Dragon Age News Thread

EA is reportedly laying off 670 employees, or roughly five per cent of its workforce. Not sure about the impact on BioWare, if any.

The announcement was made here:

www.ea.com/news/continuing-to-evolve-our-business-and-teams?isLocalized=true

One bit I found potentially illuminating:

We are also sunsetting games and moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry. This greater focus allows us to drive creativity, accelerate innovation, and double down on our biggest opportunities — including our owned IP, sports, and massive online communities — to deliver the entertainment players want today and tomorrow.

www.ign.com/articles/respawns-star-wars-fps-is-canceled-but-work-on-next-jedi-game-black-panther-and-iron-man-will-continue

"IGN understands that EA intends to reorient its business and development plans to focus on a handful of its biggest franchises, including EA Sports, Apex Legends, Star Wars: Jedi, Iron Man, Black Panther, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Dragon Age, Skate, and The Sims. IGN also has learned that a team is still working in pre-production on the next Mass Effect, though Bioware's current focus remains on Dragon Age."

Calliope Ryder ⚔️ 🔜 GDC @callioperyder
how to make fantasy book title:

1. Choose a royal setting or title:
Court, Kingdom, Throne, House, Castle, Crown, Queen, King, Tower, Keep, etc

2. Of

3. Choose an element, mineral, or other whimsical noun:
Ash, Salt, Fire, Dust, Shadow, Wings, Stone, Night, Ice, etc

4: done!

5: step back and admire your nonsense title that includes only the vaguest of connection to the book’s contents. Readers will endlessly search for the series title or author in order to remember which book was which. Your handy work is complete. 😌

David Gaider @davidgaider
No lie: this is roughly the method by which Dragon Age was named.

Calliope Ryder ⚔️ 🔜 GDC @callioperyder
you forgot the OF, david 🤦‍♀️

(looking forward to giving you massive hug soon)

David Gaider @davidgaider
Haha! ACTUALLY after sifting through all the fantasy words, the title we arrived at was “Age of Dragons”. But because a game called “Age of Empires” was expected out around the same time (we eventually released years after it did) we settled on “Dragon Age” to mix it up. 😅

Calliope Ryder ⚔️ 🔜 GDC @callioperyder
this whole saga is wild

David Gaider @davidgaider
Even better is that, when my boss came to tell me the good news that they’d found a title, I just stared at him.
“But… why would we name it that? There are no dragons in the setting!”
“I guess we’ll have to add some, then!”
True story.

John Epler @eplerjc.bsky.social
i think the wildest thing in a creative industry is being unwilling to listen to feedback and unwilling to hear criticism.

imagine not being able to know you're better today than you were yesterday

i love contrasting old work to new. seeing how i've grown in confidence and ability.

there's stuff i can write today that would've been unimaginable three years ago

and i owe it to the people around me telling me what i needed to know to be better

now if you'll excuse me i need to google seven synonyms for the same word because otherwise i WILL use it in 7 straight lines

www.ign.com/articles/connie-booth-ea-playstation-studios

"Former PlayStation executive Connie Booth, one of the chief architects of PlayStation's first-party strategy before her unexpected departure in 2023, is joining EA to help lead its studios amid its ongoing restructure.

Booth's title will be Group General Manager, Action RPG, with a portfolio that will include EA Motive (Iron Man), Cliffhanger (Black Panther), and BioWare (Dragon Age, Mass Effect). She will report directly to EA Entertainment head Laura Miele.

"Connie spent more than 30 years helping to build Sony Interactive Entertainment’s internal studios and is responsible for guiding the development of some of their biggest franchises, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, to name just a few," Miele said in a statement.

"She is known for having created an incredible developer-first culture and supporting creative vision while driving innovation. I have known Connie for many years and have always been impressed by her love and commitment to games. She especially cares about game developers. She has an impeccable reputation within the development community and will undoubtedly have a positive impact on our games."

[...]

Booth's hiring points to EA's desire to replicate some of PlayStation's current exclusives strategy, in which it has found success with large-scale single-player games such as God of War and Spider-Man. In initiating its current restructure, EA has said that it is prioritizing its own franchises and that one of its pillars is "blockbuster storytelling" — an area in which Booth has considerable experience."

