DA:Inquisition - David Gaider Interview

GameReactor.eu has talked to David Gaider at this years Gamelab in Barcelona. Topics being discussed were The Witcher, Star Wars, inclusitivty and writing characters.

Here's a quote about on Bioware writes characters and dialogue:

What would you say about what goes into character-specific writing and the dialogue between characters, NPCs, etc?

A lot of writing. We had about eleven or twelve major characters [in DAI], and each of them had a long personal character arc, some had romances... So I have a team of up to seven other writers, but it's not just the writers. We're working in conjunction with tactical designers, with artists, with the programmers, there's an entire team of people..... So it starts with the writers, we're proposing the ideas, and if it catches on with the rest of the team, then we start breaking it out further.

Click to expand...

Here's a quote about the topic for David Gaider's speech at Gamesklab 2015:

<strong style="font-size: 1em;">"Storytelling: challenge vs expectation", that's what you're talking about here at Gamelab 2015. What can you share about this speech? [/b]

The premise is that when we're making narrative for videogames, there's an expectation for players when they come into it, in that they haven't trained to look on narrative as one type of thing. If you look at narrative in a movie, or a book, it's very linear and it requires no interaction. But that's what most people think of as narrative, so when they think of narrative in a videogame, they think it's like a movie or book but better, and the "better" is supposed to come when you have agency.

Click to expand...

More information.

And I'll quote what I believe is the most important thing from this interview:

What is the main feedback you took from players on Dragon Age: Inquisition?

It would be just the players want to see the exploration areas sort of incorporated a lot more tightly into the story, have a bit more fleshed out writing. I was playing The Witcher 3 recently and I think they actually did a really good job with their side quests, sort of making them feel alive, have interesting characters, and things like that. People are accustomed to BioWare games just being sort of chock-full of story, and I think that's going to be the team's main goal.

Click to expand...

joxer said:

And I'll quote what I believe is the most important thing from this interview:

Click to expand...

Good to see David Gaider acknowledge this, Hopefully DA4 will be much better since I still like the DA universe.

I finished Witcher 3 a month ago and started playing Inquisition today, because I was itching for another RPG.

The difference is startling.

In TW3, first I get greeted by two beautiful well written CGI intros, then get stunning prologue at Kaer Morhen, right with the first cutscene being funny and charming, and only getting better from there.

In Inqusition, I get ugly non-intro with some green goo exploding, and some hogwash about breaches and blights and green glowing lights, all delivered in a completely mundane way.

I really hope it will get better.

Sorry but it won't. It's still a good game. But...

I honestly suggest you to put Inquisition on hold for a while. TW3 tends to completely destroy the next game you play. I probably wouldn't be so bored with FarCry4 if I didn't turn it on right after TW3.
My suggestion is to play some cards or MMO after TW3 for a couple of weeks before returning to normal singleplayer RPGs.

joxer said:

Sorry but it won't. It's still a good game. But…

I honestly suggest you to put Inquisition on hold for a while. TW3 tends to completely destroy the next game you play. I probably wouldn't be so bored with FarCry4 if I didn't turn it on right after TW3.
My suggestion is to play some cards or MMO after TW3 for a couple of weeks before returning to normal singleplayer RPGs.

Click to expand...

I'm with Joxer here. There was a short discussion on a Dutch-language gamer forum about this phenomenon and the consensus is that other RPG's / fantasy games can be very disappointing.

Aside from that, I don't agree with Joxer that DA:I is a good game, but it's not bad and decent value for money. 7/10-ish in my opinion, could have been higher if it weren't for the fact it's a game that easily outlasts its welcome for some people, including me...
Keep it aside for a rainy day sometime in, oh, late 2016.

I'm shifting my attention temporarily to strategy games, Age of Wonders with the expansions and CK2 with all of its DLC

Well that's the thing, I have already waited a month not playing anything because I just felt like nothing would be able to match TW3
And I mostly play RPGs, for story and exploration…and I already played everything else on the market, pretty much. So beggars can't be choosers..

Yes, you should never follow a game with a same-type game, it can only lead to fatique IMO - unless it's a same-title marathon where you've intended a marathon mindset of doing the whole trilogy (or however many there is).

Heck, I even got bored of Heroes of Might and Magic III (the widely felt best of the series by far) solely because I'd played I & II back-to-back and didn't leave barely any break time. In reality they would have been released year/s apart.

I'd recommend switching to something completely the opposite of Witcher 3 for your next game. Something heavy on detailed mechanics and character classes, barely any cinematics and a more linear approach. There are many such games around at the moment, most of which are extremely cheap but equally time consuming and addictive.

Then, when you've got fed-up of spending 10 minutes per battle for a few weeks you'll be once again gagging for some open world cinema and novelised dialogue.

I guess not. However, this has given me an idea for a thread and possibly a poll