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[In Exile]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...
E-Readers all have LCD screens.  I wonder if you can make them as dim as a piece of printed paper would be in the same room.  That's something worth testing.  Place a Kindle side-by-side with a mass market paperback - which one's brighter?

That's not a bad idea. The way to run that experiment would be to have a between-subjects design where participants either read a story from a kindle or from the paperback, measuring time-to-compleition and comprehension, and you can manipulate the relative brightness of the LCD by making the room brighter.

[In Exile]

----9----- wrote...
Does the study take into account cultures different than the English language and characters which read from right to left or vertical text?

No, no cross-cultural work.

Since DA 2 is scheduled for March, you'll have to speed up your study. 

Haha. It's not my research. It's what someone in the same research program as me is doing.

[Sylvius the Mad]

In Exile wrote...

That's not a bad idea. The way to run that experiment would be to have a between-subjects design where participants either read a story from a kindle or from the paperback, measuring time-to-compleition and comprehension, and you can manipulate the relative brightness of the LCD by making the room brighter.

Feel free to pass on that suggestion.

In my experience, a difference in brightness levels is a huge problem for reading speed.

[In Exile]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...
Feel free to pass on that suggestion.

In my experience, a difference in brightness levels is a huge problem for reading speed.

Certainly. It's a really solid idea.

[Annarl]

Upsettingshorts wrote...

Ulicus wrote...

I agree with Matt Stover.

But, then, I'm a fanboy.

Who isn't?  Pro-Bowler and Super Bowl champion:



...that's who I thought of anyway.

This is who I thought of too!  I guess I should watch a little less sports.  LOL.

I love the codex.  For me, it add a lot of interesting information.  I appreciate the time and effort the writers put into this aspect of the game.

[Fortlowe]

Rise! RISE! My beatiful Codex Thread! Rise and find a Dev for your master! BWHAHAHA *cough cough* ha.

Will the codex be getting any new features? I already know it won't be voiced and that's good news in my book, but will there be new ways to interact with the codex this time? Illustrations perhaps? And is the interface getting an upgrade? On the console, the codex interface was just gnarly, but I trudged through it because the content was so awesome. Speaking of content can we expect  as  substantial an amount of Codex entries as we got in DA:O?

[Maria Caliban]

Fortlowe wrote...
... will there be new ways to interact with the codex this time?

Yep, there will be new 'interactions.' If you know what I mean.

Modifié par Maria Caliban, 07 décembre 2010 - 07:52 .

[Fortlowe]

^ Elf/Qunari/God-baby/Nug

[Maria Caliban]

What part is the nug?

[Fortlowe]

Maria Caliban wrote...

What part is the nug?

Do you really wanna know?

[Maria Caliban]

I always imagined Leliana was the type to give her boyfriend's bits nicknames like 'Schmooples.'

"Let's play Nug Lost in the Deep Roads again!"

[Fortlowe]

Leni: Lets play 'Hide the Nug' again my sweet!
Warden: I thought we were gonna call it 'Hide the Bronto'?
Leni: You are so cute when you are in denial! That's why I can't keep my hands off of my favorvite little nug!
Warden: Hide the nug is fine!

[bill4747bill]

Many think that Tiax rules All; but the Dragon Age Codex is what really rules All.

[bill4747bill]

Maria Caliban wrote...

I always imagined Leliana was the type to give her boyfriend's bits nicknames like 'Schmooples.'

"Let's play Nug Lost in the Deep Roads again!"

That is Awesome, really!

[PsychoBlonde]

Lukas Kristjanson wrote...

As an additional thought for this topic, some have noted that reading the codex is optional and have broken that down between "I go there occasionally," "I love it and read everything," and "I don't read it so they should cut it."

And where does that leave me?  I DO read it and think you should cut it.   Don't assume that just because someone thinks a feature would be better being removed, that they don't use that feature.  I use injury kits, too, and think they might be better off being removed.

[TRSniper4]

To me, removing the codex would be like removing the books from an Elder Scrolls games. The codex serves as a source of in-depth lore that you can never obtain from dialogue. Lore is very important to me in an RPG world, because it makes me feel like just one actor in a large, independently- functioning world. I don't like the feeling that the world revolves around everything my character does and only exists as far as his/her eyes see.



They could try to cram all that lore into dialogue, but that would lead to some very long conversations. Plus, I can read faster than I can sit and listen to some character drone on and on about a topic that I could just learn about by picking a book off a shelf.



To summarize, I'm afraid that removing the codex would make it feel less like a world and more like a game. In a game, you only care about the here and now, as well as what little lore is relevant to your character (which usually isn't very much). If people don't like the codex, they don't have to read it.

[PsychoBlonde]

TRSniper4 wrote...

The codex serves as a source of in-depth lore that you can never obtain from dialogue.

Keep in mind that you're comparing Origins to a BETHESDA game.  Bethesda is not known for quality dialog or story (although they do seem to make slight improvements every time they release a game).  Having books floating around the world that you can read if you feel like it is about their speed.  Bioware, on the other hand, IS known for story and dialog.  And they CAN integrate this stuff into the game.  (In fact, they DO.  You learn a LOT more about the Qunari from talking to Sten than you do from the two incredibly sketchy codex entries on the Qunari.)

