Bioware: We Will Fix All Problems In Dragon Age III

Dragon Age IIwas, for many, a bit of a disappointment. Too many recycled environments, too many cheap waves of bad guys to chop through. It was, you could argue, a bit ofa rush job.

If it makes you feel any better, developers BioWare have heard your complaints. On the company's forums, writer Mike Laidlaw directly addresses these in a lengthy post, of which the highlight is:

Following the launch of DA II, I did some interviews and some of you interpreted my statements to mean I was blind to the concerns that have been voiced repeatedly on these forums. That was never my intent, nor the message I wanted to convey.

I am absolutely aware of the concerns voiced here. Issues like level re-use, the implementation of wave combat, concerns about the narrative and significance of choice and so on have all been not only noted, but examined, inspected and even aided me (and many, many others on the team) in formulating future plans. Further, I'm not only aware of the concerns, but I agree that there are aspects of DA II that not onlycanbutmustbe improved in future installments. And that is precisely our intent.

He later adds that, in terms of "crafting" the game's slightly different take on the world and story, BioWare learned some stuff. "Some from what worked, but even more from what didn't."

So, for those despairing at the future of the franchise, maybe that's something to hold onto!

Source

Link to the Original Forum Post

Sounds encouraging to me. Dragon Age II was a terrible misstep, but I am playing through Origins again, and I'm constantly being reminded how good the game was, and how much potential this franchise has. I seriously hope that the franchise can get back on track following this sad derailing.

How am I supposed to read that?

How am I supposed to read that?

gotdangit

How am I supposed to read that?

gotdangit

How am I supposed to read that?

gotdangit

How am I supposed to read that?

gotdangit

Open your eyes?

[QUOTE="gotdangit"]

How am I supposed to read that?

blue_hazy_basic

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"][QUOTE="gotdangit"]

How am I supposed to read that?

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"][QUOTE="gotdangit"]

How am I supposed to read that?

gotdangit

Yeah, yeah. It's all talk until you actually do it. Your credibility with me is 0, Laidlaw, so you better put up or shut up. At this point, I am not losing anything by not purchasing BioWare titles. Fool me three times and all that.

They need to fix the entire series...

Yeah, yeah. It's all talk until you actually do it. Your credibility with me is 0, Laidlaw, so you better put up or shut up. At this point, I am not losing anything by not purchasing BioWare titles. Fool me three times and all that.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="gotdangit"]

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"] click on the link like I did? :Pblue_hazy_basic

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

Yeah, yeah. It's all talk until you actually do it. Your credibility with me is 0, Laidlaw, so you better put up or shut up. At this point, I am not losing anything by not purchasing BioWare titles. Fool me three times and all that.

charizard1605

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"][QUOTE="gotdangit"]I like to read the summaries and not the whole stories.

gotdangit

DA3 will certainly be better than the casualized rush-job that was DA2. The question is whether they'll bring it back to DAO quality or not. Chances are it'll be a blend of its two predecessors.

Ugh. No don't link Kotaku. For people who care:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/7475089/1

"

Hey guys and gals,

As some of you have noted, I have been absent from these forums for a time, and my apologies for going dark, but Idid not feel prepared to deal with some of the more personal attacks in a professional manner. And as a rule if Idon't feel like I'm going to be professional, Idon't post. You guys deserve better than that.

Now, while I haven't been posting, we have been listening. Several folks have been active on the forums and moderating the more extreme discussions, and more of us have been collecting your feedback, concerns, criticisms and the parts you enjoyed of DAII. This feedback is invaluable to us, and so I wanted to take a moment and say thank you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to address some lingering concerns and clear the air somewhat.

Following the launch of DAII, I did some interviews and some of you interpreted my statements to mean I was blind to the concerns that have been voiced repeatedly on these forums. That was never my intent, nor the message I wanted to convey.

I am absolutely aware of the concerns voiced here. Issues like level re-use, the implementation of wave combat, concerns about the narrative and significance of choice and so on have all been not only noted, but examined,
inspected and even aided me (and many, many others on the team) in formulating future plans. Further, I'm not only aware of the concerns, but I agree that there are aspects of DA II that not only can but must be improved in future installments. And that is precisely our intent.

