Lephys

SOULISM!

You jest, but, IF the game were actually going to decide that he relieved himself in my potion bottle, I'd kind of expect some continuity there -- something like "Ack, that potion tasted far worse than any of the others I've had..." Besides, if he did that, you might just 'round telling everyone not to buy from him, because he sells disgusting potions, in contrast to other people's non-disgusting ones. 8P Bad for business.

Wait... it hasn't been about you this whole time? I just thought ChaoticGood and LawfulEvil were all friends of yours on the forum. 8P

You don't have to be the Chosen One just to be not-unspecial. In a world full of soul magic, one would think you need more than just some farmboy protagonist who tries really hard and handles some huge situation if you want to maintain interest. I personally find that stories in which the protagonist has some unique "mutation" of an ability/power, then simply uniquely figures out how to use that to handle things, are more interesting than "Well, he just worked real hard and got really, really lucky." There are just only so many believable ways out of a given situation when you're just some average joe. Say "Oh, he's SO skilled with his weapon, he just uses that and gets out of there!", and your bordering on unbelievable. Say "Oh, he just never gets into such a dire situation that he can't get out of it via regular means" and you're doing the same. If the world's going to throw non-mundane stuff at the protagonist, the most interesting way to prevent him from automagically surviving in it is to give him an interesting tool. Not necessarily a prophecy, or a "no one can kill these things, but YOU can, because you have the KILLTHESETHINGS power!". Just, something interesting. If the whole world's magical, making the protagonist magical doesn't exactly make him the chosen one. There's surely some unique creature out in the wilds that's different from most other creatures, and yet it doesn't automatically go around saving worlds.

^ Oh noes! Activate Winter Contingency!

If your dark paladin still possesses a heart, you're doing it wrong. This is the QUESSSST thaaattttt doeeeesss-NNNNN'T ennnnnnnd! Yes it goes onnnn annnnnd onnnn myyyy friieeeenndd!

Crap... they accidentally used that Anti-matter font! O_O

^ I think the biggest problem with jumping puzzles is that they're often placed into contexts in which they aren't very fluid. Like... MMOs (Guild Wars 2). The fluidity of the jumping mechanic is not really sufficient to render a puzzle very exciting, so it just becomes tedious/frustrating. If you have some kind of action game in which your character has all kinds of jumping/mobility options, and there's a puzzle involving using all of those, then it becomes exciting. In a lot of ways, combat is like a puzzle. Here are foes, the puzzle is solved when they're dead and you aren't, and/or you get away from/past them. If all you had was just one attack, and you just had to use that with various timings, for like 5 minutes worth of combat, it would be reallllly bland. Oh, and if you mess up, you'd hafta start over.

@Gromnir: Your points are valid. No, it's not really "bad," per se. It's just sort of... a lack of good? It's not realy serving a purpose, other than "someone would like this," which is true of almost anything that can possibly be conceived. "What if the game lets you build a hot air balloon, and firebomb cities?" Well, that would be cool, in its own way, but the game has no obligation to provide that. For a game that's all about some narrativeness, your character simply changing the very fiber of his being 17 times is a bit clashing. "And then, the adventurer paid some guy to effectively un-develop all those skills and such that he developed, and magically retain all the raw experience to be applied toward some other skills in some other combination of points! 8D!" MMO's are build with infini-respecing in mind, because there is no built-in coherence of narrative with a given character. Your character is just your mechanical means of tackling a big sea of persistent content. The world's the same no matter what you do, so you're just trying out a bunch of different builds and such, all in one go. And that's fine. That fits. With a game like PoE, though, it just doesn't fit, is all. You might as well go ahead and allow class changing, and race-changing, mid-game. You just pay someone, and BOOM! Re-roll your PC. Die in IronMan Mode? Re-roll a new PC, right then and there. Having difficulty with that cave? Become a Wizard for the duration, then switch back to a Fighter! It becomes rather ludicrous, IF you don't draw a line, obviously. Basically, I see a legitimate reason to allow a single respec throughout the entirety of a playthrough (as the player's ability to learn and fully comprehend the rule/spec system and build his character perfectly along his desires is not a 100% guaranteed thing), but, beyond that, it's just something that would be subjectively nice. But, once you enter "subjectively nice" territory, that's... basically everything. So, I don't know where to draw the line under those criteria, but under what is feasibly necessary to serve an objective purpose (namely, correcting any discrepancy between the yet-unknown exactness of the entire build system and a player's desire for his character's build within the confines of that system), I see one as being useful.

