Dragon Age: Inquisition - 2015 Release?

azarhal said:

Even before the BSN was created (aka in the old DAO forums and before EA was in the picture) the devs didn't hide the fact that each new game in the DA franchise would have a different protagonist. That was the plan from day one, it's not a "post-EA" thing.

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(sigh…) Sorry, but I'm going to call you on this one.

Unlike today, I was a daily follower of the Bio forums, both before and after BSN, because I loved Mass Effect (11/2007) and was obsessed with this new universe they were creating with Dragon Age: Origins. I soaked up every word the devs and PR folks were saying about the game. Hell I even read the novels…

When DAO (11/09) came out, they had long since made the decision and announcement that your character in Mass Effect would continue into ME2 (and later ME3) which was to release a few months later. BioWare did everything they could to suggest that the whole point of the origin stories in DAO was so that the character you created can continue beyond the first game— presumably for a 2, possibly 3 game arc as had already been decided for Mass Effect. If you can somehow dig up posts from 2009, you'll see that they (devs, moderators, writers) all but outright said that the story of your protagonist will continue, as it did with Baldurs Gate— which they also repeatedly compared DAO to.

Then suddenly there was a huge shift, which many including me believe was EA-invoked and DA2 became an awesome button story of self discovery in a boring city by a man named Hawk, instead of the sweeping 3 game arc that I guarantee you was planned involving your Origins character. In addition, there were significant art style changes. There were significant system changes, etc. It was a complete reboot of Dragon Age. It was EA'inized so that it could appeal to a younger, less patient audience.

In addition, DAO was in development too long for it to have been a single game concept. I think it took them something like 5 years to do it, which is crazy even by the old-school game production standards. It was meant to be much more, and I'd bet EA didn't want to spend the money to do it.

So here we are with DA3. It was delayed once already, by a year I guess. Now this? Something's up. I think BioWare saw what Witcher 3 is turning into and figured they should take another look at it.

ChaosTheory said:

(sigh…) Sorry, but I'm going to call you on this one.

Unlike today, I was a daily follower of the Bio forums, both before and after BSN, because I loved Mass Effect (11/2007) and was obsessed with this new universe they were creating with Dragon Age: Origins. I soaked up every word the devs and PR folks were saying about the game. Hell I even read the novels…

When DAO (11/09) came out, they had long since made the decision and announcement that your character in Mass Effect would continue into ME2 (and later ME3) which was to release a few months later. BioWare did everything they could to suggest that the whole point of the origin stories in DAO was so that the character you created can continue beyond the first game— presumably for a 2, possibly 3 game arc as had already been decided for Mass Effect. If you can somehow dig up posts from 2009, you'll see that they (devs, moderators, writers) all but outright said that the story of your protagonist will continue, as it did with Baldurs Gate— which they also repeatedly compared DAO to.

Then suddenly there was a huge shift, which many including me believe was EA-invoked and DA2 became an awesome button story of self discovery in a boring city by a man named Hawk, instead of the sweeping 3 game arc that I guarantee you was planned involving your Origins character. In addition, there were significant art style changes. There were significant system changes, etc. It was a complete reboot of Dragon Age. It was EA'inized so that it could appeal to a younger, less patient audience.

In addition, DAO was in development too long for it to have been a single game concept. I think it took them something like 5 years to do it, which is crazy even by the old-school game production standards. It was meant to be much more, and I'd bet EA didn't want to spend the money to do it.

So here we are with DA3. It was delayed once already, by a year I guess. Now this? Something's up. I think BioWare saw what Witcher 3 is turning into and figured they should take another look at it.

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Everything you are saying is based solely on personal expectations based on their previous games. I'm amazed. After reading your last post, might I suggest that you change your name to ConspiracyTheory?

I was in the old DAO forums, I saw the dev's posts and since then the devs are still saying the same thing they have said since the beginning: the DA franchise is about Thedas and each game will have a different player character. There has been no change here even if you want to believe their was one.

As for the comment of the EA CFO, if you had being following the current forums as you claim to be a fan, you would have seen dev saying they didn't ask for another delay and that if the game end up with one it's because they are late and that features will be cut.

Isn't this a bit beside the point azarhal? DA2 WAS a shift away from DA:O no matter if characters from the first game were supposed to appear in the next ones or not.

