Dragon Age Writer Prefers "Polarization" to Apathy

[BehattedWanderer]

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.

Agreed. Though, them explaining away in a few hours the entirety of DA2's conflicts with "ooh, it's a really powerful force, and makes people go batshit" felt kind of weak. The implications that there are others is interesting, and that the Architect might be one of them as well, but that most of what happens in 2 is explained not in the story but in the lore and DLC kinda hangs a lantern on the fact that they made an entire game to be the jumping off point for something else--something suitably epic, hopefully. If it wasn't for the year-long rampage that used to last hundreds of years being so epic, the ten year span in Kirkwall might feel like more than a prologue to the next chapter.

On the one hand, I can see the value of something like this, while still wishing there had been some involvement outside of the immediate Kirkwall region. On the other, what comes after this had better be more than just playable backstory for the next installment. And while I'm thankful they let us play it, and witness and understand it firsthand rather than just make us read about it in the Codex, layering some of that into the actual story would have gone miles to making the game better.

Ha. And I'm saying all this as someone who loved the game.

 

[Smurf McSmurfington]

"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no wonder the new direction they're taking with their games is so shitty, when they consider that form of gameplay "outdated."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.

That nostalgia is there for a good reason, though, 'cause even by todays standards, the BG series aswell as Planescape: Torment(yeah, I know, not a Bioware game, but you get the point) were great, more freedom in them than in almost anything I've seen for years, extremely good writing(granted, most Bioware games have that covered), largely non-linear, and that way in a much larger scale than DA:O or DA2 ever were. And I liked DA:O aswell as DA2, though the latter was clearly the inferior game, and as someone mentioned earlier on, it didn't know what it wanted to be, and that shows in the art direction, level design(reusing the same three or four dungeon designs over and over and over and over again), combat(especially the part where hordes of enemies kept respawning, that was just silly, though I sort of understand why they did that), and well almost everything.
Also, the lack of control over the events as far as the ending went was incredibly stupid on their part. Also, the fact that almost any quest concerning mages ended up them turning into abominations and you killing them, or them trying to kill you for some reason, basically overusing combat. The BG games aswell as Planescape: Torment had lots of variety between various quests, and I do mean LOTS. They were great games by any standards, and I wish the guys at Bioware played through them once again just to remind themselves of what good RPGs should be like... I did like the new combat system in DA2, but with it they also brought in some pretty... non-likeable things. Hoping they'll learn from their numerous mistakes when making DA3.
Also, another reason as to why DA2 was so lazily made was because it was essentially rushed, by which I mean they didn't have much time to make it... guess we can blame EA for that?

 

[Woodsey]

I can't say I've seen many who loved it, exactly.

"Sloppy," was my impression. Ham-fisted cameos (including the ending arrival that broke canon for a lot of people, or just made no sense to others like me), a complete disregard for choice and consequence it seemed (even for those made in the first game, again relating to the arrival at the ending), an interesting concept that they didn't even seem to try to implement properly ("see your affects on Kirkwall by not having it change at all over 10 years"), and the general way the narrative pans out (especially if you roll a mage, where half the game just becomes jarring).

Origins did way better than they expected, so what they decided to do was start heading in a different direction? Mass Effect has taken things in one direction, and I love it, but Dragon Age doesn't need to go anywhere near scratching that itch because ME has it covered. DA should scratch the itch it was made to scratch in the first bloody place.

This doesn't mean you can't do new things. The idea of a more personal story is very interesting, but they made so many obvious errors. For starters, if you're not going to travel a continent, you need to make that one city feel consistent, but varied and huge. You also need it to change over the 10 years and you can't just leave it as a static environment as you would in a normal RPG.

 

[Sartan0]

"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."

It helps when that direction is not right off a cliff in my opinion. I am so glad I never picked up DA2 after seeing my friends playing it. There is little chance I will pick up the third one at the moment without a much better direction by the development team. Maybe after ME3 is done they can get their 'A' team back at work on a Dragon Age game.

 

[Roserari]

Well, personally I would prefer that as well. I mean, you can't work with apathy at all. You don't know what's wrong or what people really think of it. With polarizations, you get a much clearer view of the situation.

 

[badreaper74]

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.

I agree I bought Legacy day 1 and was actually really surprised. It's not that i hated DA 2, i liked it, but they did something in Legacy that made all the pieces fit. I can't point it out but for some reason everything just seemed to fit.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

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.

If they are going to bring characters back to life no matter what we did can they save two of my friends who ended up dead or f@#ked up at the end of Awakening, that I could not save because of the quest bugs STILL in the game, or will they be brought back and suck like Justice? If not can I have my sister brought back to life in Dragon Age 2? I miss her........

 

[johnnnny guitar]

(sigh)I knew they were gonna come out sooner or later and say this is the direction the series is going to be taking now

 

[Imp_Emissary]

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.

I agree I bought Legacy day 1 and was actually really surprised. It's not that i hated DA 2, i liked it, but they did something in Legacy that made all the pieces fit. I can't point it out but for some reason everything just seemed to fit.

