Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Telengard]

Minor flaw in this would be relating the number of posts on fringe forums with customerbase potential and (relative) size of that group.

You would hope that a overwhelming majority of your customers just play the game, be entertained (or not) and thats it.

Focussing on adressing the needs of a (hopefully) small but extremely vocal group of slightly unbalanced people for whom your game is not just a cheap piece of entertainment, but a life's mission / policor crusade just doesnt seem very smart, marketing wise.

You're skipping a few steps. Early post-Baldur's Gate Bioware games all had romanceables, but those romances remained still relatively in the background (even as they became more developed), not to mention having few romanceables available. And then along came a thing called Jade Empire, with its hedonistic bi romanceable character, emphasis on the hedonism. That character garnered Bioware a lot of news, and a whole new following.

Then they followed that game up with a "bi" alien. And they took a little media heat for that - the only gay romances in 2 games being female/female (saucy), and this time the gay romance character was alien (which means not necessarily a "gay" romance). But even then, Bioware was still only at 3 romanceables in the game.

But now, see, they've got a following in the LGBT community. They've taken some heat for having only straight or female bi relationships. So, now along comes Dragon Age with its inclusion of equal opportunity bis. That's only one more romanceable, which doesn't much change the focus of development, and it satisfies the media. Only, as a side effect, it gets them serious LGBT fans. Plus, with the expansion and development of romance, they're starting to garner interest from romance novel enthusiasts.

Now, throw in EA's voracious need to expand markets. And, it's something that looks simple enough on the surface (as Taxalot said). -Throw in a couple extra romanceables, and please a whole new demographic, thus gaining a bunch of new sales. Romances are a relatively small amount of work, but garner a huge following, a following - by the way - that posts about them endlessly (free advertising).

Couple that with EA's later need to clean up its image, and its use of its LGBT-friendly poster childs (the Sims and Bioware) to help it do so. It's really not so hard to see that aspect not just being emphasized in PR clean-up work and game advertising, but also in executive "recommendations" for game content.

Swirl all that together, and it spits out the Harem Romance Games that are modern Bioware.

 

[Avellion]

I honestly don't mind gay characters, provided that they are well written. Problem is just that, BioWare is incapable of writing well written characters, and even less capable of writing gay characters. And to make matters worse, they now seem to take pride in and brag about their terribly written characters, to the point where we know more about the characters sexualities than the rest of the characters traits themselves.

Sadly we see this romance obsessed gaming culture spread everywhere, in every game I see that gets some form of attention from the AAA market I see "Are there gonna be romances?", hell I remember the ask Todd Howard a question thing, what was by far the most frequently asked thing was not anything gameplay related, instead it was about romances.

Spoiler

 

[Volourn]

"And then along came a thing called Jade Empire, with its hedonistic bi romanceable character, emphasis on the hedonism. That character garnered Bioware a lot of news, and a whole new following."

Your logic doesn't make sense.

Are you seriously claiming that JE , which is BIO's least successful RPG 9(gnore the stupid arguments), is THE reason why they focus on gay romances more? COME ON. I thought a big complaint about BIO is that they 'follow the money. If that were true, they would do everything in their power not to copy stuff from JE since it didn't even do enough to warrant a sequel.

Your Codexian logic is stupid.

\If anything, JE's relative lack of success 9it sold reasonably well but nowhere near as much as other BIO games) that BIO would - if their goal was money and/or achieving the biggest audience possible (L0L 10MIL L0L) - would avoid it as much as possible.

L A M E

 

[Jools]

No, the troll has to look FABULOUS!

(I admit it's a bit heavy on the gay theme, but then again on such a small pixel scale I am finding it difficult to draw a glittery boa)

 

[Jools]

No, the troll has to look FABULOUS!

(I admit it's a bit heavy on the gay theme, but then again on such a small pixel scale I am finding it difficult to draw a glittery boa)

But I tried... And also added some pink eyeshadow.

Jaesun , is it at least tolerably fabulous?

 

[Delterius]

I believe those people were always in the BioWare fanbase, they are just more vocal now as the normal people fled.

I mean, when did the creepy Imoen sex mod get started? I'm sure the guy who made that is a big time BSNer.

It's like panning for gold in the sand, except you're panning for shit.

I was not part of the BG modding community, however most mentions of the Imoen Romance mod today aren't positive. Its almost a taboo. OTOH, the only thing that elicits the same level of response from modern BSN goes above and beyond incest into the territory of fantasy paedophilia. The decline is amazingly real here.

The western world has created a sad society of frustrated idiots who now think they are entitled to their emotional painkiller : Biowarian games.

At the same time I play games because I can't shoot fire with my hands. Some fantasies are more perverse than others, I guess.

 

[Telengard]

"And then along came a thing called Jade Empire, with its hedonistic bi romanceable character, emphasis on the hedonism. That character garnered Bioware a lot of news, and a whole new following."

Your logic doesn't make sense.

Are you seriously claiming that JE , which is BIO's least successful RPG 9(gnore the stupid arguments), is THE reason why they focus on gay romances more? COME ON. I thought a big complaint about BIO is that they 'follow the money. If that were true, they would do everything in their power not to copy stuff from JE since it didn't even do enough to warrant a sequel.

Your Codexian logic is stupid.

