Game News Dragon Age Gets Its Own Languages

[Volourn]

"more on the gameplay, storyline and originality"

Gameplay - IE RT w/pause style

Storyline - Epic

Originality - Other than being Fantasy originality is unknown at this point

 

[FireWolf]

I quite like the idea.I'm not going to sit down and learn the language, but it'll be nice to see a coherant language rather than gibberish which, in one scene means one thing, and another means something completely different. There's something about that which just irks me.

As to whether it is news...I, personally, didn't know about this, since I don't follow a lot of news sites. That is why I frequent the codex, so that I don't have to trawl through a hundred news sites full of trite interviews and "exclusive" previews. Perhaps if you could help out the codex people by reporting this information which you find, and don't see posted on the site. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?

 

[Elwro]

The languages may also be a basis for new forms of puzzles. E.g. you have to guess a meaning of a complex word, and if you paid attention earlier, you could've grasped its basic elements.
Some quest hints (or background info) could also be hidden in foreign language inscriptions - for those players who actually care about the feature.

 

[Volourn]

"Perhaps if you could help out the codex people by reporting this information which you find, and don't see posted on the site. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?"

Why would I help people who spend their time insulting me? I'd rather be an equal oppurtunity insulter and when they share non news news or anicent news it's the perfect time to follow through on said philosophy. Besides, I amr eporting that this information is old - in this very thread, in fact.
R00fles!

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why would I help people who spend their time insulting me? I'd rather be an equal oppurtunity insulter and when they share non news news or anicent news it's the perfect time to follow through on said philosophy.

That is indeed the way things must be done. The balance must be maintained. If we stop insulting Volourn or if he starts cooperating with the authorities, the world (or teh intarnet, I'm not such which), as we know it, will collapse.

 

[DarkSign]

Agree with Volly and Slaytanic (welcome btw). If they had taken this obviously half-way intelligent guy and put him to use doing ACTUALY writing, think how much more content they might have.

The language thing adds nothing of value and will most likely never catch on.

 

[Sol Invictus]

So he's only half as intelligent as you claim to be even though he speaks 11 languages and managed to land a high earning salary at one of the industry's most prestigious game developing studios on top of having a degree in psycholinguistics and is working on his PhD? Yeah, he's definitely only half as intelligent as you are.

I also suppose you've somehow managed to sneak out a copy of the Dragon Age gold master in order to make the very affirmed statement that the game is somehow lacking in content, even though 3 additional 2,500-word languages with their own unique set of grammar counts as additional content regardless of what you might think.

 

[Volourn]

"Agree with Volly and Slaytanic (welcome btw). If they had taken this obviously half-way intelligent guy and put him to use doing ACTUALY writing, think how much more content they might have."

I may not care for the language thing; but this statement doens't make sense. The 'half-way intelligent guy' isn't actually a full BIO employee. He's a 'hired gun' so to speak hired to do one thing and one thing only - create the langauges. I seriosuly doubt that other than the money that BIO is obviously willing to spend on this; he does not intevere in what BIO does writing wise in the game. That is unless things have changed since when this news first broke... months ago. :D


"will most likely never catch on."

That's what people probably thought of LOTR, SW, and ST langauges.

R00fles!

In conclusion, what's hialrious here is that somehow you thought you were agreeing with me but you weren't. Haha.


"That is indeed the way things must be done. The balance must be maintained. If we stop insulting Volourn or if he starts cooperating with the authorities, the world (or teh intarnet, I'm not such which), as we know it, will collapse."

Indeedy doo doo.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Agree with Volly

"Yea, I agree with Hitler, Nazism sucks."

 

[Section8]

Kinda cool, but really, I'd rather the portion of their budget allocated to their newly appointed linguist to be allocated somewhere that will actually make a difference to the game. Depth of the universe is good, but languages are completely superfluous given that they are pointless in untranslated form.

Alternatively they could hire a linguist like Chomsky who would probably bring the capitalist fucks running Bioware to their knees.

 

[Gromnir]

1) this is really old news.

2) why?

...

maybe one of the bio bosses has a relative that graduated from some podunk kanadian school with a masters degree in linguistics... a relative who could not get a real job. or maybe the linguistics grad student they hired were allowed to sleep in the biowarian boiler room as payment for his services. why else spend the effort/time/money to pay some yutz to make up a language for a game? nepotism makes sense. slave labor kinda wages might also explain.

following the release of the lotr movies there were a new resurgence o' tolkien fans... fans who probably never had to suffer his books tired prose and lame character development. nevertheless, these fans know that tolkien spent Primary effort coming up with the languages and names of the peoples of middle-earth. lotr were, first and foremost, a work o' philology. philology becomes neato for a new generation o' lotr fans.

no doubt the new language will be mentioned in numerous interviews and in future adverts for the game. is possible that some few people will actually buy game for such a silly feature, but it ain't like the game will be better 'cause of a ridiculous made-up language. such efforts not make story better... not make gameplay better... not make GAME better. is just something to distract the geeklings... a little game development sleight-of-hand.

if it not cost much for the biowarians to get some flake to create bioneese for 'em, then more power to 'em.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Volourn]

"Yea, I agree with Hitler, Nazism sucks."

Nice. Compared to Hitler, a mass murderer. I love the internet.

