Gromnir

instead of adding character generation/development options, bioware has decided to focus their efforts on stuff like their Innovative dialogue system. am still utter mystified by how successful bioware was in selling their radial dialogue thingie as an innovative advancement. sure, is an innovation from developer pov 'cause it replaces dialogue bifurcation with truncation, but how on earth did biowarians sell their resource saving device as some sorta major feature that would improve gameplay? am understanding that if you got full vo you gotta be creative with dialogues/writing, and making one genuine dialogue response count as 2 or maybe 3 "choices" for the player is slick... but am genuine disappointed that so few gamer review sites or magazines exposed the biowarian con job for what it were. oh well in all seriousness, Gromnir has heard virtual 0 'bout me2 and what is goals and changes... though Gromnir did hear that at least a few biowarians conceded that they would probably do less uncharted world stuff in future me installments. HA! Good Fun!

heya *shrug* am not a particularly sentimental guy. you perhaps wanna hug or something? HA! Good Fun!

the gameplay aspect is getting dialogues from rachnii queen and scietists, as well as fighting them... not only on noveria but on other planets as a result o' military experimentations. dialogues with rachnii queen and with other races 'bout rachnii ain't gameplay? actual fight rachnii also counts as gameplay... 'especially since the places for rachnii attack actually had a point rather than the random seeming spawns that were popular in kotor. as to coduit and rachnii... is reason that the matron benezia were digging around in the rachnii queen brain, no? the mu relay (sp?) were the gateway to ilos and the conduit. even if you not give a darn 'bout rachnii, the player's quest to gain access to conduit is made possible o' the bugs. again, we got loads more info 'bout rachnii from me than we got from kotor 'bout wookies... and while kotor wookies were inexplicably primitive arborial slave fodder, we actual got that Development you so craved in individual jnpcs, no? racchnii eveolve from being simple bugs and mindless attack-bots, to a possible future ally or enemy for mankind and allied species. the convo with queen and various scientists makes obvious that the bugs ain't simple mindless cannon fodder. is a cheap Ender's Game kinda thing? sure, but that is a damn site more development than we gets 'bout kotor wookies or sand people. HA! Good Fun!

eh? we found out all kinds o' stuff 'bout how they develop and what happened post racchni war. we learned that evil military folks were trying to breed 'em into controllable super soldiers. we learned of link between conduit and racchni and how first contact with racchni occurred. heck, we had a far more useful conversation with the racchni queen than with any wookie in kotor. heck, post kashykk, our wookie companion never aded ANYTHING... and his family on kashykk were hardly giving us history/anthropology lessons. kashykk is shakesperean melodrama... but take out all the witty and poetic dialogue and replace with inarticulate grunting. now, based on kotor alone, tell us history of wookies and explain why a bunch o giant orangutans live like ted kaczynski in the woods, but seemingly got access to advanced weapons... and get themselves captured and sold into slavery by some kinda trade consortium regardless o' fact that it requires a jedi and multiple heavily armed companions simply to make a journey to the forest floor. look, we get that bio faced hurdles as well. they couldn't mess with established star wars canon, yet they wanted to recreate star wars... so 'cause slavery o' wookies occurs in episodes 4-6, it lso hd to be in old republic... and 'cause lucas not give some well-defined history o' wookies, but might choose to do so in future, bio could not do so on their own. no doubt it were tough. even so, to say that kotor actually developed history nd culture o' included races more than did me is actully kinda silly. you folks is simply dragging along pre-existing knowledge to fill in the kotor gaps. HA! Good Fun!

