14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age: Origins is the project BioWare is set to release next, in the run up to Christmas and with the development studio well known for its complex story lines, gamers have set it high standards when it comes to the narrative of the videogame. So, it's a good thing to see one of the people working on Dragon Age claiming that good writing is essential to the experience which titles, in general, and role playing games, in particular, are delivering.
Mike Laidlaw, who is the lead designer on Dragon Age, told Destructoid that “In terms of how important it is I'd say it's vital, and I think where certainly there's been huge successes are games that embrace the understanding that ultimately the gaming medium is defined by interactivity and reactivity, as opposed to narrative. A game that forces me down a single path and has no options or any sense that I'm actually affecting the world leaves me a little bit colder than a game that actually has some sort of interaction.”
Laidlaw also says that at the moment the increase in graphics power is no longer delivering enough enhancements to allow developers to sell a game on beautiful and fluid images alone. So in all game genres, the creators are forced to deliver improved narrative, connecting gamers with the characters that they play and crafting worlds that feel believable and complex.
For role playing games, being on the bleeding edge of graphics has never been the main concern and a strong narrative has always been an important asset so the genre, which BioWare intends to redefine with Dragon Age: Origins, is better positioned than others to attract new gamers and satisfy the narrative ends of older ones. We'll see how BioWare does in marrying strong writing with good looking graphics and complex gameplay when Dragon Age: Origins launches on the Xbox 360 and the PC on November 3.