Who the fuck is Bioware's community manager? Big Gay Al?
This must be a parody at this point, right?
Picking a tone is a great idea. Also, there's more to that system, not just a tone. There are your classic dialogue choices, but only when there's a choice to make... Tone = personal reaction, which is imo much more suitable in case of cinematic, movie-like cutscenes.
DA2 is barely above the TES which aren't exactly known for the quality of their dialogue system. There's barely any interaction with the dialogue system beside picking a tone (Boring Hawke vs CodexHawke vs ANGRYEXTREMEHawke), none of your stats or skills change anything, and you don't really have any actual C&C in the game either. What's clever about this tone shit? it doesn't change anything, it's just pure fluff/cosmetic.
There were also some seriously weird lines spoken after picking what seemed like a decent dialogue pick because the wheel is so fucking disconnected from what is actually being said.
If you fall for that tripe, more power to you I guess. Stupidity is bliss and all that.
needs more belts
What's sad is that i find most of BW's games just decent and besides BG2 non of their games is in my TOP5. But still, considering their games decent makes me look like a pathetic fanboy in comparison with local hateful circlejerk, which stoped being funny like hundred pages ago...
You're not alone!
I was talking about the mechanics alone, not their implementation (which is lacking, I'm not denying that), thus Nikaido made no relevant arguments besides bashing the tone mechanic as illogical. Hovewer, I think that argument is not valid, because imo he misunderstood the real point of the mechanic. The first time you choose the tone, it sets your personality type and the idea is making your character consistent in this cinematic, very movie-like adventure (you can change it, but it takes time, so it looks more natural). As I said earlier, this game is all about group of characters living through adventure and I think they tried to make yours one of those characters. It's Hawke, not you. You play as Hawke, but not in the same way as you play Courier from F:NV for example. That's why even the majority of unimportant banter and character remarks are subordinate to the personality type. The personality type is of course simplistic model, which tries to emulate all those iconic scenes from fantasy/adventure movies and books. Your guy/girl is for example a humorous rogue, who of course, might get mad or diplomatic, but there are situations where he/she won't be allowed to betray their personality.You're not alone!
I really like most Bioware games. KotoR and Da:O might even be in my top 5. KoToR definitely!
Still: DA2 was such a huge disappointment. No matter your arguments for some underlying dioalogue mechanic (Nikaido made some really good points there), it still so feels like an obvious attempt to please the Mainstream, that whilst some parts of the game were fun to play, I was shocked about the direction the series seemed to take in general.
Who do you think BioWare/EA writes for? Hard Core cRPG fans?
They write games specifically for the mass market, to gain the widest appeal (and sales).
As someone who spent over a hundred hours on DA:O even you must have been surprised in the change of direction between Origins and DA2.
