Originally Posted by kainzero this stardew valley game looks interesting rune factory + terraria/minecraft + co-op. could be real fun

Waiting on Starbound personally. Though I'd probably give that a go at some point too.

Originally Posted by elessar123 Depends on whether Mass Effect or Borderlands count.

Sales would be a good objective metric. I think Mass Effect would be a decent contender for the FF7/WoW of single-player WRPGs, but did it have FF7/WoW sales figures?

Originally Posted by blueshinra Yeah. I still don't know whether or not to preorder Soul Hackers-- my MegaTen backlog never, ever seems to shrink D: And who knows when we're getting the Dragon Quest VII remake? I also want to get Tales of Xillia sometime in the future, but don't plan on preordering it.

There's a dragon quest 7 remake? If that is the case I better sell my PS1 version of the game on ebay soon.

Originally Posted by kainzero we'll never see anything successful like ff7. it single-handedly blew open the RPG market in the US..

I would say stuff like Halo and CoD count for bringing FPS to consoles and to a less extent, SF4 for bringing fighting games back in a big way.

Originally Posted by elessar123 Depends on whether Mass Effect or Borderlands count.

Definitely not Borderlands, and I think too many people hated ME3 for it to count as a series and being honest, the first game is pretty bad. I'd much rather play FFVII over that.

ME2 is one of the best games ever though. Probably second to my Xenogears.

Originally Posted by Indignate ME2 is one of the best games ever though.

I think I'm going to play this soon (for the first time). The PC version better not be gimped. And I don't want to play the first so my hope is the narrative stands on its own.

I get lots of gay stuff in this, too, right? Or is that the last one?

Nah, they were still in their "Shepard just can't be gay, guys." phase in ME2.

Originally Posted by The Crotch Nah, they were still in their "Shepard just can't be gay, guys." phase in ME2.

Not exactly... It was more like, you could RP Shepard as gay if you wanted, but there just weren't any homosexual men in the immediate vicinity for him to mack on. THAT's what changed in ME3. They added a gay crew member and made another formerly straight one bisexual, so now gay Shepard has options.

When asked about male Shepard's orientation, Bioware said, "In Mass Effect it's more a third-person narrative, where you have a pre-defined character who is who he is, or she is. But it's not a wide-open choice matrix. It's more choice on a tactical level with a pre-defined character."

There were no gay crewmembers in the earlier games because Bioware considered Shepard Not Gay. They're not a documentary crew cataloging real events; they made the damn game. And they later changed their minds. See also: Kaidan.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, but I still think there's a difference between "Shepard is not allowed to be X" and "The game scenario doesn't present Shepard with the option to act on X."

I mean take a female Shepard in Mass Effect 2, her only human romance option is an African-American male. Is that BioWare decreeing that Shepard is no longer attracted to white guys like she was in ME1? Or is it just that a game can only present a finite amount of options at a time, and not every specific preference is going to be accommodated?

All that said I'm glad that BioWare gave players the option to be a gay male Shepard with a gay male love interest, and it would have been great if they would have added it earlier. More options are better.

You're not gay if you don't have gay sex

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You're not a gay character if your creators explicitly state, "No, this character is not gay."

Originally Posted by Ryuukishi I mean take a female Shepard in Mass Effect 2, her only human romance option is an African-American male. Is that BioWare decreeing that Shepard is no longer attracted to white guys like she was in ME1? Or is it just that a game can only present a finite amount of options at a time, and not every specific preference is going to be accommodated?

Occam's Razor?

Originally Posted by The Crotch You're not a gay character if your creators explicitly state, "No, this character is not gay."

If you've got a link to a quote where BioWare stated that male Shepard is canonically straight, then I am wrong and will shut up. If that's true then I'm glad they changed their minds before ME3, because that's a dumb thing to say. (If the quote in #868 is what you're talking about, then I have to disagree that that constitutes an explicit statement that male Shepard is straight. I would say he dodged the question and didn't answer specifically either way.)

To change the subject, there is a piano in the lobby of my workplace, and right now a girl is playing "To Zanarkand" on it.

It's from an interview just after the release of ME2. Full quote is as follows.

IGN: Will there be gay relationships for the male Shepard? Here at IGN we've heard a lot of positive feedback from the inclusion of gay relationships in Dragon Age; compare that with the somewhat conspicuous absence of them from the first Mass Effect, especially with the chance for a lesbian relationship. Ray Muzyka: Here's how the games are different: Dragon Age is a first person narrative, where you're taking on an origin and a role, and you are that character at a fundamental level. It's fundamentally about defining your character, including those kinds of concepts. In Mass Effect it's more a third person narrative, where you have a pre-defined character who is who he is, or she is. But it's not a wide-open choice matrix. It's more choice on a tactical level with a pre-defined character. So they're different types of narratives, and that's intentional. We're not saying that one approach is better than the other. In our previous games, as we did in Jade Empire, as we did in KOTOR, as we did in Baldur's Gate, and many games before and in the future, we enable those kinds of choices, whereas in Mass Effect it's more about Shepard as a defined character with certain approaches and worldviews, and that's just who he or she is. So we constrain the choice set somewhat, but enable more tactical choices and enable a deeper, richer personality, because it's more focused around defining one character, it's not as wide open. But that's by choice. It's first person versus third person narrative, and the types of choices you get to make within that are related to that, whether you've got a pre-defined character or a wide-open character. Some of our games have been wide open, and some have been more constrained, and we'll probably continue both kinds of character development in the future.

I guess that's more implicit than explicit. Muzyka's savvy enough not to do that.

In conclusion, this is a lot of words about gay pixels. I really have all to contribute to this thread until Project Eternity comes out. Maybe I'll install Arcanum or something.

Originally Posted by The Crotch In conclusion, this is a lot of words about gay pixels.

This remains the definitive treatise on the subject. Really says all there is to say.

Originally Posted by Ryuukishi To change the subject, there is a piano in the lobby of my workplace, and right now a girl is playing "To Zanarkand" on it.

i tried so hard to learn that piece
but not hard enough. at that time i only started playing piano for like... 4 months.

i think i was able to play the beginning though. fun song though, i'm not sure if there's a better piano piece in the ff series.

I was going to make a gay joke, butt it.

Guys you should all be talking about System Shock 2. Shit is going live on GOG.com tomorrow.

I'd buy it, but I still have the aforementioned unplayed copy of Arcanum sitting on my GOG account.

Originally Posted by kainzero fun song though, i'm not sure if there's a better piano piece in the ff series.

Yeah, "To Zanarkand" is tough to top. It doesn't even come close, but I'm rather fond of "Slide Show, Part 2":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8m5J28Chio

Originally Posted by Ryuukishi To change the subject, there is a piano in the lobby of my workplace, and right now a girl is playing "To Zanarkand" on it.

I think it is time to go to pound town on her because that is my favorite FF song, barely beating out "Besaid Isle" and a few others.