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[Xard]

Nope, both orcs and elves as we see them in Tolkien's works are original creations. Elf meaned very different thing in England when Tolkien wrote Hobbit and his other works

[taks]

yes, i was about to say "elfs" not "elves." there's enough overlap from the original incarnations, however, that there was no infringement issue, and hence, TSR was allowed to use them.

 

taks

[Tale]

It's not too bad, though. LOTR Orcs are Dark Elves. But in most other settings they're not. And in the classical (Norse?), I believe dark elves were dwarves.

Edited July 14, 2008 by Tale

[Pidesco]

Let me guess.. it's okay for Tolkien to 'steal' ideas, creatures, and whatnot from avrious sources but wrong for others? Whatever. Tolkien heavily borrowed stuff too. Big deal.

 

Orc(Orks) (whatever you want to call them), and Elfs existed beforehand. He just refined them to fit his world. Just as D&D did. Big deal. And, both Tolkien and D&D creators were successful in doing so. *shrug*

 

Plus, Tolkien is overrated. Solid writer but that's it.

 

Whether Tolkien is overrated or not, is beside the point, he made up orcs more or less from scratch, and his elves had bugger all to do with European mythology elfs. At most you could say he stole the names but that's pretty much meaningless. Fantasy in the modern, literary, "elves and epicness" sense of the word is derived from Tolkien.

 

Also, I'd like to point that while Tolkien wasn't, in any way a great writer, modern fantasy writers haven't exactly improved upon him.

[Xard]

I disagree; Tolkien could write well

 

...unless we're talking about characters and all that...

 

He's no Kafka, Steinbeck or Dickens for sure (it is **** you for those to compare them to Tolkien) but on great scale of writers he's definetly on "good" perimeters.

 

But then again, it's not like fantasy literature has any other great writers in it than some Le Guin here and some Martin there...

 

 

what I'm saying is, fantasy literature sucks

Edited July 14, 2008 by Xard

[taks]

Whether Tolkien is overrated or not, is beside the point, he made up orcs more or less from scratch, and his elves had bugger all to do with European mythology elfs.

not if you read his comments on the derivation of orcs (good writeup on all this at wiki)... but that's immaterial.

 

apparently he actually trademarked the name "hobbit," btw. since the names elf and orc (or close enough) both existed in some fashion or another prior to his writings, i guess he wasn't allowed to trademark them as well.

 

taks

[Volourn]

That's because he didn't create them. He borrowed them from other sources. Sure, he twinked them, but still not original. Hobbits are - whcih I even said so above. The point is A LOT of ME is heavily borrowed from older sources making it NO DIFFERENT than D&D/FR in that regard.

 

Period.

[Xard]

Only thing not original about elves and orcs were their names

 

 

What's next, am I not very different thing than some human being that had my name before me? No, I am different. Does that mean I have right to copyright the name? Umm... no

 

 

Oh, and WotC also stole hobbits

Edited July 14, 2008 by Xard

[aries101]

When I wrote 'when you're hurt you hurt. You need to fight your way back to base camp to get medical attention' I was well aware that magick could be used to speed up the regeneration and that an advanced class for mages will be specialized in healing and buffing. To me, this means two things. Healing will be done like in some movies when you just lay your hands on someone and they get healed, i.e. their skin regenerates faster, or you will need to specialize your mage in healings and buff spells. Since there are no healing potions or spells in Dragon Age: Origens.

 

I think David Gaider (the lead writer) has said that you can get seriously hurt in this game. You will have base camp, though. If say, you get seriously hurt in battle, you can't just drink a healing potion or do a healing spell. You need to get to base camp to get medical attention i.e. being stitched up and such.

This could have changed, of course.

 

I like the (new) IGN screenshots, though

[Xard]

I think David Gaider (the lead writer) has said that you can get seriously hurt in this game. You will have base camp, though. If say, you get seriously hurt in battle, you can't just drink a healing potion or do a healing spell. You need to get to base camp to get medical attention i.e. being stitched up and such.

 

Awesome, I hope it isn't changed

[Tale]

Oh, and WotC also stole hobbits

Don't you mean TSR?

