The Disappeared, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is the first book in her Retrieval Artist series; that said, it is actually the second book in the series that I have read, the first (Buried Deep) having been picked up on a whim at a used book store.

The Disappeared is a far future science fiction novel that is focused on character and ethics ahead of hard science or ideas. In fact, if you ignore the setting, at its heart this novel is one part mystery, one part crime drama, and one part moral quandary. Like many sci fi works, however, the setting serves as a backdrop for a thought experiment.

The future that Rusch portrays is one where humanity has burst onto the interstellar scene, made contact with a number of alien races, and commenced political and commercial relations with them. As a necessary part of this interspecies relationship, some give and take is politically required, and this discourse anchors all of the problems that the character's in Rusch's world face.

The main characters, Miles Flint and Nolle DeRicci, are detectives in the Armstrong Dome (on the moon) and throughout the novel are tasked with mitigating three separate alien-human disagreements that arise. The sticking point is justice: a key aspect of the galaxy that Rush has crafted is that the governments of the various starfaring species have agreements in place that allow them to extradite members of other races who have been found guilty of a crime in their own society. This may sound innocent on the surface, but extremely tough moral dilemmas arise when trying to rationalize the vastly different nature of criminal acts in alien societies, as well as the different forms of punishments that each metes out, with normal human sensibilities and ideals.

The novel unfolds primarily through the eyes of the main characters, but also occasionally jumps to different individuals in order to provide context. Rusch's prose is solid throughout, and she does an extremely good job of making the moral quandaries difficult to digest, and fantastically uncomfortable.

If you are looking for some space cop fiction that will make you think, then I heartily recommend The Disappeared.

Sorry for the silence the last few days. On Wednesday afternoon I was instructed to drop everything and catch a flight. A crisis had come up at a client site, and I was the right guy to fix it. A couple of long days later and I'm back home, but I need to fly out again on Monday and spend the entire next week away from home again.

One good thing about this business trip compared to others that I've done is that I am allowed to return to my hotel after a reasonable day of work - some trips (with different employers) have seen me work sixteen hour days on site, but this is a lot saner. The upside to this is that I have the evenings to myself, and can pretend - just for a little while - that things are normal.

I have a decent business laptop - it ran World of Warcraft well when I tried a year ago - and so I'm hoping to get some gaming in each night. Unfortunately, although I bring a mouse, I'm stuck with a laptop keyboard and a 17" monitor so I wouldn't want to play anything like a shooter.

If you know of a game that was released in the past couple of years that you think would be perfect for this sort of scenario, then please drop me a line in the comments; I'd love a few suggestions.

Well, better late than never. As Andrew mentioned back in September, I've been invited as a guest poster to write a series of articles on describing what a "next generation" MMORPG could look like. Game design commentary tends to focus on existing games.. strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons, etc., but we often don't talk much about what we'd like to see in games that don't yet exist. I see this as an opportunity to discuss game design without the real-world issues of game development, budgets, server processing requirements, etc. In short, it's a chance to dream.

For this first article, the theme I chose was "story-driven".. in the last few years, we've started seeing a lot more emphasis on game storytelling, and yet MMOs are probably the one game genre where storytelling is the most difficult to do.

Why is “Story-Driven” a characteristic of next-gen. MMORPGs?
Ironically, “Story-Driven” Fantasy Role-Playing Games aren’t “Next Generation” at all, but rather a core element of the paper & pencil Fantasy Role-Playing game genre that unfortunately did not transfer well into the early computer-based online Fantasy Role-Playing games (e.g. MUDs), and has remained largely absent even in modern MMORPGs. In an interview in 2006, Gary Gygax (the creator of Dungeons & Dragons) explained the fundamental goals of role-playing games: “The essence of a role-playing game is that it is a group, cooperative experience. There is no winning or losing, but rather the value is in the experience of imagining yourself as a character in whatever genre you’re involved in, whether it’s a fantasy game, the Wild West, secret agents or whatever else. You get to sort of vicariously experience those things.” In short, the function of a Fantasy Role-Playing game is to provide a framework through which a group of players can experience and interact with a story.

Why is “Story-Driven” so important?
Although modern video games have gotten quite good at visually establishing context without the reliance on storytelling that goes along with paper & pencil Fantasy Role-Playing games, there is still one very important reason to bring storytelling back into MMORPGs. Engaging the player through a story is commonly referred to as ‘Narrative Immersion’, and it’s one of the four major types of immersion found in games. According to Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen, authors of Patterns in Game Design, Narrative Immersion in games occurs when the player becomes “invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie”. It’s the feeling of not wanting to put the book down, the desire to keep reading to find out what happens next, the emotions you feel when things happen to the characters you’re reading about. In a good thriller, you want to find out what’s going to happen next. In a good drama, you want to see the characters grow and develop. In a good action movie, you can feel the intensity and adrenaline almost as tangibly as the people in the movie.

While narrative immersion is certainly not the only method for drawing a player into a game, it can be a valuable tool for giving the player a deeper emotional connection with the game, and a more meaningful game experience.

So what would a “Story-Driven” MMO look like?
I’m hoping to explore this idea a lot more in subsequent articles, but what follows are some brief examples of characteristic differences between a traditional MMORPG and a story-driven one.

Stories don’t require x tanks, y healers, and z DPS
One major game design feature typical of non-story-driven games that often dramatically limits the accessibility of the game to a wide audience is grouping requirements. All too often in non-story-driven games, encounters and events are designed with exacting group requirements in mind. Resourceful, desperate, or over-geared players can sometimes get around the exact group requirement, but they can’t get around the fact that the whole encounter, including the time investment and reward system, was not designed for their own group.

In a story-driven game, occasionally there will be times when the player or group finds they need certain skills. Maybe they encounter a door or chest that needs to be picked. Maybe they need someone who can read Elvish. Maybe they need three players to all press switches simultaneously. Most of the time, though, the story is created for and around the group, rather than the group being created for and around the story. Do you have three friends who all play Rogues? Create a story specifically for that group. Did 28 guild members show up for the evening? Create a story in which all 28 players can participate. MMORPG game design tends to get caught up in all the rules, mechanics, and benchmarks, but in reality it’s the story that keeps the players playing. As Gary Gygax once revealed: “The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules.”

Random is bad
Think back for a moment about a good novel you’ve read, and think about the kinds of events and situations the characters experienced. What I’m getting at here is that the things that happen to the characters in a novel happen for a reason. Maybe it’s to teach the characters something, maybe it’s to teach the reader something, but the author didn’t just roll the dice to see what happened in his story.. so why should that work for a fantasy role-playing game? From a game design standpoint, randomness produces uncertainty of outcome, and facilitates the player ‘playing to their strengths’. If you aren’t guaranteed a certain outcome, you’ll tend toward solutions with the best chance of success. So a degree of randomness in how the player resolves a presented event or scenario is a good thing, but the actual events, encounters, and scenarios a player faces in a story-driven game should never be the result of a true random roll.

