A few friends at work are playing DA:O right now, each at different level of completion (I'm the slow guy who hardly has time to play
). Now, the good thing about it is that it allowed us to discuss many of the things that happen in the game or what we expected to happen.One of the things that bothered me and came up in one of these discussions this week was how your choice of an Origin immediatelly invalidates the other 5 storylines. Allow me to explain.
Each of the Origins have Duncan present and ends with him picking you as a recruit for one reason or another. All roads lead to Ostagar, as we know. The fact is that, if I choose to play with the Noble Dwarf, it means Duncan is not there to recruit (and in most cases save) the others. So, if you are a Noble Dwarf, the Dalish Elf never lives, the City Elf is probably put under arrest, etc.
While I understand the need for a strong character like Duncan to tie whichever origin you pick to the storyline, and the impact it must have as Ostagar ends, we question why couldn't it be different.
The point was brought up by one of the guys who is now at the dwarven city (mind you, I didn't get there yet) as the Human Noble. He mentioned how the ongoing plot sounded different from what he played as a Dwarf Noble (most of us played all 6 origins before picking on to play through the game). His idea was this: the player should play all of the origins, one after the other, before choosing which one to go on, in a way that all his decisions made a difference to the story.
While I think that's an interesting idea, I believe it ends up with an issue of identity. The player has to go through 6 different characters before moving on and growing attached to any of them may not be easy to most players. From Ostagar on, it would mean the others 5 recruits went separate ways (maybe even killed on the Joining or during the Battle).
I see it a bit differently. Ok, the player picks an Origin and plays it through. But each of the other origins are NPCs, each with their own subplots. The player COULD play each of the origins, if he so wishes, and whatever choices he made are 'recorded' on the 'main game' (again, if he wishes so). From that point on, each of the 5 origins not chosen are NPCs you may find, recruit to your party and help complete their subplots. (If the player do not play any of the 'npc' origins, they are decided randomly, since the content already exists).
There are, of course, several factors that would have to be addresses so that the current effect was kept.
- Only Grey Wardens left: Well, its less dramatic if its not just you and Allister, but also 5 other people. The first option is that these 5 others (or some of them) didn't do the Joining for some reason and never became Grey Wardens (Ostagar happened before?)
- Multiple Duncans: Again, the events of the Battle of Ostagar have great impact to the story because of who Duncan is. Having 6 'Duncans' might work, especially if they were men sent by Duncan to recruit new Wardens (notice at the Noble Dwarf's origin there are 3 other Wardens with Duncan?). It would be a matter of trading Duncan for the chosen origin's Warden, at least up to the moment where the player reaches Ostagar.
- Too many NPCs: Often we end up with too many NPCs to handle and some are left out (poor Dog...). It might be a matter of not only handling the usual NPCs plus the 5 'origin' ones, but choosing if they should or not become part of the party. Choices may involve picking, say, the Dalish or Zevran. Or maybe the 'Origin NPCs' are temporary NPCs... or just Quest givers?
Anyway, I'm not here to say how things should be done. I'm a Bioware fan and DA:O is currently on top of my favorite games list (after pushing Mass Effect down from the top, which first pushed KOTOR down from the top). But I figured I might share these ideas with the community and find out if others have similar ideas and/or concerns.
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