Death of the tutorial buddy

As I played the beginning of Dragon Age 2 and watched one of my virtual siblings die for no reason other than because his/her abilities were somewhat redundant with mine (if you play a mage, your mage sister dies, if you play a rogue or warrior, your warrior brother dies), I had a feeling of déjà vu. It was because I had seen it before: The start of a game, setting out accompanied by one or two companions, so naive and unseasoned. Suddenly a cutscene, my companion falls--was it a heroic sacrifice, or just a foolish mistake? It doesn't matter, the companion is dead. There was nothing I could do. Maybe it's just the games that I play (BioWare??), but there seem to be a lot of games in which a non-player companion, whether in a true tutorial section or merely in an introductory part of the game, inevitably dies, regardless of what the player does. I wrote out a list of all the games that I've played in which the player character has non-player companions, and I realized that about half of them use this "Dead Tutorial Buddy" (DTB) trope.

In some cases the DTB is an old friend or family member. Their death is tragic, devastating the player character, destroying the world as she knew and loved it. Of course, since you the player only just met the DTB, it never feels quite so sad. In other cases, the DTB is just a random, completely inconsequential person who happened to team up with you long enough to get killed (you must be bad luck). The DTB may be mentioned later in the game depending on how close he or she was to you and your surviving companions, but in most cases, the DTB will soon be forgotten. I had trouble recalling some of the DTBs' names--even ones that I'd seen nearly a dozen times (I always start a lot more characters than I end up playing).

I have compiled this list to commemorate the DTBs, those budding heroes who are never given the chance to bloom, who briefly ally themselves with the player character who will one day become a renowned hero, who sacrifice themselves nobly, if sometimes foolishly, so that others might live. They need a bit of commemoration because, in most cases, they are already long forgotten.

Minor spoilers: These records of the deaths of certain characters may be considered spoilers, but since these events all happen at the very beginning of the game, I don't think it should be a problem.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
DTB: Trask Ulgo
Relation to player character: You two are bunk-mates on the Endar Spire, but you have opposite shifts so you've never really met each other.
Team up: The ship is under attack, and somehow you're the only one who's still sleeping. Trask comes in to wake you up, and together you try to make your way first to the bridge, then to the escape pods.
Manner of death: Trask heroically sacrifices himself by confronting a dangerous Sith (against whom neither of you stand a chance) while allowing the player character to escape.
Significance: It was either you or him, so this was, in a way, a necessary sacrifice. It worked out for the best.
Recurrence: I think later in the game you encounter (and get to kill) the Sith who killed Trask. But I might be totally misremembering that. The fact that I don't remember just shows that really, poor Trask is quickly forgotten.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Original Campaign
DTB: Amie, a wizard apprentice
Relation to player character: She's a slightly younger peer and childhood friend.
Team up: The night after the High Harvest Fair, your village is attacked. Amie and Bevil come to fetch you from your bedroom. You are sent to rally the town militia, and battle attackers along the way.
Manner of death: While battling your way through the village, you come across Amie's wizard mentor trading spells with a githyanki. She rushes in to throw some puny apprentice spells, but the githyanki just laughs before pwning her.
Significance: Her spells did nothing and her mentor turned out just fine, so this was just a tragic, senseless death.
Recurrence: Everyone in the village is sad for the rest of the scene (poor Amie!), but she's quickly forgotten once you leave West Harbor.

Mass Effect
DTB: Corporal Richard Jenkins
Relation to player character: He's a soldier under your command on the Normandy, but you're new to the ship so you've only just met him.
Team up: Captain Anderson picks Jenkins along with Lieutenant Alenko to accompany you on a mission on Eden Prime.
Manner of death: Poor Jenkins gets shot down by some robots. He must have had faulty shields, since you and Alenko do just fine against the robots.
Significance: He walks out of cover and gets torn up. There's no purpose. It's just sad.
Recurrence: Doctor Chakwas takes it hard when someone gets injured that she can't save. She brings his name up once in a while; even in Mass Effect 2, you may find yourself raising a toast to Jenkins.

