Gromnir

"None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." from your link: http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html home and real estate ownership is a major factor. regardless, what you actual said were: "None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." and this were in response to multiple posters observing that ny real estate ownership would inflate numbers. again, 'cause you seem bent on repeating, you said: "None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." you were inexplicably reluctant to work real estate ownership into the equation. weird. HA! Good Fun!

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/cdc_nisvs_ipv_report_2013_v17_single_a.pdf is long, but worth a read. doj study is actual excellent, but if you read the linked pdf you will observe the differences in methodology. the ncvs is an extreme useful but necessarily blunt tool, which is precisely why the cdc took a different approach. go into randomn homes and ask 'bout crime in general with interviewers who don't specific know how to talk to sexual assault victims, people who is notoriously taciturn about their victimization, may lead to deflated results, no? is just one flaw in ncvs. HA! Good Fun!

*chuckle* should you not chastise yourself for spam? largest single investment an ordinary american typically has is in their home, which is REAL ESTATE investment, a point you were fighting against in numerous posts. scroll-up. and again, you actual said, "None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." HA! Good Fun!

you can repeat that ad infinitum that you didn't say what you did, but review thread, AND we actual posted your quote: "None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." HA! Good Fun!

dunno. the cdc says the number is 19%. white house has used 1 in 5. more than a few women's groups says 1 in 4. the debunking that took place regarding cdc numbers had to do with the cdc methodology. 14% were closer to genuine study results due to ignoring o' overlapping o' some o' their numbers. so conservative says 14% and women's groups says up-to 25%. by comparison, 2.5% is a bit off target. HA! Good Fun!

No. I was simply stating that: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated". actually, you said, "None of the articles Ive read suggest the money is tied to real estate so Im not sure where you two are getting that. From one of the links above: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated"." started here: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/68579-capitalism-socialism/?p=1510334 reread as you seem to have forgotten. HA! Good Fun!

That's a good story Gromnir and I'm also glad you were cleared. I must say you do seem to have been exposed to some of the worst aspects of human nature, like when you use to walk with your sister and protect her after she was attacked at Varsity. But generally you don't seem that jaded with humanity and that's an impressive character trait am thinking you is having misrecollection of a Gromnir story. we were not particular close with our sister til after we went away to college. *shrug* is various reasons. our sister lived in a place called rochdale in berkeley, a housing cooperative that is immediate adjacent to people's park. one night while returning from school, she were attacked by a homeless person in the park. am not certain what prompted us to bring up the story previous. could be any number o' reasons. most likely reason for sharing were having to do with how we realize women got a different perspective... women is forced to have a different pov. we went to berkeley and never once feared for our safety in the immediate environs o' the campus. in point o' fact, all Gromnir's tales o' misfortune from our time at Cal were occurring off-campus. our forensics team coach story happened at a nearby high school. our close-call with cops were actual in danville. when our sister considered attending Cal, we never gave her safety a second thought 'cause we mistaken used our own experience as a guide. statistics show that 1 in 4 women who attend college will suffer a sexual attack o' some kind, yes? am suspecting many folks has a sister story like ours, but don't even know they have such as their sister or mother or other close friend or relative is unlikely to share the details of such. we actual got closer with our sister after her attack as we frequent visited her on weekends... after the fact. we were in southern CA doing our bfa and mfa work at the time, so those trips up the 101 or i-5 were exhausting, but we never regretted. am s'posing if you wanna tie this tangential sharing back into the thread, it can be a recognition that women is different and that they are forced to see the world different. particular in the westernized 21st century world wherein stuff such as upper body strength and other qualities that might aid in primitive hunting activities is largely irrelevant, it is easy to view women and men as equals. on a message board such as this, there is no reason to treat women different. nevertheless, women is different, and they got real world concerns that is different. is easy to forget, or ignore, the different. HA! Good Fun!

