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[Chris Priestly]

I am posting the below message on behalf of Mark Darrah, Executive Producer of Dragon Age II

Hey everyone,

With last week marking the one year anniversary of the release of Dragon Age II, I wanted to take the time to share some news and some great milestones we’ve had lately with Dragon Age.  And though I can’t say too much, I also want to briefly address what is coming in the future.

First, I was delighted to hear that the Dragon Age brand has passed one million “Likes” on Facebook!  This was an incredible reminder for me, and our entire team, that there are a lot of  you out there who are invested in the franchise and who want to explore the world more. From all of us, I want to send a massive thank you!

Next, the latest and greatest patch for DAII is out, addressing a number of the issues you have helped us track on our tech support forums. Thank you again to those of you who took the time to submit feedback in order to help us make the game better. 

And finally, while we will still be keeping an eye out for any issues that might crop up in DAII and supporting the community should any emergencies should arise, we’re moving the entire team’s focus to the next phase of Dragon Age’s future.

You’ve most certainly heard the rumors floating around, and unfortunately I can’t really comment on them.  However, what I can say is that we’ve been thinking a lot about Dragon Age – what it means, and where it could go.  This past year, we’ve spent a lot of time both going back to the “BioWare vault” of games and re-examining them, and looking at some new possibilities that today’s industry allows.

With that, the next thing for the Dragon Age team members and I to do is hear from you, and not just on the forums, or Facebook, or Twitter.  We’ll be attending a number of conventions and gatherings, including PAX East in April.  The most valuable thing we can get out of those meetings is to hear from you on those same topics – what does Dragon Age mean to you, and where would you like to see it go?  We’re excited to hear what you have to say!
On behalf of the entire team, we are incredibly eager to reach the moment when we can tell you more and show you where we are taking Dragon Age.  But for now, thank you for your continued support, and we will be back here with more as soon as we can.

Thanks,
Mark

Modifié par Chris Priestly, 19 mars 2012 - 02:58 .

[Mark Darrah]

Sorry to hear that CRISIS1717, hopefully you will hear something in the future to change your mind.

[Mark Darrah]

We will try to bring some closure to Hawke's story but likely not in a playable form. Originally we had planned to do an expansion pack but had to stop to focus on what we are working on now.

[Mark Darrah]

Shevy_001 wrote...

Dragon Age is by far my favourite game universe, because it has a great depth and nearly everything revealed til now makes sense and felt well implemented. That said I want the next installment to be more like Origins: Show, tell and let me explore this fantastic world, let me dive into the lore and give me as much customization as I can get.
I want it to be a really great rpg with mysterious dungeons, weapons, equipsets, characters and so on.

I definitly don't want the actiony focus of DA II, the over top animations and that "I try to look cool" - feeling. Friendship/rivalry system, cross class combos and the Qunari redesign are the only things I prefer over the Origins' systems.

So, my wish would be an Origins with some refinements in combat animations/fluidity ( but in a more realistic style) and the 3 points listed above.

Rather than promise anything here, I'll just ask you to wait and see what we have to show in the future. I think we'll address at least some of your asks.

[Mark Darrah]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

Mark Darrah wrote...

We will try to bring some closure to Hawke's story but likely not in a playable form. Originally we had planned to do an expansion pack but had to stop to focus on what we are working on now.

I doubt you can bring any type of decent resolution to Hawke in anything that's not a playable form, simply because the people that enjoyed Hawke would say "My Hawke wouldn't have done that" and the like.

You've only got a few options IMO: Keep working on an expansion or kill Hawke. Otherwise, it seems like peoples' Hawkes will be tampered with.

The latter option isn't one that people would like either methinks, and my faith in the former being of any decent quality is fairly low.

There is truth to this. We will try to bring resolution to the EVENTS that Hawke started. The personal aspects? That's a lot harder

[Mark Darrah]

Ok, I think I wasn't clear enough.
We will try to bring closure to the EVENTS that Hawke was involved in initiating.
The personal parts of Hawke's story are pretty much done.

[Alain Baxter]

Muezick wrote...

Where can I Submit feedback for DA:O and DAII?

Hey Muezick,

One of the better places to post feedback would be here in the forums. The DA team does spend a lot of time reviewing posts made from everyone (good & bad) and one section I spent a lot of time was the 'Constuctive Crtitsm' thread that was created a year ago. The hook that made this thread important for review was that posters would tell us what they liked/disliked but then explained why. This is key. This information was often discussed within the DA team and helped us review what features/content we would work on for the then active expansion pack.

