Should Dragon Age Become an MMO?
Dec 29
And follow the example of The Old Republic?
If you told me a month ago that I’d be writing this article, I would have told you you’re insane. For many years I’ve been an opponent of the MMO for numerous reasons. But after playing the beta of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, pre-ordering (my first ever MMO) and playing it in pre-access and now after release, I’m starting to think that maybe BioWare has tackled the genre the right way. So the question seems to be – should its fantasy IP Dragon Age walk that route too?
It’s no secret, BioWare prides itself on telling a story. When The Old Republic first surfaced, I was skeptical when BioWare said that it would bring story-driven gaming to the MMO world. In a genre filled with boring fetch quests and quest-givers that were snooze-worthy, I wasn’t sure that it could be done.
But through a combination of more voice-acted quest givers, even though many of the quests still are fetchy, they at least feel more important than clicking on some NPC, getting a brick of text, scanning for what potential reward you might get and then clicking accept without reading or caring about WHY you’re doing said quest.
That’s where I feel that Old Republic has distanced itself from other MMOs – I now have some reason to care about why I need to go out and recover five droid memory cores and bring them back. Instead of a brick of text that I may or may not read, now the voiced NPC tells me what he or she needs and why. And, better yet, my character gets to have some dialogue and input into the mission too just more than Accept/Refuse.
Is it a different formula that it’s biggest competitor World of Warcraft? Not really. From my limited experience with trials of WoW (which I never could get into), the core mechanics of the game are strikingly similar. However The Old Republic does a better job of masking and hiding that framework in questing and makes you feel more involved in each mission you run through the simple addition of voice and player conversation.
I’m not deep enough into The Old Republic to experience the “end game” content and how the entirety of the available content and story all falls out. But so far it hangs together nicely and has been enough to engage me – an outspoken enemy of the MMO genre – to play for many, many hours.
Certainly Dragon Age has potential to be turned into a good MMO world. A large, vastly unexplored landmass. A deep history and lore. Many types of monsters, enemy factions, political struggles, native races and backgrounds. And the list goes on with all kinds of good RP staples that would translate easily into an online game.
MMOs still appear to have some staying power. While WoW numbers appear to fade one month and then bounce back, The Old Republic supposedly got great play during its free beta and has had several pre-orders. Whether or not the population will hold or flop for the game touted to be the front-runner as “WoW-killer,” is yet to be seen.
But the major issue with the MMO question is it appears to be a one-way street. I could be wrong, but to me it seems like once you MMO, you can’t go back. If BioWare were to open the entirety of Thedas to the online community and populate it with all the staples, I don’t see how the company could ever go back and craft a single-player, story driven, CRPG like it’s used to. The Dragon Age we know and love would likely cease to exist in its present form.
And then there are other issues too, issues that, even though I’m now stepping pretty hard into MMO that I still take issue with:
- Monthly subscriber fees. I still think the MMO subscriber model is the most wicked form of gamer extortion I’ve ever seen. I shudder to think of what some WoW players who have been in since the beginning have paid to play that game…
- The push toward multiplayer. While The Old Republic so far has allowed me to play mostly by myself, MMOs are notorious for essentially forcing players to go social in later stages of the game to get the full experience. While I know that for now I can run around and complete quests by myself, there’s a voice in the back of my head warning me that some day, if I stick with it, I’ll likely be forced to join some sort of guild in order to continue playing. I don’t know about you, but I want to play single player. Nothing personal, but playing with other people is not my cup of tea.
- The game never ends. With monthly updates, repeatable quest runs, yearly expansions (or what seems like yearly) and just the general “no end credits” type of gameplay, MMOs never cease. Personally I like reaching the end of the main story line and being done with a game. It gives me a sense of closure and allows me to move onto other things. Even open world games like Skyrim technically have no end, even in that game I can finish the main quest line and feel like I’m done, even though there is tons else to do. As a single-player RPG player all my life, I still like having a point where I can dust off my hands and say “I’m done.” Besides, I’m a “streak” player – I’ll obsessively play something for a month and then move on to a new obsession in the next month.
