201 réponses à ce sujet

[ms_sunlight]

KiddDaBeauty wrote...

These games aren't like Devil May Cry. The idea is that someone can choose to play on Casual and be capable of enjoying a great story line and role play without being challeneged very much game play-wise if they don't want to. It's the kind of game our mothers and people new to gaming could be able to enjoy.

Speak for your own mother, mine's been playing computer games since the 80s.

I gave a non-gamer friend of mine The Bard's Tale (2000s version) and Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.  This is a guy in his 50s who'd only ever played puzzle games on his phone.  He managed both of them well enough, although if he games at all these days it's online competetive chess.

While I think your insight is interesting, I also recall that it's easy for gamers to be a wee bit patronising about non-gamers.  None of what we do is particularly hard, inherently.

(I do realise there are gamers who are at the far end of the bell curve; only a few people will win the national championship of a particular beat-em-up, for example, but almost everyone will be able to play that same beat-em-up with friends or on single-player story mode if they put a bit of time in.  This is just like most people can learn to drive even though only a tiny percentage will ever drive in NASCAR or a Grand Prix.)

Modifié par ms_sunlight, 31 mai 2011 - 02:06 .

[Speakeasy13]

KiddDaBeauty wrote...
These games aren't like Devil May Cry. The idea is that someone can choose to play on Casual and be capable of enjoying a great story line and role play without being challeneged very much game play-wise if they don't want to. It's the kind of game our mothers and people new to gaming could be able to enjoy. I say give them the option, as long as it doesn't detract from our experience  =) I'm curious to see if my friend will want to continue playing DA2 or not the next time she comes over. She certainly seemed to enjoy herself overall even though she got stuck now and then ^^

And DA team... kudos on two handed swing animations, along with Varric's and Aveline's characters. She seemed to like them a lot =)

I disagree. WRPGs are supposed to be similar to Devil May Cry in the sense that they are aimed at an advanced audience. Whereas DMC tests the players physical skills,  WRPG tests the players mental and roleplay capacities. If you're a non-gamer or casual gamer, then I honestly think you'd be better off playing JRPG. And this is coming from someone actually from Asia and grew up among JRPGs.

I don't mean to disrespect your opinion but many of us feel the exact opposite of how you feel. The game is not complicated and challenging enough and alrdy too friendly to ppl like your friend. I think if you want to play an RPG with proper role play then it's only fair that you invest time and effort into learning the system, because role playing, by nature, is not meant to be done casually.

[Realmzmaster]

Bioware understands that its established fanbase can appreciate and handle the complexities and depth of their previous works. Bioware is trying to broaden that base and make its games more accessible to a larger audience.
DA2 was a flawed attempt in that direction.
 In my opinion all of Bioware games, CDprojeckt game, Bethesda games pale in comparison to the early CRPGs (Might and Magic, Bards Tale, Wizardry, Ultimas, SSI Gold Box games) which were true hardcore CRPGs with manuals that were truly tomes of excellence with fantastic feelies in each box  sales that rarely cracked 1 million units.

Yes those were the days! But People in my age group are a dying breed and I mean that figurely and literally. So where are the CRPG gamers to replace us?

[In Exile]

Marionetten wrote..
I know that it means pandering. When a developer talks about making his product more accessible he's trying to pander to a different audience. Basically, he's trying to broaden the appeal of the product. But in doing that he also thins out the product. Therein lies the problem. If you spend a lot of time on constructing all these different difficulty modes and tutorials you're not going to be spending time constructing other arguably more important things. Once again, zots are limited. 

Why are you fixated on what other people beside me mean by terms I use? I've explained in detail what I mean about accesibility. 

I am not speaking about a broad appeal for a product. I am only talking about a smooth introduction being part of a game designed for the core audience, to broaden that audience and to continue to design games for the same audience but with a bigger budget.

As for Knights of the Old Republic I actually think that game is a good example of refinement over accessibility. Granted, it might have been a bit on the easy side but it isn't really that it was made more accessible. It still operated on the same dice rolls, rules and whatnot. It's just that it was a lot nicer to play and look at because of the glossy presentation. BioWare didn't have to turn it into a shooter or button masher in order to appeal to people. They just made it look good. Most gamers are awfully shallow so this goes a long way.

But why would you think it has to turn into a shooter or a button masher? That's so irrelevant to what I'm saying it makes me wonder whether or not you really want to have a discussion with me, or are just concerned with making some general point.