You may come up with any conclusions you like. It could be from real estate, it could be from 401k, it could be from rare artwork, it could be from drug dealing, it could be from a prostitution ring, it could be from a prostitution ring where the hookers bring you drugs. Im going to take the article at face value: "Most of the wealth is Wall Street-generated". is irrelevant where and how the wealth is created in the present context. many wall street folks went bankrupt and suffered foreclosures o' their homes in past few years. making your home your primary investment were a common if foolish practice in hindsight. you wanted to discount the value of equity in home as part o' determination o' millionaire status. were an odd pov. how revenue is generated and who in NY benefits is an interesting question, but it is still largely irrelevant. we got a friend that lives in the same building where liz lemon, the character from the 30 rock tv show, s'posed lives. we didn't think the place were particular special when we visited him. http://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/riverside-dr-west-end-ave/160-riverside-drive/1058 two-bedroom apartments in that building go for $1,850,000. HA! Good Fun!

logic and reason are beyond bester. surprise? you don't see a difference between advice to comply with officer when he informs you that you are under arrest so as to avoid pointless and unnecessary abuse and injury and complying with orders that will cause unlawful abuse and injury? no wonder you are so messed up in the head. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna chalk this up to poor reading skills on bester's part. we were pretty clear what to do in the aforementioned scenario and your video highlights why we gave such advice. yes. make clear to cops that you disagree with their actions, then comply and let the court system exonerate as the court system did in your own freaking example. the alternative were to spark an unwinnable confrontation with armed and seemingly volatile "peace" officers. what did he achieve? he got lit up by a taser and had his face shoved in broken glass, not that we feel bad for him. is actual an interesting theological conundrum: can divine justice come from police abuse? maybe God has a sense o' whimsy. perhaps pastor anderson should contemplate that question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09kuOAr_wkc but yeah, when confronted by cops or soldiers acting with color o' authority, express that you is not complying voluntarily, but nevertheless, comply. you then go to court and win... and everybody wins. HA! Good Fun! ps added video... just 'cause.

figures you would have a link to a notorious leader o' an anti-gay hate group. nevertheless, gay hating has nothing to do with the video. that being said, your curious discovery o' pastor anderson's plight is illuminating. however, am not sure what your point is. according to your own info, the guy were found not guilty o' the charges brought against him, including the "resisting an order directing, regulating, or controlling a motor vehicle." what we got is cops who exceeded their authority. in spite o' that, we said quite clear, in the event o' an actual arrest, "make sure cops know you is not volunteering, but don't resist or run." the guy got beaten and tasered for no reason. the guy woulda' won his case regardless, but he wouldn't have been tasered and beaten by cops if he had utilized Gromnir advice. so, if your intent were to be showing that Gromnir's advice is spot-on, good show, but in the future, please find less loathsome examples o' victims. Gromnir has had neo-nazis and crips as clients, but it always makes our gut hurt when we help such folks. is our job, but we don't like doing so. HA! Good Fun! ps hurl beat us by 1 minute on the hate-group linkage. oh well, fact remains that Gromnir advice would have served the gay hating monster very well. we can giggle on the inside knowing he didn't get a chance to read this thread and benefit from our sage advice.

we were glad too, but the facts were largely irrelevant to the gossip and the dialog our situation created. most debate were 'bout how another dumb jock were getting away with an offense for which no ordinary University student would be granted leniency. other folks, fewer in number, made it a race issue. most gossip assumed we were black as the initial gossip mentioned a football player at Cal... and then it got narrowed down to a defensive back currently on the team. eventual when our name specific got attached to the situation, it became a feminism or misogyny issue for many people who weren't sure where they came down on the odd scenario o' an Indian jock (north american indian) and an Indian girl (asian indian) as such an atypical pairing did not fit nicely within the typical race-card dialog. oddly enough, when we came back to Cal years later, the myth that survived were that the evil rapist were a rather famous black running back and the girl were white. weird. regardless, the folks who were making the event into an issue seemed less concerned about facts than they were about advancing an agenda. Gromnir situation represented a Problem and for some folks it were far better to make the facts support their fight than it were to discover truth. 'course we will note that Cal were particularly fertile soil in which Causes would grow. in any event, the situation with the high school were actual resolved relative quick and we suffered very little save for the unfortunate gossip that followed us for a few years. we felt worse for the girl who had lied and brought our name into the mess. as we said, we don't know what prompted her to initially identify Gromnir as her suitor, but we were informed that her parents were very strict and extreme religious. given our limited interaction with the girl, we thought she were nice and we couldn't help but feel compassion for her. regardless, we learned that the truth in such scenarios is almost irrelevant. many people who want to advance a cause will abandon truth when it is inconvenient. again, one need not look very far on these boards to find similar examples. HA! Good Fun!

