JWestfall

Arguably related to this thread (and arguably better written than 98% of this thread): http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/179853/As_a_woman_Misconceptions_in_the_diversity_discussion.php

Technically, this right here is an update. However, since the official update is that there is no update, we now have a recursive logical paradox. The universe unravels...

The role of atheism in the game directly depends on whether or not religion will have a strong faith component (i.e. belief in something regardless of evidence to the contrary). In many of the typical D&D universes I can think of off the top of my head, there is no room for "faith" in the strict sense, since gods/supernatural have plenty of evidence as to their existence. DA:O religions toyed with the theme of faith, I would have liked them to explore that further in the storyline.

I took my daughter to go pick out a Halloween outfit for her a short time ago. Now, for those of you who are not aware of the peculiar Halloween Americanism: it is a night of odd customs, one of which is to dress up as a fantasy character (often but not necessarily related to horror themes), mostly for the children. However, there is a certain age group (20's - 30's) where women have a contest to see who can get away with wearing the most sexualized costume, while simultaneously not crossing the line to "slutty." Men in this same age group also dress up as women - in this case, it is because they think it will edgy, unique and shocking, but to their disappointment, year after year they realize every other guy had the same idea. Not that I have nothing against any of that, being as I fondly remember being a member of that age group. Anyway, getting back on track: so we were looking at costumes, and I noticed all the obligatory "sexy vampire/cat/alien/hamburger" costumes for adult women. But what really made me uncomfortable were the number of same styled costumes for children, only omitting the word "sexy" from the title printed on the packaging. I can only assume the word "sexy" was removed half for legal reasons, and half to ease whatever vestige of guilt still might remain in whatever parent would agree to purchase such an outfit for their child. TLDR: Obsidian, please stop oversexualizing Halloween costumes for younger and younger generations, I find this trend very disheartening for our future society. P.S.: Call me crazy, but I actually think Obsidian my actually have a pretty good handle on the OP, not worried myself.

Nice interview, thanks for posting. Also - halfling psionic detective? Win!

I'm having flashbacks just reading this thread. Talk me down, man.

As long as they are not quick-time based money fountains - because I wouldn't play those. But yeah, a simple dice-based chance game or similar (with limits on earnings), sure.

I'll speculate: The body/mind functions as we normally assume it would - the mind is normally the seat of will, thought, sentience, etc. However, a soul inhabiting a body/mind for the duration of a life picks up an imprint of that person's thoughts/actions. When the soul inhabits a different body/mind, it influences in some way that person's mind according to previous minds it has inhabited. It almost sounds like a form spiritual possession. The question seems to be how much influence a soul has on it's current host. The Dune series have a theme of ancestral egos (albeit produced by ingestion of a drug) sometimes at war with a person's free will - I wonder if there will be similar themes here.

I'd say "no, not necessarily", but the topic bring to my mind the interesting question of what exactly is a "magic item." In typical fantasy, a magical weapon is usually crafted specifically to be just that, by wizards or gods or otherwise exceptional beings. In P:E, there may be alternatives. For example, lets extrapolate from the description of the Chanter class: Perhaps a mundane Warhammer was carried around by a famous hero long ago, which has now become legend. The very fact that the weapon is tied to legend may cause "ambient spirits to respond" spontaneously around such artifacts. Thus, the mere fact of an item being associated with a legendary person, or are otherwise related to "ancient, common story elements" may make them "magical."

This topic seems out of place here. I feel lost and confused.

As my hobby efforts have mostly been in programming rogue-like games, here are some links for anyone interested in those: RogueBasin - A number of articles relating to RL game development, and links to other sites and the RL community in general. LibTCOD - A library handling the "backbone" of most RL games Amit's Game Programming - Not directly related to RL games, but a number of good articles and algorithms here.

As long as there are no Rust Monsters. Godamit those things angered me in my P&P days...

