Interview Choices & Consequences in Dragon Age

[Skald]

Well, it has some redeeming qualities - like the keep and the trial (even though it doesn't matter if you win or not).

 

[Volourn]

"Also, KoTOR 2, had it been properly finished would have been another home run as well."

Bull. It's the sequal of KOTOR1. No better or worse. Definitely no home run, and certainly no MOTB.

That's just dumb!

 

[Solohk]

You're dumb!

 

[Warden]

Hmm.. and then I was being ridiculed by some cretins when I said that biowhore forums spawn only cretins and are managed by cretins.

Why do they have to prove to you that bioware games suck? Have you any proof that they don't suck, sandy? Except wiki of course.

 

[Mareus]

Oh God, I knew you would show up.

 

[Warden]

Oh God, I knew you would show up.

Amen to that.

Me too. Now you can suck it.

 

[Gay-Lussac]

This is so over the place it belongs in retardo land.

 

[aries202]

Just to clear up the Lords of the Rings bit, here a's video from Thirdpress from DA forums at Bioware's site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rPWT0nPEjE
(taken from here: http://dragonage.bioware.com/forums/vie ... =135&sp=75 )

I don't think looks at all like Lord of the Rings, do you? If you watch it all the way to the end, you get to see Morrigan with really big -ehm- staff...

As far as David's comments go you have to remember that David did write the Athkathla quests in BG:TOB - I've found these the be among the best quests with some of the hardest choices and consequences as well as several ways to do them. Bioware made David Gaider the Lead Writer for DA: Origins because they wanted to go in that direction in this game. Mass Effect is a different game than Dragon Age is or will be.

Steroptypes and clichés can be OK, I find - if you know your way around them. In other words, for the untrained eye, the Darkspawn might look like orcs, but they're not Orcs...even if they look that way. Watching part 2 of the video, I just linked should clear this right up, I find - it did for me at least.

I do remember a Bioware dev. mentioning something about mages being distrusted in DA: Origins. If you play as (elven) mage, you will get yelled at by NPCs, but if you play as a human noble you will get treated with a lot more respect. This is the (different) origins that is mentioned in the game's subtitle. To me, this doesn't sound generic at all....

It might well be that another game has done this allready, but just because something has been done before shouldn't mean that Bioware shouldn't try to spin it their way?

Spoilers ahead so stay way if you don't want to be spoiled:

In the beginning of the clip I lnked, the King says saomething like that he wishes the battle was just like the battle of X (I couldn't hear what he was saying here). He also asks whether or not this is the Blight as there has been no Archdemon sightings. Does this sound like Lord of the Rings?

This sounds more like a political heavy intrigue to me...

 

[Warden]

spoilers ahead?

In the beginning of the clip I lnked, the King says saomething like that he wishes the battle was just like the battle of X (I couldn't hear what he was saying here). He also asks whether or not this is the Blight as there has been no Archdemon sightings. Does this sound like Lord of the Rings?

Biowhore posters and staff are so retarded with their 'spoilers alerts'. Who cares if you read about a part of the story or not.. especially if it's a retarded one.

 

[aries202]

-ehm-

I always make spoiler alerts - not just here.

I was just mentioning that the story and the clips I've seen do not make me think that DA: Origins is similar to or looks like Lord of the Rings.

Also, I'm not a Biowhore. I like their games, but I can also see plenty wrong with them...

 

[Warden]

-ehm-

I always make spoiler alerts - not just here.

I was just mentioning that the story and the clips I've seen do not make me think that DA: Origins is similar to or looks like Lord of the Rings.

Also, I'm not a Biowhore. I like their games, but I can also see plenty wrong with them...

Ok, you're a nice guy.
When I said biowhore.. I meant the company, not you.

 

[Volourn]

Warden is the biggest BIOwhore since the creation of Hades. He just play's 'devil's advocate'. That's cool.

 

[Warden]

Warden is the biggest BIOwhore since the creation of Hades. He just play's 'devil's advocate'. That's cool.

And you broke the sound barrier of idiocy with your 10000+ posts. :putting cotton in ears:

 

[elander_]

BG1 - 4.0
BG2 - 5.0
KOTOR - 1.0
JE - 0.5
ME - 0.1
NWN OC - 0.01
SOU - 0.2
HOTU - 0.3
NWN EP - 0.5

I predict DA will be 3.0.

 

[Volourn]

You sre played a lot of BIO games consideirng how crappy you think they are if you arne't trying to eb funny with your scores. L0L

 

[DefJam101]

ME - 0.1

No.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

BG1: 6.5
BG2: 8
NWN OC: jack shit
NWN Expansions: 7 for each
KotOR1: 7
JE: 7
ME: 6 (EXTREMEEEEEE with a value of 10)

 

[PennyAnte]

Mass Effect has a whole host of fascinating and original species with unique and non-cliche histories. As with everything ever written in the past few hundred years, you can draw similarities between anything. But it's the differences that are important.

I think your arguments so far are intelligent and insightful but I have to disagree here. I think it's fair to describe Mass Effect's core races as the stock fantasy races reskinned.

Asari = elves (long lived, good with "magic," a unique type of high craftsmanship that also revolves around their "magic," the first major explorers, keepers of lore)
Turians = dwarves (solid, rugged/military, disciplined, stoic, reliable, pragmatic, not given to emotionalism)
Volus = Gnomes or hobbits (mercantile-focused, short, not much of a power on their own)
Krogan = Orc barbarians (but with more of them being good guys)

The Hanar seem a little more unique, while the Elcor make me think more of cows than anything.