we want the last two minutes o' our life back. tried to read the linked article in the OP, but as far as we can tell, a bunch o' d-bags acted like d-bags, which made other folks get angry when they sudden realized that there are a considerable number o' d-bags on the internet... and planet earth. at this point we don't recall or care if the d-bags this time is ALL Misogynists or Feminists or Fascists or our eventual intergalactic overlord, Xenu... or is it Xeno. whatever. am recalling some decades ago, we had helped a teacher friend o' ours with her forensics team. we would show up to __________ high school for a couple hours each week and coach the debaters and the extemporaneous folks. we were in University at the time, and we didn't have much free time as we were playing sports, but we owed a great deal to ________ Young for something that is none o' your business and we were happy to return a favor. ________ Young calls us up one eve and asks us what kinda car we drive. "what?" "do you drive a white mustang?" this were the bay area, so we were unsure if we were missing some kinda weird joke or double-entendre and am certain we made some smart-assed remark in response to the question, but ________ Young assured us the question were serious. whatever. we informed her that our vehicle were a 1979 cherokee jeep held together with little more than duct tape and prayer. long story made short: a member o' the forensics team, a girl with extreme protective and religious parents, were having a sexual relationship with another student, a student who drove a white mustang. the girl's parents found out from a creepy neighbor or some such about the boy and his car... dunno. anywho, when the girl were grilled by her parents about the young man who had been seen visiting the family domicile once or twice a week while the parents were away, for some inexplicable reason, she threw Gromnir under the bus. we never found out why she blamed Gromnir, but eventual the truth came to light and Gromnir were fully exonerated, but apparently we caused something o' a scandal at __________ high school. we were investigated by all kinda folks at the high school and we even had somebody from the University where we were studying contact us in an official capacity. even after we were cleared o' all wrong doing, we still had to deal with ridiculous amount o' gossip. in fact, according to one story, we had been accused o' raping a high school girl and we had only avoided criminal charges 'cause o' some kinda technicality-- we were on the football team, so it were another example o' an athlete getting special treatment. weren't just statutory rape we were being accused o' neither. that story followed us for multiple years, and when we came back to the same school a couple years later to get our JD, more rumors had spawned, although most such rumors no longer had Gromnir as a central figure in the stories. keep in mind our story were late 80s, so the internet were mostly a tool for the DoD and professors at major universities. gossip traveled at analog speeds rather than digital, and there were a kinda geographical limit for most such rumors. clearly Gromnir's story were not deserving o' a national spotlight, so it only got barest local attention. *shrug* many people is d-bags. hell, look at all the wacky conspiracy theorists we got on this board. the fact that some story about a girl somewhere got blown outta proportion and people were making her life unpleasant is no shock to us, but is not a Misogynist, Feminist or Fascist problem. is not even a plot concocted by Xenu. no doubt after reading our post, some o' you want two minutes o' your life back. tough. HA! Good Fun!

ps that were our whole point about the real estate housing bubble bursting and the effect it had. many people viewed the equity in their home as an investment akin to a savings account, but better. those folks were correct until only a few years ago. your house has value. ignore the value o' a person's home would be a rather suspect approach to determining the person's overall net worth. say a person is not a millionaire but ignore the $500k equity they got in the crakerjack box sized condo they own would be odd. HA! Good Fun!

you gotta scroll back up and see your comments with other posters such as gorgon. real estate is part o' the equation. the fact that it costs a ridiculous amount to own a pathetic little walk-up if you live on upper west side o' manhattan does not change the fact that the owner o' the "condo" is having their monetary worth partial determined by the value o' their home. HA! Good Fun!

untrue. ... am not sure how much we needs go into this... the property itself is similar to any commodity. is no different than owning gold save that we has more opportunities for tax breaks with real estate. even so, unless you are speaking o' undeveloped wilderness acreage, real estate has additional value. Gromnir has more than a few single-tenant properties that create a very dependable revenue stream. multi-tenant stuff has added benefits and drawbacks, but regardless, property, unlike gold, can generate income. if Gromnir said he had a vault filled with a few million dollars worth o' gold bars, you would consider us a a millionaire, no? have millions in real estate is different how? 'cause we gotta sell? *chuckle* heck, we got a ca real estate brokers licences so we not need pay commission to an agent if we don't feel like doing so... though we typical do anyways. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

why would you assume that net worth would exclude real estate holdings? one o' the great misfortunes o' the housing bubble burst a few years ago were that much o' folks "savings" were directly tied to their home value. spend 30 years to pay off an adjustable rate mortgage on a $100k home were an investment that many folks made. get to retirement and have the home value be $500k or more and mortgage complete paid so you could then sell and downsize were a common practice... and were a smarty practice too if you sold home in 90s and up til a few years ago. example: Gromnir has a relative diverse portfolio, but thanks in part to the recent real estate problems, most o' our wealth is tied to real estate as we actual were able to buy more property as record numbers o' folks went into foreclosure over the past +5 years. from a business perspective, complete pay for one revenue generating property is a foolish move when you can buy five or six for same money with great interest rates and fixed short(er)-term mortgages. all our Real money is tied to real estate. even if there were a complete real estate collapse and all our property became literal worthless, we would still be ok.... barely. nevertheless, we could only wish that the taxman were naive enough to ignore real-estate holdings and only consider stuff such as our checking account and mutual funds when determining wealth. HA! Good Fun!

