Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Excidium]

That has more to do with the state of the game industry in general than Skyrim specifically. Oblivion will be a decade old sooner than we notice

 

[Space Satan]

Bethesda had superb marketing campaign with Syerim. Everyone gone crazy about main music theme plus they presented their new engine that was unsurpassed at Skyrim release time. Combine this with stable fanbase and you'll have 10kk+ sales. Of course STEAM and other digital distribution systems added to the success.

 

[RPGMaster]

Oblivion was popular on consoles because there was jackshit else to play when it was released.

 

[Roguey]

Whee, drama.

David Gaider ‏@davidgaider

Nice to see how "please don't record this" evidently means "record the entire thing and post it online, but only because we asked nicely."

Gary Alexander ‏@upsettingshorts

@davidgaider @Sylvf1 Aaryn encouraged us to share *everything* on social media, it was a very explicit invitation.

David Gaider ‏@davidgaider

Evidently explicit permission was given for folks to share the PAX panel on social media. So be it. I retract my grousing.

Fuck you Gaider, don't talk shit about things you're ignorant about. Looks like he inspired a rant.

http://fearliath.tumblr.com/post/60004173429/you-know-whats-interesting-david-gaider-can

You know what’s interesting?

David Gaider can insult fans, patronize fans, favour fans over others, invade fan space when he’s unwanted, drunkblog, encourage bullying, insist his headcanons are the only way fans are allowed to interpret Thedas lore and be biphobic as hell yet fans will still love and defend him.

Jennifer Hepler says she prefers the writing the games over playing games and fans go apeshit all over the internet - to the point Hepler was receiving death threats.

Isn’t it interesting how some Bioware writers are held to different standards than others?

"Invade fan space" is one of the funniest things I've seen written. Make a game called Fan Space Invaders and instead of white aliens it's a fat bald gay white man.

 

[Ninjerk]

Where did he "invade fan space" and act biphobic...ly?

 

[Zed]

David Gaider ‏@davidgaider 5h

Panel done. Relatively painless. I'm now free until the Sex in Videogames panel tonight.

wow sex in videogames panel. surely the highlight of the show.

 

[Volourn]

"You know what’s interesting?

David Gaider can insult fans, patronize fans, favour fans over others, invade fan space when he’s unwanted, drunkblog, encourage bullying, insist his headcanons are the only way fans are allowed to interpret Thedas lore and be biphobic as hell yet fans will still love and defend him.

Jennifer Hepler says she prefers the writing the games over playing games and fans go apeshit all over the internet - to the point Hepler was receiving death threats.

Isn’t it interesting how some Bioware writers are held to different standards than others?"


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

 

[Roguey]

That panel is old news, you can read/see it at the GDC Vault. Lazy writer coasting on old material everyone's already seen, no surprises.

Where did he "invade fan space" and act biphobic...ly?

His being on tumblr and making blog posts in reply to things he reads from DA-related tumblrs is considered invading their space by some. As for biphobia, I dunno. Maybe the way he talks about how romances are available to both sexes? The language he uses is very wishy-washy. Like he says he doesn't consider them playersexual but also refuses to write all of them as explicitly bi and tells people to shut up if they try to label them.

 

[Infinitron]

The only winning move is not to play, Dave.

 

[evdk]

Fuck you Gaider, don't talk shit about things you're ignorant about. Looks like he inspired a rant.

http://fearliath.tumblr.com/post/60004173429/you-know-whats-interesting-david-gaider-can

The "fan space invasion" and "headcanon" parts seem to point to some fun drama. I guess some of the tumblr precious snowflakes can't take it when their Anders/Architect slash fictions are commented upon by the series head writer. Stop opressing, cis white dudes!

 

[Roguey]

The author is dead. Whatever does not explicitly exist in the material can be interpreted freely. Josh Sawyer has the right idea as usual.
http://spring.me/JESawyer/q/344755509779258177

Any reason why you wont tell us what JG said to Salt Upon Wounds?

Years ago, Ridley Scott changed Blade Runner. He decided to change an ambiguous aspect of the central character to something not ambiguous at all. The movie that Blade Runner fans fell in love with because of that central uncertainty lost something because the author simply changed his mind years after the fact.

I think that authors of content should leave the interpretive aspects of their narrative work alone once it goes out into the world for consumption. I think we should discuss it, argue about it, but we shouldn't try to re-frame it. It shouldn't really matter whether what's there is intentional or accidental. It's what's in the game and what the player experiences that matter.