Dragon Age: Origins
DTB: Daveth and Ser Jory, and various*
Relation to player character: Daveth and Ser Jory are your fellow Grey Warden recruits, whom you've only just met in Ostagar.
Team up: Grey Warden leader Duncan sends the three recruits accompanied by Grey Warden Alistair into the Korcari Wilds as a necessary quest for your Joining (initiation into the Grey Wardens).
Manner of death: Becoming a Grey Warden requires drinking darkspawn blood, which will either be fatal or will make you immune to their taint and give you nightmares about archdemons, among other things. Unfortunately for Daveth, he gets the former effect. After witnessing this, Ser Jory chickens out and tries to flee, then attacks Duncan when Duncan tries to stop him. This was a very bad idea.
Significance: Daveth bravely drank the poisonous blood in the hopes that he might make a difference as a Grey Warden. It was not to be, but there was no other way to find out. The Ser Jory situation still bothers me; if I had actually been there, I would have given Duncan a piece of my mind and demanded to know why exactly we couldn't let Jory run home to his family.
Recurrence: Both are quickly forgotten.

*The true "tutorials" in Dragon Age: Origins are the six different origin stories. Two of them have DTBs. I won't write out full profiles of each one, but here are some quick descriptions.
Dalish Elf DTB: Old friend and peer Tamlen drags you along to investigate a mysterious underground ruin. He is killed by being too curious, and he nearly gets you killed, too.
Human Noble DTB: When your estate is attacked by the traitorous Arl Howe, your capable mother Eleanor joins the fight to escape along with you. But while you flee the castle, she stays behind to make a last stand against the invaders. A noble end.

Mass Effect 2
DTB: Wilson
Relation to player character: You've only just met him, but he spent the last two years of his life performing miraculous science to bring you back from what most would have considered death. And then he nearly gets you killed. Hmmm.
Team up: The robots on station are going on a killing spree. In your attempt to escape the space station, you first team up with Jacob and then rescue and team up with Wilson. Strength in numbers.
Manner of death: Turns out the killer robots were Wilson's fault. He can't fool Miranda, who, when you find her, quickly puts a bullet in his head.
Significance: It would be easy to dismiss Wilson as deserving of his fate, but remember, you owe Wilson your (second) life. It's just a shame he had to double-cross everyone on the station.
Recurrence: He may not be forgotten, but since no one mourns him, he's not really discussed again.

Dragon Age 2
DTB: Bethany/Carver (one or the other dies, depending on the class of the player character)
Relation to player character: Sister/little brother
Team up: Your family is fleeing Lothering together amidst the darkspawn horde making its way north from Ostagar.
Manner of death: A giant ogre comes barreling through, knocking you to the side. Shielding your mother, Bethany/Carver makes a heroic attack on the ogre. The ogre brushes off the attack, grabs your sibling, and kills her/him.
Significance: Maybe the ogre would have killed Mother if your sibling hadn't attacked it then and drawn its attention. Maybe it would have killed both of them. Who's to say? But everyone else survived the attack, so it's sad that there was nothing you could do to save your other sibling.
Recurrence: I can't comment fully on the matter because I haven't finished the game, but the deceased sibling has been mentioned a few times. I still see the rest of my family frequently, so the deceased sibling is still on our minds.


Bethany, RIP.

Please join with me for a moment of silence for Bethany/Carver, Wilson, Daveth, Ser Jory, Eleanor, Tamlen, Jenkins, Amie, and Trask Ulgo. If there are any other deceased companions that you would like to remember, feel free to pay tribute to them in the comments below.


A note: One might categorize this as a Death By Origin Story trope, but that trope would include characters such as Gorion in Baldur's Gate. I see the DTB as a specific case that seems to be more common in video games than in movies or TV shows (if we broaden "tutorial" to mean simply "beginning", and imagine which characters the player would control if the movie/show were a game). It's not just anyone who dies, but someone who fought/quested/traveled alongside the main character as a peer, as if they would become an important supporting character in the story, before dying abruptly. It would be like if Charlie had died in the first episode of "Lost" when he trekked out to the cockpit with Jack and Kate. Or if Chin Ho were killed off in the first episode of "Hawaii Five-O". Both of these pilot episodes did feature notable deaths, but they were not of people that you expected to be a supporting companion. Furthermore, the DTB is often inconsequential, not serving as significant motivation for the main character. Dale Maddox on "V" or Jesse from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" might fit the DTB trope. A full examination of this trope's presence in other media would merit its own post. Some other time, perhaps.

