Dragon Age 2 - Interview with Mike Laidlaw at Gamespot - Final Thoughts

[aries100]

Gamespot has a very long (and good) interview with Mike Laidlaw, the game's Lead Designer.
The interview covers the usual info such as DA:O in contrast to DA2, the story in DA2, the followers, the combat, the skills and much much more.
A few snips from the 5page! interview:
On the comparision between DA: Origins and DA2.

I do think Dragon Age II is running up against some elements of Origins, and it's not something we went into completely blind. We certainly knew there would be some friction between what Origins players have come to expect and what Dragon Age II delivers. But I don't see the two in opposition to each other. I've talked to Origins players who said, "As soon as I moved it to hard, I totally see where Origins is again." That's fair, and I think that's something over time we'll continue to tune and capitalize on that fusion between the Origins experience and Dragon Age II.

On combat:

ML: The thing I find most intriguing is the concern that combat has been dumbed down because the earlier fights are less punishing and because they are faster. Somehow this translates immediately into stupid, which I strongly disagree with. There's some balance tweaking that we will continue to do through patches, but really, the things I see in combat are being able to rely on characters to execute orders quickly and being able to rely on cross-class combos, which are a significant step up in terms of their overall usefulness

On feedback:

You have to take a read of what the fans are saying, what reviews are saying, and what the non-fans are saying. Are there people out there who are saying, "I could not play Origins, but love Dragon Age II" or "I couldn't play Origins and this is more of the same." You have to keep your ear to the ground. Look at forums. Take a look at what comments are coming up. What are the common concerns? What are the common perceptions? I think the big key is to not adjust 180 degrees again, because we've done this.

And Mike's final words:

We wanted to make RPGs, especially fantasy RPGs, accessible, cool, and interesting to people who have been playing RPGs for the last seven years and not realizing that every time they ate food or went for a long run in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, they were essentially grinding constitution.
To me, that represents a huge audience that may have disregarded RPGs, especially fantasy, as being too hardcore or too confusing. And making certain changes to make the game palatable without ripping out the mechanics that make RPGs so fascinating to a stats guy or what have you. It keeps this genre evolving into something that's fresh and not stagnating.

Do you agree with Mike Laidlaw?
Thanks to TheConfidenceMan in this thread on the Bioware DA2 forums for finding this.
More information.

 

[Roi Danton]

Can we move on to another game? I want to rant about/defend something else.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Can we move on to another game? I want to rant about/defend something else.

Heh! Just wait until Skyrim comes out....
It seems at least Laidlaw is perfectly at peace with himself and his game. I wonder if his EA overlords share this rosy outlook?

 

[rune_74]

Heh! Just wait until Skyrim comes out….
It seems at least Laidlaw is perfectly at peace with himself and his game. I wonder if his EA overlords share this rosy outlook?

They will only care depending on if they don't get a return on investments, since we don't know the sales yet who knows.

 

[RampantCoyote]

I've got a buddy who is a long-term RPG fan from way back. He's loving DA2, and can't understand the negative reviews at all, though his cooler died on his comp and he hasn't been able to play for a few days while waiting for the replacement. So he acknowledged last night that maybe he just hasn't played it far enough. But as many hours into it as he is, he's thinking it's one of his favorites… right up there with Planescape Torment & the Fallout games (all of 'em…)

I take his opinion very seriously, but I also got bored with DA: Origins pretty quickly and got into older Might & Magic games instead.

 

[aries100]

I, too, wish, we could move on to another game. However, it seems that Bioware (and EA?) are now in full damage mode. And this really comes down to what is an rpg, the age-old question, doesn't it?

I think, maybe, Bioware is trying to break away from the way too formulaic and often used D&D analogy. Many people critizised (rightly so?) DA: Origins for being a D&D rip-off, especially when it came down to its skillsets, its abilities, the gameplay and maybe also the story. Some or many people wanted this stripped away, some or many people wanted to see a more personal story with more focus on politics. Bioware delivers...

And people still complain...

People (including me) want to see their characters do actions in combat right away, (just like in BG1, btw) - not to wait unto the npcs and the pc have moved into position.
I still don't get the reason behind the Ninja-thing for rogues, though _o:

And I bet when The Witcher 2 comes out, people at The Witcher forums will be....somewhat like the people on the Bioware forums are now...maybe...

For people who want to press a button (or two) and watch something awesome happen, there's the casual mode in which you just kill a lot of darkspawn, and the sort of meddles through the story. For people who want more challenging fights, there is hard and nightmare modes...

 

[Couchpotato]

Well Mr Laidlaw can keep his rose tinted goggle on and keep thinking his game is the best thing ever made. Give him a pink slip and see what happens when you release the worst rated game for a supposed AAA developer like Bioware.

From looking at sale reports and online orders it looks like the sales are slowing down fast. Word is getting out the game is not as good as it could of been.