Granted, it's very hard, if not impossible, to make something truly "alien" because whatever we imagine will be a pastiche of our actual experiences - I don't think it's possible to imagine something entirely outside of human experience (e.g. unicorns are a twist on deer and horses, hippogriffs are cobbled together from parts of normal creatures).

A lot of the writing in Mass Effect also is rather amateur, like the eye-rolling reverse racism of Asari procreation (breeding within your race is frowned upon), and the silly speech by the doctor about "piercing eyes and sensitive souls" ... no woman would say that to someone they hardly know, and probably not even to a close friend, even if she did actually think like that. Many of the characters are one dimensional - Saren is a cardboard cutout villain, and there are few shades of gray in the game.

The A to Z plot for that matter is not all that great, and the way the game tries to create cinematic moments can definitely go overboard (like the music and cinematography at the end when Shepard runs into view, alive, from behind all the wreckage).

Anyway, it's 12:30 a.m. and I'm getting tired and can't think of more examples immediately off the top of my head. But the game is full of quests I've seen before, characters I've seen before, etc., and in many ways is like a BioD&D game with a different veneer.

Still, there is a lot to love about Mass Effect, and I do really enjoy the game. The science positied in the gameworld's science fiction does have concepts I haven't seen before - the Mass Effect field idea is a concept that gives the game something other than hyperspace or warp drive for FTL, and that's just one example (the way the field idea ties into biotics is great; I could go on at length). I'm not saying *nothing* is unique. Plus I like the mechanics (combat and combat skills) a lot, and trying various builds.

I've actually played it many, many times through, and even bought it for both the Xbox and PC. So all of this is criticism is coming from someone who on balance, still very much continues to enjoy the game. I would go so far as to say it's one of my favorite games.

But like anything, it has a mix of elements that rise above the norm and elements that really aren't all that exceptional, or even just plain lousy. And the core race concepts are closer to the latter than the former.

(And on another note, I had hoped they would be releasing a lot more downloadable, episodic content, and the lack of it has been a dissappointment.)

 

[Volourn]

"Asari = elves (long lived, good with "magic," a unique type of high craftsmanship that also revolves around their "magic," the first major explorers, keepers of lore)
Turians = dwarves (solid, rugged/military, disciplined, stoic, reliable, pragmatic, not given to emotionalism)
Volus = Gnomes or hobbits (mercantile-focused, short, not much of a power on their own)
Krogan = Orc barbarians (but with more of them being good guys)"

Bullshit.

 

[Lesifoere]

Oh, actually, speaking of Asari...

Long-lived, blue humanoid, able to blend minds together, goddess-worshiping, mystical, hairless, open about their sexuality? Check, check, check, and check some more. Someone who's watched Farscape may find them terribly familiar.

Someone who's watched Firefly will probably also be struck with deja vu. The Alliance? Joker? Hell, Joker just needs a black space marine for a girlfriend, and then Joss Whedon can sue.

 

[kris]

Asari = elves (long lived, good with "magic," a unique type of high craftsmanship that also revolves around their "magic," the first major explorers, keepers of lore)
Turians = dwarves (solid, rugged/military, disciplined, stoic, reliable, pragmatic, not given to emotionalism)
Volus = Gnomes or hobbits (mercantile-focused, short, not much of a power on their own)
Krogan = Orc barbarians (but with more of them being good guys)

The Hanar seem a little more unique, while the Elcor make me think more of cows than anything.

Races alway seems to fall into some kind of stereotype and people can always do their connections. I think you are a bit off here or we go into the land where any SF setting ever is a place were you can find races and claim they are like the classic fantasy ones. Although the volus=Gnome was a interesting connection.

Point being, with many races it is easy to find some connection.

Lesifoere is more on cue, when I played mass effect I had just watched Farscape and I found more similarities with it. Who knows what inspired them the most though.

 

[crufty]

All this mass effect talk makes me long for a proper ringworld crpg.

In Ringworld, Nessus, a Puppetteer, explains how his race's cowardice is partly a result of a science experiment (the details of which are not given) that proves the Puppeteers have nothing equivalent to an immortal soul, and therefore death is, for their species, absolute and eternal. As a result, the Puppeteer race is fanatically devoted to its own safety.

A courageous puppeteer is not merely regarded as insane (as Nessus mentions "the majority is always sane"), though, but is insane, showing symptoms we would associate with human mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, homicidal tendencies, clinical depression and so on. Incidentally, though, aside from the crew of the Long Shot in the novel Ringworld, no human has ever met a sane Puppeteer, as no sane Puppeteer would ever leave the safety of the Fleet of Worlds (see below), and even those who do would not venture out without a painless method of suicide, in case circumstances required it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Bullshit.

Volourn has spoken

 

[Bluebottle]

Ringworld Stuff

I always found it strange how Ringworld's Puppeteers were so original and interesting, and then the other alien race were just run-of-the-mill angry furry cat aliens. Maybe this was considered original at the time, I dunno, it just seemed a little wierd.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Has anyone read the P 'n' P Ringworld RPG? http://www.dennisantinori.com/Niven/Rin ... /4555.html