{"id":55073,"date":"2020-08-16T18:21:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T18:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamerant.com\/dragon-age-protagonist\/"},"modified":"2020-08-16T18:21:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T18:21:24","slug":"dragon-ages-protagonist-problem-game-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/08\/16\/dragon-ages-protagonist-problem-game-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Age\u2019s Protagonist Problem | Game Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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BioWare is relying on its upcoming game Dragon Age 4<\/em><\/strong> to help reestablish the studio\u2019s reputation on the upcoming generation of consoles. Between the disappointments of Mass Effect: Andromeda<\/em> and Anthem<\/em>, the developer is\u00a0depending on Dragon Age<\/em>\u2019s success more than ever before.<\/p>\n

There is a long-standing problem with the Dragon Age<\/em> franchise which will need to be addressed\u00a0for Dragon Age 4<\/em><\/a> before the developer can reclaim its place as one of the top Western RPG studios. With tough competition in the RPG market, BioWare will need to reckon with this problem if it’s going to get its\u00a0bearings in a quickly changing gaming landscape.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Dragon Age 4 Needs to Make a Simple Fix With Its Character Creation<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Every Dragon Age<\/em> game has a new protagonist but does not tell a completely new story. In Dragon Age: Inquisition<\/em>, for example, the player has fan-favorite companion Varric Tethras return<\/a> from Dragon Age 2<\/em>. However, because the player is now the Inquisitor and not Hawke, the relationship is completely reset to square one. Furthermore, the actual player’s relationship with Varric already exists from the previous game, making them far more likely to trust him and treat him like an old friend as a result, despite that not fitting with their character.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Morrigan\u2019s appearance in Dragon Age: Inquisition<\/em> is compelling in the meta-sense that players who enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins<\/em><\/a> want to see what became of one of its most iconic characters. As with Varric, however, there is a\u00a0disconnect between the player\u2019s level of investment in the character, and the player character\u2019s lack of relationship with them.<\/p>\n

Having met these characters in previous games, the player is as invested in them as they can be, while these characters are nowhere near as involved in the life of the player character. A player whose Warden romanced Morrigan and went through with her ritual will even see their Old God Baby, Kieran<\/a>, make an appearance in Inquisition<\/em>, driving this dissonance home for any who made it that far.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Dragon Age 4 Likely Won’t Have a Series Staple<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The problem with this approach becomes clear when put into comparison with BioWare\u2019s other flagship RPG franchise, Mass Effect<\/em>. If Mass Effect 2<\/em><\/a> had a different protagonist to Shepherd, then meeting characters like Garrus again would not have been nearly as rewarding, because they wouldn\u2019t be continuations of the same relationship in the story, even if the player already knows that character.<\/p>\n

The fact that Shepherd is the player character\u00a0across the entire original trilogy helps with the fact that, as a character,\u00a0Mass Effect<\/em>‘s Shepherd<\/a>\u00a0is also a relatively blank slate. In essence, what the player is actually experiencing is their own relationship with the other characters in Mass Effect<\/em> developing, which are able to be properly reflected in the games as those NPCs\u00a0can consistently refer to the player as Shepherd and to reference that single developing relationship.<\/p>\n

In Dragon Age<\/em>, the main player characters<\/a> are also blank slates, but over the three games released so far, they are three separate blank slates. The result is that the game encourages the player to identify with their player character, while the player\u2019s developing relationship with the world and the characters in it\u00a0can not be reflected in the actual\u00a0story of the ever-changing protagonist.<\/p>\n

It may be too late for Dragon Age<\/em> to change trajectory in this regard. Bringing back the Warden in Dragon Age 4<\/em><\/a>, for example, would only make sense for the players whose Warden survived the events of Origins<\/em>, and would invalidate the stories of the many players whose Wardens died. However, BioWare should take this lesson forward for its future games and any new IPs it chooses to develop on the next generation of consoles.<\/p>\n

Other RPG developers<\/a> should learn the lesson too. If the protagonist is going to be a blank slate that the players\u00a0are encouraged to project themselves onto, then having a new protagonist with every game only increasingly creates a disconnect between the player\u2019s relationship with the\u00a0world and the player character\u2019s, making that identification and immersion more difficult with every subsequent game.<\/p>\n

Dragon Age 4<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is in development.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect 5 Should Look to The Witcher 3 in One Big Way<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Every Dragon Age game has a new protagonist, leading to a unique problem Dragon Age 4 will need to fix for the next-gen game.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Dragon Age\u2019s Protagonist Problem | Game Rant - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"Every Dragon Age game has a new protagonist, leading to a unique problem Dragon Age 4 will need to fix for the next-gen game."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55074,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55073\/revisions\/55074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}