The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[SwiftCrack]

Remember how Arcade Israel Gannon was gay in New Vegas, and you had to option to actually not even find out because he himself did not make a big deal out of it?

 

[dryan]

The setting works how the designer wants it to work and it doesn't have to fit into a preconceived notion of historical authenticity.

Indeed. But if the designer doesn't go into details about specific aspects of the setting, he has to expect players to draw comparisons to the closest real life parallel. You can't really half-ass it and then resort to "because magic!" when called out on it.

 

[Bradylama]

Maybe in yurofagistan you guys don't repress homosexuality any more, but it is still a serious issue for us Americans. "Blood Magic" isn't all that different from disowning your kids for being gay. A significant amount of homeless kids in America are disowned gays or lesbians. It's not as if the problem disappeared, it's simply not a matter of official policy to oppress gays. One of my friends even once asked me what kind of gun she should buy after a recent rash of gay bashings.

What doesn't work for Dragon Age is that there's basically no reason for their society not to be oppressing homosexuality, or developing functional workarounds for it. It has to be EXACTLY LIKE AMERICA.

 

[Mastermind]

So, is there gonna be a demo version for this thing?

 

[imweasel]

I couldn't care less about gay characters being present in the game but I sure don't like my medieval fantasy to be full of hamfisted and anachronistic depictions of modern social issues.

True. I like to escape this world while playing video games, I don't want to constantly be confronted with modern social issues because game designers like Gaider feel the need to use this platform to go full-on SJW with gamers. Playing a Bioware title is like playing "Christoper Street Day - The Video Game" or something.

I don't have a problem homosexuals in real life and am fine with some gay content in video games. In Wasteland 2 I even helped the gay dudes in Rodia get back together again, simply because I thought it was the right thing to do. Bioware just goes over the top with this LGBT social movement bullshit.

 

[Calapine]

Maybe in yurofagistan you guys don't repress homosexuality any more, but it is still a serious issue for us Americans. "Blood Magic" isn't all that different from disowning your kids for being gay. A significant amount of homeless kids in America are disowned gays or lesbians. It's not as if the problem disappeared, it's simply not a matter of official policy to oppress gays. One of my friends even once asked me what kind of gun she should buy after a recent rash of gay bashings.

What doesn't work for Dragon Age is that there's basically no reason for their society not to be oppressing homosexuality, or developing functional workarounds for it. It has to be EXACTLY LIKE AMERICA.

I don't mind such things being included, but I do mind the ham-fisted way Bioware does. And how the entire sex-romance-gender stuff seems become a cornerstone of the game, rather than things that are present in the background to enrich the world.

The Homosexual-Blood Magic cure is a good example. You can't take a contemporary real life issue ("Pray the Gay programmes in US") and transplant in 1:1 into a medivial fantasy game. THAT'S NOT HOW GOOD WRITING WORKS!

 

[Average Manatee]

It's a serious mistake to assume that a fantasy setting with magick and anomolous bullshit happening all the time must be exactly like our own mundane Medieval histories. It's impossible for a medieval culture to mass produce gaudy armor with mutli-winged helms and big fuckoff shields with wings and swords and bows with big fuckoff metal wings. The setting works how the designer wants it to work and it doesn't have to fit into a preconceived notion of historical authenticity.

If Bioware wants to make a real-world political statement with their mass produced gaudy armor with mutli-winged helms and big fuckoff shields with wings and swords and bows with big fuckoff metal wings, I'll start criticizing them for being inaccurate in their portrayals of medieval economics and production as applied to their fantasy setting. Until then I'll stick with the real-world political statement that Bioware is trying to shove into their games with gays.

 

[Bradylama]

I don't mind such things being included, but I do mind the ham-fisted way Bioware does. And how the entire sex-romance-gender stuff seems become a cornerstone of the game, rather than things that are present in the background to enrich the world.

The Homosexual-Blood Magic cure is a good example. You can't take a contemporary real life issue ("Pray the Gay programmes in US") and transplant in 1:1 into a medivial fantasy game. THAT'S NOT HOW GOOD WRITING WORKS!

Not just medieval fantasy, but any kind of fictional setting that's not based in our own world.

 

[Martius]

So, is there gonna be a demo version for this thing?

It already is in form of EA subscription on xbox one.

 

[hell bovine]

It's a serious mistake to assume that a fantasy setting with magick and anomolous bullshit happening all the time must be exactly like our own mundane Medieval histories. It's impossible for a medieval culture to mass produce gaudy armor with mutli-winged helms and big fuckoff shields with wings and swords and bows with big fuckoff metal wings. The setting works how the designer wants it to work and it doesn't have to fit into a preconceived notion of historical authenticity.