What's up for 2011: Games

The new year brings anticipation and excitement for new releases. So what games am I looking forward to this year?

Dragon Age II, March 8
I really enjoyed playing Dragon Age: Origins. It introduced a new, exciting, dark fantasy world, populated it with some interesting and entertaining characters, and gave a satisfying quest to complete. The sequel Dragon Age II will be set in a different region of the same world. The player character is named Hawke and can be either female or male, very much like Shepard in the Mass Effect series. My impression with Dragon Age II is that it will be like DAO but made to be more like Mass Effect 2. I thought Mass Effect 2 was one of the best games ever, but I liked DAO as well, so I just hope they don't destroy too many of the elements that made DAO special. In any case, I have this one on pre-order. I haven't had a new game since the summer, so I'm very excited.

Portal 2, April 18
I came late to Portal, only playing it last year after Steam offered it for free. Was that the best buy ever or what? It was unique, challenging, addicting, funny, and very entertaining...but also very short, the sort of thing you complete in one afternoon (the challenges can keep you occupied for longer, if you like, but it's not as much fun as the normal game). Portal 2 will be a full-length game, with new challenges, new elements, and a two-player cooperative mode which will add a new dimension of fun. I can't wait.

Star Wars: The Old Republic, June 16
I'm expecting this to be the game that finally gets me hooked on an MMO. I might quit my job to devote more time to it. Just kidding. Mostly. I played the first two Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, and I loved them. I was hoping for a KotOR 3 to finish out the series, but instead BioWare took it in a different direction with this MMO. While initially disappointed (and still a little bitter), I've been following this game closely, and it looks so amazing that I think I can forgive them. The scope of this game is huge, with eight character classes with their own stories, companions, and quests. The dialogue is fully voiced, including the player characters. The game will retain the same awesome characteristics that are signatures of BioWare (e.g. engrossing story, tough choices that matter, interesting and lovable companions), all while being an MMO, with what is sure to be an exciting community. It's going to be awesome.

Games that may or may not come out in Q4 2011
Game developers can get optimistic about when they'll be able to release their games. Frequently, the games get pushed back a number of times. While it's frustrating for us fans, it's better than having them release a messy buggy game. Some of these will likely be released this year, but probably not all of them.

Mass Effect 3
Mass Effect 2 was a superb game, but as soon as it finished I was anxious for a sequel to close the trilogy. While I'll be sad to see the saga end when Mass Effect 3 comes out, I'm also extremely excited to play it and see where it leads. It will be particularly interesting to see how the story picks up after Mass Effect 2, given the huge numbers of variables that were decided by the player in the first two games. It will take some careful planning and clever execution, but I have no doubt the Mass Effect team will be able to pull it off beautifully.

Neverwinter
While I'll definitely have Mass Effect 3 on pre-order, this one I may wait to hear the reception of before I purchase a copy. It's an online multiplayer RPG centered around the city of Neverwinter, of the D&D Forgotten Realms. I enjoyed Neverwinter Nights (by BioWare) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (by Obsidian), so hopefully Cryptic Studios will do a good job with this one.

Guild Wars 2
My brother convinced me to play Guild Wars with him as a placeholder between the shutdown of Hellgate: London's online multiplayer capabilities and...whatever new thing came along that he wanted to play with me (turned out that new thing would be Borderlands). He then abandoned me three missions before the end of the main campaign, which I'm pretty bitter about (I finished all by myself). I love the look of the sequel, at least, and hopefully the game will be better in many ways (not that the first one was bad, but there's always room for improvement). This one I'll also probably wait before buying.

Diablo III
Yeah, they haven't even bothered trying to announce a release date for this one. But a girl can dream, right? Diablo II was awesome, and they've taken their sweet time developing this sequel, so I can only assume that it will be even more awesome. I like what I've seen so far.

Neverwinter and more on Milo

These are last month's news, but still worth mentioning.

Back in June 2009 I mentioned the news that Atari's Cryptic Studios would be developing a new Neverwinter Nights MMO. Atari has now announced that "Neverwinter" will be released late 2011 (Variety - Technotainment). It is not going to be an MMO, but it is described as an online multiplayer RPG. I imagine it may be something like Guild Wars or Hellgate: London, where you can see other people in town, put together a group, and then go adventuring in a private instance of the explorable areas. The story will be based on an upcoming trilogy by popular D&D novelist R. A. Salvatore. The story will take place after the events of Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2, with poor Neverwinter (seemingly as always) in a dangerous state of disarray. Hopefully Cryptic Studios will do a good job.

