Dragon Age Forum News (Apr. 18, 06)

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Here are today's Dragon Age forum highlights, taken from the Dragon Age Official Forum. 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, Lead Writer

Devs: Game sells- with no protection!

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Lastly I think the claim that each copy of a game pirated equals lost income is just plain stupid - alot of piracy is quite likely done by people who don't have the resourcers (or will) to pay for their games (kids, students ...), and hence wouldn't buy the game even if they couldn't get a pirated copy.

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Certainly there are some who, if they could not illegally copy the game, would never buy it. But one cannot argue that without also acknowledging the fact that there are those who, if the ability to get ahold of an illegal copy was made very easy would do that rather than purchase one.

Whether raising the bar high enough to prevent such casual access is worth the aggravation one can potentially cause to legitimate customers is really the question.

And as said before, it's really a question that only a publisher can ultimately answer.

Where are the screens?

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I don't either. It's just NWN looked really bad for its time, and was performance inhibited. KOTOR came out shortly later and was a huge improvement with the same engine. NWN didn't have the classic Bioware art quality, rather than the engine not being so impressive.

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Never mind that NWN was also multiplayer and designed so that its modular terrain was easily transmitted and playable over non-broadband modems.

Someone can compare it to Morrowind if they want to, but other than the fact that they're both RPG's (and even then we're talking RPG's on opposite ends of that genre's spectrum) they really don't have much in common.

It's like the commmon holding up of Oblivion here and comparing it to Dragon Age. There's little point, as the gulf between the games is vast and to say that two such different games are comparable solely on one issue (graphics) without taking any other factors into account -- well, that's a bit silly.

How much blood and gore

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I wonder if they'll ever live down the dangly meshing of Aribeth's boobies...

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Yeah. One artist takes five seconds to make Aribeth's breasts danglymesh and forever after wits have taken the stance that if we had just spent our time on something less low-brow we could have, you know, put in a z-axis or cloaks or something.

Good times.

Adventure element

Puzzle design is not easy.

Ideally you want to make it a logical part of the game world. The bridge across the chasm has crumbled, so instead you need to use these various planks to cross the gap -- I don't know, something that you could imagine needing to actually do.

As opposed to accessing an apartment through a secret door opened by turning the clock hands to numbers that answer a riddle scratched into the wall... at which point you're asking yourself, "Is this really how they got into their apartment every day? Really?"

The problem, really, is that such puzzles must either be very physical (needing a great amount of special art and animation and systems, etc. -- though in a game where this is central to the gameplay and thus justifiable, it can be done very well -- see the game "Ico" for an example) or you have riddles, which never feels very logical at the best of times.

Ultimately, the problem becomes how much we can disguise the fact that, design-wise, the puzzle is generally inserted as a non-combat obstacle for the player between A and B. And unless you make it potentially a blocking obstacle you end up in the realm of the overly-easy puzzle or (far worse, in my opinion) the mini-game.

Character face-maker...

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Subtle as it may be, I believe the developers are telling us we won't get Sims' like face sliders. As long as I don't see my face and portrait on other characters, I'm fine with that.

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Not necessarily. I'm not certain myself to what *extent* faces will be customizeable, but it's not pre-baked heads a la NWN.

Still, saying that DA should do it because it can be done in other types of games doesn't quite make much sense to me.

Is DA Biowares' NWN2?

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Already been seven years since the last party-based, isometric view, epic RPG from Bioware. Bethesda has stuck to their niche and their fans thank them for it. Seems like Bioware has gone "mainstream" and has gone for mass titles over quality titles. All I know is Oblivion is selling like hotcakes and might eventually outsell all Bioware games not named Baldurs Gate or NWN combined. It's been less than a month and it's already halfway to the sales of Sims and Myst franchises (best selling all time), at least in aggregate terms of 2004 numbers.

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I'm not sure what your point is, here. First you suggest that we're going for "mass titles" over quality, and then compliment Oblivion -- not for creating a quality title -- but rather for selling very well. Or is your point that the huge sales are a result of the fans "thanking" Bethesda for making a quality title? Because if that's the case, then I'd have to point out that both NWN and KotOR outsold BG2, which was our last party-based RPG.

More:

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I notice that BG2 is still being sold in stores as the collectors edtion. It must be pretty good to still be selling after all this time considering all the 3D games out there now. There must be something special about it. I guess quality over quantity?

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Oh, BG2 has plenty of longevity, certainly -- and obviously I agree that it's an excellent game. But if one wants to put forward the idea that sales are a barometer of quality, I'm only pointing out that NWN and KotOR both exceeded BG2 in sales.

And if one isn't putting forward such an idea, then praising Oblivion in the same breath for it's large initial sales seems a bit beside the point, doesn't it?

Not that it isn't impressive and shows that there's a large market out there for games like Oblivion and World of Warcraft. I'm just not sure that it necessarily follows that every game made must go towards servicing that market alone in order to be considered a success or a quality title.

Evil

I think the thing to remember is that Dragon Age has neither alignments nor the good-evil dichotomy like Star Wars or Jade Empire. That means we are not designing plots and dialogue with the idea of servicing any kind of morality mechanic -- so there doesn't have to be "the good route" and "the evil route" in every single dialogue and quest, we provide whatever motivations we feel are appropriate to the circumstances.

So it's not that easy to answer when someone asks a question like "can I play my evil character?" -- if you believe your character is evil, then that's fine, but there's no in-game mechanic to reinforce that. And the choices you have to make are often going to be a bit more complex than your standard good and evil.

I think it might be a bit more appropriate to say you can choose between being moral and amoral, though sometimes the consequences of the path you choose are not always readily apparent.

You do not, however, get the opportunity to play a villainous ("I get to be the bad guy") or psychotic ("I want to slaughter innocents at will") role in the story. If that's your definition of evil, then no -- that hasn't changed.

Chris Priestly, Quality Assurance

Character face-maker...

Sure sports games have customizeable faces. They don't have to worry about things like dialog and plot to take up memory.

Is DA Biowares' NWN2?

Among the highest selling titles are things like Deer Hunter and Barbie's Dream Adventure. Noit that there's anything wrong with them, just that quantity does not always reflect quality.

Brenon Holmes, Programmer

Will Dragon Age support Ageia Physx processor?

*sigh* It's a 3D game. It has a Z-axis. Players can't move up and down it freely though... that's all.

It still doesn't make any sense to me why folks seem to think "there is no z-axis". Crazy talk.

If there is physics in the game, then it will occur in 3D. 3 axes... X, Y and Z.