From the point of view of someone yet to play the Dragonspear.
I have to say that it has been a fun couple of days lurking on the various forums and reading the various discussions, articles and listening to the Youtube rants about how evil beamdog has corrupted the good name of Baldur's Gate. I have played these games over and over the last 17 years, I bought into the hype of the EE versions and am mostly satisfied with the new versions. The writing and new quests left something to be desired, but it was a fresh start at something new.
Luckily for me, my expectations were so low for Dragonspear that I am not at all discouraged by all the entertaining drama. Sure, from a business point of view, hiring a writer who seems to be a bit extreme by the standards of eastern Europe, who are perhaps the most dedicated fans of the genre, seems a bit riské and the interview where the writer stated she wanted to do a Stephen Spielberg and rewrite characters she didn't agree with seemed suicidal from the point of view of anyone trying to pander to nostalgia, but new areas and resources is at least something modders can work with.
The problem, I think, is that being a nostalgic player makes you very conservative and protective of the source material. Changes will always come with negative feedback, especially changes to established characters where we had to use our imagination to fill in the blanks. God knows that many characters needs that extra something, Safana for example is so out of the way and bland that I never bothered to use her compared to the more fun characters.
All in all, my only hope is that Dragonspear successfully bridges the gap between BG and BG2.
Luckily for me, my expectations were so low for Dragonspear that I am not at all discouraged by all the entertaining drama. Sure, from a business point of view, hiring a writer who seems to be a bit extreme by the standards of eastern Europe, who are perhaps the most dedicated fans of the genre, seems a bit riské and the interview where the writer stated she wanted to do a Stephen Spielberg and rewrite characters she didn't agree with seemed suicidal from the point of view of anyone trying to pander to nostalgia, but new areas and resources is at least something modders can work with.
The problem, I think, is that being a nostalgic player makes you very conservative and protective of the source material. Changes will always come with negative feedback, especially changes to established characters where we had to use our imagination to fill in the blanks. God knows that many characters needs that extra something, Safana for example is so out of the way and bland that I never bothered to use her compared to the more fun characters.
All in all, my only hope is that Dragonspear successfully bridges the gap between BG and BG2.
2