70 réponses à ce sujet

[Capone666]

 

Posting my comments from reddit here:

 

Interesting I would posit that the stuff from The DA2 expansion was Corypheus. Dunno whether the inquisition itself would have been in Exalted March although it certainly looks like Hawke was intended to be the original leader of the inquisition.

 

I guess the story cut in half is Solas, I wonder how that story would have progressed seeing as how I assume he wouldn't appear as the antagonist at first. I guess maybe the mage/templar war and qunari would have been bigger parts of the plot. In that case I definitely think the franchise has been hurt by the way they did it.

 

Ultimately I think DA2 and DAI would have been helped by going with the original plans.

 

Where is it on Reddit?

[Cantina]

I died laughing when Gaider admitted to throwing a tantrum. Just when his antics could not get any worse some thing else he does come along and exceeds my expectations. Oh Gaider. I look forward to the next laugh.

[BSpud]

I died laughing when Gaider admitted to throwing a tantrum. Just when his antics could not get any worse some thing else he does come along and exceeds my expectations. Oh Gaider. I look forward to the next laugh.

 

[Cantina]

<snip>

 

<sighs>

 

 

When we finally sat down – I think it was toward the end of the DLC process for DA2. We had been intending to do an expansion for DA2, a full expansion, and that got cut. And I went home angry, and I took a month off just to cool off. I was like, I need to take a month off. And they were like, why? Because otherwise, you're going to have meetings about the next game, and I'm going to be that guy at the end of that table with his arms folded and a giant frown on my face, and I don't want to be that guy. So, let me go cool off. And they were like, okay, go. So I did. And I came back, and I was like, alright. Let's tackle this. And it felt good.

 

 

Gaider has had many other moments like those. Thus it makes me laugh.

[BSpud]

Gaider has had many other moments like those. Thus it makes me laugh.

 

[vbibbi]

Thank you so much for posting this interview.

 

This section in particular, I'm very happy to have read. I love race selection, and I'm glad that the devs wanted to include it, and made time to include it because they felt it was worthwhile. (In a way, I also feel happy to hear that they didn't include race selection in DA2 because it was rushed to release, not because they felt it was Oh So Detrimental to the Holy Story they wanted to tell.) 

 

I'm also glad to hear that the devs, or Gaider at least, don't consider more "blank slate" protagonists like the Warden and Inquisitor more restrictive to storytelling than pre-defined protagonists like Shepard and Hawke. That, if anything, just giving the players the freedom to react to actions they've made can, in some ways it, gives them "more to play with."

 

Again, I love race selection. I know not everyone likes it, but I just get so tired of so people making it the scape goat to everything they don't like about a game. 

 

For example, they hear something got cut? They automatically point to race selection and say, "The resources they put into races would have gone toward making that Awesome Story Idea I just heard, therefore including race selection is the reason it got cut." When in reality it got cut or got changed on its own time for its own reasons. That "Aweome Story Idea" they tell themselves would have been so perfect actually wouldn't have been perfect, and that's exactly why it got cut.

The problem is that blank slate protagonists have a more difficult time in an open world environment, IMO. The more variables you allow the PC to have in dialogue tone and decisions, the more reactivity needs to be included in quests and environment. And this spreads thin across an open world. That's why so many of the side quests in DAI were very basic and either involved reading journals with no dialogue, or the dialogue was standard across all Inquisitors. The only times there was dialogue reactivity was in main quest lines.

 

And while I enjoy race selection, it does seem counter productive to include it, since such a small percentage of players play as non-humans, but implementing this feature does take away from development of the rest of the game. I don't mean cut content, but fleshing out side quests like I mentioned above. It's especially perplexing when I see people post "I don't play other races but it's nice to have the option to." Okay...so Bioware should spend resources on this feature that you're not going to use rather than spend them on overall features that affects everyone's games?

 

The Inquisitor could be an adviser through the sending stone. I don't think they should bring the Inquisitor back knowing that he/she is so easily played by Solas. The new hero should be crafty when dealing with Solas.

I think this is a great idea and probably the easiest way to implement the Inquisitor, resource-wise. Might not be the most fan-pleasing way but at least it would allow the Inky to have a presence in the game.

 

How great would it be if the sending stone had a bad connection, and the Inquisitor treated this new technology like Grandpa on the phone?

 

New PC: Inquisitor! Thank Andraste/the Stone/the Creators/the Old Gods I've reached you! I have pressing news on Solas!

