What makes this game..well for a start I really like the textures used on creatures. And the armours available to players. The designers have still struggled with dwarf armour particularly around the legs… which contributes to undermining the martial prowess of the dwarf. In my opinion all rpg games continue to give dwarves to long a torso and legs that are too short.

The architecture is a complete let down, poor understanding of how building elements go together erodes the believability at a subconcious level. But this is not just Dragon Age, its the low standard set by most game engines, and the Developers who employ them. I struggle with similar issues working in the digital film industry where the directors and bean counters undervalue the perfection in the environment that would truly elevate the average world.

Even so as a one of rainy weekend intense and bloody adventure the game is amazing a deserves all the awards it got.

At an interface gameplay flavour level Dragon Age appears to me as an attempt to bridge between a more serious game like Neverwinter Nights and a World of Warcraft audience. Purists I suspect will prefer the former whilst gamers sick of the cartoony nature of the later might be enticed by Dragon Age, but alas apart from the ontime adventure as you go through the story there is no massively multiplayer online game component to this.

As a last not: if you love dragons, you MUST play this game… check this out:

Fight Free Dragons in Game

How about some variety, calling all serious role players, what of the stoic venerable statesman dwarf like Thorin Oakenshield, or the meak mocked by more martial dwarves inventor artificer dwarf? The old veteran who disapproves of the young blood who have no sense of decorum, who wouldn’t be seen dead running anywhere – what of dignity and auctoritas?

If you play Neverwinter Nights I highly recommend roleplaying a dwarf who is hugely fat, always comments on being hungry, has an Obelisk type attitude to food, and as a result has maximum constitution. Tip: if you maximize constitution and get the toughness feat then the damage you can take is almost better than high armor class (AC). Sure you need a good stack of potions because your fight style is to take the hits, but this is a roleplay opportunity where potions of ‘heal’ become ‘munches down another beef sandwich’, a dwarf who wouldn’t waste his breath to comment on elves, and who NEVER says ‘bah’.

]]> http://roleplayingpcgames.info/dwarf-maligned/feed/ 3 http://roleplayingpcgames.info/world-of-warcraft-roleplaying/ http://roleplayingpcgames.info/world-of-warcraft-roleplaying/#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:02:08 +0000 RolePlayer http://roleplayingpcgames.info/?p=24 World of Warcraft – often abbreviated to WOW, is not just a roleplaying game for PC but actually falls into the sub-category of  Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game – or MMORPG. This means the player does not just roleplay alone, as was the case with early pc games of this genre – the player interacts with many other players online in a perpetual world. As of October 2008 World Of Warcraft had 11,000 million subscribers making it the larget MMORPG in history – although it is important to note that WOW runs on many servers and thata  player will not be online interacting with all subscribed gamers at once!

World of Warcraft was created by Blizzard Games and is the fourth game in the “Warcraft” series.  The series started with the original Warcraft which was a real time strategy game (RTS) – not a role playing game. Warcraft II and Warcraft III followed and both exhibited the RTS style of play – typically top down, resource and army management types of play. It was World of Warcraft that broke the mold and took blizzard fully into the RPG game world. Although Diablo I and II are also produced by Blizzard, and can be classed as RPG, they are not what purists would consider a full immersive RPG as the options for  character development are somewhat limited by comparison.

Although World Of Warcrawft is PC based it is important to note that the game requires an internet connection to be played and that the environment is not based on the users PC but in teh perpetual world controlled by the server. In this way the game developers can create new regions in the virtual perpetual world, putting in new challenges for role players to overcome and new treaures and bounty for the gamers to find. For many players the World Of Warcraft has become an addictive  second life – some even claiming it is preferable to the real world!

A key part of any roleplaying game is “Leveling” you character but this can be difficult and extremely time consuming. Obviously for many this is all part of the fun but for those who want fast track their progress a MMORPG Leveling Guide can help.