If you are giving XP for the player actually reading dialogue, then it needs to be fair - the game will have to somehow require the dialogue is actually being read, not just clicked-thru. For End User License Agreements when installing software, the user needs to click on a statement declaring that they have indeed read the aforesaid agreement. Because said EULA is enforced by law, everyone reads them to avoid the pain of punishment by breaking the law. So one option may be to legally require the player to have read each dialogue by having them agree to a EULA-type page for each one - although with all matters of law, a Lawyer should be consulted beforehand for feasibility. Or perhaps the game should quiz the player after each dialogue, testing the player's knowledge on what was just read. The problem with this is that the player could cheat and go to Gamefaqs or similar to just get the answers there, and end up clicking through the dialogue anyway, scoring the XP unfairly. Perhaps a combination of option 1 and 2 would work best, or maybe a voice-recognization scheme where the player is forced to read back the dialogue to the game, or -- nah, screw it, KILL HASSAT HUNTER WITH FIRE!

I got the feeling that most of the Obsidian folks were having a good time and rolling with it. Even the more racist or misogynistic comments were joked about by the people there. After all, as game developers who have to read all of the negativity aimed at their creation day in and day out, "teh internets" probably becomes second nature. Actually, for anyone who has (for example) read comments on a youtube video, it's all pretty standard stuff. The only comments that made me cringe a little inside were a couple directed at the children - but I (just like most everyone else) ignored them and went on with the party.

I believe I've typed this before somewhere, but here it is again: A busty female breastplate hidden in Calegund's (sic?) home/personal stash/secret room.

Oooh, I think I've played this one:

My inner nerd-child screams that an update should occur once every 12 hours... but my practical persona shakes his head and rebukes that once a month would be fine.

No remorse either way, it was pretty fun following the campaign. Now the long wait begins... Heh, speaking of - by my calculations, the (main) Obsidian team has 2,934 signatures to do. Obs, if you start now, you only have to do... 3.2 signatures every day until the (estimated) release of the game.

I'll be jumping a significant amount (up to a higher tier), but it will happen tomorrow. From what I understand, after the KS ends you will get a survey where you indicate which item(s) you want as add-ons. For now, just pledge the correct amount to allow for the rewards + add-ons you are going to want.

I believe they have clarified that all KS funds will go to the main game itself - the expansion will be funded from their own pockets (i.e. sells), and that they are unlikely to do another KS for the expansion(s).

My final pledge amount will be directly proportional to Adam's success today. No pressure Adam

^^ Original gangsta background for the Rogue class?

It will not score 95 on Meta. Professional reviewers will say that it has archaic grapgics, no full VO, no multiplayer, no golden path leading players to their goals, no Jessica Chobot licking stuff, that the shooting mechanics are a complete failure and the game is so incredibly difficult that the first playthrough should've been a tutorial, like in Diablo III...and they'll give it a 2 out of 10. Agreed, though in this case Obsidian won't have a publisher canceling everyone's bonus because they missed an arbitrary metacritic score goal by 1 point. And I'm pretty sure Obsidian feels pretty good about that situation.

Not to sidetrack, but I think it's interesting that several of the issues people have with a particular aspect of the game seem to be traced back to WoW in some form or another - classes, cooldowns, gunpowder off the top of my head. Actually, now that I type that out, it seems pretty obvious. Back to the topic at hand, I admit I had a momentary knee-jerk reaction when seeing firearms in the concept art - but after a bit of explanation, I've warmed to the idea. I can't wait to stick a musket in some wizard's pretentious face.

As long as Forton can pull his own weight (e.g. punch the **** out of a gelatinous cube to keep it occupied while my mage can prepare his next spell), he can wear whatever pants and shoes he wants. But the minute he starts getting all preachy about "power needs to be respected" and "we must share our wealth with these distraught peasants"... well, then poor old Forton is going have an unfortunate "accident" somewhere around level 3 of MegaDungeon, said accident most likely involving my barbarian's claymore.