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[Enduin]

Perhaps you'll meet the warden, but they will be fully armoured. But that means DA Keep would need to allow you to at least choose a race and gender for the Warden and at that point why not just let us create the full character.

I expect the Warden to be talked about a lot, but never shown. Regardless of what BioWare have hinted at. I imagine it's meaningless teases.

I fully expect the Keep to track things like race and gender, appearance is a lot more complicated than just some check marks for whether you did x or y, still unfortunate though.

As for the Warden appearing in the game I expect it should be somewhat substantial. The lead writer has made a couple of statements on how they aren't going to include things like the Dark Ritual or bringing back the Warden or Hawke unless they can do it right and in a meaningful way, otherwise it's pointless to have a cameo or some simple shit since you'll just be disappointing the people your doing it for since they're the only ones who will understand it or see it. So you either do it right or not at all.

 

[Chaos17]

We've a lot of expectation for Dragon Age keep, I hope it won't let us down.

 

[Sendero]

Well, I do commend this Bioware because at least for now, they ditched their tired formula of White hot human girl + Colored hot almost-human (elf/alien) girl as main romance options.

I mean, despite BW saying that Vivienne is the polar opposite of Morrigan, her descriptions are quite similar: Smug, powerful mage, difficult past, rigid perception, sees everyone else as lesser beings, hermetic, hidden agenda/secret, inexperienced with love (until you "warm" her up),etc.

A large portion seemed to have used her as companion on Origins. But I do not see the same enthusiasm for Vivianne. Is her being black the reason?


In any case, what it is true is that if you make "ugly/misfit" kind of characters, the writing behind them becomes even more relevant for people to care. Hope they have improved on that front.

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Perhaps you'll meet the warden, but they will be fully armoured. But that means DA Keep would need to allow you to at least choose a race and gender for the Warden and at that point why not just let us create the full character.

Because one is far easier to do then the other. You're talking a couple check boxes vs an entire character generator.

 

[Ovek]

Perhaps you'll meet the warden, but they will be fully armoured. But that means DA Keep would need to allow you to at least choose a race and gender for the Warden and at that point why not just let us create the full character.

I expect the Warden to be talked about a lot, but never shown. Regardless of what BioWare have hinted at. I imagine it's meaningless teases.

At the end of DA2 doesn't Cassandra say something about the Hero of Ferelden and the Champion of Kirkwall being missing?

I very much doubt they will show up without some sort of save game import.

 

[Lady Gaia]

In this case the average is everyone.

That's news to some of us. As a gold star lesbian gamer it's nice to see a romance option that represents me better than anything I've seen before. I don't expect to see that happen in every game, but every now and then would be a pleasant surprise.

 

[Ralemont]

A large portion seemed to have used her as companion on Origins. But I do not see the same enthusiasm for Vivianne. Is her being black the reason?


In any case, what it is true is that if you make "ugly/misfit" kind of characters, the writing behind them becomes even more relevant for people to care. Hope they have improved on that front.

We don't really know a whole lot about Vivienne yet. Hopefully they do one of those "meet the voice actor" promos like they did for Iron Bull; that would certainly drum up interest.

As for the misfit role, I expect more people will like Cole than might be expected.

I also recall earlier in this thread a discussion about friendly fire and had assumed there was no info on it, but there has been for awhile. It just hasn't been discussed lately:

"There's no level-scaling, so you won't have to worry about getting crushed by bandits that should be five levels lower than you. There will also be various difficulty sliders, like one for friendly fire. "We're trying to have more variety," Laidlaw said." http://kotaku.com/the-next-dragon-age-is-crazy-ambitious-1232404991

A slider for Friendly Fire independent of difficulty sounds pretty great. I'm guessing 0% - 50% party damage - 100% party damage.

 

[Ovek]

We've a lot of expectation for Dragon Age keep, I hope it won't let us down.

I expect the entire thing to crash on it's arse for at the very least the first two to three days on lunch.

 

[ironcreed]

I'm thinking this post was meant to be taken sarcastically, but god damn that sounds disgusting.

Don't worry, it was.

On a side note, I'm just looking forward to getting lost in that larger scale world. What we have seen has left me gobsmacked.

 

[Chaos17]

I expect the entire thing to crash on it's arse for at the very least the first two to three days on lunch.

