Tag Archives: Dragon Age 2

Big Brother is watching: how developers use game analytics

Written by Patricia Hernandez on March 10, 2012 at 8:09 pm

Information is a high-value commodity in the digital age. Retailers like Target and companies like Google are regularly on the lookout for information they can mine and analyze to produce effective, highly personalized products. The gaming industry is no different: games like Mass Effect and Halo monitor a player’s progress and send a bevy of information back to developers. In an effort to better understand how developers use this information, I spoke with Ben Medler, a visualization designer at EA who has worked on data analyzing tools for titles like Dead Space 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Analytics manifests itself in a variety of forms: before monitored playtime via customer-visible systems, companies also use playtests and market research. Much data is tracked, from how long it takes someone to finish a game, to what players prefer and how they falter – a far cry from the more dubious types of data tracking, like looking at a user’s credit cards or medical records. This tracking is done in an effort to better learn a player’s tastes and habits, ideally resulting products that can better serve players. Dragon Age 2′s introductory level, for instance, was a direct result of …

Soundscapes – The broken sound of console ports

Written by Peter Hasselström on February 26, 2012 at 12:35 pm

There’s a problem with the sound in games that appeared in the last 5 years. Many “well done” console ports to the PC such as Alan Wake and Dragon Age 2 actually have a serious problem. If you run these games in stereo mode, the original intent of the sound designers is subverted and you are instead presented with a broken version of the game. Unless you know what the game is supposed to sound like you wouldn’t know that you’re getting a compromised version of the intended sound experience. Even critics and technically knowledgeable gamers seem to have overlooked this issue despite it appearing in many games over several years. It’s an issue of sound samples not being played properly, compromised dynamics and ultimately a lesser emotional impact than was present in the original design.

Digital love

Written by Patricia Hernandez on September 19, 2011 at 1:12 pm

Depicting love isn’t easy–this is true of any medium that explores the subject. Love is a feeling, perhaps the most subjective of them all, and so far no medium has gained fame for its ability to make the consumer fall in love. Other feelings may be felt, explored: Silent Hill might make you frightened, Tai’s suicide in Gears 2 might be upsetting, but it’s unlikely that something will make you fall in love.

Naturally, video games still explore the subject. Here is my question, then: is exploring the nuance and different facets of love enough in an interactive environment? Can a depiction of love in an interactive environment only be considered to be successful if the player falls in love, too?

Or maybe love isn’t possible in a game. Love is a story about two people. Games tend to be the glorification of one person, and it’s not the avatar in that awkward sex cutscene. That person is you, the player.

Design wise, love tends to be a prize–plenty of girls are like Paula, from Shadows of the Damned–or an optimization puzzle, if only because it’s almost impossible not to approach a game that way. So then, if we cannot currently …

New DLC Announced for Dragon Age 2

Written by GT Walsh on September 17, 2011 at 11:39 am

Fans of Dragon Age 2 will be able to extend their adventures with new DLC. Mark of the Assassin will bring Hawk back to Ferelden to accompany an elf assassin in a deadly mission. Bioware has revealed that this adventure will revolve around stealing a valuable treasure in completely new environments.

“A precious relic, the Heart of Many, lies under heavy guard in a fortified Orlesian estate. Even the legendary Champion of Kirkwall is not equipped to retrieve it alone. To succeed in this quest, Hawke requires skilled assistance and must turn to an untested new ally. Internet superstar Felicia Day lends her vocal talents to revisit her role as the Tallis from the highly anticipated Dragon Age: Redemption web series. A mysterious elf assassin with an agenda of her own, she brings a stealthy combat style to the party.”

Mark of the Assassin will release on October 11th.

Via EA

On Air Pressure

Written by Patricia Hernandez on May 30, 2011 at 5:18 am

This writeup assumes that you have played the game, which can be found over at Raitendo, here (click on past the jump to see the link). I highly suggest you do so prior to reading this, as it only takes about 10-25 minutes to play through multiple times (necessary to fully grasp what you’re being shown, since there are multiple endings). Also, there are major ‘spoilers’ ahead.

Played it? Good! Keep reading.

“From the second we met, she wrapped herself around my left arm and has stuck there ever since”

These words mean more than what they appear, though their significance is not understood until the very end of a specific playthrough of the game. The first time through, though? You’ll dismiss it, you won’t know it’s meaning. But there’s something to unpack there, a deeper metaphorical significance I later understood with a pang of realization.

This is about self-mutilation. I almost killed myself in that last scene.

