What do you think about the NPCs revealed so far? What do you like about them, what do you dislike about them?

-- Kraal (msgboard@otaking.org), August 03, 1999

Answers

Actually, this scantily-clad-women-NPCs has been a long time phenomenon. I think, Becker, that you're a tad bit wrong about Fall-From-Grace being in the mold. She's a puritan succubus, and in the sketches and renders that I've seen, she's pretty well covered up. The robe is a bit low in front, but maybe it's to accomodate her wings.

I agree that the scantily-clad NPC is a bit of fanservice, but it's basically to sell the game. As a female, I'm not bothered by it (I could be an exception), but I try not to pander to it in my art. Most of my female characters are dressed warmly in armor or clothes. And if you do see some tightness to the clothes, blame Jim Lee or Rob Liefield's influence early on in my art. :-)

-- Kraal (msgboard@otaking.org), August 12, 1999.

I think the love triangle is just a subplot; one of many. It would make sense, though, since the Nameless One has been blessed (or cursed) with such longevity. He would outlive most mortal girlfriend/spouses, so perhaps Fall-From-Grace isn't such a bad idea for a mate. After all, she's pretty much immortal, being a succubus.

Back to the love triangle; many RPGs have used love (triangle or not) to further the main plot. Most of the Final Fantasy series, for instance. It's guaranteed to be angsty, and where there's angst, there's usually something interesting going on.

-- Kraal (msgboard@otaking.org), August 16, 1999.

Fall-From-Grace looks the most... umm... delicious. Seriously though, when will developers and artists start putting real armor on female adventurers? I'm all for making characters look attractive, but at times it gets annoying. The other day I was trying to find a pic of a female knight; I never realized that plate mail could be so skin-tight.

-- Terry Duchastel (tld@cise.ufl.edu), August 03, 1999.

Here's my take:

Vahilor: Very cool NPC. He's tough, but if you don't work within his limits he walks. This is what NPCs should be all about. I'm knee deep in M&MVII and I'll be sconkered if I can find a way to really tick off my NPCs. I'm not sure it's even possible.

Morte: Another cool idea. He's probably going to be an OK NPC (although he's a *fighter*? How does he do that?) but I really like how he's also a tutorial for newbies to the Planescape universe.

Annah & Grace: Don't get me started. You take the role of a big, ugly strong guy who has two beautiful women in skimpy clothes fight over him. This is male pseudo wish-fufilment and it gives adult gamers a bad name. I know what you're thinking "Geez Becker, lighten up". Well, if I was 14 or even 20 I probably would. But now I'm 28 and I have to actually explain my hobbies to my girlfriend without looking like a total prat. A nice comfy sweatshirt for Annah & Grace would go a long way to making my life easier.

Nordom: Cute little tyke! I think he's supposed to be more comic relif

Gythanki: Kraal, you missed this guy. You can find more about him on Sermon's site. Of course, you'll have to speak Dutch....

-- Becker (beckent@erols.com), August 12, 1999.

Weeellll.... let me see.

On the Annah/Fall-from-Grace argument.

Damn, its really gonna hurt my case that I'm 18 and male, but here goes....

Annah, the costume is ridiculous there is no 2 ways about it. Pictures with costumes like this have become known as nerd wank pictures between me and my friends, and mostly it just annoys us as it rarely does anything except make some loser play the game with only one hand on the keyboard----if you get my meaning. Unfortunately they haven't released much on Annah as a character, so there isn't much to comment on there.

Fall-from-Grace, I've only seen sketches of this one, but from all reports she's better coverd than Annah, so that's a plus. And her character seems much more intriuging, I actually want to hear that story.

Love triangle. Okay this seems just silly, but maybe it'll be done well. I dunno, really gotta wait for the game before I can say anything more.

-- Transeer (fullofcrud@hotmail.com), August 14, 1999.

Hmmm...it's interesting that the "conversation" went from opinions about NPCs to "scantily-clad females," even if it is to denounce them.

In either case, my two coppers are:

It sounds like the NPCs will have strong personality traits, which is really what I'm interested in. "Cool" looks notwithstanding, after a while I start to ignore them.

I flinched when I heard about the "love triangle" business. I think that will be more annoying, and a sad tribute to adolescent geekiness, than "scantily-clad females." My only hope is that it's done tastefully and intelligently; I know I'll be annoyed with any "cat-fights" while I'm playing Torment.

Geez, at lot of quotation marks...

-- Lin Fusan (m.lin@cee.com), August 16, 1999.

At the risk of being the odd one out here, I have to say that I love the fan service. Maybe I'm a bad person, I don't know. All I know is I like the scantily clad, overendowed, women in games/cartoons/comic books. I'm not one to "play the game with only one hand on the keyboard" as Transeer so eloquently put it, but I do like the fan service. Can't help it.

As far as the actual topic goes, I really don't have any opinions about the NPCs yet. Probably won't until in-game when they actually have some kind of personality to like/dislike. Although the flying skull kicks some serious ass. (Sorry, Kraal, can I say that here?) Now if he's cynical and a smart-ass he'll be my favorite NPC.

And Jim Lee rocks. Liefield's not bad, but I prefer McFarlane. But Lee is the Master.

-- Mob (mob_@email.com), August 23, 1999.

ok i have 3 statements 1)As long as they are not dolls or puppets I would be gald to have them in my group. My biggest complaint for BG was the characters, despite the fact that they have aliments and will fight each other if they don't get along, they still felt far too much like puppets that Kivan for example Angelo (i think it was him) killed his mate when i first meet Angelo i expected kivan to do something anything mabye go bersek instead he just stood there like he wasn't even there. i hope Torment can do better. 2)I think a love triangel if done right can be a great subplot. it will help alot in the character development part of the game, which seems to be missing in many of the more recent games even rpgs (like Diablo, and Rage of Mages) by the way when i mean character development it is not leveling up. 3) I feel some resentment about making scantly clad women characters as the standard type of character for games whats the point in wearing armor if only your private parts will be covered, leaving other vital areas such as necks upper chest, arms, legs and many other parts are all exposed to damage. Besides it is my personal opion that a female heroine can look just as attractive fully cover than in clothing that leaves nothing to the imagination.

-- Miao (lei-ming@email.msn.com), September 18, 1999.