Gromnir

to suggest that answering why somebody (where the "somebody" in question is potentially thousands of different people) prefers X to Y and suggest then answer is 6 is... volish. in fact, that is our new label for any extreme obtuse response or trollish oversimplification: volish. "if all the people on welfare would just get jobs, they wouldn't need a handout." volish. "bioware is better than obsidian. period." volish. "let them eat cake." that is sooooo volish. HA! Good Fun!

Not really, no. hmmm... as we speak of "most" people, am not sure what is answer. sure, for many folks, "bio sux," is enough, but there is probable at least some reason for the feeling o' animosity, even if such feelings ain't rational or reasonable. obsidian has had the benefit and burden o' working on the work o' others. obsidian could thus improve on many aspects o' the original game builders. example: if fo:nv hadn't improved 'pon many aspects o' fo3, it woulda been quite disappointing. the fact that fo:nv did improve many aspects o' fallout3 doesn't necessarily mean that obsidian is a better developer than bethesda. similarly, that nwn2 and kotor2 improved aspects o' the genesis games is maybe not as significant as some might s'pose-- is poor evidence that bio is inferior to obsidian. nevertheless, we has seen such arguments, and one cannot deny feelings. a different possibility is that obsidian has, with perhaps the almost ironic exception o' ps:t, focused more on tactical sophistication in their games than did bioware when using same/similar engine. no crpg is particularly demanding o' intellectual acuity o' the player, but obsidian does (perhaps) ask more of players... 'least when combat starts. additionally, bio has been much more traditional in choice o' thematic fodder. is nothing wrong with hero cycle as given to us by lucas, spielberg and tolkien, but some folks sees repetition as an inherent flaw, regardless o' what the developer does with such material. etc. is reasons to prefer obsidian and vice-versa. fact o' the matter is that we ain't purchased an obsidian game for a Long time... project eternity will be first since fo:nv (and we didnt purchase alpha protocol, which we s'pose technically were previous to fo:nv.) by the same token, we only got 1 playthrough o' mass effect 3, and that were delayed almost 1 full year after the initial release. we played da2, and while it were a very good game in many respects, it were also horribly rushed and almost amateurish by bio standards. even so, we considers our self a fan o' both developers, and we does at least consider purchasing most games released by the developers in question. aside-- we will note that bio has a tendency to vastly oversell their games. those things promised falls very much short of goals... reminds us a bit o' troika in that sense. for example, our disappointment o' the origins from da:o were Not that they railroaded you or other such similar nonsense that happens in every other story-driven game... sheesh. folks got short memories, but Gromnir recalls how each origin were s'posed to result in highly unique gameplay once the origin tumbled into the unified critical path. playing as a dwarf noble or elf or human were all 'posed to be different experiences once one were trudging through the main story... which never happened. sure, you gots some limited differences depending on your origin choice, but the origins impacted very little once you were a grey warden. is Not how bio sold the origins. similarly, the way bio sold impact o' me1 and me2 choices on me 3 were also woeful unrealized. got long list o' stuff that bio... exaggerated. has made us jaded 'bout bio pre-release commentary. regardless, we thinks it is a bit myopic to suggest that most folks hate developer X or love developer Y 'cause o' spite or some similar motivations. is too ez and simple. HA! Good Fun!

not your worst response. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

"heroic" does not needs carry with it the baggage o' noble self-sacrifice. sure, when we refers to a person running into a burning building to save a puppy, the heroism is integral linked to sacrifice... or potential sacrifice. doesn't take superpowers to risk death-- takes will and at least a moment o' foolish courage. however, "heroic" don't need have sacrificial component. looks through the catalog o' pre-christian heroes and you find some serious jerks. their granted title o' hero were a result o' the obstacles they overcame and not so much their concern for the greater-good. a hero is one who defeats monsters. the monster may be literal or figurative, but it takes a hero to fights and beat the monsters. 'course context is important, but as bg allows you to play as a jerk, we thinks we can assume that #s were not limiting himself to post-christian notions o' the hero as One Who Sacrifices. HA! Good Fun!

