Soarora wrote: »

As for the fact that he is shirtless, posed paintings of commonly “appreciated” NPCs could work as a painting pack. In-universe it’d make sense as a commissioned painting of your lover. This pose isn’t working very well for him though, I wish it was less “true to the scene” and more artsy. I suppose it could be argued as “this scene is an inside joke between us” but we also never bring it up to him again, so, it’d have to be headcanon…

More on-topic than my previous post:

I dunno if it's because I'm asexual and don't typically lust after ESO NPC's (crush on, yes; lust after, no), but I LOVE this as an idea because it makes me giggle. I'd totally buy a pack of suggestive boudoir paintings featuring all the Companions and beloved ESO NPC's for laughs. I'd make a museum exhibit for them. And I don't just want the "stereotypically young, pretty, and maybe slender" characters like Ayrenn and Darien and Bastian and Veya and Naryu and Razum-dar and Deechee-Noo. I want Rigurt the Brash, Stibbons, Azandar, Hermaeus Mora, and any number of the "hot grannies" in the game. Give me the "old fat Orsimer" trinity painting, preferably with a discarded wedding dress and/or Nordic Bather's Towel in the background.

(Maybe not one of Sharp-as-Night, though. I'd feel guilty having a sexy Sharp painting, knowing how much he'd hate the entire process.)

AllenaNightWood wrote: »

its literally an M rated game this is acceptable

Two things:

1) It isn't an M rated game everywhere
2) My issue isn't with the partial nudity, it's with ZOS absolutely driving something into the ground because they view it as popular

cyclonus11 wrote: »

Your arguments are invalid

I'm more offended as to how much gold I spent buying TWO of these from other players than a Darien painting I can ignore since I won't have it in my house lol.

All of this controversy is why I just fire siege.

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

AllenaNightWood wrote: »

its literally an M rated game this is acceptable

Two things:

1) It isn't an M rated game everywhere
2) My issue isn't with the partial nudity, it's with ZOS absolutely driving something into the ground because they view it as popular

It's just a cosmetic bundle. Just don't buy it. It's not even gameplay.

Also your post (especially the title) is complaining about his look. Might want to put that in the OP if your problem isn't just that it's fanservice for people who prefer male characters.

I don't like fan service when it limits content to a small handful of characters. I like male characters, but having everything be about Darien (or Sheo or whomever) is severely limiting.

If they want to make furnishings featuring characters, great; make hero pictures featuring ALL the major characters. And this painting of Darien in particular is such a weirdly romantic idolisation of Darien. ESO isn't a dating sim, why do we even have this?

It's just the first one. Maybe they'll add more. Also, they had Smolder Scrolls and said they knew romance options was a popular RPG request for the more lore oriented folks. They gave us romance options in Solstice (with Darien) for the first time and now they have a furnishing pack too. If it goes well, I'm sure they'll do more in the future.

cyclonus11 wrote: »

Your arguments are invalid

I can't believe the mods have let this uncensored filth stay up so long. What the heck is ZOS paying them for?!

(No one let Mrs. Slocombe see that picture.)

Soarora wrote: »

I am absolutely on board with the concept of a boudoir painting of Rigurt, you made me giggle with your idea too!

Four words: strategically placed rabbit meatballs.

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

AllenaNightWood wrote: »

its literally an M rated game this is acceptable

Two things:

1) It isn't an M rated game everywhere
2) My issue isn't with the partial nudity, it's with ZOS absolutely driving something into the ground because they view it as popular

It's just a cosmetic bundle. Just don't buy it. It's not even gameplay.

Also your post (especially the title) is complaining about his look. Might want to put that in the OP if your problem isn't just that it's fanservice for people who prefer male characters.

I don't like fan service when it limits content to a small handful of characters. I like male characters, but having everything be about Darien (or Sheo or whomever) is severely limiting.

If they want to make furnishings featuring characters, great; make hero pictures featuring ALL the major characters. And this painting of Darien in particular is such a weirdly romantic idolisation of Darien. ESO isn't a dating sim, why do we even have this?

It's just the first one. Maybe they'll add more. Also, they had Smolder Scrolls and said they knew romance options was a popular RPG request for the more lore oriented folks. They gave us romance options in Solstice (with Darien) for the first time and now they have a furnishing pack too. If it goes well, I'm sure they'll do more in the future.