you found the wookie interaction more meaningful than geth interaction? lord knows Gromnir learned very little 'bout the people or culture of wookies in kotor. we learned 'bout our wookie companion's family history a bit, but very little 'bout wookies.... and lord only knows why it is meaningful to have to learn 'bout geth from geth, or learn 'bout racchni from racchni. the noveria planet, from gameplay dialogues with various scientists and doing the hotlab stuff and elsewhere, Gromnir discovered a great deal 'bout the racchni... more than kotor gave us 'bout wookies or sand people. we interacted with me species and saw and we were given information 'bout 'em from Many different sources... not just from talking to jnpcs on the normandy... and again, both kotor2 and me fixed the mistake o' having jnpcs initiate stoopid convos at ridiculous times. an ideal solution? no, but so many people complained 'bout what you thinks were a positive that both obsidian and bioware changed where, when and how jnpcs interacted with the pc. please note that Gromnir also felt like he didn't know virtually anything 'bout mass effect taurians or salarian, but again, me were introducing us to a whole new game universe... think they did an ok job o' giving us tedious background stuff.... which kotr didn't do... but did not really have to neither. HA! Good Fun!

interaction? yeah, but morgoth were talking 'bout history and culture 'n such. you learn much 'bout wookie culture from your wookie companion... or during entire stay on kashykk? HA! heck, add in geth, sovereign and that plant thingie in me and you got far more meaningful interaction with alien species in me than in kotor. kotor mostly assumed you knew history and background... me not have that luxury and didn't take such shortcuts. "Everything you learned about the Quarians you learned from Tali's tales or from the Codex, there was no related gameplay." patently untrue. the history of geth and quarian were inextricably intertwined. our encounters with and regarding geth were also informative about quarians. byw, our initial encounter with tali were on the citadel after which we got some considerable info regarding the geth and the flotilla 'n such. HA! Good Fun!

kotor gave you some interaction with the fisheads, but what other race did you get similar interaction? not the sand people or wookies. by the same token, you did get a good deal o' history from me regarding the rachni and the krogan, asari and protheans. heck, Gromnir learned far more 'bout quarians from me than we did 'bout wookies or the tentacle head (mission vao) people in kotor. me were starting from scratch with most o' the alien races where as kotor assumed that player had some pre-existing knowledge. HA! Good Fun!

not only were the me characters more human than the cookie cutter kotor incarnations (which were largely intentional in kotor, but still irksome) the fact that they rare spoke off the normandy were an advantage. a common complaint following kotor were that the jnpcs seemingly chose worst possible times to initiate inappropriate dialogues. no doubt this is the reason why kotor 2 and me both moved most dialogues to the stronghold/ships... aluminum falcon or normandy or whatever. HA! Good Fun!

am not sure what the link is 'tween national socialism and Gromnir's accusation that Mackland were Crusading for Truth? is tough to pin that on Gromnir. nevertheless, the notion that Gromnir did spinning is silly. "I'm not interested in ceding the gaming forums of the world to a cabal of trolls promoting an illogical tyranny of hyperbole. "Misinformation unchallenged becomes information." mackland expressed disbelief that a fellow developer would avoid internet board posting, and supplied the aforementioned as his own raison for posting... then went and accused Gromnir of hyperbole. ... HA! wacky stuff. is amusing that mk would accuse us o' spin following our previous encounter... not that Gromnir can take credit. Di were genuine the one who pretty much gutted you, though that weren't her intent, and you did set yourself up to be filleted. thanks for the continued laughs. am willing to keep this 'bout kotor if anybody else wishes to do so. vol likes mass effect. vol likes pie. don't expect a great deal of insight from vol regarding why me is a good game. heck, don't expect a great deal of insight from Gromnir on why me is a good game as it were merely a moderate enjoyable game for us. am not sure why kotor should be the measuring stick for me, but if kotor is the measure, then we thinks me bears up admirably. as mentioned already, both me and kotor has weak combat and the character building choices seems to have little impact on gameplay. even so, both games is story-driven to a great degree, so if you like kotor story and hate me story, then chances are you thinks kotor is a better game, regardless o' things like level design and combat n' such. Gromnir thought kotor story were clever, with an intentional re imagining o' the story arc from the original 3 star wars movies. seems like an obvious approach for a writer/developer to take with a star wars game, but only in retrospect. me story were traditional epic fare, but unlike wrath, we thinks that the characters were not only more developed in me than in kotor, but they were more human as well... regardless of their race. plot is always gonna be silly in epic fantasy fare, so it not surprise Gromnir that me plot seemed hard to swallow, 'cause that is the norm. if you empathize with characters (villains and heroes,) then shortcomings in plot become negligible. me characters weren't compelling enough for us to complete forget plot shortcomings, but Gromnir thought bioware did no worse in me than in kotor with basic story elements. biggest difference 'tween kotor and me: kotor were a star wars game and me was not. HA! Good Fun!

