BioWare - Checking Out Skyrim for Dragon Age 3

Wired has comments from Dr. Ray Muzyka that BioWare is "checking out" Skyrim, although the suggestion that might take any real inspiration seems unlikely to me, especially given the doctor goes on to say "I’ve seen something in the last couple of weeks that is really the future of that franchise", which suggests they are (unsurprisingly) well into the design, if not the production. Anyway, here's the quote:

“We’re checking [Skyrim] out aggressively. We like it. We’re big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product,” he said. “We think we can do some wonderful things.”
“[The next Dragon Age] is gonna have the best of features from the prior Dragon Age games, but it’s also gonna have a lot of things I think players are gonna find compelling from some of the games that are out now that are doing really well with more of an open world feel,” Muzyka said.

Thanks to Frozen Fireball, via GameInformer.
More information.

If the result will be even similar to Dragon Age 2, they can keep it.
IMHO it's just incredible how they've almost destroyed the brand compared to Origins…
Well, I hope anyway that the third chapter will be at least a return to Origins…

Please, please NO!!!

Skyrim is the worst game I've ever played in my life. Please Bioware, stay far, far away from it.

Dragon age's strength lies in the very fact that it is NOT SKYRIM!

Even if Dragon Age 3 isn't as good as the first game, I will still buy it, just to support Bioware (who are at least trying) but I will never buy another Bethesda game, not after this disgusting insult to PC gamers that is Skyrim.

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
Please, please NO!!!

Skyrim is the worst game I've ever played in my life. Please Bioware, stay far, far away from it.

Dragon age's strength lies in the very fact that it is NOT SKYRIM!

Even if Dragon Age 3 isn't as good as the first game, I will still buy it, just to support Bioware (who are at least trying) but I will never buy another Bethesda game, not after this disgusting insult to PC gamers that is Skyrim.

Everyone is entitled to their own oppinion.

I have played RPG games since 1980. Starting with original Rogue that was running on a computer that is less than todays chip in a music postcard.

I played well, probably all PC RPGs ever released. And except of that am playing and mastering pen and paper games since 80s too.


In my oppinion Skyrim, with all it faults (and it has many) is best RPG ever released. And its only going to get better.

Until now that laureate belonged to Baldurs Gate 2.
But Dragon Age , tried hard to be BG. But it was far far from it. Perhaps just a tickle in nostalgia bone.
Dragon Age 2 was a money grab joke.
Dragon Age 3 , may be good if real Bioware develops it…

But you want to hear a secret ?
There is no more Bioware. They closed forever.
Its EA now.

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
Please, please NO!!!

Skyrim is the worst game I've ever played in my life. Please Bioware, stay far, far away from it.

Dragon age's strength lies in the very fact that it is NOT SKYRIM!

Even if Dragon Age 3 isn't as good as the first game, I will still buy it, just to support Bioware (who are at least trying) but I will never buy another Bethesda game, not after this disgusting insult to PC gamers that is Skyrim.

Bioware fun-boy here, huh? What exactly are they trying to do, apart from almost destroying the brand?
I agree that maybe they should look elsewhere if they want to do a real sequel of Origins, but calling Skyrim a "disgusting insult for PC gamers", well, it's too much.

"But you want to hear a secret ?
There is no more Bioware. They closed forever.
Its EA now."

Unfortunately, yes.

Ok, I know, I know, I shouldn't be so hateful about this. But Skyrim is a strange beast, those that love it, REALLY love it, and those that hate it (like me) REALLY hate it! There are no shades of grey.

But this is an article about Dragon Age, so I'll just quote these comments from PC Gamer that clarify it much more eloquently than I did:

NaturalDre says:
02:45am December 21 2011

I'm sorry, but I loved DA1 the way it was, the combat could have been better, but I DON'T want the formula to change. I found DA1 to a perfect game, it captured me in a way no other game did. I don't want a game like Skyrim. I WANT DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS (Not literally for you jokers out there). Whatever I guess, if it's what the majority wants it what they want, majority rules after all.

Woodsey says:
02:57am December 21 2011

But why? They're both fantasy RPGs (such a wide label its almost useless) with dragons. So what? They have a cross-over in lore if you're not interested in digging too deep, gameplay-wise they have almost nothing in common.

If people ate up Origins then take inspiration from ORIGINS, and from the games that inspired that.

I agree with the above quotes, they should take inspiration from the first Dragon Age game, not from a completely different franchise.