That said, the writing is still shit.

Forcing a gay man to marry & have children, if you have religious celibacy, doesn't make sense to me. On the other hand, if you come from a rich or aristocratic family and he is your only son, then yeah, because you'd want to continue your bloodline.

It makes sense because they weren't a part of the clergy. Peasants were just as interested in producing more gets to work the fields as aristocrats were interested in continuing the bloodline. Cultures where male homosexuality was the norm resorted to making procreation a civic duty. It's only in modern conditions of overabundance and overpopulation that it becomes tolerable for gays and some straights to go through life without ever producing children.

I'd argue that it wasn't as simple for the peasants either. Children don't spring from the womb as productive workers, but you have to raise them first. And once they get old enough, there is the problem of inheritance; a daughter had to have a dowry to get married, and sons had to inherit enough to be able to have a household of their own. And in feudal systems, where the land didn't belong to the farmers or - like in Poland, they belonged to the feudal lord, e.g. could not leave the land without his agreement - breeding as many children as you could would just lead to poverty. It was actually easier for many farmers to hire seasonal help to work the fields, since there were plenty of homeless people (often those 3rd or 4th sons who could not inherit) willing to work for food and a roof over their heads.

As for clergy being celibate, that made sense for religious reasons, but would still pose a considerable problem if the population got decimated. And other religions that don't practice celibacy, would not have that problem. People hating on immigrants, because they have more children is nothing new, actually.

 

[Calapine]

I don't mind such things being included, but I do mind the ham-fisted way Bioware does. And how the entire sex-romance-gender stuff seems become a cornerstone of the game, rather than things that are present in the background to enrich the world.

The Homosexual-Blood Magic cure is a good example. You can't take a contemporary real life issue ("Pray the Gay programmes in US") and transplant in 1:1 into a medivial fantasy game. THAT'S NOT HOW GOOD WRITING WORKS!

Not just medieval fantasy, but any kind of fictional setting that's not based in our own world.

True.

 

[Goat Vomit]

I still remember when Bioware was hyping up the then vapourware first Dragon Age game and saying that there would be no good or evil and all choices morally grey and all ambiguous like. Funny how that turned out. Also, dumb spergy youtube let's players shouldn't be allowed to create female characters, I mean seriously, the main character looks like she was designed by this guy:

 

[Bradylama]

All choice leads to the spunkgargleweewee skybox climax extravaganza. A true Role Playing Experience. The Hagia Sophia of our time.

 

[imweasel]

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind criticism and hate, there was plenty in PoE/W2 thread. But at least it was related to the game. Not here though (No, Gaider/BW is not forcing their agenda upon you, you fucking lunatics)...

And what there is to talk about the gameplay? Watched a few streams and the combat is spammy and MMOish as fuck and on hard, only the thoughest of the optional fights requires more than smash buttons mode. Did you play Dragons Dogma? The gameplay here is a shitty and mediocre version of it. On Dragon's Dogma, you could actually manually aim on the enemies, the spells felt like they had impact with you casting epic comets comming from the sky and gigantic tornados, the spells in this game just look more like whimpy, colourful and flashy version of arrows with no impact. You had a nice actiony/tactical gameplay ... they tried doing the same thing but it was a terrible design decision.

You have to stop the fight and fiddle with a terrible camera on tactical mode to try to fine tune your characters and on action mode, the only option available is auto attack with the occasional cooldown ability that most of the time it's just an AoE or a higher damaging skill, again, very MMOish.

Bioware obviously wanted to make a title with more action-like gameplay. They should have made a "Dragon Effect" game or Dragon's Dogma clone or something. Those could have actually been enjoyable. But the stupid idiots made a sinle player MMO instead.

There are only complete retards left in the studio, which is probably the reason why even Casey Hudson saw himself compeled to jump ship.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Why do you think Bioware would be even remotely capable of producing a competent Dragon's Dogma clone? That game was seriously fucking awesome - it's an action game through and through, with awesome classic D&D monsters and great locations/exploration, and very minimum faggotry. Capcom is dumb as fuck for not porting Dark Arisen to the PC, it would have a significant audience and the game would actually run at a playable framerate.

 

[Athelas]

I still remember when Bioware was hyping up the then vapourware first Dragon Age game and saying that there would be no good or evil and all choices morally grey and all ambiguous like. Funny how that turned out.

On the upside, at least they're ripping off the final boss of their best games - the Baldur's Gate series.

 

[Mortmal]

Why do you think Bioware would be even remotely capable of producing a competent Dragon's Dogma clone? That game was seriously fucking awesome - it's an action game through and through, with awesome classic D&D monsters and great locations/exploration, and very minimum faggotry. Capcom is dumb as fuck for not porting Dark Arisen to the PC, it would have a significant audience and the game would actually run at a playable framerate.

