Should Dragon Age take notes from Game of Thrones storywise?

I voted no because I don't know what about GOT story we are even talking about. But I would like the characters in DA to be more like what GOT has. I like the way none of them seemed completely good or completely evil. They just occupy A very difficult and brutal world, so their actions reflect that.

No. A thousand times no.

Eh?

Game of Thrones (2012) video game had some nice ideas. You had two protagonist, old friends, who by the end of the story had different interest which made them unwilling enemies. You had to choose which one you prefer and kill the other one in single combat. I though that was pretty cool and wouldn't mind seeing something like that in a Bioware game. For example I always thought my Warden and Hawke would absolutely hate each other if they ever met and always wondered what would happen if they did. That was one of my problems with DAI and Hawke's cameo. It seemed to be default that he and the Inquisitor would be on good terms, but why would Hawke, who supported templars because he hated and feared magic and was a Chantry loyalist, ever want to join the heretic Inquisition or support the Inquisitor who sided with the free mages? There were so many problems with Hawke's cameo... I hope they never do that again, to be honest. I'm fine with bringing back old protagonists, but only if they are playable instead of NPC's.

I'm full up on True Art is Angsty, thanks.

I think the closest we can come to that would have to be the novels. While i haven't read either "The Stolen Throne" nor "The Masked Empire" from what I read of the overall plot it seems to have some inspirations from GoT

Oh and DA takes inspiration ia ASOIAF

"The developers have cited "realistic" fantasy fiction such as George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series and fantasy paintings by artists such as Frank Frazetta as inspiration for the game."

They just did it great in the first game, so so on the second and completely screwd it (like everything else) in the Third. But the first one is pretty obvious The Darkspawn-Walkers coming to the Wall of Ostagar to face the Warden-Watch while they have lost their prestige their number waning and they even meet the "mother of dragons" along the way. All plots there and even characters. But to do it properly is a whole new level.

Game of Thrones is a well written story (or was till the Feast of Crows), and has great dialogues and characters. However, all the claims over it being a unique work of fiction in terms of the shades of gray or break-through plot points novelty are imo a bit exaggerated.

What the books had that sets them apart from the earlier fantasy fiction, again only imo, were the very well defined motivations for each character, and they were driven by very understandable human emotions or the lack of thereof. Martin took time compared to the other fantasy genre books of the late 90's vintage to explore it.

And, also, Martin does not shy away from the depiction of the evil within just common humans, and he does not use faceless monster races to do the "unspeakable evil things". He gives the reader the front row seat to witness it, and is accurate for the summer children about what humans do.

I certainly do not mind games working on more interesting characters, plots and dialogues. I won’t mind if games will have an eye for a detail the way Martin does (like the dead princess kitten becoming the gigantic tom cat Arya chases around that eventually saves her).

However, I think I will actually shy away if the depiction of evil becomes as realistic and not glossed over as it is in Martin.

It is an effective story-telling tool in his hands, and if my character is allowed to act and emote like Gregor Clegane or Roose Bolton or Theon Greyjoy, or witness characters that do this in a game, I think I will just not be able to play it, because it is too acutely written. What Martin often describes is outside of my experiences, and I want it to remain this way, and the games are way more participatory than the books.

I think the influence of GoT was there far more in DAO than subsequent games. There were numerous different factions in conflict with one another throughout, in which you could take either side in the dispute and neither one seemed entirely in the right, with a few exceptions (such as doing a deal with the slaver from Tevinter) but your companions might well react badly or even try and kill you if you took a particular side. You got a feel for the gritty brutality of the world. There were some very dark themes that were present on screen: Hespith and the broodmothers are a prime example but there was also, depending on which origin you took, rape; torture and drug induced insanity, among other things. You needed to deal with the politics before you could save the world. The reason it seemed to work so well is because the high fantasy aspects seemed to fit with the more mundane realism of the feudal society.

Where DA2 fell down was in having everyone go to extremes. The Arishok was reasonably balanced until he went crazy but the antagonist mages and Templars just seemed like caricatures of evil villains. Meredith and Orsino at the end just ruined it completely; Meredith because everything was now meant to be due to a cursed sword which in addition to sending her crazy, also granted her previously unknown magical powers, whilst Orsino was just plain stupid (particularly if you sided with the mages). Mind you, the whole plot was suspect from the moment Hawke, as an apostate mage or with apostate mages in their entourage, is able to run around the city, encountering people like Cullen, and yet gets away with it, despite this being the Templar HQ not just in the Freemarches but pretty much the whole of eastern Thedas. Then to cap it all they could become a blood mage and no one, not even in their own party, makes serious objection to this.

Then in DAI to my mind the nuanced approach of DAO was completely lost. Things that would have been shown in DAO and were in fact mentioned in that game, were completely glossed over in the game itself. For example, the attitude of the Chevaliers to commoners and elves, using the former for sexual pleasure as they see fit and the latter for training of recruits in ruthless brutality; the nobility may love the Chevaliers but the commoners fear them; the real reason why Celene and Briala fell out (the discovery by Briala that Celene had ordered the murder of Briala's parents in order to advance in the game - it was only by sheer luck Briala wasn't killed too) which would be something that couldn't simply be smoothed over by the discovery of a sentimental amulet. What about the fact that the "good" Justinia effectively ordered Celene to deal with the elves of Halamshiral before she would take action over the mages, or that she authorised magical experimentation on the sly that led to the deaths of the entire population originally occupying Adamant Fortress, then authorised the tranquil/mage she had ordered to do this to be made tranquil again. All these things were confined to books rather than being included in game, so they are still there in the world but the player no longer experiences them.

Feel like the title should change GOT into ASOIAF. The latter has a lot of stuff worth borrowing by every writer in fantasy genre. GOT though... Feel like it is no longer the benchmark of quality it used to be ever since the showrunners ran out of book materials and decided to ditch the niche intricate story for a big event driven show aimed at the lowest common denominator.

There should be an option for 'it already has'. David Gaider has said in several interviews (particularly around DAO launch) that A Song of Ice and Fire is a huge favourite of his and the work of George R.R. Martin is an inspiration for him.

You can see threads of the GoT 'atmosphere' and feel at least all the way through Dragon Age, particularly early on.

Absolutely key point. Dragon Age doesn't look anything like what it originally set to. I believe a huge portion of the gaming market is looking for the darkness and grit and rarely gets it now. But sadly for developers I just think the lure of the almighty dollar is too big, and it is much better to just play safe and sell lots of copies. Such is life!