My reaction to this realization is the same uneasy sickness that overcomes me when I realize how alive murdering people makes the protagonist of Showtime’s Dexter feel. Confusion, even, for my ability to empathize with him despite a strong moral opposition to what he’s doing. Conflict over …

New Dragon Age 2 Images Tease Relation to Grey Wardens

Written by Patricia Hernandez on May 26, 2011 at 7:15 pm

Released on the Dragon Age Facebook page are images that, while not outright stated to be DLC or a sequel to Dragon Age 2….well, logic would dictate that it would not be presumptuous to assume that these are most likely DLC screenshots.

“We managed to land some high rez images that Mike Laidlaw claims he “found lying around.” Are those griffins?” teases the page.

The griffins, one might recall, are the emblem of the Grey Wardens. Notice, too, well…the fact that these look like new locations. Thank god. The question, now, then: where shall the DLC take us!?

The other two images after the jump.

Are Difficulty Settings Necessary?

Written by Mark Wolsiefer Jr. on May 26, 2011 at 12:22 pm

The pursuit of a challenge can be a driving force in life. The accomplishment of something thought to be unobtainable has a certain allure which some find irresistible. Game designers tend to play off of this concept, creating challenges that seem insurmountable in the context of the game world. Typically there will be an option for the player to affect the likelihood of beating the odds through game difficulty. As a designer, the proper implementation of difficulty, in my opinion, is instituting a learning curve and building from there. Once the player has gleaned the knowledge the game has presented, the designer is free to introduce complex obstacles that utilize this knowledge in varying ways. Approaching the difficulty question from this angle allows designers to create more involving situations during the progression of the game. This concept of “learning in order to succeed” seems to eradicate the necessity of a difficulty option altogether.

I Don't Want To Save the World

Written by Patricia Hernandez on May 7, 2011 at 12:52 am

I don’t want to be the chosen one. I don’t want to get the girl. I don’t want to make kingdoms rise and fall on my whim. I don’t want to dictate who lives and dies. Most of all, I don’t want to save the world.

I want small moments instead; they mean more to me. Getting stood up at dinner. Figuring out how to deal with a student that’s being bullied. Deciding whether or not you’re going to use the swingset or toss a ball with your son. Perhaps, even, dealing with the death of a parent. Hey, that’s an actual game! Well, actually, all of these are. But, we’ll get to this specific game–Winter Voices–a bit later, after I explain my rationale a bit.

Basically, I don’t want games to act as an extension of masturbation. Wish fulfillment. Escapism. ‘Power fantasies‘, as Leigh Alexander would put it. Frankly, I’m tired of it. I want something new, something that challenges the entitlement we experience as players–the power that comes with god-like control. Perhaps then, choice and morality would actually mean something, instead of being just another thing you have have authority over. Perhaps then, relationships with other characters can feel more …

I Don’t Want To Save the World

Written by Patricia Hernandez on May 7, 2011 at 12:52 am

UPDATED David Gaider on Player's Propensity for 'Optimum' Choices in Dragon Age 2

Written by Patricia Hernandez on May 6, 2011 at 1:16 pm

SPOILERS ON A MAJOR DRAGON AGE 2 QUEST AHEAD:

A bit late on the uptake, but I just recently came across a post by David Gaider in which he explains the rationale behind the Dragon Age 2 quest “All that Remains”. Those who have played through the quest know the inevitable outcome: your mother dies. Not just any death, either: a particularly gruesome, unnerving death at the hands of blood magic. The remark by Gaider is as follows;

“The problem wasn’t that “everyone picked to save her”. It was that everyone thought they had to save her, and would reload/re-do the quest until the got the outcome that was perceived as the most optimum– even if the result when Leandra dies is more dramatic and has more of an impact on the larger story.

The quest isn’t about saving her, after all, it’s about putting a more personal face on the darker side of magic and the repercussions it can have on innocents.

If someone doesn’t like it, that’s fine. Up to you. But DLC is created to add content, not to skip it– and, no, there is no material anywhere to make this easy to implement. Dialogue after Act 2 assumes that your …

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Tag Archives: Dragon Age 2

Big Brother is watching: how developers use game analytics

Soundscapes – The broken sound of console ports

Digital love

New DLC Announced for Dragon Age 2

On Air Pressure

New Dragon Age 2 Images Tease Relation to Grey Wardens

Are Difficulty Settings Necessary?

I Don't Want To Save the World

I Don’t Want To Save the World

UPDATED David Gaider on Player's Propensity for 'Optimum' Choices in Dragon Age 2

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