I wouldn't regard myself as being part of the core group here, but the problems I had with Beyond Divinity had nothing to do with any 'geeking up' - whatever that might be.
I felt the skill system was over-elaborate - I much prefer the clean simplicity of the original DD; the fact that some skills (Lock picking!) were broken was annoying; and the accidental declaration of war on entire neutral animal species when you were just trying to move drove me spare.
The University section was a pest, but by no means an unbeatable one. I finished the game without too much trouble, and certainly didn't feel I missed anything due to not being part of some clique.
The only nods to this forum I recall were some of the in-game characters being named after forum members. I doubt very much that affected the playability for anyone.
