99 réponses à ce sujet

[midnight tea]

 

How is not important?

It just show how Bioware is able to scrap  characters story before their completion.

They did it with Hawke they can even do it with the Inquisitor after Trespasser which is indeed a form of poor storytelling

 

But they didn't "scrap" the character's story - they've altered it. Hawke is still an essential part of DAI - crit path can't move without him, and they've tied the whole "Hawke was supposed to be Inquisitor" with Cassandra and Leliana searching for them... because they wanted them to become Inquisitor. It just so happens that they couldn't find them - and then the explosion on the Conclave happened and Herald came through the rift. Nobody had time to search for Hawke and things went their course. The overarching story DA team planned even before they began developing DA2 has therefore moved in direction it was supposed to move. Pretty much everything was neatly tied together.

 

Plus, you're basically guilty of false equivalency. Witcher is NOT DA franchise. Witcher's story RELIES on existence of Geralt because he's the "Witcher" from the title. We're following *his* adventures, specifically, so obviously he *can't* be scrapped. No matter what happens in the story, it *has to* have Geralt at its center (which is why there won't be Witcher 4, because CDPR has most definitely ended adventures with him and even if we're going to re-visit that universe, we'd be definitely following a different character).

 

But DA story *isn't* about singular character - even if PCs or NPCs are retained, it's not for full entirety for overarching story or focusing entirely on them. That allows for some flexibility and therefore allowed for new Inquisitor and neatly tying off Hawke's story under Adamant.

 

And sure, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that they can alter Inquisitor story too and merely focus on new PC - thing is that DA franchise is nowhere near a spot it was after DA2 release. DAI wasn't rushed - it got additional year of development. The conversion to Frostbite is done and they no longer develop the game for 5 platforms. It was a financial and critical success. Trespasser was a success as well, and supposedly sold really too.

 

The future seems bright for devs and the door appears to be open for them to tell the story they want to tell. And Trespasser most definitely sets up story in which Inquisitor will play a fairly major role.

[Asha'bellanar]

You know what's more awful? The corney British accent of the male VO.

The VO is actually British. The accent is pretty much his accent. So you're basically calling a person's voice "corney" (not sure what you mean by that, anyone; corny is a common enough adjective, but it doesn't appear to apply in this case).

 

More information on the actor, in case you or someone else cares: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2227000/

 

But, hey, making fun of people's accents is all good fun, yeah? My teenaged daughter makes fun of my accent all the time.

[Elhanan]

The VO is actually British. The accent is pretty much his accent. So you're basically calling a person's voice "corney" (not sure what you mean by that, anyone; corny is a common enough adjective, but it doesn't appear to apply in this case).
 
More information on the actor, in case you or someone else cares: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2227000/
 
But, hey, making fun of people's accents is all good fun, yeah? My teenaged daughter makes fun of my accent all the time.

Facts on some threads do not carry much weight; they were seemingly made without any need for them.

And hug your daughter anyway; she may hate it, but you won't

[Derrame]

maybe the next game will have such expansions

[German Soldier]

But they didn't "scrap" the character's story - they've altered it. Hawke is still an essential part of DAI - crit path can't move without him, and they've tied the whole "Hawke was supposed to be Inquisitor" with Cassandra and Leliana searching for them... because they wanted them to become Inquisitor. It just so happens that they couldn't find them - and then the explosion on the Conclave happened and Herald came through the rift. Nobody had time to search for Hawke and things went their course. The overarching story DA team planned even before they began developing DA2 has therefore moved in direction it was supposed to move. Pretty much everything was neatly tied together.

 

Plus, you're basically guilty of false equivalency. Witcher is NOT DA franchise. Witcher's story RELIES on existence of Geralt because he's the "Witcher" from the title. We're following *his* adventures, specifically, so obviously he *can't* be scrapped. No matter what happens in the story, it *has to* have Geralt at its center (which is why there won't be Witcher 4, because CDPR has most definitely ended adventures with him and even if we're going to re-visit that universe, we'd be definitely following a different character).

 

But DA story *isn't* about singular character - even if PCs or NPCs are retained, it's not for full entirety for overarching story or focusing entirely on them. That allows for some flexibility and therefore allowed for new Inquisitor and neatly tying off Hawke's story under Adamant.

