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[Nirolak]

Apparently Mike Laidlaw has been talking about Dragon Age 3's direction on their forums for a while to the point where it's hit some news sites.

There's a lot more in the linked threads themselves, but I tried to focus solely on getting the things that were actually about Dragon Age 3.

It would be nice if this thread was more "Let's talk about whether or not these are good decisions for the direction of the series." and less "We should murder Mike Laidlaw and throw him in a dumpster out back. *witcher2.jpg*"

He's still actively posting in the first thread right now, so I'll update if anything else comes up.

Source: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/7992640
Source: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/8035969
Via: http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/05/bio...e-2-reception-legacy-and-community-on-forums/

 

[Deleted member 81567]

They're talking about DA3 already? gulp.

 

[LiK]

more locations and more characters is all i want.

 

[Proposed Law]

No thanks, Dragon Age is added to the Fable series, of which I don't give a fuck about anymore.

 

[Data West]

It'd be cool if they looked at CERTAIN other RPGs for inspiration. A certain OTHER RPG that may have given me choices that had desirable outcome either way rather than 'this is good. this is bad'

 

[Chesskid1]

didn't read all those posts but


more like DA1, less like DA2 please.

 

[Rapstah]

I'm hearing "only our opinions matter and I don't understand what people were complaining about with DA2".

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Are there going to be hips to mroooooowr over?

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Talking about Dragon Age 3 does not mean much if they are going to summarily ignore all feedback in the final release.

 

[KoreanBarbecue]

What I want:

More smart, less stupid. Don't treat us like we're helpless babies. Make the game more complex, like it used to be.

 

[Interfectum]

reading through this... some of the stuff sounds promising. i dont like what he said about "less is more" when it comes to loot but at least it shows that they are listening at least a little.

 

[Door2Dawn]

Can't they just add DA2's combat with DA's character customization and call it a day?

 

[Vaporak]

But what if murdering Mike Laidlaw and throwing the body in a dumpster is a good decision for the direction of the series?

 

[funkystudent]

Clearly DA3 needs a COD'esc online multiplayer mode.

 

[gatti-man]

All I want to hear is they played tw2 and understand where they went wrong. Honestly if they take the criticism from da2 in to account with da3 it could be an incredible rpg.

 

[Dennis]

I....can't seem to muster up much feeling anymore....

Just go back to DA:O. That game was great. Make it less generic and more hardcore. And forget DA2 ever happened.

If they don't.....one less franchise to care about.

 

[Pancakes]

So basically the want to polish everything.

 

[I3rand0]

Making sure Mike Laidlaw is not part of the development team would go a long way in making sure Dragon Age 3 is a much better game.

Spoiler

sorry Nirolak

 

[Ken]

Better loot and character custimization.

Also, DA1 did something right as I've put more than 20 hours in it.

In DA2, I got bored and uninstalled when you could travel around the city for the first time.

 

[Bowdz]

The points he raised sound great on paper, but I don't have any confidence in their ability to deliver on them at this point. The biggest thing I would like to see the team do with DA3 is just take their time. If they feel confident in their ideas, then they should go for it, but it would be a shame to see another obviously rushed game come out of the gates.

 

[Pyrrhus]

I....can't seem to muster up much feeling anymore....

It seems doubly not worth the effort when he's still arrogant and defensive regarding the direction DA2 went in.

 

[cuyahoga]

Can you ride some dragons yet? I want dragon travel, an awkward dragon sky version of street racing subplot, intimidatingly complex dragon customization, dragon multiplayer stuff, and mechanics that don't feel painfully dated and half-assed. More dragons, less stoic, generic fantasy. Bizarre, meta deconstruction of fantasy, action-RPGs and all associated tropes is what I want.

 

[The Technomancer]

Okay, that actually looks pretty good overall. Haven't played the games but at least going by most of what they say here they're taking fan desire into account.

However this one:

Seems weird. I thought one complaint/comment about DAII was that it felt like it was more of a setup or a prologue for Hawke?

 

[Deacan]

Can't we just pretend DA2 never happened?

 

[Ken]

Can you ride some dragons yet? I want dragon travel, an awkward dragon sky version of street racing subplot, intimidatingly complex dragon customization, dragon multiplayer stuff, and mechanics that don't feel painfully dated and half-assed. More dragons, less stoic, generic fantasy.

You'll probably just get a $150 DA3 Collectors Edition with a PVC Dragon statue instead.