For now, keep the comments coming! We'll be reading them...

[John Epler]

Itsgoodtobe wrote...

Muezick wrote...

Where can I Submit feedback for DA:O and DAII?

Yes! please where is the home made suggestion box were we can contribute on the back of dinner napkins


Otherwise I'll just repeat my usual mantras of more story, dialog and in depth relationship building with NPCs - But then again i probably wont be satisfied until we reach Baldurs Gate levels of Story/dialogue/relationship heavyness


To sum it up I am glad to hear you are looking at the future - happy brainstorming!

Keep posting! That's the best way to get your feedback to us. We tend to read the forums a fair bit, and, especially now that they've quieted down, we have the opportunity to see what our fans are thinking by what they're posting.

It's really the best way to get your feedback across.

[Mark Darrah]

randomcheeses wrote...

Mark Darrah wrote...

We will try to bring some closure to Hawke's story but likely not in a playable form. Originally we had planned to do an expansion pack but had to stop to focus on what we are working on now.

Letting us know that there was going to be an expansion and that it was cancelled? That's kinda cruel. Now I will forever wonder what it would've been like. Dammit. Also, if you bring closure to Hawke's story in any other format, you're going to have to do it without settling on a pronoun, unless you plan on annoying a lot of DA2 players. That seems like it might be incredibly difficult.

I don't want to hide the expansion pack. We even had shirts that people saw.

[Alain Baxter]

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

How come you guys had to stop working on the expansion anyway? Budget? Writer's block? Evil monkey-gnomes broke into the office and confiscated/destroyed all of your work?

How did you know about the monkeys!?!?

Epler!

[Mark Darrah]

Boudicia wrote...

Unlike many, I loved a lot about Dragon Age II. But Origins was for me, the superior game.

Dragon Age II Likes
• Cross class combos
• Rouge class changes (so much fun to play)
• The companions; you guys did once again a great job fleshing out them and their motivations, in fact, I liked the idea of their “loyalty” quests
• Story – for the most part, I liked Hawke’s story, her relationship with her mother, sister, uncle, etc was deep and moving
• Humor and party relationships more fun
• Fenris
• My avatar was voiced; that did seem to personalize Hawke a bit.

Dragon Age II Dislikes
• Repeat dungeons
• The passage of time felt forced; it seemed as if the writers said we need to have Hawke’s story fit over a decade since a master plan for Thedas dictates it be so
• I never felt as if Hawke was my character in the sense I felt my human noble, city elf etc were in Origins. I think it’s because I felt forced into some choices, especially at the end. So my engagement in the story was lessened
• Hated what you did to the elves; they look horrible (sorry Mr. Gaider, but in my opinion they did)
• Hated the ending
• Hated being stuck with one race and one background
• Hated the treasure and equipment; upgrades were few and far between;
• Party members were stuck with whatever armour developers decided they needed
• No arch nemesis; no real common enemy (unless you count the qunari and that was Act II)

I feel like with Dragon Age II you guys tried to broaden your audience and reach out to the masses that don’t enjoy RPG elements and so you took away the RPG elements. But I think by doing so, you ended up alienating your core audience. Don’t get me wrong, DAII for me was not a bad game. And it holds its own against other developers’ games extremely well. But, for Bioware, I think it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

To be honest, I worry about two things. I worry that you guys, either from pressure from EA for whatever reason, have or will sacrifice what you were in order to reach the masses. And, I worry that somehow your involvement with telling a story, and making it compelling, and far reaching with deep themes and conflicts, will lead you to make it too cinematic. And that takes away from the player’s level of identification with their avatar. Sure, often cinematics can convey emotion, story etc. more quickly than a wall of text can. And unfortunately there is a generation that wants everything given to them in soundbites, quick tweet like blurbs etc. But for some reason, it ends up being too artificial for an rpg game.

I am sad Hawke’s story won’t have closure. And I am very sad there will not be an expansion; but here’s hoping the next game will combine what was great in DAII and Origins and become the best of the series. Just please, no more mage / templar controversy as main conflict; give me an arch nemesis.

Good Luck!

To make sure I get your concerns:
1. More customization (Let's me change follower armor. More equipment upgrades)
2. More traditional fantasy story (Epic enemy, clear villain)
3. More areas and areas variety
4. More control over my story.

Does that capture it?

[Mark Darrah]

CoS Sarah Jinstar wrote...

Mark Darrah wrote...

