Ok it looks like Bioware really wants to hear opinions how to make the combat better and more fun. So if you are interested in this please fill out this survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DAIcombatgameplay

Make a DA:O with better graphics or keep copying Skyrim.

Yeah, nope, once you start listening to the community you're screwed.
If anyone of the folks knew anything about making games they wouldn't be the ones answering a survey in the first place.

Basically it ends up like this:

If this game sucks, I'll be very pissed off. Morrigan deserves the best, yo.

Um, is this a pathetic at it feels like it is? Bioware practically brought active pause RPG combat into the modern generation of gaming, and now they're totally clueless. I just don't know anymore.

The survey is pretty nice in my opinion. And yes I want much much more of Origins than DA2 and I clearly stated that I want tactical combat and nothing to do with DA2. And if enough people do that maybe we will get our true successor of Origins^^

Where the hell did you state that? In your original post because... there's nothing there about that at all?
What am I not seeing, are you lying to me or did you use.. invisible text? :P

Are you secretly a Wizard, planted here to tell us about the next Dragon Age game? is that it Darji?! :P

I don't know why this is a *bad* thing. They asked for feedback after Mass Effect 2. I know because I filled out one of the surveys. It's a thing companies do.

Lol, they ask for the level of importance of responsive control. Who with an interest in this game would say anything less than extremely important?

How about truth in advertising? Make it about dragon puberty during the Spanish Inquisition. WE NEED THAT GAME.

Wait how the hell did you translate the word "age" into puberty?
No actually, I don't think I wanna know. You're also that guy with a weird fetish for that chicken thing that's apparantly scary or something so forget I asked :P

As a verb? As in "the dragon is performing the act of aging"?

@video_game_king: But that would mean this is prequel.. set very very early on.
Because the last dragons I encountered were old! very old.

I wanna go with your Spanish Inquisition thing though. Also the "Age" part is a Birthday for a Dragon.
And the Spanish Inquisition showed up, unexpected with no invites

@aegon: Probably a lot more than you think. Looking back at DAO, those controls weren't responsive at all because movement and animations were so slow. At the same time though that made it so combat was more tactical because you had to think things through. Also since you were pausing so much it really didn't matter if it took a half second for your commands to fully register. DA2 changed that and damn near every ability was cast the second you hit the button or sent the command. It was way more faced paced but made the game more hack'n'slash than tactical.

Old people can have babies. You haven't seen the occasional news story about an old woman having a baby? And she just so happened to be a dragon?

Bioware only wants feedback that is positive and from their own forums. That's how we got that unholy abomination Dragon Age 2. When I see articles where they show a bible-sized romance script and "Sex-scenes will be more tasteful this time around" I'm starting to wonder why the fuck they aren't making visual novels instead. These surveys won't be taken into account and consideration when making DA:I.

The Bioware of old(Baldur's Gate all the way up to DA:O, if I'm being generous) is dead. Rest in peace, buddy.

@zeforgotten: He means in the survey.

I filled it out. I find it odd that they are asking. I guess they want to see if anyone liked DA2 or if they should go back to DA:O.

The mechanics of DA2 wasnt the major flaw of it. I think it was more of the back pedal- the feeling like they didn't actually care about the first game at all.

I don't know. I haven't played DAO in so long its kind of moot now. My mom and my sister play it still all the friggin time. Its crazy how much they play all the Dragon Age and all the Mass Effect games over and over.

That's a cynical way of looking at things. No one is saying firing the writing/design staff and go purely on fan opinions. It does not have to be a huge swing one way or the other, It just nice to get feedback to edit ideas that they are already working on. Many fans could have warn them reusing level designs and locations would be a bad thing in DA:2. Having more writers eye on the story could have warned them the story made very little sense at the end.

Many fans could have warned them of features they wanted to stay in and not be taken out like giving armor and loot to your party. So i don't see the harm if you take fan feedback with a grain of salt. This gives them some guidelines to go on so they are not shooting in the dark again.

Why have vision when you can just ask people what they want?

The graphics and gameplay looked great. There was leaked Gamecom footage on Youtube weeks ago. I like ME, never been into DA before, but this one looks good.

