Dragon Age 2 imports "the world"
The world is changing...
[amazonify]B003UF9E0O:right[/amazonify]Joystiq reports that the lingering ambiguity over how BioWare’s Dragon Age 2 [pre-order] will handle character imports has been cleared up.
…lead designer Mike Laidlaw revealed that while you don’t get to import your character, you’re “importing the world” as it was in your game of Origins. “Who’s in charge of Ferelden, what happened with the Dwarves, who’s running Orzammar?” Laidlaw said. “All of these things are reflected and accounted for in Dragon Age 2.” So if you hate the way you left affairs in Origins, consider a fresh save in Dragon Age 2. Then again, maybe you like fixer-uppers.
Now you know.
Yeah, I know, this isn’t really Ultima-related stuff by any stretch. That said, it is a BioWare subsidiary — BioWare Mythic — that currently maintains the Ultima IP…and if there is ever going to be a new Ultima title (that is, a new title that is not an Ultima Online expansion pack), it’s probably going to come out of what is known as the BioWare Group.
So there is a purpose to my tracking news about other BioWare RPGs.
Yeah, Bioware such a talented company. They made MDK2, so they could make new Crusader . Their sci-fi title making (KOTOR, ME) gave them good experience to make new “Wing Commander”. But new Ultima without Garriot ? Sounds risky… They may ruin old atmosphere, like (sigh) J J Abrams in new Star Trek. And EA already abandoned potentially successful Lord of the Rings RPG.
I have to confess, I rather liked the new Star Trek movie, though I admit that might have something to do that it continues in the vein of Deep Space Nine and Voyager by jettisoning many of the sillier aspects of Roddenberry’s futurist/materialist philosophy.
Ultima without Garriott is a risky proposition in some senses, I would agree. Of course, a smart BioWare would lean on a guy like Paul Barnett, or on various members of the Ultima fan community, for help with continuity and “feel” for the game.
Then too, a new Ultima would almost by definition have to be a very new thing, since it wouldn’t involve the Avatar. Indeed, one could argue that Garriott, with Ultima 9, positioned the series to be post-Avatar, maybe even post-Lord British…and perhaps even post-Garriott. Love it or hate it, Ascension had a very…final…ending, which wrapped up not only the Avatar’s story, but also (in a sense) Lord British’s story as well.
So it might just be that a post-Garriott Ultima could succeed, and then handily…though a smart BioWare would still solicit input from the fan community, even so.
Also: new Wing Commander?
New Wing Commander is just hypothetical suggestion, as example that Bioware could make anything. And as for new Star Trek, it is not bad movie (compared to G. I. Joe or X-man or Transformers), it is just lack of compassion. Star Trek with no soul. Violence is normal and diplomacy just formality. Don’t know how Ultima will stand without compassion and other Virtues. Path of villain was not real alternative in series for me (may be in Pagan, except). It is big morality question.
Ah, okay. I thought maybe you’d heard something.
It didn’t seem…plausible that BioWare would be the ones to make a new WC game. Not because they’re not excellent developers, but they are very much an RPG house; I can’t see them pushing out a space flight-sim.
As to Star Trek…I was never a fan of Roddenberry concepts like “negotiate first” and the Prime Directive. Feh, to the lot of that. Which is why I liked DS9 so much more than TNG (actually, I all but despise TNG). It’s fair to say that the movie was a lot more pop culture oriented, and certainly a lot flashier…but it had more heart and soul, I found, than any episode of TNG I could think of off the top of my head (not to mention several of the other movies).