I've talked about Microsoft's Kinect/Project Natal a number of times on this blog, and I've mentioned that I was particularly impressed by the Milo demo at E3 2009. In that demo, Milo was a little boy who interacted with the player in very impressive ways: He recognized the player, would comment on the color she was wearing, could recognize many words as well as detect and react to the tone in her voice, and could even be "passed" a drawing she did as she held up her real-world drawing to the Kinect camera, which copied it into Milo's virtual world. But even as E3 this year showed off the Kinect, to be released before Christmas of this year, we saw no more of Milo. Until recently (Variety's Technotainment).

The technology has come along. Apparently Milo's artificial intelligence lives in one place (rather than being copied many times to each separate location?), so that his interactions with each individual player can help refine future interactions with every player (and maybe lead to world domination). There is now a more apparent user interface, and a sort of plot: Milo has just moved from the U.K. to the U.S. and doesn't have any friends yet, so he dreams up the player as an imaginary friend. I think it's all pretty amazing. It's not clear when we might see a game based on Milo, but hopefully they're going somewhere with this technology so we all can have a try at being Milo's friend.

Peter Molyneux did a recent TED talk showing off Milo's development. Check it out:

Blog design updates and newses

Unless you're new to my blog, you may have noticed a few design changes recently. I figured it was time I update my blog decorations with images from new games.

In case there was any doubt, the images in my Life header and Seven Ages of Man sidebar were all thoughtfully chosen before being painstakingly screen shot by yours truly. When I first put them up, I did a post explaining their significance, but that was back before anyone actually read my blog, so my explanation was a bit more self-indulgent and long-winded than necessary. Plus, the post is now out of date.

The RPG Called Life header
These are RPG screen shots that I, for one reason or another, associate with Life. From left to right:
In Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard catches Miranda, just barely saving her life.
In Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, the PC replenishes her life with a heal potion.
In Diablo II, the full red life globe indicates the player is fully healthy and alive.
In Mass Effect, the new PC's paragon and renegade bars are empty, waiting to fill according to the choices she will make in her life.
In Baldur's Gate II, the party confronts Irenicus at the Tree of Life in Suldanessellar.
In Dragon Age: Origins, the PC kills the Archdemon, restoring hope for all life in Ferelden.

The Seven Ages of Man sidebar
As You Like It may not be one of Shakespeare's most famous titles, but it has a very famous monologue in it, beginning with the lines "All the world's a stage/And all the men and women merely players" then detailing what is sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man. If you don't know it, look it up. So who will represent each of these seven ages?
The infant: a baby Child of Bhaal from Baldur's Gate II. (This is my favorite of all the pictures. How creepy is that baby?)
The school-boy: Connor Guerrin, son of Arl Eamon Guerrin of Redcliffe in Dragon Age: Origins. The screen shot is from after the demon who possessed him has been vanquished, so he really is pure boy, not abomination anymore.
The lover: Kelly from the Normandy in Mass Effect 2. I haven't done her romance, but she is a very loving person, loving males, females, humans, and alien species all. What better lover is there to have on my list?
The soldier: Chief Ashley Williams from Mass Effect, a soldier for the Alliance and a soldier by "class".
The justice: Master Vrook of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. A wise Jedi master, he's around in both KotOR I and II, plus he's voiced by Ed Asner.
The pantaloon: Old Deckard Cain from Diablo II, of course. Stay awhile and listen.
Oblivion: Myrkul, dead former god of the dead in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer.


Now that I've done the full disclosure on my blog decorations, how about a couple entertainment news items?

First, Megan Fox will not be in Transformers 3. There has been some discrepancy as to whether this is because of her insults to director Michael Bay, or if the writers just wanted to go somewhere else with the story, or if she was the one who stepped out of the project. I don't particularly care, really. I can't say I'll miss her in it; she was never what made the good parts good, anyway. I do know a few teenage boys, however, who feel differently. In any case, I loved the first movie but was really disappointed by the second, so I hope they can turn it around and make the third one enjoyable again. Other interesting actors have signed on for the three-quel, including Alan Tudyk (yay!), Frances McDormand, Patrick Dempsey, John Malkovich, and Ken Jeong (Variety, IMDb).

