Dragon Age News Thread

Dark Horse Comics @darkhorsecomics
Printing in general is still affected by pandemic-related shortages, which likely slowed down the regular reprint process for this. It's not OOP indefinitely though--more stock on the way in just a few weeks. Check w/ comic & book retailers to order soon!
darkhorse.com/Books/3002-350/Dragon-Age-Deception-HC

Nunzio DeFilippis @ndefilippis
Excellent update for those who are having trouble tracking down #DragonAgeDeception which is the second of the #DragonAge comics Christina Weir and I wrote for Dark Horse.

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
Things I love about Dragon Age:

Interesting stories about people: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Qunari. Heroes, villains, scoundrels of every stripe. Sometimes they’ve been dead a while, or are secretly gods, or are made of rocks, or wield strange powers. Romance may be an option.

Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah
Tomorrow, let's take a look at the demo for Dragon Age: Inquisition at E3 2014
Join me!



Demoing at a conference like E3 is a grueling experience
Three or four days of presentations in a hot, loud, smoky conference center.
And so it was for Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014.
It was bad enough that on the last day, I shut down half way through and had to be rebooted by IT.
Join me as I try to recreate that experience (probably against all good sense)

Chapters:
0:00 Context Setting
2:46 Hinterlands
11:28 Designer Hugs
15:34 Redcliffe Village
17:40 Dragon? DRAGON!
27:12 Time Travel
33:08 Misdirection
38:02 Fade Rifts
43:55 CHOICE! and CONSEQUENCE!
52:20 Final Thoughts

Autumn Witch @dragon_Age_Fans
Since it’s DAO’s 12 anniversary today, where were you in life 2009 and what was your very first DAO Origin that you played? Do you still remember that character’s name?


John Epler @eplerjc
Funny enough, I got my console copy as we were wrapping up ME2, and I spent my holidays playing through the whole thing and not really leaving my couch for a week.

Jo Berry @joanna_Berry
I remember getting to play a build of Origins in my early days at BioWare Austin. Human mage Slightly smiling face
That was the same playsession where Leorah asked my character to go into the tower's storerooms for her because she was scared of spiders, and I was like, "awww, I'll help, I'm not scared of HOLY SHIT THE SPIDERS IN THIS GAME ARE THE SIZE OF PONIES"

David Gaider @davidgaider
I think I was in the office, sitting on pins and needles while waiting for the first fan reactions and reviews to appear.
My first origin was the Human Noble, because I wrote that one first. His name was Rylock Cousland.

Ben Gelinas @bengelinas
A city elf named Darius Kasparaitis. I set up a tv in my mom’s guest room and frantically played through the game in ten hour chunks preparing for my job interview at BioWare.

Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah
I’ve heard of this game!

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman (Sept. 28)
We are having the inside fixed up to! Maybe some welcoming bas-reliefs in volcanic basalt?

You could collect these in DAI but probably 99% of people haven't seen the whole collection. Designs by my good pal Marc Taro Holmes:



That Gamer Mom! @thatgamermom1
Collecting every single mosaic piece was definitely one of the most satisfying things I did in DA:I! Love seeing them all on Skyhold's walls, love reading the lore theorists' ideas about them. But the contraption to the left, with the Qunari on it? What is that?

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
I also imagined it as something between a restoration device and scrying tool to stuff the residual magic needed to create the item.

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
Things I love about Dragon Age:

The exploration of perspectives and the reliability of narrators. No one person grasps total reality, so any history is fragmentary and personal. That historiographical aspect extends the nuance of the characters to the world.

Timely subject?

John Epler @eplerjc
Oh hey I've been at BioWare 14 years as of today.

At 15 years I believe I'm allowed to increase one stat, and gain 1d6 extra HP.

I started as a term QA tester on Sonic Chronicles. My first day was also the ME1 launch party.

Since then I've worn a bunch of different hats. I think my current one fits me the best. I am incredibly lucky to work with the people I do.

Anyways. More than a third of my life!

It is a weird thing to think about. Because to me, I'm still that brand new tester who's absolutely pumped to be in games (and absolutely intimidated by everyone else).

I would have never expected to be where I am now. It's good to keep that perspective, though.

One last self-indulgent post - keep humble and remember that ultimately, it's the people that matter.

People make games. People hold each other up. People are also who we do this all for.

Everything else matters a lot less.

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
Things I love about Dragon Age:

It's a big, beautiful world of heroic adventure.

Compassion is important. Bravery and fellowship can triumph no matter the odds. However, if faced with unrepetant evil, you can always lock it in a room with Storm of the Century.

Work's a treat!

Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
Things I love about Dragon Age: fan art.
This is a good one by @morgalahan!



Matthew Goldman @sergoldman
I know it's not the narrative theme but I like the visual symbolism: crystal grace in the background and a crystal mirror reflecting crystal blue eyes.

