Agelastos
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Posts posted by Agelastos
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Well, UO did originally allow you to dismember a corpse and take the body parts. They removed that function in... what was it? '98?
It was an early pre t2a osi feature that was later taken out. Some private serves such as UO Second Age have it implemented.
Which was released in '98, so...
Yes, I know there's plenty of Greyworld (are they still called that?) servers out there with their own set of rules.
LLTS!
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I'd rather have an Edwin-like character. I always thought that's what Edmund Blackadder would be like if he was a wizard.
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They didn't come to power until '96, though. The Soviet-Afghan war was '79-'89.
Your sarcasm detector needs re-calibrating
No, no. It works just fine. And your post was funny. That's not the issue.
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I'm fine with the usual Obsidian npc's, potent and distinctive characters who have a logical reason for following the protagonist, and reasonable goals based on their backstory. Boone, Kreia, Daakon etcetera.
This is not an area I worry about, Obsidian have the best characters in the business, and positively seem to shy away from the lifeless one liner spewing caricatures of other developers. Compare the porno pirate girl of Dragon Age 2, bound for no good reason to the protagonist for years, neither doing anything or showing any initiative, to the slow manipulations and interventions of Kreia throughout the Sith Lords.
I'm as usual almost giddy at the thought of meeting the cast of Eternity, whether in mechanics or narrative I know they'll be pleasingly awesome.
Of course you had to compare one of the worst characters ever written by Bioware with one of the best characters ever written by Obsidian.
Yes, DA2 was a bad, horribly rushed game. But overall, I think Bioware has a better track record than Obsidian when it comes to companions.
That's because Bioware usually make low-concept games that are very character-driven, whereas Obsidian (and Black Isle before them) tend to make high-concept games that focus on big philosophical questions. They have different areas of expertise.
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That's wrong. What you're talking about is "Comeliness" and "Badassness", but these aren't polar things. Character could have both - Geralt (Witcher), J. Bond, or neither - some beggar, or man, suffering from some disease.
Geralt is definitely NOT comely. He's described as ugly in the books, and by pretty much everyone he meets in the games.
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there's even a field of Gender Studies called "Buffy Studies" at some universities.
The horror...
It's more about the depth and inner strength of his female characters than it is about their fighting abilities, though.
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As long as the PC doesn't say something each and every ****ing time you tell him/her to go somewhere or do something. Gets really annoying after a while.
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Yes, ala Ultima Online. It's all about feeling good that not only did you take something away from someone else, but you took everything (and I mean EVERYTHING).
Armours, Pants, Shirts... You know, leaving the npc half naked.
Why stop there? Why not take his loincloth? His man-panties? His fundoshi? Leave a naked corpse and pay someone to take his soiled undergarments.
Better yet, harvest his (or her,) corpse or organs and sell them to schools of anatomy!
Inventory:
Fresh Human Cadaver (12)
Health Potion (6)
Iron Short Sword (3)
Rotting Human Cadaver (34)
Rotten Human Cadaver (47)
Wooden Buckler (2)
Well, UO did originally allow you to dismember a corpse and take the body parts. They removed that function in... what was it? '98? because they wanted to make it a T-rated game.
Everything went downhill from there...
Still the best MMORPG ever made (IMO), however.
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In reality, the sorts of "strong women" you see in anime or whedon's ****e are just fan services for male-feminist mouth breathers to wank over.
Haha! Whedon is revered by (female) feminists around the globe for his portrayal of strong women, and there's even a field of Gender Studies called "Buffy Studies" at some universities.
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They made Xaro - a pale, thin, hook-nosed gay man - into a big, black straight man for some reason.
Edit: Sorry. I did of course mean "a big, straight man from the Summer Islands".
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And I quote " I'm not a fire-fly expert so I can't really comment". Imo saying somebody is a "Slayer"or "rofl genetic engineering", to somehow make up for their total lack of muscle mass or martial training is a pretty crummy explanation( and why I don't like Joss Whedon's stuff) but Whedon does at least try to explain it(sort of), so it's irrelevant. I'm not debating fire-fly fluff with you, It was a general example.
All of Whedon's stuff is tongue-in-cheek, though. He's constantly lampshading and playing the tropes associated with the genre (horror/vampire fiction for Buffy, Western and Space Opera for Firefly, etc.) for laughs. So if you find something in his shows to be over-the-top or just ridiculous, then that was probably his intent.
His shows are like porn to us B-movie fans.
Sorry! I know you didn't want to talk about Whedon, but I couldn't help myself.
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I will play as... YOU! *
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I'm sure the education levels would have been much higher under the Taliban regime. Being fascinated with natural science, philosophy, fine art and foreign cultures like they are. They appreciation of the Bamyian statues, their promoting of literacy of the female half of the population and cracking down on child abuse and pedophilia is almost on par with their disdain of misogyny.
They didn't come to power until '96, though. The Soviet-Afghan war was '79-'89.
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Obviously the background picture would have to be accommodated and authentic to the "idea". Kind of like the Harry Potter staircase.
Sorry for the picture, couldn't find a better one (didn't look hard enough).
"Harry Potter staircase"? Is that what it's called now? M.C. Escher must be turning in his grave.
Bah! Humbug! Kids these days... *shakes cane at youths skateboarding on the sidewalk*
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River wasn't just a girl. She was a genius (who may have had latent psychic abilities even before she was altered) turned genetically engineered super assassin through a secret Alliance military program. Hell, they even removed most of her amygdala (which is what made her so... erratic). When focused, she was the most deadly person in the galaxy.
