• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

EA: "We lost some fans with Dragon Age 2"

S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Hahahahaha, at least they admit it. Good.

"We were clearly disappointed with some of the response from the fanbase, because we want them to be as excited about it as we are," EA Games Label boss Frank Gibeau told Eurogamer.

"We're very proud of the game. We tried to innovate and do some different things with the combat system and some of the way we told story. For some fans it worked well. In fact, we brought a lot of new fans into the Dragon Age franchise.

"But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done. We understand that and we're listening."

EA will take on fan feedback for Dragon Age 3, Gibeau promised.

"As we think about where we take the franchise next, we're going to take that into consideration and really engage them," he said.
Click to expand...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-14-ea-we-lost-some-fans-with-dragon-age-2
 
About time they ended the defensive bullshit and admitted they screwed up. Just give DA3 at MINIMUM 2 years in development and none of this rushed crap. Even Dragon Age 2 would have been miles better with a decent development cycle.
 
VisanidethDM said:
I'm still wondering how they retained some fans with Origins to begin with.
Click to expand...

oh you're THAT guy.

DA2's combat is much, much worse than DA:O
 
They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done.
Click to expand...

Innovations? lolwut?!
 
That's fine and all, but the dragon age universe is dead to me. No worries EA I'll probably BF3 twice to make up for it! I'll buy ME3 as well, but that's for the sake of completing the trilogy.
 
I fail to see how reusing environments and textures ad infinitum could be considered innovative.

Maybe they're talking about the smily face, angry face, sarcastic face conversation system.
 
subversus said:
oh you're THAT guy.

DA2's combat is much, much worse than DA:O
Click to expand...
How can it be much worse when it's pretty much the same?
Now, the encounter design is indeed far worse, especially due to the wave design.
 
"But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done. We understand that and we're listening."
Click to expand...

Listen this: Please, don't make Dragon Age 3
 
It's funny seeing how EA admits that DragonAge2 was pretty bad, but most of the review sites gave it astonishingly good reviews. Gaming journalism...
 
toasty_T said:
I fail to see how reusing environments and textures ad infinitum could be considered innovative.

Maybe they're talking about the smily face, angry face, sarcastic face conversation system.
Click to expand...

they were talking about 10-year cycle probably which they also failed.
 
Spookie said:
Cue them adding multiplayer in DA3.
Click to expand...
This quote from the article will make it even better:
What about multiplayer?

"Long-term that's something we have to consider," he said, "because obviously multiplayer is something that's a huge undertaking, it presents technical difficulty. And frankly it's something that if done, has to be done really well, otherwise it feels very tacked on. So we'll have to make any decision about that within that context."
Click to expand...
Can't wait to dig this one out the day ME3 is announced to feature MP.
 
Aeana said:
How can it be much worse when it's pretty much the same?
Now, the encounter design is indeed far worse, especially due to the wave design.
Click to expand...
The enemies in DA2 are upon you so fast that much of the tactical elements are lost.
 
Aeana said:
How can it be much worse when it's pretty much the same?
Now, the encounter design is indeed far worse, especially due to the wave design.
Click to expand...

I don't where to start...

Speed? Friendly fire?

The encounter design is a joke, not worth a discussion.
 
Has a franchise ever been destroyed as quickly as Dragon Age?
 
subversus said:
oh you're THAT guy.

DA2's combat is much, much worse than DA:O
Click to expand...

I would say that's the only comparison that isn't subjective. We could enter a piss war on what story is worse (I don't think the word "better" fits this kind of conversation at all), what cast is less annoying, what dialogue system is better at pretending to be deep, but combat... DA2 is objectively more complex. Granted, we're talking about games that have little to no micromanaging, but at a character building stage, DA2 is twice +1 as complex as Origins. +1 one because two times zero is still zero.
 
Bioware indicated as much during pre-release interviews.. EA/Bioware knew they were taking a gamble. So, why the disappoint?
 
Wow, did this game bomb or what? For a business executive to say things like that, and of high-profile game they must've screwed royaly at retail.
 
subversus said:
I don't where to start...

Speed? Friendly fire?

The encounter design is a joke, not worth a discussion.
Click to expand...


Speed is debatable. The issue with DA2 is that it requires you to manage all characters and not just your casters. In a good game this would be a plus, but in something as terrible as DA:O/DA2, I guess it can bring out the flaws in the system.

Friendly fire is there if you play on the hardest difficulty settings, which incidentally are harder than DA:O was. It's more frustrating than challenging, but Origins was plain dumb alphastriking.

Encounter design is terrible, but Origins was the same. The wave mechanics are an horrible solution to the alphastriking problem. Can't say if they actually make the game worse, tho.

It still shocks me to see people put DA:O and "tactical" in the same sentence. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 
Castor Krieg said:
Wow, did this game bomb or what? For a business executive to say things like that, and of high-profile game they must've screwed royaly at retail.
Click to expand...

I thought it sold faster than DA:O.
 
Castor Krieg said:
Wow, did this game bomb or what? For a business executive to say things like that, and of high-profile game they must've screwed royaly at retail.
Click to expand...

It's weird isn't it seeing as reviews told me it's the pinnacle of role playing games and exactly what video games are supposed to be.
 
