1. SPS Accounts:
    Do you find yourself coming back time after time? Do you appreciate the ongoing hard work to keep this community focused and successful in its mission? Please consider supporting us by upgrading to an SPS Account. Besides the warm and fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting a good cause, you'll also get a significant number of ever-expanding perks and benefits on the site and the forums. Click here to find out more.
    Dismiss Notice
Dismiss Notice
You are currently viewing Boards o' Magick as a guest, but you can register an account here. Registration is fast, easy and free. Once registered you will have access to search the forums, create and respond to threads, PM other members, upload screenshots and access many other features unavailable to guests.

BoM cultivates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. We have been aiming for quality over quantity with our forums from their inception, and believe that this distinction is truly tangible and valued by our members. We'd love to have you join us today!

(If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you've forgotten your username or password, click here.)

Dragon Age Forum News (Jan. 28, 06)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Jan 28, 2006.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2002
    Messages:
    16,815
    Media:
    11
    Likes Received:
    58
    Gender:
    Male
    Remove all ads!
    Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, taken from the Dragon Age Official Forum. 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.

    Brenon Holmes, Programmer

    Some little things...

    It seems to me like you guys still don't understand each other, but I'll just throw myself into the fray.

    Brenon, I don't understand your comparison of morality and consequenses. If a player goes on a killing spree, there should be consequenses. The Flaming Fist or Coweled Enforcers are good examples. It's not enough to just *know* that you've been bad.
    I'm not questioning the end result, I'm questioning the behaviour in the first place. Sure, I can agree that if you go on a murderous killing spree... and there is a sufficient presence of law in the village you should be arrested.

    But why would anyone in their right mind do that? If the consequences were "realistic" and "immersive" you'd eventually be captured and the game would be over. A game rather tangential to the "actual" game, and thus not necessarily worth putting any kind of significant work into.

    Games like GTA show "consequences-lite". Having police run around after you when you run over fifty people is actually part of the play experience. As a player, you can eventually evade them or perhaps you're captured. In either case, it doesn't affect the player in any real fashion... which implies that in the context of the game, the action has no weight.

    Serious actions should probably have appropriately significant consequences. Of course, GTA is different... since it's mostly just a sandbox game.

    Imagine though if you could die permanently or be arrested for a respectable amount of time... I imagine the style of play would change fairly significantly, ne?

    Thought:
    Returning to or simply passing through a previously visited area could be a nice way of showing you the consequenses of your actions. Burning rubble or people living happily.
    And as David and some of our other talented writers have mentioned, there *are* consequences to choices you make.

    However, that said... DA will not be some graphics and a story wrapped around a morality meter. Expecting to go on psychopathic murdering sprees in cities just to see a morality bar update to "More Evil" is something you're probably going to have to do without.

    More:

    Depends... a lot of folks around here seem to be clamoring for a "realistic" and "immersive" experience. Personally, I'm starting to really dislike those words... mostly because I think they're being misused.

    If we want the world to be internally consistent, then actions that you are able to do need to have appropriate consequences or reactions. It's as simple as that.

    I can't speak to the plotline or how/when branching questlines take place, that's a question better posed to one of the writers.

    More:

    As I mentioned above, the world needs to be internally consistent. So if murdering innocents is viewed as a "bad thing"... then it will be a bad thing, regardless of whether the player is doing it just to blow off some steam or screw around.

    More:

    This was the point I was attempting to address with an earlier post. You probably wouldn't... assuming you (by 'you' I mean your character) were an ethical being. What you present above is sociopathic behaviour in our society... why would it be incredibly different in a virtual one?

    More:

    Bottom line is you need a) a way to handle this or b) convince the player it's simply not worth it. This is easiest by not giving us experience and money for killing civilians, but where's the fun in that? This simply means no matter how big the city is, not one of the people in it have any money on them - and in that case, how do they pay for things in the stores?
    I'm sure we have ways of dealing with this sort of thing... :good:

    David Gaider, Lead Writer

    Some little things...

    There are, afaik, no "Detect Evil" spells, no "Smite Evil" feats, no "Protection from Good/Evil" abilities - etc.
    That would be a correct assumption.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Jan 28, 2006
    #1
  2. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2002
    Messages:
    16,815
    Media:
    11
    Likes Received:
    58
    Gender:
    Male
    Wish I had more for you since almost a week ago but they aren't being particularly prolific...
     
    chevalier, Jan 28, 2006
    #2
Sorcerer's Place is a project run entirely by fans and for fans. Maintaining Sorcerer's Place and a stable environment for all our hosted sites requires a substantial amount of our time and funds on a regular basis, so please consider supporting us to keep the site up & running smoothly. Thank you!

Sorcerers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on amazon.com, amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.