 

[Greatatlantic]

These new "languages" are probably best described as fluf, that is features that have nothing to do with the core gameplay but add to the overall experience. Sort of like the Deb of the Night from Bloodlines. Or, the G-man sightings in Half life. Almost all games includes some fluff pieces in their development, of greater or lesser degree and size. They can really allow a game to differentiate itself from its genre peers.

I, however, would much rather see Bioware hammer out a better storyline then collect/visit these three/four relics/maps/pieces. No amount of fluff can make up for shady pretext to dungeon crawl.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Let's get rid of all the fluff pieces. Who needs music, sound, VO, and even graphics? Why, we can all be playing text based games. God knows those text based games really make my loins rise. Even then, who needs fluffed up language and dialogue? Here's the perfect, fluffless game:

Man 1: Kill Man 2.
Protagonist: Ok
Man 2: That shit is wack.
Protagonist: Die Man 2.

YOU WIN THE GAME


Oh, regardless, what do we really know about the game, other than it's an RPG by the likes of Baldur's Gate that's in development due out late this year, or early next year? It really amuses me how so many people bash Dragon Age for being a 'dungeon crawler', even though they don't know that it is or isn't one, while at the same time wet themselves over Temple of Elemental Evil for precisely the same reason that it is a dungeon crawler. At least Saint admits it is, and that's what he likes it for. But some of you? Some of you think TOEE is a 'real RPG'.

 

[Noviere]

... I really think they should concentrante more on the gameplay, storyline and originality...

Right... because the linguist they hired is also going to be working on gameplay, storlyine, and originality. The deginers, writers, and programmers are just going to watch.

Dumbass.

 

[Gromnir]

"Almost all games includes some fluff pieces in their development, of greater or lesser degree and size. They can really allow a game to differentiate itself from its genre peers."

if it is just "fluff," then how is it actually differentiating? fluff, in the common vernacular, is something lacking in substance... is inconsequential. one hopes that people is more discriminating than to be willing to differentiate based on that which is inconsequential.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Sol Invictus]

Fluff is very subjective. Some might find the presence of good looking girls in a porn movie 'fluff' because all they want to see is vagina, and they don't care about whether the vagina belongs to a 40 year old crackwhore or a transexual amputee with a pair of cocks grafted to his nipples.

 

[Surlent]

So you are saying is that you like Bio's made-4-geeks languages and 40 year old crack whores just for the cunt ?

 

[Sarvis]

Fluff is very subjective. Some might find the presence of good looking girls in a porn movie 'fluff' because all they want to see is vagina, and they don't care about whether the vagina belongs to a 40 year old crackwhore or a transexual amputee with a pair of cocks grafted to his nipples.

umm... no.

Now, the presence of fluffers in a porn movie could be considered fluff.

 

[obediah]

... I really think they should concentrante more on the gameplay, storyline and originality...

Right... because the linguist they hired is also going to be working on gameplay, storlyine, and originality. The deginers, writers, and programmers are just going to watch.

Dumbass.

Yeah and like this guy donated his time. Or pehaps the govenment gave bioware a $50K grant, on the condition that it only be spent on developing new languages for the game.

Myopic retard.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Actually, Bioware gets backing from the Canadian government, and they're really big on education, so it might not be so far fetched.

 

[Greatatlantic]

Let's get rid of all the fluff pieces. Who needs music, sound, VO, and even graphics? Why, we can all be playing text based games. God knows those text based games really make my loins rise. Even then, who needs fluffed up language and dialogue?

Ummm... I thought I said fluff pieces were a good thing, sort of. The trouble with fluff stuff is that it has nothing to do with the core gameplay. So if that is flawed, fluff really doesn't make up for it. And yeah, what is fluff and what is not isn't cut and dry.

Oh, regardless, what do we really know about the game, other than it's an RPG by the likes of Baldur's Gate that's in development due out late this year, or early next year? It really amuses me how so many people bash Dragon Age for being a 'dungeon crawler', even though they don't know that it is or isn't one...

Yeah, I'm sort of hoping Bioware hasn't shored up they story for it yet and by making my opinions known affect the eventual product. I've played three Bioware games, KotOR NWN, and HoU. They all relied on the collect/visit three/four thingies and the only real non-linearity being in the order in which you could do so. They were also heavily emphasized combat and rewarded munckinism in a big way. Just going with what I know. Considering the fact I can the number of RPG developers whose games I play on one hand now-a-days, I would really like more than the same Bioware forumla from Dragon Age.

 

[leferd]

Definitely old news.

http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.htm ... um=84&sp=0

 

[Sol Invictus]

So cry. People are acting like posting old news is a big sin.

 

[Astromarine]

Since I don't know anyting about the game, I can only do comparisons to other stuff I liked or disliked. I liked the Baldur's Gates, and Disliked NWN. I am interested in JE. Therefore, I am willing to consider NWN the anomaly in Bio's output.

I also lied (rather, loved to tiny bits) pretty much all the Ultimas I played. One of the features of those games that I liked was the runic alphabet. I learnt it, used it with equally nerdy friends, ws excited when I learned clues about the game or stories in books or whatever from reading it, etc. In my mind, anytime a new game implements a new feature that was in Ultimas, an angel get his wings.