“They move at the speed of plot”
For those not familiar with the phrase, it was popularized by Babylon 5 producer J. Michael Straczynsk. As the story goes, when questioned about how fast a particular spaceship traveled, he answered “How fast do the White Stars travel? They move at the speed of plot. What of it!?” While the answer no doubt infuriated science-fiction nerds everywhere, it also exemplified a critical characteristic of story-driven design. In a novel, an author will often skip over inconsequential or unimportant spans of time, allowing hours, days, weeks, or even months to pass with no more than a paragraph or two. If a character is supposed to make it to an event on time, they make it. If they’re supposed to arrive late, they’re late. This is at-odds with the mechanics often present in video game environments, wherein any given mode of transport always travels at some constant maximum velocity. Let’s say that the physical distance between the starting point and the ending point you direct the character to get to would take 20 minutes of holding down the run button. In a story-driven game, carefully examining and designing around this game time is critical. Is anything of consequence or importance supposed to happen during this span of time? If so, fill that span of time with events of consequence, and not just random events, either. If not, provide the player with a faster method of travel, preserving “the speed of plot”.

Bring the story to the player
While active ‘clicking’ and exploration has long been a staple of video and computer games, one hallmark of non-story-driven games is the necessity of going out and finding the story or quest giver yourself. From a narrative standpoint, this makes little sense. Some of the things that happen in life and in stories happen not because you went out looking for them to happen, but instead they practically landed in your lap. The goal here is to catch the player up in something unexpected, to make sure that at no point in the game the player is without a storyline. The same way that players tend to lose interest in a game one they’ve reached the ‘end’ of the game storyline, players also often lose interest when left for long periods of time to wander aimlessly without being part of a story.


So far, I’ve talked a lot about what a story-driven MMORPG might look like, but not much about how it could actually be done. Really, the answer is time and money. Making a more story-driven MMORPG would definitely increase the cost of game development. That aside, there are many game design methods that could be employed to make story-driven MMORPGs more feasible, and I’m hoping to explore some of those in future articles. I’m already working on a second article: “Don’t give every player the same story”.. more on that soon.

I rely on free demos as one of my primary indicators when I am choosing whether or not to buy a video game, often eschewing reviews if the experience is entertaining enough and (in my opinion) representative of the type of game play that I can expect from the full title. While sometimes I take the time to write about a particularly horrid demo, usually when a demo does not inspire me I leave it alone.

While looking for a casual game to play on my PS3 this weekend, I ended up downloading and playing a couple of demos; specifically, Zen Pinball and Pixeljunk Eden. Both games had an equal chance at my money - I've always loved pinball games (Balls of Steel, anyone?) and I have a sometimes unseemly love affair with artsy abstract games. Interestingly, the two demos serve as excellent examples of what to do and not do when creating a sample of a game for a discerning audience.

Zen Pinball
The Zen Pinball demo restricts the player to a single table, but allows them full games (three balls) every time. All features of the table are active, and it is playable as many times as desired in perpetuity. Since pinball controls are intuitive the game doesn't make any effort to explain itself, although the options section does contain the controller mappings if required.

Aside from the single table restriction, Zen Pinball also caps your score at 2.5 million points, prevents you from earning trophies, and has a nag screen after every game completes. To reinforce these restrictions, the game pauses and tells you what it has prevented every time you would have achieved a milestone. A message along the lines of: "I'm sorry, in the demo version you cannot exceed 2.5 million points, please buy the full game!" is displayed and then the game continues as if nothing untoward has happened.

These restrictions are absolutely perfect for a game like Zen Pinball; since the title is essentially a high score chase it makes sense to stop tracking a player's points after a certain number in order to encourage the sale of the full version, and using a small nag message is a great way to do it. The player can continue play for as long as she likes and get an excellent feel for the game, however her success will never be measurable after a set point. Likewise, preventing the acquisition of trophies (while announcing that one could have been earned) is a fantastic way to appeal to achievement junkies.

Pixeljunk Eden
Pixeljunk Eden is an artsy abstract platformer that puts the player in control of a little creature that can hop around, cling to plants, find treasures, destroy enemies, and so on. It has a lot of positive buzz on gaming sites, and I was interested to give it a try and see what all of the fuss was about.


Unfortunately my frustrations with the demo began almost immediately. After downloading the demo I fired it up, and was immediately told that I had to update the game. The update turned out to be nearly the size of the initial install. Ten minutes later that finished, and still eager to play I clicked start and was met with a Terms of Service agreement. Now, I'm a modern computer user and I'm used to these things, but the Pixeljunk Eden ToS is fourteen pages long and you have to click to get past each page before finally being allowed to accept the bloody thing. Bad idea: preventing your players from actually playing your demo.

Finally in the game, I chose to start a new game, and like most arsty titles was slowly introduced to the game's core concepts through an in game tutorial. Unfortunately, this tutorial did nothing to tell me why I existed in the world, and instead seemed content to let me muddle around.

As I hopped around, squashed enemies, and gathered pollen I slowly began to feel comfortable with the controls (despite not having a clue what I was doing) and was really starting to enjoy the ambiance of the entire experience when suddenly the game paused and a dialog appeared on my screen. "The demo only allows you to play for 6 minutes at a time, and gather three thingamajigs." I was then unceremoniously deposited back at the menu screen, my progress lost without warning.

Quit. Delete. Eff you. Pixeljunk Eden was erased from my PS3 almost immediately as my frustration boiled over. "How dare the game cut me off without warning and lose my progress," was my dominant thought, "how effing dare it".

Making a good demo
Creating a demo that will sell a game is trickier than it seems, but by examining my experiences with Zen Pinball and Pixeljunk Eden a list of "do's" and "don'ts" starts to emerge.

DO: Make the demo representative of typical game play.

DON'T: Force lengthy update processes or unnecessary administrative screens.

DO: Tease the player with a taste of what they lose if they stick with the demo.

DON'T: Cut the player off without warning. If the demo is time restricted, say that from the start.

DO: Allow the player to play an adequate amount and feel some measure of success while doing so.

DON'T: Leave the player wondering what she should be doing.

DO: Remind the player to buy the full version with regularity.

And finally, remember: if you're not going to produce a good demo, then do not produce any demo at all!

So here I am on the other side of Dragon Age: Origins, and I'm already pining to play through the game again. I worry though. I've heard that DA:O loses a lot of its magic on subsequent playthroughs, and so I'm going to try to hold off until the summer games drought that will inevitably occur.

For now, I'll distract myself with some news and links:

• Anyone who played MUDs back when they were the only virtual worlds available will probably remember The Mud Connector as being one of the first and best web resources for players in search of a new digital home. Bright Hub posted a great interview with Andrew Cowan, creator of the site, a couple of weeks ago that is well worth checking out.
• The maker of the brilliant little Flash game "The Company of Myself" (which I raved about not so long ago) is working on a follow-up project entitled Grief. You can read about it on his site, and even play a small demo.
• Suck at video games? It may be due to the structure of your brain:
  
  

  New neurological research, published in—and made freely available by—the journal Cerebral Cortex has found a correlation between the size of a trio of structures in the human brain and their owner's ability to learn and play video games.

