Dragon Age Writer Prefers "Polarization" to Apathy

[Andy Chalk]

Dragon Age Writer Prefers "Polarization" to Apathy

The intensity of the "polarized" reaction to Dragon Age 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Age-2-Pc/dp/B0047THYWC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1312309734&sr=8-3] was a shock to lead writer David Gaider, but he says it's still better than apathy from the audience.

The release of Dragon Age 2 brought with it some pretty strong reactions from gamers, both positive and negative. Nearly 500 people vented their spleens in response to the very positive review [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8701-Dragon-Age-II-Review] here at The Escapist, expressing love and hate for the game with more or less equal fervor.

That everyone seemed to have an opinion didn't come as a great surprise, Gaider told Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6444/the_writing_of_biowares_dragon_.php?page=3], but the apparent burning need to express those opinions at maximum volume sure did. "If there's anything that's surprising, it's just how polarizing the reaction has been," he said. "There's a lot of love for Dragon Age among our fans, and that love can translate into passion."

"In my opinion, that's better than apathy, even if it forces you to filter out the extremes," he continued. "However, the criticism should not be dismissed as simple nostalgia. There are fans who felt disappointed... and there's a feeling [on our team] that we want to improve from the groundwork we've laid down."

But while lessons have been learned and will be applied to future releases, he also acknowledged that some gamers are bound to be unhappy no matter what the studio does with the franchise. "At the end of the day, Dragon Age can't be everything to everyone," he said. "So we simply have to pick a direction and make it the best experience we can."



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[Zhukov]

Huh.

Well, that's one way of looking at it I suppose. Although I guess the guy has to keep up a brave face for the sake of PR, regardless of circumstances.

Personally I enjoyed DA2 about as much as I did DA:O. And I love ME2. On the other hand, I found KOTOR to be a dreary slog. So I guess Bioware's much-maligned "new direction" gets a big ol' thumbs up from me.

(PS. Put "Dragon Age 2" in article title. Instant traffic ensues.)

 

[mad825]

You're calling my love for a game that you released in 2009 nostalgia now? Christ sake, no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."

nostalgia is a very generalised and subjective word. He's right under the pretence to what Dragon Age was and now is.

OT:...Dragon Age is forever doomed.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

DA2 did a few things right: simplifying the combat, telling a single unified story, giving the main character a voice.

Yes, dungeon design was horrendous and reeked of laziness, and the dialog wheel was confusing at times, and the game felt repetitive to the point of nausia, but I don't think it fully deserves the hate that it got in it's reception.

 

[shadowmagus]

*grabs popcorn*

The rage from this is going to be delicious. I love watching rage.

 

[Paragon Fury]

I'm fairly certain that when almost every feature of your new game can be put next to the same or similar features from the previous game and objectively turn out inferior in pretty much any form, the game sucks and you should ignore anything in it.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Yeah, I'm not listening to a guy who blew off complaints about the retconning that he and his writing staff made in DA2. He got all huffy when someone had the gall to bring up the fact that Leliana and Zevran are quite dead on numerous players' files. His response? Deal with it. I can see that he cares so much about our input.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

Well I'm glad to see that at least SOMEONE is listening to their fans ...

 

[drisky]

"In my opinion, that's better than apathy, even if it forces you to filter out the extremes," he continued. "However, the criticism should not be dismissed as simple nostalgia. There are fans who felt disappointed... and there's a feeling [on our team] that we want to improve from the groundwork we've laid down."

Wuhh...WHAT?!

You're calling my love for a game that you released in 2009 nostalgia now? Christ sake, no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."

Hense the whole "should not" they are saying your love for Origins is not do to nostalgia, and neither are the ones who held it to Balder's Gates standards which he was more likely referring to. It seems you missed the point there.

 

[Avatar Roku]

"In my opinion, that's better than apathy, even if it forces you to filter out the extremes," he continued. "However, the criticism should not be dismissed as simple nostalgia. There are fans who felt disappointed... and there's a feeling [on our team] that we want to improve from the groundwork we've laid down."

Wuhh...WHAT?!

You're calling my love for a game that you released in 2009 nostalgia now? Christ sake, no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."

He said it should not be dismissed as that. So he's explicitly saying it's not just that =/

You're also the only one bringing up the word 'outdated'.

Beat me to it. In addition...

