Spent $70 on this game... can't seem to play more than a bit of it

[PrimeJunta]

Well I won't give you my "unfiltered" opinion of Planescape: Torment.  I will sum it up by saying it was not faithful to the source material it was based on (the Planescape campaign setting), many of it's design decisions seemed to be based on being "witty" and "anti trope" not on actually being good design decisions, and the overall way the game was played was skewed to force a specific stat, class, and playstyle and if you didn't follow that skew you got sub optimal game experience all the way around.

 

And this is precisely why it is great. If you don't 'get' that, I doubt you'll 'get' T:ToN either.

[jinzen]

 

Anyway, I figured I would rant here because I literally can't seem to start a new game without putting it away again. Also, apparently the storyline is lackluster so is it even worth playing through to the WM Part 2?

That's your problem. Literally. Mind you, I don't mean to sound rude. Just frank/honest.

 

I believe you are making an active (potentially a passive or sub-conscious) choice.

 

There's a TL;DR ("Too Long; Didn't Read" a.k.a. "In Short" or "Summary of Post") at the bottom.

 

I understand your problem tho. I've been going through the same journey for a lot of games throughout the ages. Even NEO Scavenger. Darkest Dungeon. TES. Yes, even Pillars of Eternity. But it hasn't been because "Oh this game sucks so much", it has mostly been because of my own motivation is -100% to play any game and I'm just trying to pass time because I'm in a bored state of mind. Either I'm trying to play something when I should be doing something else, or just unconveniently bad timing. Or I can overcome this state with some willpower and forget I was bored in the first place (usually takes some mental work/mantra).

 

Games like Pillars of Eternity aren't really games to pass time with, they're experiences~ for the lack of a better word.

 

It took me near 10 years to play and finish Baldur's Gate. I pirated it first because it was #1 on RPG lists. Then I bought a hard copy. I modded it (30 gb worth of mods), played with a friend and then I started to see the underlying charm and history of it. Even the culture of D&D dawned on me, and I plowed through it like no tomorrow and I was amazed by it. Even bought the Enhanced Editions as well (sentimental value/collection, even if it is nothing but digital bytes).

 

Like I've said in similar threads like this one. Take your time. Figure out a cool concept for a character, perhaps read a book or some fanfic to get inspired. Invest and engage some time into Your Character. Talk to someone close to you about this cool character, get feedback, modify it etc. etc.

 

I have a friend who dump a lot of time into games creating characters, but 30-60 minutes in he drops the game and starts all over because he wasn't satisfied with the direction or choices he made (he usually likes the game a lot but he messes up the character so he starts all over and over... I do too in a lot of RPG's. It can take a couple of trial characters before I get "The One").

 

When you've done the character, take a moment and decide "I'm going to read every word and every line in the game, and listen to what they say" without skipping ahead. Personally, this is usually the main reason why I lose a lot of interest in a lot of games (Skipping dialogue), because a game such as Pillars of Eternity (RPG's in general really) can get kind of dull if you're not...:

A) ... using your brain/thinking

B) ... paying attention/reading*

 

Because simply brawling over and over and fighting trash mob after thrash mob with the seldom harder encounter (boss or similar) makes most games mundane and repetitive. It can easily become "work", and this is something that video games are designed to escape from, are they not?

 

I do repetetive tasks every single day at work, walking back and forth, doing the same thing over and over for months/weeks and you have to stay positive (yes, I'm reflecting and comparing with work). If I were to get home and do the same thing over and over again, I'd get depressed, not very motivated to leisurely escape reality for a couple of hours, and I wouldn't enjoy my free time very much.

 

TL;DR:

1) Figure out a cool character concept. What does your character look like (in your mind's eye)? Or perhaps you can google a cool portrait you like and implement it into the game? What's his/her name? Where do he/she come from? What did he/she do before? Etc. etc. Mind you that your character is going to be Level 1 so don't go for "DESTROYER OF GODS!!!" (unless, of course, you cheat with console commands and give your character Max Level right away).

 

2) Decide that you're going to read every word and line in the game, before you even start playing the game, decide that you're going to pay attention. Listen to the voice acting. Pay attention to details. Focus. Stay alert. Stay motivated. This is an active choice, not something that just "happens". Trust me, it becomes so much easier to keep track and enjoy what's going on. And when or if you get bored, press on, you'll feel rewarded for it later (although, that is a subjective matter).

 

What sort of games do you enjoy and play a lot? What's your favorite story? Did you hear/read that favorite story by skipping all the pages, or did you read it and pay attention and gave yourself in to it a little bit?

 

There you go.

 

Thanks, it's true that PoE seems more like an experience than entertainment. I played through the last Star Craft 2 expansion though quickly and that was great fun.

 

Anyway, part of the problem I guess is that I dislike almost EVERY single class or their mechanics. The three classes I do like (Monk, Wiz, and Cipher) are ruined by their mechanics that make 0 sense game design wise (the wiz is old school cookie cutter, so I might just go with that).

[PrimeJunta]

Question @jinzen: why do you insist on playing a game you dislike?

 

I mean sure, you dropped some money on it, but doesn't it just add to the aggravation to waste time on it? I know I sometimes buy games I end up not liking and they just sit there in my library all forlorn-like, but I can't say how it would help to force myself to play them.

[house2fly]

What on earth doesn't make sense about those classes?

[Sedrefilos]

Sometimes, some people stick too long (and too much) with a specific canon of, usually, their first fictional universe they fell in love, that they take it a universal fact (as if there can be such a thing in a fictional universe!!!) and start comparing everything else to that.

 

I remember some 10 years ago when WoW was new, I was talking with some random guy in a net caffe about the game and he asked me what character I was playing (he was not playing the game at the moment, but he knew the Warcraft universe nontheless). I said "Troll". "Oh, you're playing with the bad guys, huh?" he said. I said to him that the Horde was not the bad guys and that there were no actual bad guys and good guys in the player factions. So he insisted that the Horde was the bad guys because there were orcs in there and orcs are a Tolkien creation and they are evil, therefore orcs (and the Horde) in WoW are the bad guys

Edited February 19, 2016 by Sedrefilos

[Ohioastro]

What on earth doesn't make sense about those classes?

If you can't be bothered to spend 15 minutes in game trying to figure things out, I suppose.  Given that, Bejeweled might be a challenge.