• In a discussion about game reviews, The Brainy Gamer points out a troubling statistic about video game publications that receive exclusive pre-release review rights:
  
  

  Should we be troubled by the fact that these handful of privileged sources have assigned [Mass Effect 2]e a collective average of 97? Does it matter that early exclusive reviews nearly always skew higher than those appearing later?

  
  I'm sure Mass Effect 2 will be great, but 97%??? Really??
• I need to get me some of whatever Melmoth is on. Yikes.
  
• And finally, The Associated Press has a headslapper of a story about a video game-playing criminal:
  
  

  Sheriff's deputies in central Florida found a suspected car thief playing the "Grand Theft Auto" video game, and they later charged him with just that.
  
  Polk County deputies investigating the theft of a 1998 Dodge Durango arrested 30-year-old Michael Ray Ekes on Thursday. They found the SUV outside a Haines City home. Ekes was inside in the house, playing the popular video game.

  
  Sigh.
  

That's all for now - I'll have something more substantial to talk about tomorrow.

Green Man Gaming, a UK-based company, is set to launch a service that allows gamers to trade in their "used" digitally downloaded games much in the same way that console gamers can hock their wares at their local gaming shop for in-store credit.

GameSpy has the scoop:

Gian Luzio, COO for Green Man Gaming says, "Previously the minute you had paid and downloaded your game it had no resale value. This is extremely expensive for the gamer and does not encourage the consumer to try new genres or franchises. Our leading edge technology gives downloaded games a value that gamers can trade-in at any time."

Green Man Gaming will ensure that the publishing community receives substantial remuneration from the digital pre-owned market. "We will pay significant royalties to the publisher each time the game is traded in perpetuity." commented Luzio.

Personally I cannot see Green Man Gaming succeeding, there are simply too many holes in their plan and too many problems with digital re-distribution.

First and foremost there is the question of DRM. With so many PC titles locked behind draconian DRM walls, it sounds like a massive headache for both consumers and game developers to create safe and reliable methods of game transfer. License keys, which are one of the key aspects of these copy protection schemes, would have to be permanently revoked from one consumer's system(s) before being transferred to a new owner. Since there is no common cross-company method of managing digital rights, this is both a complex and costly proposition. Key piracy, always a concern, would become even more dangerous - it wouldn't take long for an enterprising pirate to figure out a good way to steal honest buyers' keys and resell them.

Leaving aside the technical aspect of the argument against a virtual used games market, I have a difficult time imagining that game developers and publishers, who have long fought to maintain control over the distribution of their products, would be open to embracing Green Man Gaming's proposed new business model. Even if they are compensated for part of the value of used game sales (something that console game publishers do not have the luxury of), the earnings would pale in comparison to that of an original purchase. With the rise of services like Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse there is no reason for game publishers to hand over control of their property to yet another third party - especially since they can deeply discount their games on the existing services and see massive sales as a result, and a renewed buzz around their titles.

Finally, the entire concept of a "used" digital download is extremely sketchy. Unlike a physical game, a digitally downloaded piece of software is just data on your hard drive. It cannot get banged up, the manual won't get worn, and there is no case to break. When you buy a game from a service like Steam all you are doing is purchasing the rights to run the software on your machine(s); thus Green Man Gaming's service is reduced to a third party rights management transfer service.

So long as the digital download services continue to operate as they have been over the past year then there is no need to invent a virtual used games market; frugal gamers need only to wait for the inevitable Steam sale on a title to get a bargain. It is in no one's best interest (aside from Green Man Gaming's) to walk down this path, neither consumers nor game developers will be served by adding another middle man.

Warning: This article contains spoilers.

Areas spoiled: Landsmeet, Return to Redcliffe, Defense of Denerim, End game

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

It's over. After 61 hours, 26 minutes and 49 seconds Fiona finally reached the end of her journey, slaying the Archdemon and restoring some semblance of peace to Ferelden. From her humble beginnings as a sheltered member of the Circle of Magi, she outgrew the boundaries set out for her by society, and forged a path of bravery, compassion, and even love through the hordes of Darkspawn.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here, when I last wrote it was time to call the Landsmeet and see if Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir could finally be overthrown, and the armies of Ferelden brought to bear on the Blight.

The Landsmeet

- When I entered the Landsmeet I was immediately met by Ser Cauthrien, the knight who had so recently managed to solo my entire party without as much as breaking a sweat. She attacked, and apparently had forgotten to take her wheaties that morning because I mopped the floor with her (much to my surprise). What was the point of nerfing her for the second bout, I wonder?

- In the actual Landsmeet I had three votes in my favor - including Anora's brilliant speech - and three votes against. Apparently in the strange kingdom of Ferelden this tie vote counts as a clear win for the incumbent, and Teyrn Loghain declared victory and attacked.

- The resulting royal rumble in the hall was amusing, and I spent much of the time trying to keep Loghain locked down with Cone of Cold, while fending off the rest of the troops.

- When order was finally restored, a duel was demanded to resolve the claim for the throne. Although I assumed that my crowd control would be best for keeping Loghain at bay, I allowed Alistair to fight him since I did not want to weaken his claim to the throne.

- The duel turned out to be nasty, and Alistair had to chug potions like a pro to get through it in one piece. At the end a cut scene was triggered, and Alistair decapitated Loghain.

- Of course, Alistair's killing blow was not all sunshine and rainbows; after he pulled the decapitation stunt Anora flat out refused to marry him.... and I was forced to pick who would take the throne. After a few moments of humming and hawing I chose Alistair - bloodlines in Ferelden seem to be very important, and his claim by blood trumped Anora's. (Interestingly, I could have chosen to have Fiona marry Alistair and take the throne which might have been an option had she not already fallen in love with Leliana.)

- Anora was displeased with my choice and refused to swear fealty to Alistair. I ended up locking her in a tower instead of killing her or exiling her. It would be best to keep an eye on the woman.

To Redcliffe

- After resolving matters in Denerim, we marched to Redcliffe to defend the town from the Darkspawn armies and confront the Archdemon.

- I have no idea how Redcliffe got overrun; the town was filled with Darkspan who died in a single hit.... even a barwench with a broom should have been able to reliably kill a herd of the beasts.

- Things were more desperate at Redcliffe Castle, and the smirk was quickly wiped from my face as I had to reload the game after getting crushed in the courtyard.

- The second time went much smoother, and with the invasion repelled, everyone gathered in the castle where it was revealed that the main bulk of the invading army was marching on Denerim. Whoops.

Pivotal Decisions

- After the meetings I was instructed to get some rest, but before I did that I ran around the castle chatting with my allies and getting their impression of coming events. Strangely, when I arrived in my room Morrigan was waiting to quiz me about my relationship with Leliana. Awkward.

- The last thing I had to do before retiring was speak with the Orlesian Grey Warden, Riordan. In the conversations he revealed one of the Warden's great secrets: to vanquish an Archdemon permanently a Grey Warden must strike the killing blow, and that Grey Warden will die upon doing so. My reaction when I heard that, as scribbled on some note paper: "Oh shit".

- I returned to my room to find Morrigan still there, and this time she broadsided me with a request that completely flabbergasted me coming so soon on the heels of Riordan's revelations: she knew of a way to avoid sacrificing a Grey Warden to kill the Archdemon. If I would convince Alistair to sleep with her that night and impregnate her, then when the Archdemon was slain its essence would take over the budding child within her. After that Morrigan would leave to raise the child/demon/thing on her own.

