Interview Dragon Age flips Elves on their heads

[Gerrard]

Don't forget the romance option.

elves once ruled the land of Ferelden. Then came the humans

Halfway there. :D

 

[BethesdaLove]

I'm with skyway.

 

[JarlFrank]

Didn't they want to create their own original setting for DA?
It looks more like a normal D&D campaign that every pen and paper group in the world has played at least once.

 

[Sckarecrow92]

You guys think that taking the elves and dwarves and bull out of these rpg's is going to make originality? They'll find a way to make it uninteresting, I guarantee it. Cliches will survive.

With Bioware it will be much more simpler. You will get an elven companion who will constantly whine about how bad humans enslaved her race and how she is feeling oppressed. And you will have to bear this bitch till the end of the game because you can't kill her and probably will do a single minor quest to get back at humans.

That shit. All the time.

 

[Fenril]

I wonder if bioware will treat us with fascinating companions in their best generic fantasy tradition like say... slightly retarded rangers which shove space hamsters up their ass and delicate fairy-like whining creatures that you can seduce but not have sex with and petulant dark skinned ghetto hoes that you can seduce and fuck but not have like...a serious relationship with. Highschool perspective meets epic fantasy adventure....a noble tradition.

Whatever they came up with this time expect to have every female companion in your party to be a childish whiner in different degrees. Thats not just bioware tradition, seems to be western rpg developer guideline. And of course one of the available tankish followers will be like, really brutish and not-so-smart in an oh so funny way.

 

[Crichton]

More like

Bioware flips Elves on their stomachs

amirite?

Anyway, I can recall Gimli and Legolas complaining in LotR that humans are shit but own the future due to their superior birthrate so I'm really not sold on this as exciting new original material.

What I'd like to know is just what level of recognition of one's race we see in the game:

level 0: Your fellow dwarves will tell you that you can't enter because it's for dwarves only (Drakensang)

level 1: Race just doesn't matter in the game; no one takes any notice of it. (BG or NWN)

level 2: There's bits and pieces where an NPC will mention that you're a dwarf, but they don't really amount to anything (NWN2, BG2 or IWD2)

level 3: Your race actually matters in how you approach quests due to wildly different NPC reactions (Arcanum)

level 4: Every NPC takes note of your race and it matters in terms of which quests you're offered (purely hypothetical as far as I know)

The different intros for different races has me hopeful that we'll see at least 3, but the smart money is on 2.

Edit:

Another thing I'd like to know is what happened to my DUMBFUCK tag. Does it's removal mean that all hope of VD returning has been abandoned?

 

[LittleJoe]

"We're going to be releasing a lot of premium downloadable content for purchase post-release that will expand the possibility space of the universe."

Can one of you clever people please explain to me what he means by "expand the possibility space of the universe" ?

And why do we have to pay for "premium downloadable content ...post release"?

 

[aries202]

Whether or not you will have an elven companion in your party or not, depends entirely on which origin stories you're playing: Playing as a city elf or dalish elf will probbaly net you a human companion, at least the choice to include one. If you choose to play the human (noble) origin, you will probably have the choice to include an elven party member.

I'm not that concerned about the origin stories or the characters etc. in this game; the main quest, though, seem a direct rip-off or heavily inspired by Lords of the Rings big battles (the screen version of LOTR anyway) against the Sauron's hordes -ehm - I mean, the Darkspawn of course...

And why is it that in every Bioware game now, you have to be the hero?? You're forced to be the hero, battling against evel hordes - at least in BG, you discovered your identity while word got around about your actions in the Sword Coast, thus improving your heroic status in the Sword Coast through your own actions, not because some king appointed you to be one...

 

[Kingston]

This is also something different and unique, we think, in the fantasy genre. This is a new type of fantasy. It's dark heroic fantasy. You've seen examples of high fantasy and low fantasy, on either end of the spectrum -- very dark on one side, very heroic on the other side. But this is the best of both. It's the dark heroic experience. You are a hero in a very dark world, making choices that have mature consequences. They're not free of peril. You have to make decisions with that in mind. That's a unique experience.