Second, Morgan Spurlock (Super-Size Me) and Joss Whedon are planning to make a big-screen documentary about Comic-Con, called "Comic-Con Episode Four: A Fan's Hope" (Variety). The documentary will follow seven fans from across America and around the globe as they make the trek to San Diego for the convention. I've never been to Comic-Con but I've long wanted to go, and I'd be interested in seeing the documentary. I wonder, though, who else might want to see it other than Comic-Con-type fanboys and fangirls themselves. Is this something non-geeks would be interested in? I guess we'll see.

That's all for now!

Mary Janes, The Hobbit, Mars, and a new NWN MMO

Time for an update on entertainment news that has piqued my interest...

It has been confirmed that Kirsten Dunst will in fact be returning to the role of Mary Jane in Spider-Man 4 (IMDb). Tobey Maguire had already agreed to return for a fourth and fifth installment of the blockbuster franchise, but director Sam Raimi had said Dunst was reluctant to sign on for the threequel sequels. They are still looking for the perfect villain, with producer Todd Black saying "Trust me - people will appreciate who we pick, because it'll be a big part of New York." I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean... the villain will be the Empire State Building? Anyway, the third Spider-Man movie was a tad disappointing, so I hope they can pick it back up and make the fourth one good again.

Speaking of Spider-Man, we mustn't forget about Spider-Man: The Musical (more properly called Spider Man, Turn Off the Dark). Turns out that Evan Rachel Wood is going to star as Mary Jane in the stage musical, after all (IMDb). First there were substantial rumors that Wood (who worked with Spider-Man: The Musical's director Julie Taymor in the movie musical Across the Universe) had been cast, then Taymor denied this saying that she was still working on casting MJ, and now this. Apparently Peter Parker has yet to be cast.

Everyone kind of already assumed that this would happen, but Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis, and Ian McKellen have all been confirmed for the cast of The Hobbit, reprising their roles as Elrond, Gollum, and Gandalf, respectively (IMDb). We are still awaiting to hear who will play the titular hobbit Bilbo himself (Ian Holm, who played Bilbo in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, is too old to come back for the younger prequel role, unlike the other three whose ageless or semi-ageless roles let them get away with it). Here's hoping director Guillermo del Toro finds someone great. I'm a bit anxious waiting.

Wolverine stars Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) and Lynn Collins (Kayla Silverfox) are both set to star in Walt Disney Pictures' John Carter of Mars, a fantasy epic based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs series that began with the novel "The Princess of Mars" in 1911 (Variety). Wall-E writer-director Andrew Stanton will be directing the film as his first live-action pic. The story is about a damaged Civil War veteran named John Carter (Kitsch) who is mysteriously transported to Mars where his interactions with the warring races of the dying planet, which presumably include meeting the Princess of Mars (Collins), help him to rediscover his humanity. I don't know what to think of the casting (I actually haven't seen the Wolverine movie yet), but I have great respect for Stanton (I loved Wall-E) and the period-piece-meets-sci-fi-epic aspect of the project is very intriguing. I'll be watching for this one.

Lastly, in gaming news, recent Atari acquisition Cryptic Studios is working on developing an MMO for Atari property Neverwinter Nights (Variety blog). This is really big news for me. For those who don't know, Cryptic Studios is the company behind (among other games) Champions Online, the game currently in its beta testing stage that recently became the first MMO I had ever played. Neverwinter Nights is a Dungeons & Dragons-based Forgotten Realms-set series of computer RPGs. I played through the single-player campaigns of NWN and its two official expansions as well as NWN2 and one of its expansions. But one of the most distinctive features of the Neverwinter Nights series, which I never took advantage of, was the multiplayer component that allowed players to design their own missions in their own persistent worlds--essentially hosting their own mini-MMOs (would these be called "not-so-massively multiplayer online" games or something?). Anyway, there were plenty of people who did take advantage of this feature, making NWN quite a popular success. The news that a proven MMO developer is planning to create an MMO for Neverwinter Nights is intriguing indeed, though they have a tough road ahead of them, since even MMOs based on strong franchises sometimes fail to catch on. Word is they are hoping for a 2011 release... 'round 'bout the time that BioWare is planning to release The Old Republic (more history for those who aren't gamer geeks: BioWare, which developed the original NWN but not the sequel, will not be involved in the NWN MMO). I'd say I see conflict ahead, but I'm already fairly certain I'd pick TOR if forced to choose. But there's time. We'll see how the NWN MMO develops.