- I almost took Morrigan up on that offer. I was so close to clicking the affirmative answer, but in the end I told her I couldn't do it. She reacted badly, as you might expect, and I refused to beg her to stay. I don't think that begging would have worked anyways.


- Losing Morrigan was an enormous blow to my party, which was built around having a pair of lock down crowd control mages. Not only that, she was my sole herbalist, and with no healers in my party, her departure made things a lot dicier.

The Defense of Denerim

- The next day the army marched to Denerim, but we were too late to intercept the invaders and by the time we arrived they had broken into the city.


- After dispersing the Darkspawn at the gates, I formed up a strike force to try to push my way through to Fort Drakon. I chose Fiona, Alistair, Leliana, and Oghren. Oghren is a poor substitute for Morrigan, by the way.

- The Denerim end game consists of three small areas to fight through before heading into Fort Drakon. Each battle is primarily filled with the "grunt" level Darkspawn that I encountered in Redcliffe, as well as a few elites. Also, in each area you can depoy one of the allies that you gathered through the main campaign: I had 50 each of elves, dwarves, and Redcliffe soldiers, as well as 12 mages to use. The Templars were strangely absent, despite claiming that they would support me.

- I deployed my troops as follows: Market - Redcliffe Soldiers. Elven Alienage - Elves. City Gate Defense - Dwarves. Palace District - Redcliffe soldiers. Fort Drakon courtyard - Elves. Archdemon - Elves. The Elves rock, what can I say.

- I tried deploying the mages once, but the computer AI for them is utterly brainless, and they happily tossed fireballs into melees that I was participating in, killing Alistair and Oghren off without fail. Morons.

- As all of this went on, a cut scene showing Riordan's death punctuated the fact that before long either Alistair or Fiona would have to die.... there was no longer an easy way out.

Fort Drakon

- As I cleared through Fort Drakon I couldn't help but notice that I was a kleptomaniac to the bitter end. I robbed the place blind, despite it technically belonging to Alistair now.

- The final battle was telegraphed by Sandal, the Dwarven enchanter, standing near a door. It's as if the developers wanted to give under-prepared adventurers one more chance to buy stuff. Personally, I was well stocked and so just sold all of the freshly-pillaged loot.


- Stepping out onto the rooftop behind Sandal triggered the game's final encounter: the battle with the Archdemon. My general tactics for any dragon in the game are simple: spread out, keep the mages and archers at range, and micromanage anyone who gets aggro.

- Disappointingly, the fight against the Archdemon turned out to be far easier than any other major boss battle in the entire game. Sure, I had to chain-quaff healing potions sometimes, but none of my characters were ever in danger of dying.

- At the half way point of the battle the Archdemon becomes unattackable and you have to fight off waves of Darkspawn. At this point a whole bunch of important NPCs show up, and I assume the difficulty at this stage is inversely proportional to how many off them that you managed to get on your side.


- Soon enough the Archdemon fell, and the last big choice came up: would I allow Alistair to strike the killing blow, or would I do it myself?

- Frankly, Fiona's nature the entire game has been to let her partymates make decisions for themselves, and it has been very rare that she has tried to change who or what they are. With that in mind I told Alistair that the kill was his if he was sure that he wanted it, and, as it turns out, he did. The Archdemon's last breath was also Alistair's. And so it ended.

Epilogue

- In the end it turned out that Anora got her throne after all, and - at least according to the game - she made a good Queen.

- When Anora offered me a reward I choice to ask for the Circle of Magi's independence from the Templars. I was actually amazed to see this as an option, and since it was something that Fiona wanted from the very start it was the choice I made over top of all of the riches and fame.

- I was excited to see that Bhelen turned out to be good to his word and started to reform Ozrammar! Any action to abolish the ruthless caste system that used to bind the dwarves is a good step.

- At the end of it all I allowed all of my companions to disperse... well, with one exception. Fiona and Leliana decided that they deserved a break from all of the excitement and bloodshed, and struck out on their own to travel the world. I'm sure that it won't be too long before the lovers find themselves in the midst of excitement again, but for now a rest is in order.


Last words
I hope that you have enjoyed reading about the travels of Fiona, the Grey Warden, as much as I have had writing them out. Dragon Age was an amazing experience and I cannot wait for the Awakenings expansion to release. (For those wondering, I have no interest in either the Warden's Keep or Return to Ostagar DLC bundles.)

I think I'll avoid writing up a formal post mortem for this game - I've scattered my praise and criticism throughout this nine part series, and I don't think anything can be gained by correlating it all.

I meant to write a meaningful article today, I really did, but then my lunch hour exploded into a flurry of customer support, and all I'm left with in a few measly minutes in which to cobble together the disparate thoughts that are floating around in my skull. In no particular order:

• I meant to finish a lot of games this month and even signed up for three commitments in Gamers With Jobs' monthly "Pile" thread. Sadly, I've made almost no progress. My wife's new work schedule has slowed our sessions of A Boy and His Blob to a crawl, my ongoing Dragon Age adventures have kept me from starting Mass Effect, and Demon's Souls has scratched my masochist itch to the point where I haven't picked up Shiren the Wanderer in weeks.
• Is anyone else worried that Bioshock 2 is going to be a huge let down? Don't get me wrong, I'm a massive fan of the first game, but the more I think of it the more I realize that it was the unexpected atmosphere of Bioshock that made it so memorable for me. Just like Shrek 2 was so much less than the original Shrek due to the formula being known in advance, I worry that Bioshock 2 fail to win over my heart and mind for similar reasons. (The fact that Ken Levine isn't part of the team only adds to my discomfort.)
  
• Speaking of sequels, since I won't have played Mass Effect before the second installment arrives, I'm going to take a pass on the pre-order bonuses, and instead wait for the inevitable Steam sale. I could probably use a small break from Bioware RPGs anyways.

That's it for now!

On a whim I downloaded and fired up the PS3 white room teaser demo for Fairytale Fights a couple of nights ago. The demo is extremely straight forward: you are placed on a white background and then assaulted for a few minutes by progressively difficult waves of enemies. The brawl lasts until you are killed or time runs out.

Fairytale Fights is a ridiculously violent cartoon brawler that allows you to take control of a storybook hero and butcher everything that stands in your way. The art style is extremely stylized and cutesy, but once the action starts it is also over-the-top violent. In short, it's perfect!

Mechanically, the game is a twin-stick beat 'em up. The left stick is used for movement, while the right stick allows you to launch all manner of attacks. The rest of the buttons perform useful functions like jump, pick up, dodge, and so on.

Combat is both simple and deep; it is easy to dive right into the action and start pounding the crap out of animated baddies, but if you have an appetite for more depth then you can incorporate the six pages worth of combos shown in the tutorial into your game. On top of the normal brawling are weapons that you can pick up and use, Double Dragon style, until they are knocked out of your hands.


