Sykid

Now I'm hungry... I think the "food" mechanic in the BG series would be fine, where you can buy drinks for information or buy better rooms that come with meals etc. and a lot is left up to the imagination.

You need both, I think. Story and gameplay should drive each other.

I like evil companions that are well done. Hanharr is probably my favourite from KOTOR2. Loghain, HK-47, and Kreia (though it's arguable that she's really evil) also come to mind.

Because this is a place to discuss Project Eternity, not a forum for people to launch their crusades against the evils of the patriarchal game industry or try and change people's "definition of beauty." This thread has already stopped being about "Women, Feminism, etc. in PE" and become "Women, Feminism, etc." because any accusations of sexism leveled at Obsidian can be swiftly refuted by the evidence of their games. Uh, that's exactly what they do. Your presumptuousness is staggering. You're getting bent out of shape over minutiae. You can't step back from your preoccupation with "frills" "lace" - not that there are any, it's just a flat black texture - to see the entire point of the scene, in the context of the game. There is supposed to be sexual tension between the Handmaiden and the Exile, and that is supposed to be expressed through combat, as all relationships are in Echani culture. This ties in to the Handmaidens' ignorance of Atris' fall, Atris' betrayal, the Exile's defiance of Kreia, and Brianna's identity as an individual and a Jedi. This isn't just some stuff they threw in for "boners" (wow, way to insult male players and the KOTOR2 writers in the same sentence, on Obsidian's own boards no less) so if you're going to take swipes at Chris Avellone & co maybe you should read up on the writing he did on the Echani and play through the restored version of the game without your assumptions of the writer's intent. If you still think it's all about the practicality of the combat bra then I'm afraid you've missed the point entirely. But it raises the question... If the Obsidian writers really do put in underwear in games just to titillate those horny (shame on you, male sexuality!) boys, why have it only on one character? And why have it be covered in armor or robes that have stat benefits? And why make Handmaiden's non-underwear clothing so important to her story?

Yes, curse you Disney for ruining the lives of women by animating classic fairy tales that are hundreds of years old...

I liked how in BG2 your stronghold had NPCs to interact with and decisions that had to be made, which affected how your empire grew.

Wasn't Planescape: Torment the game where the protagonist was a male who walked around in a loincloth?

If you think a game is stupid then don't buy it. That's what I did with Bayonetta. Problem solved. Declaring yourself offended on behalf of all women and demanding that the gaming industry change to suit your sensibilities is infantile. If you look hard enough for sexism in any form media you will always, always find it. What do you mean "core game?" Do you mean game mechanics? Female characters in Obsidian games are mechanically identical male ones. Story? Female characters in Obsidian games are portrayed in every profession from all walks of life and personality types. So what are you getting at? The discussion in this thread has predominantly been about the artistic style of female characters. Art assets are typically the first things to be modded with great variety because personal taste can be so different from player to player. A laughable exaggeration. Let's try to stick to reality here. That's not how she acts. When asked why she doesn't have more clothes on, she says "I fail to understand the problem. I had heard the coreward systems had customs concerning... modesty, but when training, such customs are not practical or efficient." The Exile then can say: "I disagree. In fact, if you don't train while encumbered, you are crippling yourself." To which she responds: "I can see no fault in your reasoning. I do have bulkier clothes." Handmaiden is a well written character. Her story deals with the major themes of KOTOR2: identity, defiance, and betrayal. You are willing to entirely dismiss her character based on the undergarments she wears in one scene because they're slightly more revealing than what other men/women wear, as if her character would be more admirable if she just covered up more. If anything, that's sexist.

Feminism in video games has never been about making good games. It's been about changing gamers and using videogames as a platform for championing social causes. Mods completely invalidate the argument at hand. The devs have an artistic vision; if you don't like it you can mod the game to make the art more to you liking. If you like sexy boob armor (which I don't) then there's a mod for that. If you like to play in a world where everybody wears the exact same underwear for some reason then fill your boots, there's a mod for that. Project Eternity -- the game this thread is about -- is not a console game. We are talking about representation of women in videogames, which Obsidian has a track record of doing very well. One character wearing slightly revealing underwear that is actually pretty normal by our standards is a far cry from being unrealistic, sexist, or presenting "a cast stuffed with highly sexualized" characters. KOTOR2 was fine. P:E will be fine.

There's a pretty strong difference between real people in real scenarios doing what's actually practical and a videogame developer using it as an excuse to put a female character into lacey underpants. There is absolutely no practical reason for those underpants to be lacey frilly sexualized things, and they're trying to treat this character like she's entirely practical. It's dumb. With the Twi'lek twin bounty hunters you got the idea that their character matched the fact that they were walking around showing massive cleavage, with the dancer outfit you have the usual Hutt slobbishness. With the Handmaiden Undies there really is no good reason for them to look the way they do and there are a couple good reasons for them to NOT look like that. One female companion in KOTOR2 wears slightly revealing underwear (nothing more scandalous that you'd see on a family beach), while the rest do not. Female Exile wears the same underwear as male Exile. Who cares? When it comes to the portrayal of women, the fact that Handmaiden wears bra + panties in what is admitted to be an Echani courtship ritual is so minute compared to the awesome female characters Obsidian wrote, like Kreia, Atris, and Visas. But hey, this is a PC game. You want equal underwear? There's a mod for that.

Human Paladin.

Wait, exploiting naive girls and manipulating grieving widows is ok, but calling someone a skank is crossing the line?

With regards to the original topic, I say the dev's should go with whatever artistic style they want. If you don't like it, that's what mods are for.

You do realize that having a female queen once in a while has nothing to do with having a female dominated society? You do realise that when discriminated social groups, be they LGBT, an ethnic minority, women, etc seem "absent" from positions of power it is not evidence of their inferiority, but evidence of their oppression? It's not evidence of anything other than their absence.

I see romances as a way to explore different dimensions of a companion's personality that the player wouldn't otherwise discover through normal adventuring. Romances shouldn't exist just for mushy dialogue and naughty cutscenes; they should add to the story and give a companion depth. All types of romance can be good, so long as they go beyond "I like you PLAYER1, let's make babies and be happy/sad/angry together!"

All of them, but I have a soft spot fof F:NV

I'm wondering how they're going to impliment over 50 high-level artifacts.