one of bio's greatest strengths is also a terrible weakness. bio does actual listen to fans. gaider and other writers/developers/designers looks for feedback from boards and elsewhere to discover what people want. bio... listens. all you gotta do is read some o' the insipid and juvenile suggestions made at bio boards regarding romance to be understanding how bio romances coulds be so nightmarish and grotesque. bio Is giving folks what they want. *shudder* ​bio is creating a commercial product. is probable smart to aim to meet expectations. nevertheless, we cannot helps but feel cheated. "meet expectations" is not the goal o' any writer we know--is actual a scathing condemnation. HA! Good Fun!

am hesitant to help bruce, 'cause we thinks bio romantic leanings is 'bout as appealing as a bucket o' rotting shrimp. nevertheless, the first step is to know your audience. this is an obsidian board. folks here is unlikely to be representative o' the Average Fan's (a mythical entity) feelings 'bout bio romances, but if you wanna talk romance in this place, you gotta recognize who you is dealing with. what is the bestest obsidian game? has been polls done to death on this board asking that question. sure, some folks here Loathe ps:t, but your typical obsidian poster is a big fan o' ps:t... is almost akin to rpg codex fixation with first fallout game. so, if you wants to convince an obsidian audience that game romance is a good thing, might you not wanna point out the very real and integral romance contained in ps:t: ravel's love for the nameless one? is one o' the bestest romantic story arcs we has seen in a crpg to date. "but that isn't what we mean by a game romance." anticipate such terrible arguments and then destroy them. *shrug* the biggest obstacle bruce faces is bioware and the expectations they has created. am recalling a story we read 'bout deciphering of mayan (maybe it was inca... don't care) written language. there were some handful o' experts here in the west that had written the definitive text(s) on mayan language. everybody who studied mayan language and culture woulds, by necessity, read those texts... were no escaping the insidious influence o' those texts, and those texts all turned out to be wrong in some key ways. eventually a cold war era soviet linguist/anthropologist comes along, and this guy'gal has been insulated from western texts 'cause of silly political reasons. he/she has never read professor longwind's dissertation on whatever. our soviet doesn't know that somebody has already come up with the answers to all the questions he/she is wishing to answer-- so he/she comes up with own answers. our soviet comrade ends up revolutionizing the understanding o' mayan language. crpg romance and bioware crpg romance has somehow becomes inextricably linked, and bio approach is a dead-end. gonna need to look at romance different. HA! Good Fun! as an aside, am thinking a romance in which a so-called villain is the interest could be fun... if done by somebody other than bioware.

agreed. is just one reason why the solution, while simple and elegant, is not going to happen. thank goodness. HA! Good Fun!

I don't know about you, but I enjoy the XP and loot from romance sidequests. Cut that out and I won't be able to mash spacebar fast enough. Seriously though, I mostly agree with you. The bluntness and lack of narrative coherence, to put it that way, is a necessary side effect of the format the romances are presented in. "Fast forward to the important moments" and skip the rest, but the result is going to feel half-assed, rushed and disconnected. But it's either that, a full-fledged relationship sim, or nothing. What I'm not so convinced is that the protagonist's ability to trigger a catharsis on teammates is silly or unrealistic. After all, in Bio games you are routinely beating impossible odds, so it's not so out there. Taking out a race of sentient machines possibly older than life on Earth and fixing the secret insecurities of the genetically perfect Princess Bitchface with a few clichéd phrases? About on the same level. a relationship sim is, we believe, unnecessary. no, there is a simple solution, albeit an unpalatable one-- make romance integral. romance that is actual part o' the main plot would diminish the ridiculousness o' achieving emotional breakthrough in a handful o' tangential romance encounters. developers coulds Potentially create a mature and meaningful romance if they would use the entire length and breath o' game... but again, while making integral and expanding romance would solve many problems, it is not something for which Gromnir would lobby. more bio romance? *shudder* forebear. as we noted earlier, the thing that makes bio romances endurable is the thing that most impedes any sorta meaningful improvement. bio romances is, thankfully, tangential and optional. makes romances integral only makes improvement possible, not likely. HA! Good Fun!

