Lesifoere said:
Topher said:
I'm with Mrowak. I prefer a "generic" setting, like ToEE, over the stuff Bioware is putting out these days; they just don't have the talent to pull off originality. I really don't mind a generic fantasy setting as long as they keep it low key.
...what is there in Dragon Age that constitutes originality, attempted or otherwise? DA's as generic as you can get and no amount of MATURE NEW SHIT is going to cover that up.
The problem is in the word 'generic' which appears to carry different meaning depending on who uses it.
If you took Betrayal at Krondor and showed it to an average Biowhore (I tested it) their conclusion would that it sports generic fantasy world. After all, it has elves, noble and elderitch living in a huge forest, dwarves stocky, and grumpy living under a mountain, human kingdoms, mages, knights, goblins, dark elves and so on. Hence, it's generic (anyone who played it a little knows this is bonkers).
So some people by 'generic' mean 'the world based on the lore adopted by Tolkien sticking to the social hierarchy and stereotypes propagated in his books.' Of course Biotards would never finish say 'the Lord of the Rings.' They think more here about 'Dragonlance', 'Forgotten Realms' and similar stuff.
In this context, DA may be seen by some as striving for originality with doing away with some of the tropes. Elves are no longer high and noble, mages are persecuted, there is more serious tone to everything than people are accustomed to from their experience with e.g. forgotten realms. To them this is original. Unfortunately, it is all only skin deep as when you explore the game a little all the shallowness known from some R.A. Salvatore fantasy pulp-fiction.
Bioware is right about one thing, however. Indeed, sometimes introducing serious themes like social injustice, poverty oppression can do wonders and ungenerify the world. Nonetheless, it must be done with skill and flair preferably coupled with actually good art-direction. Example: the Witcher where while the ingredients are the same as in the games above, the fact that the devs not merely touch upon but actively use more complex issues make the world much more unique and breathtaking. In effect, the world gains character, loses its genericness, in spite of taking heavy advantage of the elemets which should render it yet another simple fantasy bloat. The same, ironically applies to BaK.
So from my perspective DA is a feeble, ill-conceived attempt at making original game which fails due to apparent shallowness of the changes implemented.
Honestly, with all the juvenile intrigue going on they would have done better with a more 'classic' setting like in ToEE which is as generic as you can get, but still more interesting than anything that transpires in DA... Well, that may be due to the fact that the combat in ToEE does not suck arse...
One more thing. Personally, I do not prefer my games to have generic settings. The more original the merrier. I want that Planescape: Torment's killer game to be published one day. However, and I think this holds truth for all of us here, I would take genuinely generic worlds (ToEE) and worlds that some dumbfucks claim to be generic and thus boring (BaK) over anything that the dementia striken minds of Bioware employees spawn out.