 

IQ: Hello? Dagna is this thing on? Do I just speak into this end here?

 

PC: Inquisitor? This is urgent!

 

IQ: Yes, doing fine, thank you. Let me put Leliana on the line, she wants to say hello. Okay thanks for calling, byyyyyye.

 

PC: SMH

[Wulfram]

And while I enjoy race selection, it does seem counter productive to include it, since such a small percentage of players play as non-humans

According to EA stats, almost exactly half of Inquisitors were non-human. Probably about the same number of people played elves as played women - 32% played female Inquisitor, 25% played Elf Warrior+Mage, we don't know how many played elf rogue but it going by the other stuff it's surely around 10%.

Qunari and Dwarves aren't played so much, though. Probably 15% of Inquisitors between the two of them

[Abyss108]

Don't the stats show that most games like this are only completed by much less than 50% of players? I guess Bioware should just not include the ending if it's only for such a low percentage of people!

[vbibbi]

According to EA stats, almost exactly half of Inquisitors were non-human. Probably about the same number of people played elves as played women - 32% played female Inquisitor, 25% played Elf Warrior+Mage, we don't know how many played elf rogue but it going by the other stuff it's surely around 10%.

Qunari and Dwarves aren't played so much, though. Probably 15% of Inquisitors between the two of them

Oh really? I hadn't heard that, thanks. I think DAO had mostly human playthroughs, and thought I'd heard the same for DAI but apparently not! I wonder how much Solas being a race and gender gated romance would affect these results, or if the number of players who intentionally roll a female elf to romance him is not statistically significant.

 

Don't the stats show that most games like this are only completed by much less than 50% of players? I guess Bioware should just not include the ending if it's only for such a low percentage of people!

That must have been Bioware's reasoning, given the final "fight" in the base game.

[Ghost Gal]

According to EA stats, almost exactly half of Inquisitors were non-human. Probably about the same number of people played elves as played women - 32% played female Inquisitor, 25% played Elf Warrior+Mage, we don't know how many played elf rogue but it going by the other stuff it's surely around 10%.

Qunari and Dwarves aren't played so much, though. Probably 15% of Inquisitors between the two of them

 

50% of all Inquisitors were non-human? Wow! That's so much greater than the measly 20% from DAO (15% elves and 5% dwarves).

 

Wow, I feel relieved! Half of all Inquisitors... even if you don't like race selection (and it's okay if you don't), that means that for every human PC there was one non-human. Not such a colossal waste of resources that hardly anyone ever plays now, is it?

 

I'm sorry that Qunari and Dwarves weren't as popular this time around (they're both great races with great roleplay experiences), but still... 15% is still decent compared to the 5% of dwarves last game. (Unless it was 5% dwarves this game and 10% Qunari...) 

 

Well, this made my morning.

[Qis]

I think only few who likes Qunari they are not as appealing to choose based on their established racial background, they are just alien and no one really understand their crazy philosophy, and is quite radical for our modern society point of view

 

Dwarves is because of their size and lacks of same race romance option. I just can't imagine a Qunari and a Dwarf.....nevermind...

[PillingPower]

A very interesting interview. I'll always view it as a shame (and a mistake by Bioware management) that the "Exalted March" expansion was cancelled, but I suppose what's done is done. It does sound as if there would have been a few more heart-rending companion deaths, so at least Hawke didn't have to undergo that trauma. I certainly believe there is room within the DA franchise for more expansions to be published in the future.

 

Actually, I would love to know if David (or Patrick Weekes) have managed to play the pen-and-paper Dragon Age role-playing game (DARPG), published by Green Ronin, and what they thought of it. David speaks of not being able to go back, but the DARPG can be set at any time - even pre-Origins. Could they think of any interesting, unanswered stories they'd like to see it cover?

[akbogert]

Loving the interview thus far (when I went to the website, soundcloud started playing the full 2 hours, and I'm halfway through). Just wanted to thank you in particular for the transcript. Having transcribed brief interviews (for coding purposes) in graduate school, I know how incredibly time-consuming that can be!

[vbibbi]

A very interesting interview. I'll always view it as a shame (and a mistake by Bioware management) that the "Exalted March" expansion was cancelled, but I suppose what's done is done. It does sound as if there would have been a few more heart-rending companion deaths, so at least Hawke didn't have to undergo that trauma. I certainly believe there is room within the DA franchise for more expansions to be published in the future.

