The Future of RPGs: Looking Forward to Sequels

[Azrael the cat]

"Dragon Age 2: BioWare came right out and asked gamers, "What didn’t work?" in Dragon Age: Origins when it started development on Dragon Age II, and the feedback the team received from this question directly influenced how they approached every aspect of the sequel. For starters, the game sports an improved graphics engine and art style that will give the game a much grittier tone."
What a fucking cop out. Of course a sequel is going to have better graphics - how does that constitute "listening to the fans"?

Unless you've also got some control mechanism to ensure that you've got a representative sample, you might run into the 'New Coke' problem: that you're taking instructions from the people who DIDN'T like your (very successful) original product. I didn't like the game, and didn't even come close to finishing it, but it was (if not mistaken) their best-selling effort despite some hideous marketing that seemed designed to hide any tactical elements (almost like they were embarassed that they were selling something that looked like an rpg now they'd moved on to Mass Effect).

I'm wondering whether they had a scenario where, say, 70% of their fanbase liked the game and so didn't complain, with 10% wanting something Codexian and 20% wanting something more actiony, making the 'moar action, less options' crowd seem like they were 2/3 of the fanbase?

Not that they're in any danger of failing to sell mega-copies (the only product I could envisage having even a small possibility of flopping is their mmorpg - a lot of their fans have no interest in mmorpgs, and won't want to buy it if is the WoW-clone that it appears to be, whereas the mmorpg scene aren't going to buy it just because 'holy shit it's Bioware': they've got Blizzard for that). I wouldn't be surprised if sales are lower than DA1 though.

 

[toro]

Risen 2

 

[tindrli]

Sword of the mother 7

 

[Gobbo]

Risen 2

I doubt PB will release the game this year. Too much competition.

 

[Shannow]

No, because Oblivion is a shitty RPG that lacks role-playing.

But, I'd argue that KOTOR is more of a RPG than BG is though BG is the better game.

Or TOEE is a better RPG than IWD even though I liked IWD more.

Oh no! Not this again.

Why? It's always fun to see Volly failing....
...to make a distinction between Role Playing in a Game and a Role Playing Game.

 

[SkepticsClaw]

Dragon Age 2: BioWare came right out and asked gamers, "What didn’t work?" in Dragon Age: Origins when it started development on Dragon Age II, and the feedback the team received from this question directly influenced how they approached every aspect of the sequel. For starters, the game sports an improved graphics engine and art style that will give the game a much grittier tone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMkrk2MJ ... re=related

 

[waywardOne]

art style that will give the game a much grittier tone.

moar grit? i'm sold.