Preview Negative Dragon Age preview

[The_Pope]

As for the story, there is a skimpy outfit reason as to why it progresses this way - at least according to the game's lead writer, David Gaider.

Fixed.

 

[Forest Dweller]

A sex-scene to which you get by giving a present and receiving a terrible flirting line in return?
Oh boy I hope they will give me collectrible cards for that.

You could try not to speak out of your ass so often. That only happened with...take a guess...whores, and only after you helped their mistress.

 

[MetalCraze]

Ah you're right - some of them even didn't require a present. You're right - that game is more mature.

 

[RK47]

Sounds like something out of an old porn JRPG I played a while ago. You switch partners mid game, find the shit they want and you screw in the hotel or something. Western RPG finally catch up but still doing it half way.

 

[Mister Arkham]

I can't understand the ceaseless criticism of barely clad women in a fantasy game (although that sounds funny).
Sometimes it comes up, sometimes not. I'd say 90% of every game with a woman in it, propagated a similar image (even PS:T did, enthusiastically so). That's why I never can take this serious. It always sounds like from some theater critic, who was suddenly condemned to write previews for videogames, and is almost surprised that such a thing exists but only remembers something similar from the shelves of the last bookstore. Or in short, it's pretentious and totally selective.

But I can relate to the criticism of the dialog itself. I feared as much. But I suppose this might just be the cheeky „Joss Whedon“-tone which David Gaider is so fond of.

It's just a particularly tired convention and has been for years. People rose up against it on the covers of fantasy novels in the eighties and they're rising up against it in fantasy games now. It's just a cycle. Personally I've always found it to be pretty silly, especially with the fantasy writer's predilection to attempt darkness of tone, and realism in both that time period and this one. Rob Howard, Frank Frazetta, blame whoever you want for starting it, T&A is now and always has been just another way of moving copies. The uprising against it isn't meant to be pretentious I don't think. It's a cry for honest to god realism, like the developers keep promising us, and it, like this push towards a fifteen year old boy's idea of realism, will die down in good time.
Nerdrage is a fad, but tits are forever.

Also, does Gaider really think that he's emulating or on-par with Joss Whedon? I mean, I like Whedon's work and would dare to say that he's pretty good... not as good as the fangirls and boys like to say, but pretty good... but Gaider is so far from being able to emulate that at all, and if he's trying he's failing just as hard as you'd expect him to.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

complaining about optional sex was the stupidest criticism of the witcher and is the stupidest complaint about dragon age.

actually the bitching about how the goty edition was called "enhanced" was worse.

 

[Ty]

Also, does Gaider really think that he's emulating or on-par with Joss Whedon?

He only mentioned he is a fan and I think his sarcastic vein is influenced by him. I don't think either that the dialog shown so far was any good or interesting. But the war council and the banter with the prisoner was still fairly decent, so I hope this game will not be a complete embarrassment, even for their own standards.

 

[bhlaab]

thanks for the book wanna stick it in me

 

[Black]

What a surprise...
*monocle*

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If we compare Leliana's response (all is forgiven if you love me, really) with what can happen IRL, I don''t think the result differs much. (I do believe that Leliana is written by either Ms. Kirby or Ms. Chee...)

----

Sure... If you're the most moronic sort of misogynist.

There should seriously be an intelligence or stealth check on fucking some trollop within 5 feet of your sleeping "girlfriend".

I've already seen this sort of shit happening, more than once. It's the most realistic thing in DA so far.

There are girls willing to put up with this if you say you're rly sorry...with a smile.

 

[Jaesun]

RPG News 2077- A look back on the collapse of Bioware. The decline and fall of Bioware started when EA took over the Marketing and decided the fate of the Dragon Age Series (In that, they suddenly had to market it to consoles, which was not originally planned)...

 

[Rhalle]

DA has the potential to be a real disaster.

I hope it isn't, and even if it is a console shitfest I will probably enjoy it against my better judgement.

But the more I see, the more I think the opportunity for a profoundly Battlefield Earth-bad game is there.

If it happens, the spin, denial and blameslinging will be a real treat to watch.

And oh my God the women on the Bioboards are fucking insufferable; the asinine romance threads, for fuck's sake, they never end.

 

[DemonKing]

The trouble is, even though they are generating a lot of mixed-reviews with their perculiar adolescent take on maturity, they are again generating a lot of fan reaction (positive and negative) ala the Mass Effect Lesbian romance hype which if you hold to the view that "any publicity is good publicity", will probably still see them shift a lot of units.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Only 131 more days until Dragon Age!

Dragon Age!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[HanoverF]

Enslave nations with philandering

 

[Shannow]

Ah you're right - some of them even didn't require a present. You're right - that game is more mature.

Personally, I don't mind TW's attitude toward sex as much as DA's. Not because it done more maturely. It isn't, IMO. TW would have been fine with 5 fuckable women scattered accros the game. It was the amount that bothered me. But that is neither here nor there. In TW it was pretty much handled the way some macho "player" would handle it. That is consistent. But Bioware want to touch <s>little children</s> the players emotionally. They want to make a girly emo game. And that coupled with ridiculously easy to get to sex-scenes just does not compute.