The weapons are where the game really becomes a riot. As much fun as it is to pound someone bloody with your fists, I was literally howling with laughter when I picked up a sword and started hacking cartoon limbs off. I nearly fell out of my chair when I sliced an enemy cleanly in half, and then that bloody half hobbled around the screen for a few seconds before pitching over, dead. And of course who could resist an old school blunderbuss? Blowing a hole through the big bad wolf was almost a necessity! My absolute favorite thing to do in the Fairytale Fights demo, however, was to run through the pools of blood, and watch my little character slide through the mess - you really need to see it to believe it.

As a pick up and play demo, Fairytale Fights is a masterpiece of cartoon gore and hilarity. The action is fast paced, funny, and addictive and the experience has me seriously contemplating buying the game. The only hitch right now is that my wife isn't so sure that she wants to play co-op with me, and I'd rather play with her than on my own. We'll see how persuasive I can be.

Official site: link
Demo parameters: White room, time limited brawl
Release date: Now
Cost: $39.99

Warning: This article contains spoilers. I would, however, appreciate if you did not spoil anything beyond the point of the game that I discuss.

Areas spoiled: Arl of Denerim's Estate, Denerim Alienage, Leliana's personal quest, various side quests

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The end, I am told, is near. Fiona, now level 19 and fifty-seven hours into her quest, has secured the aid of all four Grey Warden allies and is prepared to challenge Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir for supremacy of Ferelden. My last few play sessions have been extremely plot heavy (a nice break from the combat-heavy Ozrammar) and I was forced to make many uncomfortable decisions. I'm sure they only get tougher from here.

My party composition (as it frequently is) was Fiona, Morrigan, Leliana, and Alistair for the duration. My thoughts on progress, as always:

Cleaning up some side quests

- One of the interesting things about not following a guide or using FAQs is that I'm never quite sure how things should be done, or in what order. Thus, I decided that before triggering the Landsmeet I had to clean up all of my open side quests in case the game cut off access to them.

- My first stop was the mountaintop above the village of Haven for a rematch with the High Dragon. Although I had to micromanage my potions and party positioning, I dispatched of the beast on my first attempt with very little trouble.

- The dragon dropped a pile of loot, most of which was trash, as well as a dragon scale. The dragon scale (as well as some drake scales I acquired in Haven) were tradeable in Denerim at Wade's Emporium. When asked what I wanted made from the scale I chose heavy armor - Alistair appreciated the gesture.

- When I first visited Denerim I was experimenting with my party composition and didn't have Leliana with me for the back alleys. Remembering this, I cruised through the old areas and picked the locks on some chests.

- Aside from the chests in the alleys I also stumbled across Gax'kang the Unbound, who apparently is the culmination of a quest that I didn't realize I was on. The resulting fight took place in a cramped hovel, and was nasty. My mages kept stealing aggro from Alistair, and had to be manually microed into the back room to keep them alive. The fight lasted quite a while, but at the end everyone was alive and I received a really sweet sword (The Keening Blade) as a reward.

I heart Leliana

- From almost the beginning of the game Leliana has been my favorite computer-controlled ally, and I've spent a lot of time listening to her stories about places, people, and her past wherever I go. As a bard she has a lot of stories to tell, and I've devoured each of them. Leliana is also the only party member that I've managed to raise to 100 approval.

- I decided that I needed to complete Leliana's personal quest, which involves a quick trip to Denerim to deal with Marjolaine, her former employer, friend, and - perhaps - lover. The quest itself is not combat oriented, and simply involves backing up Leliana as she confronts the woman. The reward, Marjolaine's Recurve, was a nice touch to an otherwise very well done personal back story.

- Back at camp I immediately went to talk to Leliana, and convinced her that she's not as awful and manipulative as Marjolaine, and that she could be an effective bard (part minstrel, part assassin) without also being evil.

- The quest and conversations seemed to open up new romance dialog options, and given the relationship that Leliana hinted existed between her and Marjolaine in the past, I decided to see if she would fall for Fiona as well. Over the course of a few conversations a relationship was teased out, and then a kiss, and finally something more.


- The decision for the sexual cut scenes to take place around the party's camp fire is more than a little odd, and I can't help but think that Oghren, that dirty dwarf, got quite the show that night.


- I really do enjoy how characters react differently to you depending on their approval, and especially once a romance has been established. It breathes life into the game where it would otherwise be stagnant.

To Denerim with the Arl of Redcliffe

- Diversions out of the way, I traveled to Redcliffe Castle and told the Arl that I was ready to call the Landsmeet.

- The first major event to occur in Denerim is a confrontation with Teyrn Loghain in the castle. The dialog option presented stumped me for a few minutes. All I had to do was fill in the blank: "I am...." (a) Witness to your crimes at Ostagar, (b) Fiona, a Grey Warden, or (c) a friend of Alistair, your rightful king. It was not an easy choice, because each answer had such a different tone, and so many possible outcomes in my mind. After humming and hawing I chose (b), and then spent the remainder of the conversation biting my tongue, trying not to antagonize the man that I was ready to kill.

- Hot on the heels of the meeting with Teyrn Loghain you are visited by Erlina, the servant to Queen Anora who claims that her mistress is in trouble, and may be killed by Logain (her father). I couldn't figure out who to believe, and tried to postpone any decision until later.

The Arl of Denerim's Estate

- Despite not trusting Erlina's story (and the Queen by proxy), I agreed to sneak into the Arl of Denerim's Estate to speak with Anora.

- I couldn't help poking around the castle, and when I stumbled into a room where a guard was romancing a servant I set off the alarms. Whoops. Frustratingly, the woman who ran to sound the alarm was not attackable - I would have liked the option to stop her from doing so.

- After defending myself on the main floor I ventured into the dungeons. The first room along the way had a great scene with an Orlesian Grey Warden who had been captured.

- The major fight in the dungeons was with Arl Howe, and it took a bit of strategy to get by. Like I often do I immediately dropped a sleep bomb in the room, and scampered into the hallway. I then dispatched the soldiers while paralyzing the mages, all while having Alistair tank Howe. Once I killed the mages off things got easier, and thankfully I kept them crowd controlled most of the time, and thus unable to do anything too nasty. Howe died shortly after his last mage hit the ground.

- Further into the dungeon, as I was releasing prisoners, I came across Vaughn, the Arl of Denerim's son. He had the gall to insult elves, and so I left him locked up to rot. Bastard.

- After (finally) rescuing Queen Anora I was about to head outside when Ser Cauthrien and her compliment of twenty knights stopped me. I sleep-bombed the lot of them, retreated to Anora's room, and dropped an Earthquake and a Blizzard into the main room as I went to slow everyone down. Unfortunately Ser Cauthrien shrugged off the crowd control quickly, and proceeded to solo my entire party.

A prisoner in Fort Drakon

- Interestingly, being defeated by Ser Cauthrien did not give me a game over screen, but instead deposited Alistair and Fiona in Fort Drakon, Denerim's prison.


- When prompted, I chose to try to escape, and specifically to try to get a guard's attention.

- After hailing a guard I could either feign sickness, or try to seduce him. Deciding that Fiona's feminine wiles couldn't be wasted, I chose the latter. Creepily, the guard seemed more than happy to come do the nasty in front of Alistair, and when I asked him to get out of his armor he happily obliged.... well, sort of (see below).


