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[David Gaider]

Apocalizz wrote...
Indeed! He knows how to hit all the secret girl buttons!

This statement is both amusing and ironic at the same time.

[David Gaider]

Tassiaw wrote...
To Mr. Gaider: So, I google-stalked you and couldn't find the answer to my question. What kind of post-secondary education did you go for, if any? Also, did you always want to be a writer?

I never got the chance, actually. I was accepted at Carleton University's journalism program, and that was my original plan, but I couldn't get a student loan... and so I ended up working in the hotel industry. One of those "temporary" things to save up money which turned sort of permanent as I eventually became general manager of the hotel. If you can believe it, my goal at the time was to become a comic book artist-- though I always enjoyed writing and had even created some tabletop games of my own.

That's how I came to Bioware's attention, in fact. A friend of mine that was in one of my games worked with them, and when they were looking for more writers after BG1 he handed them the rulebook for one of the games I'd created (unbeknownst to me) and suggested they talk to me. So they did. I was curious, if dubious, and emailed some writing I'd done to James Ohlen... and he asked me to come in for an interview. I came, found the entire operation a bit "fly by night" and laughed at the idea that I would abandon my hotel management career for an admittedly-interesting position that was half the money and had no guarantee of security. I politely declined their offer of a writing job.

The day after, I went into my hotel on Monday and found my regional manager there. He informed me that the company which oversaw my hotel and several others had been bought out. As GM, I was given severance and walked out the door. This is not unusual for the hotel industry. So as I'm walking out the door with my box of stuff, I thought "gee, maybe I will try out that job". I emailed James Ohlen and asked if his offer was still good and it was. I was brought in to help with the writing work on the beginning of BG2 and it all clicked.

So... I wouldn't recommend that anyone try to follow my path into the industry. I sort of lucked out and fell backwards into it.

That said, there are definitely people working in the writing department who have degrees. Sheryl Chee has a degree in Philosophy, I believe, and if I'm not mistaken Rob Bartel has an English degree. There's more, but my thought is that having post-secondary education is great at filling out your general knowledge, if not exactly vital in getting a job. That simply requires effort and perseverence. The biggest thing I notice with many people who want to become game writers is that they figure it should come without effort. That they'll sit down on a conversation editor and be able to write the same as if they sat down to write a short story. It's a skill-set, and one that requires practice -- my practice came after I got hired, yes, but it doesn't happen like that any more. You need to keep trying.

That, of course, is directed at the fellow who asked about getting a job -- but I get asked that all the time so I thought I'd slip it in. 

And how are you enjoying your winter wonderland? We haven't seen one snowflake in Nanaimo yet, just some rain and above 0 temperatures.

Don't make me cut you.

[David Gaider]

MoSa09 wrote...
I have just finished the books and i am a bit curious, is there a possibility that we might get more books on DAO sometime in the future:innocent:? I am generally not such a big fan of game novels, but both are really good and i enjoyed them very much.

I don't know. That's really up to the publisher more than me. There are some other writers at Bioware who are probably more talented than I am... maybe one of them would be willing to step up to the plate? It really depends.

[David Gaider]

Sagard Le Barbare wrote...
@Mr Gaider : Just curious Mr Gaider : did you play The Witcher RPG and or/read Sapkowski's books ?

The first time I'd heard of the Witcher was when the folks at CD Projekt sent us an early build to get some feedback. This was well into DA's development, and I thought some of the similarities in tone were interesting. As it is, I liked what little I played, but I've never had the chance to go through the whole thing -- nor have I read the books. Someone gave me the Enhanced Edition of the Witcher for Christmas, however, so I may do so yet.

JoaoBeraldo wrote...
While there is lore from other nations here and there (especially where necessary to the plot, like the Imperium and Orlais), did you David (or is Bioware as a whole?) develop all of Thedas and just focus details on Ferelden or if there much more already defined from the rest of Thedas that was not yet revealed?

