Maclimes wrote...
I think the implications of Allan's question flew right over everyone's head.
He was not asking, "Why do you want to play your background in the beginning, as opposed to not playing it at all?"
He was asking, "Why do you want to play your background in the beginning, as opposed to playing it in the beginning, middle, and end?"
I think he was hinting at the fact that backgrounds will have relevant impact and background-specific content (such as quests, stories, NPCs, or locations) throughout the entire game, not just during the prologue. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Allan. But if that's true ... it sounds way better than DA:O's "Prologue It and Forget It" mentality.
I should have been more clear. I understood that Allan was trying to get us excited about the possibilities throughout the course of the narrative, and I agree with you that does sound nice (and potentially better than Origins). It could, however, imply something much like Mass Effect, with a few odd quests are characters here and there but not much texture.
I didn't have a problem with the way Mass Effect did it per se, but I could only become so invested in Shepard, because he was a soldier before I had anything to do with him, and I have trouble identifying with soldiers. If, however, I could have played his past as a street tough on earth... Well, that would have been a very different game, and I don't particularly wish Mass Effect went in that direction. What they did worked for what they were trying to do.
Dragon Age is different for me, though. And while I'm thrilled they want to make our backgrounds important throughout the game, it's especially important for me that the game convincingly takes me from my background to the role I play in the story. I want to be able to inhabit my background a bit. (or as I said before "I expect the impact of game events to change and develop my character's priorities, so I would love the chance to express my preexisting identity through words and deeds before the events of the game change the moral calculus my character is living in").
But absolutely, better still if we have opportunities to really think through how our backgrounds have shaped us throughout the narrative. My greatest regret about DAO was that after the blight was ended, I had no chance to
attempt to reverse the taint. Many of the origins positioned characters to feel very ambivalently about the Wardens. Yes, Duncan saved you from certain death, but becoming a Warden is pretty harsh, permanent stuff and not exaclty a fair shake in most cases (as In Exile has pointed out many times). I felt strongly that my character would believe he'd given enough already. It's why he was so unconcerned about the potential consequences of the Dark Ritual, and why he kept Avernus around. A truly great expansion, I think, would have engaged with that question and allowed players to accept the taint, attempt to reverse it, and perhaps eventually decide that the costs were too high (or not).
I'm rambling now, but my point is that many backgrounds/origins could have benefited from the ability to roleplay their frustration with the situation they found themselves -- the specificis of which to me are influenced by background, particularly but not only with regard to racial, ethnic, and social hierarchies -- throughout the narrative arc of the game. And I would love to see that . But if I have to choose, I really, really want to inhabit that earlier role before I become whatever it is I need to become (warden, champion, seeker, inquisitor, rebel, chevalier, outlaw, revolutionary, or whatever) in order to follow the game's story.
Retour en haut