One thing we can always count on - regardless of what Bioware does, azarhal will defend them to his dying breath.

I don't know if it was planned or not - but I fully expected DAO to be the first part of a trilogy through which my character would evolve.

Also, I was quite disappointed when Mass Effect turned out to have a crappy character system - and that the sequels didn't import class and stats from my character.

Essentially, I expect too much of developers.

JDR13 said:

One thing we can always count on - regardless of what Bioware does, azarhal will defend them to his dying breath.

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So he has a bit of a problem… Since Bioware is now, apparently, shifting away from DA2, what is he supposed to defend? DA2 or the shift?

Starting over with a new character was the least of DA2:s many problems. I didnt really mind losing my character. I rather have that than the usual convoluted excuse for resetting my demi-god to level 1.

Given the end of DAO (where your main character could end up dead or king) it didnt make much sense for that character to carry over.

And on a side note the ME:s do import class, and ME3 imports stats from ME2.

Zaleukos said:

Starting over with a new character was the least of DA2:s many problems. I didnt really mind losing my character. I rather have that than the usual convoluted excuse for resetting my demi-god to level 1.

Given the end of DAO (where your main character could end up dead or king) it didnt make much sense for that character to carry over.

And on a side note the ME:s do import class, and ME3 imports stats from ME2.

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They certainly ignored my stats from the first game, which is the problem. Ok, so the class is kept you say, but what good is that.

Yeah, it was a little weird how some of the class abilities were changed between ME1 and ME2, but I didn't find that to be a big deal tbh. The fact that your class and decisions carried over was good enough for me. I don't expect to start a sequel at level 40.

A more significant complaint imo is that many of your decisions didn't actually matter.

ChaosTheory said:

When DAO (11/09) came out, they had long since made the decision and announcement that your character in Mass Effect would continue into ME2 (and later ME3) which was to release a few months later. BioWare did everything they could to suggest that the whole point of the origin stories in DAO was so that the character you created can continue beyond the first game— presumably for a 2, possibly 3 game arc as had already been decided for Mass Effect. If you can somehow dig up posts from 2009, you'll see that they (devs, moderators, writers) all but outright said that the story of your protagonist will continue, as it did with Baldurs Gate— which they also repeatedly compared DAO to.

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My impressions from sporadic visits to the BSN (also ME1 inspired, btw) was that perhaps your character would not carry forward, but your choices and consequences would. That was definitely the vibe given off by the devs imho. I guess for a definitive resolution we could ask ex-lead Brent Knowles who now runs his own blog and is a decent enough guy to enough to respond to any question in the comments to any entry?

Back to DA3 - reading that EA statement it almost seems as though they're afraid DA3 in that release window would compete with sister products like ... Battlefield 4 or the Sims. If they were making DA3 an RPG it could release on the very same hour as Battlefield 4 and there would be no cross-poaching of sales as these are two consumer groups with generally little overlap.

JDR13 said:

One thing we can always count on - regardless of what Bioware does, azarhal will defend them to his dying breath.

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Admittedly I don't follow the BioWare forums much anymore, and probably won't until the next Mass Effect is announced, so I'm sure Azarhal is far more well informed with any current project over there. That said, what a PR man says is occurring is rarely what's actually occurring. I hope DAI is as good as some of the stuff we've seen, because they have a lot of fences to mend if this franchise is going anywhere, anymore.

I also regularly defend BioWare, though. Despite some letdowns lately, they are still the "imagineers" of RPG gaming— especially when it comes to character storytelling. Mass Effect was my single greatest gaming experience ever as a result of the folks they created to join you on your adventure.

My issue is that EA swooped in and gutted what would have been a similar experience had Dragon Age actually continued in its intended form after Origins.

ChaosTheory said:

I also regularly defend BioWare, though. Despite some letdowns lately, they are still the "imagineers" of RPG gaming— especially when it comes to character storytelling. Mass Effect was my single greatest gaming experience ever as a result of the folks they created to join you on your adventure.

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If Bioware are the "imagineers of RPG gaming" right now then that doesn't bode well for RPGs in general.

Quite JDR. If Bioware are indeed the "imagineers of RPG gaming" where does it place the really imaginative teams like CD Projekt or Larian (never mind some VERY imaginative Kickstarter projects)?