 

And sure, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that they can alter Inquisitor story too and merely focus on new PC - thing is that DA franchise is nowhere near a spot it was after DA2 release. DAI wasn't rushed - it got additional year of development. The conversion to Frostbite is done and they no longer develop the game for 5 platforms. It was a financial and critical success. Trespasser was a success as well, and supposedly sold really too.

 

The future seems bright for devs and the door appears to be open for them to tell the story they want to tell. And Trespasser most definitely sets up story in which Inquisitor will play a fairly major role.

You defined it as altered? I had more the impression that was literally scrapped for the DAII  backlash and if you think that the epilogue of Cassandra and Leliana is a tie up for Hawke rather than just the cliffhanger of DA2 you're just dwelling into a subjective perspective rather than objective assertions.

 

-I did not made any equivalence between  WItcher 3 and DA   just pointed out how the story of  one protagonist of  DA  was cutted for another.

 

-If they alter the Inquisitor storyline and use another newbie for DA4 that will just prove my point,that Bioware tend to cut protagonists stories before they are even completed.

[German Soldier]

It's also not far fetched to say you're completely ignorant of whether or not it reached or exceeded those numbers, so your opinion is valueless in regards to bolstering Dutchie-boy's argument. 

 

They don't release numbers  to protect developers from investors. If FIFA rocks and NBA Live tanks, investors will start to push for EA to cut the dead weight. In fact, you'll see a push for a company to strand profitable but relatively underpeforming divisions. And for Bioware - who've shown their model wasn't good enough to keep them afloat at their height - that just means being shuttered. 

If they sold more than 10 millions copies of DAI they wouldn't have to hide sales numbers

[Almostfaceman]

They don't release numbers  to protect developers from investors. If FIFA rocks and NBA Live tanks, investors will start to push for EA to cut the dead weight. In fact, you'll see a push for a company to strand profitable but relatively underpeforming divisions. And for Bioware - who've shown their model wasn't good enough to keep them afloat at their height - that just means being shuttered. 

If they sold more than 10 millions copies of DAI they wouldn't had to hide sales numbers

 

More pure speculation, still without value in bolstering Dutchie-boy's argument. Unless you can bring facts to the table your argument has no worth. 

[German Soldier]

Speculation based on marketing logic yes,what's your point?

Why they shouldn't be valuable if they are based on logic?

[Almostfaceman]

 

Speculation based on marketing logic guesswork yes,what's your point?

Why they shouldn't be valuable if they are based on logic guesswork?

 

 

Fixed that for ya. And, your lack of basic reading comprehension is showing again. 

[midnight tea]

You defined it as scrapped? I had more the impression that was literally cutted for the DAII  backlash and if you think that the epilogue of Cassandra and Leliana is a tie up for Hawke rather than just the cliffhanger of DA2 you're just dwelling into a subjective perspective rather than objective assertions.

 

What do you mean "defined it as scrapped"? You said that "It just show how Bioware is able to scrap characters story before their completion.", hence I addressed that that way. I even put "scrapped" in quotation marks, because you yourself used that word.

 

And I haven't been talking about epilogue. I have been talking about this:

 

 

"We needed someone to lead this Inquisition. First Leliana and I searched for Hero of Ferelden, but (s)he had vanished. Then we looked for Hawke, but (s)he was gone too." (and in case of world-state where HoF is dead Cass mentions only searching for Hawke)

 

"Subjective perspective", ey? This whole thing is directly addressed in Inquisition and we can even ask Hawke why they disappeared in the first place. It's as objective as you can get, because it exists in pretty much every world-state. I mean, goddamit, the reason Cass dragged Varric to the Conclave was to try and eventually learn Hawke's whereabouts, for well-defined reasons. 

 

...You know, it'd be prudent for you to either do some research before continuing discussion or just ask what I'm talking about in case you weren't sure, or forgot about it. It happens. I'd be happy to provide links or quotes, as I do now. But no - obviously you must immediately assume that I'm in the wrong and - again - it backfired on you. Well, serves you right then. Maybe you'll learn one day.

 

 

 

-I did not made any equivalence between WItcher 3 and DA

 

The whole discussion began when you directly compared Witcher's character and DA's 

 

 

-If they alter the Inquisitor storyline and use another newbie for DA4 that will just prove my point,that Bioware tend cut protagonists stories before they are even completed.

 

Sure. But at this moment all things point in a different direction.

