Eternity Avowed - Obsidian's first person action-RPG in the Pillars of Eternity setting - coming February 18th

[Elttharion]

you have not played da:i or me:a

ME:A wasted all the romance budget in one ass.

Spoiler

Thats a pretty good looking ass to be fair. Which character is that?

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

You know what, I'm good, thanks. She looks like her ultimate move is 'call the walmart manager'.

 

[Elttharion]

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

A lot of these games have at least one "basic straight male romance choice" so their previous core audience doesn't feel left out, i.e Shadowheart.

I wonder why alienating your previous core audience, the one that's supported you for years, is a bad decision.

It's almost like your company is now floundering almost entirely because of that decision.

Yeah, and then you end up with things like this (some people said the percentage is even higher nowadays, this was closer to release):

If you only read things online you would think Astarion was the choice of the absolute majority of players.

 

[Tyranicon]

I kinda want to know the reaction of modern gamedevs when you tell them that the vast majority of gamers are still straight men.

edit: this is what I had in mind

 

[Elttharion]

I kinda want to know the reaction of modern gamedevs when you tell them that the vast majority of gamers are still straight men.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

A lot of these games have at least one "basic straight male romance choice" so their previous core audience doesn't feel left out, i.e Shadowheart.

I wonder why alienating your previous core audience, the one that's supported you for years, is a bad decision.

It's almost like your company is now floundering almost entirely because of that decision.

Yeah, and then you end up with things like this (some people said the percentage is even higher nowadays, this was closer to release):

If you only read things online you would think Astarion was the choice of the absolute majority of players

Shadowheart is the most popular because she's "normal", stupidly easy to get approval and has the most involved personal quest.

She's basically get entire act 2 and 3 for herself , so you will be missing content by not taking her , so it's basically the Canon romance. Like Liara in Mass effect but even more pushed. Hell, she's the only one that gets a animated flashback.

They knew their playbase. But they found a easy way to pander towards LGBT+ people would be just making everything Bissexual.

Easy win.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

In fairness to Bioware, at least their romances involved hot chicks with nice T&A

Could be worse. How about Blue Sera.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Most of Shadowheart's allure comes from her being a D&D goth girl - "goth" has lost all of its meaning and has become the default style for cock teasing girls. Also, it speaks volumes of modern obsidian that people prefer to talk about Larian and Bioware in a thread devoted to their upcoming game.

 

[Elttharion]

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

A lot of these games have at least one "basic straight male romance choice" so their previous core audience doesn't feel left out, i.e Shadowheart.

I wonder why alienating your previous core audience, the one that's supported you for years, is a bad decision.

It's almost like your company is now floundering almost entirely because of that decision.

Yeah, and then you end up with things like this (some people said the percentage is even higher nowadays, this was closer to release):

If you only read things online you would think Astarion was the choice of the absolute majority of players

Shadowheart is the most popular because she's "normal", stupidly easy to get approval and has the most involved personal quest.

She's basically get entire act 2 and 3 for herself , so you will be missing content by not taking her , so it's basically the Canon romance. Like Liara in Mass effect but even more pushed. Hell, she's the only one that gets a animated flashback.

They knew their playbase. But they found a easy way to pander towards LGBT+ people would be just making everything Bissexual.

Easy win.

Do you need to romance her to experience most of the questlines/events or just taking her in a party is enough? I ask this because the Larian post implies most people actually pursued her romance path and that 51% of all players chose her as a partner, including the ones that didnt romance anyone. Maybe I am reading this wrong tho or something like 99% of people romanced someone so the rest are irrelevant.

For the other points, it makes sense, but then you still have the other two female characters making the rest of the top 3. And they are 'weird' characters, probably the first choice of only a small minority. Meanwhile the male companions are all relatively conventionally attractive, Astarion being probably the most blatant fujo bait I have ever seen. Despite that they couldnt break into the top 3 (I would die laughing if the 4th place is the drow chick).

I mean, when Larian published the data the BG3 subreddit couldnt believe it was true, I know this because I was there with a bucket of popcorn reading the comments.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I think you get romance-exclusive ways to go through her quest, but I don't think you get actual romance-only content outside of a few scenes and dialogue.

 

[Elttharion]

Not sure if this was already posted here

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Do you need to romance her to experience most of the questlines/events or just taking her in a party is enough?

You can kill her and then rofl at how shit the game is at reacting. You later find her parents in a cage somewhere and can't free them, for the simple reason that she's not with you.
It's a much better experience imo. Shows you a glimpse behind the curtain. Plus you don't have a nagging entitled bitch to deal with, let alone "romance her". Have you seen her haircut?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

In fairness to Bioware, at least their romances involved hot chicks with nice T&A, not bestiality and some other degenerate shit.

From what I remember Deadfire only got romances because people whined about it during Figstarter. Good to see somebody finally pushing against cancer.

you have not played da:i or me:a

Well yeah, I meant back when Bioware was good. Romances were still a waste of time and obv designed for 12 year olds, but at least it wasn't violently offensive cringe that plagues modern RPG scene.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

From "romances shouldn't be in rpgs" to "back when romances in rpgs were good"...

 

[mediocrepoet]

From "romances shouldn't be in rpgs" to "back when romances in rpgs were good"...

I mean... his post is right there. Are you actively mischaracterizing it or can you just not read?

