As a Sims fan, I’d watched EA rescue a beloved franchise then gradually hollow it out. By the time DA2 released, I waded into DAO’s development history and worried about Bioware’s future. So when Bioware followed their epic with an obviously rushed sequel, after a DAO expansion that was good but with barely any returning characters, my fears were confirmed.
And Inquisition arrived later, corrective, more ambitious and polished in every way… it somehow disappointed me even more. I rushed the ending, indifferent to sidequests, past ready to be done.
It’s still a mediocre hack-and-slash when everything is added up. But in retrospect, DA2 looks better than ever, with unique features and writing that aged well. And the supporting squad was obviously the best part.
The friendship & rivalry system, introduced with Hawke’s twin sibling rivalry (one a mage, one a normie) was inspired. It’s a crime Bioware never used that NPC relationship mechanic again. And compensating for their limits in geographic scope by staging the narrative across more time was so clever. The day/night cycle, too.
There’s a new interview on DA2 (via thegamerdotcom) with lead writer David Gaider: the guy who basically invented Thedas. DA2 is the freshest title in the series, and from this instinct came its best ideas:
I’m tired of stroking the player’s ego. You’re the best in the world. You are the chosen one of destiny. You are the only one who can save the entire universe. Is that really necessary? -Gaider
Not a novel observation, but: I wish they’d had the time to do it more justice.
I mostly agreed with Gaider on his other point: fandom tends to take the series’ parallels to IRL politics too seriously. I say this as someone who loves digging into those parallels. Even I thought fans pushed them too far. Then, BioWare reacted poorly, likewise taking that pressure too seriously.1
Yes, writers should take a stand in their narratives. But no, fans should not expect those convictions to meaningfully impact IRL civil rights. And yet, I still enjoy taking my hobbies too seriously. So I do wish Dragon Age’s social metaphors were more coherent. And I won’t pretend Gaider and his team made no conceptual errors or bad writing decisions.
In DA2, templars vs. mages is meant to be a head-scratching trolley problem with no obviously good or evil option. In the interview, Gaider describes regrets the story didn’t make the templar position feel more viable.
Personally, I think the narrative does convey that intent. Mages are dangerous: they can be possessed, summon demons and devastation. The templars are rationalized well enough: the Chantry’s authoritarian system of surveillance and containment is meant to be harsh but rational. The problem is more fundamental: the frame is thinking ‘gun control’ but serving ‘slavery.’
I remember him saying something similar years ago, before Bioware leaned harder into selling to their queer demographic and the rhetoric shifted. I began to wonder if I’d imagined it. So I’m glad to see him repeat it:
“It feels dehumanising, but in some ways, the argument had more in common with gun control than the right to self-determination of mages.”
Pictured: Gaider’s shitlib is showing.
Gun control is also an issue of self-determination. but critically, unlike a weapon, magic is not an object. In Thedas, mage is an inalienable identity. The gun control analogy is therefore misplaced at the root. Even for a shitlib, it’s feeble.
If Gaider wanted the ‘gun control’ approach to work, magic would need to be something mages choose. but DA mages are basically born with midichlorians. Jedi remain the closest structural analogue. Bioware also wrote Star Wars games, so that’s probably where this came from.
But more importantly, I miss the cultural moment of the earlier Dragon Age games, when writers could still make these swings. This trolley problem swung and missed, but at least they were swinging. Now that sense of moral risk has been sanded off entirely; Gamergate, misogyny, and homophobia genuinely hurt the market for complexity in this genre.
Overall, EA had little confidence in what made Dragon Age worth playing in the first place. I should probably just be grateful I got an expansion and three sequels. We’ve been watching the smoke rise from Bioware for a long time.