Gromnir

couple points... am recalling that early screenies had folks complaining 'bout da2 environment being dull and brown and sparse... very similar to your complaints. were based on the starting/tutorial area. were hardly indicative of game entirety. *shrug* is kinda silly to assume entire game looks like what you see in some small bits pre-released. we didn't think that the da2 joinable npcs were particularly poor developed/written, and most know we is a stickler for such. characters were given back-stories which were developed to a good degree. characters had personalities fleshed-out and were given motivations and opportunities to grow. that being said, bio does has a strange formula for making their characters dramatic: add equal parts o' personal trauma and abject stupidity, then throw in some lugubrious dialogue. you know, one reason we ain't a fan o' horror movies is 'cause they only seem to work if at least a few characters is shout-at-the-screen stupid. heard a noise coming from the basement, perhaps we should investigate. shucks, the lights seemed to not be working. oh well, the psycho axe wielding psycho that killed 8 of our friends and is after us couldn't possibly be in the basement. gonna investigate. da2 joinable npcs frequent had bouts o' similar stupidity that drove us nuts. humor, whedon or otherwise, is a good thing. could no doubt blame shakespeare for doing similar. take most serious shakespeare tragedy or history and you will find some humor in it. am recalling some elmore leonard interview we read wherein he were mentioning influences and authors he admired. Hemingway gets noted, with one proviso: Hemingway didn't do humor enough. our initial reaction were rejection o' leonard's criticism, but we thinks he got a point. a clean, well-lighted place don't need humor, but am thinking that Some larger works benefit from inclusion o' some moments o' mirth or levity. is a tough read when is nothing but a slow steady crawl through increasing darkness and filth. bioware is making entertainment, not a Joseph Conrad novel, so levity is probably good. is nothing MacGuffin 'bout templar-mage conflict. is not a behind-the-scenes plot element that is ultimately o' negligible importance. also, Gromnir am not a fan o' Epic conflicts, but not because the preclude human interactions and motivations of most characters. typical love, hate, greed, jealousy, fear motivations is just as viable in epic. the thing is, in a crpg wherein you gots a villain whom you is eventually gonna have an opportunity to fight, you has a real problem constructing somebody that dont seem... ridiculous. da1 and da2 is heavy focused on combat and combat abilities, so is no way you compete do different an reinvent the wheel. game focused so much on combat is gonna have a possible combat resolution. gotta have an opportunity to confront some UBG (ultimate bad guy) at some point. no abstraction works satisfactory. the thing is that we is genuine daunted by the task o' developing a satisfactory UBG in a crpg. if your villain sux, your story is handicapped severely... and crpg villain almost necessarily need to be disappointing. romances is popular. bio makes entertainment for folks who pays money. catering to audience is what they DO. that should be kinda axiomatic. as much as we personally loathe crpg romances, we is not expecting bio to drop them as they is popular, particularly with female gamers who comprise an ever growing portion o' gamer demographic. do better? sure, we is all in favor o' improving romances, but only way we see to do that is to make 'em integral... which would, ironically, make us hate them more. romance is Not fodder for a tangential and optional side-quest. you wanna do a full romance arc in a handful o' brief and optional dialogues that is insular from main plot? nuts. wanna make moving romance that is brief w/o seeming puerile? write poetry. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure how you googled and missed. ps:t portraits of nameless one and party npcs were dynamic. black isle folks already did what you is asking for back in 1999, and many o' those folks is working on pe. HA! Good Fun!

actually, the price dropped precipitously. furthermore, at a competitive price we could sell 4-6 in 20 minutes. takes much longer to sell now as demand is not as high. Gromnir is NOT gonna sit staring at gtn to optimize when to sell. am now making less per mat. HA! Good Fun! is not a large difference, but as a seller, the old scheme were better for us. is no doubt better now for buyers... but we ain't a buyer

side-note: we preferred previous crit dynamic. we gots multiple toons that can makes nano-infused stims and we were making ~30k creds per stim before the change-- might version seemed to be in highest demand. sadly, market kinda flooded afterwards. anything that is decreasing the time we spend doing mindless daily runs for credits is a good thing. HA! Good Fun!

