Why wouldn't they? This whole thing is masked by "family values". Y'know...
Billy: "Dad, can I have a nickel to go to the movies?"
Dad: "Have you washed the dishes?"
Billy: "Yeah, dad. I washed the dishes, put them away, prayed twice in the bathroom, gave my sister a hug, and picked up all my clothes."
Dad: "Then yeah, Billy. Now, stay away from the pot smokers along the way. They'll castrate you with their herb grinders and roll your genitals into their joints."
Billy: "Sure thing, dad. I love you."
Dad: "You're okay too, son."
... god damnit, I hate this kinda shit. The way to keep kids off drugs is to talk to them about it. No, don't let the propaganda machine D.A.R.E do the talking, sit the fuck down with your kid and tell them what's right and what's wrong. Instill a firm belief in moderation and tell them the consequences of a drug dependence.
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Bleh, my bad. I was thinking you meant that red button thing that shows up on the GUI.
Good, I wasn't trying to hide it
So, instead it's okay for the same system to encourage you to just make characters over and over again, filling up account after account with characters you'll probably never use again? Games don't exist to punish people, government does that for us. Games are there to be fun. Forcing a player to have to go through the whole entire game because of a mess-up or because they want a new build even though they spent countless hours earning each level in the game is ludicrous.
I could understand it in, say, a true RPG where choices are what make the game fun. Diablo II, however, is an ARPG, which I think is entirely different. Forcing you to redo countless hours of play through the same exact areas is not cohesive with the play theme that the developers of both Diablo II and Diablo III have constantly stated as a fast-paced game. Especially if you are only doing it because of mistakes in your build, in which case you will be playing with the same character with a very similar build and very similar gear and stats through the same areas in all three difficulties.
You shouldn't have fear of a game mechanic, you should want to use it and enjoy it. Forcing players to make irrevocable skill allotment does not make the game fun, it makes it a pain because to fix anything you have to redo the entire game again and again, including all of the difficulties, which barely offer any play differentiation.
And if you know it's an option, you aren't forced to use it.
I really didn't ever mean it should be just like a button or something somewhere, sorry if I came across like that. Any respeccing should be equal to the effort required to unlock the (non-permanent) feature, in my opinion.
Edit--
At this point I want to make a concession. If the game offered a lot more play variation, depth, and engaging, changing content, I would not mind at all not having respeccing. However, it does not- it's really only exciting for me after months of down time from it or when I first started playing it and ran through the game ten or so times. That is why I believe respeccing should be there- so that you are not forced to replay the content any more than you want to.
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Actually, I did a whole report on the ancient Druids, "The Ancient Druids: Megalithic Enigma". My sources were The Philosopher and the Druids by Philip Freeman, http://www.britainexpress.com/history/roman_invasion.htm, wikipedia articles, http://witcombe.sbc.edu/earthmysteries/EMDruids.html, http://www.britainexpress.com/History/prehistory/druids.htm, Ancient Mysteries by Peter James and Nick Thorpe, and The Druids: A Study in Keltic Prehistory by TD Kendrick.
That would be three published books, one .edu website, wikipedia for general purposes (to find other resources), and two established British website articles.
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If anyone has any questions, please refer to the board rules, located here or at the top of every thread listing of every forum, and then please PM myself or another moderator or administrator and we will be happy to help you in any way that we can, so long as the PM is polite, respectful, coherent, and non-inflammatory.
Please grow up, people. Many of you have your publicly-displayed birthdays up to adulthood and you're supposed to be players of a M-rated game. Please act your age.
-Seth
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Character Name: Mordwythe
Playby: (See above image.)
Age: 21
Height: 5'9''
Weight: 145 lbs.
Eyes: Golden orange.
Hair: Dark brown/ shoulder-length.
Build: Slim.
Gender: Male.
Distinctive Characteristic(s): At times very passionate, calculating, reserved, and a strong sense of moral balance. At times this can give way to power obsession and an unforgiving demeanor and mindset.
Personal History: At a very young age, it became clear to Mordwythe's parents that he had been born with the gift of sorcery. His eyes burned with an endless glow at times, he, himself, given over to strange fevers and ill-temper. This did not stop his boundless curiosity, however, when he came to the knowledge of the world of Sanctuary as a world of magic, good, bad, and in-between. It was not long before his curiosity carried him away with the changing times, and many such times he arrived back at the doorstep of his familiar birthing-home to a frustrated mother and distanced father. Tension continued to grow between them, his own passion and guile lending him to a life outside the home many times, until at last his parents had had enough. That very night, a Vizjerei, the Mage Drognan, found him, tipped-off by some of the villagers that had been on travel, and swept him away in to a life of study as his apprentice with little resistance from his parents.
Soon enough, Mordwythe had had enough of the life of a student, his mind filled to the brink with all manner of arcane knowledge that Drognan could cram in to his brain. The Vizjerei had found that the young man had a vast potential in the area of pure pyromancy, the art of fire-conjuring, one of the base elements as observed by many mages and sorcerers. He believed, even more so, that it had been part of him as a child. The mage had taken to turning every tome and ancient scroll he had to discern the source of the odd gift and, after many months, decided finally that Mordwythe was somehow conceived from an Elemental. That had, in turn, led to his questioning of the parents, as Drognan's mind was boundless in hunger, and had led to his discovery that the Mr. of Mordwythe's parents was not his true father. Indeed, that had been why his father had been so distanced from his adopted son for as long as he could remember. His mother, it so happened, had had a romantic escapade with a being from the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Tired of being examined and cross-examined as if he were some manner of specimen, Mordwythe left Drognan's care in Lut Gholein after nearly a decade, taking with him only a short staff he had rummaged from the mage's sale wares and the clothes on his back. He left because it was in his nature, because it was how he had been even when he had a modest family and home to live with. He left because he realized that within him was a burning desire since birth to expand his power, awaken the imprisoned half of his being, however chained it was to his mortal form, for he was just as much human as Elemental and was, as such, subject to all the mortal world's shortcomings: grief, pain, suffering, sadness, and death, and was still subject to a completely human body and mind.
This realization only fueled his desire to unlock his gift his absent, true father left him. It was only weeks later that the oddity that was Mordwythe, half human and half Elemental, found himself in the company of the Knights of the Burning Blade, seeking to hone his skill further and, if the opportunity should ever present itself in his work and travels, discover his father.
Special Training: He trained as a Vizjerei, although not officially accepted as one, and has proficiency in the control and summoning of the element of fire.
Weaponry: A short staff.
Armour: Travel-worn robes covered by a cloak and a belt about his waist.
Goals and Ambitions: Vaulting ambition to master his power.
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Jetrall, Elfen: Sorry, I hope this will qualify. I tried to stress that he's completely subject to all the trials of humanity and is completely human in all regards except for his eyes. I'll fix it if it doesn't suit the bill.
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Actually, it does:
/End topic.
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For all we know, if this is true, him and Tyrael could have been together in this interest in humanity for a long time.
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Actually, programmers program with the mindset that every single user of their application is out with the intent of exploiting their program.
Further, I'm pretty sure I have more confidence in a multi-billion-dollar company than any amount of surveys that have shown in the past to be full of false signatures, as was the case with the art petition, and any amount of real signatures. I highly doubt, being realistic, that that many people are not going to buy the game.
Anyone here is probably going to argue further about that, but it's the truth. I'll be waiting after release to repeat it again.
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