443 réponses à ce sujet

[Nerivant]

Dave of Canada wrote...

Nerivant wrote...

1xs3thx1 wrote...
 It's good to see even though you have these contraints you still consider things like a tale focused solely on Elves, or perhaps even Dwarves.

I think a Dwarf-centered tale that digs deeply (pardon the pun) into the political systems would be well recieved.

Doubt it. People loved the Aeducan plot but they never continued it any further than that, with Dwarves being like... what? 3% of the entire playerbase?

More like 1.5%. You forgot to multiply by 1/2.

[Piecake]

1xs3thx1 wrote...

You mean as a sole protaganist? Sure, I suppose, if we were telling a very elf-centric tale. That could even be really cool. Someone would be apt to point out that only 15% of people who played DAO ever played an elf, but I'm sure they had fun and the added emphasis we could place on the elves aspect might be really appealing. You can't do everything by the numbers.

David, this is exactly why I have faith in BioWare. Sure, you have major limits, such as time contraints, and budget, but you're not always just looking to make a profit. I think you have the right balance, you make large profits, but the games don't suffer much for it. In fact, they gain more than they lose from it in the long run, Dragon Age II might not even be possible had you not gained the profit you did from Dragon Age:Origins. It's good to see even though you have these contraints you still consider things like a tale focused solely on Elves, or perhaps even Dwarves.

Do we know if they made a large profit off of DAO?  With that 5 year development cycle, i can imagine the development costs were pretty hefty.  This is, of course, pure speculation, but I imagine that DA2's time constraints are related to this.  I think it was always apart of their business model to spend the time to build the engine, establish the lore/history, and other such technical gamey things on the first game, but release the sequels at faster than normal clip in order to make up for that 5 year development cost.

Id be interested in playing an elf character in a future dragon age game.  Of course,  who's to say that there only needs to be one PC?  They could always do something like Suikoden 3 where you played 3 seperate characters (im sure other games have done this, i just cant think of any right now).  That way you can get your in-depth elf and dwarf story while still possibly having that human character.  Personally, I liked the way that worked in the game since I found 3 different perspectives on the same events really interesting.  Although it could have been better down because it did feel like you were doing the same thing 3 times over sometimes.  I do realize that my last two sentences contradict eachother, haha.

Modifié par Piecake, 17 novembre 2010 - 06:29 .

[addiction21]

David Gaider wrote...

You mean as a sole protaganist? Sure, I suppose, if we were telling a very elf-centric tale. That could even be really cool. Someone would be apt to point out that only 15% of people who played DAO ever played an elf, but I'm sure they had fun and the added emphasis we could place on the elves aspect might be really appealing. You can't do everything by the numbers.

Dont worry we know the plan for DA3 is going to be a female Qunari. Thats why your keeping them secret.

[Piecake]

addiction21 wrote...

David Gaider wrote...

You mean as a sole protaganist? Sure, I suppose, if we were telling a very elf-centric tale. That could even be really cool. Someone would be apt to point out that only 15% of people who played DAO ever played an elf, but I'm sure they had fun and the added emphasis we could place on the elves aspect might be really appealing. You can't do everything by the numbers.

Dont worry we know the plan for DA3 is going to be a female Qunari. Thats why your keeping them secret.

Good thing they look pretty hot

[Atakuma]

addiction21 wrote...

David Gaider wrote...

You mean as a sole protaganist? Sure, I suppose, if we were telling a very elf-centric tale. That could even be really cool. Someone would be apt to point out that only 15% of people who played DAO ever played an elf, but I'm sure they had fun and the added emphasis we could place on the elves aspect might be really appealing. You can't do everything by the numbers.

Dont worry we know the plan for DA3 is going to be a female Qunari. Thats why your keeping them secret.

Qunari PC would be the main ingredient in awsome sauce

[Aermas]

A flash game about a nug's adventures would be awesome.

[AlanC9]

Piecake wrote...
Do we know if they made a large profit off of DAO?  With that 5 year development cycle, i can imagine the development costs were pretty hefty.  

Well, it's hard to imagine they didn't make a fair chunk of change with the DLCs.

[Shadow Wing]

David Gaider wrote...

Not necessarily. It depends on the time and resources we have available for the project in question and where we want to spend them. The decision for DA2 was both a resource-based and creative decision, but we're not saying "this is the DA standard from this point on"-- not for anything. It works for this project.

You mean as a sole protaganist? Sure, I suppose, if we were telling a very elf-centric tale. That could even be really cool. Someone would be apt to point out that only 15% of people who played DAO ever played an elf, but I'm sure they had fun and the added emphasis we could place on the elves aspect might be really appealing. You can't do everything by the numbers.

I mean as the main character...uh the main playable character not the party members..anyway you've answered the question, thanks by the way, its good to know that Bioware chooses what is good and interesting to play at the moment rather than simply following some standard, its probably why you guys are supremely good at character development and story..by the way, how on earth were you able to get the 15% statistic? I mean considering the number of people playing the game I find it amazing that you were able to get a specific number for it. Was their a study or something? Too bad about the low number though, I'm particularly interested in the Dalish.

