How can I teach BG2 to a friend?

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Well I am in a medical school, so I never expected one of my school mates to be interested in AD&D or CRPGS. (we are talking about real 'Nerd's here, and I am not a one, mind you!) Then again by chance I discovered one of my friends were interested in BG2, he has heard it was a great CRP game, but NEVER played it. I told him I KNEW the game somewhat ( ) and he was interested, I decided to lend my CDs to him so he might try it too.

He asked me many questions about the game and I tried to tell as best as I could without spoilers ofcourse, I told him about the basic concept of Time of Troubles, and Bhaalspawn thing. I told him that the game is huge, with lots of quests/places/enemies ranging from lowly kobolds to cool and deadly Dragons, Demons, Liches etc, lovely items/spells/abilities, AND most important, NPCs! I told him a little about the NPCs that each had its own personality and that they were like real-living people with their own mind/interactions and even romances!

He was very agitated and I decided to bring my CDs to him when I next go home, after two weeks from now.

I was very excited too that my friend wanted to play the game and I thought I MIGHT make him love BG2 and AD&D. (I didn'T tell him about all my huge and dangerous mods, no, I don'T want to scare him, not yet. )

Then today he saw a Screenshot of the game and was somewhat dissapointed with the graphics, I told him that graphics are BEAUTIFUL, but he was used to new-spiffy 3D graphics with all details. He said:'But the people are so indistungishable' or something like that, talking about the in-game avatars of a party.

NOW, what do you think I should do? Encourage him to play? Teach him some rules about THAC0, saving throws etc BUT I don't want to scare him. What do you reccomend? Have you been in a likely situation before? Please bear in mind that we are medical school students and as such we don'T have many spare time...

Thank you.

 

''Encourage'' him to pass the graphic thing and play play and play! Oh and tell him about SP as well. I mean the more people playing BG2 the better no?

 

Tell him to try the game before he actually judge it! I can understand why he might be a little disapointed with the graphics, seeing as the engine is outdated, and the avatars are somewhat indistinguishable, but the gameplay and atmosphere is, imho, really what makes the BG series shine.

 

Well....i started playing BG1 right after i became a medicine doctor in 2000...and never stopped!!!! I don't have much time to play, but i think that BG is a game you cannot like....you have to love it!!!! If you love it, you'll never stop playing. In the last year i had no time for playing (i had to finish my specialization studies) and only looked to the new games coming out. Well, all i can i say is that time has passed, but only BG (1 and 2) really lasts. I still find myself asking "which NPC should i take if i play as...". More often than not, after, i don't have the time to play. But i'm in my car going to work and i find myself thinking about BG. Maybe it's me....but i really love this game!!!!
About your friend....well, i think you could tell him that it's more about gameplay. And that is what will get him hooked!!!!

 

Most of my friend actually fell for BG2 the instant they saw my pathetic party running around Firkrag, casting lots of flashy spells, AND in the end : a finger of death

Every big battle took me 10 minutes each reload back then, mind you

[ February 22, 2006, 16:01: Message edited by: Minh So ]

 

"Graphics", peuh! Crack his skull open with a blunt object, that will make him more 'open minded'.

Or tell him that the game story, varied missions, and exciting battles more than cover for any lack of 'good' graphics. If he's not interested in any of that, then no matter the graphics, he'll not like the game.

 

You don't have to teach him thac0, saving throws and other things, BG2 is a mainstream product, and probably most of the players who finished it didn't know the exact meaning of thac0 and saving throws.

Just give him advice in creating his own character so he won't do the common mistakes like creating a high-wis low-con mage or a character with all stats 14 or wasting profiency points for uncommon weapons or near-useless profiencies.

 

Don't.

If the latest graphics are what turns him on he'll never like the game.

 

Truly, graphics are just a way to ease gaming. I've played plenty of rogue-likes and had great fun. I've played play-by-posts, and they have absolutely no graphics at all.
And i've seen plenty of games with good graphics, that plain suck. Sure, some games are good AND have good graphics, but still graphics are not the point.
And IMHO, Baldur's Gate has all the graphics it could possibly need. There's no need to make all character's look different (althought PS:T did, results are fantastic), their personality distinguishes them.