implied? where we imply? am thinking we made it darn clear that reader ignorance, as 'posed to our posting style, were far more likely to trip up ninety-two. also, in case the sarcasm went unrealized, we has no intention o' actual dumbing down post content to meet ninety-two's level o' comprehension. *sigh* we posted above that we don't genuine believe that ninety-two failed some basic comprehension threshold. is clear he "got" some o' our post. however, if he wanna play stupid, who is Gromnir to deny him? but again, Try to stay on-topic, or you will bring about censoring. example: perhaps bio could improve their romances cutting fat. the small handful o' dialogue encounters do not contribute to character development, so why not remove the juvenile foreplay and get straight to the cut-scenes? HA! Good Fun! ps see above. we told you he understood. kinda knocks his own argument on its arse, eh? now don't you feel silly for trying to defend? *chuckle* btw, there is a handful of tired "Gromnir Responses" we has gotten since... 1999? the "incomprehensible" ploy is rare used 'cause most folks realize that they don't have the self control to pull it off correct. see, you can't reply to Gromnir posts if they is incomprehensible, yes? ninety-two already failed at that.

oh, we suspect that he/she understood us. is easier to claim we in unintelligible than it is to refute. ... we will say that he/she woulda' been better off avoiding use "o "sunshine." is clear we struck a nerve. is better off not to admit such when trying to claim that Gromnir postings is indecipherable. one o' the more inept attempts to marginalize our posts that we has seen, but not unique. HA! Good Fun! Gromnir I can understand your posts but it takes time to focus on the structure of what you are saying, but for someone where UK English isn't there first language I can imagine it will be difficult. So don't think people are being facetious when they say " they don't understand your posts" ...there may be truth to that oh come now. truth to tell, our grammar as Gromnir is better than 90% of posters on this board-- our adversarial relations with pronouns notwithstanding. speaking as one who has learned a couple different languages, we suspect that our idiosyncratic speaking is more grating on a native ear. that being said, we s'pose it is possible that our posting were too... complex. we will concede that the danish in question simply could not grasp the concepts contained in our response. in the future, we will try to post slow and low for the children, foreigners and/or poorly educated members o' the community. happy? to stay on-topic we will add once more that the romances do more harm than good to the character development of the bioware companions. for companions to achieve Revelation 'cause of discourse + intercourse with the player following a half-dozen romance dialogue encounters and a tasteless pg-13 rated cut-scene is, at the very least, vulgar. HA! Good Fun! ps that a danish is a pastry and not a person is known to us.

oh, we suspect that he/she understood us. is easier to claim we in unintelligible than it is to refute. ... we will say that he/she woulda' been better off avoiding use "o "sunshine." is clear we struck a nerve. is better off not to admit such when trying to claim that Gromnir postings is indecipherable. one o' the more inept attempts to marginalize our posts that we has seen, but not unique. HA! Good Fun!