If The Witcher 2 had followed your ideas it's likely that it would have ended up another Dragon Age II. This would have caused me and countless of other players to drop the controller and not out of frustration. We've already had this discussion in another thread and you failed to rise up to my challenge there. I asked you to name a single game which has successfully catered to everyone from newborn baby to grizzled neckbeard. Until you can do that I'll continue believing that it's far better to offer different products than trying to please everyone with the same.

You have no idea what sort of game I'd design. If the Witcher 2 followed my ideas, it would be the exact same game with a more detailed tutorial section for a 'causal' mode which would have involved slightly more powerful stats for Geralt compared to easy and a few walkthroughs via the tutorial tab for quests (e.g. teaching the player how to use an alchemy combination, like thunderbolt, rook and swallow, built a trap to catch some enemies, and describe a particular build path e.g training to swordmanship + the trap/bomb dmg upgrade).

You're fixated on this issue of broad appeal, but that's so far removed from my point that it's essentially tangential to it.

But if you want a game that has a smooth introduction, you can look at Fallout 3 New Vegas. The initial section has optional and non-optional tutorials to teach the player every neccesary skill for the game, and then furthermore it has a detailed in-game description of what it means to enable hardcore mode.

In Exile wrote...
It doesn't. It makes them more interested in getting into the game. It makes them more willing to invest that time required to learn as the reward is greater. Do you think The Witcher 2 would have enjoyed the appeal it did if not for how refined it was as a product? That's my entire point. You don't need to dumb down your product in order to make it attractive for new players. The simpler way is to simply make it more attractive. Compare The Witcher to The Witcher 2 for a good example of this.

In Exile wrote...

But think about how you can learn. If I just throw a chess set at you at tell you to play the computer, you'd take much longer and have a much more frustrating time than taking lessons.

More generally, why is it a good thing to have a large amount of rules, none of which interact in intuitive ways?

I think deceptively complex is much better than complex.

I'd likely be a far better player for it. In fact, some of the very best are self-taught. I don't know about you but I like learning. I like having something new thrown at me and then trying to learn it. I don't go online to read FAQs or guides. I simply play and learn from my mistakes. This is what I enjoy in games and part of that is that initial frustration but that goes for all challenges.

And I don't think it's a good idea to have unnecessary rules. That said, I'm sure my definition of necessary differs from your own. A ruleset should be as clean as possible. But still, chess versus checkers. All of the rules in chess are necessary in order to deliver the gameplay it is so famous for. Chess would not work with the same amount of rules as checkers. The same applies to video games. The Witcher 2 would not work with the same amount of rules as Mario.

By all means, trim the fat. Just don't touch the meat. BioWare touched the meat.

I'm not talking about streamlining. Like you said: my solution involves extra zots, not less.

The Witcher 2 is an action RPG. That said, it does still come with a lot more rules than say Mario.

You haven't played Mario Galaxy on the Wii. 

[In Exile]

Dragoonlordz wrote...
Like a quick start/play sort of menu item right at start menu, where everything is set to defaults only choose class and gender and thats all then throws you into the game. Tbh I don't think any of this stuff is needed, new gamers are not what an RPG should be about pulling in, it should at most if go down the route of Laidlaw be pulling in from other genres or already gamers. Even that I don't think was the right direction with DA franchise this early on given wasn't a failure to begin with or in decline based off reality not some peoples fears of what might happen.

I'm not saying an RPG should pull in more gamers; I fundamentally disagree with the idea that gamers that play one type of game could be drawn in to RPGs. If someone plays an extensive amount of (for example) FPS, then it may well be someone well versed enough in games to be aware of the genre but just not be interested.

What I do think, though, is that for people that seem interested in one aspect of an RPG, for the game to ease them in to other aspects.

I would go so far as to say that RPGs should have 'intro to roleplay' sections. If anything is going to keep the genre alive, it's making sure that core gamers adopt the core values of the genre as they start playing tje games.

[WilliamShatner]

What purpose does this serve? If you showed somebody who has never seen a film before Transformers they'd probably think it's the greatest thing ever.

[Marionetten]

In Exile wrote...

Why are you fixated on what other people beside me mean by terms I use? I've explained in detail what I mean about accesibility.

I am not speaking about a broad appeal for a product. I am only talking about a smooth introduction being part of a game designed for the core audience, to broaden that audience and to continue to design games for the same audience but with a bigger budget.