*groan* you is so not getting it. tell woman that she gets gimped in a FANTASY GAME 'cause God/The Universe chose to make her sex weaker in reality is hardly a good idea. the fact that real-world women is not as strong as men (on average) is precise why they not wanna see a Game-- a game in which they gets to play a role impossible in real world-- impose a similar penalty on them. this is a matter o' empathy and psychology, not physiology. troika made matter worse by being rude to women who complained. HA! Good Fun!

or you coulda' just said, do portraits like ps:t. saves on digital trees or something. HA! Good Fun!

already noted: the scars were added after boardies complained that bg2 portraits should be more "dark" and "gritty." simply adding scars, piercings and peculiar hair accessories struck Gromnir as mockery of board request, but the interplay fora populace seemed to like sass' improvements. HA! Good Fun!

vol is as wacky as a bag full o' wet cats, but being impervious to reason does not mean a person is incorrect. vol as "only one making any sense"? HA! that is ridiculous. still, we concede that he ain't necessarily wrong just 'cause he is embracing an alternate reality that none o' the rest o' us will ever experience... thankfully. HA! Good Fun!

we were gonna write a viscous denunciation o' d&d 2e character generation and progressions. the thing is, we knows of at least a couple folks at obsidian who is even less fans o' d&d 2e than is Gromnir. so, no point for us to do the knacker's work on this particular horse as chances o' pe character development or progression resembling d&d 2e in any meaningful way is approaching nil. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure what "less forgiving to females" means in the present context. is worth noting that before bg2 were released, bioware made available the new bg2 npc portraits as done by mike sass. am thinking it were sass, but we might be wrong. initial reaction from boardies were not kind. original minsc, in particular, were drawing ire. portrait of minsc had this big open-mouthed smile that were making him looks far too similar to a special olympics winner for some posters. too much with the pastel and bright color palette. too Not jason manley (iwd had recently been released). too cartoony and not "dark" and/or "gritty." am thinking that perhaps as a bit o' gentle mockery o' the board critics, sass re-tools most o' the bg2 potraits in very minor ways-- give'em scars, piercings and and additional stuff in their hair. minsc were only portrait that got a significant alteration. kinda reminded us o' josh's revised iwd2 kit suggestions in that instead o' boardies getting the joke, most seemed to like the improvements. regardless, if "less forgiving" is in reference to bg2 portraits looking as if characters had seen hard times, then that were a specific change as result o' board input. HA! Good Fun!

another bad of arcanum: gender stat difference. females got -1 str and +1 end. this clear misguided choice alienated a goodly number o' female gamers. troika developer arrogant response to female gamers who complained further alienated women. such a small thing, but am understanding why some women not wanted to be bound by developer's notions o' realism in a fantasy game. HA! Good Fun!

when these kinda vanity appeals arise, we ask self: what would we want the developers to drop from the game to make ____________ possible? is not a hard zero-sum analysis, but if somebody is devoting resources so that players might see and interact with their trinkets, baubles and trophies, it means they can't be working on something more substantive. am clear not the target for this however. for instance, we is complete baffled by the appeal o' xbox achievements. nevertheless, pretty much every game xbox game gots achievements and the players who seek to gather. collect and display treasure, we suspect is having similar appeal... or maybe not. am guessing folks like to sees some in-game validation that looks kewl. ... clear we don't understand the appeal, but we recognize that such player desires, while alien to us, is real and powerful. am just not sure what should be sacrificed to actualize. HA! Good Fun!

*shudder* the japanese anime/manga aesthetic gives us the heebie-jeebies. creepy looking lemurs is what your idealized imoen looks like to us. HA! Good Fun!

being a bad-guy hero hardly decreases scale of epic. even fo:nv has your choices determining the fate of new vegas and altering the power balance 'tween cal republic, caesar's legions and odo from star trek. fallout? not epic? what you do decides if master and his mutant army succeed or fail. bg? bg2, heck, even planescape the writers has you saving towns in outlands that a cheesed-off angel wants dragged into a "hell," and ps:t sold poorly, so try to distinguish is an epic fail in any case. *shrug* am not thinking epic is needed, but developers appear to disagree with you. HA! Good Fun! ps please note that observing that you can play protagonist as a bad guy is actual reinforcing our observation 'bout need to make such a protagonist vague. character needs to be written so he/she can be all things to all people... which is a stoopid way to try and write a compelling protagonist.

