Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[~RAGING BONER~]

hepler is gone?!

score 1 for the patriarchy!!

 

[Space Satan]

Gaider will continue hepler's work

Gaider is actually openly gay. I actually didn't know until recently, but he mentioned it at a con panel recently (he and Jessica went to GaymerX recently), though it's actually not hidden (I was able to find a reference to a poster pointing it out in response to DA2's "insulting depiction of gay characters" thread from a couple years ago).

Now, it's awfully easy to go all dismissive about the impetus as a result of that (which is probably why he doesn't advertise the fact, since frankly it IS irrelevant and he has no issue not doing homosexual relationships), I am not gay and think that, in general, doing stuff like this isn't a bad idea and it's one I support. Of course, we'll likely disagree on the nature of "shoving it down our throat" because I do get the impression that its existence in any capacity, for some people, is equivalent to "shoving it down one's throat."

Although the post itself is bunk so using it as ammo for David's willingness to turn everything into a gay crusade is misplaced. Although it is interesting how frequently you guys bring up the topic (and romances) yourselves, despite your apparent dislike of the discussion.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

funny thing she wrote most of orzammar(branka+hespith) and dwarven commoner origin for darigins which where arguably one of the best parts of origins writting i still like the most dwarven noble origin

Don't like gameplay? Don't work on games then

tell it to MCA after his arcanum LP

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

EA cannot afford health insurance for fat fucks in Bioware anymore.
Tub of Lard Chris was fired first.
Then goes Hamburger Helper.

 

[Grunker]

People taking the time to write that they hope someone's children die because of some random video game nauseate me far more than the worst Hepler writing ever could. And it could make me vomit.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

When someone in bioware "leaves" I'm fairly sure they mean "fired"... Just look at the other people, end of the line dude and Chris 'Jabba' Prestley. Both of them were rather depressed when they left, but they were liek "my bosses talked to me about my passion and noted it has been waning, so perhaps I should resign".

 

[Azalin]

funny thing she wrote most of orzammar(branka+hespith) and dwarven commoner origin for darigins which where arguably one of the best parts of origins writting i still like the most dwarven noble origin

Don't like gameplay? Don't work on games then

tell it to MCA after his arcanum LP

Her being the main dwarven writer in DA:O on the other hand does explain why Branka left Oghren for another woman

 

[Caim]

When someone in bioware "leaves" I'm fairly sure they mean "fired"... Just look at the other people, end of the line dude and Chris 'Jabba' Prestley. Both of them were rather depressed when they left, but they were liek "my bosses talked to me about my passion and noted it has been waning, so perhaps I should resign".

So they are "terminated".

Huh, has anyone seen Prestley since he was "terminated"? Or was he that guy who continues to do his job for free?

 

[Roguey]

It's probably people posting @HamburgerHelperOfficial "I hope your children die you fat bitch" on twitter

OMG DEATH THREATS!! :patriot:

Those are still illegal.

They also called her on the phone. How fucked up is that? Rhetorical question.

funny thing she wrote most of orzammar(branka+hespith) and dwarven commoner origin for darigins which where arguably one of the best parts of origins writting i still like the most dwarven noble origin

Don't like gameplay? Don't work on games then

tell it to MCA after his arcanum LP

Her being the main dwarven writer in DA:O on the other hand does explain why Branka left Oghren for another woman

Until Bioware she had never written a gay character before.

Also her being responsible for Orzammar makes her partially responsible for why the Deep Roads are such a chore. There's also that part in DA2 where you rescue Cullen from a demon ambush, then he initiates a conversation with you talking about how much he hates those damn mages regardless of whether or not you're a mage or have one in your party. Because she doesn't give a damn about what happens during combat and that is bad. Thus spoke Josh Sawyer.

 

[Rake]

Games cost much too much money to focus on a niche market,"

Goes and focus on the niche gay market

 

[Roguey]

Guppies have a lot of discretionary income, they're a good market to target.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

When someone in bioware "leaves" I'm fairly sure they mean "fired"... Just look at the other people, end of the line dude and Chris 'Jabba' Prestley. Both of them were rather depressed when they left, but they were liek "my bosses talked to me about my passion and noted it has been waning, so perhaps I should resign".

Or was he that guy who continues to do his job for free?

Both of them do They were like "hmm, my boss said I could continue being a mod and I like this community so much so why not ))))))" Fucking born lickspitters the lot of them.

 

[Roguey]

Being a power-tripping mod is its own reward.

LOCKDOWN!

 

[Grunker]

Being a power-tripping mod is its own reward.

LOCKDOWN!

Post something in Politics so I can do that, Roguey.

 

[Delterius]

Have you guys ever thought of moving every gender politics post into the Politics forum? Make a big merging thread for all the shit and we might reach the counter-tumblr singularity.