...
In Origins, it leads you to that experience, and it continues from there, where everyone treats you differently depending on which one you've chosen. But you're immersed in a world that's very dark, mature, gritty. It's not all noble elves prancing around. They can be powerful, they can be Grey Wardens, they can be magic users, rogues, warriors. They can be tremendously powerful legendary warriors, and yet they can be disrespected at the same time behind the scenes.

That adds a certain tenor or flavor to the experience that is fully unique. It's not seen in Lord of the Rings. It's not seen in high fantasy. You look at George R. R. Martin's works, and that's an example of darker, what we call lower fantasy. That doesn't mean it's bad; it's great, it's amazing, it's fantastic, it's beautiful. So is Tolkien's work, it's amazing in a different way.

Dragon Age actually is heroic, and it's dark at the same time, and it's because of that dichotomy, that combination that it's unique. The Dragon Age experience for a player is different. And you, as a Grey Warden, embody that dark heroic prologue. It's a hero's journey, but it's a dark journey as well. That's different. I think it's very fun, too.

I heard dark & heroic fantasy is recruiting again.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

More like

Bioware flips Elves on their stomachs

amirite?

Anyway, I can recall Gimli and Legolas complaining in LotR that humans are shit but own the future due to their superior birthrate so I'm really not sold on this as exciting new original material.

What I'd like to know is just what level of recognition of one's race we see in the game:

level 0: Your fellow dwarves will tell you that you can't enter because it's for dwarves only (Drakensang)

level 1: Race just doesn't matter in the game; no one takes any notice of it. (BG or NWN)

level 2: There's bits and pieces where an NPC will mention that you're a dwarf, but they don't really amount to anything (NWN2, BG2 or IWD2)

level 3: Your race actually matters in how you approach quests due to wildly different NPC reactions (Arcanum)

level 4: Every NPC takes note of your race and it matters in terms of which quests you're offered (purely hypothetical as far as I know)

The different intros for different races has me hopeful that we'll see at least 3, but the smart money is on 2.

Edit:

Another thing I'd like to know is what happened to my DUMBFUCK tag. Does it's removal mean that all hope of VD returning has been abandoned?

You confused level 0 and level 1 , they have to be swapped.

 

[Hard Knox]

level 0: Your fellow dwarves will tell you that you can't enter because it's for dwarves only (Drakensang)

Shitty German NWN2 ripoffs aren't worth downloading, so does anyone have a screenshot?

 

[Volourn]

"Yeah, it's a complete rip-off."

Not of TW it isn't. TW is far, far, far from original. Everything it does was done in D&D first. Including boobies.

 

[DraQ]

 

[Hard Knox]

What's the obsession here with wanting every game to be completely original? The Witcher's borrowing of races from D&D was the least of it's problems.

 

[Chefe]

There you go, Bioware. Doing the complete opposite of the cliche. That's not its own cliche at all! I am grateful that you are taking this truly innovative approach with your elves by turning them into Africans (undoubtedly without the cool trickster rabbits and fancy masks). "Hey kids, you know how elves are all high and mighty in fantasy? Usually? Sometimes? When the developers are not pandering as much? Yes, well be prepared to have your goddamn skull FUCKED when we introduce our SLAVE HATE ELVES™!"

Look, Bio, I'm sure the hardcore, basement dwellers would really appreciate it, and the community at whole would benefit, if you just said, "Look, here are our elves, here's what's going on with them, and here's how that logically fits into our world. We're not reinventing the wheel, we're not trying to be super unique, we're not going to throw out a bunch of meaningless buzzwords and stupid gimmicks. We're out to create a good, solid, tactical role-playing game." After you say that, then design your game around it, and you'll end up with a solid, enjoyable experience, instead of the pandering, mindless knockoff that this is going to turn out to be.

Actually, an RPG with just humans of different cultures would be fun, as long as those cultures aren't generic rip-offs of Norse, Egyptian, Inca, and the like. They'd have to make sense in the context of the game world. One of the most common mistakes when it comes to creating human cultures is that they are too different, to insulated from influence from each-other. It just feels like a bunch of static kingdoms with cast-in-stone borders

Yes, because we all know how often the Inca are ripped off in video games. Every time I turn around in a fantasy RPG it's like I'm back in the Andes, knotting threads to keep track of the amount of llama meat in my storehouse.