Even describing, in broad strokes, what we had intended for Legion content was pretty distasteful, IMO. We had our shot to tell some stories. If I feel the need to scoot additional information at the audience outside of the content they paid money for, I'm just heaping failure upon failure -- made worse by asserting the importance of my opinions as the project director after the fact. My authority ended when the game went out the door. For better or worse, what's there is there.

http://spring.me/JESawyer/q/346044326226186302

sorry this keeps being brought up, but even with the recent final cut, the film is still ambiguous. it's never directly stated in the film that deckard is a replicant.the dream sequence is about as telling as the removed stock footage ending(which sucked

You're in luck! Ridley Scott directly said that Deckard is a replicant in an interview. So if you thought your interpretation was in any way valid, he's solved that for you.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/movies/30kapl.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

This is exactly why I think making comments of that sort is terrible and insulting to the audience.

 

[evdk]

The author is dead. Whatever does not explicitly exist in the material can be interpreted freely.

That's does not really apply to unfinished/continuously developed works. You know, like a video game trilogy after the second installment.

 

[tuluse]

The only winning move is not to play, Dave.

The winning move would be to become a better writer and work with better writers so that you're not writing schlock.

 

[Ninjerk]

The only winning move is not to play, Dave.

How about a nice game of chess?

 

[DraQ]

At least Skyrim could be modded to make NPCs react to hits.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

from 5 minute mark more of "tactical" combat. liked how aoe spells leaves a mark where you casted it, dealing with archers by destroying the bridge where they were standing was great, more vertical fights and areas are always nice. and spell efects are pure

At least Skyrim could be modded to make NPCs react to hits.

but Draq that was already in vanilla skyrim wasnt it?

 

[Zeriel]

I don't really like the artisitic style myself, although it is a step up from DA2. But the graphics are very beautiful, it looks amazing actually.

I'm unable to separate the two. Perhaps that's a personal fault. For me, trying to appreciate the technical details (i.e, the engine) despite the art design is like wandering through the Sistine Chapel, and trying to ignore the gigantic, fifty-foot mural of this:

 

[Rivmusique]

Same old Dragon Age gameplay just like I said it would be.

It's a Witcher 2 clone with a rudimentary party control interface attached, just like I said it would be.

Does seem more DA and DA2 (well, the demo anyway) on easy/normal like to me. Leave the default AI on, pick a party member you want to control, run around hitting things with abilities when off cooldown and have little trouble with most fights. The player on the video only seems to switch party members for 'fun' rather than necessity. Of course, it could be undertuned for staging purposes, not wanting to waste time with reloads. Doesn't seem active enough to be a Witcher 2 clone.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Same old Dragon Age gameplay just like I said it would be.

It's a Witcher 2 clone with a rudimentary party control interface attached, just like I said it would be.

Does seem more DA and DA2 (well, the demo anyway) on easy/normal like to me. Leave the default AI on, pick a party member you want to control, run around hitting things with abilities when off cooldown and have little trouble with most fights. The player on the video only seems to switch party members for 'fun' rather than necessity. Of course, it could be undertuned for staging purposes, not wanting to waste time with reloads. Doesn't seem active enough to be a Witcher 2 clone.

not enough rolling to mistake inquisitor for geralt

 

[Stabwound]

What a schizophrenic series. Does every game have to be wildly different from the previous? Poor Bioware: they could have improved on the Dragon Age: Origins style, except now we have apparently a generic Dark Souls/Skyrim hybrid. Whatever. Whatever whatever whatever. Another game to ignore, just like DA2.

 

[Ninjerk]

I think it's telling that the doctors left.

 

[Echo Mirage]

I think it's telling that the doctors left.

Did we ever find out more about why that happened ?, or was it as simple as it seemed with them taking the fall for the massive failure that was DA 2 ?.

 

[tuluse]

Did we ever find out more about why that happened ?, or was it as simple as it seemed with them taking the fall for the massive failure that was DA 2 ?.

More likely they reached the minimum time EA required them to stay on after purchase and left.

 

[Direwolf]

Looks like a Kingdom of Amalur clone.

 

[felipepepe]

Oh god, that audience... "you can change party menber equipment" - WILD ROAR OF PRAISE.