Gromnir

If you really don't see the difference between cliche and storytelling then you really need to watch something better. Good storytelling happens despite the archetype not because of it, cliches rely on the appeal of the archetype while having no real story. Hope that makes it clearer to you. ... talk 'bout a wtf moment. do you even bother to read what you write? how on earth does you get that we equate use o' cliche and storytelling? we made an initial comment 'bout the dearth o' quality storytelling in japanese anime... recognized a handful o' pervasive shortcomings only one o' which were the over-dependence on a limited number o' archetypes. YOU is the guy who comes up with the strawman/ non sequitur and tells us that japanese cliches is no worse than western. am suspecting you is being willful obtuse, but this ridiculous line o' argument seems too damn random to be intentional. well, i t looks like you gots calax to follow your lead, so we guess your detour 'round rationality and common sense weren't a total loss. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

*smacks forehead* please review the thread.... and somebody Please explain strawman to oro. is making rational discussion increasing difficult. you are the guy that for some inexplicable reason suggested that our (western?) cliches is no better than Japanese cliches. nobody in this thread had made a claim to the contrary before you challenged the notion o' western cliche dominance. if you review you will see that from the very start we were observing shortcomings in Japanese storytelling in anime, so to suggest that we is doing red herring is... bizarre. as for the name-calling (which is again a rather poor attempt to gets thread off the rails,) the only group we actual used any arguable name-calling to reference, were coffee shop goth. you did a much better job by directing your comments at us personal. so congrats to you for standing up for the gothies? no doubt they were terribly offended by being called "clowns" and were needing you to save them... or somesuch. however, please note that nietzsche frequently insulted his detractors and contemporaries in his writings, and as you is taking a moral and cultural relativist stance (HA!) we find your most recent hypocrisy utterly baffling... winky emote aside. maybe this is one o' those language gap problems? is english your second-language? is indeed ironic that Gromnir is the one to broach the idea, but we does see that non-english speakers will frequently use words and phrases in odd ways. name-calling, red herring, strawman, etc... perhaps is just a simple matter o' lacking familiarity with language.if you is getting yourself confused by the intricacies and subtleties o' language, we will endeavor to be more patient with your seeming ignorance. ... at this point am suspecting we is now gonna needs explain "irony" and "ignorance." HA! Good Fun!

The market practice it's geared towards middle school girls, yet the means remains the same as it does with adults. Its the old adage "Sex sells", so it would be really no surprise if someone older picked up on that and responded to it. But I just used him as an example of how the media capitalizes on sex appeal even when its not completely appropriate. No, i'm defending cultural relativity by pointing out the same oddities on our own. Starting with the Greeks seems to make the most sense since its the greatest example that our own depravities are not the result of cultural exchange with Japan but rather original. Its just a difference of perspective between cultures, not really an issue of right or wrong. HA! somebody Please explain to oro that the slippery slope he is on is quite steep. the fact that the greeks did something somehow legitimizes? how 'bout the aztecs? or, gawd forbid, the french? hey, we can also looks at pervasive shortcomings in Nipponese storytelling (lack o' meaningful character development and cohesive plot) as simply the result o' cultural differences, no? all o' which is kinda beside point as it is your strawman we is beating senseless. wacky stuff. as an aside, we really hates the wiki-generation. it were bad enough when a handful o' goth types would hang 'round college coffee shops and misquote Nietzsche. 'least those clowns had genuine read some o' the source material. HA! Good Fun!

you have got to be kidding. justin bieber is popular with middle school girls. you can't see a difference? ... you is actual attempting to defend sexualized lolli? use Greeks to defend? *shudder* however, we will continue to respond to your twisted little rationalizations in the hopes you will respond with even more bizarre material. HA! Good Fun!