I'm not sure I'd agree, especially given you picked Garrus and I don't recall feeling the same way (and extending into ME3, he's probably one of my favourite "friend characters" in a lot of gaming). Really? Because the transition from ME1 to ME2. What did Garrus learn from Shepard's speech about not rushing into things? He joins a squad on Omega and ends up getting mopey it about after they all end up dead so he swears revenge. In other words -- He's learned absolutely nothing. And you have to 'fix' him again. He only gets that proper development if one romances him in ME2. Same with Jack -- She only ever truly opens up should you choose to romance her. It's fine if you like Garrus. I'd hardly call him the only character who doesn't really get much development at all from my perspective. am finding your pov to be somewhat... trite. don't take offense, 'cause we sees similar issues with the bio romances and as you like those, perhaps we is actual complementing you. for the nonce, we will ignore the opportunities for double-entendre and bad pun related to your poor word choice in stating that jack "only ever truly opens up," as it relates to romance. that being said, a companion achieving some kinda enlightenment via the half-dozen or so tangential and optional romance dialogues in-game is just one of the things that is terribly and irredeemably wrong with bio romances. the synthetic drama o' bio romances, almost wholly dependent on laboured exposition, is creating a tangential story arc that occurs at speeds greater than the normandy may achieve-- is difficult to describe resulting climax as satisfactory when it comes with such brevity. (<-- intentional) as damaged as bio seems wont to make the companions (wanna talk about melodrama?) achieving epiphany through childishly superficial and abbreviated romantic dialogues is straining not only credulity but good taste as well. sadly, we sees your characterization o' romanced garrus and jack as complete bass ackwards-- the romances destroy characters. is ironic. we recognize that bio's romance scheme is complete broken and utterly beyond repair. as long as romances is optional and tangential they will necessarily suffer. at the same time, the only reason we can endure bio's clumsy romance efforts is 'cause they is optional and tangential-- we need not actual experience the libelous pretense o' those abominations bio/ea has the temerity to label "romances." HA! Good Fun!

am thinking you is taking to ridiculous extreme. surprise. that being said, the game features and design choices that developers is gonna benefit or learn from is likely to be different than those features or design choices that vol or Gromnir or snigglefragglepoof thinks is fun or good. am recalling the first time we sees citizen kane. "good movie, but it wasn't the end-all, be-all that movie buffs would have us believe," is what we thought. the thing is, we didn't know Why movie folks were so enthralled by citizen kane back when we saw it our firstest time. is loads o' filming techniques and storytelling devices that went complete unnoticed by Gromnir. one reason we missed is 'cause the deep focus, montage, and multiple dissolves used in kane is stuff that became norms After 1941... is stuff we had seen literal hundreds o' times 'before we ever saw "the greatest movie ever made." other reason we didn't see genius o' kane is 'cause we weren't educated 'nuff 'bout movie making process-- we didn't know where or how to look at a film. *shrug* the things a game developer is gonna look for or benefit from is, we expect, gonna be different than just the stuff we liked. lord knows that stuff that benefits a developer will be Very different than stuff that impressed vol. HA! Good Fun!

the other day we got our self stuck in a "debate" with a bunch o' nerds who were insisting that competitive starcraft is more o' a sport than baseball. the only sane thing to do were to leave the nutters to their fantasy. this would appear to be a deja vu moment. HA! Good Fun!

*insert silly pic here* you are saying that if we ain't rendered turgid by bio' viviwahtever or manifested's farm girl, we should seek medical help? ... if that is how you feel, am thinking that the one who needs doctor is not Gromnir. *shudder* is something serious wrong with some o' you folks. HA! Good Fun!

Versailles wasn't built in a day, and I agree that brash hubris could make for an interesting character in Vivienne, but I'm now less inclined to accept a romance challenge. An inquisitive, humble farmer's daughter with no world-bending aspirations sounds more enjoyable. odd. both bio's viviwhatever and your romance suggestion leaves Gromnir... flacid. don't feel bad though, chances are that any tangential side-quest romance offering would only serve to inspire in us a kinda queasy contempt. HA! Good Fun!

but murder is a good excuse for getting experience points, ph47 l007, and affecting political change? take murder outta a crpg and you typically gots a substantial shortened game... though am guessing you can narrowly define as unlawful killing of a human to avoid many such legal (if not moral) quandaries. ... as far as the reasonings we is invariably provided for wanton homocide in a crpg, doing so to stop the french girl's caterwauling is hardly the most egregious or immoral we has seen. HA! Good Fun!