- After beating the crap out of the naked guardsman, Alistair and Fiona broke out of the cell, found their gear conveniently stashed in a crate, and put it all on with a single click.

- Exploring around I found soldier disguises, and, deciding that subtlety would be better than brute force, put them on. What followed was a simple little puzzle quest to get out of the Fort by deceiving a number of soldiers and commanders into thinking that we were new recruits, and getting sent on patrol.

Back at the ranch

- Escape completed, I arrived back at the Arl of Denerim's estate to find that my companions and Queen Anora had escaped successfully (despite being defeated.... strange).

- A discussion with the Arl revealed the next big decision: who should sit on the throne? The initial plan had been the reluctant Alistair, however Anora wanted to continue being Queen as well.

- After some (fairly simple) brinkmanship I had convinced Anora and Alistair to have a marriage of convenience and rule together. The theory is that Alistair's presence will hopefully mitigate the innate distrust that I feel for Anora. Time will tell how the compromise works out.

- Returning to Denerim, Alistair wanted to visit his half sister whom he had never met. The resulting reunion was equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating; Goldanna ended up being a bitter gold digger. I allowed Alistair to give her 15 sovereigns, but when that didn't whet her appetite we walked out.

The Denerim Alienage

- As the underclass sin Dragon Age, the city elves live in a slum within Denerim. When you arrive they are suffering from a plague.

- I gave gold to the first beggar I saw, and then a little while later he was back with a friend asking for more. I gave them less, and then shortly after an entire herd showed up looking for money. That lot got nothing. Just like in real life, donating to beggars on the street only encourages them to keep at it.... I know better. (In real life my rule is to donate to a charity that helps feed street people. Warm beds and clean clothes is better than giving them cash straight up in my opinion.)

- The orphange was extremely creepy, even more so due to the presence of the blind Ser Otto, who meets a grisly end.


- The true cause of the Alienage's problems turn out to be Tevinter slavers that Teyrn Loghain has sold the elven population of Denerim to. Interestingly, despite being slavers the Tevinters at least treat the elven members of their own society with respect.

- When I confronted Caladrius I almost bought the letter implicating Logain for 100g, however I decided against it and instead beat the hell out of him.

- The fight against Caladrius and his soldiers was amusing. For the most part I stood in the room behind him and cast Earthquakes and Blizzards on his troops until they were all dead. In turn, he sent Blizzards down on my head, forcing me to retreat into the hallway. When he was finally alone I rushed him and dispatched him with no hassle. I'd imagine not using long range warfare would have made the fight much more difficult.

- As always, when Caladrius begged for mercy I let him go free - but not before he gave me that letter to use against Teyrn Loghain.

Next steps
When I next play I will finally be calling the Landsmeet, and I'm sure life will get messy in a hurry. I have no idea how much of the game is left, however at fifty-seven hours in I have to assume that I'm getting close.

Warning: Rabid fanboy mode engaged.

My wife and I downloaded the new international trailer for Final Fantasy XIII last night on our PS3 and were promptly blown away by it.



I've been a Final Fantasy fan boy since the very first game arrived in North America and it kicked my thirteen year-old ass hard. I remember dying many times in the Marsh Cave, but I didn't give up and eventually I got the hang of these new fangled RPG things, and powered through the entire game. I've beaten every main installment of the Final Fantasy franchise as they were ported out of Japan (and sometimes, via the magic of ROMs, before) with the exception of Final Fantasy XII (damned WoW) and Final Fantasy XI (which, as an MMO, doesn't count).


Anyhow, as I sat watching the XIII trailer my jaw was firmly planted on the floor. I am in awe of the art, adore the voice acting, love the music, and am intrigued by the battle system. I could care less that the game is extremely linear; unlike some people I do not find this to be a turn off at all. I've never played JRPGs to make choices, I play them to be told a story.

The best moment of the trailer had to be when the chocobo first appeared on the screen; both my wife and I simultaneously squealed with joy. We're such fanatics.... it's going to be a wonderful experience to pass the controller back and forth for an hour or two every couple of nights, and watch the story unfold together. March 9th cannot arrive soon enough.

I would have loved to have titled this article "Boldly going where no other scam has gone before", however Cryptic's announcement that they are selling lifetime subscriptions for their upcoming Star Trek Online MMO prior to the game's actual release date is a case of disheartening déjà vu.

It was probably inevitable. After selling out their lifetime Champions Online subscriptions it only makes sense that Cryptic would try to find more people willing to gamble a hefty sum of cash on an unproven game. Of course, for those unwilling to fork over $240 (plus pre-order) there is always the $120 12-month plan which is equally risky.

By all accounts Star Trek Online is in much the same boat as Champions Online was prior to release: it needs a lot of work if it's going to be successful. Unfortunately, Cryptic seems hellbent on ramming yet another MMO out the door, and it will come as no surprise to anyone if it turns into the sort of massive flop that last year's botched Champions release was.

Even still, I have no doubt that MMO loving Trekkies will eagerly snap up the lifetime subscription offers, and they won't be alone: space junkies looking for a faster paced game (as opposed to EVE) as well as players with too much disposable income in their pockets and too little sense in their heads will quickly follow.

The Cryptic offer appeals to the same part of our animal brains that the insane Steam holiday sales did. Humans have a hard time justifying NOT spending money when confronted with a deal that appears to be too good to be true; it is doubly hard to resist when the deal expires on a known date.

Spending to save is a disease that plagues our society. But just like $5 for a one year old AAA PC game seems like an amazing steal (even if you'll never play it), so to does $240 for a lifetime of play in an MMO, and that is why normally sane people will pony up the cash. In both cases you are gambling that you will get your money's worth, and far too often that will turn out to be a losing proposition.

Of course, $5 is a lot less of a risk than $240 and that is the crux of why I praise Steam for breathing life into the PC gaming market with their sales while simultaneously accusing Cryptic of trying to scam fanboys. In the end it's your money, and you are free to spend it however you please. Encouraging Cryptic to continue selling lifetime subscriptions using pressure tactics, however, is a dangerous move for the MMO industry.

Ah Beyond Good & Evil 2, how I pine for thee. First it was delayed, then it was put on hold indefinitely, and now it is back in production again? My heart can't take much more of this rollercoaster ride.

Honestly, I'd sell a part of my soul to revisit Jade and the claustrophobic dystopian world that she lives in. I want to get back to sneaking around, taking pictures of atrocities as they unfold, and beating up the odd baddie when the situation warrants it. If I get to drive around in a hovercraft again, then all the better.

More than any other type of entertainment, massively multiplayer online games exhibit one of the most important characteristics of living creatures: they are constantly evolving in response to the changes in their environment.

Spurred on by an excellent article by Psychochild, Gordon recently wrote an post connecting MMOs to genetic programming in which he asserted that these large games needed to undergo gene-like mutation in order to "excite [players] and stimulate new growth".

Unfortunately, I feel that what Gordon is actually looking for is something different than genetic mutation, and in fact he misuses the term in his piece repeatedly. Specifically, the following quotation demonstrates his mistake:

We now see evolutions of minor features, like guild windows, instead of sweeping and grand gestures that drive the industry forward. Mutation, the anomalies which bring radical changes and ideas to the table, are necessary in order to challenge the status quo.