incorrect. the cops were called because two people were alleged involved in an illegal activity. is this a a shell game wherein folks is losing track? a citizen don't need produce id without cause, but the cops were called to investigate a crime, albeit a minor and silly one. this is Not simple a stop & identify scenario, so don't get confused. furthermore, and we know people has a hard time distinguishing, but real world cops always ask for id- is a way they gauge suspicion. like it or not, but cops asking for id is hardly compelling you to provide such even if you feel the weight o' authority 'pon you. however, if you don't provide id and refuse to answer simple questions, then cops who already had some level o' suspicion may become convinced that you really is guilty o' something. if you go bat-crap crazy while refusing to provide id and answer questions, they can claim that you were appearing drugged or intoxicated. illegal arrest is possible an outcome, but you is extreme unlikely to win any kind o' judgement 'gainst cops if they already has cause for suspicion, and in the meantime they can bring you down to the station and put you through a full intake process. "If you are carrying one, you don't have to show it or identify yourself unless you've been arrested for a crime, or in some cases ticketed for a violation people get very confused." law says you don't need provide info, but real world has you getting arrested needlessly for such defiance is jackarse stoopid. in All case you should show id if you are ticketed 'cause you can be detained for failing to do so. this ain't a "some cases" scenario. you get ticketed? show id. people get defiant with cops for various reasons and it rarely benefits the angry citizen. when cops show up and question you someplace other than your home, ask if you can leave. if they answer "yes," well, problem solved-- leave. if they answer "no," then you ask, "why" and they gotta explain. if cops wanna search you (or your home) ask for a warrant. if they don't have a warrant, make sure they know you is not agreeing to the search. IF you are stopped for questioning pursuant to a crime, give the cops your gosh darn name and ID, duh. that don't mean you gotta get chatty with the cops. if you don' wanna talk to cops, tell cops you don't wanna talk After providing id. if you are arrested, make sure the cops tell you why you is being arrested. do not resist a patdown pursuant to an arrest, and for the love o' gawd, do not run... particularly from a k-9 unit. those dogs do not f around. make sure cops know you is not volunteering, but don't resist or run. car situations is similar, but in all cases in which you are stopped while driving, you are required to provide id, so there is no ambiguity. refuse to sign a ticket doesn't do you any good, so find some other way to vent spleen. again, make sure you clear state that you is not volunteering to submit your vehicle or person to a search. regardless, not providing id is always a stoopid move. am knowing some folks gets angry 'bout what they see is their Right to be defiant, and you do have such a right, but it is, from a practical perspective, stoopid to exercise such a right without having a particular compelling reason to do so. you is likely to get yourself arrested, and you ain't gonna win some kinda multi-million dollar case 'gainst police department. oh, and while it sounds silly, particular if you is a minority, keep your car free of interior clutter. "plain view" rules is such that if cops are able to see possible evidence in plain view, they can seize that evidence. once the cops justifiably (or arguable justified) get you outta your car and they get into your car... *shrug* having a messy car interior is arguably providing cops with reason enough to search. HA! Good Fun!

