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el pinko grande

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About el pinko grande

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    Void-Touched Master of the Obsidian Order
    (2) Evoker

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    Los Angeles
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    el pinko grande

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  1. My official position is that I hate puzzles. Thinking critically, I should say that I actually like certain reaction-based puzzle mini-games from games like Bioshock, though it seems those are unpopular on here. But seriously, if I have to do another Towers of Hanoi-type puzzle, I'm going to put an axe through my computer and devote my gaming time solely to shooting pre-pubescent idiots in Halo.
  2. Nobody wants, well... this happening to the Obsidian forums. It goes all the way to page one-thousand, two hundred and sixteen. It's insane. That pales in comparison to the old Talimancer threads, which went on for thousands upon thousands of pages. Ugh.
  3. I've never understood the notion that NPCs aren't doing anything when you're not around. They didn't become adventurers in the first place by sitting on their ass- presumably they're training and studying and doing other stuff to keep their skills sharp. Plus, if you have a stronghold, I imagine they're filling various military/administrative roles there, as well- training troops, taking on apprentices if they're a caster, etc.
  4. I'd add that the World of Warcraft variations on these creatures are pretty stale, as well.
  5. I dunno, my tabletop experience suggests to me that, if P:E let's you have a family, than they will be horribly killed in P:E2.
  6. http://en.wikipedia....iki/Joan_of_arc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica http://en.wikipedia..../wiki/Æthelflæd http://en.wikipedia....wiki/Anne_Bonny ...just to name a few. Certainly most women were relegated to child-rearing duties, but there are plenty of examples of women on the battlefield throughout history. Just because they were rare doesn't mean they didn't exist.
  7. A 1st level character with all that gear will still get his ass kicked by a higher level character without that kind of gear, though. Regardless, I want gear to matter enough that I'm happy about finding the cool new magic sword. I think a similar level of gear dependency to D&D 3.X/Pathfinder is fine, or maybe a bit toned down from that level.
  8. Just once I'd like spears to be good weapons. It seems like the few games that include them tend to underpower them.
  9. Most depictions of druids are kind of silly, it's true. That said, I don't really know how I want them depicted. My first instinct is to draw on Hayao Miyazaki stuff for inspiration, but that would probably result in druids that are a lot like the city-hating extremists I'm complaining about.
  10. Can I just say that, much as I agree that excessive sexualization of female characters in video games is a problem, I actually didn't have an issue with Cadegund's original armor? Purely from a character design perspective, I don't mind armor that's somewhat gendered. If you've got a bunch of plate-wearing characters, all sorts of ahistorical flourishes become necessary to make them visually distinct. Boob plates don't really offend me any more than oversized pauldrons or silly helms or inappropriate spiky bits. Of course, that assumes the purpose of the boob plates isn't titillation. Which, in the context of the original art for Cadegund, I don't think it was.
  11. Given the way they've been describing the setting, I'm gonna guess that a title of nobility goes along with having the stronghold. If so, I'd like it if the game acknowledged that, if people start addressing you as Count/Countess/Margrave/whatever the hell it is you're called, and showing you deference that they didn't before. Make it feel like your character's world has actually changed as a result of their elevation in status. As for the stronghold itself, it would be awesome if the place were reactive to the sort of changes you made to it. So if you're a priest and you build a bunch of religious buildings to gain priest-related bonuses or items, subtle changes occur to the rest of the stronghold. Statues of saints start popping up, the dialog spouted by random peasants as you walk by changes, the sort of music you hear coming from the tavern changes, and so on. Hell, maybe even the textures of the walls change to something more cathedral-like. That way, you could have a single stronghold without the gameplay surrounding it becoming stale playthrough to playthrough.
  12. Ideally an elf ranger. The problem is, I don't like rangers when they're exclusively a ranged class. I like my rangers to be fast melee skirmishers. If being a ranger means you have to use a bow, I'll end up going rogue instead.
  13. If anything, I'm worried that eight might be too many, given the production schedule. Still, if Obsidian thinks they can pull it off, I trust them.
  14. I'm not a fan of most RPG plots. Which is fine; story is much less important to me than interesting characters and situations. Most games, even good ones, I'll forget the story a few days after I beat the game. Like the Baldur's Gate games: I really enjoyed them, but I couldn't tell you anything about the plot of either game, other than maybe dredging up the word "Bhaalspawn." I could tell you all about Imoen, or Minsc & Dynaheir, or Irenicus & Bodhi, though. I could tell you about going to the Underdark, or getting betrayed by Yoshimo. But the details of the plot escape me, and in any case were irrelevant to my enjoyment of the game. The stories I do remember are the simple ones, the details of which are presented to you at the beginning of the game. Finding the Water Chip in Fallout. Learning the Nameless One's past in PS:T. Finding the GECK in Fallout 2. Defeat the Reapers in every Mass Effect game. That stuff sticks with me. Despite that, I probably enjoyed BG2 more than PS:T, because plot isn't that central to my enjoyment of the game.
  15. You think of your character in CRPGs as a total blank slate? That's interesting. I don't, and I suspect most people who play these games don't. The point of the protaganist being presented as a blank slate is that it allows you to fill in the details yourself. I'm sure you know that, but it bears repeating because your argument doesn't seem to acknowledge that point. And the game isn't being presented for an audience in the sense you seem to be describing, it's more a part of an ongoing conversation between the player and the developers. Really, you're describing CRPGs like a cold medium when they're a hot medium. The audience isn't passive, it's active and participatory. Now, you also touch on an interesting point regarding affection being a reward for succeeding at gameplay. I think the presumption of the genre is that players will choose the option that is true to their character, rather than the option that produces the optimal outcome. The reality is somewhere in between those two poles, I'm sure. The point remains, however, if you simply follow the Gamefaqs prescribed route, you're missing a good chunk of what's supposed to be enjoyable about these games- the role-playing. It's no different than playing a puzzle game with a guide in front of you. Sure, you get the satisfaction of beating the game, but you're also missing out on the process of discovery that's part of the appeal for fans of the genre. So, I don't think you can talk about CRPG romances the way you do purely literary ones. The point is that it's a subjective experience. The character of the protaganist is 90% in the players head. Someone watching you play the game won't have the same experience you will. And yes, the romanatic interest will always respond the same way to the same inputs, but I think that's a feature, not a bug. As you define your own character, so to do you define (in part) the romantic interest, since your actions tell you what it is they're attracted to.
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