"In what layer of the Abyss did we sit down and have a discussion about legitimizing why I post at the codex and elsewhere? I explained why I post at various game forums. I could not possibly care less whether you think my reasons are legitimate." am not sure 'bout layers of the abyss, but a few posts ago you opined reasons for posting at the codex and elsewhere... after questioning why another developer would not. maybe you not like the turn o' phrase, but we gots denotative and connotative accuracy. bah... am trying to reason with a guy who used burke quote on combating Evil to show that he weren't giving too much credit to codex? perhaps you is vol's alt? as an aside, Gromnir has always been curious 'bout the d&d notion o' The Abyss having infinite layers... or at least, many layers. strictly speaking, ain't the Abyss an endless pit... or alternatively, a metaphysical/allegorical void that nevertheless inspires nightmares and births chaos? tangible levels existing in the abyss seems almost antithetical to original notions and definitions. HA! Good Fun!

is nothing wrong with wrath opinions, but is simply too difficult for many of us to find common ground to even begin a debate. talk with the bio writers and they will concede some o' the shortcomings in various kotor characters and quests... and is surprising how often they actually agree with the weight o' fan feedback. is not as if the biowarians is oblivious to the shortcomings. likewise, the developers admit to shortcomings with me. ... is maybe telling that Gromnir can have a discussion with the actual developers 'bout shortcomings of me and kotor in which we can agree on many points, but we find no such common ground with wrath... which don't make wrath wrong, but is simply bizarre. take a whopper from burger king and a big mac from mcdonalds. most people is gonna have a preference, and nobody is wrong in their preference. the thing is that virtual all folks is gonna be arguing as between and betwixt relative fast food items. has some guy claim that actually consuming a big mac is akin to eating broken glass, whilst eating a whopper is to experience culinary nirvana... HA! Good Fun!

damn straight Gromnir "gamed" the spirit meter. am not sure how many times we had to "trudge" back to the vault... not many. the key is getting your craving down to virtual zero... which we did with 1 trip to vault and some rest-rinse-repeat action. got craving to 0 after first trip back to vault, which we did immediately after we figured out the mechanics behind the spirit meter. otherwise, we coulda "gamed" even more tedious doing even more suppress & sleep repeats in some other locale. Gromnir experimented with this approach... sleeping near the spirit sinks (locations with static non-combat spirit encounters) in ashenwood or at the lakeshore. turns out that the vault were actually a more time efficient scenario as travel 'cross considerable distances happens in game time and not real time. btw, the alignment hit for supress were, for most characters, a non-factor. the only players who got "hit' were folks who had to maintain a non-lawful alignment. so, for most players, suppress, even as original implemented, had 0 cost at all. Gromnir never played a druid or barbarian character in motb, but we were one o' the folks that questioned the enormous cumulative law injection that suppress resulted in conferring 'pon a character. do every chaotic option in game, but you suppress enough times and you still end up extreme lawful? doesn't make sense, does it. Conan, as the kinda Prototype for barbarian types, were weak-willed? do suppress enough times and that means the barbarian forgets how to surrender to rage? makes even less sense why druids suffer... though Gromnir feels that anybody playing a druid (or bard) deserves whatever misfortune comes their way. how is suppress a lawful action... even given the silly alignment rules o' the d&d universe? bah. spirit meter were flawed, easily circumvented, and added little to gameplay as far as we could tell. HA! Good Fun! ps if after figuring out how the spirit meter worked, and how easily circumvented it were, Gromnir had known how to turn spirit meter off, we surely woulda' done so. am not one o' those nutters that has some kinda weird notion 'bout legit v. non-legit gameplay. re-roll 200+ times to get an uber bg2 character? is not our cup-o' tea, but we surely not see as any more legit than manual change o' stats.