Can I follow an account on twitter dedicated to that?
Because that might top Florida Man and all the shenanigans he's up to.

@phantomzxro: Clearly you don't know Bioware "fans" then. They get very angry over nothing and demand that writers be fire and that the fans be hired instead :P
I just want Bioware to do what they did when they made the first Dragon Age. It was good.
They did another one of those things after Mass Effect 2 and even after DA:O as well, so excuse me for not having faith in something after they ask for feedback from nobodies :P

Might be a cynical view? sure, probably is. I would be happy if everyone in the survey just said "look at what you had going with Dragon Age: Origins when it came to gameplay".
Sadly I don't think enough people will answer that way.

In the survey in the leave a message field but also in terms how different the combat and everything was in Origins compared to DA2^^

Bioware is just flailing helplessly here. The true key to success is not asking people what they want, it's telling them what they want and why it's good. Because the truth is people don't know what the hell they want.

Good, I thought I was going crazy and couldn't see your entire post or something :P

@brodehouse: Because when, as your character marries a broodmother, the wedding night a 5 minute QTE, you look at the screen and whisper 'I didn't ask for this,' they can point to these polls and say 'yes you did.'

agreed

I told them to not listen to you whinny little bitches and make what ever the fuck they want.

I think this is a good thing. There's no harm in getting some feedback from the people who are going to be playing the game.

He said "fun gameplay".

Also "Copying Skyrim" .. wouldn't that lead to the same problem that Dragon Age II had?
You know, the same layout for "Dungeons" over and over again just with maybe a different enemy from time to time?

I don't really see what the big deal is asking for feedback. It's not like they're letting us make the game for them.

Well, I told them I wanted controller support on the PC version, an unlimited inventory, a junk folder, I want friendly fire turned off for all difficulties (because fuck that. Seriously. Stop running into my fiery apocalypse, Alistair), and the ability to turn helmets off. Bioware can't make good head wear at all.

A great franchise being focus tested into oblivion for more money is one of the worst things in gaming to me. Oh RE6 how you sucked so hard :(

Aw.. I liked that game for.. whatever it was it was trying to be.
Which was many RE games in one.. Tried to be a bit of 2.. 3.. too much 4 and 5 and then just.. a weird shooter mixed in with The Bouncer or whatever the hell Jake was..

This seems iffy at best.

Like others have stated I'd rather they had the confidence in themselves and clear goals of what/how they want to make a game. A defined vision for lack of a better term.

To ask people stuff like this when a lot of development has already been done on the game is suspect. Are they just going to somehow change direction in the middle of making a game? If not then this is just a bullshit survey "look we are really listening". If they are then they look like they don't know what they are doing. These points on the survey is something I expect to see as bullet points in the first few design meetings before you start making a game, not now, and not as questions.

A company no longer knowing what is important to people in their own (long history of) games sends bad bad signals. "Shit guys we don't know what made those past games great and why people loved them"

If this was done say at the start of or before development started it would have been more understandable. If this was 1 or 2 focused questions/clarifications, again I could more easily see it as just asking for some customer feedback. Not like this. /shrug

Well at least it allowed me to put down Varric into every slot for favorite DA2 party composition.

Make it twice as fast-paced. I don't care what game they are even making, because every game that doesn't involve headshots or racing ends up being too frickin slow.

Even the Half-Minute Hero game was too slow for me. Seriously, that game had more dialogue than gameplay... plus you turn back time and stop time constantly, so it's more like 5 minute hero, wtf.

CDProjekt Red listens to fans and seems to be doing all right...there is a difference between digesting intelligent fan feedback and listening to whichever group is shouting the loudest.

@aegon said:

People who played these games as top-down tactical RPGs instead of action games. By the end of Origins I was playing every encounter zoomed all the way out with an eye on the party status indicators. I left tactics off and I would pause and adjust orders as needed. Dragon Age 2 broke that play style chasing after responsive action-style control. This wasn't its only sin or its biggest, but it was a big part of why I quit playing after the first act.