Sorry to hear that CRISIS1717, hopefully you will hear something in the future to change your mind.

I know what would change my mind, a game that isn't full of recycled areas, player choices that actually MATTER. And one that isn't rushed out the door in 18 months dumbed down for the masses.

Seeing as though none of these are likely to happen I think I'll pass until proven otherwise.

Let me ask a hypothetical:
IF we felt that we HAD addressed all of your concerns, what would it take to convince you?

What information (and in what format) would we have to get you to actually change your mind?

[Mark Darrah]

randomcheeses wrote...

The Ethereal Writer Redux wrote...

How come you guys had to stop working on the expansion anyway? Budget? Writer's block? Evil monkey-gnomes broke into the office and confiscated/destroyed all of your work?

Good question. Saying it was because of 'other DA opportunities' is . . . maddeningly vague and a little suspicious sounding.

Team sizes are relatively fixed. For us to continue working on the Expansion, we had to have people not working on... something else.

Sorry, I realize that likely didn't help.

[Rob Bartel]

I wanted to chime in and offer my personal thanks to all of you, particularly to those who contributed on the tech support forum and kept us informed of any issues you encountered on DA2. Your clear bug reports on the forums, telemetry data, patience, follow-ups via private messaging, beta testing, politeness, savegame submissions, and continued enthusiasm for the game was extremely helpful throughout the past year. Thanks to your support, we were able to provide three major patches over the past year and leave DA2 in a fairly clean and solid state for this retirement (never perfect, of course).

We look forward to continuing to serve and support you in the years to come.

[Mark Darrah]

William91 wrote...

If we get a DA3, there is only one thing I would ask for. An ACTUAL ending. We want to know what the hell happens to our character and the other npcs that affect his/her life! I still dont know what happened to: The Hero of Neverwinter, Revan, The Warden, Shepard and now, Hawke. And I dont want to read a novel, a comic, or wear a t-shirt to know if they are alive, dead or made into zombies by cybernetic monkeys, I want to PLAY it, I want the game to tell me that.

Is the Dragon Age: Origins epilogue the sort of thing you were thinking?

[Mark Darrah]

eveynameiwantisfekintaken wrote...

[Combat- i actually like DA2 combat for the most part. Loose the drop in waves of mobs but definatley keep the current pace we saw with DA2. I find mages a lot more enjoyable in DA2 with the new system. DAO mages standing rooted to the spot slowly firing spells of i wouldnt like to see come back

Were you happy with the combat in Legacy? We tried to get the encounters more rational there.

[Mark Darrah]

Sylvius the Mad wrote...

Finally, the growing prominence of top-down story-telling in BioWare's games is very troubling to me, and I would like to see this progress either arrested, or at least stop limiting the open roleplaying that BioWare's games have traditionally allowed.  BioWare developers have claimed that they always intended to make games that tell stories first and foremost, and that the more black-slate PCs we saw in past games were simply a by-product of technical limitations.  But that means that BioWare's earlier games, very nearly perfect CRPG specimens, were so expertly crafted by mistake.  That doesn't seem plausible.

To be sure I understand:
Are you asking for the player's actions to tell more of the story as opposed to always being fed motivation etc...?

[Mark Darrah]

helmsplit wrote...

Mark Darrah wrote...

We will try to bring some closure to Hawke's story but likely not in a playable form. Originally we had planned to do an expansion pack but had to stop to focus on what we are working on now.

You can't just... not finish a story. The Warden had their closure, and we had the possibility to revisit them with all the DLC. But Hawke? The ending was kind of a cliffhanger, left me under the impression that he was still needed for what was to come, and you're saying there's a good chance it might stay that way? Maybe that's why a lot of people didn't like DA2, it just feels like a lot was pretty much rushed/butchered and you are walking the same path again. I loved the game, grew fond of the characters, and it seriously upsets me that it's just going to be left at that. What was the point?

The Expansion Pack was never intended to be part of the original DA2 story. It wasn't cut or "reserved". It was conceived of AFTER DA2 had been out for a while.
The expansion pack might have provided better closure on certain personal aspects of Hawke's story, but Hawke's actions in DA2 have changed the world. This will have an impact.

[Mark Darrah]

SnappyMyappns wrote...

- Some actual sense of reality on your choice on specializations. So you decide to be a Blood Mage, everyone is afraid of them but they just "pretend" you´re not one?

I really like this suggestion too.

Me too! Oh wait...

[David Gaider]

Taellosse wrote...

