Couchpotato:
I just noticed you're in Chicago. Me too. I'm downtown in Printer's Row, just south of the Loop. Where are you?
Look, no hard feelings. My point is that there are games that exist that aren't whatever your particular definition of "true RPG" is. And sometimes they're fun.
And about the dialog wheel again- The cinematic style practically needs it. Does this mean I think it's perfect? No. But for instance in Dragon Age 1, the dialog would go on between characters, cutting back and forth. Then suddenly there's a wole bunch of text to choose from a list at the bottom. There's a long awkward pause while you read each option. In the meantime your character is standing like a dummy staring into space. Pick an option and the scene continues. It was farcical.
Again, do I think it's the best thing since a twenty-sided die? No. But it worked to move the scenes along. And again again again… look back on the old games and the so called awesome dialog lists they had. They sucked in their own way.
You know- one more thing. Bioware was ripped on by fans of "true RPGs" back in the 90s when they came out with Baldur's Gate, because it was viewed that they were trying to cash in on the Diablo craze by making the turn-based nature optional (with optional pause feature). This same argument has been going on as to what is a "true RPG" since Gary Gygax decided it would be more fun to have a magic system implemented in his tabletop miniature medieval battle campaigns.