[German Soldier]

snip

For the first issue i meant "altered" not "scrapped" i fixed my post few minutes later but you already quoted it

 

For the second issue I know what Cassandra and Leliana were doing,but to me all hints pointed out for Hawke to be the Inquisitor (especially the deleted Dlc) not to a new character that accidentally stumbled upon Corypheus.

[midnight tea]

They don't release numbers  to protect developers from investors. If FIFA rocks and NBA Live tanks, investors will start to push for EA to cut the dead weight. In fact, you'll see a push for a company to strand profitable but relatively underpeforming divisions. 

 

AFAIK companies don't release GOTY editions if the game didn't perform well. DA2 has no GOTY/Ultimate edition and had its expansion cancelled. Nothing like this happened with DAI.

 

Plus, I'm pretty sure that if Inquisition was a disappointment, we wouldn't get Trespasser, or it would be an entirely different DLC. Yet we have it in a shape it has - a year after release of the game Bioware is confident enough in their product that they've released an epilogue that also serves as interim chapter and screams of both Solas' and Inky's return.

 

 

And for Bioware - who've shown their model wasn't good enough to keep them afloat at their height - that just means being shuttered. 

If they sold more than 10 millions copies of DAI they wouldn't have to hide sales numbers

 

Right, being "shuttered"... while they're developing at least THREE new games, and some of them being close to being completed or halfway there. And I'm talking about 3 games because DA4 is obviously happening given that DA devs feel comfortable enough to tease us mercilessly about it. There's even a talk of additional tactical game for DA franchise that would exist alongside main games.

 

I think that speaks volumes about for investors' and EA's confidence in the studio - EA might have not released numbers (do they ever?), but every comment I heard about them concerning franchises like DA was enthusiastic. 

[midnight tea]

For the first issue i meant "altered" not "scrapped" i fixed my post few minutes later but you already quoted it

 

For the second issue I know what Cassandra and Leliana were doing,but to me all hints pointed out for Hawke to be the Inquisitor (especially the deleted Dlc) not to a new character that accidentally stumbled upon Corypheus.

 

I'm getting confused. This is what I said before:

 

"But they didn't "scrap" the character's story - they've altered it."

 

And before I said that:

 

"Just because they had to change plans doesn't mean that Inquisitor is a paper-thin replacement stitched up from scraps at the very last moment. Hawke being Inquisitor was a thing that got dropped early in development"

 

 

... and you're acting as if I somehow deny that they've had different plans for Hawke, yet changed it. Which is entirely untrue if you read either of my posts. It's like you're either not reading what I'm writing, or there's this reading comprehension issue again - and a massive one at that in this case...

[German Soldier]

AFAIK companies don't release GOTY editions if the game didn't perform well. DA2 has no GOTY/Ultimate edition and had its expansion cancelled. Nothing like this happened with DAI.

 

Plus, I'm pretty sure that if Inquisition was a disappointment, we wouldn't get Trespasser, or it would be an entirely different DLC. Yet we have it in a shape it has - a year after release of the game Bioware is confident enough in their product that they've released an epilogue that also serves as interim chapter and screams of both Solas' and Inky's return.

 

 

Right, being "shuttered"... while they're developing at least THREE new games, and some of them being close to being completed or halfway there. And I'm talking about 3 games because DA4 is obviously happening given that DA devs feel comfortable enough to tease us mercilessly about it. There's even a talk of additional tactical game for DA franchise that would exist alongside main games.

 

I think that speaks volumes about for investors' and EA's confidence in the studio - EA might have not released numbers (do they ever?), but every comment I heard about them concerning franchises like DA was enthusiastic. 

I don't know why the Dlc was canceled in DAII it may had nothing to do with how DAII  sold and they simply decided to shift the whole thing in DAI with the quest of  "What pride had  wrought" so just a design choice.

 

I didn't said that DAI was a disappointment but just that 10 million copies are so huge that if DAI  had those relative numbers hide sales wasn't a great strategy to make,there is no reasons to hide something like that.

 

Bioware as a whole is not just DA,they have several projects each projects with different seals numbers each case is individual,I did not meant the company as a whole.

 

I'm getting confused. This is what I said before:

 

"But they didn't "scrap" the character's story - they've altered it."

 

And before I said that:

 

"Just because they had to change plans doesn't mean that Inquisitor is a paper-thin replacement stitched up from scraps at the very last moment. Hawke being Inquisitor was a thing that got dropped early in development"

 

 

... and you're acting as if I somehow deny that they've had different plans for Hawke, yet changed it. Which is entirely untrue if you read either of my posts. It's like you're either not reading what I'm writing, or there's this reading comprehension issue again - and a massive one at that in this case...