^ Yeah, they mention that they got "approved," so to speak, for their project with a publisher, but chose to go with Kickstarter to retain full control over the project, rather than partnering with a publisher.

I would say probably not, but... you never know.

... At least until consequences get modded out.

My apologies, Gromnir. I didn't realize that was your point. I wasn't really trying to link the two together (simplicity of ME + usefulness/necessity to respec). In any game, I still feel like you really shouldn't need to respec more than once. If you need to completely reset your character 5 times throughout a game, there's a problem. Plus, choices that are so freely undone whenever don't really carry as much weight as choices that are more permanent. In a game like PoE, I could understand a complete lack of re-spec-ing, even. However, allowing it wouldn't be absurd or anything. BUT, I do think that multiple (or infinite) respecs starts to approach an actual unwanted dynamic. You could just respec any time you came up to a skill check you weren't adequate enough to handle, for one thing. It effects too much inadvertently, as the only legitimate purpose of respecing is to allow the player to somewhat mulligan some of those far-reaching character build choices after getting a bit more of a handle on their precise effects, as related to that player's precise desires for his character. Not to just arbitrarily decide he wants a completely different character every 10 steps. Hence the whole idea of a cost to do so in a lot of games. It's not that it's "simply a question of cost." Cost was just brought up as a favored way of limiting the act of respecing. Just my perspective, of course.

Agreed, but, the game was only being referenced as having a cost to re-spec (Mass Effect 2, at least). For what it's worth, though (while we're briefly touching the topic), I do think the Mass Effect 2 and 3 ability trees had the right core idea, they were just wayyyyy too simplified. As most games that do that are. XCOM does it a little better (Support smoke grenades get a bigger radius, OR a greater alternate effect, etc.), but it's still pretty simplified. *shrug*

I hope it'll at least show up in reputation mechanics. If people are racist, but it doesn't functionally affect any actions/events in the game whatsoever, it's a bit self-defeating. I certainly hope we'll be barred from certain shops/quests (for example), as I'd hate to see the "difference" between two playthroughs be "Hi, Mr. Elf! I sure love Elves! Welcome to my shop! Feel free to browse my wares!", and "Omg, every Elf I've ever met was nothing but trouble. My family's DEAD because of Elves! I LOATHE YOU TO THE CORE! Feel free to browse my wares!" If it doesn't affect anything but flavor text, then I'd rather it not even exist at all.

Piggy-backing on this(oink oink!), I'd like to see class-specific items that are actually quality items even if you aren't a member of that class. (That isn't to say ALL of them. I just want to see these instances, as opposed to never see them.) For example, maybe a weapon grants you additional Focus gain if you're a Cipher, but isn't just "Hmmm, if you're a Cipher, this is totally worth it! But if you're not a Cipher, this sword is OBVIOUSLY SUB-PAR to every other sword I've ever found! u_u" A lot of games do that. "You really don't want this item for any other reason than because it boosts a certain class's capabilities a bunch."

But... now how will we disinfect our ghosts, and keep them their stain-free whitest?! o_O *hyperventilates* I think he meant "Soul-er Winds." Haha. In other words, "Be dedicated, not deadicated! 8D!"

Clearly, hadberz is a figment of our collective imaginations, because no one paying attention to E3 cares about their grandfather's RPG from way-back-when.