Because they both boil down to the exact same thing. Wasted resources. In an ideal world I might be inclined to agree with you. We don't live in an ideal world. All that time and effort spent on making user friendly tutorials and whatnot could be used on improving things I actually care about. I never use tutorials so from my perspective it would be a definitive waste.

You seem to be of the mind that I oppose them for some ideological reason. I don't. I just value other things as far more important as they are irrelevant to me. If you could add this without any development time whatsoever I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, that isn't possible.

In Exile wrote...

But why would you think it has to turn into a shooter or a button masher? That's so irrelevant to what I'm saying it makes me wonder whether or not you really want to have a discussion with me, or are just concerned with making some general point.

It was to illustrate the fact that what brought you into Knights of the Old Republic wasn't its actual accessibility as much as its perceived accessibility. It's just as easy to screw up a character build in that game as it is in Baldur's Gate. It also operates on the same dice rolls and rules which you so fiercely criticized. It wasn't that Baldur's Gate was too complex for you. It was that you perceived it to be and never gave the genre a real try until Knights of the Old Republic.

The same goes for The Witcher 2. People perceive it to be super accessible due to its welcoming looks and end up shocked when they get stomped during the first fight. This perceived accessibility is what sells copies. Not actual accessibility. A tutorial isn't going to sell any copies regardless of how well made it is. In fact, most gamers prefer outright skipping tutorial segments.

In Exile wrote...

You have no idea what sort of game I'd design. If the Witcher 2 followed my ideas, it would be the exact same game with a more detailed tutorial section for a 'causal' mode which would have involved slightly more powerful stats for Geralt compared to easy and a few walkthroughs via the tutorial tab for quests (e.g. teaching the player how to use an alchemy combination, like thunderbolt, rook and swallow, built a trap to catch some enemies, and describe a particular build path e.g training to swordmanship + the trap/bomb dmg upgrade).

I know that you'd waste valuable development time on frivolous things like tutorials. What was the biggest issue with Dragon Age II's development process? Think about that and come back to me.

In Exile wrote...

You're fixated on this issue of broad appeal, but that's so far removed from my point that it's essentially tangential to it.

Your point is more. I get it but that more is always going to come with something else becoming less. That is what I do not agree with.

In Exile wrote...

But if you want a game that has a smooth introduction, you can look at Fallout 3 New Vegas. The initial section has optional and non-optional tutorials to teach the player every neccesary skill for the game, and then furthermore it has a detailed in-game description of what it means to enable hardcore mode.

Yet people endlessly complained about getting owned for straying off the set path. As smooth as Fallout: New Vegas might be it still isn't smooth enough for everybody. Also, as much as I like Obsidian hardcore mode was exceedingly poorly designed. I'd rather have a well designed core than a bunch of slapped together toggles there to simulate challenge. See Nightmare.

In Exile wrote...

I'm not talking about streamlining. Like you said: my solution involves extra zots, not less.

I realize. Which is why I view it as hopelessly idealistic.

In Exile wrote...

You haven't played Mario Galaxy on the Wii.

Which also has far more rules than the original due to being a far more complicated game, yes.

Hopefully you can see the relationship between rules and complexity now. It's a necessary one.

Modifié par Marionetten, 31 mai 2011 - 03:08 .

[In Exile]

Marionetten wrote...
Because they both boil down to the exact same thing. Wasted resources. In an ideal world I might be inclined to agree with you. We don't live in an ideal world. All that time and effort spent on making user friendly tutorials and whatnot could be used on improving things I actually care about. I never use tutorials so from my perspective it would be a definitive waste.

You seem to be of the mind that I oppose them for some ideological reason. I don't. I just value other things as far more important as they are irrelevant to me. If you could add this without any development time whatsoever I'd be all for it. Unfortunately, that isn't possible.

?

That's an ideology.

Anyway, I'm nitpicking. I don't think this is as resource intensive as you happen to think it is. Again, you're pushing too hard of a standard for what it means to make a game accesible.

It was to illustrate the fact that what brought you into Knights of the Old Republic wasn't its actual accessibility as much as its perceived accessibility. It's just as easy to screw up a character build in that game as it is in Baldur's Gate. It also operates on the same dice rolls and rules which you so fiercely criticized. It wasn't that Baldur's Gate was too complex for you. It was that you perceived it to be and never gave the genre a real try until Knights of the Old Republic.