My Romances - Part 4

My Computer Game Romances, Part 4: The Paladin and the Hagspawn
Neverwinter Nights 2: Original Campaign and Mask of the Betrayer
Casavir and Gannayev

Some SPOILERS

I met Casavir battling orcs near Old Owl Well, and he agreed to join my party in the service of Neverwinter. I must admit that I did not take much notice of him at first, and most of the time I left him behind at the Sunken Flagon. As with all the members of my party, of course, I was interested in his story and made friendly conversation with him. But I was a warlock, and he was a stuffy, boring paladin. I would never have expected there to be anything between us, and though he may have been dropping hints all along, I didn't pick any of them up.

Count on a succubus to play matchmaker. I happened to take Casavir along with me to Ammon Jerro's haven, where the imprisoned succubus Blooden spilled the beans as she taunted Casavir about his feelings for me. I was embarrassed, though not nearly as embarrassed as Casavir. But we had worse things to worry about in that lair, so we moved on. It was only after this encounter with the succubus that I started to realize that I had feelings for Casavir as well. On the calm night before the undead forces of the King of Shadows crashed upon Crossroad Keep, we laid in each other's arms, knowing that with the upcoming battle, it might be our only chance to be together. After defending the keep, we took the fight straight to the lair of the King of Shadows in the Mere of Dead Men. We succeeded in defeating him, but with his death the sanctum collapsed. I blacked out, and when I awoke, I was in Rasheman, thousands of miles from the Sword Coast and my friends, whose fates I had no way of knowing.

In this foreign land, I found I was plagued by a mysterious and terrible curse, and an army of spirits was out to kill me. The Rashemi witches left me to find companions on my own who were willing to face the spirits and my curse, and recommended that I look in the prisons for men desperate enough to help me. And that is where I met Gannayev, Gann-of-Dreams. Where most hagspawn are brutish and ugly, he was beautiful, with a smooth voice speaking honeyed words to melt even the coldest of hearts--and he knew it, too. His mischievous charm was a dangerous mix with his innate ability to touch people's dreams, and he had been jailed for what I understand was essentially preying upon farmers' daughters in their dreams.

During our quest to put an end to my curse, Gann faced the mother who had cast him out on his own as an infant, and she turned out to be the hag but not the monster he had always thought. This relieved him of his jaded outlook on life, softening his heart to realize that he had fallen for me. Meanwhile, I found one of my old companions from Neverwinter who delivered some tragic news: while some of my companions had escaped after our battle with the King of Shadows', Casavir had fallen, crushed as he held up a collapsing passageway so others could get to safety.

Gann admitted his feelings for me before our attack on the City of Judgment, but my heart was still profoundly wounded by the loss of Casavir. I could not return his love. He took this surprisingly well. Once the Betrayer's Curse was ended, we continued to travel together, eventually making our way back to the Sword Coast.

I thought Casavir was really quite a boring character. His history included some sort of secret that prompted him to leave his position as a knight of Neverwinter, but he never gave a satisfactory explanation of this and so mostly didn't make sense to me (I think a proper explanation was among the deleted content of the game). Anyway, I had no idea he was a romance character until that conversation with the succubus at the very end of Act II, which was pretty funny. I was totally weirded out by it at first (the noble paladin wants me? ew), but by the time the romance actually got started, I was willing to go with it.

Gann, in comparison, was attractive from the start, with his pretty face and witty words. Of course, this was tempered by the fact that he was pretty vain and a bit of a pervert, messing around in the dreams of women. But the events of the story changed him significantly, and by the end of the game, I was definitely crushing on him. And I do mean I; though I thought Gann was far more attractive than poor Casavir, because I had invested my character into that Casavir romance, I couldn't see her going for Gann so quickly after learning of the paladin's death (apparent death... there may be more in Storm of Zehir, which I haven't played). Here's where the role-playing comes into the role-playing game, showing that, just as in other media, one can differentiate oneself from one's character in a computer game romance.