I fixed and corrected my own post.

Yes you meant altered but to my that alteration is not a simple alteration is literally a protagonist story(Hawke) that was replaced by another (The Inq) who inherited their storyline.

 

You admit that they had different plans for Hawke and yet you do not see it as a  problem?

Well i do if  DA is a planned franchise change what was a planned protagonist isn't good and i think they will do the same again in DA4.

 

[thats1evildude]

I personally don't think they ever intended to have Hawke lead the Inquisition. I think that the game plan was always to have a new PC, and that plan is not changing for DA4.

I know some people think that Hawke was intended to be the new Shepard because s/he was human only, but making Hawke a more defined character was integral to DA2's narrative.

[Macha'Anu]

You give people stuff for free, they'll scream you're horrible anyway.

 

Look at Bohemia Interactive, and ArmA 3 DLCs.

 

Every DLC brought paid content, and some content that was available for everyone, because that would just split the community (like bipods and weapon resting). The same DLC I mentioned in the parentheses also brought ghillie suits (three types for three factions, nine total) and more rifles (I count three off the top of my head, plus two MMGs, all of which was in multiple camo patters) and associated attachments.

 

People were angry they had to pay for that... BIS was the embodiment of evil (and still is, for some idiots) despite giving them some of the content associated with the DLC FOR FREE. It even went as far as people protesting in communities and refusing to play missions with content from said DLCs. Meaning, of course, that the people who paid for it couldn't play with it either, despite the fact the idiots who began to riot needn't see the sniper team equipped with those suits and rifles FOR THE ENTIRE MISSION (with the exception of that sweet sweet .338 Lapua Magnum taking down a dude in a window that was about to turn them into swiss cheese).

 

 

May have lost my point over all the TL;DR - simply enough, BW can stay where it is. They'll be "evil" anyway! And true fans will always look at what they got, and say truthfully whether or not they got their money's worth. The idiots will keep screaming stupidities no matter what.

Today's gamer base do tend to complain about many a thing companies do. I've seen people complain over free content and was like.... You serious? 

They could come out with some expansion and some group will complain the story wasn't what they wanted, or it wasn't long enough. Or find something wrong. *whine* 

I'm with you. They fine right where they are. Just make the next one epic.... And let me play my quizzy lol or don't either way I'll be fine.

[Macha'Anu]

For the first issue i meant "altered" not "scrapped" i fixed my post few minutes later but you already quoted it

 

For the second issue I know what Cassandra and Leliana were doing,but to me all hints pointed out for Hawke to be the Inquisitor (especially the deleted Dlc) not to a new character that accidentally stumbled upon Corypheus.

I'm in agreement on this. At some point I thought and it was even said they wanted, needed hawke as they were going to declare the rebirth of the inquisition but then hawke disappeared etc etc. It does give the idea that HoF was first choice but they have disappeared, then hawke was second choice. In the end both couldn't be found and then the prisoner appears. So I can see how it can be perceived hawke was going to come in as quizzy, but there are interviews out there as to people being upset that there was no race choice. And since it was important to the players to have that choice they went a separate route. I'm adlibbing of course but that was the gist of the convo 

[Addictress]

I thought the whole idea of the protagonist and inquisitor being the same person was dumb, tbh. It would've been more interesting if the PC was not the inquisitor, and the inquisitor was a defined, written character who had to be protected all the time by you and your team.

[Macha'Anu]

I quite enjoyed playing the inquisitor. 

[Vilegrim]

... Not to mention that BW has three different games to develop now, which includes yet another Dragon Age chapter that David Gaider revealed in one of recent interviews will be either pretty much 2nd part of Inquisition or a close continuation of the story. Beats expansion any day of the week, considering that Witcher series has pretty definitely ended, so all they can do is release additional content for it.

 

Basically, CDPR can spend their time polishing Witcher, because so far it's the ONLY title they can put all their resources into - and Cyberpunk is years away from seeing light of the day.

 

In other words: different studio, different games, different franchises, different development cycles and focuses. As usual Dutch seems to have little to no understanding of such matters, or they're conveniently ignored.

 

The Witcher is done, Blood and Wine was the last DLC.  Whether we revisit that world with a new protagonist is unknown. 

