theascendent
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Post by theascendent on Nov 4, 2018 21:50:56 GMT
Do you think that choosing the other races Elves, Dwarves and Qunari made sense in a gameplay or story sense.
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Post by Nightscrawl on Nov 4, 2018 22:23:49 GMT
Do you think that choosing the other races Elves, Dwarves and Qunari made sense in a gameplay or story sense. You are asking different things with your poll question and this post. People who want race selection for their own personal reasons will vote "yes," which may not necessarily match with an objective answer to this question. How would it make sense? What is the criteria? From the perspective of being in place at the Conclave to be affected by the events? Even though it's not my choice of character, I've long said that playing a human mage has the best story reason to be there. All of the other origins, including non-mage human, seemed shoehorned in to fit. Does this mean the game should only have had a human mage option? Of course not. From the perspective of becoming the Herald of Andraste? Well, that's relative. While it does make sense on the surface, I'd say that multiple races does go well with the themes of faith that the writers were trying to develop and play with in the story. Like the Warden, the Inquisitor transcends race because of who they are. In addition, regardless of your race or origin, including human, people worship you as the Herald of Andraste because of what they believe; your race (or mageyness) doesn't matter. It sends a powerful message about faith and belief. This message can be read in a cynical or hopeful light, depending on one's perspective. From the developer perspective of reaching the player on an emotional level? Many elf players will say that being able to play an elf added much meaning to the latter third of the game and on further into Trespasser.
I predict you will get many responses from players regarding their personal preferences. I have declined to vote because, as a human player, the inclusion of additional races made no difference to my play experience.
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Post by vertigomez on Nov 4, 2018 22:27:45 GMT
Sure did.
Nothing wrong with humans (I loved Hawke), but if every protagonist is obligatorily human it makes the word seem more human-centric than it has to be. In a world like Thedas, where dwarves and elves and qunari are as fleshed-out and interesting as they are, I don't want to only see them from an outsider's (see: human) perspective... I want to experience their lives.
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Post by Hanako Ikezawa on Nov 4, 2018 22:33:01 GMT
Sure did. Nothing wrong with humans (I loved Hawke), but if every protagonist is obligatorily human it makes the word seem more human-centric than it has to be. In a world like Thedas, where dwarves and elves and qunari are as fleshed-out and interesting as they are, I don't want to only see them from an outsider's (see: human) perspective... I want to experience their lives. That's a big reason why I want future Mass Effect games to allow race selection as well.
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Post by theascendent on Nov 5, 2018 0:42:52 GMT
Yeah okay, point made closing thread.
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ewigDunkelheit
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Post by ewigDunkelheit on Nov 7, 2018 3:12:54 GMT
The poll may be closed, and I guess some of the intent was confused, but I will answer that I believe having race selection still made story sense. Personal preferences aside, the only race I feel didn't integrate very well was the Dalish Elf. City elves would have worked really well, as servants, or even spies, and a lot of non-Dalish elves are already Andrastian, whereas the Dalish seemed to stretch credulity. Since the races were added later, and not everything was reviewed thoroughly enough, some of the dialogue was noticeably out of place due to the cultural differences.
However, dwarves as part of the Carta and invested in the Lyrium trade, and a hired neutral Vashoth mercenary, both make sense to me.
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Post by copper on Nov 8, 2018 22:47:33 GMT
Yeah okay, point made closing thread. That may be premature. There's plenty of people who think race selection is a waste of resources. I'm not one of them, but I've seen those sentiments in threads more than a couple times.
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Post by Nightscrawl on Nov 9, 2018 0:00:18 GMT
That may be premature. There's plenty of people who think race selection is a waste of resources. I'm not one of them, but I've seen those sentiments in threads more than a couple times. Part of the issue with the OP's phrasing in asking the question 2-3 different ways is that it's not really clear how exactly they mean it. If you take their post asking whether it "makes sense" from a story perspective, in that case, people's personal preferences have nothing to do with it. That question can be examined in a purely objective fashion, as I tried to do with my own post above. I play human. Whether they have non-human race options has no impact on me. Even without that consideration, I think the story content itself determines whether it "makes sense" to have multiple races. It does for DAO and DAI, but less so for DA2*. * Yes, I know that people can and have come up with all sort of scenarios to make that work, but I am going with the DA2 story that we have, not a hypothetical story we were never given.
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Post by copper on Nov 9, 2018 2:41:22 GMT
That may be premature. There's plenty of people who think race selection is a waste of resources. I'm not one of them, but I've seen those sentiments in threads more than a couple times. Part of the issue with the OP's phrasing in asking the question 2-3 different ways is that it's not really clear how exactly they mean it. If you take their post asking whether it "makes sense" from a story perspective, in that case, people's personal preferences have nothing to do with it. That question can be examined in a purely objective fashion, as I tried to do with my own post above. I play human. Whether they have non-human race options has no impact on me. Even without that consideration, I think the story content itself determines whether it "makes sense" to have multiple races. It does for DAO and DAI, but less so for DA2*. * Yes, I know that people can and have come up with all sort of scenarios to make that work, but I am going with the DA2 story that we have, not a hypothetical story we were never given. I assumed OP wasn't being picky for how we should interpret it, but I see what you mean. Some clarification would be good. But if the poll was closed because OP was disappointed with the lack of "no" answers, I still think they would have come given some time. I know at least in the Mass Effect part of the forum it's a pretty common opinion that all Mass Effect protagonists should be human only, so I assume the same is true for Dragon Age.
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Post by TheEmptyRoad on Nov 9, 2018 18:28:01 GMT
For me, the various race backgrounds for being there help me flesh out the character. Human Mage might make the most sense at first. But the backstory they created for the Qunari has made me create all three of my 'canon' Quizzy's as them (one for each class). They were the security guards, meant to keep the peace, and I like the idea that the last surviving member that was there on the inside is off to sort out the mess.
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theascendent
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Post by theascendent on Nov 10, 2018 12:31:17 GMT
I can see how my phrasing would be confusing and for that I apologize, but I am fine with this issue. Thank you all for participating.
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Post by pessimistpanda on Nov 10, 2018 23:45:00 GMT
The point was to make more players happy.
Though given how the story plays out, elf seems to be the most thematically relevant, despite it making little to no sense that there would be one at the Conclave.
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Post by boxofscreaming on Nov 10, 2018 23:55:14 GMT
I never understood the need to spy on a conclave whose results would surely be made public anyway, so it's a bit dicey for the elf and dwarf. Nice to be able to play as one though.
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Post by Nightscrawl on Nov 11, 2018 2:12:57 GMT
I never understood the need to spy on a conclave whose results would surely be made public anyway, so it's a bit dicey for the elf and dwarf. Nice to be able to play as one though. The Carta is there to protect their interest in lyrium smuggling. Both Carta and Dalish will want to know the "winner" as soon as possible to they can make plans. The Carta will want to make deals with whichever party, so having people in place at the Conclave itself is a wise move. The Dalish could possibly be in danger if this is a signal that the Chantry would be cracking down on unsanctioned magic users, like their own mages. Merrill describes them not camping too long in any one place because they are aware of the Chantry/templar dangers. What if the Chantry should decide to actively hunt for them? Again in that case, knowing in advance allows them to be prepared.
While I think that human mage works best for story purposes, all of the non-human reasons to be there are pretty decent. The Tal-Vashoth mercs serve as a neutral party for security; I consider this a wise precaution by whomever made this choice.
The only origin I feel is weak in this department is the non-mage human, as "there to protect his family's interests" has always struck me as lame. I had to do some mental wrangling to make it work for my character.
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