Valin Alistar's page

I would not play PFO if it is in forced first person. I understand it is more immerse for some people but not for me. I feel absolutely no attachment to any character I have ever played in first person.

When I play games like this I'm not trying to project myself into another world I am trying to imagine someone else living in that world. I like seeing the character I play and hate feeling like they are a floating pair of hands holding a weapon of some sort.

I just want to say I think the ideas presented in this blog are excellent.

I love that spells will be something fundamentally different from "normal" attacks. One of my biggest complaints with almost all (fantasy) MMOs is that magic is just another type of ranged attack, usually with slightly fancier graphics.

Having them be something powerful but limited and costly should go a long way toward making magic magical again.

Also I really like that a spell book is a unique strength and weakness and the drive to acquire new spells should lead to all sorts of appropriately wizardly behavior.

Finally I'd enjoy seeing ritual siege magic and magic wards against it in addition to more mundane siege engines and walls.

I like the idea of diminishing returns on AoE damage. I'm worried about friendly fire, stealth, and flags/alignment.

It seems like it would be very easy to create situations where you force flags and alignment hits on other players. For example a character with high stealth hiding near a pack of NPC monsters. This in turn could make AoE attacks highly impractical/undesirable outside of instances.