Game News Bioware unveils 'Dragon Age'

[Gromnir]

again, any assumptions 'bout game and appropriateness of title at this point is just plain ridiculous... Gromnir suspects that folks making criticisms based on so little is trying too hard. we leave up to you to guess why somebody would try so hard for no good reason.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Whipporowill]

Voss, I never said anything about the setting. I thought the name was cowardly, since it implies to the large unwashed masses of the D&D fans that it's more of the same. It's marketing by using the common denominator - I just don't like it.

As for what it actually is, settingswise - we don't have a clue yet, do we? But I wouldn't mind a world ruled by tyrant dragons - and totally rid of the good ones common in certain other games. Tolkien had them right as far as I'm concerned (and no, he didn't invent them - but still). Give me Smaug any day. It's probably not the martial artist angle, as that's done in Jade Empire - I'm guessing more of traditional Sword & Sorcery. They know people want party-based adventures akin to BG, and that's probably what they'll deliver.

 

[Dgaider]

Geez, Volourn, I don't come here often enough to sift one brand of sarcasm from the rest. The idea that you might be trying to point out the knee-jerk critical attitude toward Bioware around here to me and others rather escaped me. It's sort of like standing by the ocean and having the guy next to me go, "So do you need directions to the ocean?"

It goes without saying that the ocean is kind of hard to miss. :wink:

As far as an "inspired" title goes, keep in mind that it all depends on what your plans are for that title. If you're planning on a shelf-life and sequels and such, you want a name that's simple, catchy and not story-specific. Believe me... in a year or two you won't imagine what else the game could be called.

 

[Voss]

Whip:
See, that was my point. To *you* it implies marketing off D&D... but it really doesn't.
Heck it could be a story about a Dragon getting old.


Now if there is a marketing campaign along the lines of 'if you like D&D you'll love Dragon Age', well, thats another thing.

And yes, we don't know anything about the setting- yet you're guessing Traditional Sword and Sorcery.
Hmmm...

 

[Volourn]

I protest. I've often used the same type of sarcasm on the BIUO baords when someone rants there how bad, horrible, pathetic BIo games or BIO themselves are. You must ahve forgotten that since I haven't posted regularlly on the BIo baords for awhile now - still read them though. Heh.

Consideirng how many times I've been accused of being a BIo fnaboy, a paid BIO whore, or a paid BIO publicists, I'd think my pro BIO stance (in most cases0 would be apparant and my ove rthe tiop sarcasm would be notice dby my suppsoed Obejct of Affection.

Heh. no harm no foul. I've been told worst things than shut up before. And telling me to shut up usually falls on deaf ears. heh.

Peace.

 

[Whipporowill]

Heck it could be a story about a Dragon getting old.

Oh nooo... a dragon lifecycle Sim! - "Hatch, Hoard, Fly, Mate"

 

[Ausir]

Yeah, Volourn is no Visceris. He doesn't change his mind as often as socks.

 

[Volourn]

Cool... since I NEVER change my socks. :shock:

 

[Spazmo]

You call that subtle? It was so over the top it wasn't even close to being subtle. As cute as Mr. Gaider telling me to shut up is; it doesn't change the facts that my statement was so beyond unsubtlety it's funny that people are accusing me of being too sublte. And, Spaz, I thought you hated my use of roll eyes smiley yet you recocmend it now. Please be consistent.

All, right, now you've ever blatantly missed my subtle sarcasm or this is yet more subtle sarcasm--I'm really not sure anymore. In any case, HA HA DAVE GAIDER TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE HELL UP!

a paid BIO whore, or a paid BIO publicists

Paid? Nooo! The contention was that you're stupid, not a BioWare employee. :wink:

 

[Volourn]

Nonsense. Many have accused me of being paid. So, nice try Spazzy.

 

[Gromnir]

not have many more posts than gaider... and we figured out vol's angle... and we ain't too bright neither.

doesn’t matter.

bioware comes up with a odd title and folks would be saying that it sounds weird or silly or stoopid. “The Broken Bottle Knight.” “Work To Winward: A Fool’s Tale” “Gordian Not.” what kinda dumb titles is those?

bioware comes up with a traditional title… got the word dragon or sword or blade or shadow or bane or night in title and folks is gonna accuse ‘em of commercialism.

it not matter.

regardless, w/o anything more than a title, criticism is just plain premature.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I agree that the name doesn't sound impressive and does seem to lack a little inspiration. However, I can also see Gaider's point about needing a simple name for the property itself. It'd be hard to come up with a name that's simple, catchy, inspirational, and creative. I've always thought one of the best names for an RPG series was Eye of the Beholder, since it's a common phrase, fits the game, and is memorable. Of course, the problem with names like that is a lot of them are taken already.

Gromnir makes a decent point about the use of the word "dragon" in the title as well. Yeah, the word "dragon" probably comes up a bit too much in fantasy games. With all the glut of fantasy games, including those based on Dungeons & Dragons, it's just gotten to be a bit too much. The term and even the critter itself have no impact really. It's just been done a bit too much. I'd be happy if there were a moratorium on the use of "dragon" for say, ten years.