our apologies. honest. will try to edit with spoiler feature momentarily. please note that Gromnir cannot edit the portion o' aristes post copied from Gromnir's again, our apologies for punting the pooch on this one.

So, Carth was a very damaged human being, anything against portraying that in a game? The problem with Kaiden is he's so underdeveloped, he tells you his sob story (which is pretty dumb btw) and that's it. over-the-top is rarely a positive... 'less you is going for camp value. carth were over-the-top. carth were developed by gaider to please female gamers... he got lots o' feedback from lady s' site during development. ... personally, if Gromnir were a woman we would be mighty offended by carth and how gaider/bioware viewed the feminine gender. the terrible thing is that most o' the estrogen feedback regarding carth were positive. sure, we heard the "whiner" complaints frequent enough, but carth were, for the most part, well received by women gamers. *shudder* HA! Good Fun!

the spirit meter were annoying. Gromnir goes to vault o' myrkul and applied a cycle o' eternal rest and suppres and actual rest to get our craving reduced to nil. those shadow o' the void thingies in the urns were a bit like vending machine dispensers as far as Gromnir were concerned... 'cept that Gromnir actually were getting paid with a brilliant spirit essence. whenever our spirit meter got to genuine debilitating, we would simply go back to vault and "free" the spirit o' a shadow o' the void. Gromnir had to rest a couple o' times in the skien til we figured out how to get to the hag, but suppress seemed to be effective enough for the duration... were the only time during game in which we had to endure even some sorta minor spirit meter penalty. is odd, but we thinks we woulda' appreciated the spirit meter more if it were more annoying, rather than less. spirit meter, as included in game, were not genuine adding another level o' gameplay 'cause it were relative easy to overcome... if you had the patience to hike back to dead god's vault over and over. *shrug* no doubt the developers always face a difficult choice with such features: make hard enough to be a challenge, but easy 'nuff that only an unavoidable fraction o' the purchasers will suffer actual frustration. HA! Good Fun!

am gonna suggest that carth were the "degenerate" form o' kaiden. the archetype upon which both is built is tediously familiar, but carth... carth were kinda extreme with the mood swings. Gromnir kept wishing for a dialogue option that would allow us to force feed carth lithium. carth were not our favorite kotor jnpc... woulda preferred kaiden. HA! Good Fun!

to: manmonkeyhybrid is obvious you not understand "hyperbole." quote burke on evil as legitimizing why you post at codex and elsewhere... but at same time saying that GROMNIR is the one inflating importance o' codex? ... alternate quote