Yeah, I may prefered to download this tool to avoid this perm crash/lag futur, lol.
Still, it worry me a bit that's so mysterious >.>"

 

[Ralemont]

I expect the entire thing to crash on it's arse for at the very least the first two to three days on lunch.

They are releasing it before the game, so they'll have some time to work out the kinks before it really starts mattering.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

Welp, she was the only one that looked even mildly promising to me. Looks like this might be the first BioWare game where I don't romance anyone.

I know right? So there's only Cassandra (she looked a lot better in DA2... sigh), and Vivviane (who looks extremely snobby, no attractive to me at all).

Is that it?

I feel like I'm being punished for something, Bioware.. why are you punishing me?

 

[Enduin]

I know right? So there's only Cassandra (she looked a lot better in DA2... sigh), and Vivviane (who looks extremely snobby, no attractive to me at all).

Is that it?

I feel like I'm being punished for something, Bioware.. why are you punishing me?

Because you touch yourself to video game characters.

 

[Ridesh]

I know right? So there's only Cassandra (she looked a lot better in DA2... sigh), and Vivviane (who looks extremely snobby, no attractive to me at all).

Is that it?

I feel like I'm being punished for something, Bioware.. why are you punishing me?

Do you remember those times when people whined about the Mass Effect games being full of hot chicks?

Well, this is the punishment.

 

[Ralemont]

Dorian interview released:

http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/character-profile-dorian

Honestly the interviews are a lot more interesting and enlightening than the character blurbs. They should have just skipped the character summaries and presented the interviews instead.

 

[Enduin]

Dorian interview released:

http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/character-profile-dorian

Honestly the interviews are a lot more interesting and enlightening than the character blurbs. They should have just skipped the character summaries and presented the interviews instead.

Nice, I saw they put out the Sera costume guide thing I thought that was it for today. Hope we see more VA videos next week. Along with the full E3 demo vid. It's kind of ridiculous we haven't seen the full thing yet.

 

[ColdRose]

Dorian interview released:

http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/character-profile-dorian

Honestly the interviews are a lot more interesting and enlightening than the character blurbs. They should have just skipped the character summaries and presented the interviews instead.

Agreed. I also love the costume kits - both of these, plus the voiceover thingies are making me far more hyped for the game than the 'muscle' 'wildcard' stuff.

 

[Enduin]

I like this part a lot. A jaded and sarcastic is exactly what I want.

[DA]: Dorian has been described as sharp-tongued, with a knack for producing a great quip even in times of grave danger. How would you describe him?

[DG]: Dorian is smart—perhaps too smart for his own good, really. He was raised in a society where both intelligence and wit are prized, where advancing yourself socially means outmaneuvering your peers, and he does so quite well… or, at least, he would if he didn't see through it all. That's left him rather jaded and sarcastic, naturally.

Also Dorian be Gay, didn't see that coming...Lots of ladies will not be happy about this.

 

[Simzyy]

Because one is far easier to do then the other. You're talking a couple check boxes vs an entire character generator.

Sure, but if they are going to have a Warden with a voice now then they are already putting quite a lot of money into it.

It's a shame Dragon Age Keep beta is under NDA, anyone participating in it probably knows the answer to these questions already.

 

[Sendero]

[DG]: Dorian is gay—he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I've had the opportunity to write. It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where "perfection" is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden.

Openly gay? With Bioware, you can expect fans and press to either give praise or a lot of flack.

That sounds interest to witness.

 

[ColdRose]

I like this part a lot. A jaded and sarcastic is exactly what I want.



Also Dorian be Gay, didn't see that coming...Lots of ladies will not be happy about this.

Possibly I'm (straight woman) really glad he's gay though. I normally play female and would probably have done the romance had he been straight or bi, but I'm very pleased to see gay characters given presence and prominence in what is essentially an ensemble game like Dragon Age. He sounds like a decent party member (jaded, sarcastic, powerful, yes these things I like) - if he's really good I may even end up playing a guy for a change ...

 

[T.O.P]

Dorian interview released:

http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/character-profile-dorian

Honestly the interviews are a lot more interesting and enlightening than the character blurbs. They should have just skipped the character summaries and presented the interviews instead.

nice


i'm extremely hyped for this game, pls be awesome

 

[luxarific]

I like this part a lot. A jaded and sarcastic is exactly what I want.



Also Dorian be Gay, didn't see that coming...Lots of ladies will not be happy about this.

I'm pretty sure that's going to be a plus, lol.

