Dragon Age: Origins Editorials

Ten Ton Hammer is offering up two separate editorials for Dragon Age: Origins that focus on the game's mature content and BioWare's design philosophy.

A little something from Swimming in the Dangerous Waters of the (Mature) Rating:
The greatest strength of Dungeons & Dragons has always been the ability to play a character of your own creation and explore a fantasy world as you see fit. Free to make both intelligent and asinine decisions alike, along with all of those in between. We're still not ready to hand over the reigns of our favorite Dungeon Master to the shiny circuits of a computer, but we're getting closer by the day and BioWare's new title will be an important step toward that goal.

How can it accomplish such a feat? By making the world gritty, brutal, exotic, and beautiful at the same time. Stan Lee knew many, many years ago that it was the flaws in his super heroes within the Marvel universe that made them so interesting. The same holds true for characters within a video game. It's the flaws within them and the dark recesses of their souls that make them compelling.

And some commentary from executive producer Mark Darrah in Forever Fantasy: The Philosophy Behind Dragon Age: Origins:
(I think this is a game that manages to [target many types of gamers]. For the Baldur's Gate player, there's all that depth there if you want it. You can pause and play; you can dig into the tactics; you can be very careful and very calculating on how you play the game. For someone who's looking for a little more action, you can play the game that way too, especially on the consoles where the controls are much tighter and much more designed for an action experience. It feels like it's a totally different game, and much more geared to the Action RPG player.)

It's been ten years since we've played Baldur's Gate II, but Darrah believes Dragon Age: Origins could hit home with those players too.

(It's not the same game, but it still invokes the same feelings, the same depth of story and tactical element.)