Dragon Age Forum News (Sep. 01, 05)

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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, Designer

Similar to A Song of Ice and Fire?
Hmm. I didn't feel that Martin's books were overly gratuitous at all, not titillation for the sake of "attention-getting". It felt to me as if he didn't shy away from graphic depictions, but they seemed necessary to the events that were being depicted... even Daenyris's brutal treatment in the first novel. It could be taken out and the story could still be conveyed, but it might lose some of its edge. Then again, it might not.

Regardless, that's not what I find enjoyable about the series, nor is it why I consider it to be mature storytelling.

I don't find it objectionable, myself, though obviously some do. I suppose in that respect I appreciate that Martin has the option to express himself as he wishes in an intelligently-written series of novels just the same as I appreciate having access to the same sort of fare on HBO. I suppose what concerns me is the notion that graphic subject matter being objectionable equates to the notion that no-one should use that graphic subject matter, whether in novels or TV. In today's hyper-conscious politically correct atmosphere, it's not such a large leap to make.

Dragon Age might not go that far, and that's not the maturity I was referring to vis a vis Martin's series... but that should be our choice.

More:

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The point I ask is this...is there anyone here that would choose to avoid buying DA if it didn't have nudity, or mass violence, or graphic rape? On the other hand, plenty of people would avoid the game if those things were implemented.

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Of course, that also can't be the only question asked. If you start avoiding content simply because there are people there who might not buy the game as a result, you would end up making every game Family-rated. At some level you have to think about the type of game you're making and the type of story you want to tell.

But we feel no need to bust out and make something like Fallout or GTA just because we could (and I mean content-wise... those are games with their own solid merits). Neither are we feeling pressured, however, to provide mass-audience-acceptable pablum.

Derek French, Technical Producer

Dragon Age website
You probably won't see a DA website until there is a publisher attached to the project.