Dragon Age Forum News

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(Originally posted by chevalier)

Here are today's BioWare 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.

David Gaider, Designer

Can’t we have a game based on characters and not saving the world?

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And I have a question then, whats so wrong with having a character with a history?
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Nothing, really, provided your player buys into the history that's been provided to them. If not, then anything that follows isn't going to be of much use to them no matter how well written. I've seen many comments about Planescape: Torment from folks who didn't like the Nameless One character... and thus couldn't get into the game at all (which is a pity).

That element of choice in your character creation is also arguably one of the defining differences between role-playing games and adventure games. I say arguably, of course, because to some people this is less important and some much, much more so.

To a point, we're actually taking a middle ground with DA by allowing the option of choosing their background... though even in those we need to allow for a wide variety of character types, and has already been noted the more freedom a player has in establishing their own background the harder it is to make a concise story path. EDIT: ANNNND it appears Lady Shayna beat me to the punch, saying almost word-for-word what I did. Sigh.

More:
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I do read quite a bit, but whats wrong with wanting RPG's to be better? (at least in my eyes)
I'd like a company to take a game plot serious since it doesn't happen that often. Bioware at least consistantly puts thought into their plots and characters; whats wrong with me wanting them to take it one step further and portray our protagonist as a real person?
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Err... have you even read the responses here? Obviously we want to try to improve our storytelling skills, as well, but what's being said is that telling a story in a game format where the protaganist could be anyone is NOT the same as telling a story with prose with a specific protaganist.

And while you could advocate that we go ahead and make an RPG with a very specific, pre-defined protaganist, it really at that point is no longer your protaganist anymore, is it? You didn't make him. And that's the difference.

how realistic/futuristic will the world in DA be?
Yes. Tongue-in-cheek, as in "not freezing or barren, but certainly a bit too cold to be running around in your skivvies all the time" sort of cold. Some of you folks are so literal.

Character Development
"learn by doing" == giant, winged monkeys with fangs

Not going to happen, for reasons already described.

There are plenty of other ways to add interaction and realism in the world rather than converting useful abstractions into pointless make-work.

Now, if we're talking about special skills that are part of the plot, that's different. But as a regular way of building your character? Nuh-uh.

More: Architect's post is the nicely-worded version of my "thppppfffft" response, essentially. Thanks, Architect.

10 Foot Pole!

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I didn't play a single game of D&D (and I played a lot in my youth) where any party member chose a 10' pole for their starting equipment. 50' rope, yes. Hooded lantern and torches, yes. Sacks and pouches, yes. Thieves' tools and holy symbols, yes. Parchment, scroll cases, tinder box and wineskins, yes.

10' pole? nope.
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I had the occasional character who used a 10' pole back in the days of Basic/Expert D&D. Funny, but as I recall it always ended up getting lost (my DM liked to pick on me for carrying around something so unwieldy) or being used for something it really wasn't meant to. Usually after about the 100th lame joke made in reference to it I would start thwacking fellow party members with it until it broke.

Special Encounters/Easter Eggs/Comedy

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As Dragon Age is using Bioware's own IP, I think it will be difficult to restrain the humor. I suspect most of it will be subtle and in the context of the game.
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WOMAN: Well, how did you become king then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake,... [angels sing] ...her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [singing stops] That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up, will you. Shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?

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Heh... I dunno, we Bioware writers are a very serious lot. No monkey business from us, you know.

Special Encounters/Easter Eggs/Comedy

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No,No Patryn it should be(Unless, of course, they are of the winged,poisoned-fanged,anal, Gaider variety.)
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Nope. There are no Gaider Monkeys that I'm aware of, regardless of what kind of simian ecology might be imagined within my posterior region.

Tim Smith, Tools Programmer

Scripting Language Request: C# or similar
C# is indeed a very nice language but it won't be the scripting language of DA. DA's scripting language will be very similar to what you have seen in NWN.

DA Toolset
Wooohoo, I question I can answer... well sort of. To be perfectly honest, that decision won't be made until very late in the game.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Stupid question in need of an answer
Welcome to the Dragon Age forums!

Consulting my magical Bioware 8-ball, it says:

Unclear, ask again later.

There is no release date for Dragon Age, it will be finished when it's finished. If there ever is a release date, you should see it on the forums here fairly quickly from an official source (not Amazon, not EB Games, etc...).

how realistic/futuristic will the world in DA be?
I believe that was more a tongue-in-cheek comment about how our characters will most likely be wearing more clothing than what was in some of the released concept demo screenshots.

Stanley Woo, Quality Assurance

10 Foot Pole!

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Though I have fond memories of 10' poles, this is probably one of those things that works better in P&P and not so great in a CRPG.
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And it didn't really work in PnP, either. I didn't play a single game of D&D (and I played a lot in my youth) where any party member chose a 10' pole for their starting equipment. 50' rope, yes. Hooded lantern and torches, yes. Sacks and pouches, yes. Thieves' tools and holy symbols, yes. Parchment, scroll cases, tinder box and wineskins, yes.

10' pole? nope.

Can’t we have a game based on characters and not saving the world?
I think people play RPGs to, as the "role-playing game" genre suggests, play a role. The more sympathetic the player is towards his in-game avatar, the more immersed he is within the game world and the more he cares what happens to that character. The less say the player has in what his character is like, physically or personality-wise, the less he can identify with that character.

So, with RPGs, it becomes less of a "my character does this" experience (as in most action games) and more of an "(i)I(/b) do this" experience. It's that extra bit of immersion that allows players to have ownership over their characters and take pride in their accomplishments.

It's what I enjoy in the RPGs I play, and why I enjoy RPGs most of all. Different strokes for different folks.