eh? sure sounded like YOU were the guy building up the codex. reason you post is to bring truth where there is misinformation, 'cause misinformation can become truth? Gromnir is the guy who said that YOU is the guy giving them far too much legitimacy. codex and other boards has very little inherent legitimacy... and only the occasional Developer post can change that reality. and yeah, you is trying to win. if the other guy is spreading misinformation, you want your truth to prevail, no? is what you said, not Gromnir. don't be afraid to admit that you indulge in a bit o' the adversarial... as a Crusader for truth you better at least be honest with self, no? call it the Marketplace of Ideals or the Adversarial Process or come up with your own spin... not matter. you submit your Truth in hopes that it will win with your silent majority. ... you is kinda wishy-washy for a Crusader type. *shrug* "Also, you cite a bunch of specific examples of people posting things on forums in response to a particular issue or what-have-you. I don't know anything about any of those instances. I didn't work at Interplay or Black Isle. I didn't work at Obsidian when any of these alleged incidents took place, and I don't know anything about them, nor do they have anything to do with me posting" again, "eh?" it got plenty to do with you. if you is gonna put on cape and Crusade for truth, you better recognize that there is things you cannot be truthful 'bout. you work for obsidian, and regardless o' your beliefs, you is unlikely to be stoopid enough or naive enough to ignore common sense. correct all misconceptions? HA! am gonna call bs. our examples is specific obsidan examples, so they got plenty to do with you. you work for obsidan, and you not seem like a complete retard. clearly you understand that you cannot dispel all message board generated or proliferated misconceptions. yeah, your limited awareness o' what has gone on at obsidian in the pat means that you cannot speak to the examples we cite above, but neither should any reasonable adult be surprised that such stuff has occurred. in any event this all complete ignores the original point YOU made. go figure. shouldn't be surprised. folks that complain 'bout logic and hyperbole is often the ones most likely to indulge... 'less you were trying to be ironic with the "I'm not interested in ceding the gaming forums of the world to a cabal of trolls promoting an illogical tyranny of hyperbole." bit. if you were being whimsical and Gromnir took serious, then Gromnir apologizes. regardless, clearly there is reasons for reasonable developers to not get involved in board posting, and to pretend otherwise is curious. oh, and just so you know, the silent majority doesn't spend much time at obsidian or codex... yet another reason why a reasonable developer might not feel like joining in to Fight The Good Fight. your continued contributions will no doubt be appreciated, as is most developer posts. HA! Good Fun!

Didn't help that some of the forum faithful over-reacted to those ranger/dual wield comments and brought the argument over to the wotc boards themselves. That's what you call rabble rousing... josh were pretty cheesed off himself. the tone of his posts regarding wotc involvement regarding iwd2 were not simply informational, eh? to a certain degree the rabble were roused by josh. even so, josh were simply being honest as he saw it. should he apologize for being passionate about game development? *shrug* regardless, we were able to see first hand what happens when a developer's truth is antagonistic to aims o' his employer. furthermore, am not sure that a fan ever has to apologize for making an hones /good faith complaint. can fans go too far? sure. but wouldn't it be hypocritical to berate fans for crusading against misinformation? HA! Good Fun!

I'm not interested in ceding the gaming forums of the world to a cabal of trolls promoting an illogical tyranny of hyperbole. Misinformation unchallenged becomes information. so you win in a verbal battle with the codex? what has you won? many (most?) o' those you has beaten will not recognize your victory... and even if you does emerge clear winner, that won't stop or slow misinformation one bit. avoid codex and you is ceding mythical territory to irrelevant tyrants. why does you care what they say at codex or elsewhere? plug your finger in dike trying to stop/slow your perceived leaks o' misinformation? heck, is arguable that developers arguing with those midget tyrants is what makes 'em relevant. the fact that gaider and josh and others respond to Gromnir is part o' what makes our posts relevant to many. on the other hand, if we were complete ignored or simply laughed away... the real hyperbole may be attributing real power to these boards. a large % game purchasers never read these boards. another % o' game purchasers largely ignore posts not specific related to game features. most of what occurs on these boards is simply noise. developer boards is a relative cheap way to advertise game and let fans do work of building interest in games. and yeah, to a certain degree it is true that misinformation can become fact... but far less than is implied, and very little that is meaningful. fergie, for instance, tried to convince fans that TotL was not released as an apology/bandage for HoW. for sake of argument, let us say that he were telling the truth. what difference? is probable that such is reason that fergie didn't fight very hard to convince fans that TotL weren't an apology/bandage, 'cause in long run what would be difference? those who hated HoW would still hate it. Those who liked HoW would still like it. fergie set record straight 'bought motivation behind TotL development? what is the point in the long run? another example? the biowarians, for whatever reason, insist that Jade Empires were a great commercial success and fulfilled expectations. your own josh sawyer has been somewhat unconvinced by bio claims o' je success. fans seems split on the issue. who is vol or pidesco 'posed to believe? chris priestly and josh sawyers is both posting to dispel misinformation, right? also, am not sure how many times we seen developers post at codex trying to convince fans there that in spite o' the Big Love for fallout, the game weren't a particularly big commercial winner. fo (the original) did moderate well, but the number o' units sold during the all-important first 2 quarters were hardly eye-popping... and the steady sales afterward weren't hardly 'nuff to keep a major developer or publisher in the business o' game making. so what? who cares? convince the regular board posters at game sites that je or fo were a commercial success is meaningful... how? is most potential future purchasers of bio games gonna actual care that je sold well or failed? convince codexians that fo were actually a niche game were meaningful to whom it long run? noise. most o' this is noise. developers posting for entertainment or advertising? yeah, that makes sense. post as some kinda crusade against perceived falsehood? *chuckle* you is gonna be a busy guy if you is honest trying to bring objective truth to the internet. regardless, if you still honest cannot see why a reasonable developer would avoid these boards (the original issue) we cannot help you... perhaps chrisA can. HA! Good Fun! ps also, 'cause it bears repeating, when josh attempted to dispel the misinformation surrounding wotc involvement with iwd2 development, he got muzzled... fast. you is an employee of a game developer. your devotion to truth is a grand thing, just so long as it doesn't hurt obsidian or a publisher or some other influential entity.