Would the move to MMO be good for Dragon Age? It’s hard to tell and I assume the decision at BioWare would be made by gauging the success of The Old Republic. Players also might be clued in by watching what happens with the Mass Effect franchise after Mass Effect 3 and whether that begins to move toward MMO status.
Despite my current enjoyment of The Old Republic, I still support the single-player RPG over the MMO. Even though I’m having fun, I’d still rather be playing a single-player Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 than The Old Republic MMO. But I’m wired to single player at my core.
Certainly BioWare has shown me a better way to do the MMO. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they should transform everything into that genre – especially since it would create competition with itself in the market.
So I’ll leave the discussion up to you. What do you think? Should Dragon Age become an MMO? Share below!
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16 comments
Comment by Stana on December 29, 2011 at 5:07 am
Part of the reason many RPG games get extra play time has to do with mods. (at least for PC). Player added content can add endless alternate playtime and styles. You can find anything, and choose to only do what things you want. As amazingly talented as Bioware is – they simply are outnumbered by a well learned and rabid fanbase.
Also – the ability to go back and re-do certain decisions are not easily available to people here. If you don't hit esc quick enough, you are now locked into that decision and it's consequences. Very real life-ish – but does it make good gameplay?
Finally – there is such a thing as creating too much competition within your own playerbase. Having a SW MMO and a DA MMO would invariably cause alot of people to make a choice between the two.
I am not convinces that ST TOR adds anything to an MMO that a single player game with Multiplayer options (missions a'la ME3) could not offer. Except the 15 dollar a month investment from us now.
Personally? Would much prefer this to be single player.
Comment by Yik Boon Tan on December 29, 2011 at 7:03 am
Steve, in your experience with TOR, do you find that the quality of the story itself (including the way it's presented) is generally on par with the likes of Dragon Age, Mass Effect and KOTOR? Or that because it's an MMO, many of the conventions of Bioware storytelling took a backseat. E.g. the character companions isn't as compelling and deep, or that it's more linear, your decisions aren't as impactful, the backstory isn't as flesh out, etc etc.
For me, that's the crux of the matter, a single player game in my view (i.e. before playing TOR) might be better than what an MMO can provide in terms of narrative.
Comment by Andi Dineen on December 29, 2011 at 7:40 am
I’m strictly a DA player on xbox 360. Personally, I’d still like up to four player co-play, online or offline. Our internet is used only when tethered to my laptop for updates and DLC. I only like mmorpg’s on my laptop. To keep totally changing the gameplay like this kind of defeats the purpose of the story, and how players enjoy the game.
Comment by Faruk on December 29, 2011 at 2:07 pm
When I want to play a game, I do not want to wait in a queue. I do not want to have to be connected to the internet, it does go down from time to time you know.
Comment by stevegarbage on December 29, 2011 at 2:42 pm
That's a major point – because of the online format, the overall main storyline isn't nearly as solid, because they're stretching out content over a long period of time. However, in Old Republic, the "main" quest lines are decently engaging when you're doing them. The problem is it gets diluted with a lot of sidequests, fighting mobs and travel time, so it has less of an impact.
Comment by loki925 on December 29, 2011 at 11:36 pm
Biggest problem with MMO or any game like it and that is DRAMA!!!!
Comment by Quimerax on December 30, 2011 at 12:06 pm
Don't even think about it. Do it MMO and definitely destroy the saga.
Comment by Gilthor on December 30, 2011 at 6:58 pm
It would stagnate the development of gameplay and perhaps new ways of storytelling, also impact and surprises. In my opinion Bioware has yet failed to present a "next-gen" gameplay that really works. Progress would slow to a still smaller crawl, the world feel less authentic. But yes, it may be immersive in its way.
Comment by revsears on December 30, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I'd loath the idea. I love Dragon Age for the story and characters. I prefer it over the super popular right now skyrim, because the characters are so fleshed out. MMOs tend to go with more quantity and less quality. It would dilute to something it wasn't. Besides if you really want that stuff, isn't the facebook game in that vein?
Dragon Age needs to stick to what it did best, tell a good story with characters that felt real in a fantasy setting. We don't really need multiplayer, or huge open worlds or MMO if it makes dragon into skryim lite, or kotor lite, etc.
