A tag would be "prince" for example, or "heir of the royal family", hence if you'd pick a "female dwarf", she could be the heiress of the dwarf empire, and you could imagine several scenarios, like some races/sex not being able to have certain tags, certain tags being mutually exclusive, etc...
This would take a LOT of writing to pull off, which would cause further delays, you'd be essentially writing several different lines of dialogue for one option alone, this is the reason that even Bioware use archetypes and set combinations in Dragon Age Origins.
We all want to be able to use a hundred different tags to craft a perfect character, but it's not possible yet, not until a computer can generate dialogue specific to a certain combination, otherwise you could be looking at millions of lines of dialogue and 95% of it never used.
Ok so it is unrealistic to actually do the origin system by actually creating the origin system.
Why say you are doing it and then not... But say your doing it anyway. That this is clearly what was always intended.
If they never advertised the Origin system "I" certainly wouldn't have been disapointed.
Better yet you know what game DOES do the exact same thing with tags? Tyranny... You know what they don't do? Call it an Origin System :P
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And I said all that without just tearing down your example... Which is easy because it is flimsy "all or nothing" reasoning.
As if applying a "Likes applesauce" tag means that every single NPC needs a "Likes Applesauce" conversation path.
But... Maybe I am being unfair, does Divinity Original Sin 2 CURRENTLY apply at least half the tags to say 90% of the conversations? Well... No...
Does the game have conversations with no tag interactions? Yes...
The majority of conversations use 1-2 tags.
So... If hypothetically there were 100 tags. What would be the easiest way to handle it? Order them.
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The thing is... The current "Origin System" is FLAT OUT a cut corner / Cop out.
They knew they had to do NPC partners. So what is the easiest way to account for the PCs? Just make the NPC partners the PC characters.
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"Advertised: Never stop for gas again!" and complain that I was being ripped off when the car ran out of gas.
Additionally, Kickstarters are almost always for games which are by definition unfinished
Don't give me that fluff! The game STILL advertises itself by what has been said in the Kickstarter with none of the words being changed.
Larian used a clear language to imply a feature that it has fulfilled in the most lackluster way possible to the extent that its continued insistence that it is fulfilled is rather dishonest all things considered.
"Yep we have an origin system all finished!"
"So, we get to play an origin?"
"Yes! You get to play a character"
"So... We get to play a character?"
"No... An Origin!"
"So... We can play a mage from the royal academy and meet up with our buddies?"
"If we have a character with that backstory"
"But wait, are we getting an Origin or are we playing a complete character?"
"A complete character"
"Then why are you calling it an Origin System, that is completely confusing and doesn't represent it at all?"
"Because we originally intended on you giving your characters origins allowing them not to just be faceless people who popped out of nowhere... But we decided that was too hard"
"Then why not change it?"
"Because money..."
"Ohh"
Or rather: Just because something is technically true, it doesn't make it honest for lack of a better word. Which is advertising 101.
So if it says "You can drive over 1000 blocks!" and it turns out they are all lego blocks...
I actually wouldn't be as peeved if they would just drop the pretense and go "No it wasn't feasible we don't have an origin system anymore".