PrimeJunta

@BruceVC I kind of think the opposite. Namely, that we white people tend to be hypersensitive to being accused of racism and raise a sh1tstorm -- "playing the race card," "playing the victim," "social justice warrior" etc. ad nauseam -- whenever somebody brings it up. This puts a high social price on calling out racism, which means that most racism remains unchallenged. Fact: the system we live in is racist. Fact: we can't help absorbing unconscious influences from said system. Consequence: we're all racist to some degree or another. Ethical imperative: being racist is bad. Ethical consequence: trying not to be racist is good. Conclusion: therefore, being called out on racism is no big deal. Sometimes everybody does or says racist stuff. If called out, see if you can learn something about your unconscious attitudes from it, and try not to do it again. If the price I have to pay for moving towards a less racist and more just world is getting occasionally called out for racism/sexism/whatever, then that is a pretty piddling price to pay, compared to what the people at the actual receiving end of racism go through in the system as it is. And finally -- and I really have to emphasize this -- I do not believe it is wrong to enjoy an artwork (or whatever) even if it is problematic in many respects. For example I am an unabashed fan of Richard Wagner's operas, despite the incredible unpleasantness of the composer and the highly problematic elements in them. Recognizing that a work has problematic features does not and should not mean a demand to ban it or not enjoy it. You can recognize that there is no excuse for the way Picasso treated women, while being awed at his art. That's how people are. Contradictory.

Intent matters, of course, but it's not that simple. Most racism is unconscious: it's embedded into social structures and people's conditioned assumptions of what those structures are and how they work. This means that entirely well-meaning people who get extremely upset at accusations of racism can, in fact, do and say shockingly racist things. (Exhibit A: Paula Deen and her "plantation wedding" plans.) This is why the "I get to decide if what I say is racist" statement is fundamentally flawed. Unless you're an actual card-carrying Nazi, you're almost certainly not aware of your racism, which means you won't recognize it when you act in racist ways or say racist things. If a member of a minority tells you that something you said or did was racist, it is at the very least worth taking a very close look at it. 'Cuz they just might be right.

Big thumbs-up, @nzmccorm. An evil race that is evil because it's evil is boring. If you have to have orcs, at least question the trope, like in Arcanum. If you want to have a warlike culture, then make a warlike culture. Base it on a real culture, or make one up. Unthinkingly regurgitating clichés is boring. Leave that to BioWare.

Cooldowns, aggro mechanics, and locked-in tank/damager/support combat roles for classes, to name three things. Admittedly I'm assuming they're in and central to the gameplay only because they were in before. Maybe they've completely overhauled the combat and gotten rid of them.

Came across this rare photo of an actual historical woman warrior in full armor. Thought it was pretty cool. They were known as onna-bugeisha, and favored the naginata and bow. The armor ought to look familiar enough though...

Seriously, Sarex? You just got a list of specific critiques of the piece. I don't even...

A death godlike with pink sparkles instead of black mist would be entertaining, admittedly.

@Karranthain That does look good and pretty realistic, other than the hammer/mattock which would probably be a bit unwieldy as a real weapon. Unless dwarves actually are much stronger than humans, of course.

There are going to be a few variants, I imagine. They showed this earlier:

Adventurers' Hall is already in. You can make exactly the party you like, minus any companion quests of course.

Now imagine that, but painted on velvet.

It's looking bloody marvelous from where I'm at, especially the lighting. Didn't think it'd be possible to get dynamic lights like that in a 2D scene, although it's obvious after they explained it.

Tastes are funny. My BioWare preference list would be almost exactly the opposite of yours, TMZuk. Jade Empire > BG2 > NWN > ME2 > BG > DA:O > ME1. Haven't played DA2 nor finished ME3. So far ME3 seems to place somewhere between ME1 and ME2. ME2 was a glorified shooter, but it was a pretty good glorified shooter. Gameplay was much better than in ME, with less obvious filler, and the writing was better overall. As to NWN, yeah the story was bad but the mechanics were pretty well implemented, there was a quite a lot of stuff to use them on even in the OC, and the toolset was excellent -- some of the expansions and mods were downright enjoyble. Hordes of the Underdark was a great dungeon crawl, Dragon Crown of Cormyr was a lot of fun, as was Darkness over Daggerford. JE, BG2, and NWN are the only ones I've enjoyed playing multiple times, I never finished BG or DA:O, and only finished ME1 because the crit path was so short. I don't really get what y'all see in ME1; I thought the gameplay was clunky, the character and item mechanics bad -- I mean, REALLY bad --, and the writing hackneyed. There was really precious little game there; only, what, four actual missions, plus a lot of Fedexing and bouncing around on identical planets raiding identical bases. Pretty cool cinematics and voice acting, for sure, but if I want to see a movie I'll go see one, and as movies go ME1 wouldn't have been worth the time.

