Gromnir

am not seeing anybody in this thread making the claim you suggest. regardless, even if somebody was making such a claim, how does bg2 balance problems impact da:o balance? you is making complete nonsense arguments that got zippo impact on the issue at hand. might as well tell us that diablo 2 mages were just as imbalanced as da:o mages. who cares? so what? assuming vol is correct, why does existence of overpowered mages in a d&d game made a decade ago make one bit o' difference regarding the balance o' mages in a non-d&d game released in 2009? HA! Good Fun!

pray-tell, what does bg2 have to do with da:o balance? in any event, we doubt a powergamer would play through bg2 with 5 mages and a tank. experience were parceled out different, so am recalling that a 4 person party actual leveled and were tougher sooner than a six member party. ranger/cleric, kensai/mage a thief/mage combo o' some sort, and berserker or inquisitor were the most oft mentioned power-group we saw... never saw anybody other than vol suggest that 5 mages and a tank were best. but again, even if it were true, what does that have to do with da:o? you were mentioning logic earlier? try and guess which logic fallacy you is making. is a good exercise. HA! Good Fun!

Ok, now I sorta see where we differ. Your cause and effect is complitely opposite of mine. If you'd design nihilistic setting, denizens in it would *shrug* few times and get on with their insignificant lives and still live just about the same as they used to. In my nihilistic setting it would end up in flames or at least in complite collapse of the society. Might be "fun" PnP project. Something like world full of characters like Kevin Nealon's excellent Doug Wilson (from the Weeds). ... am thinking you is still missing. is very easy to envision dark nihilistic worlds where lack o' meaning = loss of hope. however, is hardly impossible to envision the opposite... is not Gromnir's view v. yours. is fact that Gromnir recognizes that nothing inherent in nihilism = dark. nihilism is. people add all their own baggage into the mix and end up with utopia or dystopia or some other topia. "The potion of re-spec shows how hopelessly unbalanced DA is" am wondering if developers recognize the problem with balance if respec has greater impact than difficulty slider. heck, alan were telling us contemp with game release that the general consensus 'mongst testers/developers were that the ultimate power group were 3 mages and a tank. shouldn't that have created some awareness 'mongst the developers that they had some balance concerns? now is possible tha the developers ain't genuine concerned with balance... which is fine. am not gonna agree that balance is unimportant, but we has seen such arguments made. 'course if balance ain't a concern, then we cannot guess why new powhaz and skills ain't usable in OC. HA! Good Fun

This is a pet hate of mine. Have Bio explained, perchance, why not? an odd choice. is pure conjecture, however, considering how fubar balance were in da:o, we doubt biowarians wanna try and make adjustments to compensate for the new host o' powhaz and spells. HA! Good Fun!

1) prove it... Gromnir has shown his posts. show yours. even so, that would still makes belated. Gromnir had argued on the bio da boards and elsewhere that the rogue/thief/skill-user/bard/ranger (and any of the other host o' possible names for the 3rd class) were unnecessary bloat from the moment bioware announced 3 classes for da. from that perspective, you were very late to the party. HA! Good Fun!

I use game quotes rather then real life quotes (those would just lead to endless counter quotes). In games (and in other creative media) you can deal with absolutes. You design world and setting to be something and thus by default they are what you designed 'em to be. In real world it'll be about what we BELIVE (or what we KNOW if we choose strong stance for or against something). no doubt you thinks the quote above means something. it don't. and why you sudden decide to throw ubiquitous nihilism into Thedas as some sorta proof is baffling to say the least. is hardly difficult to imagine a setting where people/beings do not believe in objective morality or Reasons for Existence w/o it being dark. postmodern fiction has become increasingly nihilistic, and while much such fiction is dark, not all is. God is Dead. fine. is impossible to imagine a period of mourning after which folks go on with their lives? nihilism is not inherent dark. btw, on the issue of the specific topic o' bio's making of da darkness, we think it is manifest unfair to use textbook or wiki definitions o' literary darkness. there is a great deal o' difference o' opinion regarding what makes for darkness in lit and games. regarding dark & mature, the developers was more than a little vague pre-release. even so, we were given to understand that da were gonna have more moral ambiguity and tough choices with no clear-cut good v. evil. bsg and george r.r. martin were big inspirations and we shoulds be expecting to see characters with complex motivations rather than the oversimplified nonsense that inevitably results from d&d alignment and star wars light v. dark. etc. am not holding bio to any definition o' dark and mature other than their own. given how little they said it shoulda' been easy to successful achieve dark and mature, no? "dark, but not too dark." HA! Good Fun!