Yeah, typical RPG robes generally lack character. They always just make you look like you're not dressed or something, or you're some give-up-all-my-physical-belongings monk. "I wove this robe out of my own hair, after collecting what I shed for 17 years, 8D" I don't understand why, if your cloth apparel isn't offering some sort of physical protection from it's specific structure, you wouldn't wear something that has a bit more character to it. Also, I think it'd be great to wear a breastplate and/or chain shirt, with a robe OVER it. . "Ohh, I'm just a frail old man with no protection... *tink*... LOLZ! You fell for it! You thought I'd JUST wear a simple cotton robe? What an idiot!" Reminds me of a character in Brandon Sanderson's Elantris, who went about all the time in big, ceremonial armor (was basically designed to LOOK like armor, but real armor designed thusly would be stupidly heavy). The characters eventually find out that his armor isn't ceremonial. He had his custom made to be actually protective, and just practiced wearing it about a lot of the time (he doesn't wear it all the time, just more than people figure you'd wear heavy armor) to condition himself. Surprise, attackers! 8P

Was that really a "cost," though? I mean, you could easily get that much element zero, with a little planet-scanning effort. You could get all element-zero-based upgrades and still have enough left over for at least a couple of respecs. And, really, I don't see anyone ever legitimately having a reason to respec more than once. I can't remember if you could do it in 3, either... I think you could?

How ever did you discern such a secret?: Proof that you don't read people's posts before deciding what they're saying and responding. I don't have time for this. *tips hat*

Haha. I think Skyrim actually had a comical romance novel in it. It was pretty funny. SO over-the-top cheesy.

Yeah, they should. Do they always? No. Sometimes they don't, or they neglect things. Can they report literally everything that happens, ever? No. So, they prioritize. I'm not saying no reporters should ever want to report on Kickstarter projects, which is the idea against which you seem to be arguing. I'm simply saying that the decision of what to report on and what not to is generally made for actual reasons, whether it's the best decision in the world or not, rather than just arbitrarily. I don't know if you've paid much attention to article links that get posted around here, but they often get oodles of comments along the lines of "Omg, NOTHING NEW IN THIS! This is all old info! LOLZ! We already knew this!". So, yeah, I can honestly say that I can comprehend being a bit anxious to write an article about a game with at least 75,000 followers (and probably a lot more who either couldn't back at the time or are reserving their funds but are still quite interested in the game.) So, I don't know about those particular journalists in that video (still can't watch it right now, even if I wanted to), but I understand that, as a factor, reporting on stuff god-knows-who already knows doesn't get you a very good reputation. Sure, there are probably people out there who don't know about the game, but you can bet that a LOT of the total people who'd be interested in such a project are in the loop, one way or another. Either they follow people's personal blogs, or they have friends who went all "Dude! Check out this Kickstarter!" I mean, I tell my girlfriend about a lot of the updates, and she's not even really much of a gamer. There's only so much time in a day, and there's a heck of a lot of stuff going on that could be reported. People have to choose. You can't just hire infinite reporters, and report every single Kickstarter campaign that ever springs up. Now, again, eventually, most big gaming news sites post previews and/or reviews, close to the release/launch of almost any game that's being distributed widely. I said it before, but some sites even do little pass-the-time phone games, etc. But, as for just following the thing in development? They're not really worried about it, and I can understand why. As for that video, maybe those guys are just terrible, lazy people? I have no idea. I'm not defending those specific journalists. And that doesn't make this abstract, irrelevant text. It's simply a general evaluation of the journalism process. Which is applicable, because the journalism process actually exist, and specific/individual journalists are involved in this process, no matter who they are. In a perfect world, all gaming journalists would simply wake up in the morning with a smile on their face, and go out hunting down all the games in existence, then just write articles on all of them. But that's not how the world works. Doesn't mean it shouldn't. Just means it doesn't.

I apologize for being so vague. I didn't say anything about funding models being a consideration for the general evening/daily news. News stories don't have funding models. Murders and crimes and city happenings don't have funding models. Thus, you're the only one who connected the news not covering stories with funding models, with your sarcastic comment about how you could just see them doing just that. Besides, the funding model is circumstantial here. There's nothing stopping a big, triple-A title that's publisher funded from pumping out daily/weekly production updates. The applicable factor here is the demand of the story. The story is comprised of information, which the journalist conveys to people. The effectiveness of the coverage is directly proportionate to the demand of the information. Do you disagree?

The Order is in good hands now that we have an Eagle Scout, 8D!