 

[Some Nobody]

[DG]: Dorian is gay—he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I've had the opportunity to write. It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where "perfection" is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden.

...Really? Is no one else tired of this? Not that he's gay (that's actually neat), just that...I'm hoping he's not persecuted for it. It took quite the unique set of steps in human history for us to consider being homosexual as deviant behavior, so to see it reflected in a fantasy game would bug the crap out of me.

 

[GasProblem]

Dorian is gay huh. Well, guess I should've seen it coming with that moustache Guess he will be my first romance option then. A sarcastic, jaded pariah sounds like an interesting character.

 

[Enduin]

...Really? Is no one else tired of this? Not that he's gay (that's actually neat), just that...I'm hoping he's not persecuted for it. It took quite the unique set of steps in human history for us to consider being homosexual as deviant behavior, so to see it reflected in a fantasy game would bug the crap out of me.

If I recall correctly according to the World of Thedas book Tevinter society doesn't care if you are gay or anything, the first Transgender character in the series is a prominent Tevinter Magister, all they care is that you keep it private. It's all about the facade of perfection and superiority. No one is going to persecute you or say you're a sinner they'll just sideline you for your impropriety.

Edit: ColdRose has better than me. It's all about pumping out those baby mages. It's actually a rather interesting take on the whole situation.

 

[Kimaka]

[DG]: Dorian is gay—he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I've had the opportunity to write. It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where "perfection" is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden.

This is great. We get not one but two gay party members. I was worried that after the DA2 backlash they would go back to the standard two LIs for straight people and one for gay people. Or only the gay option being a NPC like ME3. I'm glad that's not the case.

...Really? Is no one else tired of this? Not that he's gay (that's actually neat), just that...I'm hoping he's not persecuted for it. It took quite the unique set of steps in human history for us to consider being homosexual as deviant behavior, so to see it reflected in a fantasy game would bug the crap out of me.

Maybe its just referring to his thoughts about the Tevinter situation. The DA games have been pretty accepting of homosexuality.

 

[Squire]

Openly gay? With Bioware, you can expect fans and press to either give praise or a lot of flack.

That sounds interest to witness.

You could expect the same for any developer. "Open" has nothing to do with it. They just need to make good characters, regardless of orientation rather than characters that become caricatures because of their orientation. They already showed they know how to do this with the shuttle pilot from ME3.

 

[ColdRose]

...Really? Is no one else tired of this? Not that he's gay (that's actually neat), just that...I'm hoping he's not persecuted for it. It took quite the unique set of steps in human history for us to consider being homosexual as deviant behavior, so to see it reflected in a fantasy game would bug the crap out of me.

Yeah, being gay isn't the problem, so much as it is being an openly gay noble when you are expected to breed to continue powerful magical lineages. As long as you do that, whatever you do recreationally is your own business. Dorian has presumably opted out of the breeding thing, despite being from a very influential magical family, hence his status as (self-imposed) outcast.

 

[Ralemont]

Yeah, being gay isn't the problem, so much as it is being an openly gay noble when you are expected to breed to continue powerful magical lineages. As long as you do that, whatever you do recreationally is your own business. Dorian has presumably opted out of the breeding thing, despite being from a very influential magical family, hence his status as (self-imposed) outcast.

Just to add some official weight to this, martialcake posted this quote from the World of Thedas book:

""The view on indulging lusts with a member of the same gender varies from land to land. In Orlais, it is considered a quirk of character and nothing more. In Ferelden, it is a matter of scandal if done indiscreetly but otherwise nothing noteworthy. In Tevinter, it is considered selfish and deviant behavior among nobles, but actively encouraged with favored slaves. Nowhere is it forbidden, and sex of any kind is only considered noteworthy of judgement when taken to awful excess or performed in the public eye." (WoT, pg. 72)"

So basically, fuck whoever you want in Tevinter, but don't let it get in the way of popping out powerful mage heirs. Seems Dorian wasn't willing to live the double life.

 

[Yasae]

Dorian G(r)ay

 

[CadetMahoney]

Dorian G(r)ay

golf_clap.png

 

[Sendero]

You could expect the same for any developer. "Open" has nothing to do with it. They just need to make good characters, regardless of orientation rather than characters that become caricatures because of their orientation. They already showed they know how to do this with the shuttle pilot from ME3.