Anyway, talking about playing a race, how many guys feel more interested in playing an Elf because their Asian? I dunno if its just me but the Elves seems more familiar to me because culturally/physically they seem to have some similarities to Asian cultures, the emphasis of speed and grace rather than force, the smaller body frame, the curve swords and light armor, the stubborness of following tradition (for the dalish anyway), don't get me wrong I understand that they based the humans in the game on a specific historical time line and location thats why they have more western culture which I'm fine with since I am quite interested in western medieval history anyway.
But yeah, I know its all very vague but I seem to find the Elves more interesting since they are different and yet they seem to have more similarities to Asians..Dunno if its just me.

[abat223]

Stick668 wrote...

Drasanil wrote (emphasis mine)...

Like I said, with a judicious use of punctuation and a few extra lines here and there, having an elf or dwarf (Hawke) wouldhardly be a challenge and if done right, that mimimum of extra effort would make the experience feel different.

 
I wouldn't normally do this, but...



(And on this day, I become a proper citizen of the internet.)

Ughhh.. turn based gameplay ..

if anyone would like turnbased gameplay, there's a great 2 player turn based RPG where you can either be the infamous "King Black" or the Terrifying "King Red". The gameplay takes place on a checkered battlefield and it's called checkers.

[ZaroktheImmortal]

abat223 wrote...

Stick668 wrote...

Drasanil wrote (emphasis mine)...

Like I said, with a judicious use of punctuation and a few extra lines here and there, having an elf or dwarf (Hawke) wouldhardly be a challenge and if done right, that mimimum of extra effort would make the experience feel different.

 
I wouldn't normally do this, but...



(And on this day, I become a proper citizen of the internet.)

Ughhh.. turn based gameplay ..

if anyone would like turnbased gameplay, there's a great 2 player turn based RPG where you can either be the infamous "King Black" or the Terrifying "King Red". The gameplay takes place on a checkered battlefield and it's called checkers.

Murder console users, murder console users...Just kidding. But that is funny.

[Davasar]

In Exile wrote...

Talon_Wu wrote...

That you become the game's hero is hardly a spoiler. It's not very exciting to play "Hawke, Third Beggar on the Left" for 40 hours.

Ah, you missed the original nerd rage. No, the proper insult is "Hawke the Peasant Coward," because you see, Hawke fled from Lothering due to cowardice. The gameplay mechanic is the Beg For Your Life ™ system, where every time you press a button, an awesome grovelling action happens.

Hey. it will be Hawkes most powerful ability.  At least until you get him to the Academy of Surrender where he can major in Capitulation.

Cowards need good, themed abilities too! 

[aries1001]

No, only 15% of the people who ticked the box in the options menu, allowin Bioware to access your data, played as an elf. Or let me put it another way, I didn't even know such a option existed before I learned in on these very social forums. I promptly ticked the box, so that it could be recorded that I'm playing as a Dalish Elf. And my guess is that many people who did play elves and maybe dwarves didn't know about this feature. But the people who played as a (male) Human Noble sure did.

DA: Origins were in development from 2002/2004-2009, DA2 have myabe been development from around 2007/2008, and in full developemt from probably late 2008/early 2009 would be my guess.
Given that DA. Orgins has had a nearly 5-7 years development cycle and the development cycle for DA2 has been about half of this (2-2½ year maybe?), logically it follows that the Bioware devs. can't make everything, they and maybe the fans want and put it into the game.

Oh, there will be races in DA2 - just not playable races...  

Modifié par aries1001, 17 novembre 2010 - 07:56 .

[Davasar]

Aermas wrote...

Drasanil, you are proposing to eliminate two important companions from the game, & then to fill their place to add two companions per race. Then you are proposing to use the same voice actors for everyone yet the separate races do not talk alike. Not to mention throw a huge wrench in the gears for the story. But every NPC will have to change the way they talk to you if you are a dwarf or a elf or a human. In short you will be adding on roughly 65% more content.

No they dont.

There's a simple solution which shows laziness.

Adoption.

That's right.  Who's to say you can't have a human familty adopt a dwarf or elf orphaned when very young by some bad guys.  It would make an interesting story to have the PC raised by kindly humans and also a neat personal quest to find out who your parents were.

Now you dont have to change family.  It is the same, just a few dialogue lines changed (*cough* lazy).  Now you can have the same voice actor for all three races because the PC was raised among humans and therefore talks like them (*cough* lazy).

But you know...that would be a terrible idea right?

Because variety sucks and takes too much effort.

I'll happily eat my words when it's admitted that EA stuck their hands
in DA and messed it up like they have so many franshises/studios before, or that people got too greedy and wanted to hurry up and cash in on the DA brand and put out a subpar effort.

Modifié par Davasar, 17 novembre 2010 - 08:04 .

[David Gaider]

Davasar wrote...
But you know...that would be a terrible idea right?

I think so, yes, but that's probably because I attach less value to the prospect of merely having an alternate physical appearance-- the player being elven or dwarven even though there is absolutely nothing else that is elven or dwarven about them. That sounds like an awesome reason to do all that extra work on the armor models, sure.

