Dragon Age - E3 Previews @ Joystiq

Joystiq is another site struggling to understand BioWare's marketing direction with Dragon Age and they're not really buying the sex angle, either:

Despite being set in ye olde fantasy lands of impossibly large swords and questionable female attire, there's something anachronistic about Dragon Age: Origins. An uncomfortable, zealously juvenile spirit seems to permeate the dragon-slaying proceedings, a feeling that seems to linger even after the game's obnoxious marketing has left the room. Paring BioWare's scenes of war and blood and guts with a Marilyn Manson tune is such a strained ploy, it's almost embarrassing.

The thing is, not all of Dragon Age's awkwardness comes from the suits on the upper floor -- sometimes they come from the clothes discarded in front of a romantic campfire. BioWare is really playing up your character's playboy tendencies, chatting up members of his party, plying them with gifts (that have immediate stats and ability benefits) and weighing up his futures with the adorable redhead or the hard-edged sorceress. It's wrapped up in BioWare's traditional dialogue menus (a strange regression from Mass Effect), but approached -- at least in EA's E3 walkthrough -- with the verve of Grey's Anatomy. And you thought leathery-skinned fire breathers were the only things those two had in common.

Meanwhile, 1Up has video of the dragon attack that has been mentioned in several previews.
More information.

Why is the sex/romance thing such big news for Dragon Age? The Witcher had the exact same thing where you could give gifts and woo the ladies into "rendezvous"…

And I don't remember people coming out of the woodwork criticizing the game for it…the few moral objectors sure but not the game crowd in general.

Seems a bit overly sensitive and hypercritical to me.

Originally Posted by Roland
Why is the sex/romance thing such big news for Dragon Age? The Witcher had the exact same thing where you could give gifts and woo the ladies into "rendezvous"…

Attention. Nothing more. It generates attention.

Plus, within the game, it's nice because it could attract "different" players. More social oriented ones. It would be a cliché if I said that this might attract new female players as well.

I foresee that elements from The SIMs will be incorporated in future role playing games … In some years, eventually.

Originally Posted by Roland
Why is the sex/romance thing such big news for Dragon Age? The Witcher had the exact same thing where you could give gifts and woo the ladies into "rendezvous"…

And I don't remember people coming out of the woodwork criticizing the game for it…the few moral objectors sure but not the game crowd in general.

Seems a bit overly sensitive and hypercritical to me.

Show me the E3 presentation of The Witcher where a lead developer kicked off the show with "Let me show you how you have sex in the game. See, if you press "A" faster, you thrust harder".

It's causing a fuss because it's the focus from the BioWare presenter. Sex was in The Witcher but they didn't spend all their time talking about it. They talked about choices and the results.