Jancarius

I think elves and orcs are easy archetypes, and that's why we always see them. The elven culture is typically for those who want to see graceful, beautiful and cultured heroes (I myself am in this category). Orcs have, courtesy of World of Warcraft, split into Tolkien Orcs (rargh rampage and pillage) and WoW Orcs (Druid/shaman chaotic race). Well, certainly it's not NECESSARY. I've played every game Oblivion has released and none of them have multiple starting points, so we know that they can write a great game without it. KOTOR2's conversation with Aidan where you set the events of KotoR1 for example, is a good way to set up background without needing to play through it. The thing I'm wary about with 'new' races is the same thing that caused me to put a stop to race expansion in my D&D games. At some point, I feel like it becomes "Here's an object/animal. Now it's an anthropomorhpic biped. NEW RACE" It's worse in D&D because they've moved to tryign to make it very modular, so when a race should logically be impacting it's environment significantly, it's weird to be like "oh, yeah, and now there's tree/rock/bird/rat people, and they've always been here, and here's how you feel about them." Less a problem when you're constructing/releasing the entire world at once, obviously.

One of the great benefits of DA1 over DA2 was it's choice not to voice the main character. You could generate quite nuanced 'this is WHY I'm burning down the orphanage' responses.

I would like the option to import my character ala Baldur's Gate, NWN, and Icewind Dale. This serves the purpose A) easy SP to MP conversion and B) "HAHA FEAR THE WRATH OF MY MAGE-GOD PUNY CELLAR RATS!" <-- who hasn't enjoyed doing this

Personally, I like what I'll call MMO-style armor. Sure, we could go realistic, but that's boring. Now, I do agree we should avoid 'female armor' issues (See: Every female in Terra). Actually, now that I think about it, it might be a cool option for you to be able to sacrifice 'effectiveness' for flair on your gear. For example: My mage, Elminster, decides he wants glowing skull pauldron for his robe. This looks cool and kinda intimidating (+1 to intimidate checks, I guess), but could cause negative reactions in people who are made uncomfortable by skulls, and increases his aggro/threat mechanics behind the scene because he looks more threatening. Really hard to draw the proper line on that, for obvious reasons, because you'll see people walking around looking absolutely ridiculous because of some arbitrary combination of modifiers it gives, but worth a thought I think.

I'm gonna say no, because it's just a hassle. At no point in any game has anyone ever said "You know what would be fun? Having to go repair your armor"

So, look, I get that some people don't like the Tolkien elves - Where Elves are human+immortality+knowledge+magic+grace and the ONLY downside they have is being less physically hearty. But I have to admit, the counter trend, most easily illustrated in Dragon Age of the "post Civilization collapse" elves is also starting to bore me. Dwarves also have the most monolithic culture outside the drow, of being underground Scottsmen. I realize that I should have a specific point to make, so here it is: Since we get to pick the PC race (presumably), let us also pick the culture. Probably one of the best features of Dragon Age: Origins was the multiple starting points, and I'd like to see something similar in Eternity. A set of potential stories that all funnel you towards the 'event' which sets you on your path.