I understand the point about Alistair blaming Loghain for the death of his father figure or as some would infer on the Bioware forums, "Alistair's secret gay lover."

I can see your point on Loghain's decision and it makes sense. However, the dialogue when you first meet Cailan and Duncan is very specific on neither not knowing the exact size of the Blight numbers in comparison to Cailan's troops. I am sure that when you are in the Tower of Ishal, Loghain came to understand that Cailan and the Grey Warden's vastly underestimated the size of the enemy forces and instead of leaving Ferelden with no capable military general to lead the fight against the Blight, Loghain made the decision to retreat.

So what part of any Bethesda developed/published game was realistic?

And what has Bethesda developed since 2008? 0.0 

But they keep publishing crap.

I think everybody should think for just a second before we start attacking the very foundation that we stand upon. 

JRPGs are more realistic! Who on earth would use a normal sized sword like in WRPGs when you can have one longer and heavier than you, thick as an axe and broad as an halberd?   

A majority of game developers haven't developed a game since at least 2008. I fail to see how that's relevant, but point taken.

What's more realistic?  Orcs and he men fighting each other or bunny girls and effeminatemales with huge swords fighting?

PS: The answer in neither are realistic.  I miss the days when games were about being creative and fun.  Not arguing about which was more 'realistic' or had the more 'believable story'.

You missed the point of what he was saying and that he wsn't making an argument.

He's saying that RPGs in the West tend to be more groundd, with logic and explanations that keep them more down-to-earth. RPGs from the Japanese tradition tend to be more fantastical.

He's right, too. This is true of a lot of storytelling on both sides, and is pretty clearly illustrated in the differences you'll find in Japanese science fiction compaared to European traditions in the same field.

He admitted he doesn't PLAY them....ugh that just messes up all his statememnts

and did you guys see on USA Today that our space marines are doing well against thos aliens on planet X? no? :S

You cannot be missing the point htis hard unleess you're doing it on purpose.

Guys, I know the title is somewhat misleading, but there's no excuse for this kind of thing.

He is saying that, as a whole, western RPGs tend to be more grounded and down-to-earth, while Japanese RPGs tend to be more fantastical. Those are his words! He is right. His specific example of Mass Effect as science fiction compared to dozens of JRPGs (like Xenosaga, an example tat Soriku brought up as "grounded" JRPG sci-fi) illustrates his point perfectly: outside of the Mass Effect law of physics, almost everything is grounded in hard science. The alien biology, te way guns work, the size of ships that can land on planets, the thermal limitations on space combat - somebody sat down and rsearched and justified all of it.

He's not wrong. He's displaying a very insightful understanding of storytelling in both traditions.

Nope I think your the one who is missing the point here

How the hell is fighting aliens on different planets across the galazy or fighting golems and dragons on ancient lands be any less fantastical than the JRPGs? How the hell is that being 'grounded'? It's all fantastical, all unrealistic..it's just different takes on it

It's grounded when you come up with scientific explanations for everything that happens. Mass Effect is the clearest example of this, and I will say it again: it's grounded in physics. Everything is painstakingly researched and justified, from th way space combat is waged to redundant nervous systems in some aliens.

It only asks two conceits of you:

1. That there is an element which can create the Mass Effect

2. That there is extra-terrestrial life

THat's it. That's all it asks. Everything after that is based on hard science and grounded scientific theory, particular for the way communal AI would work.

The difference between Western science fiction and Japanese science fiction tnds to lie in explanation and justification for different elements - in the West we tend toward "hard scifi" a lot more often. That's not opinion, that's not interpretation, that's fact.

And you'll notice how western fantasy tends to hold to its own itnernal logic (generally derived from D&D or Tolkien) which does nont hold down Japanese fantasy in any way.

The only way you could argue that Japanese scifi and fantasy isn't more fantastical is if you have no frame of reference for comparison.