Maybe I wasn't clear about my point. I try to explain it better.
Here Wormerine says it the best, I think he understood the point I was trying to make:
Originally Posted by Wormerine
I think Kingmaker's issue is a bit different, and it is an issue D:OS2 shares - not really allowing players to express who their characters are. Even BG2, as most Bioware RPGs, which isn't great on reactivity or role-playing bit does often question and confront player on his motivations. That's a bit of role-playing that planescape nailed - not only what you do, but why you do it, what you think etc. At the very beginning of PoE1 you have conversation with a temporary companion which is using background you have picked in character creation in which you can make a statement as to who your character is. This is not reactivity I am talking about BTW (Pathfinder has a lot of choice&consequence, but I don't feel it reflects on my character or how the world sees my character), but game giving player space to express their character - and then if appropriate react to it.
Yes, Kingmaker presents you with dialogue options according to your customization choices (race/sex/religion/alignment) but it will never question your choices, these choices will never have an internal effect on the narrative (they will have an external effect, which direction the narrative will take, but your motivation will remain unexplored, if any).
Counter Example: In Planescape: Torment, higher mental scores will trigger secret dialogue options. But this is not the thing that makes Torment a great RPG (though it is cool design idea and I wish other rpg titles would use it more often), the thing that made imo Torment great it is the feels explored behind your choices (made both by you and your past lives).
Because you can say that in Kingmaker, you will have different dialogue options reacting to your character optimization choices and you could say these choices have consequences (it will determine the direction of the story), and this is what RPGs are about.
But you will never know how your hero feels about it, the game does not care about the motivation behind the choice.
And I know, this kind of narrative is very hard to write, and this is where I think premade protagonists have an edge (even though I prefer custom made ones), because writers will have to deal with a lesser number of variables and can write a more solid story for the hero with choices more embedded in the narrative and the actual motivations behind those choices explained.
So this is the reason why, at the end of the day, I am curious what BG3 will make of its origin stories.