 

Actually, I would love to know if David (or Patrick Weekes) have managed to play the pen-and-paper Dragon Age role-playing game (DARPG), published by Green Ronin, and what they thought of it. David speaks of not being able to go back, but the DARPG can be set at any time - even pre-Origins. Could they think of any interesting, unanswered stories they'd like to see it cover?

I'm torn, because I would have loved to play the Exalted March DLC. I love Hawke and would have liked more of them. But if the cost of that would have been to have many/all of the companions perish, then I think I'm glad they just live happily ever after offscreen. I'm really curious if they were planning on killing off the LIs in the expansion, so that if Hawke was the Inquisitor, s/he could have new romances without having to pull a Mass Effect.

 

At the end of the day, though, I think this would have angered fans and made Hawke seem more incompetent than many people paint him/her. S/he is a legendary figure but can't save their family from dying, can't save Kirkwall from itself, and now can't save their friends from death. It would have just added to the lack of agency Hawke suffers.

[Capone666]

Loving the interview thus far (when I went to the website, soundcloud started playing the full 2 hours, and I'm halfway through). Just wanted to thank you in particular for the transcript. Having transcribed brief interviews (for coding purposes) in graduate school, I know how incredibly time-consuming that can be!

 

It's a big thank you for members of the BSN community many of you guys came together to help make this possible

[Ghost Gal]

I think only few who likes Qunari they are not as appealing to choose based on their established racial background, they are just alien and no one really understand their crazy philosophy, and is quite radical for our modern society point of view

 

Dwarves is because of their size and lacks of same race romance option. I just can't imagine a Qunari and a Dwarf.....nevermind...

 

You make a solid point.

 

I think a lot of people are interested in playing qunari in theory, but in practice it's difficult to ourselves in their shoes because we don't know much about their cultures or lifestyle. We've seen humans and elves and dwarves in their natural habitat, living their daily lives, interacting with each other, but we've never seen the daily lives of Qunari, Tal'Vashoth, or Vashoth.

 

The Qunari is a bizarre alien culture with alien values, and we haven't even seen it firsthand. We've just been told about it by people who've been there but aren't there now (Sten, Arishok, Iron Bull, etc). We also don't really see much of the Tal-Vashoth other than mindless video game fodder for Hawke to hack through in DA2. For Vashoth, we're told that they're raised by Tal'Vashoth parents, and who were shaped by their Qunari upbringing and shape their society based on how they don't want to be like Qunari, but since we've never seen Qunari culture or Tal'Vashoth culture firsthand...

 

The game spends so much time telling you what your grey giant protagonist isn't (you aren't human, aren't Qunari, aren't Tal'Vashoth, aren't a mindless savage, etc) that it forgets to tell you what you are. 

 

Since next game will likely be set in Tevinter and thus be much closer to the Qunari border, I hope we'll be able to see more of the Qunari and Tal'Vashoth culture in action. I think more people will be interested in playing a grey giant after they've gotten a better idea of how their society, culture, lifestyle, and upbringing would shape who they are and how they see and interact and react to the world.

[Qis]

Human and Elves are not far different, actually elves are just self centered pointed ears long face human who proud of themselves, almost racist, excellent in using bow and magic, as in common trope. We are used to Elves in general. There is nothing more to add other than background story where they belong to.

 

Qunari for me is just out of place, i don't like them, i don't like Sten, i don't like the Arishok, i just don't like them personally. Their appearance in DA2 with horns add to how loathed i am about them. They also against what i have in mind about the same bull headed humanoid creatue already existing in common fantasy lores, the Minatour. They just don't add up.

 

If Qunari are like The Mandalorians of KotOR, physically and their philosophy, i mean human-like, just bigger and rough, or like the Nords of Skyrim, i think they will be more appealing to choose....

[nOrio_26]

To me, though I play human Inq only, but thanks to the dev, extra race got four Inq voice. 

And I love the American male voice of Jon Curry soooo much.

[Obsidian Gryphon]

I feel like the heading of every question says everything and the contents nothing.

[Apo]

The addition of multirace was a good thing imo, but sometimes it felt that the game was still written from an andrastian human point of view, there are some lines of dialogue that are race specific but at certain key moments it was very obvious, especially in the Arbor Wilds where Morrigan talks about Mythal and elven gods and the elfinquisitor don't know a shite about them, but at the same time have some specific dialogues to explain how his/her clan acted toward them

 

I didn't play dwarves or qunaris but from what I saw in youtube, their implication isn't very specific, except int the Descent DLC where a dwarf seems to have more specifc dialogues and insights about what is happening.