Comment by revsears on December 30, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I'd loath the idea. I love Dragon Age for the story and characters. I prefer it over the super popular right now skyrim, because the characters are so fleshed out. MMOs tend to go with more quantity and less quality. It would dilute to something it wasn't. Besides if you really want that stuff, isn't the facebook game in that vein?
btw good to see another update, anyone going to post something on Asunder? I just finished it and was great, really seemed to set the stage for DA III.
If I double posted this I'm sorry… It keeps simply reloading the page and never showing my comment?
Comment by Sunshine on January 2, 2012 at 5:17 am
I love games that have amazing stories. I am a sucker for good storytelling in video games. Growing up, I love the choose your own adventure books. You choose one thing and you flip to page 12. I love that in RPGs. I loved the KotOR one and two for the pc and Xbox. I have a computer, but I love it when I am able to play game on a counsel system. I hope they do not go that direction in the dragon age.
Comment by curufinwe on January 2, 2012 at 5:27 am
It would be difficult, at least.
I don't now any MMO that excludes the gainful teenage market, but would the Dragon Age franchise be profitable enough to skip it? Or, on the other hand, could you imagine a cut version of the Dragon Age universe? In my opinion it would not be the same. Cut versions of the previous games could never deliver the dark but also rich story, which makes Dragon Age so special.
So, can we expect a Dragon Age MMO? I don't think so. Of course, it would be nice to play with a more mature community, but it is unlikly that Bioware – or to be more specific – EA would produce and finance such a game. The under-eighteen market is way to lucrative and it would be at least a great financial risk to develop a Dragon Age MMO.
I doubt that EA will take that risk.
Comment by MKDAWUSS on January 2, 2012 at 6:34 am
I'm leaning against it mostly for the story reasons.
For one thing, I don't think the story is ready for it yet. The series is still in its infancy, and all its storylines are still dependent on each other – we don't have 10 different storylines going on in 5 different eras and could get away with an MMO.
Also, let's not forget that MMO stories are hard to manage on any sort of official basis. You have different servers, and different things happen on different servers. That either leads to multiple branching of events, or a single player game wrapped in an MMO (and you're paying a monthly fee just to play what should have been a single player game). And in a series that currently only has one story arc (5th Blight -> Mage Rebellion), how is the story of the DA MMO going to be handled? Especially if the masses can make an impact on their server's story.
Another issue is going to be the world state. Will you get to import your DA save into the DA MMO? How about from the DA MMO to another DA game? Or will there now be a canon world state, which, probably will contradict your specific world state at one level or another? I'll admit that importing into the MMO would be easier to implement than exporting from the MMO (basically limit references regarding your world state to storytelling zones similar to TOR).
It's something that sounds interesting, but the series isn't ready for it.
Comment by diegowyvern on January 10, 2012 at 6:55 pm
While i'm not a supporter for an Dragon Age MMO, i can see it happening if the story is based before Dragon Age Origins.
Lets say, an MMO set during the First Blight. It lasted around 100 years right? I can totally see an MMO in this, the dwarves had all their thaigs intact, the elves also were on better position, and so on.
This way it would not interfere on the continuity of Dragon Age singleplayer franchise.
I would play this game.
Comment by Spirit Dog on January 26, 2012 at 11:29 am
One of the big reasons I fell in love with Dragon Age had to do with being able to play alone, to be away from the drama, the harassment, the crowds in WoW. I have a MMO to play if I want a MMO, I don't want or need another one.
Comment by Bob on February 12, 2012 at 5:24 pm
The DA universe shares something with the Star Wars universe that could actually make MMO a possibility without destroying the ability to produce other standalone console titles. The fact that there have been multiple Blights allows for a situation similar to the SW universe.
Hold the MMO in a world where the 2nd or 3rd Blight took place. Much like the Old Republic games take place well before the movies… the DA MMO could take place during a previous "Age."
Or even a game that takes place well into the future, a , once again, not to compromise the 'Dragon Age.' Perhaps a new continent is found and a la FFIX you decide what race and faction you are a part of. Different servers, depending on the success of the developer factions could become completely unique. If the Grey Wardens are successful or the Qunari et cetera, the new continent can begin to morph and change.