Dragon Age News Thread

Damn it, Hrungr you ninja'd me!

My response remains the same:

It's an interesting topic...  

If one of the mods would be kind enough to move this discussion to a new thread, we can carry on with it there...

That's why he's called the Twitter Guru.

I don't find the books necessary because the information in the novels is not something my character would likely know. The only book I've read so far is The Stolen Throne (which I read after playing DAO), and while it provided some cool background on Maric and Loghain, my mage Warden who had spent her whole life in the Circle Tower wouldn't have known or cared about any of it. None of the Inquisitor backgrounds would have any prior connection to Cole, so I'm perfectly fine as a player only knowing what he tells me about himself. Since none of the Inquisitors are Orlesian, I wouldn't expect my character to know the details of a foreign country's civil war. The player's goal is to end the war and solidify one person's power on the throne, and I feel like the events at the Winter Palace give you enough information to go on. You even have the opportunity to question each potential leader about their beliefs and vision for the country to help you make a more informed decision. I'm sure there's plenty of subtleties I didn't pick up on, but given that the entire quest takes place over a single evening it makes sense that the Inquisitor wouldn't have time to learn all the details. 

I like that the books exist, and I plan to read more of them, but I don't feel like they're necessary to enjoy/understand the games and their lore. I'm actually glad that I didn't read Stolen Throne before playing DAO because I wouldn't want to go into a game with a preconceived opinion about a character. Playing DAI actually makes me look forward to reading Asunder because I'll get to learn more about a character I've come to like in the game (which I believe is the intention behind creating such ancillary materials in the first place: buy more DA product!). They're fun enhancements to the series, but they don't drive the action, and I think that's the way they should be.

That's what I like about DA - my perception about events or characters can change depending on what I played or which books I've read and so on And each other player would have a different experience too, depending on where they began their journey.

But yea, the information acquired from any sources other than the game we currently play - while canonical (at least in terms of the outline of certain events) and substantive - mostly matters to us, the players, rather than our PCs. Realistically, none of the PCs (so far) would have ever known as much about the world or certain events than we do after playing other games or reading all the books/comics. Thus, any further insight PCs have, or choice they'd make that is not based just on what surrounds them, has to be headcanoned in one way or another.

All full of Twitter.

Plus Hrungr never sleeps! 

I always found DA devs stance regarding the books strange.

Not sure what’s the problem then? If we read the book and gain additional insight that we then want to at least partially implant in our Inky... we can just headcanon that additional conversations with Leli or her spies had occurred. It ain’t that complicated.