 

[Zzoram]

It sounds like they just rushed out Dragon Age 2, didn't get to polish anything, and reused locations excessively because they wanted to claim XX hours of game but didn't have the time to actually make that amount of content.

He basically just says those issues will be resolved in DA3. That's only believable if they actually give the game 2+ years to develop, and not rush it out.

 

[Nirolak]

But what if murdering Mike Laidlaw and throwing the body in a dumpster is a good decision for the direction of the series?

Making sure Mike Laidlaw is not part of the development team would go a long way in making sure Dragon Age 3 is a much better game.

Spoiler

sorry Nirolak

Well, he's certainly willing to accept blame.

 

[Forkball]

 

[Mammoth Jones]

..and now Bioware starts the hype machine by telling us everything we want to hear. In order to sell those pre-order boxes. "It'll be so much better than DAII, we'll do it differently"

I want them to concede that they rushed DA2 and did it to milk the newborn franchise. I want them to admit it and apologize.

Until then, I'm taking a very strong "Wait and See" attitude with DA3. If they do a great job and that's reflected in word-of-mouth and reviews I'll be on board.

Until then, I'm just apprehensive this will be a rush job like DA2 all over.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Sounds great on paper, but won't believe it til I see it.

 

[Pranay]

TBH i really liked what he said.

 

[TheChaos]

Add a multitude of locations with different settings, and make your choices ACTUALLY MATTER in the long term (instead of a list of dialogue that basically amounts to nothing).

Also, get rid of the romances entirely. They're poorly done and generally cause a bunch of people to project their own creepy feelings onto them (See: Bioware boards).

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

As bad as 2 was it's ending was the opposite of what a WRPG should be, all the choices I made any impact I should have had was crushed in one stupid set piece after another.

 

[water_wendi]

Having Laidlawl involved at all sends the message that Bioware learned nothing.

 

[Auto_aim1]

'Accessibility'

I hate this word. If you wanna attract new players, fine. But don't take things away from us in the process. After reading all that, looks like we will get DA 2.5 instead.

 

[Trojita]

Revenge of the Revenge of Shit Mountain.

 

[Ikuu]

If they had cut content to reduce the reuse of zones the game would have been like 4 hours long. DA2 is just a terrible, terrible game.

 

[Paches]

Please fix this franchise, there aren't that many of these kinds of games being made (well) these days. I have some small amount of hope that Laidlaw's posts are honest.

 

[Derrick01]

Despite DA2 being one of the biggest insults to gaming in history, I won't rule out a purchase of DA3. Since they're keeping the same director and EA will mistreat Steam it's not likely though.

They have soooo much to fix and it's way easier to break something than it is to fix.

 

[ace3skoot]

take 2 years to make it instead of 1 i think that will do wonders for DA3 over 2

 

[Zzoram]

I'm so glad I chose not to buy shit mountain. Whenever a game that people really liked like DAO gets a sequel that everyone shits on so hard, it means they must've screwed up badly.

 

[Rad-]

take 2 years to make it instead of 1 i think that will do wonders for DA3 over 2

DA2 had almost a 2 year cycle. DA1 PC version was basically finished 6 months before release.

 

[Rufus]

However this one:

Seems weird. I thought one complaint/comment about DAII was that it felt like it was more of a setup or a prologue for Hawke?

"Expanding the audience", something something. It does make sense, and I am not against successors that are 'just' set in the same universe. If they're going to do that, however, then for the love of god don't put a 2 or a 3 at the end of it when you are telling a wholly different story.

 

[Chinese Electric Batman]

 

[Nirolak]

Despite DA2 being one of the biggest insults to gaming in history, I won't rule out a purchase of DA3. Since they're keeping the same director and EA will mistreat Steam it's not likely though.

They have soooo much to fix and it's way easier to break something than it is to fix.

While it's a very easy mistake to make since he rarely talks in public, Mark Darrah is actually the director of the series, and holds the equivalent role to Casey Hudson on Mass Effect.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

It sounds like they are perfectly happy with how the engine handles combat in DA2 and just want to fix some minor presentation and scripting issues.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Mike Laidlaw = Peter Molyneux Redux

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

We should mur-

It would be nice if this thread was more "Let's talk about whether or not these are good decisions for the direction of the series." and less "We should murder Mike Laidlaw and throw him in a dumpster out back. *witcher2.jpg*"

I'll just be off, then.

 

[UnblessedSoul]

Pretend DA2 never happened and carry on the story from awakening

 

[bigboss370]

i'm optimistic, i'll wait for more media.