 

[kris]

. And that coupled with ridiculously easy to get to sex-scenes just does not compute.

Would it be confirmed they are easy to get too or do you have to say the right things in numerous conversations?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I think "easy to get" doesn't apply, it doesn't seem they are treating sex as a "reward", but as a narrative element.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

I think "easy to get" doesn't apply, it doesn't seem they are treating sex as a "reward", but as a narrative element.

thanks for the book wanna stick it in me

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Most people here I imagine saw this coming.

I just think computer developers need to grow up. Women in fantasy - be it games, books (admittedly I rarely read fantasy nowadays) or films - often dress like whores and things go from there. Why? As the previewer says, it's pathetic and reeks of design from people who have actually met very few women. And it being an established convention only excuses intelligence and maturity.

At least Duke Nukem does it sort of tongue in cheek. When we're expected to take it seriously, well, it fails.

I'm no feminist; I just want semi-believable characters, even if the setting is fantastic; and this sort of stuff doesn't elicit anger so much as a feeling of pity.

EDIT: 'What do you expect from a bunch of sex-starved nerds trying to write romance?' qft

 

[bhlaab]

1. smoke weed
2. buy library
3. fuck bitches

 

[Lesifoere]

Most people here I imagine saw this coming.

I just think computer developers need to grow up. Women in fantasy - be it games, books or films - often dress like whores and things go from there. Why? As the previewer says, it's pathetic and reeks of design from people who have actually met very few women. And it being an established convention only excuses intelligence and maturity.

At least Duke Nukem does it sort of tongue in cheek. When we're expected to take it seriously, well, it fails.

I'm no feminist; I just want semi-believable characters, even if the setting is fantastic; and this sort of stuff doesn't elicit anger so much as a feeling of pity.

EDIT: 'What do you expect from a bunch of sex-starved nerds trying to write romance?' qft

The tragic thing is, there're quite a few female gamers--chiefly those among Bioware's target audience, say--who are actually okay with this and lap this shit right up then turning on to accuse those asking for semi-believable characters and so-called "maturity" as taking games too seriously. "So? I like to play scantily clad D&D whores and take absolutely no offense at Bioware's women! You're just a prude/don't have a sense of humor/don't have a sense of fun!" That kind of thing.

(I imagine Bioware developers, being fairly well-off, probably have actually had sex if only with women they have to pay.)

 

[Mr. Teatime]

Most people here I imagine saw this coming.

I just think computer developers need to grow up. Women in fantasy - be it games, books or films - often dress like whores and things go from there. Why? As the previewer says, it's pathetic and reeks of design from people who have actually met very few women. And it being an established convention only excuses intelligence and maturity.

At least Duke Nukem does it sort of tongue in cheek. When we're expected to take it seriously, well, it fails.

I'm no feminist; I just want semi-believable characters, even if the setting is fantastic; and this sort of stuff doesn't elicit anger so much as a feeling of pity.

EDIT: 'What do you expect from a bunch of sex-starved nerds trying to write romance?' qft

The tragic thing is, there're quite a few female gamers--chiefly those among Bioware's target audience, say--who are actually okay with this and lap this shit right up then turning on to accuse those asking for semi-believable characters and so-called "maturity" as taking games too seriously. "So? I like to play scantily clad D&D whores and take absolutely no offense at Bioware's women! You're just a prude/don't have a sense of humor/don't have a sense of fun!" That kind of thing.

(I imagine Bioware developers, being fairly well-off, probably have actually had sex if only with women they have to pay.)

Interesting - being female doesn't automatically make you have good taste, I guess. Maybe it's more that it's offensive in general, rather than offensive to women. And while claiming 'it's supposed to be funny' does change things somewhat, as I understand it Dragon Age is supposedly epic and serious.

Forgetting the slightly repulsive side to this, and perhaps more importantly, if Bioware want us to empathise and sympathise with their characters, it fails. Why would someone, especially someone supposedly combat-ready, wander around like a whore, unless they had some issues to be explored during the course of the game (yeah, right) or - something? Surely a deeper and more well-rounded character results in a more effective romance. Or, and I can almost hear the gasps from Bioware HQ now, it might even mean an attractive female ISN'T interesting in sleeping with the PC - regardless of how you play him - or keen to explore her homosexuality.

 

[1eyedking]

A sex-scene to which you get by giving a present and receiving a terrible flirting line in return?
Oh boy I hope they will give me collectrible cards for that.

If this hadn't been tongue-in-cheek, and true to the spirit of the books, I would have given a damn.

In fact, after solving a quest where you help some prostitutes, you giving flowers to them thereafter as some sort of sign of confidence was a very nice detail. Stupid people tend to miss this.

 

[RK47]

Wait a minute, what if the player is female? is there male romance?