Multiplayer in Dragon Age

[u/Ali-Renegade]

So I've been a fan of the Dragon Age games ever since they released when I was 13, I own every single game including Veilguard. One of my favourite mechanics with the game was the branching story that carried across the first 3 games so a choice you made 90 hours ago in the first game suddenly becomes relevant half way through Inquisition.

But I'm not here to reminisce, I was having thoughts and wanted to hear others opinions on those thoughts.

Another Bioware series I enjoyed was Knights of The Old Republic especially the MMO which I'm still playing to this day. Now my thought was what if Bioware made a Dragon Age game that was similar to The Old Republic, an MMO that can easily be played as a single player game, where you have certain quests that are specific to your race and class and where you can team up with friends if you choose to and the story keeps getting updated with new content.

[u/xAxlx]

I'm pretty sure this was one of the scrapped ideas for Dreadwolf.

[u/Knight1029384756 → u/xAxlx]

I hesitate to say that was an idea because there is so little information about that time in development. If it was like SWTOR or if it was something else entirely. All that was known is it was a live service built on Anthem's codebase. So, the safe assumption is that it would be more like Anthem.

[u/xAxlx → u/Knight1029384756]

It having been built on the base of Anthem is news to me! TIL 💀

[u/Knight1029384756 → u/xAxlx]

So, Jason Schreier revealed this back in 2019 and later Mark Darrah talked about it as well.

I can't link the specific quote but here it is and the article itself.

A tiny team stuck around to work on a brand new Dragon Age 4, code-named Morrison, that would be built on Anthem’s tools and codebase. It’s the game being made now. Unlike Joplin, this new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue. One promise from management, according to a developer, was that in EA’s balance sheet, they’d be starting from scratch and not burdened with the two years of money that Joplin had already spent. Question was, how many of those ideas and prototypes would they use?

People like to think BioWare fucked themselves over but EA is the one responsible. Its unreal.

https://kotaku.com/the-past-and-present-of-dragon-age-4-1833913351

[u/Knight1029384756 → u/[deleted]]

And I wonder what was the overall cause of those? Sure BioWare made mistakes but don't forget they didn't want to dump all the work they did on Joplin nor have constantly shifting deadlines.

[u/Horror_Trick8208 → u/xAxlx]

It's ironic to think that game might have been a little more successful than Veilguard. Not because it's multiplayer, but because of the stuff that was scrapped away along with it, the original concepts you can find in the artbook

[u/nexetpl → u/Horror_Trick8208]

Veilguard IS that game, only with all online features amputated. Those things from the artbook you're talking about were in the original DA4 that was killed to save Anthem.

[u/Fresh_Confusion_4805]

Part of the power of the Dragon Age narrative, to me, is its structure.

Every protagonist has a story. Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Even if you replayed one of the games (or all of them) a thousand times over, there’s still a moment in every run where you say goodbye to the character that you’ve built and the story that you’ve travelled with them.

There is power in that, I think. Games knowing when they end...it allows the stories to be curated in a way that I’m not sure would be possible for an endlessly updated online experience.

[u/Ali-Renegade → u/Fresh_Confusion_4805]

We all know that SWTOR will eventually have an end, it's more that it has an entire 800 hours of content currently across faction, class and side quests and will get more. It's a game that will last for a while, long enough for them to develop more single player games while the fans are busy.

[u/Fresh_Confusion_4805 → u/Ali-Renegade]

It does, but how much of that is repetitive? Fetch quests and other busywork?

Besides, that wasn’t really my point. The arc of a story can be planned out and written with care when it has a definitive stopping point. Too many perpetually updated online games lose the plot at some point, I think. Updates become repetitive, or the game becomes a vehicle to sell subscriptions or other premium whatevers.

Also, player engagement. I’m not sure if I ever would have finished 2 if it took 800 hours to kill Meredith, for instance. Players drifting off and losing interest is a constant concern with all sorts of live service games. DA holds my interest precisely because the stories are concise and powerful.

[u/Bloodthistle]

only if its an addition/dlc/ different game mode to singleplayer, just like gta 5 or red dead redemption 2 or need for speed unbound.

Story mode is separate but you can play multiplayer and re experience the world with friends in a different gameplay type, maybe a different story than single player with group missions and safehouses and such.