Of course, it sounds like you apply a lot of importance to any kind of variety in the player's appearance. That's great. The idea that the only reason we might decide to focus our efforts elsewhere is because we're either lazy or because someone came in and forced us to shows the amount of your personal bias. Not much else.

[JrayM16]

David Gaider wrote...

Davasar wrote...
But you know...that would be a terrible idea right?

I think so, yes, but that's probably because I attach less value to the prospect of merely having an alternate physical appearance-- the player being elven or dwarven even though there is absolutely nothing else that is elven or dwarven about them. That sounds like an awesome reason to do all that extra work on the armor models, sure.

Of course, it sounds like you apply a lot of importance to any kind of variety in the player's appearance. That's great. The idea that the only reason we might decide to focus our efforts elsewhere is because we're either lazy or because someone came in and forced us to shows the amount of your personal bias. Not much else.

Oh snap! 

But I agree.

[Relshar]

Ashaman X wrote...

In Origins, you were being recruited as a Warden, and the Wardens take candidates from almost all races and both genders. That's why we had the Origin stories I dare to presume. After the Origin, most of the game was the same for every race/class, with only small differences here and there.

Think back to Lothering for a moment. I don't recall seeing any Dwarves there, nor do I recall seeing Elves. The town was full of humans only. Hawke and family fled from there, so it's obvious why he/she is human. DA2 isn't about the Wardens, so it made sense in a way to focus on one race. If there are more DA games in the future, then I'm sure the other races will pop up again as options.

There was a family of elves near the bridge.

And as for being restricted to one race it sucks monkey balls. I am still playing DA:O and each time i play i find new things from each race. With just one race your total replay value is now cut down to maybe 2 or 3 replays. After that no point in doing anymore as you seen all the options.

[Nerivant]

Relshar wrote...
And as for being restricted to one race it sucks monkey balls. I am still playing DA:O and each time i play i find new things from each race. With just one race your total replay value is now cut down to maybe 2 or 3 replays. After that no point in doing anymore as you seen all the options.

So, how is DA2? Since you've apparently played it, and seen all the options.

[FedericoV]

As I've said many times before, I don't care a lot about Dwarves or Elves since I allways play humans. Moreover, I understand the reason's of Bioware choice from a creative/resource point of view.

But it could be interesting to play an expansion with Awakening's size to DA2 that go deep in the politics and lores of such races. Maybe, a game with two parallel tales in ASoIaF style (one with an elven protagonist and the other with a dwarven one, two tales that interact with each other in some way to form a single story). It would even be a great way to reconcile the community on that issue.

Modifié par FedericoV, 17 novembre 2010 - 09:11 .

[Wulfram]

I hope the game isn't too reliant on Hawke's family. It's pretty hit or miss whether I manage to feel any connection with family members or childhood friends, and if they don't then things which hang on them tend to struggle.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

David Gaider wrote...

Of course, it sounds like you apply a lot of importance to any kind of variety in the player's appearance.

I think most people who are interested in ROLE PLAYING games attatch a lot of importance on being able to define their character.  I place zero importance on a voiced character.  Only being able to be a human cuts down on replayability and feels like a step backwards from Dragon Age:Origins.

Even if all that were different in the races was appearance the game would still feel different playing as a dwarf or elf. At least to a role player.

[Maria Caliban]

David Gaider wrote...

Not necessarily. It depends on the time and resources we have available for the project in question and where we want to spend them. The decision for DA2 was both a resource-based and creative decision, but we're not saying "this is the DA standard from this point on"-- not for anything. It works for this project.

I believe Mary also mentioned that Hawke is only human because for some reason the story doesn't 'work' with a non-human.

Can I ask why that is?

[StingingVelvet]

As some people said in my thread about New Vegas' added complexity limiting the PC to one race really doesn't matter as far as deep gameplay and choice and consequence go. I suppose it limits roleplaying to some extent, but then Bioware games have always been more focused on story and characters than on roleplaying in the strictest sense (creating your own creation and roleplaying it).



In any event I see both sides and would be fine either way. I enjoyed Origins... origins... and all, but at the same time a more defined character I then get to play any way I like is just as good. My main concentration would be on making sure there is more than just simple bipolar choices to make like in Mass Effect... more nuanced decisions, decisions which effect the game world and my character more, would be what I would want from Bioware.

[Ziggeh]

Grumpy Old Wizard wrote...

Even if all that were different in the races was appearance the game would still feel different playing as a dwarf or elf. At least to a role player.

And presumably they want to provide a stronger story than that. You're effectively asking for them to not do justice to the plot.

[Xewaka]

abat223 wrote...

Ughhh.. turn based gameplay ..

The best game in history of videogaming is turn-based strategy.
It's called Civilization.
Do yourself a favor and play it.

[Pseudo the Mustachioed]

Doesn't seem like there's any limiting or restricting or going on to me. The point of Origins was, well, origins. Had the game been called Dragon Age then we could expect multiple origins stories as being inherent to the series, but it wasn't.