\If anything, JE's relative lack of success 9it sold reasonably well but nowhere near as much as other BIO games) that BIO would - if their goal was money and/or achieving the biggest audience possible (L0L 10MIL L0L) - would avoid it as much as possible.

L A M E

STATEMENT: The inclusion of a bi character in Jade Empire garnered Bioware a lot of press.
REACTION: LAME
ANSWER: Yes, it is pretty lame of the press to react that way. But what're ya gonna do?

 

[Stainless Veteran]

STATEMENT: The inclusion of a bi character in Jade Empire garnered Bioware a lot of press.
REACTION: r00fles!
ANSWER: Volourn.

FTFY.

 

[yes plz]

I think the success of Knights of the Old Republic is what caused BioWare's romance bollocks to become so grossly popular. Unlike BG2 where the party members you can make into your waifus were completely optional (and, iirc, you always had to select the right dialogue option to keep it progressing), Bastilia and Carth were main characters of the plot that you were always stuck with and their romances were extremely obvious and easy to achieve.

 

[Tytus]

I think the success of Knights of the Old Republic is what caused BioWare's romance bollocks to become so grossly popular. Unlike BG2 where the party members you can make into your waifus were completely optional (and, iirc, you always had to select the right dialogue option to keep it progressing), Bastilia and Carth were main characters of the plot that you were always stuck with and their romances were extremely obvious and easy to achieve.

Plus they had a lesbian romance with Juhani - this was the start of pure decline.

 

[Jaesun]

I have not played any of the Dragon Age game, but I did pllay Bioware's Mass effect 3 and he does have a point. In this game, gay characters introduce themselves as gays in the first conversation you have with them. It is a gameplay hint for people who have this kind of interest which overwhelm basic core game features.

ONE person mentioned they are gay. Out of all of the other people on your ship.

ONE person....

 

[Tytus]

I have not played any of the Dragon Age game, but I did pllay Bioware's Mass effect 3 and he does have a point. In this game, gay characters introduce themselves as gays in the first conversation you have with them. It is a gameplay hint for people who have this kind of interest which overwhelm basic core game features.

ONE person mentioned they are gay. Out of all of the other people on your ship.

ONE person....

Have you even played the game?

Cortez mentions his dead husband right away.
Samantha tells you she is gay/lesbian in her very introduction drooling all over EDI's voice.
The only person that doesn't inform he is gay from the getco is Kaidan and that's only because he is out-cold from the fight with an android. But you can lock a romance with him while visiting him in the hospital.

So yeah, both exclusivly gay characters inform you about their orientation at the start of the game. Taxalot is right.

Same thing happened in ME2. Kelly that is bi, stars flirting with male and female Shepard in her very introduction to announce to the player this character - hey dipshit, this character is romancable too!

 

[Caim]

Kelly isn't even a full-blown romance though: you can't sleep with her. And as we all know, love = sex and sex = love. Instead you get a lap dance with her wearing some kind of stupid looking leotard thing. Also, this does not exclude you from having a "regular" romance.

Funny thing is: if you want to see and save her in ME3 you will HAVE to have romanced her, otherwise she won't even appear. Which sends all sorts of strange messages... "Yeah, I'm totally getting a lapdance from my secretary, babe. Don't worry, it's to save her life when the Reapers invade."

 

[Knut]

well, look at all the romance experts here! :D

and of course the lesbian romance was the start of THE decline. all the LGBT inclusion is at the root of all evil. not the shit story, uninteresting setting, popamole gameplay, melodramatic B-production, selling out to EA etc. no- the characters that dare to mention they suck a dick. those damn faggots ruining the future of RPG's!

 

[Tytus]

Gameinformer has some new info:

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/d...014/09/04/dragon-age-inquisition-skyhold.aspx

But to save eveyrone the click:

 

[GarfunkeL]

Laidlaws lying never stops.

 

[RandomAccount]

Re: Skyhold - All sounds horribly convoluted

 

[Infinitron]

The Village of Haven? Isn't that the Wicker Man-esque cultist village from DA:O?

 

[Tytus]

The Village of Haven? Isn't that the Wicker Man-esque cultist village from DA:O?

Yes, yes it its. I wonder if players who didn't kill the high dragon in DA1 can fight it again in DA3 as a sort of optional boss. But it's Bioware so not likely. Also they have an entire Cathedral right beside Haven, why not making their base there? It would fit the theme of Inquisition.

 

[Echo Mirage]

From the info on the wiki it seems that the inquisitions base was at Haven temporarily while they attempted a ceasefire/peace talks between the Templars and mages. They move it because of a fade rift opening during the meeting.

 

[sbb]

They move it because of a fade rift opening during the meeting.

 

[Echo Mirage]

They move it because of a fade rift opening during the meeting.

It gets better !

The same rift also gives you super reality warping powers.

 

[sbb]

 

[Infinitron]

They're probably there because it's near the site of that Urn. Nothing like a little religious symbolism to get people to come together etc

 

[Echo Mirage]

They're probably there because it's near the site of that Urn. Nothing like a little religious symbolism to get people to come together etc

Unless something happened in one of the spin off media series that I don't know about. It also means that Bioware is overriding by default one of the first games moral choices (and not for the first time I might add) of keeping haven and the urn a secret. Instead of turning it into the tourist trap of Thedas.