I'd like more emphasis on exploration and role-playing and less on combat compared to Dragon Age 2. I generally liked the combat in Dragon Age 2 (on PC), but I'd be happiest if they found a happy medium between the fast, responsive combat in DA2 and the more challenging, tactical approach in Origins. Also, I'd like to be able to zoom out, like in Origins. I didn't hate DA2 like a lot of other people did, so I'm optimistic that Bioware can make a worthy Dragon Age game if they're given a reasonable development time and they make some modest course corrections from DA2.

If they didn't listen to fans or take feedback you would all condemn them. Now that they are asking for feedback you condemn them anyway. Make up your minds, I seriously don't understand you people. I guess you get to pick and choose when it's ok to do this, because favoritism.

Well, they had said before that they were taking fan feedback into account on Inquisition. I just find it odd that they're choosing now of all times to ask players their preferences regarding Dragon Age combat. I'd have thought they'd have that question sorted out by now.

I dunno, I wouldn't say the questions they're asking suggest a fundamental shift in whatever their game ends up being, and given that Bioware has somehow reached "Punching Bag" status with the internet I wouldn't blame them for soliciting input. And, as @subjugation said, people would complain if they didn't ask for feedback.

All you need to know is that I said Romance options were "Not Important at All". Maybe when you get writers capable of writing romance that doesn't come off as really dumb wish-fulfillment Bioware, maybe then.

Just make DA:O II. Seriously. I don't even care if the graphics are 3 years behind, no one who played DAO seemed to really care at the time and the availability of mods basically put that stuff in the hands of the fans anyways.

Edit: Just took the survey. Looks like a lot of questions are to do with the old DA:O party controls (the ones they ditched in DA2). Hopefully that means they're considering bringing them back or at least taking a second look at that style of gameplay.

I may be more cynical than all of you, but given how they seem to have made most of the design decisions for this game already, I don't see this survey as anything that will actually change the game. There's the possibility that this is just an attempt to give the appearance of fan outreach, but my actual opinion is a bit more underhanded.

I think it's a bit late in the development of this game to make any big changes like this survey implies. While I still have hopes for DA3, and think it can be a good game (and hell, probably will be), I think this survey is more so they can find out how they should spin the design decisions they've already made.

"Oh shit, guys. They're saying they don't care about romances. Keep that shit out of our next preview! Talk about how it's in the game but not really a focus, and don't tell them that we spent half of our budget on the different combinations of threesomes and fetishes we've put in!

And for God's sake, nobody mention the Awesome Button!"

@wrighteous86: Yeah, it's pretty cynical, but a great point. I think you hit the nail on the head. Good job.

Boobs - all of them. Naughty nipples with a polygon budget! Bush - hairy, so it remains skin-e-max rated (TrissFX?). We are not to see the carnal crevasse, nor the chocolate starfish. Full frontal dong, because honestly - let them ladies and gays have something to oggle too - but not erect, because we're classy and not into porn (really?). Also - we're doing orgasm faces.

On a more serious note, I want dynamic dismemberment, procedural bloodsquirting (going squirt-squirt-squirt with the pump of the heart), all combined with GTA V-like dynamic animation systems (just license the damn Euphoria Engine, if you can't manage to achieve the same level of awesome yourselves!).

Also - proper action queues again for the stop-and-go classical gameplay. And Friendly Fire has to be a toggle for all difficulties. I don't want to play DA3 on Nightmare difficulty, just because I want to play with Friendly Fire active.

@wrighteous86: I hadn't thought of that, but you're right, this is probably their attempt to gather data about the best way to market this to series fans.

Are people really bitching that they're asking for fan feedback?

My Advice to Bioware:
1) Have a very through go-over with the story. If it ain't good, rewrite the story until it is at least as good as a half-ass fantasy novel. A good narrative has all the main character experience a change because of the actions, situations or events in the story. No character growth or change means it not a story...start over.

2) I like dialogues choices in your games, more of those. Make dialogue choices things a person would say...not fucking nonsense a psychopath would say.

3) I like the romance stuff, add to that make it more interesting. Also, allow romances EARLIER in the story and make interactions with your romantic choice effect later dialogue with them. Even if I cannot romance everyone...give me at least some choices - two male, two female, and whatever else you have in mind. One women and one man per character is NOT a choice.

My thoughts exactly.