Kymriana

The shields look fantastic, LC. A little pick'me'up after a very sad week/weekend for me. Thank you.

No

Good GRIEF, you guys! I go to spend a day (trying) to play DnD and I come back to a whole new thread?! Yeesh. Kudos.

....really? ......that's frickin' awesome! :D

Beyond pre-prod, how many of those guilds were for a singleplayer game? hehe 2, actually. XD But that was a long time ago and it was as much just a 'story-line trade' and 'if we did a table top in this setting what would...' thing.

This is not the first pre-launch build I've ever been in... But this IS the first 'pre-any-production-at-all' guild... XD

I am, sorta. I kinda have a bit of a date tonight so I've been running around trying to get stuff done around the house instead of being parked on the forums. Sorry!

Aww, it's not that I disappeared. I just had to run errands... As for pets... Dog=Lucan(named from Lucan D'Lere and I often actually use D'Lere as his middle name...) Cat1(who passed away)=Tabris(taken from Evangelion) Cat2=Deaho(name of the cat from Crest of the Stars) Ball Python= Annatar(the name Sauron used to trick Celebrimbor and the Elves of Eregion) Like I said, my mother has given up on me ever naming my pets anything 'normal'... (Heck, back in college I named my series of betas Tanitsu(the first, second, third...) after my favorite character from the Legend of the Five Rings... My poor pets...)

To be fair, while this time around as I recall it was an "anti" poster who brought up Bioware, since this topic has a long history in the PE forums (can a month be long enough for a long history?) some posters who are "pro" have started by listing Bioware romances from the ME / DA series, so its not uncommon for BIO to get pulled in from either side in these discussions. I think that there have been knee jerk reactions from both sides as well, so not every post has been part of a solid discourse on the pros / cons of romance as a type of between party (or outside party) relationship. I'm aware of this. I've been following this thread for about... 3 of them now. (This being the third.) I acknowledge that I don't know from beginning to end the rise and fall of the flow of discourse around here. That said, his statement was not true. Several people in this thread alone have brought up reasons. Also, when earlier someone decided that they were the maligned party because they were told to maybe try to be civil and were thus the only ones 'not being respected' because they were 'evil'.... it's just laughable.

Excuse me? Also, a MAJORITY of the people I have seen comment in the last day or two have simply said "I hope they do have romance in." and the response has been to attack that opinion by saying 'NO ROMANCE BIOWARE IS EVIL' which then diverts the conversation to said company and said writers. The ones who are technically guilty of bringing Bioware into this are the ones who are screaming that they don't want it anywhere near their game. Who brought up a BW writer? It wasn't the people commenting on romance. Who was throwing personal insults bombs, personally attacking, and dismissing people because they didn't match up to 'special standards' that no one by the person attacking decided were important? We are not dealing with a Bioware game. Not a single one of the writers on any of the Bioware games are involved in this game. And there is not a chance in heck that PE is going to magically become a Bioware game just because someone who does happen to enjoy them, which is their opinion and not yours so who gives a flip, comments that they liked those romances. The idea that the 'anti-romance' people are Boo-Hoo'ing about being told to be respectful and somehow think they are the only ones who are not respected is a LARK. I have not seen the romance crowd throwing the personal attack bombs or blanket 'biotards all suck' comments. Good GRIEF.

Don't put it as if a dragon-marshmallow-cuddle-session was only dangerous for the dragon. One breath of hot air from you and I would be roasted beyond fluffyness. Now now, that would only happen if I sneezed. ^^ (which has happened twice in my DnD game... singed the arm hair and eyebrows off one poor guard...)

Romances bring in weird people, just wait for the pie charts and graphs proving dev's bias against whatever. Hahah, so WHAT? If we find out that you can be, or that there are, necros in the world... THAT just might bring in some really weird fellows, too. Or how about that Godtouched race, eh? Once we find out what kind of physical differences they have... that might bring in a whole lot of 'weird'... That doesn't matter. All that matters is the writers doing their job well with what they decide to go with. I just point out that it needs to be believable and cutting out one section of interaction because someone thinks it is "squicky" is just a bit on the 'nope' side for believable in-depth non-1-dimensional characters and story. PS: Guys, can we really stop the 'not in MY clubhouse' attitude, too? You don't get to decide who is and is not allowed on the forums. Going 'but if they put in romance at all, the CRAZIES will come here and we don't WANT them to' is really very childish. There are tons of people on this board that probably would make me twitch and feel the need to punch something if I read their threads or talked to them for extended periods of time. So guess what I do? I don't. There are going to be fans you like and don't like, that go too far off the deep end in one area or another.

I'll toss this back up, if nothing else than as something for anyone new to the thread to read and consider if they so wish. It basically appears people want character growth and development amoung the party that can include rivalry, sword-brother/sister, best friends, platonic loves, or straight up lovers. Having a believable evolution of interactions between a diverse group of people who are traveling for great lengths of time together through various situations that binds them together in equally diverse ways. It just is insane to me that people want character interactive growth in every way except romance... because romance is somehow eeeeeeeeeebil. But two people who have wildly different moral stances can learn to despise each other and one eventually betray the PC and/or leave the party is A-OK, right? There is literally no difference between the two when both are written well in the sense that both are showing a growth and changing of feelings between two characters dependent upon the choices that are made throughout the story. When handled by an experienced and creative writer, like the ones we have at the helm here, both are equal. What I have just pointed out is a compromise in that I have said what people here want: A solid well written story with characters that matter. You can't section off one way people interact, especially when they're with a small group of people for a very long time and facing various situations, but say that all of the others are fine. The whole point is that we are all, every single person here, expecting the writers to be up to the task of crafting a powerful engaging story. With realistically understandable characters. I don't want one-dimensional card-board cutouts.... this means I want them to run a realistic gambit of emotions: hate, joy, disgust, envy, revenge, heroism, villainy, love, despair.... It is all there, it all matters. I am not saying 'it should be like X game!' and I don't expect it to be. I want it to be the game that the creative staff at Obsidian envisioned when they first started this project. They don't HAVE an enforced time-line. They don't HAVE a Triple-A Tyranical Over-Company demanding they meet pointless milestones, deadlines, or pandering. What I DO expect is for it to be well written.

I try not to think about how long this next wait will be... haha I've taken a stance akin to: When the entire series is done, I'll read it. (That said, I have read the first two. Years ago. Before I realized I was heading down the same road as WoT...) Freakin' Wheel of Time burned me. >:{