The fanbase is split and Bioware doesn't seem to care about it fans. Also remember in there mind everyone is bi-sexual and cant even write romances. Someone needs to read a romance novel to see how its done. Sigh end of comment ignore if your tired of talking about this game.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

No one liked the eating and exercising shit in San Andreas. NO ONE.

 

[Roi Danton]

Heh! Just wait until Skyrim comes out….
It seems at least Laidlaw is perfectly at peace with himself and his game. I wonder if his EA overlords share this rosy outlook?

Thing is, interviews like that only make sense after a few years. No developer or publisher employee will share the real problems or worries (should they exist) with the public. You just don't do that in any business. And you don't complain about your boss/employer in any official function (i.e. not completely private with family or close friends). Ask again in a few years and you'll probably get far more honest answers.

 

[zahratustra]

People (including me) want to see their characters do actions in combat right away, (just like in BG1, btw) - not to wait unto the npcs and the pc have moved into position.
I still don't get the reason behind the Ninja-thing for rogues, though _o:

***
For people who want to press a button (or two) and watch something awesome happen, there's the casual mode in which you just kill a lot of darkspawn, and the sort of meddles through the story. For people who want more challenging fights, there is hard and nightmare modes…

You enjoy adventure games and I enjoy RPGs. No problem here. But, while there are plenty of adventure games to choose from, RPGs are becoming a rarity nowadays! And some of us are getting pissed off because, according to pre-release hype, DA2 wasn't supposed to be a bloody hack and slash but this is exactly what we got.

 

[Dasale]

RPG aren't a rarity those last years. Wake up from your closed world. For the "hack and slash" it's a so ridiculous comment.

 

[northreign]

RPG aren't a rarity those last years.

Agreed. There's plenty of 'em. More than I will ever play.

 

[Zloth]

What I found interesting was the quick bit about difficulty levels. The purposely designed "Normal" difficulty to be for people new the the genre! That's what easy mode is supposed to be, isn't it? Does the game actually explain what difficulty levels are for what players?

 

[zahratustra]

Agreed. There's plenty of 'em. More than I will ever play.

Ok, with the exception of Divinity 2, name just a few of the "plenty" of RPGs for PC released since the beginning of the last year?

 

[DoctorNarrative]

Ok, with the exception of Divinity 2, name just a few of the "plenty" of RPGs for PC released since the beginning of the last year?

Divinity 2 ain't exactly super rich RPG magnificence… it's only a step or two above Arcania in RPG-ness (though a much better game for other reasons).

Anyway… Fallout: New Vegas is one of my favorite RPGs ever made already and it came out like 4-5 months ago. Dragon Age: Awakening was last year I think. Venetica is another, though I have not played it yet and can't comment on quality. Two Worlds 2 is surprising good with a great magic system. Alpha Protocol I personally loved. Mass Effect 2, if you count it as an RPG.

Some great titles there, and that's just on PC. I know the PS3 had Demon's Souls which I look forward to playing some day when I have a PS3. Xbox had Fable 3 and who knows what else.

On top of that there is all the RPGs I missed in 20+ years of gaming, which is a lot considering for half that time I actually had a life unlike now, lol.

 

[JDR13]

Quantity isn't the problem, quality is.

More and more I seem to enjoy discovering or replaying older crpgs, as opposed to playing what's being released lately.

 

[Nerevarine]

Quantity isn't the problem, quality is.

More and more I seem to enjoy discovering or replaying older crpgs, as opposed to playing what's being released lately.

Same here. The sad thing is that for me, this goes for pretty much every genre and not just RPGs. I hate to use the tired "they sure don't make 'em like they used to" cliche because I am very open to new ideas, but every genre is getting more and more "streamlined" to the point that I have a very hard time getting engaged in the majority of newer games, regardless of genre.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

Nothing will ever live up to the classics guys, that's how the brain works. Nostalgia is a bitch.

 

[zahratustra]

Quantity isn't the problem, quality is.

Couldn't agree more JDR! Let's look at your list DoctorNarrative:

1- Fallout: New Vegas - not a bad game but, just like Fallout 3, it's action rpg or really an action game with bits of RPG thrown into the pot;
2- Dragon Age: Awakening - just an addon and not a game;
3- Two Worlds 2 - indeed! It is on my "get it" list;
4- Venetica - from what I am reading it's another action game with skill-trees and levelling system added so that it could be called "RPG";
5- Alpha Protocol - started but couldn't be bothered to finish. It's labelled as "The Espionage RPG" but (IMO) it's again an action game very much in ME 2 mold just not as good;
6- Mass Effect 2 - played and liked it. Not an RPG through...

 

[zahratustra]

Nothing will ever live up to the classics guys, that's how the brain works. Nostalgia is a bitch.

Not quite true DN. The Witcher (just as an example) was as good as classics IMO.