I still don't like Baldur's Gate. It's not a good game, and it's based on a terrible mechanic (D&D, which must die in fire).

As for KoTOR, it was the introduction on Taris (and the starting starship) actually made it accesible. They explained how to play the game very well.

I should actually have used KoTOR as the tutorial example.

The same goes for The Witcher 2. People perceive it to be super accessible due to its welcoming looks and end up shocked when they get stomped during the first fight. This perceived accessibility is what sells copies. Not actual accessibility. A tutorial isn't going to sell any copies regardless of how well made it is. In fact, most gamers prefer outright skipping tutorial segments.

I wouldn't talk about TW2 as a bridge game toward RPGs yet.

Moreover, throwing out wild speculation doesn't do much to validate a position.

I know that you'd waste valuable development time on frivolous things like tutorials. What was the biggest issue with Dragon Age II's development process? Think about that and come back to me.

A flawed vision and rushed schedule. How does a minor allotment of zots to a tutorial change that? At most, it would mean a missing quest. It would fix, well, nothing.

Your point is more. I get it but that more is always going to come with something else becoming less. That is what I do not agree with.

I'm only going to bring this up again because you took so much time to defend yourself from this, but this is an ideological stance.

Yet people endlessly complained about getting owned for straying off the set path. As smooth as Fallout: New Vegas might be it still isn't smooth enough for everybody. Also, as much as I like Obsidian hardcore mode was exceedingly poorly designed. I'd rather have a well designed core than a bunch of slapped together toggles there to simulate challenge. See Nightmare.

Who cares? You're the only one that seems to think that accesibility means everyone being pleased by the system. Like I have said to you repeatedly: accesibility just means that a commited player can be eased in to playing the game without experience in the genre.

Which also has far more rules than the original due to being a far more complicated game, yes.

Hopefully you can see the relationship between rules and complexity now. It's a necessary one.

In terms of design? More rules mean more complexity even in an FPS. I thought you were talking about rules that players have to learn.

[Dragoonlordz]

Speakeasy13 wrote...

I disagree. WRPGs are supposed to be similar to Devil May Cry in the sense that they are aimed at an advanced audience.

Isn't that racist? The alternative opposing side to wRPG is eastern RPG's (such as jRPG etc). Clearly you have never tried to pull off a gazillion hit combo in Disgaea 3!  

If you ever play against enough eastern players you will see that a vast amount of them are far more dedicated and better at games than us western counterparts, so advanced audience doesn't preclude asian style RPG's. Don't let the fuzzy, cuddley anime fool you some of their games are a nightmare difficulty and tactics wise.

Modifié par Dragoonlordz, 31 mai 2011 - 04:37 .

[Zanallen]

Dragoonlordz wrote...

Speakeasy13 wrote...

I disagree. WRPGs are supposed to be similar to Devil May Cry in the sense that they are aimed at an advanced audience.

Isn't that racist? The alternative opposing side to wRPG is eastern RPG's (such as jRPG etc). Clearly you have never tried to pull off a gazillion hit combo in Disgaea 3!  

If you ever play against enough eastern players you will see that a vast amount of them are far more dedicated and better at games than us western counterparts, so advanced audience doesn't preclude asian style RPG's. Don't let the fuzzy, cuddley anime fool you some of their games are a nightmare difficulty and tactics wise.

I'll just leave this here: www.youtube.com/watch And you haven't seen it yet, make sure you want past the 1 minute mark.

[Lethys1]

How about Bioware just changes all the lore to the Harry Potter terms so that it has more appeal?  That seems to be the next logical step in the simplification train.

Of course we need your non-gamer friend to love the game, OP!  Bioware got tired of the mostly fat, nerdy gamers such as myself that supported it through the years.  Let's forsake those who gave us money to make games and make our next Facebook project the bestest yet!

DragonAgeVille!  It's the Grey Wardens farm against the Darkspawn farm.  Use all the right tools, be sure to water your plants on time, and pay the $3 monthly fee for all this intense Facebook Fun!

[Zanallen]

Lethys1 wrote...

How about Bioware just changes all the lore to the Harry Potter terms so that it has more appeal?  That seems to be the next logical step in the simplification train.

Of course we need your non-gamer friend to love the game, OP!  Bioware got tired of the mostly fat, nerdy gamers such as myself that supported it through the years.  Let's forsake those who gave us money to make games and make our next Facebook project the bestest yet!