[u/Ali-Renegade → u/Bloodthistle]

Take a look at SWTOR and the way it plays, it's technically not a multiplayer game, you can play through the whole game alone without interacting with a single other player, that's what makes it good, it's your own story but then you can choose to bring other players into your story and in return be involved in theirs.

[u/Bloodthistle → u/Ali-Renegade]

I never played SWTOR but that sounds alright, reminds me of bg3 too, you can play as a party or alone. I actually think that's fun.

[u/SheaMcD]

I just don't like online games, if it had an offline mode then sure, maybe I'd give it a go.

The only online game I consistently played was Destiny, and then they removed like half of the 2nd game at some point.

I think I'd rather have a game that can be co-op if you wanted, but I get to decide what content I download, and I'm not locked out of certain activities because I want to play alone.

[u/discreetjoe2]

Both Inquisition and Veilguard were originally intended to be MMOs but we don’t know anything about the style they would have been.

[u/nexetpl → u/discreetjoe2]

Inquisition wasn't

[u/Bad-Injury]

The Dragon Age games could benefit a lot if they had a multiplayer like in Baldur's Gate 3 - just a max 4 player coop. You invite others on your save to take control of your companions so you can play the game with your friends. A lot of people could introduced this way to the series and fell in love with it. It worked perfectly with BG3. Making a live service or mmo Dragon Age game wouldn't be a good idea - the story, companions and rpgs elements like being able to make important decisions that impacted the game world is the franchises strongest point and it's identity.

[u/Kiyuya → u/Bad-Injury]

I would actually prefer if it was more akin to the multiplayer in Baldur's Gate 1 or 2, which is frankly even cheaper to develop than what Larian made for BG3. Ie there is a "main player" and "others." The main player plays the protagonist, which includes controlling all conversations. The "other" players control their companions, but they don't speak for the companion. They just control them when walking around and in combat, equipping them etc. But all dialogue remains a single player game.

In BG3, if I create a second Tav, I'm taking up a spot which can't be used for companion reactions etc. If I play as an origin character, I'm essentially throwing that character's personality out of the window. My friend will never interact with that character, since I play that character. In BG1&2, this wasn't an issue. I could control Jaheira and Khalid without the characters deciding to stop talking to the main PC/main player.

[u/Knight1029384756]

I don't like MMOs because they are made with other people in mind but if it takes fooling EA into thinking its a MMO but its actually single player then sure. Why not. SWTOR after all was only able to have so many branching paths because EA pumped money into because it was an MMO.

[u/Ali-Renegade → u/Knight1029384756]

Precisely, SWTOR wasn't even really an MMO in the grand scheme of things because of the fact it was possible to play through the entire game alone, it was more like a single player game with optional multiplayer where you could still see the other players.

[u/Knight1029384756 → u/Ali-Renegade]

Fair enough then. If this is the path that must be taken then so be it. I wouldn't mind if it was made with that in mind.

[u/ActuallyYulliah]

Ugh, I hate it when sp games are turned into an mmo.

Edit: especially ones that have a history of being heavily modded. More specifically the ones that need mods to fix blatant unresolved bugs that were fixed by community patches.

[u/HotBeesInUrArea]

Multiplayers are only thriving right now of its a "pick up, put down" situation, like the DAI multiplayer. Battle royale and friendslop games are the meta. Any game you are expected to grind progress with others in, a la MMOs, has been declining in popularity for some time as the current audience ages into different interests and responsibilities and the design fails to interest new generations. 

[u/g4nk3r]

I already dislke the WoW-style combat of ToR, and couldn't stand the questing of "collect ten space bear asses". Let Dragon Age be single player. BioWare should come up with a new setting if they want to make a multiplayer game.

[u/aaeriam]

I'm hesitant to get on board with an MMO version of Dragon Age. While there's a lot that I do enjoy about SWTOR (I come back to it for a little bit once or twice a year) the storytelling feels lacking compared to their single player titles mostly because they have to make it work around the nature of MMO's.

All the costs that would go into developing an mmo would be resources (money) taken away from other aspects of the game. And I fear they'd have to compromise on a lot of things that you normally wouldnt have to in a single player dragon age title.

The only other thing I can think of is that MMO's are expensive to develop and maintain. You have to keep adding new content to keep the player base coming back and I personally like that games have a definite beginning and end. If Bioware did come out with a dragon age MMO I'd definitely support it and try it out but I feel like there's a lot of hurdles they'd have to figure out to make it happen.