even a busted clock is correct 2x a day. besides which, concerning bg2 and ps:t we typical disagree with your reasoning. fall from grace, for example, is a terribly developed character. nevertheless, vol thinks fall from grace is keen. even so, Gromnir has on numerous occasions, identified times and circumstances when vol made a valid argument. our faith in an ordered and rational universe is diminished when such stuff occurs, but we does not deny the increasingly slight possibility o' vol being correct. his belated agreement with Gromnir that the da rogue class were unnecessary is such an example. the fact that vol also were critical of some obvious tim cain blunders before toee release were surprising. vol is not always wrong, but such rarities simply add to the unpredictable wackiness that is vol. if you was wrong 100% o' the time then you would become dependable... which is equal unthinkable. also, for future reference, logic is not synonymous with reason or argument. vol, having never actual utilized logic would hardly be expected to recognize such a distinction, but Gromnir gives it a shot anyways. HA! Good Fun!

In the Witcher (I find that setting dark while others argue that there's nothing dark in it) your dwarf companion say something like this - "moral relativism has caused more misery then all the monsters and dragons combined". I liked that quote and if we accept that nihilism is the ultimate argument against any kind of morality ie. "nothing matters, not even my own actions", I can't see that as anything but a extremely dark view. quoting witcher? really? HA! "If they're made aware that those characters and events are not meaningful, they will perceive the work as being darker." this too is NOT nihilism. lack o' objective meaning or morality hardly robs characters and story of meaning. yet another coffee shop goth's pov o' nihilism. maria and nit should get together and write the definitive text on nihilism based on their experience with pc games. HA! Good Fun! ps so as to be more clear than is typical for us, we do not deny that the typical portrayal and perception o' nihilism is dark. "Life has no meaning? Dear God, whatever shall I do?" *snort* but again, that ain't nihilism. what you find to be dark is the typical perception and portrayal of nihilism as some kinda philosophical dead-end that robs folks o' hope and restraint. foolishness. don't confuse nihilism with nihilistic characters and stories you has witnessed. is not the nihilism that is dark, but only the artist/author's presentation.

the fact that vol likes it is a more scathing criticism o' the me2 resource acquisition scheme than any argument Gromnir could hope to devise. HA! Good Fun!

am always disappointed by folks who equate nihilism with dark; is a disturbingly myopic pov. HA! Good Fun! Are you saying that nihilism is not dark? there is nothing inherent dark about nihilism. death metal freaks and coffee shop goths has given nihilism a bad name... and of course the fact that nihilists and organized religions rare see eye-to-eye may exacerbate the issue a bit. lack o' objective meaning or morality does NOT = dark. Gromnir could very easy create a land o' fluffy bunnies frolicking in a nihilistic utopia w/o even a hint o' darkness in it. HA! Good Fun!

am always disappointed by folks who equate nihilism with dark; is a disturbingly myopic pov. HA! Good Fun!

as an aside, legion may be upgraded to use widow as well. HA! Good Fun!