There was a post somewhere where Josh said they added offensive abilities to Paladins because their previous version didn't feel IE-y enough. perhaps Gromnir is missing relevance. in that post about the paladins, did josh discuss classes in general or fighters specific? if the initial goal were to make PoE paladins play more like ie paladins, then am understanding why josh would think they need some offensive tuning, 'cause even now, our paladin contributes less to the overall offensive efficacy o' our party than perhaps any other class we have played. paladin buffs may be adding to the offensive capabilities of the party overall, but from a practical standpoint, successful battles resolved with our paladin character take twice as long to conclude. it is very possible that you are reading a specific observation about PoE paladins and are attempting to generalize about all PoE classes. "Josh has said many times that a player should be able to build a class so that it "feels" the same as the IE games." am seeing confusion. bobbin's assumption runs very much contrary to how rogues and fighters were described in the developer updates. it were made quite clear that the PoE fighter and rogue would be different than the ie iterations of those classes. nevertheless, perhaps based on simple naming quirk and a single misinterpreted post regarding paladins, bobbin made an understandable assumption that all PoE classes with the same names as ie classes should be customizable so that they is playable like their bg2 and iwd2 counterparts, yes? furthermore, there seems to be less resistance to the PoE changes in ranger, monk, and barbarian. this may simply be because they were less popular. sure, we has seen complaints about pretty much every PoE class, but the "boring" stuff seems largely reserved for fighters and rogues... and Gromnir when he complains about PoE priests. am not certain that such complaints is fair, but am increasing convinced that the problem with fighters and rogues specifically ain't so much that they is dull to play, but that they aren't proper bg2 and iwd2 incarnations. HA! Good Fun! ps the priest is not actual boring to play, just so long as you have a second heal-bot priest in your party to do the traditional, dull buffing and stamina boosting.

as an aside, while some folks inexplicably wanted to turn it into a Balance Is Bad debate, the developer's update regarding barbarians and fighters made it abundant clear that those two classes were, to use mmo parlance, tanks. is maybe one or two people that bothered to ask josh why the fighter looked like a kinda straightforward tank. the wacky thing 'bout our recollections o' that thread is that we see some folks in this thread that am recalling posted in the fighter and barbarian developer update thread, so is not as if these folks can pretend they were caught unawares. obsidian were not sneaky 'bout their implementation o' the PoE fighter (or rogue for that matter,) and is actual kinda weird to see some folks who were seeming positive 'bout the PoE fighter from the update that is now wondering why they can't be more like bg2/iwd2 fighters. perhaps the PoE fighter isn't the tank you expected, but it were revealed to be, unequivocally, a front-line, weapons-based combatant able to absorb a great deal o' punishment... a tank. defender & skirmisher vanguard & scout argyraspides & agrianes whatever. including eleven classes in PoE required considerable definition of roles o' those classes. the PoE fighter IS a tank. if a name change helps folks adjust to that change, so much the better. "There's something to be said for sticking with what players know, particularly with a game that's intended to provide a feel for the IE series. Providing that feel is what helped sell the Kickstarter, so I can't imagine they'll want to stray too far from it. Especially given all the changes they've already made. "A conservative opinion, I know." yeah, Gromnir recognized earlier that perhaps it is too late to save the current fighter class. more than a few folks is gonna want to play a bg2/iwd2 version of the fighter and rogue, and PoE doesn't have those. one reason obsidian doesn't have such is 'cause both those classes were broken in their own way. there was no point in playing a single-class thief in bg2, 'cause thieves were relatively crap in combat, and you could maximize their actual useful thief skills by level 7 or 9. fighters, on the other hand, were weapon-based juggernauts able to kill and defend with equal efficacy... and kits didn't help. play as a kensai and you became less defense oriented but you were able to do even more damage. play as a berserker and you got immunity to many o' the most harmful spells in the game. rogue and fighter is not ad&d or d20 versions. if they need to be more in-line with d&d archetypes... well, then they need serious overhaul. HA! Good Fun!

ps we edited our recollection regarding "massive" into our post above. however, if you think we is gonna type "josh sawyer" and "massive" into a search engine, you is freaking nuts. HA! Good Fun!

Most people on this forum over the last 2 years saw fighters in the previous IE games as just plain bad. The usual, You're trying to defend 2nd ed rules? LMAO. And we're still seeing that from some people. So you're about 18 months too late and arguing from the minority. The majority of posters on this forum will disagree with you. I'm not defending 2nd ed rules as there are problems with it just like any system. I have yet to see the perfect system. I'm just one of those people in the minority that liked how it was in the IE games. I liked the single class or dual-classing or multi-classing. I think you misunderstand. PoE fighters do not feel like 2E or 3E D&D fighters. Josh has said many times that a player should be able to build a class so that it "feels" the same as the IE games. I'm trying to come up with suggestions to make them feel similar within the framework of PoE rules. are you sure about josh quote on that? am not actual suggesting you are wrong, because we don't know. our recollection is that he said you could play a wizard in PoE same as an ie wizard. conversely, we recall josh making a point that fighters in the ie games were equally efficacious at defense and offense (perhaps excessively so... for some reason, "massive" is a word that sticks in our noggin regarding ie fighter capacity to deal damage) and that were something they were getting away from with the PoE fighter... but we could be wrong on that. am honest not certain. HA! Good Fun!