You have taken an entire series of stories,traditions and archetypes and reduced them to lolis. That's a strawman. no we didn't. in fact, we specifically said we weren't condemning all japanese archetypes. bad reading skills. and we would like to remind you that we initially did not distinguish japanese archetypes-- you did. was YOUR strawman. so try not to be more o' a hypocrite. "No, it doesn't make uncomfortable" *chuckle* that is all you need say. *shudder* but maybe after you learn strawman, you can figure out why the moral/cultural relativism bit is such a slippery slope. oh, and just as soon as kiddie beauty pageant contestants become mainstream archetypes in sitcoms, dramas and western animation, you will perhaps be making a point relevant to the immediate issue. HA! Good Fun!

Not sure what "void" you're talking about. IWD and Diablo 2 were released on the same day. That said, I generally agree with your overall assessment of Diablo-esque ARPGs. Although I didn't actually play one until Torchlight. I got my $5 (hooray for Steam sales) worth of entertainment out of it, but I did feel little ashamed about the time it ate up. funny how memory works. we knows that iwd were targeted to get released Before diablo 2... that were one o' the reasons it were being rushed. we knew it failed to gets released before, but we thoughts it were hitting shelves a bit after diablo 2. odd. aside: am not actually playing anything at the moment. me3 interested us less and less as it got closer to release, so we will wait for the inevitable end-of-year bargain offering before we delve into the conclusion o' the trilogy. no diablo 3 for us. da3 is on hold til after the mayan end o' the world target date. ... at no point since 1997 has we had so little interest in computer games. HA! Good Fun!

I try being concise rather than do a series of long posts that are irrelevant and cloud the point. No offense meant to anyone, just a preference of mine. Ok . With the difference being that Japan has overexploited all of theirs. Look it's okay if you're biased because it makes you uncomfortable, just admit to it, say your opinion and have the courtesy of respecting someone else's. clearly you dont know what strawman is... but that is okie dokie. and you is damn right that it makes us uncomfortable. duh. it should makes You uncomfortable. THAT IS THE POINT. the fact that such a common and "overexploited" (is that a word?) Japanese archetype doesn't make you, and the Japanese viewing public, uncomfortable were exactly what we were referencing. regardless, am not sure what kinda subtext you could be looking for to explain "pantsu" (again, am not sure if we is getting phrases correct as the vocabulary is foreign to us) and bizarre bathing suit shots o' preteens. is just... bizarre. uncomfortable? HA! yes! hell yes! orogun, let us introduce you to the point... sheesh. HA! Good Fun!

played diablo. finished diablo. ... was midly embarrassed that we actual played diablo to its conclusion. our completionist tendency, bordering almost on an ocd compulsion, had us mindlessly playing the original diablo for many hours... but not too many. diablo gameplay felt a bit like playing single-player pong on easy difficulty setting. the only saving grace for us were that unlike pong, diablo had a conclusion. game over. hallelujah. is not that diablo were a bad game. for what it was, it were a fine game. blizzard discovered the correct formula or alchemy for an action-rpg. peoples coulds see their character getting more powhaz and better 10075 in just the correct amounts and frequency to stays motivated to play for the next hour... or 10. good game-- we could recognize why diablo were so successful even if it left us personally unfulfilled. anywho, some time passes and diablo 2 rolls around... and iwd is a bit behind schedule. seems monumentally stoopid in retrospect, but we did indeed buy diablo 2 to fill the void. am doubting we played diablo 2 for more than 2 hours. with the second incarnation we could see (again) why the diablo franchise were popular, but for us it were 'bout as "fun" as pulling weeds. diablo 3? yeah, right. HA! Good Fun!

or do you think that even a company that big and prestigious is tied down in that sense? am doubting size and prestige are serious factors. am betting that the giants o' publishing is actual far more likely to engage in the flop/hit calculus than does smaller publishers. you is more likely to Need a hit if you only got one game to be released in the span o' a few years, no? on the other hand, if you is a big publisher releasing loads o' titles per quarter, perhaps you are a bit more invested in those quarterly reports, eh? releasing a modest success or two before the end o' the next quarter to offset some unfortunate losses is the kinda thing that the really big publishers is needing to consider. HA! Good Fun!