 

[Lemming42]

"Romances" in games are always weird as fuck because they're necessarily abstracted to the point of absurdity. Even for people who end up having an interest in the romantic lives of game characters, fanfiction seems like an obviously better vehicle to explore it given that A) you can pick any characters you want and B) you can actually write at length about what the characters are thinking and feeling, instead of having voice actors read out four lines of cringey dialogue that advance the relationship from "strangers who just met" to "soulmates" over the course of eighteen seconds.

Their other fatal downfall of in-game romance arcs is that they must involve the player character, and player characters are almost always a complete void in these games. I don't believe anyone could fall in love with Commander Shepard, because s/he is an absolute fucking nobody, a dumb military jock with no clear values or personality or opinions about anything (aside from having ten favourite stores on the Citadel). Oh yeah I bet Ashley was really swept off her feet by my dumb noncommittal statements on everything and inane boardroom-style leadership talk. "I hear your concerns, Williams, but we need to work together as a team" yeah she's wetter than an otter's pocket now. I bet Garrus was head over heels for me after he heard me say "I should go" for the twenty sixth time in a row while looking for quests.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Most of Shadowheart's allure comes from her being a D&D goth girl - "goth" has lost all of its meaning and has become the default style for cock teasing girls. Also, it speaks volumes of modern obsidian that people prefer to talk about Larian and Bioware in a thread devoted to their upcoming game.

Ngl, if obsidian were closed for good , I wouldn't care much outside of Josh and the people behind Pentiment and Grounded. I wish them the best for real.

I was super fan of them until outer worlds. Nowadays, they're barely better than Bethesda and Bioware. Avowed going to flop and they might be closed by 2026, at best, because they can't make games that doesn't like were made in 2010.. The more I got learn of them and how their CEO is big piece of shit, the less I gave a fuck about them.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

I don't think this game has romances.

It's going to so funny to see people complain about it in a post-bg3 landscape. despite bg3 having less ''romance content'' than most RPGs.

I don't think you'll see them. Obsidian will eventually finish production of this game and release it, but that's all. Everyone will forget about it a week after the premiere. That's why there won't be a subreddit where weirdos masturbate to a character fifteen years after its release.

 

[ropetight]

you have not played da:i or me:a

ME:A wasted all the romance budget in one ass.

Spoiler

Thats a pretty good looking ass to be fair. Which character is that?

Cora, the wannabe asari commando.

Oh, the Ass Effect!

 

[Fedora Master]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

 

[Old Hans]

Which will feature the more derivative gameplay and cringe inducing writing? This or Dragon Age Dread Wolf?

I'm hedging my bets on Avowed. This game doesnt even look good enough to have an awsome button

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Obsidian being closed immediately is much less likely than them being turned into Fallout franchise servants. Cycles between releases are getting longer and longer -- and having multiple studios assigned to working on big IP is one logical destination for BFCs (Big Fucking Corporations). Call Of Duty-style.

 

[Lemming42]

It's pretty clear that they no longer have the people/talent necessary to pull of something approaching New Vegas quality so I wonder how that'd go. Avellone seemed to want them to become Elder Scrolls workhorses but Bethesda seem resistant to farming out their franchises in that way. They'll probably want to take extra care with Fallout now that it's suddenly hot property again.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Avowed going to flop and they might be closed by 2026

Not necessarily imo. Avoweds issues will be blamed on it not having enough budget and going through mismanaged development, TOW2 is still in the pipeline.
Microsoft can also do two things from there on with obsidian. They'll have a team that has experience with making something like a bethesda game for some time now(TOW people seemingly stuck around) and they have Bethesda's franchises. Either they'll work as a support studio for them or take over Fallouts. The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW, imo it was a one trick pony(do you really think second game in a row revolving around "corporate people be silly" will work?) and Avowed just has no chance imo. plus any kind of sequels starting production in 2026 will probably coincide with TES6.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Well yeah, I meant back when Bioware was good.

At some point, it's necessary to intervene and assist those Codexers suffering under the delusion that Bioware was ever good.

 

[scytheavatar]

They'll have a team that has experience with making something like a bethesda game for some time now(TOW people seemingly stuck around) and they have Bethesda's franchises. Either they'll work as a support studio for them or take over Fallouts. The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW, imo it was a one trick pony(do you really think second game in a row revolving around "corporate people be silly" will work?) and Avowed just has no chance imo. plus any kind of sequels starting production in 2026 will probably coincide with TES6.

You think Microsoft will have interest in making Fallout 5 a post apocalypse version of Avowed? Obsidian is a AA dev and doesn't possess the potential to scale up to being AAA. I think those hoping for Obsidian or Inxile to make Fallout 5 are out of touch with reality and with the demands of modern video game development, in reality if Microsoft really wants another studio to make a Fallout 5 their only option would be one of the COD studios. Although allowing them to make Fallout 5 brings out the question of how Microsoft can keep the COD game a year pipeline.

The second option is seeing if they can get BG3 kind of success and publicity with PoE3. I don't think they'll let them build up TOW

TOW is a bigger, more successful game than any of the POE games, why the freak would Microsoft kill TOW2 for more POE games? Makes zero sense.

If Avowed and TOW2 bombs, I imagine Microsoft will ask Obsidian to downscale and focus on making games like Pentiment and Grounded, which are some of Obsidian's most successful games ever.