Evolution is not a discrete operation, it is a complex one that, in genetic programming, is made up of two operations: crossover and mutation. Crossover mimics reproduction in nature, and is a chance for two different organisms to share their genes in order to create a new organism. Mutation, on the other hand, is accomplished by randomly changing the values of genes and is used to introduce novelty into the system and prevent stagnation. Long term evolution is impossible without mutation, and difficult without crossover. Thus, the minor features that Gordon observes and the sweeping changes that he hopes will happen are both evolutionary - only the scale differs.

Fleshing out the evolution analogy

While I may take issue with Gordon's application of the ideas and terms that underpin genetic computing and evolutionary theory in general, I think that the idea that MMOs are complex creatures within an evolutionary landscape is a fascinating one.

Whereas most games are released to consumers and live or die based on their form at the time of shipping, massively multiplayer games have ongoing patches, release cycles, and expansions. The look and feel of an MMO on day one is radically different from its form five years later; a quick look at World of Warcraft provides a perfect illustration of this. In short, an MMO can be said to evolve.

So how exactly do the elements of an MMO map to genetic computing, and how tight a fit is this analogy?

Organism: Every MMO represents a single organism, which competes with all other organisms for limited resources within an environment. The success of each MMO is measured by how long it lasts and how much money it makes.

Environment: The landscape that these organisms live and compete in is not a physical place, but rather is defined by the play time of video game consumers. Clearly this environment is not bounded, and may grow or shrink depending on the popularity of MMOs in general, and the games industry as a whole.

Resources: The primary resource that organisms compete for in the environment is cash. Without a stable cash flow an MMO cannot survive, and will eventually be shut down. Secondarily, MMOs compete for play time which may not always translate directly to dollars, but is indirectly valuable in obtaining them.

Fitness: The fitness of an MMO can be measured directly by calculating some combination of monthly revenue and gross hours played across all users. Without making a profit, an MMO is less likely to add new features and evolve, and instead will focus all of its earnings on survival (server/staff maintenance).

Chromosomes: Organisms in this system are made up of chromosomes, each of which represents a system or feature within an MMO. Chromosomes may be simple (e.g. the minimap widget) or complex (e.g. the combat system), however complex chromosomes can be reduced to a series of simple chromosomes.

To bring it all together, under the evolutionary model organisms (MMOs) consisting of chromosomes (features) compete for resources (dollars) within an environment (video game players), and their success and longevity are determined based on their fitness (profits).

Evolution in motion

To illustrate these concepts and bring the discussion back to the original topic of mutation within massively multiplayer games, it may be instructive to consider an example of how an MMO introduces a new feature, and what evolutionary steps are taken along the way.

Mutation Example:

Step 1. A developer comes up with an idea for a change to the game (which could be an addition, removal, or modification), thinks it over in his head, and perhaps in extreme cases runs some simple numbers or writes a basic proof of concept to validate the idea. This is the mutation in its rawest form.

Step 2. The idea for the feature-mutation is shared with company stakeholders and (frequently) members of the game's community. The feedback from this initial review process serves to estimate the fitness of the feature-mutation (which is a luxury that nature does not have).

Step 3. If the fitness estimate is deemed to be net positive (or, at worst, neutral), then the feature-mutation is implemented within the MMO (i.e. the mutation "multiplies" within the "population"). If the idea is not supported, the feature-mutation dies out immediately.

Step 4. After the implementation has been completed, some initial in-house testing is performed. Data from these tests trigger another round of fitness testing, after which the feature-mutation could again live or die.

Step 5. The change is deployed onto test servers where real players can dabble with it. The feature-mutation is once again tested for fitness.

Step 6. The feature-mutation is rolled out to the live servers, where the entire player base can interact with it. At this point you could consider the mutation to have been adopted by the entire organism (MMO). Obviously, the fitness of the organism including this new feature-mutation is again tested as players react to the impact by playing and/or paying more or less depending on how they feel about the game with the new feature incorporated.

In this way the living game (MMO) is constantly evolving through a series of small mutations, each of which has to pass a series of fitness tests before finally being adopted by the organism as a whole. It is important to note that even after being adopted into the main organism, these feature-mutations will constantly have their fitness tested as their environment (the player base) changes, the organism adopts more and different mutations, and other organisms evolve to compete for the finite resource pool.

Summary
Of course, the analogy isn't perfect - in nature and genetic programming speciation can occur, and entire different competing species with the same original ancestors will compete for supremacy in the same environment. Within the scope of the MMO genre, however, organisms do not reproduce in quite this manner. The closest games come to speciation is when games blatantly clone existing titles (e.g. Alganon copying World of Warcraft), and then diverge from that base copy.

Even still, it is clear that MMOs evolve and adapt in a manner that is not all that far off from the fundamentals of genetic programming and evolutionary theory. Spurred on by the implicit competition for consumer dollars, these living games are constantly remaking themselves to appeal to an audience that can provide them with the resources they need to sustain their day to day operations and grow towards the future.

It's anyone's guess what the MMOs of tomorrow will look like, but chances are extremely strong that whatever form they arrive at will be the result of incremental changes (both big and small) over time.

Bonus points
Although it it beyond the scope of this article, I believe it is safe to say that the interactions between consumers and the large number of MMOs on the market serve to form the basis of a complex adaptive system. As such, the direction of the genre (for lack of a better term) is emergent as opposed to predetermined. This implies that no matter what the best and brightest game designers in the world today may think, they are not really in control of the shape of MMOs in the future. It's a fascinating thought.

Sometimes a game manages to capture a mood or a state of mind perfectly. This little gem, which will take you less than a minute to complete, does just that: Life is Hard.

Life, in a nutshell.

[via Gamers With Jobs]

When I wrote up my thoughts on the Bayonetta demo I stayed well away from debate that has been raging over whether or not the game's portrayal of women is degrading. The main character, as you are well aware, is an extremely sexual creature, and everything from her lithe movements to the random camera snaps that are artistically inserted into the midst of game play is crafted around making that as brazenly clear as possible.

Writing for GamePro, Leigh Alexander has written a piece explaining her thoughts on the matter. Here's an excerpt from the article, in which she tries to decide if Bayonetta is exploitative or empowering:

Bayonetta takes the video game sexy woman stereotype from object to subject, and it's tremendously empowering. The title character uses the mantle of her sexuality as a power source. Between Bayonetta and her equally fierce rival, Jeane, it's a women's world -- the boys just play in it. The Umbra Witches aren't to be messed with. With this unique theme, the game itself is an artistic representation of the concept that female sexuality is its own kind of weapon. This stylized love letter to femininity is signed and sealed with all of the game's tiny details, from the kiss-shaped aiming targets to the subtle grace of Bayonetta's butterfly-shaped shadow.

[...]

But what about her unrealistic body, her gratuitous sashaying, the lollipop-licking? The hypersexualization of Bayonetta is intentionally unrealistic -- just as unrealistic as the superhuman aplomb of the Devil May Cry boys. Dante, for example, is a pleasure to play because of his unrealism, and Bayonetta is too. Both reject subtlety in favor of unrestrained, sometimes theatrically-excessive style in their own ways.