DragonAgeVille!  It's the Grey Wardens farm against the Darkspawn farm.  Use all the right tools, be sure to water your plants on time, and pay the $3 monthly fee for all this intense Facebook Fun!

Plants versus Darkspawn would be awesome.

[SkittlesKat96]

 Should be pointed out though that if she played Origins she wouldn't like that either.

EDIT: I'm pointing this out because some people are saying silly things like "See! even the non-gamers and casual gamers know this game for what it really is!" which annoys me.

Modifié par SkittlesKat96, 31 mai 2011 - 04:54 .

[DragonRageGT]

Zanallen wrote...

I'll just leave this here: www.youtube.com/watch And you haven't seen it yet, make sure you want past the 1 minute mark.

I don't see many gamers over 30 playing that game. Heck, I don't see many gamers over 15 playing that game!

[Zanallen]

RageGT wrote...

Zanallen wrote...

I'll just leave this here: www.youtube.com/watch And you haven't seen it yet, make sure you want past the 1 minute mark.

I don't see many gamers over 30 playing that game. Heck, I don't see many gamers over 15 playing that game!

They would be missing out. The Disgaea series features gameplay that is quite complex and engaging. They are designed to be humorous while offering the ability to achieve ridiculous stats and levels. You can quite literally reach level 9999 and still have trouble with the bonus endgame bosses.

Edit: The Disgaea series is also a great example of games that start off relatively simple and then build up to become incredibly complex. The first five or six battles are generally tutorial matches, where you can skip over the tutorial sections if you know what to do, that teach you various skills that lead up to a relatively simple boss battle that tests your ability to use the skills acquired.

Modifié par Zanallen, 31 mai 2011 - 05:24 .

[WilliamShatner]

Disgaea is way more hardcore than DA.

[Foolsfolly]

Portal was great at teaching players things. In general they taught you something, then you did it again to remind you how to do it, and then the game had a puzzle that required the thing you'd just learned.

And the game built on that. Introduce something, try it again, puzzle solve with that new element and other previous things learned.

It felt very organic and you were never called to do something you couldn't readily figure out. This was in a game that broke the golden rule of first person shooters (no shooting) and gave us the concept of portals and infinite loops.

Anyone could pick up Portal and finish it because of how the game was designed.

Also, WilliamShatner you're sig made me laugh:

"When I look where Dragon Age II leaves us, it leaves us with a phase that's inherently more interesting--one where we see strife and things falling apart. This is in stark contrast to the ending of Origins, where we saw things resolved." - Mike Laidlaw, explaining that DA2 is the uninteresting part between DA:O and DA3.

Lulz, sir.

Modifié par Foolsfolly, 31 mai 2011 - 05:50 .

[Realmzmaster]

Lethys1 wrote...

How about Bioware just changes all the lore to the Harry Potter terms so that it has more appeal?  That seems to be the next logical step in the simplification train.

Of course we need your non-gamer friend to love the game, OP!  Bioware got tired of the mostly fat, nerdy gamers such as myself that supported it through the years.  Let's forsake those who gave us money to make games and make our next Facebook project the bestest yet!

DragonAgeVille!  It's the Grey Wardens farm against the Darkspawn farm.  Use all the right tools, be sure to water your plants on time, and pay the $3 monthly fee for all this intense Facebook Fun!

If it will sell more copies and make profit from a business point of view it would be a success! EA/Bioware is a company. Companies need to generate revenue which outstrip expenses. If more revenue can be generated by what you suggest I am sure they will give it consideration.

[Xewaka]

Marionetten wrote...
I asked you to name a single game which has successfully catered to everyone from newborn baby to grizzled neckbeard.

Tetris.

[fightright2]

AngryFrozenWater wrote...

shantisands wrote...

Cutlass Jack wrote...

Foolsfolly wrote...
Which reminds me, we should be able to outfit companions all at once like in Origins. I hate this switch them out stuff.

Agreed. We should have been able to access all their inventories at the Hawke Estate. We were able to do all their runes there, so made no sense we couldn't do inventory as well. And levelups if we wanted.

Signed.  This would be a logical thing.

The same goes for shopping. In DA:O the player's inventory and shop's inventory both had a simple dropdown list where you were able to select a companion to compare selected gear with. Of course that was "simplified". Why can't they just improve things instead of dumbing down every feature in the game?