Actually there are shades of gray in every RPG unless you are a fanboy or hater. Skyrim is a good game but far from being "TEH BEST RPG EVER!!!11111oneone". You really haven't played many games if you make a claim like that.

Anyway, it's sad to see that someone actually cares for EA and wants to "support them" when they do nothing to support their own customers.

They're not checking out Skyrim, they're checking out the amount of copies shipped.

Playing lots of other games (especially successful ones) and evaluating what kinds of features might work for your own project is a normal part of the dev process. Since there are so few AAA RPGs released each year is it really so shocking that they would be playing Skryim these days?

Personally, if Bioware completely aped Skyrim and published a massive open world, non-linear Thedas RPG with lots of factions, hundreds of locations and side quests, etc., I would eat it up with a big grin on my face.

Obviously that's not going to happen!

Maybe their experience playing Skyrim will result in some tiny influences here and there, but they are just as likely to copy some feature from any of the other games they are probably playing, such as ME3 (or even BF3).

You are certainly entitled to your own opinion and I will in no way attempt to belittle that Tiptoe but I must admit that I'm a bit surprised at your vehement loathing of Skyrim. Why do you hate it that much?

Is it Skyrim in particular or merely the Bethesda style of making games? (which would mean that you probably hate all of their games including Fallout 3)

I don't know what they are looking aggressively in Skyrim , TES games are single player, single character , open roam worlds while Dragon age series are party / turn based (mostly) railroading ones . The main problem of DA is not the open world but the combat mechanics and the whole party thing , unless you are an old school RPGer party based thing is repulsive.
Getting "the very best" of their previous games ain't gonna help them much , they have to turn this thing into aRPG Skyrim wise IMO .

Originally Posted by Tiptoe
But Skyrim is a strange beast, those that love it, REALLY love it, and those that hate it (like me) REALLY hate it! There are no shades of grey.

Not true. I find it a very good game, but I do not love it. There are always shades of grey and I dislike when people try to claim otherwise. I rarely love, nor hate, anything. In fact I often like and dislike things at the same time and I doubt I am alone.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
They're not checking out Skyrim, they're checking out the amount of copies shipped.

This.

and

'how can we associate ourselves with some of that success without actually doing anything?'

Without doing more than absolutely necessary, rather

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Without doing more than absolutely necessary, rather

Do you think they'll actually do anything? Words are cheap and they can probably get the same effect just by saying 'we looked at Skyrim' - people will jump to the conclusion that they're actively incorporating elements of Skyrim, but nothing in the statement says anything of the sort.

Originally Posted by kalniel
Do you think they'll actually do anything? Words are cheap and they can probably get the same effect just by saying 'we looked at Skyrim' - people will jump to the conclusion that they're actively incorporating elements of Skyrim, but nothing in the statement says anything of the sort.

I think they will try to incorporate some of the same open world appeal - just like they said. But I don't think we should expect much

I do not want DA3 to have a bethesda touch or feel.

From bioware games I want story, characters and immersion. I dont want a sandbox with robots moving around aimlessly.

I cant stress it enough, for me the best of biowares games have been all about the characters you meet and the story. So far I havent managed to finish a single bethesda game (FO3, Oblivion). I will try Skyrim and for what Ive read its a good game, but im not so sure that its a game for me.

If I have to choose between open world or story and immersion, I´ll go for story and immersion every time.


C

I tend to agree that Bioware should probably stay away from what they don't know shit about.

I'd rather they worked on gameplay and mechanics - and tried to sheer away from the incredibly rigid and predictable structure they've been using since KotOR.

But they should definitely stick with a strong narrative and engaging characters. I wouldn't go Skyrim, that's for sure.

Perhaps more like Baldur's Gate. But DA:O was sufficiently open for my part, really.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
They're not checking out Skyrim, they're checking out the amount of copies shipped.

Absolutely.

I don't believe for a second they will take anything significant from Skyrim as such. It's certainly possible DA3 is more open - but that decision would have already been made. A company the size of EA would expect every project carefully scoped - the broad design has already been laid out, in my opinion.

I've also seen BioWare make too many comments about "that would take too many resources" and "we need to carefully weigh content that wouldn't be used by the majority of players" - a more closed, linear design is built into their DNA.

Still, I'd quite enjoy a happy medium between the two, so fingers crossed for the result.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Still, I'd quite enjoy a happy medium between the two, so fingers crossed for the result.

It was called Fallout:NV, and I am afraid it will be quite sometime before we see something
similar…

I really don't expect anything from Bioware after DA2…