[random n00b]

I think David Gaider (the lead writer) has said that you can get seriously hurt in this game. You will have base camp, though. If say, you get seriously hurt in battle, you can't just drink a healing potion or do a healing spell. You need to get to base camp to get medical attention i.e. being stitched up and such.

 

Awesome, I hope it isn't changed

That has the potential to become incredibly tedious and annoying, though. Healing potions were invented for a good reason...

Edited July 14, 2008 by random n00b

[Xard]

Oh, and WotC also stole hobbits

Don't you mean TSR?

 

Stupid corporates

[aries101]

I think David Gaider (the lead writer) has said that you can get seriously hurt in this game. You will have base camp, though. If say, you get seriously hurt in battle, you can't just drink a healing potion or do a healing spell. You need to get to base camp to get medical attention i.e. being stitched up and such.

 

Awesome, I hope it isn't changed

That has the potential to become incredibly tedious and annoying, though. Healing potions were invented for a good reason...

 

 

Yes, it can.

 

But then, there's nothing preventing you from either having a mage that's the advanced class mage or using fast regenerating magick.

Also, there are no resurrection in this game. When people are dead they are dead. And stay dead. (unless you reload, of course...)

[Volourn]

Of course, you only die if the whole party is wiped out, anyways. *shrug* One of the lamest things about DA that it stole from the overrated KOTOR.

[Kelverin]

Of course, you only die if the whole party is wiped out, anyways. *shrug* One of the lamest things about DA that it stole from the overrated KOTOR.

What?

[newc0253]

Let me guess.. it's okay for Tolkien to 'steal' ideas, creatures, and whatnot from avrious sources but wrong for others? Whatever. Tolkien heavily borrowed stuff too. Big deal.

As they say, poor artists borrow. Great artists steal.

 

The difference between Middle Earth and Forgotten Realms isn't that one borrowed from other sources and one didn't. The fact that Tolkien based his stuff on other sources is something so well-known, it's painful to keep reading it.

 

No, the difference between Middle Earth and Forgotten Realms is that one was the lovingly detailed backdrop to a series of literary works written by a giant of the genre, and the other was unimaginative junk dreamt up by a hack D&D writer because TSR wanted to break from Gygax's (superior) Greyhawk setting. The fact that both borrowed from other sources doesn't mean that one nonetheless arrived at something distinctive and original and the other hopelessly derivative and shallow.

 

I'll leave you to figure out which is which.

Edited July 14, 2008 by newc0253

[Volourn]

I thought those sentences were very clear. Not even a single typo. *shrug*

 

More importantly: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/TheM...b/DA-Battle.jpg

Edited July 14, 2008 by Volourn

[newc0253]

is that meant to show us that the graphics have improved?

 

because the 2008 one looks like someone's crappy photoshop attempt, especially the uniform rows of identical figures massing in the foreground.

 

i call bullsh1t on that pic.

[Volourn]

Whining AGAIN? Holy moly!

 

Second pic is from the vid so the combatants are probably grainy and all that because of crappy camera work from the recorder.

[Meshugger]

I thought those sentences were very clear. Not even a single typo. *shrug*

 

More importantly: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y194/TheM...b/DA-Battle.jpg

 

Huh? Where did that come from? I didn't notice any battle of that magnitude in the trailer.

[Volourn]

Second trailer. Basically the same one but from a different view.

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36128.html

[Meshugger]

Second trailer. Basically the same one but from a different view.

 

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36128.html

 

Nice. It's a lot more polished than the previous one. Will there actually be battles of this calibre, and how will they be implemented as well?

[Volourn]

"I just have to take a break here. My world is getting more unreal by the day.

 

I just finished a conversation tree with ten different starting states...

 

for a dog."

 

http://www.dragonagecentral.com/single/1099082520

[Spider]

Nope, both orcs and elves as we see them in Tolkien's works are original creations. Elf meaned very different thing in England when Tolkien wrote Hobbit and his other works

 

The word meant something different yes. But it doesn't mean elves as such are wholly Tolkien creations. While he didn't build them off of Elfs, he was heavily influenced by the gaelic aes s