Yeah, Cortez was good because his orientation wasn't majorly relevant with the role he played. So, aside of his loss (husband) and the banter with Vega, you wouldn't know that he is gay unless you romance him. In other words, he never made a big deal of it, nor defined his existence.

But he was also a side character, unless Dorian. So, will see.

 

[jgwhiteus]

Oh good, a sarcastic wisecracking male mage love interest - like Anders should have been in DA2, before they gave him a personality transplant and sucked all the fun out of him until he became a psychotic wet blanket. This pretty much guarantees Dorian will be in my party.

I still think the hair (and the stache, to a lesser extent) need a bit of a makeover though... come on PC modding community, don't let me down.

 

[petghost]

have you guys felt that bioware has done justice to gay chars in the past? im not entirely familiar with ME or DA2 etc. so i dont really have any idea how they handle that kinda stuff.

when i think of gay characters that i thought were represented well i think of people like arcade ganon and veronica in NV. they were fantastic characters who just happened to be gay. i worry about a company/community that is so heavily focused on romance that the gay characters might be created with slightly more cynical intentions. like here is an attractive gay romance option go for it. i've certainly felt that way about straight romance options and that was a bummer too.

 

[hateradio]

Also Dorian be Gay, didn't see that coming...Lots of ladies will not be happy about this.

It was pretty obvious, actually.

Like Zebran, the foreign character always seems to be flexible sexually or gay (even in ME3 where they had that NPC romance, although I wouldn't call him foreign, but exotic looking). That mascara and mustache though . . . ugh.

Dorian G(r)ay

This, too.

 

[Sendero]

have you guys felt that bioware has done justice to gay chars in the past? im not entirely familiar with ME or DA2 etc. so i dont really have any idea how they handle that kinda stuff.

For a "not in your face" gay romance-able character, look at my Cortez description above on Mass Effect 3.

A side "bro" character, his story arc (handling the loss of a loved one) give a much needed background reference for the War, and he is not that overtly into you - he actually flirts more with one of your companions. So a nice effort, I guess.

We don't really know a whole lot about Vivienne yet. Hopefully they do one of those "meet the voice actor" promos like they did for Iron Bull; that would certainly drum up interest.

If any, I think people will like her less when they find out that she essentially has no hair under that hat. But what do I know? =)

 

[Enduin]

have you guys felt that bioware has done justice to gay chars in the past? im not entirely familiar with ME or DA2 etc. so i dont really have any idea how they handle that kinda stuff.

when i think of gay characters that i thought were represented well i think of people like arcade ganon and veronica in NV. they were fantastic characters who just happened to be gay. i worry about a company/community that is so heavily focused on romance that the gay characters might be created with slightly more cynical intentions. like here is an attractive gay romance option go for it. i've certainly felt that way about straight romance options and that was a bummer too.

Ehhh better over time. ME wasn't too great until ME3. In ME1 you had a hetero female, hetero male and Asari who was bi by our standards, but her species being monogendered so it doesn't really count. ME2 had 3 hetero male and female options, one bisexual female and two more Asari. Finally ME3 was an all you could bone buffet, but it did offer two actual gay characters one male and one female and turned one of the previous female only romances to bisexual. That said all the relationships themselves were about equal quality and homosexual relations didn't feel any more or less realistic than hetero ones. They were all a bit campy and superficial.

DA2 was a mixed bag, the relationships themselves were actually pretty decent, but Bioware did this weird Player Sexual thing with all the characters, so they expressed whatever orientation fit the players gender.

That caused a bit of a backlash cause it kind of really trivialized character sexuality so now in DAI everyone has a set sexual orientation which is great, but a lot of people don't like that they are now locked out of many romance options.

So in summation I guess BioWare hasn't been that great outside of ME3 at showing actual gay or bi characters, but in terms of relationships they have always been pretty good.

It was pretty obvious, actually.

Like Zebran, the foreign character always seems to be flexible sexually or gay (even in ME3 where they had that NPC romance, although I wouldn't call him foreign, but exotic looking). That mascara and mustache though . . . ugh.


This, too.

I was trying to be sarcastic with my ... probably should have ended it with /sarcasm

Dorian being gay is only slightly less obvious than Sera being gay. Which is fine I guess but yeah very very obvious.

 

[Scrooge McDuck]

That's news to some of us. As a gold star lesbian gamer it's nice to see a romance option that represents me better than anything I've seen before. I don't expect to see that happen in every game, but every now and then would be a pleasant surprise.