Finally, let me conclude by saying that while we are all aware of your concerns, Iam very proud of what the team accomplished with Dragon Age II. Iknow many are advocating a "it wasn't broke, why did you try to fix it?" stance, and I absolutely understand why. From my perspective, as someone looking to the future and the DA franchise, Ithink that DAII moved us into a space that has more potential.

A larger potential audience? Sure, who wouldn't want more players diving into the experience of playing an RPG? More importantly, though, I believe that there's also more potential for rich stories, for deeper RPG mechanics, for more choice, and for something even more epic to come. The story events of DA II have fundamentally altered the political and power landscape of Thedas, in a way that's open to intrigue, drama and sweeping conflict in the
future, and evolves a world that, while still very much involving the Grey Wardens and Darkspawn, is about more than just that one struggle.

Hawke's story was a departure from the usual tale, and in crafting it and the game around it we learned a lot. Some from what worked, but even more from what didn't. Such is always the way. Ihope that in the future we'll be able to
discusshow we're addressing your concerns and even solicit feedback from you on future plans in the process, but for now, Ihope a simple thank you will suffice.

In the mean time, though, I stumbled across a few images I thought I might share with you folks. After all, there's been a lot of requests to explore areas outside of Kirkwall, and I agree that seeing some more of the
Free Marches would be cool.






Also, there seem to be rather a lot of….are those griffins?
I think they might be!

"

While this is encouraging there is no way I'm buying DA3 unless everyone tells me it's actually worth it. I already regret buying Dragon Age 2 but I just couldn't believe it was as bad as people said. So I guess more or less what DarkLink said.

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

Yeah, yeah. It's all talk until you actually do it. Your credibility with me is 0, Laidlaw, so you better put up or shut up. At this point, I am not losing anything by not purchasing BioWare titles. Fool me three times and all that.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="charizard1605"] Oh come now, Origins was awesome...charizard1605

Ugh. No don't link Kotaku. For people who care:

Hey guys and gals,

As some of you have noted, I have been absent from these forums for a time, and my apologies for going dark, but Idid not feel prepared to deal with some of the more personal attacks in a professional manner. And as a rule if Idon't feel like I'm going to be professional, Idon't post. You guys deserve better than that.

Now, while I haven't been posting, we have been listening. Several folks have been active on the forums and moderating the more extreme discussions, and more of us have been collecting your feedback, concerns, criticisms and the parts you enjoyed of DAII. This feedback is invaluable to us, and so I wanted to take a moment and say thank you.

I'd like to take this opportunity to address some lingering concerns and clear the air somewhat.

Following the launch of DAII, I did some interviews and some of you interpreted my statements to mean I was blind to the concerns that have been voiced repeatedly on these forums. That was never my intent, nor the message I wanted to convey.

I am absolutely aware of the concerns voiced here. Issues like level re-use, the implementation of wave combat, concerns about the narrative and significance of choice and so on have all been not only noted, but examined,
inspected and even aided me (and many, many others on the team) in formulating future plans. Further, I'm not only aware of the concerns, but I agree that there are aspects of DA II that not only can but must be improved in future installments. And that is precisely our intent.

Finally, let me conclude by saying that while we are all aware of your concerns, Iam very proud of what the team accomplished with Dragon Age II. Iknow many are advocating a "it wasn't broke, why did you try to fix it?" stance, and I absolutely understand why. From my perspective, as someone looking to the future and the DA franchise, Ithink that DAII moved us into a space that has more potential.

A larger potential audience? Sure, who wouldn't want more players diving into the experience of playing an RPG? More importantly, though, I believe that there's also more potential for rich stories, for deeper RPG mechanics, for more choice, and for something even more epic to come. The story events of DA II have fundamentally altered the political and power landscape of Thedas, in a way that's open to intrigue, drama and sweeping conflict in the
future, and evolves a world that, while still very much involving the Grey Wardens and Darkspawn, is about more than just that one struggle.

Hawke's story was a departure from the usual tale, and in crafting it and the game around it we learned a lot. Some from what worked, but even more from what didn't. Such is always the way. Ihope that in the future we'll be able to
discusshow we're addressing your concerns and even solicit feedback from you on future plans in the process, but for now, Ihope a simple thank you will suffice.

