Bioware
Game design in CRPGs – some links
I’m on a Kotaku link buzz here, but these were interesting.
First up is how uber-CRPG designer Chris Avellone hates CRPGs and their clichés.
Second up is how horses change the design of CRPGs and why Dragon Age won’t have any.
Both of these are reasons that as long as I’ve got friends and dice, I’ll keep playing table top games.
No homosexuality in Star Wars?
Given Sophie’s coverage of the Dragon Age PnP game Green Ronin are putting out, I thought it was worth pointing out some rather silly stuff Bioware staff have been doing lately.
A mod on their forums for upcoming MMO closed a thread discussing discrimination against gay and lesbian forum members by saying that gay and lesbian are terms that “do not exist in Star Wars”.
Oh dear.
Bioware apologised and made the staffer apologise, but what a stupid move. One good thing was that it helped raise the issues surrounding gay and lesbian gamers and their treatment online. Kotaku ran a good history of these issues that hopefully a lot of people read. Just try to stay out of the comments…
Dragon Age Pen and Paper
A quick update on my previous post. It seems that there is already a heap of info about the Pen and Paper game up on the offical Drago Age site.
Including this cover image. Check it out.
Dragon Age – the table top RPG
For the last few days there has been a mystery counter over at the Green Ronin site, counting down to a mystery project. Adding fuel to the fire little clues keep popping up on Green Ronin’s Twitter account. It’s now been revealed that Green Ronin has partnered with Bioware to release a pen and paper RPG based on the Dragon Age setting.
There is a press release up now which mentions a lot about the PC and console game and not much about the tabletop one, but I for one am very interested. Here’s a snippet:
“We’re delighted to be working with Green Ronin to explore more of the Dragon Age universe through a pen and paper role-playing game. We’re excited to deliver Dragon Age‘s unique dark, heroic fantasy to our audience in a brand new way”
So it will be interesting to see. I’ve never experienced a roleplaying game based on a CRPG, though I hear one was released for WoW (which didn’t do very well), but I think that Green Ronin have as good a chance as anyone to do this well. What remains to be seen is how good the source material is and whether there is enough there to support a whole new game. Time will of course tell.
Read the full press release here and check out some of the speculation over on rpg.net.
Dragon Age delayed
I haven’t done a things I’m looking forward to in 2009 post like Sophie, but if I did Dragon Age would be on it. It’s the new Bioware PC RPG which they describe as “the spiritual heir to Baldur’s Gate.” Unfortunately, it seems like I’ll be waiting a little bit longer.