I don't see why a Bioware writer wouldn't post on a given forum. I post on RPGCodex all the time. The dude in question is listed in the Mass Effect credits. gaider posts at codex... Lord only knows why. am thinking that maybe it is some sorta understandable (if complete juvenile) impulse to play in the mud. by the same token, how many times has you seen chrisA actually post on this, the obsidian board? (most recent post: Jun 22 2006, 09:52 AM). heck, ask josh what happened when he posted his honest feelings 'bout wotc during iwd2 development... not that we is allowed to talk 'bout that. seriously, ask chrisA why he not post 'round obsidian and perhaps you get some answers, eh? listen to what fans gotta say 'bout games is probable a good thing, but at some point you gotta do what you think is best, regardless o' the often irrational and typically contradictory demands and suggestions o' the fan base. have a genuine constructive discourse 'bout games on game boards is not a high percentage endeavour. also, sadly, the more well-known you becomes, the more likely your board comments is gonna be clumsily dissected: out of context statements show up on so-called news sites and used to "prove" that you or obsidian is the root of all evil, or a bunch o' nincompoops... or whatever. am understanding why some developers might not wanna board post... don't see why you don't. HA! Good Fun! ps forgot to mention tim cain example. tim posted infrequent at troika boards, but when he did he typically came across as either a bit o' a buffoon, or as a complete jerk. perhaps tim were a swell and real smart guy, but his board personality were somewhat lacking. some people has a real difficult time writing their thoughts in relative short board posts. it were in tim's best interest to post as little as possible. is a few developers we has seen over the years that woulda' benefited from posting less... regardless o' how talented they might have been.

never depend on wiki... for anything. wiki definitions is, at best, a tertiary source. wiki sources is not fact checked and they can be authored by virtual any clown with an internet connection. some fat junior college drop-out, sitting in his mom's basement, nursing a big gulp and wearing a sweat stained ac/dc t-shirt, may be the guy you is depending on for accurate information 'bout The Constitution of the United States of America, or the side-effects of Oxycontin? ... am not sure what is level design. seems to have a fluid definition depending on the speaker. that being said, Gromnir rarely sees developers reference aesthetic concerns when discussing level design. example: some folks here has seen Gromnir give josh a hard time... from time to time. HA! one such instance were our rather acerbic and critical posts regarding HoW. a cobbled together game that were little more than a tedious sequence o' s-shaped maps filled with repetitive monster encounters. terrible level design. the wailing virgins and drowned dead looked kewl... and as usual the artwork in most locations were beyond reproach, but when Gromnir criticized level design, and when josh responded to such criticisms, we weren't talking aesthetics. how is gameplay features and encounters organized so as to increase/decrease challenge and or enjoyment? sounds like level design how we seen used most often. that being said, is a bit like distinction 'tween strategy and tactics: is largely illusory and semantic. at some point accumulated tactical concerns become a matter o' strategy... or vice versa. if stale look o' citadel makes encounters makes gameplay more tedious for people, then ain't that level design even though it not seem to fit Gromnir's definition? regardless, am not sure if it is worth fighting over the distinction 'tween what is and is not level design. if speaker and audience both understand the criticism, then what is point in arguing whether or not is actually level design v. art, eh? HA! Good Fun!

