Dragon Age News Thread

What? How can you say that about sweet creatures like myself!





Sorry for the derailment Hrungr, won't do it any further I promise!

I wouldnt wonder if they were the starting point

I am equally disturbed and intrigued.

[HASH]DAT

BioWare @bioware
"I can be friendly when I desire to."
Morrigan by Dafne Stavridi
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[HASH]DAT

What do you mean “Lewd -OR”? It’s AND, buddy, always and. Solas’s middle name ought to be Narrative Dissonance.

It’s a play on words. “Ludonarrative Dissonance” is a term for when your in-game mechanics contradict your story. For instance, your main character may talk constantly about how much she hates killing, but gets an Achievement for X consecutive headshots.

It was a buzz word tossed around when Bioshock Infinite came out. Critics said it exhibited “ludonarrative dissonance” because the story was deeply philosophical, but the gameplay had you running around shooting dudes. This was expanded to a criticism of video games as a whole - how can we have deep storylines if games are so violent, yo?

Jim Sterling has some good thoughts on the subject here:

Super interesting, thanks.

I'd that it is a problem with many games, but most seem to incorporate the combat into the story.

With Dragon Age specifically, I'd say it's more of an issue with certain skills, such as templar spec. Even in DAI, where learning it and the discussion of lyrium and lyrium addiction is incorporated into the game, your own warrior doesn't have to drink lyrium potions in order to use the skills. I can completely understand why this was done for gameplay, but yes, there is that dissonance there.

I suppose that, ideally, your warrior would gain an additional resource alongside stamina -- a blue meter like mages' mana -- that they would have to replenish with lyrium in order to use the skills. But that mechanic would be so annoying that I think it would discourage people from taking the spec. While you could say that that sort of struggle would be realistic for a templar, having that realism isn't worth it if it hurts the gameplay to such a degree.

I don't doubt that there are certainly players that would relish such micro management, but I'd suggest that those types are a minority.


I don't buy that criticism for Bioshock Infinite, though. The reason for the combat is spelled out right in the game. Comstock is doing whatever he feels is necessary to maintain his power (and keep his secrets). Comstock's soldiers are the type of blind followers that are doing what they think is necessary to protect the purity of their home. The Vox Populi are doing what they think is necessary for their cause. Besides, Booker never claims to ascribe to any sort of philosophy other than survival, so that argument doesn't include him. I don't think it's contrary for a philosophical story to have violence.

I think if we had made something closer in class structure to, say, Diablo, this would have worked well. It's one of those things where you really need a cohesive design. If only one of your classes/specs has this unique way to play it feels somewhat out of place (granted our KE in Trespasser had a gimmick going for spirit blade but that was more of a fix for monotonous gameplay than anything else).

Alternatively, if you went the more DnD route, you could conceivably have a max number of uses on Templar abilities and then have Lyrium be a more rare consumable that had some consequences on your character stats (or something). Again, this sort of assumes a system that supports this style.

There are numerous things we can do, especially with gameplay mechanics, but the important 3 questions are:
"Does this break my immersion?" (not to be confused with "Does this make sense?")
"Does this fit the gameplay goals?" (DevilMayCry's gameplay wouldn't fit in a slower paced game even if there was a narrative reason someone moved that fast)
"Is this enjoyable gameplay" (Ultimately, if it isn't enjoyable, or sets something else up to be enjoyable it probably shouldn't exist - there is a reason you rarely see a game require you to eat, sleep, or use a bathroom on a reasonable schedule)

What? You mean that any random character I don't like, or who I think receives too much attention from the writers, isn't a Mary Sue??

When did magic 8 balls become so meta?