[Vilegrim]

I've never really considered the Witcher to be an RPG if truth be told. Don't get me wrong, I love the game and I'm a fan of the books but TW3 in particular plays out like Grand Theft Auto in a medieval fantasy setting.

This is why it boggles me why the two fanbases are at each others throats like second grade schoolgirls when it comes to "which is better".

 

 

I loved DA:O and DA:A, was really disappointed with DA2, but ended up buying the DLC and completing it, I loathe DA:I finished desperately hoping it would get better, but it never did I just can't like the Inquisitor, if my title is 'inquisitor' I should be a walking war crime generator, seriously you invoke THAT title, you better mean it, I disliked the gameplay, it was a terrible (imho) mess that couldn't make up it's mind what it was, with silly quickbar limits, a kinda-sorta action RPG with auto attack, or mouse based team game...and did both badly, (plus I loathe Dragons Dogma as well, so burn me as a heretic or w/e).  

 

The Witcher 3 is my favourite of the series, and I have hundreds of hours in all of them, Geralt just works for me, it explains why he uses over blown dodge roll fighting, and people not trained by Witchers don't, why he is fairly emotionless, he is as predefined as Shephard or Adam Jensen..and it works,  it has a world that feels alive, more than Thedas has since DA:O, politics and betrayal, vendettas and pogroms, and then throws in a world ending threat, and I find I care about these racist, sexist loons I share this world with, despite or maybe because of their flaws I empathize with them, they are not good or evil, but BOTH, even the Witch Hunters have members who believe they are doing the right thing, as terrible as that thing is, so they are not two dimensional (which is what was great about Loghain in DA:O and has never been matched by BW since)  The world ending threat is evil, yet they feel like a more serious threat than DA:Is villain who I cannot remember the name of, so for me, TW3 is better, far, far better than DA:I, because it shows me a dark, cruel, world, and fills it with saints and sinners, monsters and knights in sour armour and make me care about them in a way that DA2 and DA:I never managed. 

[midnight tea]

I don't know why the Dlc was canceled in DAII it may had nothing to do with how DAII  sold and they simply decided to shift the whole thing in DAI with the quest of  "What pride had  wrought" so just a design choice.

 

DLCs and games get cancelled all the time, for variety of reasons. It's not a secret though that DAII was given a very short development time and didn't perform as well as DAO (or DAI).

 

I didn't said that DAI was a disappointment but just that 10 million copies are so huge that if DAI  had those relative numbers hide sales wasn't a great strategy to make,there is no reasons to hide something like that.

 

Well EA obviously has reason to not give those numbers - it's a different company from CDPR so has different strategy. We know however that they've called DAI launch "the most successful BW launch to date" and every scrap of information we get from DAI's performance on EA part were positive.

 

 

 

Bioware as a whole is not just DA,they have several projects each projects with different seals numbers each case is individual,I did not meant the company as a whole.

 

You were talking about Bioware as a whole - and a possibility of it being shut if it didn't perform well. Though overall it doesn't matter if you were talking about BW as a whole or just BW Edmonton or DA dev team - DA franchise doesn't appear to be in any danger of cancelling and despite BW working on at least 2 big titles the production has been going for a while now. That is a good sign. 

 

I fixed and corrected my own post.

Yes you meant altered but to my that alteration is not a simple alteration is literally a protagonist story(Hawke) that was replaced by another (The Inq) who inherited their storyline.

 

You admit that they had different plans for Hawke and yet you do not see it as a  problem?

Well i do if  DA is a planned franchise change what was a planned protagonist isn't good and i think they will do the same again in DA4.

 

Of course I don't see it as a problem - I'd see it as a problem if they didn't do anything about it. But they did, they tied things up in a way I've already mentioned:. Hawke was supposed to be Inquisitor, in-universe - but despite Leli and Cass searching or him things eventually went their own way. It's actually pretty fitting for the story, where many people have plans and goals... only for those plans to be changed or ruined by something they either didn't or couldn't predict. It's a consistent theme in DA.

 

So no, I don't see a problem with such changes. Large changes in stories, especially big ones, happen all the time. Did you know that at a time George Lucas released the first Star Wars movies princess Leia and Luke weren't supposed to be siblings, but future lovers? This is exactly why we have a scene in first movie where Leia kisses him, romantically. Thing is the audience - and the screenwriters - liked the interactions between Leia and Han in first movie and created what is generally considered one of the highlights of the whole series.

