Having said previously I thought I'd (sort of) reached a level of acceptance, in fact don't think I have fully other than recognising what we are getting. I still find myself feeling disappointed at what is being left out of Awakenings and a bit annoyed that they e.g. aren't providing some real accommodation for scenarios that actually fit into the Awakenings story. Like Wournos with his dwarf, I want my human male to explore Awakenings
with Leliana; after all, that's in the epilogue. Frankly, I'm not yet sure if I will want to play an expansion which is linked to but waters down the Origins experience.
However, I'm still having a blast playing Origins. It's a great game. I still have a number of scenarios to act out with other (unfinished) characters and I've already started a new warden to repeat exactly the story of my main one and eventually replace him. The reason is to use the experience from the first to build a stronger character and then park him up, just in case there will be a future opportunity to continue the story of him and his companion. That will give me plenty of time to read any feedback from other people's experience of playing Awakenings and finally make up my mind whether to get it.
Incidentally, by chance I came across a couple of interviews with Ray Muzyka, chief of BW, about what they were trying to achieve with their games. One is with Virgin in September and the other is with VideoGamer in November. They both say a lot about BWs vision at the time and are an informative read.
Here are a couple of small snippets, one from each:
"...the harder (emotions) to achieve are fondness, regret, sadness, genuine feeling that a romance is actually real. We're getting close to it but we're not quite there. But we're going to reach that point and break through it, like movies have. Movies have broken through that, but they've had a hundred years to develop their craft. Video games have had about 30 now, and the best is still to come."
"We're trying for emotional engagement. Moment to moment, and also on a grander level, we're trying to make the players feel their choices matter. Ideally they're going to care about the companions they bring alongside them, or dislike them for that matter. They're both equally valid expressions of emotion. You can like or dislike, but so long as you're feeling something for the companions you bring alongside you, then we're winning in a sense. We're compelling a reaction that is rewarding to the players, where they can feel like, yeah, I'm getting something back from this game. It's more than playing through a series of dialogue options and choices. It's more about, I'm starting to care about these characters or dislike them more, to feel something. It's hard, but when you achieve it it's rewarding."
I think they have made some good progress in those directions with Origins. I'm not sure if Awakenings is going to sufficiently maintain that momentum.
The full interviews are here:
http://videogames.vi...ray_muzyka.htmlhttp://www.videogame...ray_muzyka.htmlP.S. Reading those interviews makes me think it will be likely that DA2 will continue to take forward Muzyka's vision, and at least as that is to be the next major game in the story, it's more likely the necessary development time and money will be invested.
Modifié par Aybeden, 08 mars 2010 - 05:35 .
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