Most of the content of Dragon Age Central has been developer posts to the official Dragon Age forums, first opened in May 2004. But all things must come to an end, and these forums were shut down on 2nd November 2009, the day before the game’s release in North America.
Since I haven’t had time to add much other content to the site for most of 2009, I’ve decided to also shut down Dragon Age Central as it was, leaving it here as an archive.
The new Dragon Age Central is now a much simpler (and fully automated) website dedicated to making developer posts to the new official forum (on Bioware’s social site) easier to find and search through.
It’s been interesting running this site, and in a way I’ll miss it... but hopefully I’ll be too busy finally playing the actual game to care :)
Dragon Age Central
Updated: Monday, 02 November 2009 02:07PM | Synced: 389214 mins ago
Forum posts were made by game developers. Please do not take posts out of context. While these individuals will have special insight into certain game-related questions, they are by no means the final authority. Please read the full topic and all its replies before forming an opinion. Remember, all things are subject to change.
-{ 2009 }-
Forum Post
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Character Updates - Alistair and Sten now with Sten & Alistair videos [+28]
Date: Friday, 05 June 2009 05:38PM The Grey Wardens headquarters is off in the Anderfels, a long ways away. And the Blight in Ferelden has just begin -- it takes time to get word out to such distant places. According to what you're told when you get to Ostagar, the Grey Wardens in Orlais (of which there are a significant number) are on their way. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Loghain or King? [+1]
Date: Thursday, 28 May 2009 05:29PM Correct. Loghain's men are on the other side of the tower, out of sight from the darkspawn. ---- As for the subject of realism, every fantasy realm has its own internal measure of reality -- from fireballs and fantastical creatures all the way on down to armor and weapons. Some are going to be more Conan and Excalibur, others are going to be more Frank Frazetta and World of Warcraft. Take your pick which you prefer, but we've chosen our style and so long as we're consistent I don't see the issue. Dragon Age could literally be a cartoon (which it is not, by any stretch of the imagination) and you could still tell a dark and mature story in that context no problem. If you choose to disagree and point to unrealistic armor or what-not as your sticking point, that's fine -- but I would suggest the blindness is deliberate on your part. Sorry. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories:
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Thread: The Qun. What is it, and do we like it? [+26]
Date: Thursday, 28 May 2009 05:01PM Hey! I like that! Still got lots of Thedas to explore yet. 
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Chris Priestly ~ Community Coordinator Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Can the player ignore the storyline? [+7]
Date: Thursday, 28 May 2009 02:59PM
Well, you can ignore the storyline, but only for so long.
There are a lot of side quests, subplots, party/NPC stories, etc that you can choose to do as you play Dragon Age: Origins. These are optional content that will be presented to the players to pursue or not as they choose. In general, you can spend as much time trying to complete these as you choose. However, over and above all the subplots is the core game story or "critical path". The only way to make it from the beginning of the game to the end of the game is to complete the critical path. Some areas of the game (and the subplots they contain) will only be accessible after you have completed otehr sections of the game revealed through the critical path. Edit: Darned fragments. |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Loghain or King? [+1]
Date: Thursday, 28 May 2009 01:29AM That isn't what the beacon is for. The King's part of the army charges well before the beacon is lit. I'm not saying you won't find holes in the logic later on, but later on you'll know the whole story to pick apart at least. 
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Origin - affect on whole game question [+1]
Date: Tuesday, 26 May 2009 04:37PM
The impact will vary -- often it's just slightly different dialogue, at other times you're looking at completely divergent experiences compared to other origins. But, yes, the differences are present throughout the entire game.
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Chris Priestly ~ Community Coordinator Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Origin - affect on whole game question [+1]
Date: Tuesday, 26 May 2009 03:44PM
Throughout the whole game.
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories:
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Thread: A question relating to the Noble Origin and how it relates to the "Vengence" trailer. **SP [+0]
Date: Friday, 22 May 2009 03:17PM I don't think there's anything in that trailer that relates specifically to the Human Noble origin. It might. You'll have to find out, won't you? Why would you want to know the answer to this question now? |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Is too much being revealed too soon? [+6]
Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 05:35AM I find that highly unlikely.  You mean the entire twist about the Geth, which was spoiled in the early advertising? That next to nothing? I assure you that nothing of that level has been spoiled about Dragon Age, unless you're going with the idea that any inferences you've drawn are all that is -- again, that's admittedly yet, but there isn't a marketing campaign that hasn't spoiled these things to some degree in the months before release, so the point made by the poster about blaming the wall has some merit. Paying close attention to such information when you're the sort who's averse to any spoilers at all is, in fact, a bit self-defeating, no? |
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David Gaider ~ Lead Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Dalish elves [+15]
Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009 03:51AM Not in DAO. Those are places in Orlais, and DAO takes place entirely in Ferelden. The Dalish know some of the language. Their mastery of it is far from complete, but most Keepers will encourage their clans to use it as much as they can, but even they will mix it with the King's Tongue when they must. Many Dalish, in fact, will only use the most common phrases because that's all they know. City elves, meanwhile, use some of the words like "shemlen" or "vhenadahl" because that's become part of their lexicon -- but ask the average elf what those words actually mean and they probably wouldn't be able to tell you. "Shemlen" is "human" to them, but not "quick children". The tragedy of the Dalish is that, while they profess to stubbornly hold to elven tradition, the damage to those traditions is likely permanent. The Dalish traditions of today no doubt barely resemble the elven traditions that once were and are instead a hybrid of human and elven ways despite their insistance that it isn't the case. |
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Chris Priestly ~ Community Coordinator Categories:
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Thread: Urban/Town hubs? [+1]
Date: Tuesday, 19 May 2009 04:49PM
There are a few towns/cities you will be visiting in Dragon Age: Origins. Some of which have already been discussed in David Gaider's Dragon Age novel.
In fact, maybe we'll have more information on one of them later today.
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Mary Kirby ~ Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Dragon deaths? [+2]
Date: Saturday, 16 May 2009 04:06PM
You will have to kill dragons in Dragon Age.
If you want to debate the comparative values of the lives of different phylums, genus, or species, fictional or otherwise, take it to the off-topic forum. |
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Mary Kirby ~ Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Dragon deaths? [+2]
Date: Saturday, 16 May 2009 03:45PM
Maybe a game in which you fight a variety of creatures to save the world isn't for you, then. |
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Mary Kirby ~ Writer Categories: Quality:
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Thread: Questions. :) [+3]
Date: Thursday, 14 May 2009 01:35AM
I think the estimate is sitting at 80 hours. You'd have to get Evil Chris to verify that, though.
These things. Fully playable starting chapters of the game that vary according to your race (and sometimes class.) and affect how the world views you (and vice versa.)
Single Player only.
This depends a lot on which difficulty setting you play on. If you enjoy weeping in frustration, try nightmare. If you just want to see the story, try casual. If you like something in between, there's normal and hard.
Duncan! (He's the same guy narrating the "Join Us" video.)
Second half of this year.
The player character is not voice-acted.
Man, this would take me a week to answer. I'm going to point you here instead. |
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Georg Zoeller ~ Senior Technical Designer Categories:
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Thread: Is the game chapter based? [+0]
Date: Sunday, 10 May 2009 09:54PM
no, not really. There is obviously a structure to the story, but we're not really classifying it as chapters.
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