People taking the time to write that they hope someone's children die because of some random video game nauseate me far more than the worst Hepler writing ever could. And it could make me vomit.

The worst thing is that the whole affair has little to do with Hepler. She's a writer, no one cares about her opinion on mechanics. Much less her negligible impact on the Mass Effect franchise, which was what the drones were accusing her of ruining.

For the more reasonable folk, Hepler's opinion was just symbolic of AAA's direction. To make games for people who have all the right in the world to not play them. Like the mobile industry doesn't already serve as an entry point for them.

Hepler's suggestion isn't even bad on its own. Some games are praised on the Codex for how you can avoid combat in them. The issue is how just incompatible her suggestion is with the average BioWare game, where the plot simply does not justify a game. It would be like aping David Cage's non-games. And I'm sure even BioWare knows that - combat in BioWare games is 90% of the player's agency.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Yeah, blaming a writer for shitty game mechanics is kinda stupid, but a writer who dislikes combat rarely can tie up combat and plot into successful and organic combination. While interesting combat is more of a designers' job, a good narrative should support combat (or lack of it, for non-violent solutions). So, help me God, I'm agreeing with Roguey.

Also, /v/ is stupid and easily manipulated, I find it kinda funny that they are reacting to Decline in their own way, but they gang up on random shit writer, while in reality they should send death threats to themselves. I mean, one can just look at all that "Morrigan is my waifu" crap.

 

[Space Satan]

That's her own fault for catering to popamole auditory. Want call of duty sales? Be ready to deal with kids from school and other retards.

 

[Nryn]

Early video showcasing combat - http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/16/combat-of-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx

Melee combat seems more action oriented and twitchy. There's rolling and other evasive maneuvers from what I can see. It reminds me of Fable.

 

[Space Satan]

Early video showcasing combat - http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/16/combat-of-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx

Melee combat seems more action oriented and twitchy. There's rolling and other evasive maneuvers from what I can see. It reminds me of Fable.

Wait, what? That is a pure copy of Dark Souls. Only dumbed down. Oh, they just cannot resist the lure of DS praise and critical acclaim.
Anyway, now they are openly speaking about "hunger for tactical combat". I forsee next information reveal will be about dialogues where they'll be talking about Choices that Matter.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Early video showcasing combat - http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/08/16/combat-of-dragon-age-inquisition.aspx

Melee combat seems more action oriented and twitchy. There's rolling and other evasive maneuvers from what I can see. It reminds me of Fable.

dark souls my ass but it still looks better than combat in twicher 2

 

[Roguey]

Dark Souls and Skyrim have a party-based downs baby.

I'm interested in whether or not that roll is an ability with a cooldown. Mike Laidlaw was very passionate about not including an active dodge in Dragon Age
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/5232199/7

In fact, there was a very clear rule about active dodging and defenses put down in my first combat design doc that said I believed that active dodges would fail in a party-based game, because the player would feel as if he could only play the "tank" of the party in order to have maximum effectiveness.

Has he flip-flopped?!?!?!?!? We'll see.

Also noticed that Peter Thomas got downgraded from lead gameplay designer to senior. Guess he fell on his DA2 sword. Yet he's still responsible for the same things...

Senior Gameplay Designer on Dragon Age: Inquisition
Bioware
Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry

2011 – 2013 (2 years)

Senior Gameplay Designer working on Dragon Age: Inquisition, dealing with player progression, player classes and abilities, combat systems, enemy roles and abilities, and party and enemy combat AI.

Lead Gameplay Designer on Dragon Age 2
Bioware
Public Company; 501-1000 employees; ERTS; Computer Games industry

2010 – 2011 (1 year)

Lead Gameplay Designer on Dragon Age II, dealing mainly with player abilities and progression and underlying gameplay systems.

The guy in the video wasn't the gameplay lead either. Wonder which clown got that horrible task.

 

[Athelas]

Having a cooldown for a roll is just silly. Something like mages having a shorter rolling distance and a longer time to stand back up would be much better.

The whole rolling mechanic is pretty badly implemented in most games. Dodging backwards and to the side should be a small leap backwards/sideways, not a roll.

 

[Necroscope]

Eh, maybe she, like Priestly, will return to work for free.

With her vagina unzipped - she'll be Bioware's bordel mama.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Looks horrible, it's ridiculous they keep going down this path while claiming to be adding back strategy and party play back into the game...

 

[Roguey]

Having a cooldown for a roll is just silly.

It's abstract. In DA2, rogues had an ability that would allow them to leap backwards that had a 10 second cooldown attached to it. Even in Demon's/Dark Souls there's a stamina bar and running out puts a cooldown on your actions till you get some back.