Dragon Age Forum News (Apr. 11, 05)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

Religious Beliefs
The cool thing about our world is that we can fit all sorts of religious beliefs into it.

Each culture can have a diffrent opinion of creation, heaven, and the afterlife, and we get to make them all up.

When will a publisher enter the room?

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The DA publisher will have to invest nothing (ok at least not that much, and not over a long time like when they pay the game development) and will have an almost guaranteed success. So what would it matter ?

The publisher does:
- create voice content and translate the game (incl. voice content for the other languages)
- creates the 'hardware' (cd, handbook etc) for the game
- do the advertising
- manage the sending of the game to the shops
- get the profit from the game and give Bioware their part

So the only things Bioware really has to worry about:
- quality of advertising
- quality of the content created by the publisher
- percents of profit from the sold games

Unlike other games, where the publisher has to pay for the development and wait for a long time until the game has been finished, they have almost no risk here.

So why worry much about the publisher ?

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Actually we're going to manage the voice content, and translation.

When will a publisher enter the room?

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I do have one question for the Developers. If you get a publsiher of who you favor who doesn't like some of the content of the game would you change the game or change publsihers, keeping in mind that it was before any contracts are signed.

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We would never drop a publisher just because they didn't like something in our game.

If they felt something in the game could hurt the overall sales of the game (example: We reboot the computer every 5 minutes), they would bring it up, and we'd consider the issue. Likewise if they wanted us to add something they think would be better we would think it over.

Weights & Measurements
We're thinking of having everything in the Metric system to help the Americans get with the times.

Either that or make up something from the old days:

Weight:
One stone = 21 rocks = 3 frogs = 3487 peeps = 1/2 beer

Distance:
One Length = 234 footsteps = 23 porches = 1 over there

Tempature:
Darn cold - really cold - cold - pheh - ahhh - warm - really warm - hot - darn hot - hello Satan.

Message of the story
I hope the message is:

"Tell your friends to buy this game!"

When will a publisher enter the room?

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I am not talking about bugs, but game content. Such as the fact that DA has no Area Builder similar to NWN. If a publisher says put one in would you go to a different publsiher or would you stick with the current publisher and put an Area Builder in the game. That sort of thing.

Or lets say the publisher doesn't like the magic system being used and wants it changed or they feel that the story is way too long and wants material cut from it.

Those sort of changes I am talking about.

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Same thing. If they wanted us to add a feature, we'd discuss why. If their reasons made sense (and they were willing to pay the cost to develop the new content) we'd put it in.
If the wanted a system change, (say for example the magic system), but the only reason they could give was "because we don't like it." We'd say "Trust us, we make the best CRPGs out there." And they would go “Ok, you guys have 8 years of experience making commercially, and critically acclaimed games.”

It's not realistic to speculate that we would ever have to face such an ultimatum.

When will a publisher enter the room?

---

I am not talking about bugs, but game content. Such as the fact that DA has no Area Builder similar to NWN. If a publisher says put one in would you go to a different publsiher or would you stick with the current publisher and put an Area Builder in the game. That sort of thing.

Or lets say the publisher doesn't like the magic system being used and wants it changed or they feel that the story is way too long and wants material cut from it.

Those sort of changes I am talking about.

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Same thing. If they wanted us to add a feature, we'd discuss why. If their reasons made sense (and they were willing to pay the cost to develop the new content) we'd put it in.
If the wanted a system change, (say for example the magic system), but the only reason they could give was "because we don't like it." We'd say "Trust us, we make the best CRPGs out there." And they would go “Ok, you guys have 8 years of experience making commercially, and critically acclaimed games.”

It's not realistic to speculate that we would ever have to face such an ultimatum.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Martial Arts In DA
Just a comment. Realism is not a requirement. Consistency, on the other hand, is a lot more appealing/attractive.