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Dragon Age Forum News (Apr. 06, 05)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Apr 7, 2005.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, collected by NWVault. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

    David Gaider, Designer

    Gay Characters in DA
    I don't think quietdoesnotmakenoise's view is so unreasonable. Certainly it's not an uncommon one.

    I think it misses the point, however. And comparing homosexuality to a disease or an affliction is pretty insensitive, so he really shouldn't be surprised if some people take offense to it.

    More properly, it's the same question that we struggle with when we consider whether or not the characters in our game should reflect the ethnicity of our players. Or their religious beliefs. Or gender, for that matter.

    It's very easy for the straight, white male to look at the composition of our characters and say that there's no need to arbitrarily add in races, religions and sexual viewpoints that don't match his idea of the fantasy genre... but, then, the straight, white male has never had to deal much with the concept of exclusion. How refreshing it must be for someone considered to be typically in the minority to find themselves included rather than excluded by a fantasy game.

    I don't think we'd want to go so far as to start mandating the inclusion of minority viewpoints just for the sake of political correctness... but I don't think it's so terrible to acknowledge the idea that, perhaps to a degree, we have a responsibility to expand our audience rather than to cater to the majority.

    Just something to think about.

    Gay Characters in DA
    You know, when I originally wrote Valygar for BG2 I thought of him as gay. Other than Viconia teasing him about the possibility, however, and the fact that he was willing to receive service from the male drow masseuses, it just never really came up. :)

    Making Dragon Age the best it can be: A list of suggestions
    Hrmm... I'm not sure how this all became a topic on the medieval ability to produce colorful garments, but let me turn it for a moment back to its relevance to DA.

    When it comes to the color scheme we would be using for clothing and the environment, there are exactly two things that need to be considered by the artists:

    1) Does it look good on the screen?
    2) Does it evoke the ambience we're aiming for?

    Can the people in the world of DA produce royal purple and bright yellow? They can if we say they can, as this is not medieval England despite nods to "common sense".

    And we generally will work together with the artists if we want to put certain things like national/cultural colors or colors that dictate social standing and such. The top two considerations must still come first even in that case, and to do otherwise would definitely be a situation of the tail wagging the dog.

    Darcy Pajak, Assistant Producer

    Gay Characters in DA
    Dragon Age is not a love story. Dragon Age is an adventure. Good vs. Evil, Heroes and monsters, with swords, magic, and pointy-eared elves, etc

    Normally, the sexual orientation of any character is irrelevant in such stories. A dragon is not going to care if you are gay or not. They are going to eat you anyway.

    The only time it comes into effect is through romances, or party interactions.

    However, when creating romance options for a player there are many, many romance options to go through first before add the complication of homosexuality. We can offer only so many romance-able (sic) options in the time we have, and to do any romance correctly we should allow at least two options. So if we have time to create 4 straight romances, adding gay and lesbian would reduce it to one type each, and the fact is that some people may not like the archetypes we use. Therefore, fewer people are satisfied with the quality of the romance bit of our game.

    We could allocate more time to developing romances but Dragon Age is not a love story.

    Derek French, Technical Producer

    linux support
    Anyways, I think we have covered all the details here, and before we spiral off into darkness...

    When will a publisher enter the room?
    Just wondering, when will we know what the published (sic) for Dragon Age will be?
    When its done. :)
    Quote: Let's look at BioWare's previous games, when did the publisher get announced?
    Traditionally, we have always had a publisher before we have announced a game, mainly due to using licenced products. MDK2 was Interplay. BG/NWN series could only be Interplay or Atari. KotOR was LucasArts.

    Since this is our first IP game for the PC, the timing worked out that we annouced the game before securing a publisher.

    Brenon Holmes, Programmer

    linux support
    <snip>
    ...
    </snip>
    I'll only add that : Biodevs, if you are still using those crappy Borland toolkits, throw them to the trash. Just for the technical sanity's sake.
    We don't use Borland.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Apr 7, 2005
    #1
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