The qunari is the most out of place race, I feel sometimes that the race was added just as a fan service

[Madfox11]

In regards to dwarfs I suspect the choice is not popular because people know that the race is going to have little impact on the story. What fun is it to play a dwarf when you know that you are either litterally treated as a short human or on the off chance you might actually enter the dwarf kingdom you are treated as a tainted paria? I am certainly not all that interested in playing a dwarf in DAI because of it, while after playing a human in the first run (mostly because the story appeared to be human centric) I immediately wanted to play an elf based on the high elf content of the game.

 

I have not been particularly interested in the qunari because they are usually depicted as alien enemies who have no position within the human society in which the adventure is set. In fact, the qunari is one of the neutral mercenary types with no relation to their own culture. I would be much more interested in it, if the character was actually an agent and that it would impact the actual story (mind you: I have not yet finished a play through with a qunari and have no idea how the race is treated in Tresspasser).

 

Having said that, I loved all the origin stories of DAO and I like choice in character creation. Giving such choice through race is a good thing IMO, although they might do something similar with background. I would have loved to play a criminal human or a city elf with a similar attitude towards things elven as Sera

[Ava Grey]

Oh really? I hadn't heard that, thanks. I think DAO had mostly human playthroughs, and thought I'd heard the same for DAI but apparently not! I wonder how much Solas being a race and gender gated romance would affect these results, or if the number of players who intentionally roll a female elf to romance him is not statistically significant.

 

That must have been Bioware's reasoning, given the final "fight" in the base game.

 

Speaking for myself, historically i've never gotten on well with non-human choices and pretty much only play human and while I did originally roll my first Inquisition elf in order to romance Solas, it wasn't why the elf became my favourite Inky ( in fact i've ditched the Solas romance the two times I tried it ). So from my personal perspective, while Solas being gated to elf only was the driving factor behind me initially rolling non-human, it wasn't what kept me there over my normal preference.

Why that is i'm not even sure I can pinpoint, other than for the first time in any game that has offered race selection, I felt a connection with a non-human that ran much deeper than my human playthrough.

 

So while i'll concur that Solas being gated would likely have a fairly significant impact on how many players chose to roll a female elf, it may not be ( at least in my case, i'm just one player after all ) why they continued to roll elf. 

 

 

I'd like to add that while my normal preference does lie with playing human and I normally have no problem playing a human only game, when it comes to Dragon Age at least I don't think I can agree that the player should have race choice removed. 

 

Ultimately, choice is good.

[Abyss108]

I also rolled an elf for the Solas romance, after never playing a non-human character before (in any game that gave me the choice, not just DA). Had so much fun with it, I now have a personal rule to never play another human if a game gives me other options!

[Medhia_Nox]

@Madfox11:  I think the dwarves are going to be very important in the war against Solas actually.  

 

If Shaper Valta returns to Orzammar and reconnects the dwarves to the Titans.... **** is going to go DOWN.  

[vbibbi]

Speaking for myself, historically i've never gotten on well with non-human choices and pretty much only play human and while I did originally roll my first Inquisition elf in order to romance Solas, it wasn't why the elf became my favourite Inky ( in fact i've ditched the Solas romance the two times I tried it ). So from my personal perspective, while Solas being gated to elf only was the driving factor behind me initially rolling non-human, it wasn't what kept me there over my normal preference.

Why that is i'm not even sure I can pinpoint, other than for the first time in any game that has offered race selection, I felt a connection with a non-human that ran much deeper than my human playthrough.

 

So while i'll concur that Solas being gated would likely have a fairly significant impact on how many players chose to roll a female elf, it may not be ( at least in my case, i'm just one player after all ) why they continued to roll elf. 

 

 

I'd like to add that while my normal preference does lie with playing human and I normally have no problem playing a human only game, when it comes to Dragon Age at least I don't think I can agree that the player should have race choice removed. 

 

Ultimately, choice is good.

Interesting. Can you share why you dumped Solas twice? I've only watched the romance online so don't have a strong opinion on it.

 

It was funny that the Dalish background provides the most war table missions. I wonder if the missions were originally background neutral and they converted them to a Dalish clan, or if they were written after the inclusion of race selection. And why one race has significantly more missions than the others. Dwarves and Qunari in particular have crap missions.