You'd be surprised how many people on the bio forums find the mining enjoyable. They aren't the majority, but there is a significant number of them out there. am suspecting that there is some certain bio fans that will defend any dumb thing in a bio game. is a groupie phenomenon not limited to bio. can find similar behavior at nma/codex regarding tim cain/troika games. am having a hard time believing that more than the smallest fraction o' players find the resource acquisition scheme to be "strangely addictive." is NOT a mini-game in any meaningful sense... is mind-numbingly repetitive activity that requires no skill or strategy. if players were told that the only way to find 1007 or clues in a game were to be pixel-hunting, the vast majority of players would respond with anger or derision. nevertheless, bio has managed to sell glorified pixel hunts as a mini-game in me2? is even more ludicrous than their suggestion that the dialogue wheel were innovative. side note: we believe that casey hudson's tedious resource acquisition nonsense could be used quite effective as the basis for self-hypnosis experiments. while engaged in finding more platinum or iridium on some nameless planet in yet another otherwise empty and pointless galaxy map system, we discovered that our power animal were the woodchuck. go figure. HA! Good Fun!

This bio didn't want the da themes to be too dark. shoulda' seen some o' the feedback on the bio boards... would explain why the developers felt as if they could not push limits. also, keep in mind the biowarian pov... and that they were going for dark AND mature. sure, bg2 had rape and murdered children and a serial killer who watched silence o' the lambs far too many times for his own good, but there were almost always right v. wrong and good v. evil resolutions for the bg2 protagonist. with da, bioware were genuine attempting more moral ambiguity... but not too much moral ambiguity. _____, but not too _______ dark, but not too dark. mature, but not too mature. good, but not too good. *shrug* bio approach is very successful, but it will always leaves people at least marginal unsatisfied. if you attempts to please everybody, you cannot possibly hopes to complete satisfy anybody. after all, the Average Gamer doesn't actually exist. hardcore gamers? forget it, 'cause you is further away from the Average Gamer than is most bio fans. now don't get us wrong, we liked da very much and am looking forward to the sequels, but we has a hard time believing bio when they claims to be attempting innovation in gameplay or storytelling, 'cause innovation is far too risky for any developer so obviously dedicated to pleasing the Average Gamer. HA! Good Fun!

And what were those? I vaguely remember G.R.R.Martin's works mentioned early in the development cycle, and from what I've read of his works the "dark" stuff is everyone being bastards, the principal characters going through hell and there being a lot of violence (amongst humans) some of which DA implements albeit half heartedly. martin were mentioned often, though not for reasons you identify. lovecraft and howard got some love... and maybe moor****. so too were mentioned firefly and battlestar galactica tv... more bsg than firefly. some graphic novels got mention too, though to a lesser degree. violence is indeed part o' what the biowarians saw as dark & mature, but so is anti-heroes and no-win scenarios. "everyone is a bastard" is a rather childish description, but if it makes you feel better to identify martin characters as such, go for it. martin has some clear goodie/non-bastard characters, but he is willing to kill 'em off w/o much hesitation, and many characters that seems initial evil or bad is developed so that they is seen as flawed and corrupt more than Evil. "the principal characters going through hell," is more boo childishness, but is not complete inaccurate. dark typically has bad stuff happening to good people. being heroic does not guarantee happily-ever-after or a glorious and meaningful death. moral ambiguity in martin and bsg were often identified as part o' the Dark and Mature that the biowarians were aiming for in da. horror has ties to dark, and da did indeed include horror elements, but the crpg medium is more suited to "gotcha" than horror... at least that has been Gromnir's experience. some folks tells us that they found system shock 2 to be a scary game. we never got no sense of menace or dread from system shock 2... too many waves o' creepy crawlies. ss2 had gotcha moments when baddies leap out unexpected and attacked, but we never got no genuine menace or dread. other horror games fall similarly flat for Gromnir, but we understand the desire to combine horror elements with a crpg to achieve dark... menace and dread. is tough to gets serious menace and dread when you got repetitive mob combats and reload and such. in lovecraft stories you is relative certain that the protagonist is gonna get swallowed by darkness at some point. such fear never genuine exists in a crpg. is up to the individual to decide just how much dark and mature bio managed to instill into da. we didn't see as much as we hoped. after gaider's "dark, but not too dark," comment we were not expecting significant dark and mature, but we were a bit surprised by fact that da didn't seem to advance dark and mature beyond what we already saw in bg2. HA! Good Fun!