writers o' crpgs has got a conundrum. there is seeming universal belief that players want to be doing epic. players want to be heroes who save cities and nations and more. right or wrong, this belief is a given. this leads to issue we broached earlier 'bout villains-- 'cause villains gotta be as epic as the heroes. why should epic heroes and villains be a problem? 'cause regardless o' scope o' story, you is trying to get player emotionally invested. a hero fighting to save folks, or benefit self? such motivations is not all that deep or profound, but most folks can "get" those kinda motivation. but what about villains? how you write an epic villain that folks not see as campy or over-the-top? perhaps villain wanna take over the world or achieve immortality? perhaps villain is angry with god/gods for some slight? is no natural common ground most of us has with such characters, so they very frequently is seeming fake. our hero, while easier to understand, is written vague so that wide-range o' people can make their own. bob wants to play hero as prototypical champion o' justice. joe wants to play as a kinda good-natured rogue who is in the hero biz for girls and gold. writer of crpg writes game hero so both players is only marginally dissatisfied-- call it a win. the crpg story is borked a bit from the very start. you force writer to has a vague protagonist and a villain with whom nobody will naturally empathize w/o considerable development, and chances are you won't get opportunity to develop the villain much as we is talking 'bout a game and not a novel. gosh, why is crpg writing typical bad? HA! Good Fun!

I hope they try to do that to Lanfear. dave said she were somewhat humorless 'bout her inclusion. being charged $1k might just result in a teutonic rage spiral o' epic proportions... or a hizzy fit. HA! Good Fun!

game is functionally over for us after you confront jedi masters on dantooine... is all downhill after that. ultimate resolution with kreia is handled no better than nihilus. is a crying shame too as first 2/3 of kotor2 is still our favorite game from obsidian, and we not even like particularly star wars. HA! Good Fun! ps am admitting that we liked first 2 star wars movies and didn't hate the third. other star wars stuff? not so much.

darth nihilus is horrible. is the faceless terror kinda villain, but developers were using poor judgement in giving him a face and a voice like something from an evil peanuts cartoon. no real dread, and his threat is only abstract. step onto bridge of dying ship. whack him with lighsabres a few times. nihilus is dead. thus ends threat to the galaxy. you wanna create a sauron kidna threat? then at least learn from manner in which tolkien used such a villain. HA! Good Fun!

these games, wherein the protagonist gains superpowers and can kill dragons or reapers or whatever, is doing stuff o' epic proportion. developers frequent try to avoid the Save The World nonsense, but that is near impossible as they necessarily needs create a villain worthy o' the hero. the villain who simply wants to be left alone? nope. the villain who wants better sanitation and more police responsiveness in the slums? not gonna happen. creates a villain who is worthy o' the hero and is Not a major threat to populace o' the city/planet/galaxy is harder than it sounds. from pov o' the writer, we would always be starting with developing the villain rather than the hero ('cause it is scope o' the obstacle that defines the hero,) but is tough to do that in a crpg in which the hero is gonna get superpowers. one wonders how to do a smerdyakov (brothers karamazov) or even an iago (othello) in a crpg setting w/o making such characters threats to cities, land masses, planets, and innocent puppies everywhere. so, we end up with crud like darth nihilus or the reapers almost outta necessity simply 'cause our heroes is needing to be... big. HA! Good Fun! ps gonna clarify that we were actually thinking the reapers worked as a pretty darn good villain for a game like me1. sure, scope was enormous, but bio did the epic with aplomb in me1. later mass effect games... not so much

"Arguably, pursuing art is a noble effort. It follows, then, that funding art would be noble, too. Whether the people doing the patronizing, or the artists themselves, were noble in all their actions is beside the point." a curious syllogism. is the artist somehow noble 'cause he is doing art? is a game developer worthy o' being called an artist? how 'bout writer of jingles for tv commercials? am thinking that you takes a complex question and try to makes simple. no doubt you sees game developers as noble, but you ain't actual supported that notion. Gromnir am not so shallow as to simply throw the cloak o' nobility over the shoulders o' all artists... has known too many. furthermore, as inherent nobility o' artists is suspect, should we not at leas ask why the patron is paying the artist? is the cigarette manufacturer who were trying to make himself looks less like a merchant o' death and spending millions o' dollars on ad campaigns and building parks (with some o' those dollars going to artists) going to gets mstark label of "noble?" what if you pay artist to make self look good for the church or maybe to mock a political rival? if you can be answering "yes," then we see why you would consider medici, sforza, borgia and others to be noble because of their patronage. no doubt there is historical exceptions, but it is a fact that pursuing/supporting art for the sake o' art is a relatively modern concept. oversimplify is rarely a good option. HA! Good Fun!