Right, our cliches are so much more better than theirs. thank you for creating the Perfect straw-man example. will be a learning opportunity for the kiddies. *add eye-roll icon here* that being said, since you bring up the issue of superiority/inferiority o' cliches, we will submit that the lolli (sp?) as a character archetype designed to elicit a sexual response is making our blood run cold. such a disturbing and pervasive archetype is hardly constituting a condemnation o' all japanese archetypes.... but it is seriously messed up, no? HA! Good Fun!

given the recent popularity o' comic superheros in other media, am genuine surprised that some developer hasn't taken a stab at a crpg. (or maybe they has, and we simply didn't notice) freedom force were a campy take on the genre, but it showed that such a crpg could be commercial viable and... good fun. marvel and dc is providing multiple possible settings, but there is sooooo many different superhero comic titles that would make excellent fodder for a crpg game. perhaps gladstone's school for world conquerors. HA! Good Fun! ps anime (japanese anime) almost universal sux. seriously. there is a handful o' cliche anime character archetypes that anime writers drop into increasingly wacky settings with largely nonsensical plots. "creativity" in anime is rare 'bout character. instead, anime writers focus all their efforts on concept.

... am just not sure how to respond. HA! Good Fun!

wanna go serious old skool bio (interplay) board nonsense? how 'bout the furor over the hidden holy sword in the firewine bridge ruins? bio let that bit of wacky live for a significant 'mount of time. am not certain how many folks rolled paladins just to take advantage o' that "find." HA! Good Fun!

having played an inquisitor (sorcerer-healer) to 50, a bounty hunter (merc-dps) to 25, and a knight (guardian-tank) to 45, am having had a much different impression. the story aspects of each class involve only an extreme small % of total gameplay time and isamazing how much the biowarians recycled to does s'posed unique story. am not gonna address "style" or "atmosphere." is just too vague. regardless, is not genuine relevant to our query as we were wondering 'bout post 50. playing all the different classes is one way some folks might be able to keeps their interest in the game, but am wondering about the post 50 draw of swtor. any ideas? am honestly curious. we seen some folks playing same characters after they hit 50 for hours each and every day, and we not get it. hurl told us that we didnt understand mmo gameplay-- game doesnt end at 50, says hurl. ok, but for the life of us, we dont see the draw post 50. HA! Good Fun!

no doubt Gromnir is in a minority, but we just don't "get" the post-50 gameplay. yeah, the first time you successful do ev, or the other operation, it is kinda fun... get 8-16 people working together is new and unlike the flashpoints or heroics one has done earlier in the game. sadly the operations and hm flashpoints is frequently beatable not through coordinated strategy, but 'cause o' tricks. boss X is unkillable once he hits 15% health... needs to be bounced off a ledge with a coordinated double knockback. uh... ok. healer gets pulled and insta-killed... unless he stands outside building near a crack in the wall of the structure. stoopid. even so, the first couple times you run hm flaspoints and operations, they can be entertaining, but what do you do afterwards? grind dailies for credits? huttball? we cancelled our subscription 'cause we didn't see no point after we finished a level 50 character, and got pretty far with a second. second character was far too similar to the first to make it worth continuing. so, what were we missing? HA! Good Fun!

I'm not sure that Obsidian uses data as Bioware does, at least the examples given in that interview seem to point towards Obsidian thinking more in terms of 'big perks' they can give their fanbase in DLC and expansions. seems like semantics. any added feature or gameplay improvement could be characterized as a "big perk," no? regardless, we thinks chrisA is kinda an amusing choice as a poster child for developers who embrace fan-feedback. equally ridiculous would be if Gromnir wrote an essay on the merits o' polite forum behavior, or vol lauded the importance o' reasoned arguments and good spelling. weird and wrong. HA! Good Fun!