I've always been on board with the introduction of romance in ESO, but more in the form of quests. I think a romanticised painting of our chosen romance - with the emphasis on choice - would be fine, but they seem to be putting the cart before the horse here, even if, as you say, it is to gauge interest.

They did let us romance Darien in Solstice first. He has a personal quest after the end of the main story and flirting dialogue throughout the main quest. It has multiple endings depending on how much you've been through together and whether or not you just want to be friends. And now that a lot of the playerbase has completed it, they are selling a bonus furnishing pack for the fun of it. That seems like a good start to me.

i mean... there are naked players everywhere in the game and high price motif/costume all is nude...

Gabriel_H wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

AllenaNightWood wrote: »

its literally an M rated game this is acceptable

Two things:

1) It isn't an M rated game everywhere
2) My issue isn't with the partial nudity, it's with ZOS absolutely driving something into the ground because they view it as popular

It's just a cosmetic bundle. Just don't buy it. It's not even gameplay.

Also your post (especially the title) is complaining about his look. Might want to put that in the OP if your problem isn't just that it's fanservice for people who prefer male characters.

Or you could just not make presumptions. This is the latest in a long line of things that ZOS just push and push to the point of absurdity, as others have noted in the thread.

Presumptions? Your title is literally just says ARGH MY EYES. And the post just extends that same joke with nothing else of substance. It is literally only about his looks. And the picture you selected is just a fan service picture of a male character and nothing else.

I assume it was intended as a joke but it does not convey the message that you seem to want so I was simply recommending adding what you wrote there to your OP. It's your post though. Do with it as you will.

As for the broader sentiment, I do not agree that an optional cosmetic completely disconnected from gameplay is the same thing as quest writing. For me, this is simply a nice, lore friendly cosmetic item that ties in with a specific series of quests. Given that it is quite a long series of quests, I think it's nice that they have an optional cosmetic to buy go along with it.

As much as I like the flashy stuff, I do like the lore related stuff as well and do not find that we get too many lore friendly items in the crown store. As such, I cannot agree this is just them pushing characters on us.

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Gabriel_H wrote: »

AllenaNightWood wrote: »

its literally an M rated game this is acceptable

Two things:

1) It isn't an M rated game everywhere
2) My issue isn't with the partial nudity, it's with ZOS absolutely driving something into the ground because they view it as popular

It's just a cosmetic bundle. Just don't buy it. It's not even gameplay.

Also your post (especially the title) is complaining about his look. Might want to put that in the OP if your problem isn't just that it's fanservice for people who prefer male characters.

I don't like fan service when it limits content to a small handful of characters. I like male characters, but having everything be about Darien (or Sheo or whomever) is severely limiting.

If they want to make furnishings featuring characters, great; make hero pictures featuring ALL the major characters. And this painting of Darien in particular is such a weirdly romantic idolisation of Darien. ESO isn't a dating sim, why do we even have this?

It's just the first one. Maybe they'll add more. Also, they had Smolder Scrolls and said they knew romance options was a popular RPG request for the more lore oriented folks. They gave us romance options in Solstice (with Darien) for the first time and now they have a furnishing pack too. If it goes well, I'm sure they'll do more in the future.

I've always been on board with the introduction of romance in ESO, but more in the form of quests. I think a romanticised painting of our chosen romance - with the emphasis on choice - would be fine, but they seem to be putting the cart before the horse here, even if, as you say, it is to gauge interest.

They did let us romance Darien in Solstice first. He has a personal quest after the end of the main story and flirting dialogue throughout the main quest. It has multiple endings depending on how much you've been through together and whether or not you just want to be friends. And now that a lot of the playerbase has completed it, they are selling a bonus furnishing pack for the fun of it. That seems like a good start to me.

Admittedly I haven't finished Solstice yet, but I was under the impression from reading some posts that it wasn't an official romance yet, though it might possibly(?) be a developing romance.

In any case, as mentioned before, I do hope we get a wide variety of romance options, not just the usual suspects, like Darien or Naryu. Or Fennorian or Zerith, I can't remember who else is beloved in this community. I honestly don't see them committing the sort of resources for us to get both popular and less popular options, though who knows.

