The writing in this game is average

[Brotherman Bill]

Oh and lastly, the thing that triggered me to make this thread: The [Stoic], [Clever], [Rational] etc. tags makes absolutely no sense. You know who wrote those, Roguey ? I want to flame him on twitter.

Aaaand lastly, every fantasy writer should be forced to read at least one text from the antiquity, one medieval one, and one from the renaisssance. Medieval setting people talking like modern people triggers me.

 

[set]

The writing in PoE is functional. 25 hours in and Durance is the most notable and interesting guy you can really meet. All the others die very quickly, have a narrow involvement... or have little much to say. BG2 has more "fun" characters, even if they're more shallow (there's no Minsc equivalent or Viconia equivalent character I've run across in PoE).

Gameplay-wise, solid. Story-wise, it works. But character-wise? It's too tame. It's not like I want them to emualte BioWare or anything - but like - everyone besides Durance is way too "normal" for me. They're agreeable folk. It's a bit dull. But maybe there's a lot of development I haven't run into because I'm just exploring right now...

 

[Kaivokz]

Oh and lastly, the thing that triggered me to make this thread: The [Stoic], [Clever], [Rational] etc. tags makes absolutely no sense. You know who wrote those, Roguey ? I want to flame him on twitter.

Aaaand lastly, every fantasy writer should be forced to read at least one text from the antiquity, one medieval one, and one from the renaisssance. Medieval setting people talking like modern people triggers me.

Turn off the tags and decide for yourself what you think is stoic or rational.

If every fantasy writer wrote every medieval inspired world as a medieval author would, I probably wouldn't be a fan of the medieval fantasy genre. Fantasy =/= historically accurate medieval recreation. Don't be a wind-sucker and get your head out of the past.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Fenstermaker is PoE's Gaider.

Flip-flopping on Fenstermaker already? I expected better from you.

 

[Perkel]

You'be got to be joking. So far writing is excellent.
It is not PST where you non stop encountered weird things and by that writing got boos but game does ton of good writing from even minor characters.

Fuck those yellow backer shithead characters. Don't read them.
Some of them may have interesting bits of story but most of the time is some random bullshit.

I skip them completely.

 

[Haba]

Blows me away they didn't use Hollowborn as the hook

That's like using diabetes as the hook.

 

[Ninjerk]

Blows me away they didn't use Hollowborn as the hook

That's like using diabetes as the hook.

Entire populations having stillborn children for years on end... is like diabetes

 

[Haba]

Yes, please tell me how you make an exciting RPG adventure about the search for the cure for diabetes. That'd be the rough equivalent.

Also, read a bit history. Like descriptions of great famines, for example.

 

[TedNugent]

The writing in PoE is functional. 25 hours in and Durance is the most notable and interesting guy you can really meet. All the others die very quickly, have a narrow involvement... or have little much to say. BG2 has more "fun" characters, even if they're more shallow (there's no Minsc equivalent or Viconia equivalent character I've run across in PoE).

Gameplay-wise, solid. Story-wise, it works. But character-wise? It's too tame. It's not like I want them to emualte BioWare or anything - but like - everyone besides Durance is way too "normal" for me. They're agreeable folk. It's a bit dull. But maybe there's a lot of development I haven't run into because I'm just exploring right now...

Durance is cool as fuck.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Overall i have so far enjoyed the story and the game. That don't mean that its flawless and don't have some annoying points within the story. For example the end of act 2 is a major facepalm. The stronghold is of no importance in the story. In either case they did good for the money they had and i hope they make a lot of money so that they can make a even larger and better world =)

 

[Ninjerk]

Yes, please tell me how you make an exciting RPG adventure about the search for the cure for diabetes. That'd be the rough equivalent.

Also, read a bit history. Like descriptions of great famines, for example.

How is it even remotely comparable to diabetes?

 

[Irenaeus]

I like the Hollowborn subplot. I'm eager to see what's behind it and how it's resolved.

 

[Angthoron]

Yes, please tell me how you make an exciting RPG adventure about the search for the cure for diabetes. That'd be the rough equivalent.

Also, read a bit history. Like descriptions of great famines, for example.

Yes, except one of the things that the party is out to do is stop the Hollowborn curse. Other games that send you to cure diabetes include NWN1 (yes, the story is crap there, but not due to the premise), Fallout 1 (preventative measures vs dehydration), and BG2 (shit son you lost your soul you going down). Hollowborn condition isn't a natural disease, pretty much everyone knows it. Of course, the premise would have to be reworked somehow, because lifting a divine curse is a little trickier than receiving a free piece of land.