... am wondering if the aforementioned chrisA comments was meant as humor, 'cause we has seen more than a few chrisA comments that is revealing just how outta touch he is with fans. am recollecting some youtube video o' a gdc event with chrisA doing all the speaking. were just plain weird to listen to some o' his reflections regarding kotor2 and ps:t. for instance, apparantly nobody complained 'bout the absence o' elves and dwarves in ps:t. *snort* am not doubting that chrisA genuine believes that feedback is important, but one suspects that much as bioware misreading o' datamining has resulted in peculiar conclusions, we believe that the obsidnaties is likewise willful obtuse or similarly incapable o' reading data correct. explains stuff like the final fo:nv dlcs and the more bizarre chrisA comments we has seen... from time-to-time. HA! Good Fun!

before quitting, we played on 2 different servers. the high population server were initially frustrating. it were difficult to get a group together for flashpoints and heroics. we were invited to join a guild and we accepted... figured, "why not?" being in a guild made it Much easier to find groups. on the negative side, 1/3 o' the people in the guild were... difficult. every time they level, they announce and are expecting a "congrats." every kewl piece o' loot? announce. some players were all 'bout the pvp and they had their own baggage. some folks were predictably immature. why invite a player who names his toon "moneyshot"? couldn't predict that he would be a schnook? etc. on the low pop server, we had no guild. doing flashpoints and heroics became increasingly difficult as we leveled. one thing that helped (a little) were that we made a point of aiding other players do flashpoints and heroics. help a bunch o' folks complete athis, and then when you later need help with mandalorean raiders, eventually the folks you helped earlier will level enough to be able to help you. others players will have the same problem getting groups for flashpoints, so spam random acts o' generosity gets more mileage than spam "lfg ____________ " a dozen times. and w/o the guild baggage, we not have to announce "grats" every time a guild member levels... or feign interest when pvp players announce the contents o' their champion bag. HA! Good Fun!

as Gromnir mentioned earlier, the most effective way to get companions to 10k affection is with gifts. try to do with dialogues alone and you end up with a bunch o' level 15-30 companion quests that is less than fulfilling once you hit 50... particularly as such quests offer increasingly large xp awards. depending on your server, you may be able to purchase companion gifts through galactic trade at a relative cheap price... am recollecting that they shows up as miscellaneous items. reagarding truez observations 'bout grey relics (non-ls/ds), he is glossing over the fact that his alternatives is primarily post level 50 options. as a level 19 whatever, you can equip a couple o' relics that would boost your endurance by 28 points, and provide a nice (albeit brief) alacrity bonus. initial relics is needing level 19 to equip, and am believing that relics improve at level 27, 35 and 50. is a considerable 'mount o' gaming hours one must endure with two empty equipment slots if one chooses a neutral path. for non-pvp player, relics is out-of-reach for those who wish to stay grey and have not yet hit level 50. how many hours o' gameplay does it take to reach 50 for most folks? HA! Good Fun!

go to artifice trainer and instead o' looking at trainable recipes, look at "all." you will see that approx every 20 point increase in artifice skill affords you new schematics. the more non-grey'd-out stuff you craft, the higher your artifice skill rises. ... depending on the server, crafted crystals seems to be the items most in demand from artificers. one reason for this is simple that the jump between crystal improvements seem larger than that of enhancements and hilts. a purple 11 resolve hilt is probable gonna be useful for only a handful o' levels before higher level blues (and even greens) outstrip in efficacy. why pay big credits for a custom crafted hilt when you can probable get better simple by waiting til you get a few commendations from the next planet? and maybe part o' the demand for crystals seems to be 'cause folks is disproportionate concerned with the look o' their blaster fire or lightsabre beam. we were getting 20k-25k per crystal for the purple versions o' the level 49 crystals... and 250k for the violet crystals. the only three crafting skills we would bother with (the serious credit hounds go all-out with gathering) is artifice, biotech and cybertech... but no doubt others will have different experience. heck, combine cybertech and slicing and you can corner the spaceship upgrade market with only a little effort. some wackos will also pay ridiculous amounts for the custom speeders cybertech can produce via those slicing schematics. bio produces very useful and saleable stims and medpacks... and that level 50 artifact reusable medpack looks very appealing. that being said, a jedi/sith character gets big benefit from artifice. enhancements can benefit all characters in your group... so too does crystals. very bang for buck. as an aside, we also did synthweave up to a pretty high level and were relative disappointed. HA! Good Fun!