Bah. If you want to see Elves really flipped on their heads, see TES lore. It has Wood Elves being tree-loving, cannibalistic shorties with freaky black eyes and annoying, high pitched voices; High Elves being an ossified society of tall, order loving racist freaks that use numerals instead of normal names and kill off about 90% of their babies over minor defects or for purity reasons; and Dwarves being Elves too, only Mesopotamian-looking and extinct due to their dabbling in some really arcane techno-mysticism.

Unfortunately, that's only in Redguard and Morrowind. When Bethesda went "back to their roots" with Oblivion, they disregarded the lore those games brought to the table.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Gritty McDark Matureson - A chilling tale about a GRITTY and DARK world where MATURE choices are made and HEROES are forged from the DARK depths of the GRITTY world while doing MATURE things. It will blow you away.

(Sounds like something Uwe Boll would make)

Seriously though, the game'll most probably be decent at best. I don't expect to see anything but next gen crap from Bioware at this point.

 

[Claw]

If someone wants to be original, they should make a game where the approach of humans has actually inspired elves and they've become more industrious and powerful, changing from a tribal hippie lifestyle to a modern nation.
Then they've proceeded to crush the orc civilization.

Who knows, maybe humans will be next.

 

[RK47]

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090418233621171

 

[Volourn]

"If someone wants to be original, they should make a game where the approach of humans has actually inspired elves and they've become more industrious and powerful, changing from a tribal hippie lifestyle to a modern nation."

Done by D&D. *yawn*

 

[poocolator]

Actually, an RPG with just humans of different cultures would be fun, as long as those cultures aren't generic rip-offs of Norse, Egyptian, Inca, and the like.

i wouldn't mind inca/aztec/maya derivate settings like empire of the petal throne, considering how all the generic ripoffs are norse/late greek/roman with a very few specks of some slavic or irish mythology.

 

[JarlFrank]

"If someone wants to be original, they should make a game where the approach of humans has actually inspired elves and they've become more industrious and powerful, changing from a tribal hippie lifestyle to a modern nation."

Done by D&D. *yawn*

Everything has been done in D&D because there are countless pen and paper players who play their own campaigns and they're a LOT more creative than those professional game designers out there.

Also, not been done in a PC game so STFU Volly.

 

[TerrorSword]

No new races.
New races mean furries with stupid names.

And an RPG with only human races means a war between the evil empire and the peaceniks.

I think it would be good if an RPG is made made without any lore. It's just you, your companions, the dungeon, and ignorance of the world around you. Like it should be.

That would suck games with good lore draws you into the story.The ignorance is just stupid you would'nt know why your in the dungeon in the first place so you would be playing around in a dungeon with no goal. New races with special abilities would add a certain twist to gameplay.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Maybe dark heroic fantasy means it won't have bloom and will have a black metal soundtrack. But really, what is that even supposed to mean? Dark heroic gritty mature fantasy? Is it going to be like Diablo? :unnatural optimism:

I wonder why they didn't go with more original species, though, since at least in Mass Effect they even had a few non-humanoid races (well, I don't know how original floating jellyfish are, but a race of intelligent flying fish fairies or something like that would certainly beat elves), and why did they go with Uruk-Hai instead of cool monsters like what they had in Jade Empire (or in D&D games).

Not that any of this matters if the gameplay is good.

 

[sheek]

Bah. If you want to see Elves really flipped on their heads, see TES lore. It has Wood Elves being tree-loving, cannibalistic shorties with freaky black eyes and annoying, high pitched voices; High Elves being an ossified society of tall, order loving racist freaks that use numerals instead of normal names and kill off about 90% of their babies over minor defects or for purity reasons; and Dwarves being Elves too, only Mesopotamian-looking and extinct due to their dabbling in some really arcane techno-mysticism.

This is very true, TES is one of the best RPGs I've seen in terms of that... how it's used is a different questions.

And I still don't see the problem with "Tolkien's Elves" that everybody bashes. They were original and there has not been a single RPG based on MERP that I know of (tell me if I'm wrong). The modern day "generic" elf is more a bastard hybrid of David Eddings and Terry Brooks and Raymond Feist and company.

 

[1eyedking]

Oh lawd, this totally doesn't sound like The Witcher.

I told you so.