John Epler @eplerjc.bsky.social
man sometimes you just write a banger and you know it

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
Currently my banger is my head against the keyboard, but I'll get there.

Shoutout to a couple of eagle-eyed DA Fans who game me a heads-up on a few older Mark Darrah interviews that may (I don't think they've been posted here?) have flown under our radar here.

I haven't had a chance to watch all of them yet, but I'm told Dreadwolf is mentioned in places.

BioWare @bioware
For #NationalCocktailDay we invite you to try a unique drink that is sure to fire up your taste buds: the Hissing Drake.
Thanks to our friends at @insighteditions for sharing this recipe from the #DragonAge Cookbook. 📖
Remember to drink responsibly! 🍹😉

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
Weekend work is never fun, but getting to write a comment to the voice actor that just says, "Read him for filth," goes a long way to make up for it.

DarkGoddessEris @darkgoddesseris.bsky.social
@trickweekes.bsky.social I have a question that you may or may not be willing to answer. But in terms of the Evanuris of Dragon Age... the codex states that Mythal is the mother lf at least 4 of the Evanuris. Is this in terms of in the biological sense or is this more figure of speech?

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
You've got what codex entries say as Dalish legend and then what Solas says. It's meant to be uncertain until we explicitly explain more.

DarkGoddessEris @darkgoddesseris.bsky.social
@trickweekes.bsky.social Another dragon age question if you do not mind to answer.

To clarify, does Solas remove the Inquisitor's arm or does the Inquisitor have it removed afterwards?

If the answer is the former, does Solas or any mage have the ability to regenerate the arm back?

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
The intention was that Solas removed the arm below the elbow cleanly and with no further injury.

Healing magic in Dragon Age usually just speeds up natural healing. It can't raise the dead or regrow lost limbs (but could probably reattached a severed limb if you had one and did it quickly).

DarkGoddessEris @darkgoddesseris.bsky.social
Fascinating! But what about the Necromancer skill tree in the games or the Mortalitasi, wouldn't that be a form of raising the dead or is that just raising spirits?

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
The skill descriptions usually specify that the necromancy is doing stuff with spirits (or low-level spirit-like entities).

As someone deeply creeped out by corpses and corporeal undead to a greater degree than normal people, I remember having to write these in DAI.

Amy Evans @amypisces.bsky.social
I remember reading somewhere that it was like a "yes but no", yes in that the arm went away, but no that Solas didn't really rip it off. It more like....faded away.

Though for romanced, the idea of "I'll never forget you" and "I'm taking your arm as a reminder of your love" is kinda funny to me.

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
Yeah, I mean, it is vague and fiddly. The intention was that Solas was taking the magic and energy, not walking around with your arm like Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood looking for the Tenth Doctor.

DarkGoddessEris @darkgoddesseris.bsky.social
TY so much for responding back! Literally you are one of my fav writers/devs so this is a dream.

Now as much as I love Solas... I need to know... In the Missing, Strife has a Vallaslin now. What is the time difference between your story and The Missing, as originally he did not have a Vallaslin?

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
Close-ISH to real-world passage of time. Strife has been working with the Dalish for a few years (and later, in the comic, the Veil Jumpers), so he picked up the vallaslin along the way.

DarkGoddessEris @darkgoddesseris.bsky.social
As promised, I have another question...

Do you have a canon month that Trespasser starts? Or at least time of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter)? Trying to sort out the timeline for my fanfic.

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
I super do not. Honestly, I would have to go look at the lore info to remind myself what our months even are.

Heinst @h31n5t.bsky.social
Reply to Patrick Weekes
Hi Patrick. What do you mean by low level spirit like entities? Are you referring to wisps?

Patrick Weekes @trickweekes.bsky.social
Wisps, or raw Fade material (the stuff spirits are made of) that doesn't have enough self-awareness to be considered a spirit itself. That's probably as specific as I can get unless we go to Nevarra or have an in-world character who talks about it more.

Ben Gelinas ~*Wishlist Times & Galaxy on Steam*~ @bengelinas
I am so mad that the Dragon Age fan wiki does not have a note that we specifically named this town after Sarnia, Ontario... or at least I pitched the name and didn't tell Sheryl it was a real place and then it shipped.
dragonage.fandom.com/wiki/Sahrnia