 

I assume he's not a thicko so just let him play the game. I mean, if I can work out how (most of) the stuff in this game works, then I'm sure he can as well.

 

OK, I think I will tell him all those you said. He is still very enthusiastic about trying it. He has played Diablo II before and immensely enjoyed it.

Hope all goes well. Truly, have you ever introduced BG2 to someone or did someone show you the game?

 

I have never introduced BG2 to anybody.

 

If he didn't have problems with the graphics of Diablo II then he shouldn't have problems with the Graphics of BG2. Screenshots really aren't the best shining examples of the graphics usually anyway.

If Graphics is all he cares about though I'm sure we could come up with about a hundred very crappy games with really cool graphics.

As long as he understands the game is a few years old but still extremely good. Like going back and playing your favorite console games and how different they are from todays console games. Then he shouldh ave no problem though.

 

I introduced BG2 to my son, I bought him own copy as birthday present. Now he is at Underdark in his first game. (Solo cleric/mage) He doesn't live with me, so I get sms's like "I'm level drained, how can I get my levels back?" every now and then.

He plays solo because he can't understand english completely. He hates dialogues and npc's, specially that "bold moron with mouse!"

 

If your friend is in all for graphics then i'm really sad to say this is not the game for him. I've played through many 'eyes flashy games' too but i still come back to BG2. I have this Half Life2 and it's making me motion sicked! .. Sure it does have realistic graphics but i think it's not as enjoyable as stunning your opponent and hacking him with 9attks/rnd

 

Hey Silver! OMG yesh i have showed people this game! I mean, when they ask me, sure!

What first attracted me to this game was the whole concept you know, ie the roleplaying. Being able to do what you want, when you want and how you want it. Everything in this game is up to you, which is why I like it! The gameplay is great, the graphics are awesome and it's just really fun to play ... must I go on!

But seriously, my cuz once asked about it and I told him to go play BG1 first to get a taste. One week later when I saw him at a family thing he came up to me and said "Damn i want EVERYTHING to do with this game cause i love it!" So maybe if you get him more experienced with BG1 it might get him enthusiastic about BGII because once I played the first game, I just wanted more!

As long as your friend likes the concept of the game, you know making your own character, going on an adventure, etc etc, he should really like the game because the creators did a wonderful job here.

Btw, once he's gotten used to the game, hand over the SP website to him! But not too early like you said because going into the BGII part and seeing all the mods can be quite scary ey!

 

If he just plays it, that should be enough. You may want to help with tactics a bit. Diablo II is a lot of hack n slash, and he may get frustrated a bit until he gets used to it. I don't mean spoilers, just general tactics like advancing slowly and picking them off as they come to you and such.

 

You may want to point him to one pixel productions, though. Those unmodded BG2 paperdolls are depressing and since he's already somewhat turned off by the graphics......

 

The gameplay is tha main thing here, it's the lifeblood of the game, not the graphics

 

@$ilvershield,

Unfourtunately I don't have BG1 and it is quite impossible for me to find it here, in Turkey. I think he will enjoy the game, and I will give him tactics, sure enough. But I think experience and patience are the key-factors. I remember being turned into punchison by the mere goblin archers in the first dungeon when I first started playing BG2. My stat-wise pathetic Priest of Lathander (he didn't even have a 18 wis!) was using darts (for some bug my cleric was able to use normal darts in pure SoA, BUT he did not have the proficiency ofcourse! Imagine my THAC0 and effectiveness in combat with all crappy stats.) Though I still ahd fun and even managed to kill Shadow Dragon after a few try. Via lover resistances courtesy of Nalia/Aeire, then magic missiling and then my PATHETIC cleric slaughterd the beast with a final Holy Smite! I was promising, you see.

Anyway, I think he will like the game, eventually. Oh he will be suprised when he first sees the rather ugly paperdolls, but I hope it won'T be a major problem.

Ah, I had already shown him Sorcerer's Place, he really was fascinated with all forums, and countless guides/tips/advices swimming around here!