it's always odd when we hear folks thinks something is important that we relegate to "inconsequential" category. is kinda refreshing actually. the thing is, we prefers the run-through npc issue to ubiquitous (if infrequent) problem that arose before such npcs became norm: horatius cocles at the bridge. at least a couple times per game, some npc or mob corpse or somesuch similar "entity," would occupy a doorway or map bottleneck o' some kind. result were that we woulds need have to reload and redo some portion o' game 'cause o' stupid blocked path. *shrug* no doubt there is any number o' solutions to npc doors, but if walk-thru npcs is a simple expedient, we don't mind one bit. not bothers us regardless. HA! Good Fun!

what da2 did well, it did excellent. the problems we had with da2 were mostly due to obvious cost and time-saving measures-- recycled maps being only the most obvious such shortcut. we were particular cheesed with bio 'cause we had been vocal in our protests Before release o' da2. based on some pre-release nonsense, it were obvious to us that shortcuts were being taken to gets da2 out the door quick. we was assured that we were wrong by a certain biowarian who shall/should remain nameless, *snort* complete credibility loss for ___________. as we ain't been following da:i all that close, we can't makes any educated predictions 'bout the game. that being said, from the little we has read and seen, it would appear that bio/ea learned their lesson(s) from da2 regarding shortcuts in development. IF bio/ea is going all cheapskate, at least this time the cost and time saving efforts ain't obvious and vulgar. HA! Good Fun!

... what the heck is going on with fp groups? yesterday we wait an hour before getting a fp pop, only to have tank be in starship pvp. is not the first time we has had somebody grouped for fp be unavailable 'cause they were actual in starship pvp... though we didn't think that such an eventuality should be possible. second fp pop is only having us wait 30 minutes or so-- mando raiders with an inexperienced tank and a heals who made the darn thing harder than it shoulda been. we gave up on them, which is extreme rare for us. after a half-dozen wipes, and a relative certitude that we would not get past the boarding party portion o' mando with current group, Gromnir quit. another 30 minutes wasted and probable 40k credits in repairs. half-an-hour more elapses and we get another mando raiders pop-- everything goes well and we finish quick. more than three hours spent getting a single hm fp credit for our guardian dps? that were more than enough swtor for 1 day, thank you very much. is perhaps enough swtor to last us the rest o' the week as we is getting increasing grumbly whilst playing. the game is 'posed to be entertainment. HA! Good Fun!

it should be common sense. it should be axiomatic. nevertheless, folks continue to laud/deride or demand greater non-linearity in games when there ain't no genuine non-linearity. it isn't just a matter o' nomenclature confusion neither. the impossibility o' non-linearity and the irrelevance o' some features that supposed enhance or detract from the non-linear ideal (whatever the hell that ideal is as it would seem to be personal and ineffable,) is complete lost on a majority o gamers who post on these boards. am getting that in crpgs we is likely to see all kinds o' mythical creatures populating worlds fantastic, but folks is clearly not asking for non-linearity the same way they is asking for developers to include unicorns and dragons. game developers is likewise perpetuating the life-cycle o' the non-linearity myths by claiming that they has indeed included the beastie in game X. many developers will scoff at use o' "immersion," but when it comes time to discuss non-linear, they tell all the good little boys and girls that yes, the easter bunny/santa claus/tooth fairy/etc., will be making an appearance in game X. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

#1 blasphemous opine o' Gromnir: non-linear crpg game-play is an illusion we has been saying for years and every once in a while some self-proclaimed pundit echoes... is always amusing to hear our oft-stated complaint framed like some kinda sea-change epiphany. *sigh* the game developer, by necessity, knows all possible routes and must account for them in design. heck, the oft-lauded multiple game endings feature is the biggest bit o' pt barnum salesmanship attributable to the non-linear unicorn. c'mon people, it is the END o' the game. have three, thirteen, or thirty game endings is not counting as non-linearity as, by definition, nothing comes after the end. duh. there is no true non-linearity in sp crpg gaming. is always having fixed routes, typically with multiple bottlenecks. so ends this abbreviated version o' our most frequent blasphemy. HA! Good Fun!

