why he wouldn't now. Although all the posting he's done in RPG codex would probably not serve him well in a legal battle.

”Ownership” = paper trail. There’s some stuff that you can get away with when you aren’t publicly traded, but there’s no way the State of California issued them a business license without knowing who the owners were. Yeah see I want to hear him explain exactly what he means when he says he was "deownered" against his will.

Law suits are expensive and can worsen all sides. Whereas this has fixed everything right up? If it was this black and white I'd think Avellone could really take them to the cleaners.

If that actually happened he should be talking to a lawyer, not to RPG codex. So either it didn't happen, or Feargus is evil and Avellone is a drooling moron.

Alright yeah I'm pretty sure that's utter bull****.

Removing quality of writing issues, I think people feel the romance content can take resources away from making the character interesting / responsive if the PC doesn't romance them. So if the character has 1000 lines of dialogue, but 800 are tied to the romance, it means the non-romance player gets a character with only 200 lines.* *I have no clue how many lines of dialogue characters actually have. Yeah I think they're worth a little effort because they give some bang for their buck as the saying goes. There's several games I wouldn't have looked twice at but bought because it had a romance in it. Of course there's the too much of a good thing saying Since I like characters, I enjoy exploring the relationships between the party (PC-NPC, NPC-NPC, whatever). Also some games have romances that were pretty in your face. Not mandatory, but very hard to avoid. Which is fair enough, sometimes unwanted come-ons happen in real life, except the way it was written was like some fat nerd walking up to me, shoving an anime body pillow in my face and saying "NOW KISS".

You can return him to the wheel with memories explicitly as a punishment/taunt IIRC. It's not necessarily portrayed as merciful. But yeah it's surely not the wisest course, but who says the main character has to be wise? I imagine most of the adults knew something about what was going to happen to them. The kids, not so much. Some of the Engwithans stayed behind as missionaries and inquisitors. Thaos, Iovara, and the Watcher's previous life among them, although only the original missionaries knew the score with the Gods' creation. With the aid of the Gods very real miracles, it wasn't too hard to spread the faith. His actions absolutely were not justified. I'd be interested in seeing more Engwithan culture and why the lack of obvious meaning terrified them so.

I wonder how Thaos reacted to Ondra killing him. You'd think he'd be a bit miffed about being crushed or drowned after Woedica reincarnated him.

But with video games, if the PC is attracted to A, B, and C then A, B, and C rarely have a choice as whether they are attracted to the PC from a character standpoint outside some rather broad gatekeepers (gender and race, sometimes). They lack definition in that part of their character that can create a rather large disconnect between who they say they are on the page and how they actually act. Let me use this as another example. PC has begun a romance with NPC42. NPC42 keeps dying in combat and has to be resurrected (or gets knocked out and awakened after combat depending on your system). Why is NPC42 still following the PC, much less in a romance with them? Currently the way romances are handled NPC42 would never break the romance off because the PC kept putting them in vulnerable, unprotected positions in combat. But shouldn't they? Final Fantasy VII actually kept track of this, for the purposes of a single scene in the game. In theory you could get a different character at the Gold Saucer "date" just because you let Aeris/Tifa get knocked out a ton in combat. It rarely worked that way in practice, but interesting idea.

This might be fun to have on record somewhere. Release is coming up. Let's talk about what we expect (for good reasons or bad) to experience then revisit the thread when we've finished the game. I'll start. Plot: Eothas will be sympathetic and always meant to be blown up. Berath will turn out to be evil. It's all Ondra's fault. Again. Whatever God your watcher pledged itself to will be meaningless unless it was Berath. Especially Skaen/Woedica Durance and "Falanroed" will actually appear in the game and have significance. No other save import features will have any real impact. At some point we'll learn about a powerful rival to the Engwithan civilization. The pacing will be very weird if you just follow the main story due to open world shenanigans. Gameplay: In most cases, multiclasses will prove superior to single classes. All but the highest end armor will be useless. Direct damage spells will be trash. Companions: Edér will be less likeable than in the first game. Writers felt he was too flawless so they'll play up new flaws and exaggerate old ones to try to force more nuance. Aloth/Iselmyr will seem cool but be stymied by lack of save import reactivity. Retread of the first game. Pallegina will surprise me by actually being really interesting this time around. Most people won't use her though because she'll constantly fight with their favorite companion(s) Xoti will prove to either be the Durance/Edér/Zahua of this game in terms of depth, or just shallow waifu bait. There can be no middle ground. I'll probably keep her around even in the worst case scenario because priest + I like her voice. Maia will be cool but ultimately straightforward. Serafen will annoy me. A lot. Tekehu will annoy me at first but end up entertaining me. All the sidekicks will bore me The best pet will remain Concelhaut's skull Relationships: All the romances will standard video game fair, meaning I'll find them insultingly pandering. The following companions will hate each other: Pallegina, Xoti, and Tekehu. Edér and Xoti. Serafen, Maia, and Tekehu. Overall: I'll complain a lot but rate it 9/10

The main problem with DR wasn't that it was hard to figure out, it wast hat it was basically worthless at high levels. -20 from 200 damage attack in exchange for 50% recovery penalty? No thanks. This sounds like it introduces another problem that applies to every character level though.

Or what if they had the romance angle but kept the big conflict. Wait no, that's dumb. Doomed romance as a theme could never work in a story. Back to being a therapist that fixes my companions' personality until they reward me with sex. We'll bang, ok.

It's basically 4chan but somehow even more racist and utterly convinced that the ability to play video games that are really old makes them an instant expert on any subject from literary theory to geopolitics. Ironically 4chan's opinion on this scandal is pretty split. Anonymity isn't good for creating echo chambers.

The Compliant.

@Elarie No I think it's exactly the same thing. Not wanting to lock people out of content and wanting to make sure the player has a buffet of waifu and husbando tropes available to every possible taste. Bioware companions are usually pretty faithful implementations of tropes. This is because on the sometimes conflicting goals of "tell a good story" vs. "directly make the consumer happy" they err on the side of the latter.

Hopefully the spoilers will be easier to avoid than for Infinity War. Wait... Thanos Thaos OH ****

There's a lot of cut content about Fall-From-Grace. I can't remember the details but she's pretty conspicuous as it is for not having any kind of character arc. Even Nordom and Vhailor got one, she doesn't.

Amentep basically taking the words out of my mouth except for actually liking DA2. Enough power fantasy, give me conflict.

I found it plenty glitchy and with obvious cut content. Not anywhere close to KOTOR 2 levels mind you, but there's a reason it had so many gaps. I want to know what's in Grace's diary damn it.

I'm saying that Avellone was high in the company and any cause "Obsidian" as an organization gave someone to doubt is also something he had a hand in. Unless we take it as granted that he was the one good and competent guy there. Personally given KOTOR 2 and even Planescape: Torment were pretty messy releases, I doubt it.

Most people here are being as objective as they can be with this situation. Meanwhile you are treating Chris' words like they are facts throughout this thread. This is not a healthy way to have a discussion. No as i said twice.. Chris in past never gave me reasons to doubt about him.. Unlike obsidian. So yes i am inclined more to believe in Chris and beside there is more about this to be discussed that have yet to pop up just give it time. Chris was Obsidian until a couple years ago.