 

[Haba]

"You've recently entered the magical land of Tir'Nya'Josh'Dswayer. But alas, a cruel plague torments the land! People are suffering from multitude of serious complications! They are fat! Their pancreas are not producing enough insulin! Can you, a stranger with no personal connection, solve this mysterious illness that costs the health service of Tir'Nya'Josh'Dswayer millions of copper coins every year?"

Some children are born hollow. It's a tragedy. But like certain NPC says, even the residents have found a solution: stop making babies. Or move somewhere else. Quest solved, roll credits.

 

[Rostere]

Blows me away they didn't use Hollowborn as the hook

That's like using diabetes as the hook.

Entire populations having stillborn children for years on end... is like diabetes

You see, the similarity is that both of these are "save the world" hooks.

Maybe, at some point, the devs talked about this and said that "you know, maybe we shouldn't push the PC into too much SAVE TEH WORLD PLZ and let them motivate themselves from what's happening around them if they're interested".

As it is, you won't have people walking up to random strangers (the PC), imploring them to lift a (presumed) god's curse that so far NONE of the fucking experts in soul magick have had any clue about what it even is. I think that's pretty good for a RPG. In a game with worse writing, you would have gotten "QUEST: Solve the mysterious curse" from the first person you meet in Gilded Vale.

 

[Haba]

And besides, the game is clearly trying to copy BG as much as possible, hence the whole watcher thing instead.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Turn off the tags and decide for yourself what you think is stoic or rational.

out of sight, out of mind

*nods* [stoic]

 

[Jaedar]

Turn off the tags and decide for yourself what you think is stoic or rational.

out of sight, out of mind

*nods* [stoic]

I turned off the tags immediately. I now have a rating of 1 in every personality, except the two or three where I have 2.

And I don't think I am very inconsistent in how I play.

 

[Darth Roxor]

And I don't think I am very inconsistent in how I play.

Or are you? [clever]

 

[One-and-a-half-Ivan]

Stupid tags on my Codex? Stop using them or GTFO! [Aggressive]

 

[Ellef]

Let me cave in like a weak willed doormat to your irrational demands [Benevolent]

Benevolent sucks in this game.

 

[Rake]

No. When people complain about the writing of Dragon Age, they don't blame Knowles or Laidlaw. They blame Gaider. Fenstermaker is PoE's Gaider.

You are partly correct, except that Sawyer had a much bigger/more involved role in PoE writing than Laidlaw had in Bioware side.

Ziets hates writing dialogue so I doubt his continued presence here would have fixed the problems people have with it.

Also remember that he was the creative lead on DS3.

Eric didn't wrote PoE dialogue all by himself. Overall story stracture, pacing, the infamous ending of Act 2... all of them lie in Eric's feet, and Ziets could do them better.

Avellone doing all the writing (WITHOUT interference from ANYONE)

I would pay serious dollars for that game

 

[Athelas]

So, anyone mention Hollowborn yet?

No?

Well if so it was in the passing, and I understand why: The game itself only mentions them in the passing.

Yeah, except for the first question you're asked when you enter Gilded Vale being 'Have you ever sired a hollowborn child'? Oh, and the giant tree in the middle of town decorated with corpses from people who claimed to be able to cure the hollowborn disease.

Kinda hard to miss all that.

Which isn't to say the writing doesn't have issues. But Gilded Vale feels very believable as a town struck with the hollowborn curse.

 

[Chateaubryan]

So, anyone mention Hollowborn yet?

No?

Well if so it was in the passing, and I understand why: The game itself only mentions them in the passing.

I mean, here we have a crisis of biblical proportions. Worse, kidses are born practically dead, not only the firstborn but almost all of them, for years. It is in every sense a calamity. And people say that...
In the same way they're talking about the weather, or the new neighbors.

I don't know, the game make a point from the get-go that this is a serious deal that drives people to some extremities. Animancers trying to find a solution, some of them find a palliative called the Salvation, backfires, lynching of said Animancers. A lord sets himself to find any kind of possible cure, purges of Eothian take place, a clergy tries to get the favor of Berath, deity of death and renewal to get on this shit. Durance and other NPC have theories on why it happens. It all looks consistent to me.

 

[Darth Roxor]

speaking of writing...

strolling around the countryside, I come across two hostile 'looters' who immediately attack me and die almost as immediately

five steps ahead I see more lootaz, this time neutral

conversation!

YOU KILLED OUR FOLK WHO BUMRUSHED YOU IN A FRENZY OF BLOODLUST? YOU MURDERER ;_;

WE ARE JUST SELF-DEFENDING OURSELVES FROM DIS STORM BY BUMRUSHING PEOPLE IN A FRENZY OF BLOODLUST ;_;

1. We mistook your cousins for looters which certainly was a big mistake considering how they bumrushed us 2 versus 5 in a frenzy of bloodlust.




i dont even