Dragon Age - Choice and Consequences

Corwin

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This must be the day for DAO news. IGN has an article that has been linked to the C&C videos we reported a couple of days ago. It makes for interesting reading, so here is something to whet your appetite:
Most RPGs tie the player to a very explicit code of morality, defining their personal character within varying shades of good or evil. In these situations, saving someone would be considered a good act, while killing someone else is frequently seen as a vile deed. These extreme points of view frequently don't take into account that there could be more to these actions than it would initially seem. For example, players might discover that saving a person allows them to commit heinous crimes that you'll have to deal with later, or that killing a supposedly innocent person prevents the deaths of dozens or hundreds of others. On top of this, aside from agreeing or grousing about a decision, the impact on your party is relatively minimal. As a result of these limitations, you play more to a pre-defined sense of good and evil than making your own path, determining what works for you.

Bioware is hoping to break players of these limits in their upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins by eliminating the morality scale that places a character's ethical progression on a good/bad meter. Instead, whenever you come to a conversation with a potential moral dilemma, you're presented with a variety of choices. None of the choices are particularly tinged with any principles that you need to follow or avoid for a particular overall goal; you are given free reign to act however you want in a situation. As a result, you feel as though you're free to act based on what you feel is appropriate to that incident and the characters you're talking to. That's not to say that you won't have to deal with consequences of your actions, because specific decisions that you make will affect the world and characters around you, either resulting in an immediate impact or setting in motion items that would be resolved later. These consequences will also affect your immediate party, potentially improving or destroying your relationships with them outright.
Thanks again Leth
More information.
 
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besides unclear, poor voice acting (but they must think it's cool), they seem to just blatantly advertise a common feature present in several games: despite all those words, they're certainly not reinventing the genre as they claim.
u9-a, misfortunately aided by EA back then, used to advertise its features just as blatantly , but did not deliver.
it still looks like a game that may be worth a try though.
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you must have missed 24 months of advertising then.
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If they've said they're going to re-invent the genre for 24 months, it should be easy for you to provide a source for that claim?

Because if that's indeed what they're claiming, then I think they're kidding themselves.
 
If they've said they're going to re-invent the genre for 24 months, it should be easy for you to provide a source for that claim?

I can confirm I have heard several times, in interviews, they were saying how they're "re-inventing" the gengre by merging "classic rpg elements with next-gen stuff".
 
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Hmm, from what I recall, they've been claiming the exact opposite - that they're going back to their roots of Baldur's Gate? I hardly consider that re-inventing the genre.

Maybe you've been looking too much at what the marketing department has been tossing out? I don't believe a word they're saying; they've lost all credibility. I only read what the actual developers write, as the marketing is just horrible.
 
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For a video that is supposed to represent Choice and Consequence I have to say they could not have made a worse choice…… I mean you can choose whatever you want to get a kiss for helping someone or if you want to get nothing… that's great and all, but I found it amazingly uninteresting, on top of that the face of the poor barmaid look horrible ( I guess they are using facegen a.l.a Oblivion for some NPC's faces… )
 
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http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/news.html?sid=6215368
First thing I found.

"MD: Well I worked on the first Baldur's Gate, and I was lead programmer on Baldur's Gate II. For me, it is about capturing the feeling that you got when you were playing that game. It's about the depth, the breadth of storytelling. It's about tactical choices in combat. It's about everything that made you excited about playing the role-playing game back in the Baldur's Gate days. We're reinventing it and bringing it forward into today and, you know, modernizing it a little bit."

I don't know who are you referring to.. but I don't care that much about what marketing has to say. Just pointing some things out.
 
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http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/dragonage/news.html?sid=6215368
First thing I found.

"MD: Well I worked on the first Baldur's Gate, and I was lead programmer on Baldur's Gate II. For me, it is about capturing the feeling that you got when you were playing that game. It's about the depth, the breadth of storytelling. It's about tactical choices in combat. It's about everything that made you excited about playing the role-playing game back in the Baldur's Gate days. We're reinventing it and bringing it forward into today and, you know, modernizing it a little bit."

I don't know who are you referring to.. but I don't care that much about what marketing has to say. Just pointing some things out.

Ok, it seems you're right :)

But, in this case, he's talking about modernizing the genre - which I guess you could argue Dragon Age is certainly doing. I mean, it's drenched in modern popular aspects, like tons of blood, gore, and naked women ;)

Not exactly MY kind of re-invention, but a re-invention nonetheless.

In fact, it's exactly the kind of re-invention that has been happening for a decade in terms of the gaming industry. They're adapting solid concepts to the mass market, removing things that would not have wide appeal.

If that's not a re-invention, I don't know what is.

"This is the new SHIT"
 
If they've said they're going to re-invent the genre for 24 months, it should be easy for you to provide a source for that claim?

Because if that's indeed what they're claiming, then I think they're kidding themselves.

they simply keep bragging that everyting is going to be next-gen in their game.
it's a marketing choice (very EA-ish), but sometimes it gets annoying.

dont feel bad if you dont get the point of what you read, marketing is sometimes just about that. filling your head with shit to increase expectation about a product.
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WENDIE 99
 
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they simply keep bragging that everyting is going to be next-gen in their game.
it's a marketing choice (very EA-ish), but sometimes it gets annoying.

dont feel bad if you dont get the point of what you read, marketing is sometimes just about that. filling your head with shit to increase expectation about a product.

I generally don't feel bad based on the interpretations of others :)
 
And they're a very obnoxious new shit, coupled with their fanboys and fangirls. Just read the responses to someone who dares to question wise bioware. And tell me you wouldn't pull their heads out?

I think you might be taking it all a bit much to heart, but I get what you're saying.

Marketing in this case has been exceedingly obnoxious, and I can only hope for their sake that it works.

Personally, I'm not expecting much from DA - and I've felt that way ever since I realised what Bioware has become - which happened around Jade Empire, and was confirmed with Mass Effect.

I can't expend too much energy crying over this milk on the floor, but I do sometimes feel the urge ;)
 
Bioware is hoping to break players of these limits in their upcoming RPG, Dragon Age: Origins by eliminating the morality scale that places a character's ethical progression on a good/bad meter.
That's the othing only they were using (at least I can't remember any non-bioware game with this retarded meter) and bam! Now it's stupid and limitating and they are removing this and are advertising something others were doing all the time. No morality metter, oh how awsome!

On top of this, aside from agreeing or grousing about a decision, the impact on your party is relatively minimal
"Our game is limitated and we didn't do this, look how awsome!"

I just… don't know what to say. Is this really an advertising campaign?
 
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