It has multiple endings based on the level of closeness that you built with him and not just on Solstice. Some people won't even get the option to romance him because they aren't close enough to him.

Lol, I don’t quite get the attraction either. My character must have been the only female character who just wanted to be friends with Darien after all of the adventures they had together. I also seem to be the only one who saw an unfulfilled romance between him and Gabrielle and would have felt it was inappropriate at the very least, given what happened.

spartaxoxo wrote: »

As for the broader sentiment, I do not agree that an optional cosmetic completely disconnected from gameplay is the same thing as quest writing. For me, this is simply a nice, lore friendly cosmetic item that ties in with a specific series of quests. Given that it is quite a long series of quests, I think it's nice that they have an optional cosmetic to buy go along with it.

As much as I like the flashy stuff, I do like the lore related stuff as well and do not find that we get too many lore friendly items in the crown store. As such, I cannot agree this is just them pushing characters on us.

I'd consider this at the limit of lore-friendly. It was inspired by a scene in the game that was memorable for reasons totally unrelated to the lore, and like Sheo's constant harping on about cheese, ZOS seems to seized on it and elevated that scene to meme-like status. And in a way I think the furnishing pack actually detracts from the lore aspects of his character by focusing too much on his flirtatiousness. Darien was in hours of content as a knight. They could have included furnishings like his sword or shield for display. Instead we got bread. Because of that scene

16BitForestCat wrote: »

cyclonus11 wrote: »

Your arguments are invalid

I can't believe the mods have let this uncensored filth stay up so long. What the heck is ZOS paying them for?!

(No one let Mrs. Slocombe see that picture.)

You get an 'awesome' for the "Are You Being Served?" reference. Man, haven't seen that show in a long time.

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

16BitForestCat wrote: »

cyclonus11 wrote: »

Your arguments are invalid

I can't believe the mods have let this uncensored filth stay up so long. What the heck is ZOS paying them for?!

(No one let Mrs. Slocombe see that picture.)

You get an 'awesome' for the "Are You Being Served?" reference. Man, haven't seen that show in a long time.

I was trying to figure out where that was from, the name sounded so familiar! 😂

BretonMage wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

As for the broader sentiment, I do not agree that an optional cosmetic completely disconnected from gameplay is the same thing as quest writing. For me, this is simply a nice, lore friendly cosmetic item that ties in with a specific series of quests. Given that it is quite a long series of quests, I think it's nice that they have an optional cosmetic to buy go along with it.

As much as I like the flashy stuff, I do like the lore related stuff as well and do not find that we get too many lore friendly items in the crown store. As such, I cannot agree this is just them pushing characters on us.

I'd consider this at the limit of lore-friendly. It was inspired by a scene in the game that was memorable for reasons totally unrelated to the lore, and like Sheo's constant harping on about cheese, ZOS seems to seized on it and elevated that scene to meme-like status. And in a way I think the furnishing pack actually detracts from the lore aspects of his character by focusing too much on his flirtatiousness. Darien was in hours of content as a knight. They could have included furnishings like his sword or shield for display. Instead we got bread. Because of that scene

I can definitely see that. For me, it's moreso commemorative of the end of Solstice. But, I can see how others may not agree especially given that not everyone even got that ending even if they did play through til the end.

But, I was annoyed by the bread. Idk why ZOS latched on so hard to bread 🍞 being his thing. They do have some knight stuff too but they could have done a better job with his person effects. Or at least not given us the same bread we can already craft. He's not even from Solitude.

They have definitely been Flanderizing their characters and even franchise lately. Not every non human race needs a swear word replacement that directly references their looks. Skordo was saying tusking way too much.

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Lol, I don’t quite get the attraction either. My character must have been the only female character who just wanted to be friends with Darien after all of the adventures they had together. I also seem to be the only one who saw an unfulfilled romance between him and Gabrielle and would have felt it was inappropriate at the very least, given what happened.

I did seen an unfilled romance between them. But, to me, it seemed like Darien wasn't serious about anyone while Gabrielle was in love with him. He had a little crush on her but he didn't really explore it. He always seemed to be leaning towards getting serious with the Vestige instead.