I created all of Thedas initially, before we even decided to set DAO in Ferelden. A lot of the detail on Ferelden came about later through collaboration with the other writers, and Mary Kirby is responsible for the lion's share of the Codex -- which involved her taking the bare-bones of many things and expanding on them, so kudos to her for that.

Modifié par David Gaider, 10 janvier 2010 - 09:59 .

[David Gaider]

AndreaDraco wrote...* I was so glad to hear Zev talking in "Italian"/Antivan , even if  I must point out, after having heard this word used in many movies and now in the games that we Italians very, very rarely use "bellissimo/a" when addressing our partners/loved ones (Zevran say "Sì, bellissimo" if I'm not mistaken, which will translate to "Yes, beautiful"). It's more a convention from the old movies, I think, because in reality it's  far more frequent to hear "amore" (which can also be an adjective referred to the person one loves) or "tesoro" (= treasure literally, but more akin to 'honey'), as in "Sì, amore" or "Sì, tesoro"

Well it's pseudo-Italian, so I get to use whatever words I want.

Glad you liked it, though. The localization people had fits with that stuff... particularly the qunari, which was bizarre.

[Mary Kirby]

King Killoth wrote...

If Sheryl is still watching this tread this is more for you..

Why was ogeren not given the romance side story with a female pc? I mean he is a durnk letch but still it would have been the more humorus romance of the bunch.He is still my top fav party member. his rude and blunt humor is the bigest draw for me.

and as a side note why stuch a short personal story for oggy. with the others i ahd to runa round and do a bunch of stuff.where as his was very short..no dwarf love

Hey, Oghren's heart is not a revolving door.*  He's just spent the last two years trying to rescue his wife, he's going to need more than a few come-hither looks and a pint of that weak surface ale to fall in love again.**

I wrote his personal quest by the way.  It's short because all the Deep Roads are essentially his story already.







*It's actually more like a buffet table.
** It would take three pints of that weak surface ale, and a sodding nice set of buns, in fact.

[David Gaider]

thehistorysage wrote...
1) When the Dragon Age saga moves down the road a couple of episodes and thus farther away from the events of Origins, will a sort of "canon" version of the events in Origins emerge, (i.e. a certain two characters marry and reign together, even if it wasn't so on my own console)?

That remains to be seen. I'm not against a canonical story -- I think, in many ways, it can lead to a stronger and more coherent narrative. The alternative can add to the player's feeling of agency with regards to their personal narrative but unfortunately the only way you can sometimes deal with that is simply to avoid story elements that could be one or the other due to resource issues. You can't include every alternative in the same story or it simply gets to be to expensive. That said, I think it's worthwhile allowing the player's choices to have some kind of meaningful impact even if it's not felt at every level. Regardless, like I said, which way we ultimately go remains to be seen.

2) Was a playable Qunari character ever considered for the Grey Warden PC, and if so/if not, is it something you would consider including in the future?

Actually, the original plan was indeed that you could play a qunari -- one of the Tal'Vashoth, who is not from Par Vollen and not a follower of the Qun. It was one of the earlier cuts. Definitely something I'd like to revisit, if the occasion presents itself.

[Ferret A Baudoin]

Responding to Zenocrates - yes, I wrote the beggars in the Elven Alienage. And Ser Otto in there, as well. And if you liked the Broken Circle Fade puzzle, that would be me and Gary Stewart (although other tech designers helped, as well).



When I came on to the project most of it had been written - so I wrote a lot of the sidequests and such before I moved over to DLC and wrote Warden's Keep and started the expansion.

[Ferret A Baudoin]

I'm glad you liked the story of Warden's Keep. I was always intrigued with the question, "Why were the Wardens were banished from Ferelden?" I wanted to answer that question. I'm not sure about your other question, but Warden's Keep was started after the main game was getting locked down and seriously tested for release. It was always intended to be our first piece of DLC.