Still, I should recognize that this is the only game I have played that allows the player character to have consecutive romances. And while I implied yesterday that Carth is the only romantic interest I've encountered that the player character doesn't sleep with over the course of the game, I believe that even if I had gone through with the Gann romance, there would have been no sex until after the end of the game (Gann and the PC apparently get married in the end story). Also, for those keeping score, I should note that Casavir was the first computer game character that I successfully romanced on my first try. I'm not totally hopeless in the (computer) game of love!

In my next post, find out whom I chose to romance in Mass Effect.

New Header!

I have a new header image for my blog! I am very excited about this, since I've been bored with the simple text header for a while. My blog now looks ten times cooler than it did before. I've had the sidebar pictures for several months, but since you have to scroll down to see them, they don't help decorate the page when you first load it. I may make edits to the header picture to make it look better (it's hard to find text colors that will show up well on picture backgrounds), but I'm pretty pleased with what I have.

Since I don't have anything else to say in this post, I thought I'd explain my picture choices for both the sidebar and the header. All of the pictures are taken from RPGs I have played, and all of them are in some way related to my "RPG called Life" theme. The sidebar pictures represent the Seven Ages of Man as described in Jacques' famous "All the world's a stage" monologue in Shakespeare's As You Like It.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;

Taken from the opening montage of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, I have a Child of Bhaal infant. It's a pretty creepy baby, but kind of cool.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school...

Representing the school-boy I have Kipp of West Harbor, from the tutorial of the Neverwinter Nights 2 original campaign.

And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow...

For the lover, I have Sir Anomen Delryn from Baldur's Gate II. Of all the potential lovers from the RPGs I've played, Anomen had the best cheesy lover kind of look to him.

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth...

Chief Ashley Williams from Mass Effect represents the soldier. Her character class is appropriately "Soldier", and I get the sense she's fairly recognizable in that pink and white Phoenix armor. And I got her in a cool pose.

And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part...

I think ideally I might have had Keldorn for the justice, but since I already had two BG2 images, I decided to take Master Vrook from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He's old but not so old that he's unfit, and being a Jedi Master he's a fair character to represent justice, if not necessarily Shakespeare's idea of the justice. He is also probably more memorable than the other Jedi Masters in KotOR, since he showed up in the sequel as well and was voiced by Ed Asner.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound...

Deckard Cain, of course. He was in the original Diablo and will be in Diablo III, but this image is Cain in the Rogue Encampment in Diablo II. We love Cain--he has that handy item identification service, even if we never do bother to stay a while and listen--but he definitely counts as a pantaloon.

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

This "last scene" seems to include both the childish helplessness that may come soon before death and death itself. I chose a picture to represent the "oblivion" part since it was more interesting. Here I have a picture of triple-death from Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer. It is the dead god Myrkul, former God of the Dead. Of course, dead gods float around in this other plane for a while, so to make him even deader than a dead god of the dead, my character has destroyed his spirit. See? Triple dead.

The four pictures that make up my new header image are not linked to each other but each represent the RPG called Life theme in some way themselves. In basically every RPG, characters have a certain number that represents how close they are to death. This number is generally called "health", "life", or "hit points"--I tend to use these terms interchangeably--but they basically all represent the fact that a character is alive. The image of the large red globe in the upper center of the header is the life/health globe from Diablo II; here it is full, meaning the character is fully healthy, but it will empty as the character is injured. The picture on the left of the header banner is my player character in Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer, standing at the glowing ash tree in the Ashenwood drinking a Potion of Heal, thus replenishing her life. The picture on the right is my Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn party at the Tree of Life in Suldanessellar, trying to retrieve the player character's soul from Jon Irenicus, the man in the glowing orb. And lastly, I have a shot of my Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. The screen shot is from the character profile page, which in addition to showing her "Health" statistic at the top right also shows the "Paragon" and "Renegade" bars. As the game is played, each bar will fill up according to the player's choices--Is Shepard a paragon of good and noble behavior, or does she have a rebellious streak, driven to get the job done without regard to the cost? But this shot is from the beginning of the game, before Shepard has made any of these decisions. She's a blank slate. She looks out, questioning What paths will I choose in life?

Well, that's the full disclosure on my pictures. Enjoy!


Edit: This has now been updated. See new post here.