658 replies to this topic

[berelinde]

Well if they cut out the female aspect and made you play a Male only then I reckon they could make it so you could be an elf or dwarf Hawke...One more VA then they allready have would not break the bank(Just hire some up and coming person on the cheap for the dwarf since most people would most likely be an elf or a human Hawke)...though that would most likely make more people mad rather then happy heh...

Personally the way they have it is fine with me(If the game is good enough I play a female either 2nd or 3rd time around)...But if they did go the route I explain above I would not be angry there was no female option heh...

Are you trying to start a war?

I've read a lot of posts (presumably from male posters) who would not object to sacrificing the ability to select your PC's gender... as long as they got to play a male PC. I would not object, either, as long as I got to play through as a female. Yes, I do play through the first time with a male PC, but that's only so I can make all my mistakes with that character instead of one I actually care about. When I'm not sure if I'm even going to play through a second time, I probably won't buy the game.

[KIrving]

Well if they cut out the female aspect and made you play a Male only then I reckon they could make it so you could be an elf or dwarf Hawke...One more VA then they allready have would not break the bank(Just hire some up and coming person on the cheap for the dwarf since most people would most likely be an elf or a human Hawke)...though that would most likely make more people mad rather then happy heh...

Personally the way they have it is fine with me(If the game is good enough I play a female either 2nd or 3rd time around)...But if they did go the route I explain above I would not be angry there was no female option heh...

Thanks a bunch for your amazing sensitivity! Must be great being a cave dweller.

[Vicen]

Thanks a bunch for your amazing sensitivity! Must be great being a cave dweller.

Hey I am just being honest! Its a cold hard fact that most gamers are male and that most gamers given the choice between a female and a male in a game where the char is pre-determined would choose a male...Just look at ME1 and 2...There are TONS more male Shepards that people play the first time around then female ones...And I guarantee that when DA2 comes out there will be more Male Hawke's then female Hawke's for the first play through!

And like I said I was just throwing the idea out there...I had a feeling not too many would be keen on it...Except maybe dwarf lovers or elf lovers heh...Regardless no need to get into a hissy fit about it!

Edited by Vicen, 23 December 2010 - 02:24 PM.

[Kaeloree]

A surprising amount of BioWare's fanbase are women; cutting out the option to play as female would come back to bite them in the ass. Even if only 10% of their playerbase is female, and only 5% of those don't buy the game because of the lack of a female option, that's a heck of a lot of revenue to lose. I'm not sure you understand the numbers here.

[berelinde]

Heh. I suspect that a lot more than 10% of Dragon Age's fanbase is female. These days, 40% of gamers are female. That's a mighty big chunk of their fanbase to alienate.

[Kulyok]

I wonder, though, why wouldn't they make Hawke VA optional? It must be easy, no? Toggle the switch, and instead of having the voicing afterwards, you see the actual silent phrases, like in DA:O. Not that many hours of extra work, surely.

(I mean, I couldn't play female DA:O dwarves properly until I found a more or less satisfactory voiceover, and I still have difficulty with male dwarves. And there were like five or six options there!)

[Kulyok]

By the way, DA:O is very strongly biased towards a male gamer currently. After Witch Hunt came out, I mean. Actually, DA:O is pretty impossible to play as a female to me now, because there's no proper ending for her. The male character can go through the portal with Morrigan, and his story is pretty much complete and ready for importing into DA2. But the female character? No, she just stands there alone and then disappears to nowhere, according to Awakening epilogue. She can't be a queen or have a happy ending with Alistair(because she'll just disappear after, and it would mean killing Loghain, anyway), she can't stay in the Grey Wardens, because the epilogue says otherwise, and she can't go through the portal, either. Actually, the only quasi-ending I see is the Ultimate Sacrifice, but that's bad, because 1) I won't be able to import US save to Awakening and play an Orlesian; 2) I firmly believe that following Morrigan's Dark Ritual is the Better Choice, and I have no desire to import Ultimate Sacrifice saves into DA2. So it's all male Dalish Elves for me now.

[WeeRLegion]

You know, I don't think importing saves will matter so much in DA2... o-o
At least I hope they wont; I happened to delete all of mine a while back, when it was confirmed that you play DA2 with a different hero. .p

[Kulyok]

Hey, that's why I play DA:O now! I want to have a perfect save, like, Orzammar with Bhelen and no Exhalted March and no crazy Cullen, good Dalish folks with Lanaya and so on. David Gaider said that Dalish clan Mahariel will play a role in DA2, so I'd like to hear them remembering my Theron, at least.

