The Witcher 2

[RPGmasterBoo]

I'm here to expand frontiers and vocabularies.

 

Its not my fault they caned you in law school until they got you talking like that, and only with the purpose of softening up poor clients as you dig your way into their money.

[Malcador]

Now you know who will show up. Damn you Boo!

[Volourn]

"Geralt is as straight as it gets, plus he's like James Bond."

 

Not much of a role-playing game when your character's chocies is forced on you. People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

Anyways, the TW2 ladies are HOT. The only weakness they show is their lack of taste. R00fles!

[RPGmasterBoo]

Now you know who will show up. Damn you Boo!

 

Who?

[Malcador]

"Geralt is as straight as it gets, plus he's like James Bond."

 

Not much of a role-playing game when your character's chocies is forced on you. People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

Anyways, the TW2 ladies are HOT. The only weakness they show is their lack of taste. R00fles!

 

This guy, that's who

 

Well, it's just ONE choice. His sexual orientation, not that big a deal. Heard nothing that indicates the romances are mandatory in TW2, so it's like ME or DA in that regard.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Malcador

[RPGmasterBoo]

"Geralt is as straight as it gets, plus he's like James Bond."

 

Not much of a role-playing game when your character's chocies is forced on you. People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

Anyways, the TW2 ladies are HOT. The only weakness they show is their lack of taste. R00fles!

 

This guy, that's who

 

Well, it's just ONE choice. His sexual orientation, not that big a deal. Heard nothing that indicates the romances are mandatory in TW2, so it's like ME or DA in that regard.

 

He didn't show up, he never left. Volourn is in the forum code.

 

As for Geralt, he's a fixed character based on a book. People who can't deal with that shouldn't play the game. I personally don't care at all about that aspect of a role playing game as long as its well executed. Not much use in a character who can supposedly be whatever I want him to be, yet never say or do anything I would, like say, Shepard.

Edited April 8, 2011 by RPGmasterBoo

[Sannom]

People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

About that, are they all really bisexual, or do they just have some sort of Schr

[Monte Carlo]

People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

About that, are they all really bisexual, or do they just have some sort of Schr

[Volourn]

"About that, are they all really bisexual, or do they just have some sort of Schr

[Jaesun]

But in DA2, you can bang just about everybody! And most of them want to bang you too!

 

Surely, that counts for something?

 

No it doesn't actually.

 

Don't be ungrateful now, Bioware was working so hard to give you Choice.

 

I'm not ungrateful honey. I'm highly offended actually.

 

On topic:

 

CDProjekt will host another The Witcher 2 conference and broadcast it live.

Hello,

 

CD Projekt RED has just set the date of its spring conference, which will take place on the 14th of April 2011 in Warsaw, Poland. With the release date of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings right around the corner, it is imperative for every fan of our series to be the witness of this event as it will provide you with a lot of useful information about the upcoming game.

The event will cover following topics:

 

- Minimum and recommended system requirements, as well as their effect on game's performance,

- Differences in specific language versions and censorship,

- Copy protection will be talked about in greater detail,

- Importing save-game data from the first part of The Witcher,

- REDengine details,

- And many more.

 

The English part of the conference will be broadcasted live at facebook.com/thewitcher and the game's official website, www.thewitcher.com. The broadcast will start at 4:00 PM (GMT), make sure to tune in.

 

Curious how this import save thing will work? Will there be actual in game C&C if we import our save?

 

Also some cool combat music here.

[HoonDing]

Gamestar preview (German)

They played the prologue and are very positive about it. It doesn't play like an RPG in the first hour as the prologue introduces everything bit by bit, but they say CDProjekt put a lot of attention to detail, as the world feels very lively and there's a lot going on.

 

Ahhh, beat me to it. There are some great screenshots in the article. Really gives the game a sense of scale.

 

What if you picked Shani in TW1?

 

That whole tryst with Triss is creepy anyway. She's basically taking advantage of his amnesia; during TW1 Geralt remembers he used to love a sorceress, only it's the wrong one.

[Malcador]

So far it looks like no luck for Shani. Also "potentially NFSW" ? Man I want your job

Edited April 8, 2011 by Malcador

[RPGmasterBoo]

"Not much use in a character who can supposedly be whatever I want him to be, yet never say or do anything I would, like say, Shepard."

 

Shepard is awesome. Gurlap wishes he was even half as awesome.

