Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise

[ThatGuyThere]

@fatefan
Well there is Arx, not sure if it is gritty but that was kind of the feel i got from the ad, I am sure the many people here that play there can correct me if my thought on that is wrong.

[TNP]

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

@TNP said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

Seems Anders was separated from Justice and pardoned.

If this isn't all but proof that staff are making a game to play their favorite characters and little other reason, I don't know what is.

Pretty much. And on that Smoke and Shadows one, Anders and Fenris are lovers. Which is just... no.

[Karmageddon]

@TNP It should come as no surprise that Archive of Our Own, Tumblr, and YouTube don't seem to share your opinion.

[Kanye Qwest]

@Karmageddon

All those avenues to scratch those itches. I get shipping characters that don't actually hook up, but I don't understand completely breaking the established character to do so.

Fenris/Anders is something that would just never happen in the established whatever. Canon? Universe? So if you really really need to scratch that glowing elf/whiny mfer itch, make up your own whiny mfer or glowing elf.

Or ignore me and make a game to play out your random fetish, inviting other people to come be supporting extras without admitting up front they will be extras in your random fetish play. Apparently, that's the choice people are going with.

[tek]

Man, I'd love a Dragon Age game without canon characters. Someone needs to do this.

[Monogram]

I think plenty of people are starting to wish for a Dragon Age game that doesn't involve being able to live out your personal ingame fantasy with whatever character that you believed obviously should've doing what(or in most cases, who).

Apparently that time has not yet come.

[tek]

I'm not trying to say that people who do this are having wrongfun, but I personally don't get the appeal of playing canon characters. For me, half the fun is creating a character that's compelling and interesting to me.

[Karmageddon]

Preaching to the choir, @Kanye-Qwest. I haven't played any of the DA games, but I've been subjected to characterizations from other franchises that have nothing in common with the source material beyond character names and physical traits. I sadface and mourn the brain cells I've lost.

[Thenomain]

@tek

The WrongFun comes in with playing a canon character in a non canon manner.

[tek]

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

@tek

The WrongFun comes in with playing a canon character in a non canon manner.

At that point, you might as well have made your own character. It feels lazy.

[Thenomain]

@tek said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

@tek

The WrongFun comes in with playing a canon character in a non canon manner.

At that point, you might as well have made your own character. It feels lazy.

Than telling new stories with established characters? I'm going to assert that this would be even harder. With a non established character, you get to make up anything at any time. Your character likes trout but hates whitefish? No need to check canon, because you are canon.

[tek]

@Thenomain I mean taking an established character and just doing whatever the fuck with it feels lazy to me.

[Kanye Qwest]

@tek Lazy, and a little rude in some cases? That's my weirdness, but when people like, mod games so they can have straight romances with canon gay characters it just squicks me out.

[Misadventure]

It's spending the established story capital on something specific to the player. If its for the majority of players then they are enjoying an alternate version. Maybe. Sometimes whatever the alternate is, that alternate is the actual goal, and the canon being used is just another bit of variety to keep it from going stale.

EG if I imagine what it would be like to have Superman land in Russia and grow up there, enforcing and leading its ideals (see Red Son) that is an alternate universe exploration. If I then postulate World of Darkness all in Russia, make my Transformers all about Leninist communism, place my Sense and Sensibilities in the last days of the Czar, play Greatest Generation as the Russian military, and propose Star Trek be based on over 1960s Soviet propaganda I may have another goal.

So when I arrive and start making your Pern game into a Russian culture or communist theme, it may not be welcomed as an honest desire to explore this WITH PERN. It is your fetish you cant avoid.

[Thenomain]

@tek said in Dragon Age: Dread Wolf's Rise:

@Thenomain I mean taking an established character and just doing whatever the fuck with it feels lazy to me.

Because that is lazy. It's a shared game world, and a canon character is an established part of that world. As Mis says, most games would never allow yo to do that with the setting. Unless that person is staff, as this has happened before and it looks like it may be happening again.

[Thenomain]

So I decided to check it out. Apparently this place used to be a Pern game, or their code was cribbed from one. It happens. This is from the "tutorial" rooms:

Since this is very specifically a Pern based game, names that would not fit the Theme are rather frowned upon such as Cyberboy, or Dragonkiller.

Pernisms exist all throughout the tutorial room and there are no existing help files. The login screen says they're in Beta, but I think they're really in Alpha.

Now, I've played plenty of games in this state, so this isn't a criticism, merely a fact.

---

Since this has been a topic here, this is the first paragraph of "help feature character".

Feature Characters are available via application and either a submitted
 writing for that character or an audition RP. The same application process
 that applies to non-feature characters MUST be followed. 

I imagine this application process will be outlined somewhere in the future, but for now it's uncertain what's meant.

Later on:

Unavailable, staff run cameo characters

The word "cameo" is important here, indicating to me that these characters aren't meant to be played characters. This list is pretty much the entirety of the major characters from the Dragon Age games ... except those in the 'taken' list...

Taken Feature Characters

Inquisitor- Torrent Lavellan
Commander- Cullen
Anders
Dorian Pavus
Leliana-Divine Elect Victoria

So while even Nathaniel Howe is on the "not playable or staff cameo" list, "Leliana", Nightingale and Grand Mother of the Church, is playable.

---

Finally, Chargen. Fortunately the guest character is free to go through the rooms, but no wonder: You set a name, a history, some personality traits, and you're pretty much done. One help file indicates that you can have any skills from any of the Dragon Age games including DLCs up to Inquisition (so not the DLCs from DA:I).

This is the help class file:

DWR welcomes the classes, specializations, and skill trees all the way up to
 and Including Dragon Age: Inquisition. But, not the post-release DLC specs
 and extra skills or spells therein (yet).

There are three base classes: Mage, Warrior, and Rogue

The only race restriction is that Dwarves cannot be Mages due to canon lore. 

Please also note: Staff reserves the right to restrict any specializations or
 classes that become too prevalent in applications, in order to maintain
 game/play balance. And that the skill trees specific to feature characters
 (ie - Merrill from DA:2 for example) may require additional scrutiny during
 the application process and have a higher chance of being rejected. 

For information on each class and spec, the best place to start is here:
 http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Classes

---

Finally, I notice that only Mushes seem to have serious reservations with bans. In my random reading of files, I saw three references to being banned from the game. One of them was in requesting what they call an "NPC Race". The discussion why probably belongs in a different thread, but with the number of :) scattered through the same help files and tutorial screens, I got the uncomfortable red flag feeling. Hopefully it's just me.

---

Anyhow, that should help some of the unchecked presumptions.

[Arkandel]

@Thenomain Wait, do you mean that the smileys were scattered in the same helpfiles as the ban threats? Because that just sounds callous to me, or at least fake.

[Kanye Qwest]

@Arkandel Smarmy help files? From a shippy FC game? GET OUT.

[Arkandel]

Keep it up @Kanye-Qwest and you'll be banned. Tee-hee-hee.

... Am I being friendly and approachable enough yet or do I need more smileys?

[Kanye Qwest]

Waitwaitwait. You can't be a dwarf mage due to 'canon lore', but you can completely invalidate 'canon lore' when it suits someone who wants to play Anders?