"No Brothels to be in DA4" as per Mark Darrah Tweet.

TBH, I'm not really sure what is exactly being debated in this thread anymore   I come back and it's all over the place.

My stance is "we don't really know what's going to be in DA4 yet and treating a silly gif response from a dev that is known to be humorously trollish as seriously as some do strikes me as odd" and "I don't see how brothels are such an important storytelling or RP device, when they were never an important storytelling or RP device in DA franchise in the first place and themes of dark or mature or sexy variety can be told in multiple different ways".

Well, if Morrigan is one of those naked courtesans it might make things waaay better... erm, I mean darker, grittier and more like the W3!!! Yes, that's it. That's why it should be so.

THIS. One of my main concerns is that some people treat DA almost like the RP elements in it are separate from actual story and where it goes or what it wants to tell. But each DA title is different and tells different tale of a character under different constrains. Inquisitor is not Warden and Warden is not Hawke. There's a notable theme and choices stemming not just from where they are, but who they are and what they can or can't do in the larger fabric of the universe. It's not just "I create a character and go on an adventure... and if the game doesn't give me this or that RP opportunity, it's lesser because of that". There will be things characters will or won't be able to do for variety of in-universe reasons that have little to do with political leanings of the game company, no matter how some would prefer to believe in it.

Is the implementation of it perfect? Nah, it was never perfect. And there will always be constrains that result from gameplay or history of every games' development, or there will be choices the presence or lack thereof will make some people unhappy for one reason or another.

Reminds me of a joke about Kingdom Hearts I heard: Darkness, dark, dark, darkness. Darkness? Darkness. Darkness?! Darkness. 



For those curious, it's called semantic satiation when you see, hear or speak a word so many times that it stops resembling a word. 

I was about to propose that perhaps there should be a character that can only say word "dark" or "darkness!"... but then I realized it'd compete with "ENCHANTMENT!"

Now, now, don't attack the "darkness"

Right, there was a lot of dark content that wasn't quite evocative as it could have been. I've read that the codeces and non-cinematic side quests resonated with some people, but it didn't quite work for me, especially when compared to DAI's main quests. YMMV I suppose.

Looking at horror elements, anyone ever see a close up screenshot of the Despair Demon. It's pretty creepy stuff under that hood.
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonage/images/8/83/1402430190-e3-2014-screens-wm-18.jpg/revision/latest/zoom-crop/width/240/height/240?cb=20141211003553

But you never see it when playing. It's not in any cinematics, and you can't really see it too closely in combat. Envy, on the other hand...

It's a nonsensical claim to say that death of a combat comrade or a friend is somehow less dark than death of a relative. It, for example, invalidates the most tragic moment to me in any BioWare game, the death of Mordin Solus, who is neither a family member nor an LI.

Seriously, now having sacrificial blood relatives is the gage for darkness potential? Not the brothels?

Quit moving the friggen goal posts, peeps.

Also, among all the dark themes I so far have not seen the obvious one, betrayal by Solas, which is to me the most well done and heart-wrenching betrayal plot by BioWare and Obsidian. And it is atmospheric, beginning to end, in its every stage.

If getting rid of taverns means my protagonists are no longer forced to be drinkers, then I'm all for it.