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levels o' difficulty such as Insane, Nightmare, or Superfrag is all kinda wacky. in d&d crpgs you sees developers give monsters ridiculous hp totals, superior thac0 and near automatic save rolls. "Insanity" is little more than relative simple data entry adjustments that does indeed increase difficulty-- a crude, but effective approach. da were similar. in point o' fact, as a player we had a hard time distinguishing 'tween da's hardcore and nightmare difficulty. me2? even on the ordinary difficulty, me2 enemies have perfect aim, so how does a developer make me2 more difficult? add layers o' protection. is a simple method for making game more difficult. crude, but effective. am not sure what people expect from increased difficulties. developers ain't gonna change enemy ai or complete redesign combat encounters to achieve greater difficulty. increased difficulties will almost invariably be the result o' some straightforward and blunt method for pumping up the abilities and defenses o' the enemies you is likely to encounter. now, something like the ascension mod for tob were... different. each tob boss encounter gots a nice tweak. made for a nifty bonus for serious fan who wished for a bit more challenge on subsequent plays of game. 'course tob's ascension were involving considerable volunteer work from gaider and others to complete. would be nice if all games did similar, but am not certain that it is fair to expect such developer efforts for all games. however, as we is increasingly witnessing dlc spam from publishers, am thinking we would much appreciate a tuned-up boss battles dlc package for many games such as da and me2. as opposed to warden's keep or return to ostegar, we would rather have an altered and optimized boss battles dlc option for purchase... similar to tob ascension stuff. HA! Good Fun!

instead o' dragon age: awakenings, they shoulda' done dragon age: redux. da:r would allow the player to redo landsmeet and all the crap that came afterwards. give bio a chance to do a complete rewrite of landsmeet and climax. 'stead of 2-3 hours o' crappola, create 15-20 hours o' gameplay that weren't tedious mob nonsense. resolve allistar in a way that ain't complete puerile. gaider wants morrigan to be more than simple cold b!tch offering you devil's deal? fine, let gaider fix. current final confrontation with the archdemon gots all the emotional impact of a postcard from geico offering us lower insurance rates on our car/boat/motorcycle/rv. fix. ok, maybe Gromnir wouldn't wanna pay serious money simply to play a fixed da:o... but if we had a $10 direct download option... HA! Good Fun!

Di, equipment makes a difference in me2. the basic assault rifle option in me2 is... crap. am gonna suggest that from this point forward you do not rely too much on joinable npcs that depend on an assault rifle, 'cause w/o the vindicator or collector assault rifle options, you is gonna be playing at a significant disadvantage. *shrug* HA! Good Fun!

dire as synonymous with dismal? as a character, morrigan works well enough as an unrepentant and mercenary b!tch. sure, she may feels friendship or even love for the protagonist, but is no question that she is gonna do what is necessary to achieve her own goals. regrets? maybe. apologies? never. we were expecting morrigan treachery, so we were hardly surprised when she lived up to (down to) our expectations. trying to give morrigan a soul/heart after the fact actually weakens the character in our eyes. crying? bah. gaider is being an apologist for his character... and he not need to apologize. morrigan's character not require a post script to create some lacking pathos. what is so damned wrong with having a morrigan wedded to her plan/goal above and beyond personal bonds o' friendship and loyalty? am actual disappointed with the comic. cheapens the character as written in da:o. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking that a handful o' fallout fans got together and decided that alternate endings were some kinda brass ring o' game development... not sure why. alternate ends is the Easiest place for developers to bifurcate story, and as with fallout, the execution is invariably a bit sloppy. nothing significant comes after the game end, so have 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 ends not gonna result in no game-breaking. multiple ends for sake o' having multiple ends? *snort* bifurcate significant somewheres in middle o' game, or near start o' game. now That would be worth witnessing, but to have a downer ending "just because" is pandering to an element o' the gamer populace that not need more attention. da:o actually handled the denouement stuff very well... when it weren't bugged to hell. sure, you gotta confront and overcome the UBG, but the epilogues were satisfying. provide a bummer ending for me3? fine, give 2% o' the me3 gamers a chance to sees the galaxy go up in flames. if that makes game so much better for some folks, then include such an ending, but do not try and convince Gromnir that the addition o' such an ending is genuine meaningful. doing so at end o' game is the damned easiest place to bifurcate the story and it offers even less replay value than those origins from da:o. HA! Good Fun!