In the mean time, though, I stumbled across a few images I thought I might share with you folks. After all, there's been a lot of requests to explore areas outside of Kirkwall, and I agree that seeing some more of the
Free Marches would be cool. skrat_01

Could you link me to that please, so I can provide it in the OP?

charizard1605

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"] Yeah, but ME2 and DA2 weren't. I love Origins, but I'm beginning to think that it was just a lucky accident. Kind of like the original Fable.DarkLink77

[QUOTE="charizard1605"]

Could you link me to that please, so I can provide it in the OP?

skrat_01

da2 was ok, at least i managed to finish it which i can't sayi did with da: O.

it's just kinda a boring shoddily thrown together average couple of games.

you can't fix that without a major revamp and i don't think they care enough to fix it when people will buy them no matter how crappy they are.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

[QUOTE="charizard1605"] And eh, Fable 2 was better than the original one anyway :Pcharizard1605

i liked dragon age ii, although its good that they are looking to improve. i dont consider exploration to be a big part of the DA experience like it is in the elder scrolls series, but more individualized dungeons would still be welcome. combat made some good jumps (balanced classes, more interaction between classes, and more viable party setups), but DAIII may benefit from looking back at how many opportunities there were to ambush enemies in origins.

one thing that absolutely needs to improve is how they handle load times. the length of the load times on the ps3 isnt that different from origins or mass effect 2, but the flow of the game made jumping between areas more frequent and resulted in a lot more time staring at loading screens.

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"] If you bring that heresy in here again I will discipline you.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="charizard1605"] Nah, I stand by what I said. Fable 1 was incredible, 2 just made it even better. 3 sucked incredibly badly though.charizard1605

[QUOTE="charizard1605"]

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"] Fable II was worse. Less RPG, same old story, worse villain, the worst final boss fight this side of Mass Effect 2, digging for crap with your dog was terribly implemented, magic was implemented worse, the combo meter made no sense, equipment didn't matter.... Fable II was just worse.DarkLink77

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="charizard1605"] I disagree with all of that except for the combo and final boss part. The rest of it, I think Fable 2 did much, much better than the original Fable. In particular, I think it was more of an RPG than Fable 1 was, although yes, I don't think equipment mattered as much in it now that I think about it.

charizard1605

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

Mograine

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"] Equipment didn't matter at all. Oh, and the minimap and the breadcrumb trail were also terribly implemented, and ranged weapons were done better in the original. And seriously, you thought that lame old man was a better bad guy than Jack of Blades? Seriously?DarkLink77

[QUOTE="Mograine"]

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

DarkLink77

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

[QUOTE="charizard1605"] I liked the minimap and the breadcrumb trail, as a matter of fact :P And yes, that lame bad guy actually did a good job being a bad guy. He wasn't better than the villain in the first game, but he wasn't necessarily worse either.charizard1605

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="Mograine"]

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

charizard1605

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="Mograine"]

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

charizard1605

Artstyle shmartstyle. Its really just an excuse for bad graphics...lets take games like Assassins creed 2 and Brotherhood which have HUGE open cities that are beautiful, or even LA noire, Red dead redemption etc etc. Now look at Dragon age which has closed levels, loading times one after the other and it doesnt even run at 60 frames!! Then lets look at NPC count...the cities in DA2 are DEAD, there are hardly any NPC's yet a game like RDR, LA noire or AC2, tons of NPC's on screen at all times, runs better and looks better. Its really a lazy excuse for next gen graphics.

hey screw you whiners and haters, I loved DA2.funsohng

DA2 needs to have every feature they gutted in DAO on the PC version. I am waiting a few weeks before I even consider purchasing DA3. I am not gonna get screwed out of 60 bucks for a POS sequel again.

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"][QUOTE="Mograine"]

"Fix"? They just didn't have to change anything from Origins.

charizard1605

Dragon Age 2 was abysmal for a Bioware title, right down there with that Sonic title.

I hope he means what he says, and isnt just trying to diffuse the situation.

I love DA:Origins and completed it several time. After playing through DA2 I was glad Gamestation offered me a 7 day return, and made full use of it.

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="DarkLink77"] Oh, I dunno. Better graphics would've been nice. funsohng

[QUOTE="funsohng"]hey screw you whiners and haters, I loved DA2.DarkLink77