I apologize; I was being jocular. The context is "the average male gamer", anyway.

 

[ironcreed]

I was just exploring the map and it honestly looks pretty huge. Even though it is not straight up open world, I am expecting the zones to give us plenty to explore within the various regions. What we have seen really shows that they have busted their asses in crafting the world.

 

[Enduin]

I was just exploring the map and it honestly looks pretty huge. Even though it is not straight up open world, I am expecting the zones to give us plenty to explore within the various regions. What we have seen really shows that they have busted their asses in crafting the world.

There should more than enough space in the game. The zone they showed at E3 was the Hinterlands which include Redcliffe town and castle and the Mage tower plus other areas and they said it was bigger than all of the areas of DAO combined, and was just a medium sized area for the game and 1 of 10. So the game will be at least 10 times larger than DAO in terms of square feet.

 

[Squire]

have you guys felt that bioware has done justice to gay chars in the past? im not entirely familiar with ME or DA2 etc. so i dont really have any idea how they handle that kinda stuff.

when i think of gay characters that i thought were represented well i think of people like arcade ganon and veronica in NV. they were fantastic characters who just happened to be gay. i worry about a company/community that is so heavily focused on romance that the gay characters might be created with slightly more cynical intentions. like here is an attractive gay romance option go for it. i've certainly felt that way about straight romance options and that was a bummer too.

Zevran was a sort of caricature, I think. Cortez is fine though.

They know this is a part of the games people are paying attention to and want to be handled with care and they seem to want to meet those expectations head-on. They've already mad serious progress just by giving characters set sexualities. I'm not worried about Sera or Dorian or whoever else might apply. Cortez was fine. I don't see why the others can't be as well, as full party members or not.

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Sure, but if they are going to have a Warden with a voice now then they are already putting quite a lot of money into it.

Where did they ever say they were doing that?

 

[Renekton]

Well, I do commend this Bioware because at least for now, they ditched their tired formula of White hot human girl + Colored hot almost-human (elf/alien) girl as main romance options.

I mean, despite BW saying that Vivienne is the polar opposite of Morrigan, her descriptions are quite similar: Smug, powerful mage, difficult past, rigid perception, sees everyone else as lesser beings, hermetic, hidden agenda/secret, inexperienced with love (until you "warm" her up),etc.

A large portion seemed to have used her as companion on Origins. But I do not see the same enthusiasm for Vivianne. Is her being black the reason?

I dunno, Morrigan wanted to get into bed with your straight away, before you even got to know her.

Vivienne will have her set of fans. Her type actually has pretty good worldwide appeal. just look at the top black fashion models, Malificent and David Bowie's waifu.

 

[Metroidvania]

Theoretically, they could just keep the warden mainly off-screen, or have full Warden mail, while Hawke uses the more heavily used 'premade' options.

Would still be weird, but seeing how Bioware modified Shepard's facial model from ME1 to ME3 (which to me was a fair bit of an immersion breaker, at least for a bit), it's not out of the question.

Personally, I'd be more annoyed if they keep up the 'they've gone missing and we have no idea where they are' angle. I'd almost rather say the Warden succumbed to the Taint, and Hawke is off having jolly adventures with _insert-romantic_interest_.

 

[ironcreed]

There should more than enough space in the game. The zone they showed at E3 was the Hinterlands which include Redcliffe town and castle and the Mage tower plus other areas and they said it was bigger than all of the areas of DAO combined, and was just a medium sized area for the game and 1 of 10. So the game will be at least 10 times larger than DAO in terms of square feet.

Yeah, it's looking pretty glorious.

I honestly think some people are going to be shocked at how good it ends up being.

 

[Lord of Castamere]

Do you remember those times when people whined about the Mass Effect games being full of hot chicks?

Well, this is the punishment.

Can I fight these people? /:

 

[Renekton]

Can I fight these people? /:

If you're dropping by SDCC, let's have a go at the back alley XD

(ima 5ft8 pale weenie IRL)

 

[ColdRose]

I love the foliage in that top screenshot, ironcreed. And I agree, I think the game is looking very pretty.

 

[Simzyy]

Where did they ever say they were doing that?

I was thinking under the assumption the Warden would have some kind of role in the game, not just his/her character model making an appearance.

It also wouldn't be that hard to have a character creator. I mean they made one for the game with all the races from Origins.