"But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done. We understand that and we're listening."
Click to expand...

Clearly they don't understand. If they did they wouldn't lay the blame on the fans for not appreciating all the exciting "innovations."
 
But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done.
Click to expand...

oh I get it now, the shitty gameplay and vapid combat was an "innovation"

real innovative game you made there chief. good luck with that.
 
subversus said:
Hahahahaha, at least they admit it. Good.



http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-06-14-ea-we-lost-some-fans-with-dragon-age-2
Click to expand...


He does not get it. It's not the "innovations" that were the problem from DA2. It was the rushed development. reused textures and models.

The design sheet of a living city was really cool, but not very wel done. Ending didn't work, choices often felt half arsed, and so on. Even justifying their direction they went for, it simply was just not a proper product.
 
But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done.
Click to expand...
Copy & pasting your dungeons over and over was an innovation? Seriously dude?

If anyone from Bioware is reading this, all I have to say is that I'm going to happily put my money to Skyrim because those guys get it. They didn't remove features from Oblivion because they were cumbersome and not user friendly. They made those features better.
 
Castor Krieg said:
Wow, did this game bomb or what? For a business executive to say things like that, and of high-profile game they must've screwed royaly at retail.
Click to expand...

Dragon Age is a strange beast of a franchise.

Origins was marketed as an action game, and as a "bro" game, while hardcore RPG fans still were interested due to Bioware's cred. It sold a lot - something like FF numbers.

What happened was that the people who thought DA:O was anything like the trailers were disappointed, and the bros didn't bother finishing the tutorial. IIRC Bioware themselves said that the completion rate they collected from DA:O was something insane - about 20% of the people who bought the game finished it or even passed Ostegar.

Moving into DA2, they had lost the audience they fooled with marketing, they lost those hardcore RPG members who thought Origins was a bad RPG game, and had to start again from scratch. I think DA2 sold decently (it got over 1 million quite fast IIRC) but I think it's impossible to imagine it will get even close to DA:O's numbers. However, thinking DA2 isn't selling as well as DA:O because it's different from Origins would be only partially correct. It's not selling as well as Origins also because Origins sold to an audience much bigger than its target. It was a well played con.
 
I don't mind the action-y enhancements to the Dragon Age series. But I want the action to be more interesting and for strategy elements to remain relevant. I really like Strategy + Action combo which hasn't been done much since um... the Guilty Gear game? Kingdom of Fire?
 
"Innovations"

Using that word instead of "changes" says a lot.

I don't think it's possible to listen until dat head is pulled outta dat ass.
 
VisanidethDM said:
It still shocks me to see people put DA:O and "tactical" in the same sentence. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Click to expand...
I think it's a matter of DAO going in the right direction (ie. closer to BG2) even if it executed poorly, while DA2 headed towards the evolutionary dead-end of actiony combat, even if it executed a little better.

Had Bioware built on DAO's framework, and put some effort into things like encounter design and game balance, they could've started approaching BG2 levels of combat quality.
 
Castor Krieg said:
Wow, did this game bomb or what? For a business executive to say things like that, and of high-profile game they must've screwed royaly at retail.
Click to expand...
It did pretty well by all accounts. In a series, a game being disliked doesn't necessarily reflect on its sales, it will affect those of subsequent games though.
This might be what this is all about: reassurance for DA3.
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
He does not get it. It's not the "innovations" that were the problem from DA2. It was the rushed development. reused textures and models.

The design sheet of a living city was really cool, but not very wel done. Ending didn't work, choices often felt half arsed, and so on. Even justifying their direction they went for, it simply was just not a proper product.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

"But to be honest, we lost some fans as well. They were not pleased with some of the innovations and things we'd done."

This makes it sound as if they're missing what was wrong with the game. It wasn't so much the things they did, as the things they didn't do due to the lack of polish and development time.
 
Vigilant Walrus said:
He does not get it. It's not the "innovations" that were the problem from DA2. It was the rushed development. reused textures and models.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The innovations we would have embraced - the art design changes, the silly changes to the UI, the streamlined storyline even.

IF - IF - the game had been executed as promised. They've admitted they re-used areas to save money. They admitted they simplified quests to save money. THESE are the outstanding problems with Dragon Age 2. There was simply no effort and care in its construction. The design wasn't deep enough to contain anything remotely decent. The action elements were reasonably entertaining but when people say they were Dynasty Warriors-eque, as if that was an insult, they forget that by comparison, Dynasty Warriors is a better RPG than Dragon Age 2 is an action game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age has been rated for Switch 2 in Taiwan
News 
42
402
Minsc replied
Lost Metal Gear 1 fan remake?
15
408
Red Crayon Aristocrat replied
Subnautica 2 had surpassed 2 million units sold worldwide within 12 hours of its early access release
Sales-Age  2
57
146
Trogdor1123 replied
Dragon Ball Game, Project: Age 1000, Revealed
News 
20
723
Knight of the Round replied
Mass Effect Andromeda Actor Says "It Was Done Dirty" By EA And Fans
Opinion Game Dev  2 3 4
157
1K
poodaddy replied
Top Bottom