Mark Twain: “Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Er, @Lephys. You are verbose and often redundant. You write a page when a line would do. These are no great sins, but they do have a side effect -- I, for example, usually simply don't read your posts, because extracting your point from that mass of words takes too much time and effort for the payoff. A forum is a scannable medium, to be read fast. It's not a blog, news outlet, or novel. I believe you would communicate much more effectively if you found a way to reduce the wordiness.

You know, you're right. That's probably why I found them least offensive of the BioWare romances.

That would be Magran. Don't expect it would be easy to blow her up.

I hope it is something like Malazan. That setting rules, even if the last volumes of the Book of the Fallen got a bit boring due to epic overload.

From what I've heard, I'm loving the bejeezus out of it. It sounds just about perfect. It's not the same at all--because there isn't one "right" reputation to gain. No rewards or penalties are involved. Instead, you have the world reacting to your choices as you go. It adds depth and meaning to your roleplaying. Which I will. As I've said, I much prefer narrative-related mechanics to be under the hood (unlike combat mechanics, where I do want to see the numbers). Nope, nor the other influence rewards. Not the same. Again: my problem is with the reward aspect. Having people treat you differently if you have a benevolent, rational, passionate, or cruel reputation is not a reward; one is not (generally and systemically) better than the other, only different; sometimes a cruel reputation might help you (intimidating someone into giving information, perhaps); sometimes a benevolent one would. Without the reward, this is qualitatively different from mechancial bonuses or "succeeding" in a romance. Not the same at all. Edit: IMO MotB's party interaction system would have been just fine if they had removed the mechanical rewards (and the extremely awkward romance dialog), and the "DING!" notifications during the dialogs. The characters' attitudes changed subtly as their approval shifted, which was nice. Again, the rewards are the problem.

FWIW I don't like party interaction minigames in any form. I felt that the approval mechanic in MotB cheapened the whole thing, for exmaple. "Safiya approval +6 DING!" was... not good, even if you were angling for the (highly tangible!) mechanical relationship bonuses rather than snu-snu. I would much prefer party interactions to be left purely to the writing, with only "story" consequences (e.g. a disapproving party member quitting the party, betraying you, or dying, depending on your choices). Anything else turns it into a minigame where you're trying to "win" rather than... well, roleplay. The exception to this rule is if the game is set up so that manipulating your party into doing what you want is a core story and gameplay element. KOTOR2 did precisely this, and it worked well there.

BTW, @BruceVC -- you still haven't addressed the points you said you would once you have the time: (1) The effect romance subplots have on the rest of the writing (exhibit A: Normandy turned into Love Boat, with it simply being impossible for Shepard to play it as a hardass military commander demanding discipline and adherence to protocol). (2) The objectification inherent in BioWarian romance. It turns your "romance options" into prizes to be won by playing the game right. Exhibits B, C, and D: the romances in Jade Empire, all the Mass Effects, and both Dragon Ages. And to reiterate: I am not opposed to romance if it is central to the storyline (exhibit E: Deionarra in Planescape: Torment).

As a tangent, I freakin' love the St. Waidwen incident. Fantasy religions fighting each other because reasons is such a cliché. Giving an actual, tangible and understandable reason for the animosity is a brilliant twist. Blowing up your god will do that.

:must: :resist: :arguing: :with: :volly: ... :fail: Of course it's illogical. Human emotions aren't always logical, and enjoying something has to do with emotion, not logic. You know what ruined the original Star Wars trilogy for me? Which I really, really, really liked? Midichlorians. Now that they told me what the Force is, the mystery is ruined. Luke and Leia are just individuals with a peculiar blood chart. I can no longer enjoy those films the same way as I did before. I didn't particularly care for ME, so I can't say the same is true for that trilogy. I just finished ME2 as a matter of fact and I quite liked it for the cinematics and enjoyable popamole gameplay--I just feel that it's a missed opportunity because it could have been so much better with deeper and more consistent worldbuilding and plot. Especially as BioWare clearly does have the talent: the dialog was, for the most part, very well written and there was some good story and plotting there too, especially Mordin's story arc. If they cared, they could do so much better.

@Mannock, who exactly is treating you as if you were totally out of line? We're simply expressing our disagreement with you, and pretty politely at that, for the Internet.

Then pick two things with comparable resource costs. Your hypothetical question doesn't reflect a meaningful trade-off. It's pointless. Since you insist, though, I would pick BHM, because it has no negative impact on the rest of the game.