yesterday were just one o' those days. above we mentioned the super-tank/dps/heals phenomenon, and we had to heal a mando raiders hm fp that exemplified why we gets twitchy every time we que for a pug group o' any sort. first thing we notice is that tank is not group taunting or even trying to grab aggro of mobs. sure, the tank put a guard on us (which is pretty much useless in non-pvp encounters btw) but then he/she is making it so we gotta self-heal with half o' our effort. our sentinel (and it is sentinels and marauders who is most likely to do this crap) always attacked elites first, and as the tank weren't taunting, the sent was getting chewed up so that we was working extra hard to keeps him alive as well. ... we somehow manage to keep these clowns alive in spite o' fact that they made encounter with the 2 sith, operative and bh a real nightmare... damn operative and bh were attacking Gromnir almost the entire fight... until near end when they were attacking the gunslinger and sentinel in our group. heck, even before that encounter we barely made over the bridge with the 2 big bots-- Gromnir literal rescued our sentinel in midair as he were flung over edge 'cause tank wanted to pull both bots at same time. regardless, we get to last encounter and sentinel starts giving us advice during fight... telling us how to use noble sacrifice. moments before this joker had been attacking the turret the tank had not aggro'd and so was taking some serious damage. we pointed out that in spite o' his and the tank's curious tactics, we had managed to keep everybody upright and that his advice might be more meaningful if he hadn't shown himself to be a bit of a doof by attacking the wrong freaking turret only a few seconds past. "it's just mando raiders," were his pithy reply. seriously? as an aside, on harbinger we has 1 55 of every class save for assassin, marauder and operative. our assassin is level 50 and our marauder and operative is both level 18. most o' our 55s is only having 69s for gear, but we kinda like having 1 o' everything. with 2x weekend just around the corner, we may do a marathon session and gets our concealment operative up to 50. its a sickness. HA! Good Fun!

chris has stated that "hook" is most important. am thinking this is reason for some chris character shortcomings. nevertheless, his blog entry is worth reading... even if his bestest written companions and characters were not actual optional and recognizing that kaelyn's foreshadowing attribute seeming came at cost of being 1-dimensional. am thinking chris gets a little too much credit and not enough criticism, but he did give us ravel. as an aside, we will note that there is a peculiar line that needs be considered when crafting joinables-- 'least based on chris comments and board feedback. chris observes that companion should be useful And stroke ego of player. Gromnir is recognizing that these two aspects can be at odds, though not necessarily in an obvious manner. regardless of quality of writing, players will tend to have less interest in keeping the under-powered companion in his/her group. any schmuck can "win" a crpg as they is meant to be beatable by any 13 yr old with a pulse. nevertheless, as crpgs is games, there is a tendency to play-to-win when building characters and party. so, powerful companions is good, right? not always. very frequent we has seen players express disappointment when a joinable is clearly superior to the protagonist. the ego-lending/boosting aspect o' a companion may suffer if that companion is effectively emasculating a segment o' players. edwin from bg and bg2 could outmage any mage player. all the stat-building tomes is not gonna make you more efficacious than edwin. more than a few people complained 'bout this. "why play a mage?" so, is gotta be a bit annoying to try and craft companions that is efficient, but not too efficient. HA! Good Fun!

our interest in space battles is zero, so we couldn't be disappointed with gsf gameplay. is supposed to be another hutt cartel digital expansion later this year... probable late this year. am s'posing we will hang 'round at least til next expansion. nevertheless, am getting tired of pug nonsense, and the thought of joining a guild has as much appeal as does chewing bubblegum laced with aluminum foil shavings. as for the mmo stoopid players in fps, we suspect it is more prevalent than you is aware. if you play heals, you is more likely to see nonsense as healers secondary job is to mitigate player mistakes. we got multiple heals. HA! Good Fun!