That emphasis on style over character substance isn't every player's taste, but it's not inherently unfair to women in this case. Kamiya's thematic choice for Bayonetta is an undercurrent that unifies the entire game, thus giving her sexuality context -- and context is the most important consideration in judging whether an element is appropriate or not.

The entire article is well worth reading.

Warning: This article contains spoilers. I would, however, appreciate if you did not spoil anything beyond the point of the game that I discuss.

Areas spoiled: Orzammar, Carta Hideout, the Deep Roads

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Forty nine and a half hours into Dragon Age, and I have finally finished up the four main quests that started way back in Lothering all those weeks ago. I have secured the help of the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and mages and am finally ready push out that slimeball Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir, and then take the fight to the dark spawn.

Along the way Fiona has crept up to level 18 and, in tandem with Morrigan, can dish out a nasty amount of damage while locking down ninety percent of the combatants on the field. The downside is that it doesn't take a heck of a lot to kill her, and some of the tougher fights in the Deep Roads forced me to micromanage my mages to a new level in order to keep them alive.

Today's post title, by the way, is courtesy of Oghren.

Into Orzammar

- If I had thought that the Elves and the Humans were nasty customers, then the Dwarves opened my eyes to the absolute depths to which a civilized race can sink in the Dragon Age world. Their caste system is brutal and unfair, with entire swathes of their race being treated as non-people by simple accident of birth.

- I absolutely loved the Dwarven lass, Dagna, who wanted to study with the Circle of Magi. Adorable. Given my distaste for the caste system, I took it upon myself to recommend her at the Tower despite her father's rejection of her dream.

- The Orzammar storyline centers around choosing between two rivals for the throne of the underground kingdom. Harrowmont is a well-liked traditionalist who has an honest reputation, while Bhelen is the son of the previous king who is rumored to have killed both his brother and father. After speaking to the commoners and nobles I wasn't sure who to side with, however a visit to Dust Town convinced me that getting Bhelen on the throne was the only chance to turn the draconian Dwarven system around. Even if Bhelen turns out to be a bastard, at least he represented change; Harrowmont, no matter how honest, believed that Orzammar's social system was right and just and that felt completely wrongheaded. Bhelen earned my grudging support.

- While performing the Dwarven quests I made sure to gobble up all of the codex entries that appeared so that I could deal with the Dwarves from a position of knowledge instead of ignorance. On a few occasions this extracurricular research seemed to pay off, as Dwarves responded positively to an Elf knowing about their culture.

Decapitating the Carta

- Although I wanted to destroy the Carta - a gang of thugs that terrorize the denizens of Dust Town - immediately upon finding out about them, the game only allowed me to take a crack at them after an initial excursion into the Deep Roads at Bhelen's request. This forced linearity grated a little bit in a game like Dragon Age.

- As per my normal pattern, I let Jarvia's thugs live when I shook them down for information on how to infiltrate the Carta. I didn't see them again, so I assume they decided to play it safe and not double-cross me.

- The corridors of the Carta hideout are narrow, and it is was under these conditions that I learned the power of casting Sleep with one mage, and following it up with Mass Paralysis. Since Sleep is instant cast and locks down most enemies in a hurry, which then allows the much more potent Mass Paralysis time to fire off.

- All in all the Carta, and Jarvia herself, were fairly trivial.

In search of Branka

- The final task required to put a Dwarven king on the throne is to locate the paragon Branka and win her support. Bhelen insinuates that if she is located but her support cannot be gained than killing her might be necessary. Upon hearing this I winced, but jotted a note down to do so if required.


- After receiving the quest I was accosted by Oghren, who had been a prick to me earlier. I gave him a rough ride in the dialog tree, but there didn't seem to be a way to outright reject his help. I ended up benching Alistair for the entire Deep Roads expedition as a result.

- Along the way I decided to put together the demon in the "Asunder" quest, and since it didn't seem overly aggressive I allowed it to go free. I scored a quick 25 gold for this flippant decision, and I'm interested to see if it comes back to haunt me.

- The Corrupted Spider Queen was the first real challenge I faced in the Deep Roads. She killed me twice before I finally managed to put her down. It was particularly challenging to crowd control the four spiders she periodically summoned before they tore apart my mages. The fight reminded me of a World of Warcraft raid, but on a smaller scale.

- When I met Ruck, the Dwarf driven mad by eating dark spawn flesh, I agreed to lie to his mother and tell her that he died a long time ago. I pitied the poor man, but he was still living in his own way, and so I allowed him to continue doing so.

- Speaking of tough fights, getting mobbed by eight shrieks is nasty business. I barely survived an ambush, with only Leliana up by the end of it. She seems to have a horseshoe wedged somewhere... she was the only survivor in the Flemeth battle too.


- The fight with the Broodmother was intense. I died my first time through, and on my second attempt I survived with zero potions left. Ugh. The fight took a lot of micromanagement because I couldn't allow anyone to stand near the tentacles, but I also couldn't group party members up due to the constant AOE attacks from the Broodmother. The second wave of adds nearly did me in, and I had to blow a lot of CC just to have a chance. An extremely well done fight !

Dealing with a Paragon

- When I finally located Branka it was clear that she'd gone completely mad. I determined at that point that I'd have to kill her if the game allowed it, and I wouldn't even feel bad about it.

- I stumbled into a strategy against the Spirit Anvil that felt a bit like an exploit. I had my party wait around a corner out of line of sight, pulled a single spirit with Leliana's ranged attacks, killed it, and then clicked on the anvil when it lit up. Rinse and repeat. Doing this allowed me to avoid fighting multiple ghosts at once, which made the fight extremely easy. Did anyone else do it this way? If not, how tough did you find the battle?

- When I had to choose what to do with Caridin I found the decision excruciating. The Anvil of the Void was extremely powerful, but also malignant. In making my choice to destroy the Anvil I had a showdown with Morrigan, and I honestly expected it to end badly; I actually threatened her. In the end I only earned -1 approval which seemed weak considering the intensity of the conflict.

- The resulting fight against Branka was the hardest I've fought to date, and it took me four attempts to put her down. The biggest problem I had was that she could one-shot my mages, and so I had to be very aware of who she had aggro on, and if it was a mage I had to manually flee.

Crowning a King

- Caridin forged me a crown to give to the Dwarf of my choosing, and interestingly enough even that late into the adventure the game gave me the option of crowning Harrowmont.

- I stuck with Bhelen, and the idiot's first order was for Harrowmont to be executed. I tried to convince him otherwise, but to no avail. He then started threatening the children of assembly members who didn't vote for him. What an ass. Still, if Bhelen can change Dwarven culture to something less caste-driven then it won't have been a total waste.

- As a final act in Orzammar I convinced the leader of the Legion of the Dead to fight topside during the final battle against the blight.

As an aside, when I got back to camp to talk to my allies, I was presented with the following absolutely inane dialog with Zevran. I've never tried to hit on the guy even once... but even if I had, option three is still juvenile: