Interview Dragon Age II Interview

[commie]

I don't understand. Fallout 2 is too short for you, yet you seemed to enjoy finding new quests on a third playthrough and the fact that you missed so much stuff shows that really the game couldn't have been too short, just that you skipped a lot of it. On the other hand if FO2 was longer, then you'd only bother to play it once as it would be too much for you. Presumably you'd live with missing out on quests and locations then. How does that work?

It works for me because knowing that there are things out there that I haven't found and that I never will find helps me with the "suspension of disbelief" thing, and helps me believe it's an actual alternate reality and not just a game. I'm not a completionist. And I actually enjoy playing games and having things to do for as long as I like, until I'm ready to stop playing at which point I can proceed to the end game. That's not possible in games where there's only x number of things you could possibly do and the completed content is inert. That's one of the reasons I prefer sandbox games these days. My ideal game would be something like a combination of the recipe Bioware uses and the recipe Bethesda uses. Since nobody is doing that, I'll take a sandbox Bethesda game over being run through the barely-interactive storylines of a Bioware title.

I remember when a lot of gamers were like me, and developers were actually complaining on usenet that a lot of people weren't even finishing their games... and used that as a justification to try to force the player to finish the game by making them short in length and linear in content. "Linear" used to be a bad thing for RPGS... what happened to that? Developers used to jump through hoops trying to find ways to let the player go off the beaten track and do things at their own pace and in their own way.

Ok, but you seem to like finding things on second and third plays, so why limit yourself? I think FO2 not being ridiculously long actually makes playing it through again at some time in the future to try new things and find stuff, appealing. You also admit to missing out on much stuff even here, so presumably the world was helping with the suspension of disbelief as it were, with the added advantage of being reasonable in length to provide a 'fix' in the future should you decide(and you obviously did)to play again and again. Imagine grinding through DA:O again just to see what you missed on the other hand; length is a curse there.

 

[DalekFlay]

this is not your father's bioware.

If you read their forum comments they sound like those movie producers who tell indie filmmakers in the back room of Cannes "hey man, don't you want the highest number of people possible to see your movie? We just need to make a few changes..." It's truly a shame to see people who made Baldur's Gate (and Dragon Age: Origins for that matter) talk about the awesome benefits of simplistic game design and the removal of tactics and complexity.

 

[kris]

So the pause, and the tactics, and and strategy is there, and you might not even realise you’re being strategic initially, but after a while you start seeing how cool it is when you combine abilities and party members specialties, and you’ve got everybody fighting together and its interesting to be able to jump between the characters, and I just think its still a strategic game,

I loled. But then again, almost every single word she said range between cringeworthy and plain retarded. Maybe a bit mean there, in truth most things she said didn't mean anything at all.

 

[treave]

If DA2 is going to be like that, I can't wait to see ME3.

And here is the amusing thing, DA:O sold more that ME2 and they already said that ME3 will have more RPG elements that ME2.

Honestly, not that far-fetched.

They want to sell ME3 to those who bought DA:O but did not buy ME. They want to sell DA2 to those who bought ME but not DA:O.

If DA:O sold 5 millions! and ME2 sold 2 millions!, combining the two markets we can sell 7 millions!! for DA2 and 7 millions!! for ME3, making a total of 14 millions!!!!

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[Irxy]

Step 1: market a game as a "Baldur's Gate spiritual sequel" (of course is isn't actually one, but if you repeat it long enough, the masses will believe it)

I'm not putting DA into my top10 favorites, but they did implement tactical party combat there for the 1st time since BG, and it wasn't a complete mess too.

Everyone still buys it because they believe into the hype, they are fans of the franchise,

Can't say for everyone, but I'm not buying it - feel too butt.. er, betrayed.

Sure, some complain a bit, but what else are they going to play?

Not buying it does not necessary means not playing. In cases like this torrents are righteously justified.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

And here is the amusing thing, DA:O sold more that ME2

Where did you see that?

 

[Vibalist]

I just wanna get to the next part of the story, so I don’t always want the epic combat, I just want to beat it and be done with it.

Yeah, why play a RPG for the combat when you can watch cutscenes? Why did they even have a combat part in it? Why not just make a rendered film and sell that?

Frankly, if combat is so fucking boring in your DA:O that you just want to skip it, well that's a problem of your own making you fuckwit vis a vis your shitty combat and your never ending trash mobs!

Incredible that they hate their own shit and in the next game they try to change that into more shit!

This. The thing she says about combat is easily the most retarded part of that whole interview.
I enjoy a good story in a game as well, but what the fuck is it with these people who will play a game purely for the story and dialogue? Why the fuck are Bioware spending more time developing their next batch of stereotypical characters and polishing their next clicheed story rather than working on making the GAMEPLAY fun?

The mind boggles. Just the fact that she admits herself that the combat bores her is fucking incredible.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

One would think adventure games would sell to no end in the current market.

 

[Vibalist]

One would think adventure games would sell to no end in the current market.

Oh, but they do. Heavy Rain was very popular.

 

[commie]

This. The thing she says about combat is easily the most retarded part of that whole interview.
I enjoy a good story in a game as well, but what the fuck is it with these people who will play a game purely for the story and dialogue? Why the fuck are Bioware spending more time developing their next batch of stereotypical characters and polishing their next clicheed story rather than working on making the GAMEPLAY fun?

The mind boggles. Just the fact that she admits herself that the combat bores her is fucking incredible.

Indeed. The characters in Bioware are always the same recycled archetypes from the days of KOTOR and even further back(though KOTOR really made them a focus). Virtually every character from ME and DA:O has an equivalent in Jade Empire and KOTOR.

Slagging off your OWN combat implementation is pretty damning evidence. something to show the mindless fanboys(even though it won't make any difference).

"I just want to beat it and be done with it"

Should be the official slogan for Bioware games.

 

[Dantus12]

Here`s what is defining DA2 for me:
http://blog.brentknowles.com/2010/08/15 ... mmer-2009/
this and Mike Laidlaw never getting tired off "When i push a button,something awesome happens".
This is their future vision:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/biowa ... -scale-mmo
There are lots of PC previews in German,Slovak and Polish,and they all describe the game as keyboard mashing.
One just hits 1,2,3,4.

 

[Volourn]

This myuth that DA outsold ME2 by some magical super margin is fantasy. Both games have sold 3mil+ and people keep quoting sales from when ME2 was like a week old while DA was out for like 4 months. LMFAO

BIO's characetrs are not recycled. That's bullshitz. Certain characters have similarities, and that's it. This recycling bullshit is just that ebcause anyone knows abouty storyw riting then they'd know that there's only a certain numbver of type iof plots and character types to begin. R00fles!

 

[CraigCWB]

BIO's characetrs are not recycled. That's bullshitz.

Really? Must be my imagination that there's a Carth Onasi in every bioware game. Carth Onasi has even made it into Fallout 3. In fact, there are many Carth Onasi's in Fallout 3. The first one you encounter is Billy Creel, in Megaton, 5 minutes into the game. They even use the same voice actor for him most the time, and a variation on the same "surly disgruntled but well intentioned sidekick" dialog. Example: Kaiden Alenko in ME was Carth Onasi.

It's not always so obvious though. It took a while for me to realize that Morrigan was Viconia from Baldur's Gate. They used a different voice actor which is unfortunate actually. And they gave her a different back-story. Personality = identical, however.

 

[commie]

BIO's characetrs are not recycled. That's bullshitz.

Really? Must be my imagination that there's a Carth Onasi in every bioware game. Carth Onasi has even made it into Fallout 3. In fact, there are many Carth Onasi's in Fallout 3. The first one you encounter is Billy Creel, in Megaton, 5 minutes into the game. They even use the same voice actor for him most the time, and a variation on the same "surly disgruntled but well intentioned sidekick" dialog. Example: Kaiden Alenko in ME was Carth Onasi.

It's not always so obvious though. It took a while for me to realize that Morrigan was Viconia from Baldur's Gate. They used a different voice actor which is unfortunate actually. And they gave her a different back-story. Personality = identical, however.

Canderous Ordo is also in every Bioware game, though they had to rush out a DLC for ME2 as they forgot him initially

 

[Mortmal]

ME2 was 40-50 hours.

35h with all sidequests and all DLCs, no skipping dialogs, lots of time spent away from keyboard. Stop the lies start the truths.

