Dragon Age News Thread

Another tidbit...

Dragon Age @dragonage
The Dread Wolf readies to make his move. Tune in to the world-wide reveal this summer. #TheDreadWolfRises

BioWare @bioware
For #DragonAgeDay, we partnered with wonderful artists from our talented community to capture the wonders of Thedas.

Antiva art by Nipuni @nipunidraws

Ever the the pinnacle of mystery and intrigue, the Crows watch from the deep shadows of beautiful Antiva. Something, however, is amiss, and they are set on finding out the source.

Holiday 2024?
Or tipping into first quarter 2025?

Insight Editions @insighteditions
🐉Delve into the heart of Thedas on Dragon Age Day!
To celebrate, we're giving away 🔥FIVE copies of the official Dragon Age cookbook, a culinary treasure filled with recipes inspired by the lands we love. The book captures the essence of Ferelden, Orlais, and other Dragon Age realms, offering an adventure for your taste buds.

The giveaway sponsored by Insight Editions commences on December 4th and ends on December 8th.

Want to be one of the fortunate winners?
💥Enter here: gleam.io/aJ0Hf/dragon-age-day-giveaway

No purchase is needed to enter.
@dragonage @bioware #dragonageday

Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah
An important announcement

Jonty Lowstar @jontylowstar
Reminds me of the ME3 stats that got released.

If you went by the forums and fan art you'd think Female Shepard was universally played.

She accounted for only 18% of finished games



David Gaider @davidgaider
There wasn't a single time, either with ME or DA, where the telemetry matched up with the hardcore online fanbase. *Wildly* different results, whether we're talking PC choices, romances, or story choices. You'd think they were playing completely different games.

WHY that is -- there we head into (potentially dangerous) speculative territory. I've always wondered what it was about less "standard" options that seems to generate the most passion in the hardcore fans, though. Something inherent about getting to pick something most wouldn't?

PossibleCabbage @possiblecabbage
Do you think that the "serious devotees of a fictional world" and the "people who just pick up highly regarded new game" are different player archetypes? Like if you took data from "a year post-release" (not an unusual time to play games you love) would the numbers shift?

David Gaider @davidgaider
Hard to say, considering anyone from the latter group can easily become the former. As the "casual players" drop out, though, for sure the numbers would move over time... but it won't make much of a dent, statistically, against overall numbers that rank in the millions.

BioWare @bioware
🥳🎮Huge congratulations to @larianstudios for taking home the Game of the Year award at #TGA for their incredible work on @baldursgate3 !

Interesting queen anora will be in there... I thought alistair's VA stated he wasn't in this one? Will be odd to have her as an option and not him. 

BioWare @bioware
So long, thanks for the memories. #E3 has been a cornerstone event for many years, we’ve enjoyed showing you our games and meeting our wonderful fans. Thank you for letting us be part of the magic. 🎮

Posting this bit of news / update about frostbite since DA:D is being developed on Frostbite.

www.ea.com/news/frostbite-rebrand-2024

Flighty Broad Eva @worstgirleva
"in a game with no consequences, why are you still playing the good side?" because the bad side is often very badly written

David Gaider @davidgaider
This subject came up among the writers fairly often. "How can we make an 'evil path' which is actually satisfying?" The problem, more often than not, boiled down to our ability (or lack thereof) to flag *intention*.

Allow me to explain:

What do people want when they ask for a better "evil path"? Usually it's something clever. Gaining power, manipulating others, etc. But those tend to require long-term goals where, in the short-term, what you do might be indistinguishable from a "good path".

So we'd need some way to flag any "evil path" conversation option with some kind of note that says "yes, this might look like you're agreeing, but your ultimate intention here is to do X", to set the stage for this clever evilness, as it were. Which is awkward.

Failing that, all you have left are things which are short-term/immediate. You have an option in dialogue and the consequence occurs immediately.

Thing is... how many "evil" things can you set up that way? An immediate deception, extortion, kick the puppy, etc. Not a lot else.

"Why doesn't that problem exist with the good path?"

It does, actually. The good responses are also immediate, but they're the default - particularly when the overall framing of your main quest is essentially heroic. We don't *need* to flag why good deeds aid your heroic quest.

Does this mean it can't be done? Not at all, but it requires a lot more thought as to the framing. Tyranny, for example, tackled the heroic framing issue - even if it also had the issue with long-term flagging of player actions.

Possibly the problem is an inherent one when your primary method of player input and feedback is both contained in the (very immediate) responses on a dialogue wheel. I still think it *could* be done... but it requires more effort than just "make options better".

And how MUCH effort you put into your evil options... well, there you also run into an issue of "which player impulses do we WANT to cater to, here?"

Because, sure, you could allow things that are downright depraved, sadistic, etc. etc. But... do you WANT to make that game? 😉

Two things I'll end with:

1) Most players take good options, no matter how great the evil ones are. It's true. But I think, in a game that includes moral choices, you need the OPTION to do evil or else you're not really "choosing" anything. You're good because you have to be.

And thus, in a way, most "evil paths" are still largely serving the good path that most players take, by design.

2) The above is important because the BASE issue is that the easiest way to make evil options tempting is to make them the more rewarding ones.

Meaning, yes, if you do X quest out of the goodness of your heart you DON'T get paid. You don't get phat loot. That would be selfless, right?

But players likely have it so baked in that "do quest = get reward" they'd lose their minds at that. Thus evil rewards are just... extra.

I'd love to see a game that overthrows this particular RPG paradigm, but it's a bit harder to design than it might at first appear... and my main fear is that you simply can't overthrow it. You can only invert it, and shift where the problem lies.

Sorry for the long thread. 😅

Stiles' Reviews @reviewstiles
Wasn't the answer to this solved in the original Dragon Age? Don't have 'Good/Evil' have actions with consequences. Let characters and areas have their own opinions on what is good and evil, not the game itself.

David Gaider @davidgaider
Both DA and ME tried to get away from the black-and-white good vs. evil dichotomy of D&D and Star Wars. Blurring the lines in that dichotomy doesn't change the issue, really. To most, it's simply semantics.