I like Legacy, but it can't make up for the shall we say; "less than great" Dragon Age 2. Why?
1. It's a bit short for ten bucks. It's about as long as some of the DAO dlc, but those were five or six bucks.

2. The whole time I was playing it I was thinking; "Man. I wish Dragon Age 2 was all like this dlc."

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

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.

Psh, such a pessimist. Should have said that some gamers are bound to be happy no matter what the studio does with the franchise.

Joking aside, as true a statement as it is it's not an actual argument in defense of someones bad work.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

telling a single unified story.

...You're joking right? Origins had one overarching plot with multiple parts that had real reason to be there. DA2's acts had jack squat to do with each other and were just 3 or 4 separate stories duct taped together.

 

[Pandabearparade]

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 hate to do this, but: Quoted for Truth.

I literally could not have said it better myself. Kudos to you sir. They should fire Greg Tito and hire you. No sarcasm at all.

 

[Xanthious]

Don't worry Dave, you're gonna see plenty of apathy once Dragon Age 3 rolls out. People largely liked Origins and because of that that abomination of a sequel was able to sell. Sadly that sequel was something akin to what dog shit would scrape of it's shoe if dog shit wore shoes and because of that many people will simply not even bother with any further sequels. I know for my money when that third games comes out you, and the rest of the dev team, can break it into numerous razor sharp pieces and bugger yourselves with it.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

(sigh)I knew they were gonna come out sooner or later and say this is the direction the series is going to be taking now

Sorry to bother you, but I must.

Sir, your Avatar looks like he has to poo.....

That is all.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

anc[is]

telling a single unified story.

...You're joking right? Origins had one overarching plot with multiple parts that had real reason to be there. DA2's acts had jack squat to do with each other and were just 3 or 4 separate stories duct taped together.

I've had spirited discussions about the nature of the DA2 plot. I actually liked it, even though it was disjointed at times. It felt more like you were living an adventurer's life, rather than simply going through a basic hero's tale. Concepts of loss, change, and cultural conflict are weaved into the smaller stories that permeate the whole game. Yes, the story isn't perfect, I still enjoyed the experience.

 

[Fiend13]

Having played the 2 before Origins and Awakening i have to say that although i still like the sequel it simply is the inferior game in every aspect safe fighting mechanics.

Classes are boiled down to a few core abilities of wich many are redundant and have no unique visual effect like in Origins, level design is a disgrace due to the overexcessive re-using of environments (again unlike Origins), characters are one onedimensional stereotypes without any development

Spoiler

it can't be a good sign if the option to kill off half your group at the end is actual relief

and the story had massive plot holes.

The main explaination i personally see for this is EA's hatred for the "when it's done" policy and because of that i don't really look forward to part 3 since it will also be under that same 'release within a year' doom policy. But then again that might just be me.

I for once won't get tired of replaying Origins and Awakening soon.

 

[Princess Rose]

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.

Ah! Someone else who actually admits to not liking KOTOR.

I did not like that game at all. I tried playing it because Yahtzee said that Mass Effect was pretty much just KOTOR again. Yahtzee is very wrong about that. I loved Mass Effect - KOTOR is tedious and dull - even if it does use D&D 3.5 unaltered for its mechanics (a point in KOTOR's favor).

Also, I'll second the "I enjoyed DA2 as much as DA:O" bit as well. It felt pretty much the same to me. The story was different, which was good, and the maps got repeated, which was a little sad (although some people seem to think this is the greatest sin imaginable - I never understood why), but combat-wise I couldn't tell I was playing a different game. The people who claim that there was a difference between the two confuse me - the interface was nearly identical.

But whatever, to each their own.

I like that Bioware is prefers polarization - conflict is a good thing, after all.

 

[Worr Monger]

Unfortunately, I don't expect BioWare to make a Dragon Age game that will ever live up to Dragon Age: Origins.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed DA2 just fine... as I've enjoyed all of BioWare's games. But DA:O was such a breath of fresh air when it came out. It was perfect to me, it caught me at just the right time in just the right way.

Because of this, I don't think any other Dragon Age title will be able to live up to it. For me, and maybe a lot of other people... there's no way they'll be able to recapture that magic.

Best to just move onto another IP. I know they won't, at least for a while... and I'll be playing any other Dragon Age games they make... but I won't expect what came out of DA:O. Sucks, but I think it's true.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I've had spirited discussions about the nature of the DA2 plot. I actually liked it, even though it was disjointed at times. It felt more like you were living an adventurer's life, rather than simply going through a basic hero's tale. Concepts of loss, change, and cultural conflict are weaved into the smaller stories that permeate the whole game. Yes, the story isn't perfect, I still enjoyed the experience.

I tried very hard to enjoy DA2 as well, and I'm sorry if I came off as rude. But the condensed version of my opinion is that the transition between acts 2 and 3 was much too jarring. You cannot just kill a big bad, and say "Ok we're done with that time for new story" 2/3rds of the way in. Sure the tempar vs mage thing was 'forshadowed', but that would be like saying elves and dwarves don't get along in other settings, it's part of the setting, not foreshadowing. We had not seen nearly enough of the Templar lady and NONE of the head mage before that first argument. It was poorly done.