 

Still, guys, keep linking the hot TW2 ladies. That's good stuff.

 

Shepard exactly fits the description Sergio Leone gave of Clint Eastwood's acting after the dollars trilogy was finished:

 

"He has only two facial expessions: with a hat, and without"

[entrerix]

"Not much use in a character who can supposedly be whatever I want him to be, yet never say or do anything I would, like say, Shepard."

 

Shepard is awesome. Gurlap wishes he was even half as awesome.

 

 

I mostly just want to see more of this Gurlap fellow, he sounds interesting.

[MechanicalLemon]

So far it looks like no luck for Shani. Also "potentially NFSW" ? Man I want your job

 

Anyway, three new videos.

 

First up is this one featuring lots and lots of rolling. As someone on GAF said, is this the dev responsible for the infamous rolling video? Really good quality, by the way.

 

Lastly, the first ten minutes of the game here.

 

Credits to slimgrin and hangmans tree at BSN for the previous two videos.

 

What if you picked Shani in TW1?

 

I think the devs confirmed that Shani won't be appearing in TW2, unfortunately. What a shame. Hopefully they'll tell us how that choice will be shown in-game during the conference next week.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Rosbjerg
nudity

[Hell Kitty]

People can complaint about the TOTALLY AVOIDABLE BI SEXUAL ROMANCES in BIO games but at least you get a choice.

 

About that, are they all really bisexual, or do they just have some sort of Schr

[Malcador]

Not really seeing the point of the ballista interaction but I'm guessing it's to make you more involved. Combat looks good enough, enemy NPCs need to work on their swing speed, hehe.

[Volourn]

"Apparently if male Hawke sleeps with Anders he'll tell you that it was his first homosexual experience."

 

You ehard wrong. Even thoguh I don't swing that way like Jaesun does, I've ehard that if you sleep with him as a male he tells you about his first homosexual experience from years back when he was in the Ferladen Mage Tower. Anders is bisexual. Always was, always is, always will be.. well.. not me since I slit the terrorist's throat.

[Orogun01]

So you think gay people are creepy? Fascinating.

Actually like more than half the people playing those romances aren't gay, otherwise they would be offended. Like the outwardly gay minority is, because quite frankly is all to socially correct. There is no awkwardness at the proposition, no taboo, guilty desire. They took out all the homoeroticism out of the romance, which gives me an idea of the kind of writer that they are.

Edited April 9, 2011 by Orogun01

[Nepenthe]

So you think gay people are creepy? Fascinating.

Actually like more than half the people playing those romances aren't gay, otherwise they would be offended. Like the outwardly gay minority is, because quite frankly is all to socially correct. There is no awkwardness at the proposition, no taboo, guilty desire. They took out all the homoeroticism out of the romance, which gives me an idea of the kind of writer that they are.

And there I was, thinking that this thread was full of tired stereotypes and bigotry.

 

Oh yeah, I still think that.

[Hell Kitty]

So you think gay people are creepy? Fascinating.

Actually like more than half the people playing those romances aren't gay, otherwise they would be offended. Like the outwardly gay minority is, because quite frankly is all to socially correct. There is no awkwardness at the proposition, no taboo, guilty desire. They took out all the homoeroticism out of the romance, which gives me an idea of the kind of writer that they are.

 

I'll be honest, I can't quite figure out what you saying here.

 

I don't think any RPG has ever made romantic relationships particularly interesting, but I don't think Bio did anything wrong in making the romances available to all genders or orientations. Anyway, here's what Dave G had to say out the whiny boys too insecure to deal with optional gay romances in the games they play:

 

To the OP: doing the same act repeatedly and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. What you hope to achieve by posting the same thread over and over again I can't honestly say.

 

To some of the others on this thread: While an ignorant opinion politely expressed doesn't make it less ignorant, I will say that the behavior of some of you is far worse. Calling someone a "troll" who expressed his thoughts in an intelligent manner and acting like hooligans suggesting if you just throw enough dirt that eventually that person will either go away or the thread will get locked will earn you a ban. No matter the opinion, I think how it's expressed deserves the same in kind. If you can't do that, refrain.

 

To the issue: I've said it before and I'll say it again-- perhaps a bit more eloquently, since it's apparently of dire concern to some.