wonder if guys like mencar pebblecrusher and del (were included in bg2) knew that getting an npc named after them were worth $1k. "interplay," such as it is nowadays, just might try to bill them. HA! Good Fun!

well, see now this makes more sense. "faergus, send me to Rome. i need to get the feel of the Sistine Chapel for that next game we are doing." "c'mon, send me to machu pichu. there is no way i can know enough about incan architecture and culture without experiencing it." "that trip to the south pole Is necessary. i will bring you back a souvenir t-shirt, i swear." "now try to stay open-minded. Richard Garriott has already been to space..." etc. HA! Good Fun! ps there actually is a gift shop that sells t-shirts at the south pole.

1) am not gonna begrudge folks spending their disposable income how they will. if a fan wanna spend $1000 for a signed baseball card or to gets a video game made, we think that is swell. over the years we has probable spent many thousands o' dollars on games, and ridiculous sums on entertainment. not gonna be no hypocrite. 2) if it is similar to the artistic patronage during renaissance (which it ain't) then am gonna suggest it wouldn't be particularly noble. history o' artistic patronage in at least italian renaissance is frequent very ignoble. example: indulgences were selling at an all-time high for church. some art patronage were effective church blackmail-- rich guy is accused o' something like usury and to atone for "sin" he commissions building or painting of a church.our "noble" patron is then granted indulgence. were also very practical and political reasons for most arts commissions. 3) we is talking video games, no? honestly? *shrug* some guy who makes $50k a year donates $10k to a promising but underfunded lukemia study. that is the kinda thing strikes us as noble. spend $10k on game development maybe is nerd-kewl, but am gonna refrain from calling it noble. HA! Good Fun!

we likes fresca. is a beverage we first saw in the 70s back when tab and rc were big sellers. anyways, we like fresca and buy in large quantities. we bought those 24 packs til recent. reason why we don't buy 24 packs is 'cause coca cola don't sell'em no more. coca-cola sells 20 count boxes... and charges same price they were recent selling 24. Gromnir wants fresca, so while we groused a bit 'bout functional price increase, we still paid for 4 less cans o' soda. publishers is no better than coca-cola. publishers ain't offering dlc to makes the world a better place-- they is making Money. dlc is a scheme that works to get you to pay more money for their games, 'cause like we need fresca, you'all need dlc. force everybody to pay more than $50 or $60 or whatever is basic standard day 1 price is gonna result in lost sales and lost dollars for publisher. publisher has no doubt figured out with a very small margin o' error, just how much money they lose by increasing cost of basic game. similarly, publishers know that some folks really need fresca, so they sell ce units and day 1 dlc folks to some folks... make optional. you know, we bets some junkie who is stealing tvs and breaking into cars for loose change is gonna complain if his dealer raises cost of daily fix, but the junkie is still gonna find a way to pay. bet the junkie complains loud and long, but dealer knows the dirty little hollow man is gonna pay somehow, someway. *shrug* publish games has gotten less lucrative in recent years and so dealers is gonna find ways to get their consumers to pay more... oops, we means publishers, not dealers. profits from successful games is having to cover inevitable loses from other games, so publishers has necessarily gotten creative in ways they squeeze blood outta you. is no ethics o' day 1 dlc or such nonsense worth considering. is business. gotta deal with it or get clean... filthy junkies. HA! Good Fun! ps pardon us while we grab our 3rd fresca o' the day.

Why am I the only one that makes fun of the popular usage of "lore?" I went through that list just hoping it would be there. So alone. What's the popular usage of "lore"? I like making fun of the word "immersion" myself. am adding realism/realistic to our list. List: immersion curling canon (particularly fallout or star wars canon... "that isn't what a basilisk war droid looks like" becomes a multi-page thread? really?) realism in reference to game development romance threads... that invariably become gay romance threads discussion of pets dark (often used interchangeably with "real" when discussing theme) twilight books/movies/fans etc. no doubt some folks is hopeful they makes our list *squint menacingly at fellow posters* go ahead, we dares you. HA! Good Fun!