 

"Poor storytelling"? Hardly. Star War has its problems, but in this case they've managed to tie things up and the whole Leia-Han romance was so good that the whole kiss thing from 1st movie pretty much flies under the radar for most of the audience. And if that can happen with a linear story from a franchise that has experienced *massive* success, changes in stories that are even more complex (and DA story is, especially considering that it's a branching one) and experiencing more hurdles during production are even more inevitable.

 

And for all intents and purposes a decision to make a new protagonist - and add options like races - was a good call. DAI managed to be a success AND it allowed for more variety for story and creation of new highlights for the franchise - you know, like certain popular romances, or new interactions or issues a PC can have.

 

It *could* have been a problem if the story of Inquisitor was specifically tailored for Hawke. Thing is it isn't. The story works well with or without them and both characters work in their own right - it'd work for Hawke, yet again caught in events that they have hardly any control over, and it works for relative nobody caught in events that they have hardly any control over and forced to grow into a role imposed on them by circumstances and society.

 

In fact there are entire threads discussing which Inquisitor is more "fitting" for DAI story, given all the potential conflicts character can be in, aside from the whole 'pretty much forced to lead decaying South in face of grave threat' - is it pious Andrastian Trevelyan who suddenly find themselves at the center of their own faith? Is it a non-human Inquisitor who suddenly becomes a figurehead for humans and has to face with suspicion as well as open racism? Is it Dalish Inquisitor who finds more and more that the culture that they held for dear life is not what they thought it is? Is it a mage Inquisitor who is faced with leading Inquisition in times where mages are thought of as threat? Is it Vashoth Inky who eventually is faced with having to fight Qunari? Is it Dwarf Inquisitor caught between all the racial tensions and confronted with reveals from Descent? The scenarios are opportunities to craft our own fully-realized characters who go through their own hurdles are numerous and varied, depending which background we choose aside from what decisions we make in game.

 

Those are conflicts and smaller stories withing larger narrative neither Witcher nor DA2 could give us, with their relatively well-established protagonists, because the whole story was tailored for them. The customizable protagonist obviously means that the conflict they have in the story isn't as prominent and may require for player to... you know, RP stuff in RPG - but ultimately the story is flexible enough to allow for it. And whether people enjoy stories with more defined characters or those they can shape themselves to higher degree is a matter of personal preference, but BWs decision to go with new, flexible protag for DAI appears to have been pretty well-received and didn't do anything to hurt the story overall. The series moves on and if Trespasser and its reception is any indicator most fans can't wait to see what will happen in DA4.

[midnight tea]

The Witcher is done, Blood and Wine was the last DLC.  Whether we revisit that world with a new protagonist is unknown. 

 

Of course it's an unknown. But the DCPR devs so far are pretty adamant that the "Witcher" (basically, Geralt's story) is done - whether we revisit that universe or not, it's be about someone or something else.

 

It is not the case for Dragon Age - the series and its over-arching narrative continues; in fact if Trespasser and D. Gaider's comments are any indicator it will continue or closely follow the story of Inquisition. There's no need for expansion or any more DLCs, if we're going to get a full game (and all the possible DLCs it will have) in next few years.

[midnight tea]

I thought the whole idea of the protagonist and inquisitor being the same person was dumb, tbh. It would've been more interesting if the PC was not the inquisitor, and the inquisitor was a defined, written character who had to be protected all the time by you and your team.

 

... And how would that serve a larger story in a shape that it is now? How "someone who protects the leader" can ever find themselves in a position that makes them basically a counterpart of the Dread Wolf? You could say that Solas is alluded to have been a protector of Mythal at one point, but the fact is that he didn't stay one and became leader in his own right.

Now, It would be interesting to see if DA4 is like that - with PC either aiding or protecting Inquisitor - but it's obvious why DA3 has the story it has.

 

Plus, you realize that making a defined character means cutting away most of customization, which includes how the world reacts to or, say, who we romance or befriend?

 

And given that Solas reacts to Inquisitor the way he does - a person who had found themselves in similar postilion he did - and thanks to that connects with them stronger than with anyone else, it'd undermine the whole relationship between them - be it romance, friendship or rivalry. A big point of Inquisitor's story is that it mirrors that of Solas's in many respects - forced to lead in face of unimaginable threat, being at the center of massive movement, making world-changing decisions... and not necessarily being rewarded for it, as the world finds new ways to break itself after work seems done.

