The bad writing.
Yes, the dialogue was good, for the most part. Entertaining, even. The party banter was excellent. But dialogue constitutes only a small part of a game's script.
In most stories, you have a pyramid-style chart which waxes upwards towards the climax, and ebbs downwards towards a conclusion. They taught this back in my eighth-grade English class seven years ago. My old English teacher says that most good stories follow such a diagram. DAO had such a pyramid as part of its narrative structure, and so did many of BioWare's past games.
Yet, DA2's narrative decided to flatline itself for some reason. So, did BioWare's writers achieve something revolutionary by not following the model set forth by centuries of writing tradition? No. There was no excitement, no sense of rising action, nor any sense of falling action. Hence, the game's visible lack of progression dulled any sort of suspense within the player, and perhaps even discouraged a few players from finishing the game. It was boring. Hardly entertaining. Many events in the game were abrupt, occurring without the support of any suspense or anticipation.
Additionally, my eighth grade English class also discussed the concept of conflict quite a bit. I'm sure most of you know what it is, so I won't regurgitate the dictionary for you here. Nearly every story, regardless of its medium, has a conflict, and in some cases, many sub-conflicts. Conflicts keep an audience engaged and allow characters to express themselves fully.
BioWare did include a conflict in DA2. Yes, they did. But it resembled more of a series of sub-plots more than anything else - not strong enough to stand on their own, and yet, BioWare allowed them to do so anyway.
What was Hawke fighting for? At first, it looked as if he was fighting for riches. Okay, cliched, but perfectly fine.
The sub-plot BioWare introduces in the first act is fine, but they forgot to include one thing: a dramatic arc of events that would keep a player engaged and willing to keep playing. In short, by creating a series of "kill-everything" quests that lead to even more killing in the Deep Roads, BioWare killed the dramatic element in the first act then and there. There was no attempt to mix things up or even introduce any complications that may have a player scratching his or her head. The feeble attempt at drama near the end of the act does little to salvage it. Again, this relates back to my first point of DA's lack of narrative progression.
I am not going to write anymore, since I am tired. But, if you have scrolled down just to read my conclusion, then I can say only this: BioWare, through some pretty bad writing, managed to strip away the most important elements of a good story: drama. Without drama to keep the story moving and the player entertained, who would continue playing? Would you read a story about a man who eats his pancakes without encountering any resistance? There is a reason why centuries of writers have utilized these traditions, time and time again:
Because it's the only way of making sure that a reader doesn't fall asleep. And BioWare sure did.
Modifié par XX55XX, 03 juillet 2011 - 01:53 .
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or even the combination of the both you can't really make assumptions of a certain team. It's like saying a man is guilty of murder without any real evidence.