look at it another way. irenicus, in bg2, tries to achieve godhood via some sorta wacky plan involving a big tree. ok. am fine with that. is magical. Gromnir got no frame o' reference from which to argue that irenicus plan for godhood were especially bad. sarevok getting godhood 'cause o mass death along sword coast? that part not bother us neither. again, we got zero point o' reference. explain with "its magic." can almost always explain with "its magic." sadly, sarevok's plan were too mundane. governments and peoples do not react to resource shortages as they did in bg. create a iron shortage by poisoning iron in mine? add wacky tazok bandits to mix and criminally stoopid cloak wood mines... is maybe ironic that what killed plausibility o' sarevok's shtick were that it were too mundane. the fact that bg were set in a fantasy world not help dispel stoopidity in such a case. HA! Good Fun!

yeah i know BG was ridiculous, poison iron, i mean come on! But imagine this one: you can not really die. Everytime you time you do, you wake up in the same place but you lose your memory, only, sometimes you dont lose your memory...and in the end you fight your own mortality to stay alive. OH MY F****NG GOD!!! seriously, why bring up "reason" in BG or any other tsr product for that matter? as Gromnir has noted many times ALL fantasy is arguably silly. a bunch of dumpy little faeries with hairy feet save the world from the Ultimate Evil? am not even gonna get into the ents or the return to the shire portion o' the tolkien books. ... within the scope and context o' the forgotten realms, sarevok and sarevok's plan were still stooopid. is why we had a problem with bg and not so much with ps:t. ps:t were often hit and miss. chrisA did a little too much o' the maudlin navel gazing for us NOT to occasional roll our eyes, but within the scope o' the planescape universe, as chrisA presented, an amnesiac immortal weren't too far fetched for Gromnir to suspend disbelief. ps:t, with its factions based 'pon basic philosophical schools o' thought.... and in a universe in which belief could alter reality... *shrug* Gromnir bought into the universe, and let some o' the nonsense slide. take another example. Gromnir loathes when an author slaps down the good v. evil bit in front o' us like a butcher handling a sirloin steak. more often than not a writer o' fantasy simply assumes objective good and evil, and that cheeses of Gromnir to no end... 'cause the tough choices always occur in the grey rather than when there is a clear black and white. even so, if a writer is creating a story in the star wars universe, there has gotta be some Light v. Dark stuff, no? is simply integral to the star wars universe as lucas created to have light & dark. with bg we had to assume that every man, woman and child in the forgotten realms was a complete yutz, and that sarevok, the evil mastermind behind a plot to become a god, would devise a rather ridiculous plan to achieve his ends. yeah, sending out increasingly competent assassins rather than doing the job right from start makes sense and is allowable in game context. if the bhaalspawn had encountered adversaries like slythe and kristin when we were level 1, the game would have been very short indeed. gotta make some allowances for game and world, but sarevok were just plain... dumb. HA! Good Fun!

hehe... like dr. evil. taks exactly. honestly am still, to this day, not sure if bg were meant to be humorous/camp and perhaps most of us just not get. fallout, for example, were a game that purposefully jumped back and forth 'tween deadly earnest and over-the-top camp... were part of its charm. bg, on the other hand... bg had its intentional funny moments and funny characters, but we tends to think that the camp were accidental... but you never know. HA! Good Fun!