BioWare & Dragon Age Tidbits from Mark's Q&A:

1. One thing Mark dislikes about DA:O: Differences in the game based on platform. It was developed on PC, then ported to console. The compromises were more than he wanted. Also didn't like the art direction they ended up going with (generic).
2. Harding was an example of a character who was eleveated to be more than they were intentionally designed to be.
3. The decision to support old gen + current gen for DA:I was largely driven by EA. They sold 1m copies on old gen.
4. Why no long hair in games? Clipping issues & interaction with other objects primarily. It is changing though through as hardware gets better.
5. There was some very brief talk about making Dragon Age an MMO before it really existed. But SWTOR taught them the true cost of devloping an MMO and never went any further.
6. Remake vs Remaster. DA:O for example would be better off as a remake (though would be quite an undertaking). There would be serious technical hurtles remastering it.
7. Mark's favorite DA charater (today): Harding.
8. Mark doesn't necessarily agree that DA is pushing a more elven-focussed story. They try to leave as many story threads available as possible, then let the writers pull on the ones they want.
9. Ideal villain in a game? Either an environmental one (essentially fighting a hurricane) or one who has motivations you can understand, but disagree with. Important that you don't have the PC rooting for them if you have to fight them in the game.
10. Pushing the conversation forward with inclusion of diverse characters are the thing Mark's most proud of in DA.
11. DA:O would be Mark's pick for a BW remake.
12. Why were there difficulty spikes in Descent & Jaws of Hakkon? One: Because there is such a large window in which you can play them, they're difficult to balance that way. Two: The devs & QA get better & better at the game, so they may think it's easy, but in fact may be difficult for the player base. Also, less resources are spent on DLC...
13. If the Exalted March DLC had come out, the setting for DA:I -might- have moved a little further north, instead of back south to Orlais, Ferelden, etc. Very quantum question though.
14. In Joplin's days, there was a plan to make a Toolset again, though there was little interest in that from the Frostbite team, so the idea died pretty early. But the hope was the Toolset would be robust enough that they would work with pro modders to remake DA:O.
15. Mark does not know if DA or ME will make an appearance at this year's Game Awards.
16. DA2 was the most impressive -project- that Mark has been a part of. Getting a lot done in a very short amount of time. Most impressive -product- would be DA:I. Best game he's made (so far).
17. There is a movement at EA that started just before Mark left to support modding (as they're getting more interested in it), so stay tuned... maybe.
18. While Mark would have liked to have made a Tactics-style game for DA, EA didn't have much of an appetite for it.
19. The change in art style of DA2 vs DA:O. He feels that DA2 is much more easily identifiable and got them to "ownable", which they needed.
20. Opinion on Jason Schreier's BW articles. Video game press has been struggling to figure out if they want to have real journalists (who are going to do the digging and break stories) or not. Journalists like Jason aren't liked by the industry, but may be necessary in order to improve the industry.
21. Hawke getting a marriage scene in DA4? Possibly, but he doubts it. A question for BW, not Mark.
22. On Social Media: People love a "fall from grace" story, but love a "redemption" story even more. Mark muses BW may be on its redemption arc now.
23. Would it be a good idea to bring Shepard back for ME5? Not as an insider tidbit, but Mark feels that the Shepard story is finished, but doesn't know what that team is up to.
24. Mark doesn't believe healing spells and effects were ever considered for Inquisition. Brings up the issue of regenerating mana and everyone being at full strength after every combat. In an OW game, you want a certain level of attrition, otherwise the OW can seem pointless.
25. Will stealth and/or pickpocket skills return to DA? Mark doesn't know... but it's possible.
26. Will DA4/5/6 return to DA:O's Dark Fantasy roots? Why did they step away from its roots if it's so acclaimed? Mark: DA:I is the most acclaimed of the DA series. Will it return to its DA roots - he doesn't know, but he doubts it. Other games (from other studios) are doing fine in that space and he's not sure if BW wants to compete with them.
27. What happened to the Architect and awakened Darkspawn? Mark: He's out there still and might return someday, but he's not in the foreground right now. It was the least played of all the Dragon Ages, so there's that to consider as well.
28. The rumored Netflix Dragon Age series? Mark thinks that would have great potential.
29. On DA4s long development cycle? Mostly due to external factors. Joplin got derailed by ME:A, got back up, then derailed again by Anthem.
30. Mocap. In 2020 not a whole lot was going on, but they did send full kits to actors to do mocap from home. They also did one scene at the mocap lab in Vancouver before Mark left, but only one actor was allowed on stage at a time. So that one actor played all the roles in that scene. Kinda ridiculous.
31. Do DA novels help or hurt the experience of playing the game? It doesn't hurt, but you have to be aware that the vast majority of your players will not have read them, so that has to be factored into your game.
32. Have Vivienne, Fiona, and Irving ever created a phylactery as First Enchanters. Maybe... probably... but maybe not. For the DA team to decide (or not).
33. Has BW canonized any choices in DA? A few. But one of the major reasons why they like to have a new protagonist with each game is that it allows them to move past romance choices, characters who might be living or dead, etc. The biggest quantum choices came from DA:O because they didn't think they'd make another one at the time. DA2 and DAI did a fairly good job of collapsing that (moving to new location, new protag, etc.). They try to respect people's choices as much as they can.
34. The Last Court got removed due to legal reasons. It had be updated to new privacy laws and it was decided it wasn't worth doing so.