it doesnt have base stat boosts. is expensive to experiment, but take alll the mods out of your chest piece/lightsabre/blaster rifle/whatever and you is gonna see that save for some very rare exceptions, all the orange stuff is simply containers for mods. armour mod sets base armour rating. hilt mod sets base damage for lightsabres. etc. the armour we were using at level 50 were stuff we picked up 'round level 20. gots approx +80 will +75 end, and similar big boosts to critical and surge. were all based on mods. HA! Good Fun!

I am 12 and what is this. *chuckle* identify the parts that confuse you. clarification will be provided. your continued ignorance is unnecessary. anything before the word "malice"? let us hope that is not the case, otherwise you have an uphill battle in front of you. HA! Good Fun!

You would have been a great judge in nazi germany. silliness. question: why have an age restriction? question: what other kinds o' media has age restrictions? question: what are the possible repercussions if bioware/ea knowing/willful ignores their posted age restrictions? etc. *shrug* and even when a reasonable explanation for actions seems lacking, (not the case in the present circumstance) incompetence or mistake is far more likely a cause than is malice. am always surprised by how quick people rush to clear misguided reasonings. rather than consider plausible explanations for behavior, kids jump to a conclusion that bestest supports their own insta-assumptions. one can avoid looking foolish simply by asking questions and searching for answers before messily ejaculating nonsense. HA! Good Fun!

I don't even know what 65 valor ranks mean. Is there an e-peen conversion table I can look at to help me understand the magnitude? effectively, 65 valor means they gots better gear than you could hope to get in a few hundred hours o' pve gameplay, or probable +50 hours o' future pvp. gameplay. pvp still is giving massively unbalanced payoff in experience and 1007 compared to pve. the gear makes the character in high levels, and the champion bags and other stuff for pvp is disproportionate powerful. pre-patch players is gonna have a big edge for quite some time to come. is yet another reason we stayed away from pvp entirely. HA! Good Fun!

lag is ok for us... but fps in some areas is ridiculous bad. 'ccording to their little lag meter on the map, Gromnir is gold, but on fleet and in some story instances, our fps drops to teens... or worse. our system is more than good enough to handle, and we already disabled shadows n' such. am understanding why some is frustrated. we dont play pvp, but am annoyed by the animation delay on interrupts. sure, is only .5 seconds, but is frustrating to activate shock or electrocute, and still get nailed with a boss robot missile barrage or sith lord's force storm. is a known issue, but am not sure if bio cares. didnt read all the threads. ... the one thing that continues to amaze us is the rinse & repeat nature o' this game. gameplay is gameplay-- not matter if is mp or sp. after bg were released, people complained 'bout fighting hundreds of hobgoblin or bandit groups that had no discernible purpose other than to drop 1007 and provide xp. ridiculous. bio responded to complaints and changed (although Gromnir am seeing some o' the silliness return to games such as da2.) so, why is it a given that killing 40 black sun gangsters... and then killing 40 MORE is an accepted part o missions by mp gamers? oh, and the wild goose chase mentality is equal wacky. step 1 is on extreme southwest corner of map. step 2 is extreme northeast. step 3 is back in southwest somewheres. ... what the hell is wrong with the last decade's worth o' mp gamers that they has allowed such insanity to propagate? HA! Good Fun!