yeah... not really what we is talking 'bout. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna assume a minor spelling error... or not. maybe get george r.r. marten to does a similar comic... or perhaps neal gaiman. comic woulda' been a good idea if released Before origins as it would have introduced fans to some aspects o' the da universe. coulda' been a lower-budget web-comic or somesuch. maybe coulda cut out some o' the tedious game exposition if fans were already familiar with the da universe. HA! Good Fun! ps we loathe d&d alignment. as boo notes, is nothing wrong with philosophical considerations o' the nature o' evil, but the silly d&d x-y axis crap has reduced moral dilemmas to a mechanical process guided by gygax notions. whether you folks realize or not, you is using d&d vernacular to explore notions o' good v. evil... and don't even get us started on law v. chaos. *shudder* 'course, as the folks developing these games has also been perverted by gygax, tsr and wotc, is only natural that fans would be similarly robbed o' free will when discussing morality and ethics o' people(s) in fantasy crpgs.

am reminded of reeses peanut butter cups. bio insists on recreating a digital peanut butter cup... "two great tastes that taste great together." jade empire were a fusion o' fighting game and rpg elements. the fighting game aspects o' je were not particularly challenging, and the rpg elements were lite, but some folks enjoyed well enough. too much fighter-game for Gromnir... and we didn't like the characters or story much. je did have an intriguing setting, but if you not like fighter games aspect... me 1 were combining supposed shooter and rpg, but am thinking that few rpg folks were daunted by me 1 combat; the shootery stuff was made visual appealing but non-lethal. Gromnir, who has limited use of his left hand (nerve damage) did not require many reloads due to inability to aim or find cover. we could die in me 1 if we chose particularly stoopid tactics, but lack o' mad shooterz skillz never resulted in me 1 death for us. me 2, on the other hand... is no way in hell Gromnir could play me 2 on the pc. sure, the game looks superior and has better interface on pc, but me 2 wasd w/o auto-cover makes pc version me 2 functional impossible for our gimpy self. me 2 has far more shooter elements than did me 1, and the rpg elements o' me 2 character generation and development is proportional reduced. we enjoyed me 2, but in terms o' character generation, development and combat, it is only barely a rpg. HA! Good Fun!

rrod worked in our favor. had a clunky xbox 360 elite that were as noisy as a twin-engine cesna taxing down a runway. built date were late 2006. a month ago we get rrod and had to send console to mesquite, texas for repair. no repair o' our console... we got either a new or refurbished console (from somewheres in tennessee) that purrs like a kitten and were built in late 2009... only drawback were the 2.5 weeks we were without our xbox console. nextgen consoles will be coming out in 2011 or 2012 and now we got a newer/better machine with which to endure the wait. am having a hard time finding genuine cause to complain. does microsoft seems like a bunch o' dolts for screwing up so many o' their consoles? sure they do, but they is spending big money to fix the situation. no doubt other folks got nightmare stories to tell, but Gromnir is reasonably satisfied with the customer care we has received... and heck, at least there is games we actually want to play on the xbox360. HA! Good Fun!