Edit: ah. too late
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And by extension rape doesn't automatically make something raw and poignant. Adding it in just to have it there doesn't give your story some sort cred; it just makes you a try hard.
I didn't say that either. I said that it COULD make for raw and poignant stories. It all depends on the skill of the writer. You really love to distort peoples words, don't you?
However, yes, if it actually serves a purpose then go for it (especially so in historical fiction since, you know, **** did happen), but don't throw the **** in just to show how hard your story is (which is pretty much what every video game ever with rape in it did, and most modern movies and books).
Which is EXACTLY what I have been saying from the very start...
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Why does rape = artsy pretentiousness? It could be used to tell emotionally raw and poignant stories, or just to illustrate the horrors of war.
If it was to happen to one of your companions, it could be the start of a great revenge quest.
As long as it isn't used in a gratuitous way just to make the game "dark and edgy"...
I guess that making an "emotionally raw and poignant story" is impossible without rape, right?
Did I say that? No, I didn't. Of course it isn't.
And rape is ALWAYS used in a gratuitous way to make something "dark and edgy," name one time it wasn't (and casual references like Reavers raping people to death don't count).Eiji Yoshikawa used it to demonstrate the misogynistic culture of Tokugawa-era Japan, to make us feel for Akemi, and to explain the changes in her personality.
There are also plenty of novels that describe war rape without reveling in it.
It's there because it will have an effect on what happens later in the plot. Because it motivated a character to make a difference, or broke him/her down.
To explain why a woman later on killed her child and herself. Or why she was so cruel and distant to her child that he grew up to be a sadistic murderer.
To raise moral questions.
It's not gratuitous if it serves an actual purpose. If it is somehow integral to the plot.
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It's common plot device in literature because it is easy way to motivate character and don't need any imagination from writer. And it is common in games too, for example in dragon age there is several rapes and even plot for revenge for rape (dispute between werewolfs and elves). And dragon age is not only one. Graphical rape is not so common, but some games have even that. But graphical rape is just explanation which should be avoided in all serious works (my opinion), because it really don't add anything to game/s.
I remember a revenge quest in the City Elf origin, where a human noble claims jus primae noctis and kidnaps you or your soon-to-be wife. But you rode in and saved the day before anything even happened. And you didn't have time to get to know the would-be-victims before the quest.
I don't remember anything about a rape in the Brecilian Forest. Did it happen before you even got there? Didn't happen to your or one of your companions, anyway, so it's not the same thing.
Graphical rape doesn't have to pornographic. It could just be a short cutscene that fades to black before anything really happens.
Yes, implied rape is pretty common, but it's rarely used to move the plot forward. Usually it's just there to showcase how dark and gritty the setting is, and that's exactly what I don't want. And there are plenty of good examples of rape in literature. I don't see how it's any less imaginative than murder is.
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Some tribe/s on a southeast asian island (learned about in a cultural anthropology course and I forget the details beyond men never move out of their mother's house, and they act as fathers for their sisters' children if they have any, they don't conduct incest, but males never move in with their sexual partners oe live on their own and their children are "fathered" by the brothers of their sexual partners,)
The Trobriand Islands? Papua New Guinea? Vanuatu?
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In my opinion first is only sub group of the second. I haven't seen any revenge rape quests in any media, they are usually just trying to be dark and edgy and rape don't actually add anything else than easy dark start to story, These kind of cheap motivations and quest should be avoided if there isn't very good reason add them.
The reason is to make you feel. To make you crave revenge because you care for the victim. Or at least want to help him/her through it (if your character doesn't believe in revenge).
In most games, they do that by killing off the character's parents or something like that. People you don't know and have probably never even met. It's nowhere near as poignant, and it's been done to death.
Why is it cheap? It's a pretty common plot in literature, both classical and contemporary. And in films. But for some reason, it seems to be taboo in games.
Sure, sometimes a character will hint at the fact that s/he was raped in the past, or a character is about to get raped when the hero rides in and saves him/her. But to actually have it happen during the game...? Apart from Phantasmagoria, I can't think of a single game (that isn't some stupid hentai game) in which a character is raped.
And it's not like they have to show it on screen.
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Why haven't "indie" developers attempted to create an isometric RPG? Why do they create puzzle/platformer games? Shouldn't an isometric RPG, or a basic RPG, be something which can be financially plausible and viable for a small developer?
What about Iron Tower Studio?
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Why does rape = artsy pretentiousness? It could be used to tell emotionally raw and poignant stories, or just to illustrate the horrors of war.
If it was to happen to one of your companions, it could be the start of a great revenge quest.
isn't that a sexploitation trope...
that's all folks!
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You clearly disagree here, so let's hear your case.
Well, personally, I want P:E to be a fun video game and not the next champion of the "games are art" crowd; leave that **** to pretentious indie developer douche bags like Jonathan Blow.
Why does rape = artsy pretentiousness? It could be used to tell emotionally raw and poignant stories, or just to illustrate the horrors of war.
If it was to happen to one of your companions, it could be the start of a great revenge quest.
As long as it isn't used in a gratuitous way just to make the game "dark and edgy"...
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I didn't say it's wrong for PE, in my first post I quite clearly said I don't really care about gender (in)equality in PE. I was asking if it's not more of a sci-fi trope because I haven't encountered it in fantasy books (which I read) as much as I've seen it referred to in sci-fi books/ movies (which I don't read/ watch).
Ah, okay!
Godlike races, yay!
in Pillars of Eternity: General Discussion (NO SPOILERS)
Posted
Personally hoping they'll be less Aasimar/Tieflings, more Anakites.