People read the OP before posting? you may not like our reply, but am thinking Gromnir answered your questions. "the developers no doubt had to ask themselves as they were designing a new set of rules for PoE, what features the fans o' the ie games would want in a new, story driven, 2d, isometric game with squad-based tactical combat that were set in a familiar, if different, fantasy world. " regardless o' your personal aesthetic regarding game design, the obsidian developers were very much concerned with including features that would appeal to fans of the original ie games. in spite of some posters who would suggest otherwise, there is no mathematical formula for picking and choosing ie game features and attributes that adequately pay "homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment." when ford were redesigning the eventual 2005 mustang, no doubt they had many concerns, but clearly a prime concern were nostalgia. ford's approach was extreme successful, in case you were wondering. does nostalgia and homage trump every rational concern? 'course not, and thank goodness for that. but when a game is being sold by former ie game developers to ie fans, one needs at least consider what those fans might want in a modernized take on the ie games. obsidian developers decided rtwp were essential. you may not like the response, but we read the op before answering. HA! Good Fun!

complaints 'bout the rogue and fighter being boring make little sense to us until we see the proposed suggestions for fixing those classes. most constructive suggestions seen by Gromnir are ways to be making the PoE fighter function more like the bg2 or iwd2 fighter. similarly, most suggestions for fixes of the PoE rogue is ways to make it function like a proper ad&d or d20 rogue. if this were a matter up for vote, we would be in favor o' changing the fighter and rogue to matt's alternate suggestions o' defender and skirmisher. that being said, it may be too late and not enough. am realizing that the kickstarter built up from core classes, and the rogue and fighter were core classes. the rogue and fighter are crpg staples, and obsidian, perhaps, did not wanna disappoint the expectations o' the ie fanbase regarding obvious classes for inclusion in PoE. if PoE requires a rogue and a fighter, and if those classes needs be more in-line with the bg2 and iwd2 incarnations, then the name changes won't be enough... which is too bad, 'cause am thinking each class has a great deal to offer and radical changes will likely break those classes. regardless, am extreme in favor o' matt's proposed name changes: defender and skirmisher. HA! Good Fun!

"Project Eternity (working title) pays homage to the great Infinity Engine games of years past: Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment." now, admittedly, paying homage is kinda a vague descriptor, but the obsidian folks were not making a secret that they wanted to develop a game that would appeal to the folks that enjoyed the ie game. let's be honest folks, the ie games were not exactly hardcore crpgs. josh sawyer, tim cain, and other folks have an opportunity to build their own rules mechanics for this game, and they are incorporating many ideas they believe result in a superior role-play game experience. they got quest/objective xp to encourage diversity of play style and balance. they are going with health/stamina because they think it is superior to ad&d hp. similarly, armour class and To Hit has been abandoned in favor of attack v. defense with armour providing dt after the fact. etc. obsidian is doing things different. surprised? well, this can't be a D&D game regardless, so many things would need to be different, but again, sawyer and cain and others is trying to build a better mousetrap, and ad&d were never an example o' a particularly good mousetrap. however...or perhaps, HOWEVER, this game is being made for folks who presumably played and enjoyed the ie games. is also being made for folks who is simply fans o' obsidian and old-skool crpgs, but those folks is largely ignored in these parts. regardless, the developers no doubt had to ask themselves as they were designing a new set of rules for PoE, what features the fans o' the ie games would want in a new, story driven, 2d, isometric game with squad-based tactical combat that were set in a familiar, if different, fantasy world. "Combat uses a tactical real-time with pause system - positioning your party and coordinating attacks and abilities is one of the keys to success." obsidian made additional promises about features in the days leading up to final funding o' the game, but one o' the few concrete features we got described on the kickstarter page were the above quote. clearly the developers believed that fans o' an homage to the ie games would expect rtwp. the developers also went with a system that would eventual grow to include eleven classes. do classes maximize opportunities for customization and diversity? 'course not, but am suspecting that the developers believed that classes were a quality that many fans o' a new ie kinda game would expect. regardless o' quotes from josh or tim that appeal to you, keep in mind that PoE is also an homage to the ie games. the ie games were casual crpgs with classes and rtwp combat and included a relative extreme role-play spectrum with ps:t at one end and iwd2 at another. our advice: don't read too much into selective quotes. HA! Good Fun!