"In my opinion, that's better than apathy, even if it forces you to filter out the extremes," he continued. "However, the criticism should not be dismissed as simple nostalgia. There are fans who felt disappointed... and there's a feeling [on our team] that we want to improve from the groundwork we've laid down."

Wuhh...WHAT?!

You're calling my love for a game that you released in 2009 nostalgia now? Christ sake, no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."

And FYI, getting half of your fan base to hate your new games is NOT preferable to everybody quietly enjoying them like they did with DA:O. It sold much better than DA2, did it not?

In the end, though, the writing wasn't among the worst aspects of DA2. Sure, the story went absolutely nowhere and the ending sucked enough to pull a golf ball through a garden hose, but all of that could have been forgiven had the game required more than one brain cell to complete.

I'm thinking that he means from a writer's perspective, not a business man's perspective. I can see where he's coming from with that. After all, you're only going to remember the games that are really good or really bad. So-so ones will just fade out of public consciousness. Not saying DA:O was so-so, though. I don't think he was saying that either, DA:O will certainly be remembered as a great game. What he was saying was simply that, if the response couldn't be overwhelmingly positive, some people loving it and some people hating it is better than everyone thinking it's mediocre.

EDIT: That last paragraph is referring to the part in your post which I bolded.

 

[AlternatePFG]

"So we simply have to pick a direction and make it the best experience we can."

That's the thing though, you didn't pick a direction. Dragon Age 2 is obviously a game that didn't know what it wanted to be. Some of it seems like a tactical RPG and some features are more action RPG. Nothing wrong with either choice, but the way you combined them simply didn't work. ME2 was a great game, it knew what it was. Dragon Age: Origins was a great game, it knew what it was.

Yeah, I'm not listening to a guy who blew off complaints about the retconning that he and his writing staff made in DA2. He got all huffy when someone had the gall to bring up the fact that Leliana and Zevran are quite dead on numerous players' files. His response? Deal with it. I can see that he cares so much about our input.

Pretty much this. Everything that Gaider says is bullshit.

 

[4173]

"In my opinion, that's better than apathy, even if it forces you to filter out the extremes," he continued. "However, the criticism should not be dismissed as simple nostalgia. There are fans who felt disappointed... and there's a feeling [on our team] that we want to improve from the groundwork we've laid down."

Wuhh...WHAT?!

You're calling my love for a game that you released in 2009 nostalgia now? Christ sake, no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."

Hense the whole "should not" they are saying your love for Origins is not do to nostalgia, and neither are the ones who held it to Balder's Gates standards which he was more likely referring to. It seems you missed the point there.

No, I understood. Just the fact that he's using that terminology gives me the sense that they're now looking at that type of gameplay as outdated. That, and the state in which they released DA2.

He may have been referring to nostalgia for Balder's Gate era games.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Well I'm glad to see that at least SOMEONE is listening to their fans ...

Hopefully. I've got my fingers crossed that all the PR-speak is entirely EA's doing and that David Gaider et al. will actually learn from their mistakes.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

If Legacy is any indication, they listened to the complaints and did their best to fix them. Legacy shows what Dragon Age 2 should have been from the start. Here's hoping the rest of the DLC is this good, and that Dragon Age 3 ends up being a balance between Origins and 2.

 

[Kahunaburger]

If Legacy is any indication, they listened to the complaints and did their best to fixed them. Legacy shows what Dragon Age 2 should have been from the start. Here's hoping the rest of the DLC is this good, and that Dragon Age 3 ends up being a balance between Origins and 2.

That's a good point. Even though paid DLC is another serious issue with the series, the fact that they did it better in Legacy probably indicates that either A) they're learning, or B) DA2 in general needed to be refined more.

 

[Seives-Sliver]

I honestly didn't like the game solely because it had no middle ground at all, it FORCED me to chose sides, in which there was really two choices, and they were kind of made for you depending on who you helped out more, and you are forced to help out one more than the other because of the achievement which basicly stated 'you helped out this group 5 times'. So the game was just horrible for me on the core issue of a lack of freedom and moral ambiguity.

 

[IceStar100]

It's all a show simple as that. They want Dragon Age 3 to sell so their sucking up to fans now when shown in the past they can't handle anyone calling their BS out. Just let it go they know DA3 will not have the sells DA2 did becuase the fans who trusted them from DA1 don't trust them now.

Just wait as=nd see the ship load of Pre-orders they add trying to tempt people to buy it before it's had a good look over. They want you to buy the car with out a test drive so to speak.