Modifié par Ferret A Baudoin, 11 janvier 2010 - 03:27 .

[David Gaider]

dan107 wrote...
Obviously no one is talking about carrying over every minute decision three games down the road into a completely different story that has practically nothing to do with DAO just to mention it for the sake of mentioning it.

I'm talking about the important decisions that logically should influence the things that follow. For instance let's say you set up Alistair as king, locked up Anora, and executed Loghain. How would you like Awakening to begin with Alistair dead, and Anora ruling happily with Loghain at her side? Or better yet with your Warden dead, even though you did the ritual?

That's what canon means after all -- not just some obscure and largely irrelevant references down the line, but having all the major, impactful decisions that you as a player were supposed to make set in stone, regardless of what you chose. To say that that doesn't trivilalize such decisions is absurd.

That assumes you're even playing your original character. As I said, maintaining that personal narrative can really add something, but there's a trade-off. And while I understand that someone might be highly attached to that narrative at the moment, that really only lasts until they get into a new character and a new narrative. As the other poster mentioned, the purpose of providing you options is to give you a feeling of agency and to enhance the story of the game you're currently playing -- not to affect some other game. If you enjoyed that story then it's mission accomplished, and no-one promised otherwise.

That said, I'm not suggesting that there will be a canonical story. I'm just saying that both have their advantages and disadvantages. And this isn't really the thread to get into it, either.

[David Gaider]

MoSa09 wrote...
As so many people mentioned the good voice acting (they're indeed awesome), did you writers had any share in the decisions who's going to voice the character you wrote? For example, could you make recommendations or veto a voice actor you thought would definetively not fit that character?

That would have been my job. I wouldn't call it a veto, but I did have input and could make suggestions -- but not all actors are available (or affordable) even if I do think they would be a great fit. So it was mostly a process of listening to auditions for the major characters and trying to pick out who would work. Going down and spending the first few sessions with them in person (the VA's for the major characters, I mean) was great fun, though.

[David Gaider]

While no specifics were mentioned, some people have indeed been inadvertantly free with some details of the plot. I'll move it to the spoiler forum.

[Ferret A Baudoin]

Hee hee... I'm glad you liked the banter at the Lake Calenhad docks, you enlightened beings you.

[Ferret A Baudoin]

Ack, I didn't mean to give the impression that I wrote a lot of the characters in the Alienage - just the beggars and Ser Otto, really. The "filler" characters and side quests here and there are what I worked on.

[David Gaider]

EbenBrooks wrote...
Well...I'm brand spanking new to these forums, but I wanted to ask a question. I have two friends, a married couple in fact, who both work for BioWare: Chris and Jenny Heppler. I was wondering what parts of the game story they contributed to.

Jennifer was on Dragon Age for quite a while, and she had a big hand in defining the dwarves and writing the Paragon of Her Kind plot (along with Luke Kristjanson).

[David Gaider]

Sandtigress wrote...
Maric strikes me as being very similar to Alistair in personality - I'm rather surprised that Loghain doesn't see that.

Well, I don't think Loghain ever took Alistair aside and attempted to get to know him. Mind you, Loghain's very adept at not seeing what he doesn't want to.

[Mary Kirby]

Sandtigress wrote...

As I was playing with some of the various options there, I realized it had never been answered, if it has even been asked, who wrote Fort Drakon and the Captured quest. Had me in stitches all night - I can't believe I broke out of there myself the first time! I will forever let my dear friends rescue me from now on - one of my favorite parts of the game!

I was responsible for Captured.  I worked overtime to get all the various combinations in.  It was a labor of love, mostly.

[Mary Kirby]

-Mozza- wrote...

Mary Kirby what combination of characters is your favorite for Captured?

In no particular order:

Sten and Oghren (They are horrible at this, by the way, but still fun.)
Leliana and Dog
Sten and Dog
Morrigan and Wynne
Zevran and Oghren