Capcom is japanese, and you know theres japan than theres irrelevant barbarian countries around....Babrbarians with pc that will never get 90% of the great untranslated japanese games.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

Well at least

Spoiler

Flemeth

dies in this game so no more granny porn from tumblrtards

 

[Azarkon]

Gameplay review: remember when people said this game starts slow?

They weren't kidding.

The game's first chapter - the Hinterlands - is basically a clone of a vintage WoW zone, gameplay wise. You go around looking for quest givers marked by '!' on the minimap and then do generic quests ala 'go kill 10 goats', 'collect 5 wool patches', and 'find this this dude's hidden cache' all the while wandering around the scenery - beautifully rendered but ultimately lifeless - collecting herbs, metal ores, and fighting generic monsters who attack you every other screen.

The analogy to Skyrim is 'correct' but does not capture the degree to which this game borrows from vintage WoW. I imagine reviewers gave that example because they're both SP open world games with pretty graphics, but DAI feels vintage WoWish rather than Skyrimish in its area design. Both DAI and vintage WoW put a dozen quests in an area and overwhelms you with trivial side quests. Skyrim and WoW today, on the other hand, are smarter about limiting the amount of stupid quests and keeping the balance between story quests and trivial quests. DAI in the first five hours feels VERY vintage WoW.

Difficulty wise, the fact that you aren't able to rest in between battles is the main difficulty given that your HP doesn't regenerate past 20%. But given the ability to fast travel between the quest area and your keep from the quest area - which replenishes your hp and healing potions - all it does is introduce an extra timesink. The encounters themselves are pretty standard DA2 fare, and the encounter designers did do a decent job of making them challenging without being not fair.

TLDR: remember back when WoW loaded you with a dozen worthless kill/fetch tasks before giving you a story/progression task? That's how DAI plays in the first 5-10 hours, which is all I've been able to get through given how boring this play style ultimately is, especially having gone through it a hundred times with WoW & all its clones, which DAI is.

 

[dryan]

Well at least

Spoiler

Flemeth

dies in this game so no more granny porn from tumblrtards

Necrosexual rights must be respected! Stop being exclusionary. Everyone is free to love the deceased!

 

[Telengard]

Don't know why so many complain about characters being not being attractive. I prefer a game were everyone doesn't look like models. Like Starcraft 1 kerrigan over SC2 sudden vapid model. If the complaint had been that their design was bad, sure, but now I see so much whining about their appearance. Is that really such a problem for you?

Starcraft (unlike DA:I) isn't a harem dating simulator with partial nudity, where you choose your waifu from amongst all of your bed partners.

Yet.

It cannot be stated enough: the personal beauty of your waifu is of critical importance in a dating simulator.

But what you say isn't true about the game. Despite how much the codex care about the romances.

But even if that were true, the Biowarians seems quite pleased about the characters.

In a world where a number of people won't watch a tv show or movie because the actors are over 30, such thing as beautiful characters are always of critical importance. Why, there are even sterlingly large debates on the net about whether or not Leilana is over 30. And the debate about beauty and romance here is just a smidgeon of what goes on other sites.

More to the point on date simulators: in what Bioware games have become, all dialogue is about grinding relationship meters - that's dating sim territory. Grinding relationship meters runs omnipresently throughout the entire game - also dating sim territory. A high relationship meter with a character leads to a personal background encounter - dating sim territory. The background encounter, if options are selected properly, ultimately leads to partial nudity and sex - dating sim territory. Sex can be had at any time with any "unlocked" character - harem sim territory. You choose one from amongst your bed partners to have a special romance with - waifu territory. Or to sum up, harem dating simulator with partial nudity and waifus.

RPG combat is not even new subject matter in date-sims or hentai games. Most such games are built around an adventure game or a visual novel, but RPG combat versions have been around for decades, such as Sakura Wars and Lightning Warrior Raidy.

 

[Echo Mirage]

With all this MMO talk and comparisons by both players and devs it makes me wonder if EA and Bioware are testing the waters for a possible Dragon Age online.

 

[Xenich]

With all this MMO talk and comparisons by both players and devs it makes me wonder if EA and Bioware are testing the waters for a possible Dragon Age online.

Finger... Nose... Finger... Nose...

On the fucking dot.

 

[Jaesun]

A Dragon Age MMO would probably sell like fucking crazy, especially with the rabid BioWare fans.

 

[SwiftCrack]

Pay 20 bucks to get a gay fabulous unicorn mount.

1% of proceeds are donated to the Smash The Patriarchy webcomic.