Yes! Yes! I hated not being able to see any of my companions inventories and stats at the Hawke Estate.

I personally think that the best RPGs offer lots of options and have the most logical conveniencies available. This kind of attention to detail, really impresses me.  It means they really put a lot of thought into making sure there isn't control being taken away from the player for the sake of being user-friendly.

For me, efficiency in a RPG should not ever mean the removal or restriction of options (power/control) but rather, it should be about making all the conveniences more readily available.

[Speakeasy13]

Dragoonlordz wrote...

Isn't that racist? The alternative opposing side to wRPG is eastern RPG's (such as jRPG etc). Clearly you have never tried to pull off a gazillion hit combo in Disgaea 3!  

If you ever play against enough eastern players you will see that a vast amount of them are far more dedicated and better at games than us western counterparts, so advanced audience doesn't preclude asian style RPG's. Don't let the fuzzy, cuddley anime fool you some of their games are a nightmare difficulty and tactics wise.

Pls read my post again. I AM an eastern gamer. The East is where I'm from and where I live. I grew up playing Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem and pretty much every other JRPG franchise that isn't Dragon Quest. In Japanese nontheless. I've spent countless hours on Pokemon and the World Tree Laybrinth so I know JRPGs can too be deep and complex; I'm just saying JRPGs are expected to be more straightforward and "accessible" than WRPGs, what with predefined protagonists and fixed story elements. I didn't say I don't like JRPGs for what they are.

Modifié par Speakeasy13, 31 mai 2011 - 09:04 .

[Speakeasy13]

Edit fail...

Modifié par Speakeasy13, 31 mai 2011 - 09:03 .

[Cutlass Jack]

Zanallen wrote...

I'll just leave this here: www.youtube.com/watch And you haven't seen it yet, make sure you want past the 1 minute mark.

They had me at Customizable Pirate Ships.

I've always loved that series. A great example of how 'ocd inducing gameplay' and a sense of humor can make up for a lack of 'next gen' graphics.

And amusing that somewhere deep in that promo they covered teaching new people how to play.

[Sister Helen]

Realmzmaster wrote...

Maybe it because I come from playing table top RPGs that when a newcomer wanted to learn we welcomed them with open arms. We sat them down and guided them through the experience especially if the newcomer was dropping into an established gaming party.

If we had more than one newcomer the group would play a beginner's session with the established players helping the newcomers learn the mechanics.

We got quite a few continuing players this way and it fostered goodwill even among those who did not stay.
Is it so unreasonable to have ways in CRPGs to get the same experience for newcomers, non-gamers and casual players?

That way you expand the audience for CRPGs.

Sigh.  I miss tabletop games; I played them in high school, on Saturdays.  As the only girl in the room, it was a hoot to hear the DM's falsetto when he roleplayed the princess-to-be-rescued.  And it was fun to order the fellers around ("Oh, I am so very thirsty; could you get me another glass of Pepsi?  Oh, you ARE my hero!").

Thanks for the nostalgic moment.  But yeah, if the boys hadn't been so nice and hand-held me through the first few games (keeping eyerolling to a minimum when I was consistently rolling fumbles and epic fails on initiative on d20s -- I rolled eight "1"s in a row, one session), I would have missed out on a lot of good game sessions, once I got up to speed.

But to be honest, I play in "Casual" or "Easy" mode on all games that have those modes.  Because I want to be entertained and not challenged.  Hence, my fondness of Bioware games that have those modes.  I identify with "Easy." 

Modifié par Sister Helen, 31 mai 2011 - 11:03 .

[Perles75]

I disagree that the equipment management must be simplified, and I do not think an optimise equipment button would be useful (optimise for whom? according to which criteria? there are people who like pumping the attack, others the resistances, yet others the mana/stamina regeneration...).
It should be, however, cleaned up a bit, perhaps introducing some visualisation filters (i.e. according to prerequisites). I also found the graphic presentation of the inventory particularly cold and not well-suited for a fantasy game.
Oh, and please remove those useless stars!

I also concur that the background information is not well presented. You are just thrown into the combat without any explanation, and for new players (at least those who actually want to know the story and not just hack&slash) it can be disconcerting. This in addition to the fact that the journal also is not too attractive. I am an avid reader of notes and background informations in games, but 50% of the entries of my lore journal haven't been touched.

The consideration about the character customisation is interesting! After playing a bit with one face it is indeed strange to modify your face, it doesn't come naturally.