Sadly no, 25 hours to do it all, every sidequest included , plannet scanning included, shagging npc included..Fallout 1 10h a play session, but it was so much more fun , completely new and innovative.

 

[Lord Haw Haw]

Here`s what is defining DA2 for me:
http://blog.brentknowles.com/2010/08/15 ... mmer-2009/
this and Mike Laidlaw never getting tired off "When i push a button,something awesome happens".
This is their future vision:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/biowa ... -scale-mmo
There are lots of PC previews in German,Slovak and Polish,and they all describe the game as keyboard mashing.
One just hits 1,2,3,4.

Is Mazuka really in semi-retirement like I've read? He can't possibly approve of this shit can he? What is it about success that makes interesting devs not give a fuck anymore? This is why I hope MCA never gets to that level. Devs should always be on the cusp of failure cause then you can at least expect them to be creative out of desperation. How the mighty have fallen.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I like coming up with "true names" for Bioware characters. Ie, Korgarous Wrexwind.

 

[Dantus12]

Here`s what is defining DA2 for me:
http://blog.brentknowles.com/2010/08/15 ... mmer-2009/
this and Mike Laidlaw never getting tired off "When i push a button,something awesome happens".
This is their future vision:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/biowa ... -scale-mmo
There are lots of PC previews in German,Slovak and Polish,and they all describe the game as keyboard mashing.
One just hits 1,2,3,4.

Is Mazuka really in semi-retirement like I've read? He can't possibly approve of this shit can he? What is it about success that makes interesting devs not give a fuck anymore? This is why I hope MCA never gets to that level. Devs should always be on the cusp of failure cause then you can at least expect them to be creative out of desperation. How the mighty have fallen.

No. He is now the Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of the BioWare RPG/MMO Group of Electronic Arts,and rarely mentions anything else in His interviews.

 

[Volourn]

"It's not always so obvious though. It took a while for me to realize that Morrigan was Viconia from Baldur's Gate. They used a different voice actor which is unfortunate actually. And they gave her a different back-story. Personality = identical, however."

No. they have similarties but they are different.

 

[commie]

"It's not always so obvious though. It took a while for me to realize that Morrigan was Viconia from Baldur's Gate. They used a different voice actor which is unfortunate actually. And they gave her a different back-story. Personality = identical, however."

No. they have similarties but they are different.

Yeah, they are different colors.

"It's not always so obvious though. It took a while for me to realize that Morrigan was Viconia from Baldur's Gate. They used a different voice actor which is unfortunate actually. And they gave her a different back-story. Personality = identical, however."

No. they have similarties but they are different.

Yeah, they are different colors.

C'mon Volly, surely you can see that Bioware have just a few character archetypes that they flog over and over. Normally that doesn't have to be a problem as pretty much every game is full of the same, generic characters, the nature of games rarely lends itself to elaborate character development.

Bioware games however are heavily promoted on the basis of their character development and interaction and story; hell in this interview on this thread the Associate producer laments all the combat that gets in the way of the story! Yet despite this focus on interactive movie, the characters are pretty much the same generic staples recycled over and over! THAT is why Bioware deserves criticism on this point: If they are making dating simulators with some combat filler, at least they should make new, well-rounded characters.

 

[Micmu]

The biggest difference between the two is that you can let viconia burn, while you can't get rid of that horrigan bitch in that piece of shit

 

[Volourn]

"C'mon Volly, surely you can see that Bioware have just a few character archetypes t"

Come on, moron. There are only a handful of character archetypes to begin with. FFS

 

[DalekFlay]

New trailer is... actiony.

 

[Volourn]

"Slagging off your OWN combat implementation is pretty damning evidence. something to show the mindless fanboys(even though it won't make any difference).
"

Doesn't prove anything. Just trying to hype the new product to sell it. DA1 is absolutely irrelelavnt to BIO now so they bash it because it is meaningless.

That way people will want to buy the new DA2, and throw DA1 into the trash b/c BIO already got the money for that product.

R00fles!

P.S. It's like all those 'new and improved' product pitches.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Oh yes, Volurn. Carth Oh-Nazi sure is a character archetype in his own right.

"Blooo hooo I have this to be emo about and I want REVENGE!"