So in the hope that this will be addressed, what, if anything, will be done going forward about the import problems between the existing games?

Yes, it's a big issue... because "garbage in, garbage out", right? It doesn't help if we write things that take advantage of imported data if that data isn't properly there to be imported. We've got some ideas on the table, but I don't think we can comment on any of it right now. Know that this is a big issue, however, especially insofar as the writers are concerned.

Modifié par David Gaider, 19 mars 2012 - 06:54 .

[Mark Darrah]

Die_Katz wrote...

Hey. First and foremost: I actually LOVE your Dragon Age franchise.. the world, the characters, the story, the meta-plot... and therefore I have one serious wish in regard to where DA is going.
In DA:O my beloved prince of orzammar decided to kill one of Loghain's elfish wannabe assassins.. but in DA II he was back and spoke to me again... Well, to be understood correctly: I like Zevran. But I felt repelled by the game when I saw, that my decisions from DA:O would not take over correclty. This kind of killed the fun I had before with DA II. There were other issues with old decisions in my first playthrough.

What I want to say: You talked about some "new possibilities that today’s industry allows". Particularly one of these is very important to me. Takeing over decisions a player made from one game to another is clearly one of the greatest and most awesome features of the Dragon Age (and Mass Effect) universe. I know this was not a problem of storytelling or gamesetting. It was a problem of technology. But please, make it feel right next time, because I would love to feel I'm enjoying my personal DA-story.

Sorry about that.
Zevran's resurrection in DA2 was a bug. The choices in DA:O saves are sometimes a bit messy in their recording. We are looking at ways to clean this up.
I know that isn't a great answer but it has the benefit of being true.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Phew. Lots of reading, parsing through this whole thread, guys, but absolutely worth it. Thank you all for the thoughtful and, in many case, detailed feedback.

I would love to address many points here point by point, but as Mark said we have a very specific strategy in mind for the next DA game: We want to show you things rather than tell you.

One of my favorite moments in DAII was asking you guys to take a look at the stealth implementation in Mark of the Assassin and ask for your feedback on it, both as presented and as you played it. You delivered, and it was very useful info both positive and critical feedback. It also reminded us that the option of non-combat solutions to problems is not only cool, but made even better by being an option. And that's just tip of the iceberg for things we're considering and looking at for the future.

And yes, for those who asked: the "other thing that we are pursuing" is absolutely a game. A Dragon Age game.

Thanks again to all of you who've taken time to post here. We'll keep reading.

[Mike Laidlaw]

Deadmuskrat wrote...

I'm bummed to hear that you guys tossed out the DA2 expansion idea. Is there any chance that at some point, perhaps PAX, you'll be willing to show us what you had planned for the expansion? Some of enjoy seeing things such as that.

How about this: not directly, but sorta.

The expansion was already pursuing certain mechanical changes to our RPG systems, which will absolutely be carried forward to The Next Thing ™, so you'll see how those have evolved.

[Mark Darrah]

Taellosse wrote...

So in the hope that this will be addressed, what, if anything, will be done going forward about the import problems between the existing games? As I understand it, anybody that played Dragon Age: Origins: Awakening at any point, and imported that save into DA2, suffered a number of problems due to the way Awakening's import/export was handled. Some of these problems were addressed in patches to DA2, but not all of them. Is anything ever going to be done to fully resolve this? And for those of us interested in having a "canon" save going forward, what do you suggest we do? Is the best course to skip Awakening, despite elements of it having relevance in DA2 (and presumably in any future installments in the franchise), so we must replay part or all of DA:Os DLCs and DA2 without it involved? I know we've been told that Awakening is not going to be fixed, but won't this continue to be a problem for a decidedly non-trivial number of people playing this franchise?

We are definately looking into getting a clean starting point of choices for DA3.

[Alain Baxter]

Wow! Tons of great stuff in here and don't be discouraged if we are slow to respond to your questions etc. Just a few points:

hunterxx1xx wrote...

If DA3 comes out with a day 1 dlc I will not be buying it.

Sorry to hear about this. To be clear, is this specific to not wanting to purchase the Day 1 DLC or the product offering it?

TheBigMeanie wrote...

While I did enjoy DA2 I really wish
the coming dragon age game embraces an open world, rather than staying
in a town and occasionally going outside on mini expeditions.

Noted. This one sentence does some up a lot (but not all!) feedback we've received from the past year. As Mike Laidlaw wrote earlier, the expansion pack was looking into many areas of improvement based off of feedback, and we continue to do so.