 

The romances in the game are not for "the straight male gamer". They're for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention. We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in DAO and thus don't need to resort to anecdotal evidence to support our idea that their numbers are not insignificant... and that's ignoring the idea that they don't have just as much right to play the kind of game they wish as anyone else. The "rights" of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent "right" to get more options than anyone else.

 

More than that, I would question anyone deciding they speak for "the straight male gamer" just as much as someone claiming they speak for "all RPG fans", "all female fans" or even "all gay fans". You don't. If you wish to express your personal desires, then do so. I have no doubt that any opinion expressed on these forums is shared by many others, but since none of them have elected a spokesperson you're better off not trying to be one. If your attempt is to convince BioWare developers, I can tell you that you do in fact make your opinion less convincing by doing so.

 

And if there is any doubt why such an opinion might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as "political correctness" if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They're so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don't see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what's everyone's fuss all about? That's the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want.

 

The truth is that making a romance available for both genders is far less costly than creating an entirely new one. Does it create some issues of implementation? Sure-- but anything you try on this front is going to have its issues, and inevitably you'll always leave someone out in the cold. In this case, are all straight males left out in the cold? Not at all. There are romances available for them just the same as anyone else. Not all straight males require that their content be exclusive, after all, and you can see that even on this thread.

 

Would I do it again? I don't know. I doubt I would have Anders make the first move again-- at the time, I thought that requiring all romances to have Hawke initiate everything was the unrealistic part. Even if someone decides that this makes everyone "unrealistically" bisexual, however, or they can't handle the idea that the character might be bisexual if they were another PC... I don't see that as a big concern, to be honest. Romances are never one-size-fits-all, and even for those who don't mind the sexuality issue there's no guarantee they'll find a character they even want to romance. That's why romances are optional content. It's such a personal issue that we'll never be able to please everyone. The very best we can do is give everyone a little bit of choice, and that's what we tried here.

 

And the person who says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is, if you ask me, the one who deserves it least. And that's my opinion, expressed as politely as possible.

 

In a wall of text. Sorry about that.

 

And I'm sorry if someone didn't get everything they wanted out of the romances-- as I always am. I wish we could do the ideal where there's something for every desire and opinion, but as usual we make do.

 

Also, another devs thoughts on the matter.

[Monte Carlo]

So you think gay people are creepy? Fascinating.

 

Don't misquote me, please find one example of anything remotely homophobic I've ever posted. Half-wit.

 

The whole emo-romance Bio thing, with people devoting hundreds of pages of fan-slobbering over imaginary NPCs is creepy. That's what I meant, you know that's what I meant so that was a cheap slur.

 

An apology would be helpful.

[RPGmasterBoo]

David Gaider is so full of crap his eyes are brown.

[WorstUsernameEver]

David Gaider is so full of crap his eyes are brown.

 

I know you have a Bioware-hate-oriented sexuality, but I think he pretty much as a gigantic point with that post and there's little to nothing you can use to contradict him. Bottom line is, that straight male gamer is homophobic. And, dare I say, maybe you're too?

[RPGmasterBoo]

David Gaider is so full of crap his eyes are brown.

 

I know you have a Bioware-hate-oriented sexuality, but I think he pretty much as a gigantic point with that post and there's little to nothing you can use to contradict him. Bottom line is, that straight male gamer is homophobic. And, dare I say, maybe you're too?

 

Homophobia is a politically loaded term and I detest its use.

 

I'm not homophobic. I'm a traditionalist, with my base in Christian morality. I don't consider myself better than other people for it, or that it gives me a right to tell others what to think or do, but I expect others to extend the same courtesy to me. I consider homosexuality an unfortunate deviancy, and I think it has no place in the public sphere and that it shouldn't be portrayed as an equal of heterosexual relationships.

Thus Bioware's insistence on putting ever more of it into their games, I find equal parts disturbing and personally insulting - as an act of preaching unto me things I do not believe.

 

Even more so since I firmly believe, that todays public "homosexuality" is a political ideology of sorts (driven more by heterosexuals than anyone else) and that its completely divorced from the actual needs of real homosexuals.

 

The whole issue is rendered moot, since I stopped playing Bioware's games with ME2. Maybe I'll do ME3 for the sake of finality, but that's really it. Ultimately its the declining quality of their games that drove me away and not gay romances, because I'm not so fanatical as to discard someone's entire work just because there are parts I disagree with.

Edited April 9, 2011 by RPGmasterBoo