 

Plus... how we'd be able to create so many world-states or character dynamics if the PC was just a protector and not the leader? Realistically we'd mostly have control over relationships and some smaller details in the bigger story - maybe we'd able to influence Inquisitor somehow, but why would our influence be stronger than that of other NPC protectors? It'd require creating elaborate relationship dynamics between PC and Inquisitor - nevermind Inquisitor and Solas or others. Inquisitor as uncontrollable, defined NPC is simply pointless, *especially* in a scenario where the PC is de-facto the leader. Like.... what would be their point in the story? What would be the PC's point in the story?

 

I mean it's not like the story is undoable and - like I said - it is within the realm of possibility that we'd have something like that in DA4. But in DA4 it'd make sense, especially if we go the dual-protagonist route. It makes no sense in Inquisition.

[midnight tea]

They should make an expansion. Otherwise, what was the point of all that work developing Frostbite3 to work with Inquisition? It' just a waste if they don't do more with it. And by the time DA4 is green-lighted there will probably be some new engine they'll want to use instead.

 

I figured that since we've mentioned numbers and sales and... well... what's been said above, I'll link a recent podcast with two Bioware devs, where they mention interesting things about game development (alongside their E3 Round Up) that are also indicative of strategies Bioware likely took with their games, including DAI or ME.

 

Spoiler

 

It's best to watch the whole thing, but the bit I'm mostly talking about starts around 1 hour mark and go to the meat of the issue around 1:03:05, which dispels a lot of assumptions about the success of the franchise being measured by number of copies sold, among few other things. Below are some relevant excerpts:

"Here's a more game dev'y thing - what people need to understand is: to get through a publisher, to get published, have different goals that you don't know about as consumers. So, when you go pitch a game to the publisher, if this is the first one of that IP - or the first one in new engine - it's a tough sell, but the goals are not "we're gonna sell 20 million copies". That's not how - when you go to Blizzard, EA, Activision or whatever - you're not saying 'oh no this is gonna be 20 million sell', no... you're like "this is the first game of this series - or the first game on this tech. What our goals are to sell... 2 million, or whatever it is. We don't want to sell a lot, but what we need to do is build all the tech. We're proving the tech, we're proving the IP to move forward with this franchise, 'cuz we think 'Game nr 2' and then 'Game nr 3' is where we're gonna ramp it up" and it's a long-term plan that developers pitch.

So when "Watch Dogs 1" comes out and there's a bit of 'oh it's unstable' or 'oh, it's a failure because it sold 5 million copies instead of Asassin's Creed which sells 30 millions.' No, probably Ubisoft as publisher is like "no, if this sells 3 million - we consider it a win, 'cause they're building up the tech. We'll take the loss on this game, 'cause we know we're gonna make two and it's gonna get much, much better, 'cause we have the foundation - the team will be in place, the tool-set, etc."

 

"There's tons of different goals and it's not always all about selling billion copies. Although you want to sell billion copies as a developer and be like 'oh, people love my game', but there's a long-term plan with almost all AAA titles nowadays."

 

"EA's doing a great job now of getting around the same engine. We've seen FIFA going on to the same engine as every other franchise, 'cause now they're benefiting from like... I mean, it's been talked about even at E3 this year - the story mode for 'FIFA 17: The Journey' looks really cool. First time they're ever doing that in the franchise and a lot of it is built on some of the tech we've built at Bioware."

 

They discuss long-term plans and how expensive and complex the game development looks these days for about 15 minutes. I recommend it to anyone interested with behind-the-scenes and realities of creating large games.

 

What we can extract from that very likely concerns DA franchise? Well, obviously that there was pretty much always a long-term plan.

It's also pretty apparent that they've met their goals, if not well exceeded it, proving its tech and robustness of IP to EA.

Now they can build on that - in fact I find the bit with FIFA using some of the story mode tech they've built in Bioware (pretty surely for DAI, since it was their pioneering RPG/story-oriented title in Frostbite) especially interesting, since it confirms what I've thought happens with Frostbite now: the engine evolves the more games are built in it and it will surely benefit all future games using it, be it BW or non-BW titles. Obviously we're going to see even better things in MEA now (especially that they are not restricted by old-gen) and at the time they start seriously working on DA4 the team and tool-set will improve 10 times over thanks to work done across all studios that develop games on the same engine.