I could see them adopting a system where you can actually "read" the few books in the game by clicking them and get a text pop-up very similar to the one you get when you "examine" items.  But 90% of the codex is not books you find.  It's "here's who Loghain is" and "here's the info you need to complete this quest" (which should go in the journal).

Otherwise, it's tantamount to those pretentious novels who have a list of characters and a glossary.  While they can be amusing to read, if you actually NEED those things to follow the story, the author is doing a lousy job.  And if you don't need them, why have them?  They're just an invitation to laziness. 

[nightcobra]

PsychoBlonde wrote...

TRSniper4 wrote...

The codex serves as a source of in-depth lore that you can never obtain from dialogue.

Keep in mind that you're comparing Origins to a BETHESDA game.  Bethesda is not known for quality dialog or story (although they do seem to make slight improvements every time they release a game).  Having books floating around the world that you can read if you feel like it is about their speed.  Bioware, on the other hand, IS known for story and dialog.  And they CAN integrate this stuff into the game.  (In fact, they DO.  You learn a LOT more about the Qunari from talking to Sten than you do from the two incredibly sketchy codex entries on the Qunari.)

I could see them adopting a system where you can actually "read" the few books in the game by clicking them and get a text pop-up very similar to the one you get when you "examine" items.  But 90% of the codex is not books you find.  It's "here's who Loghain is" and "here's the info you need to complete this quest" (which should go in the journal).

Otherwise, it's tantamount to those pretentious novels who have a list of characters and a glossary.  While they can be amusing to read, if you actually NEED those things to follow the story, the author is doing a lousy job.  And if you don't need them, why have them?  They're just an invitation to laziness. 

that's entirely understandable though and possibly intended since we're learning about the qunari directly from a qunari while on the books we have the outside perspective of the qunari from brother genetivi's books. 

Modifié par nightcobra8928, 07 décembre 2010 - 03:02 .

[TRSniper4]

PsychoBlonde wrote...
Keep in mind that you're comparing Origins to a BETHESDA game.  Bethesda is not known for quality dialog or story (although they do seem to make slight improvements every time they release a game).

I'm thinking you've never played Morrowind.  It is definately my favorite RPG storyline of all time (though the dialogue system was rather... odd).  In any case, the story was already great, and the books gave us a sense of what was going on outside of Vvardenfell.  Note that I will concede that Oblivion was an utter crap fest in terms of both story and dialogue .   

But 90% of the codex is not books you find.  It's "here's who Loghain is" and "here's the info you need to complete this quest" (which should go in the journal).

What about the detailed information on creatures?  You can't find that anywhere else.  The game also gives you little to no information regarding some of the lesser nations outside Ferelden.  I also liked the information regarding the unqiue "items" we picked up, especially their history.   

While they can be amusing to read, if you actually NEED those things to follow the story, the author is doing a lousy job.  And if you don't need them, why have them?  They're just an invitation to laziness. 

I don't NEED to know "The History of the Chantry," what bronto's eat, the history behind The Bow of the Golden Sun, or the events that triggered the chantry to perform the first Right of Annulment, but those facts are nice to know.  They make the world feel bigger, give us unique insights into its history, and detaches the world from the main character, so it feels independent.  I doubt they could cram all that into dialogue.  Besides, I liked Brother Genetivi's writing .   

However, I do agree that the lore needs to be connected with the story as much as possible.  This is what Oblivion was lacking over Morrowind.  In Oblivion, Todd Howard did what he could to hide ES lore so that it wouldn't confuse newcomers to the series.  Ultimately, we got a game that was so hideously generic that one of the big modding projects couldn't even get enough support to continue its OB mod, while its Morrowind mod is still going strong today.

My personal fear is that removing the codex won't force them to give us more lore through dialogue, but instead, they will just give us the same amount of lore through dialogue as they did in DA:O and nothing else.  Although they did give us a plentiful helping of lore, I felt the codex suppliment was also necessary to give us a better sense of the world our character lived in.  One nice thing is that the codex will become less necessary in further installations of the game as we will already be well aware of what exists in the world outside of the immediate story. 

[RussianSpy27]

Psychobabe, you call having detailed codex laziness? All the diligent work that the writers put into the information to (to answer your question) beautify the details of the world is laziness? You read it and yet want it to be removed so that you....um...won't read it? Are the scrolls forcing you to read themselves with some vampiric hypnosis that you'd rather not have?



What's your other concern? Are you afraid that the game's quality will go down by having lore books everywhere? So far, I haven't seen a DA:O review that is negative toward the ***optional*** ability to read vast lore, and many top critics praise it (e.g. see IGN's first paragraph about DA:O)



If I'm playing a fantasy RPG populated with scrolls of text, and my character (i.e me) can pick up and read such scrolls as if I was really in the world doing that, it adds a huge doze of satisfaction to learn extra bits about the world, or to at least see something that makes it feel vibrant (such as silly notes of one NPC to another about gossip).



You may ask me why I'd rather not read an extra book instead of playing the game. Good question and the answer would be that it's BEAUTIFUL when a company like BioWare finds ways to combine a reading experience in an RPG. I'll take a fun codex entry over an item any day (and yes I enjoy getting cool item rewards for quests).



If you don't like reading, don't...*sigh*