 

[EEVIAC]

Dragon Age is a lot better name than The Sith Lords. I've always liked alliteration in names, like Dig Dug and Bubble Bobble. So in that spirit, here's some names I've come up with :

Dragon Dungle
Duke Dragon
Dragon Delver

I especially like the last one - 15 massive action packed levels of fantasy role-playing, set in the arse of a single dragon.

 

[Fireblade]

TEH AGE OF ThE DRAGONE!

There is mad loot and amnesia involved, right?

 

[Seven]

As far as an "inspired" title goes, keep in mind that it all depends on what your plans are for that title. If you're planning on a shelf-life and sequels and such, you want a name that's simple, catchy and not story-specific. Believe me... in a year or two you won't imagine what else the game could be called.

You think that up all by yourself, or did the boys in marketing help too? :wink:

 

[DemonKing]

As far as an "inspired" title goes, keep in mind that it all depends on what your plans are for that title. If you're planning on a shelf-life and sequels and such, you want a name that's simple, catchy and not story-specific. Believe me... in a year or two you won't imagine what else the game could be called.

You could call it "Elminster's Adventures in Fairyland" if you want, so long as its a decent game I wouldn't mind too much. Personally I don't think "Dragon Age" is so bad.

What I do object to is when Bio announces a product and has a link to the official site "for more information" http://www.bioware.com/games/dragon_age/ that contains next to nothing:

Product: Dragon Ageâ„¢
Publisher: Unsigned
Developer: BioWare Corp. â„¢
Format: PC
Game Type: Fantasy Roleplaying (single player and multi-player)
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Availability: To Be Announced

This doesn't help "hype" your game - it just pisses people off. Next time when you announce your game at the very minimum we would like to see what Obsidian/Lucasarts did for KOTOR 2 - a bit of concept art, features, storyline details etc to give us something to get excited about (although I state again, what we saw for that title is the bare minimum). Now I understand you don't have a publisher yet so the marketing is normally up to them, but if that's really the case, then why bother announcing the game at all - aren't you just stealing thunder from the publisher?

It seems a bit suspect to me for a game studio to announce a title before it has a publisher, so I do wonder whether the "unsigned" part of the above "info" is strictly true.

In any case, it is my understanding that Bio are going back to the handcrafted backdrop art of their earlier titles which is a blessing after the chunky and repetitive look of the NWN engine/toolset backdrops, IMO.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

I think at this stage, from the title, we can safely assume a land of spells and swords. Right? Am I right? Do you think I'll be right?

Somebody prove me wrong. Come on, anybody.

 

[MrBrown]

We can safely assume it'll have dragons. And that's it.

 

[Elwro]

Yes. And I fail to see why this has to suck ass. Let's just wait until they reveal something more, like some town names :D or the fact that you have to play an amnesiac dragon who in the course of the play discovers that he can morph into a drow because of his ancient heritage. But now, don't let's bitch too much, because we sincerely have almost no data.

edit: speaking of alliteration titles, you could make a game similar to these Britney Spears titles and call it Dragon Drummer You could hit the drums with your tail, legs and head; and maybe somehow use your wings.

or Dragon Drone.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Here's something fun happening at E3:

Creating games by inspiration and intuition may be by far the most fun game-design process, but the payoff from designing on the fly is unpredictable at best. Instead, there is the increasingly common practice of designing games only after intense pre-release testing and research. By looking at games which were created with joint input from both the marketing and development teams, attendees will see the benefit that comes from leveraging pre-release feedback (including tracking of consumer interest online), market research, focus groups, and game testing to create games that have a greater chance of selling in numbers that will make the game’s entire team rejoice. Hear how developers and publishers get in touch with consumer preferences and expectations before the game is released--when there’s still a chance to make the game better.

Making games, the Bioware way!

That's happening at the E3 Conference this year, he's one of the speakers.

 

[Astromarine]

DEAR GOD. Development by marketing commitee. Gaider, not one cent more for your company.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Publisher: Unsigned.

Who wants to bet it won't be Interplay?

 

[DemonKing]

Who wants to bet it won't be Interplay?

Seeing as Ineptplay haven't been a publisher (or even much of a developer) for at least a couple of years I wouldn't be backing them to get this one out of the gates anytime soon - even if they hadn't burnt their bridges with Bioware.

My money's on Microshaft personally. The "unsigned" bit sounds like BS to me.

 

[Thorndyke]

It's probably not of interest, but here's my pov.
The fact that the name is cheesy has little to do with my complete lack of interest in the title.

I played BG2 and didn´t like it, I played NWN and hated it, I played Kotor and consequently sold it on ebay five days later. You see, they could have named the project 'Cyber Space Fun Party Space Space Game set in Space not in Generic Fantasy Realm 863!!' and I wouldn't care. I've simply learned from my experiences that Bioware is just not able (or willing) to produce games that emphasize on elements which are important to a good CRPG (just like some people roll their eyes when they hear somebody 'hyping' Troika, because Arcanum and ToEE were disappointments to them).

It´s not a blind bias, it´s me being actually smart enough to learn from my mistakes (NWN, Kotor) and eventually accepting that my definition of fun differs greatly from Bioware´s.

Maybe I should add something like 'But when it turns out to be b3stezt gaem eva I will apologize and buy it immediately!', but after Kotor I won´t.

 

[Sammael]

I wonder who's developing the ruleset for the poor game...