[Solar's Harper]

Well by last tell, they're still egging on the "cause & effect" business that has been nothing short of a plague in keeping the conclusion from becoming more preset. Why they'd bother having multiple endings at all is perplexing to say the least. Made even more so, when considering what Dragon Age II promises to be.

As for sex-appeal versus common sense writing, you'd be hard pressed to find an open or semi-open RPG that hasn't in some way completely shunted all equality between the genders. Maybe they just have a creativity block?

Edit: And yes, for the record, I do have a very low opinion of sequels that rely heavily on anything done in the predecessor. Reference is nice, but not "over-reliance otherwise you're gimped (ie: ME2)."

Edited by Solar's Harper, 25 December 2010 - 03:24 AM.

[Vicen]

Hey I am just being honest! Its a cold hard fact that most gamers are male

Um, no. I thought this for a long time before realizing that female gamers are everywhere, especially when it comes to RPG's. For example, many modders are female, and I seriously doubt all those gazillions of fanfics out there revolving around games and character romances therin are written by males. The idea that girls don't play games and don't have an imact on the gaming market is a complete myth in this day and age.

I never said that there were not female gamers...Or that females have no impact on games or what not. I simply stated that there are more Male gamers then female gamers overall. And that is simply a fact...Just like there are more Female Nurses then Male Nurses overall...there are more Police officers that are male then female overall...Facts baby cold hard facts...

Also to hit on the how the female has a worse ending then the male types I would tend to agree...The first female I played was the dwarf commoner who I choose to sacrifice...the next was the dwarf noble who romanced Zevran (ugh)...but the one whose ending was a tad bit better was actually my dalish elf who romanced Lei..

Edited by Vicen, 25 December 2010 - 11:41 AM.

[Archmage Silver]

Edit: And yes, for the record, I do have a very low opinion of sequels that rely heavily on anything done in the predecessor. Reference is nice, but not "over-reliance otherwise you're gimped (ie: ME2)."

I couldn't disagree with you more, continuity is a great tool in RPGs, and I certainly hope that BioWare will continue to use it.

[Kulyok]

I found out that it was possible to do a DA2 pre-order in Russia via ozon.ru! Thankfully, they don't need a credit card number. And the game is in English, too(Russian translation of DA:O was atrocious, so naturally, I'm playing an all-English version of both games)! Yay! (does a happy little dance)

[Archmage Silver]

News:
World Update: Deep Roads @ BioWare

I'm sure some of you just love the idea of going back to the Deep Roads!

I've decided that unless they come up with something that really wows me I will not be buying DA2. It takes more than flashy graphics and the Bioware label to interest me. My brother will probably get it and I'll borrow it from him if I ever become interested. Much more looking forward to Skyrim at this point.

Well, if you check this section, most of us will probably post our early impressions on the game when it is released. It might help you to decide whether it's worth playing or not.

Personally I'm also looking forward to TES V, but with certain reservations due to the way Oblivion turned out, which in my opinion is... very generic.

[Archmage Silver]

TenTonHammer has posted their preview.

Some points I found interesting:

You can pause the game at any time as you carefully select what each party member will do during combat, whether it be to launch a fireball, taunt a target, or heal an ally. Or you can let the game select tactics for you, and roll through the combat unpaused as more of an action game. The game's difficulty setting will largely dictate how you'll fare in combat, so I wouldn't suggest playing action-style if you have the difficulty ramped up.

"One of the things we learned with Origins is that DLC should serve to enhance the flavor of the main game," Darrah explained. "When you start moving on to tell a new story; that's the sort of thing that you should look at as a sequel."

[Archmage Silver]

News for New Year's Eve:
Dragon Age II: Where To? Location Speculation @ Grey Wardens
11 Days Until The Dragon Age II BioWare Signature Edition Deadline

[Archmage Silver]

First DA II News of 2011:
Dragon Age II: Night and Day @ Grey Wardens

Following BioWare's Open House media event, it is now known that Dragon Age II features a day/night toggle, accessible from Kirkwall's city map. You can just insta-switch between day and night.

My initial reaction: WTF? Yeah.

[Solar's Harper]

Oh boy, that sounds like a subject that'll receive a lot of gameplay abuse (and probably glitches too, depending how they go about it). I've got little doubt that this was one of the many obscured requests from the community too.

Feels more like a feature that's just "there" though as opposed to crucial or in the way, and that's fair enough. Though if there's stuff to do in abundance, it shouldn't even really be required at all. And it's not like they have to fear grenades and snipers from the middle of night. Creatures of the night... maybe.

All said, I can imagine some amusing storytelling by the game narrator/s trying to decide what part is at day or night will come out of this. Ah, sweet gameplay mechanics amusement.