@Hunter5024 said:

@TheHT: They think he's a piece of shit because he murdered innocent people who actually were not even the source of his aggression.

Absolutely. Even though he was a bit whiney about it, I definitely sympathised with him (especially since my first Hawke was a mage, too) and it was easy to see where he was coming from... But then he goes and incites a war. Now I'm not saying it's stupid, nor even out of character, but the fact is it's impossible for me to like the guy and emphasise with him after he goes over the deep end and murders a bunch of priests.

He almost reminds me of Kenny from TWD now that I think about it.

@Animasta said:

aveline was awesome, she is no nonsense and takes no shit and doesn't like you romantically

Oh god, her rejecting your advances during her romance patrol quest was so amazingly awkward.

@Hunter5024 said:

@TheHT: They think he's a piece of shit because he murdered innocent people who actually were not even the source of his aggression.

If you're his rival, he says Vengeance took over and that he regrets what he did and wants to be killed before he loses himself completely. If you're his friend he says he did it to basically start the war to free mages from the Circle and Templars (who answer to the Chantry) and that he wants to be killed as doing so would be justice for those he just killed for his cause.

In either case, what he says doesn't reflect a total piece of shit. More like a person taken to the brink who makes a terrible choice for a not-so-terrible cause, with enough humanity left to acknowledge the horror of his actions and to know what should be done for them.

The real piece of shit is Orsino. After siding with him, he still for some reason freaks out and goes all abomination on your ass. You, the dude helping him, he decides to fight. Makes no fucking sense.

@Yummylee: The Templars were encroaching more and more on the Circle. It's not hard to imagine a near future where mages are on what you could barely call a leash and if they don't like it are either killed or turned tranquil.

Destroying the Chantry led to the Right of Annulment being invoked, which meant that whether they agreed with Anders' choice of catalyst or not, every mage would have to fight for their life. At the end of the war they would either all be free or have died fighting for it.

I understand why he did it but would have still preferred to try for a compromise. The Templars are overzealous and incredibly fearful of mages, and there's only so much the majority of mages could take before they realized they had to push back. I imagine when it got to that point they wouldn't be able to do much though.

War was inevitable. Starting it when he did may have actually given the mages a fighting change.

@TheHT: So he felt bad about it. He still planned out and murdered innocent people, even enlisting your help to do so, and it's so he can start a war, which is even worse. And I'm sure that whole vengeance thing is just an excuse. But I digress, because I just realized I was totally responsible for derailing the thread. So you win, Anders is awesome forever.

So what's an inquisition?

@Hunter5024 said:

@TheHT: So he felt bad about it. He still planned out and murdered innocent people, even enlisting your help to do so, and it's so he can start a war, which is even worse. And I'm sure that whole vengeance thing is just an excuse. But I digress, because I just realized I was totally responsible for derailing the thread. So you win, Anders is awesome forever.

So what's an inquisition?

He only feels bad about it if the rival dialogue is to be believed. Otherwise, he understood completely that the act was wrong, but did it still for a greater good. And doing it to start a war isn't necessarily worse, considering that the war itself is to free all mages.

The subtitle probably refers to those people who were interrogating Varric in Dragon Age 2. Last we heard they were searching for Hawke AND the Warden. Curious as to how BioWare's going to deal with mixing both player characters into one game. I'm guessing we'll be playing as the Warden and importing our Hawke as an NPC.

@SlightConfuse said:

No one expected the dragon inquisition. Excited to hear more as one of 7 people that enjoyed 2

Holy crap, someone other than me can publicly admit they liked DA2? :P

I'm really looking forward to more Dragon Age.

@Phatmac: I don't think I've ever seen that video. That's a really interesting take on how fantasy interacts with the real world. After watching that, I really hope the DA: 3 developers saw it, and showed it to the writers.

On topic: let's see how Bioware does under EA without the Doctors!

@TheHT: They already confirmed you will be playing as a 3rd new protagonist. Which I'm fine with because my Warden is dead. I doubt there will be more than a cameo of Hawke or The Warden. I bet some of DA2's party members will return though. Hopefully they will show Morrigan as well.

'don't like the 2 either.

For the 3, maybe we will see the next iteration of the engine, the Frostbit Engine 2.5! Can't wait either...

I'm skeptical about this one, but I guess I'll play it just to see how it all ends.

@TheHT said:

More like a person taken to the brink who makes a terrible choice for a not-so-terrible cause, with enough humanity left to acknowledge the horror of his actions and to know what should be done for them.

Destroying the Chantry led to the Right of Annulment being invoked, which meant that whether they agreed with Anders' choice of catalyst or not, every mage would have to fight for their life. At the end of the war they would either all be free or have died fighting for it.

You realize this is the exact pathology of every terrorist or suicide bomber in the real world, right? Especially the ones in the recent protests and on 9/11? They do what they do knowing it endangers their lives because it's "the right thing to do". The only difference is they don't willingly allow themselves to die (in SOME of the cases). So is that sense of "honor" in allowing yourself to die (like a suicide bomber) all it takes to make murdering a large number of innocent people for a political belief okay?

@Phatmac said:

There has to be someone out there that actually didn't think Dragon Age 2 was that bad right? Ugh. Looks like I'll be defending it forever.

I didn't think it was great, but I didn't think it was that bad either. I just think Bioware took it in a direction that many fans didn't like. I still like the first game better, but the second wasn't the train wreck so many seem to think it was. I played through it twice, had a good time, enjoyed it. Could it have been better? Sure.

Please be set in Orlais and please pick up the dark ritual ending plot thread from Origins I want to fight my demon god baby.

@Sploder: Why Orlais? I hear this wish a lot, but I don't really understand it. I'm not sure I could stand obnoxious fake-french nobility for 30 hours.

@Wrighteous86 said:

@TheHT said:

More like a person taken to the brink who makes a terrible choice for a not-so-terrible cause, with enough humanity left to acknowledge the horror of his actions and to know what should be done for them.

Destroying the Chantry led to the Right of Annulment being invoked, which meant that whether they agreed with Anders' choice of catalyst or not, every mage would have to fight for their life. At the end of the war they would either all be free or have died fighting for it.

You realize this is the exact pathology of every terrorist or suicide bomber in the real world, right? Especially the ones in the recent protests and on 9/11? They do what they do knowing it endangers their lives because it's "the right thing to do". The only difference is they don't willingly allow themselves to die (in SOME of the cases). So is that sense of "honor" in allowing yourself to die (like a suicide bomber) all it takes to make murdering a large number of innocent people for a political belief okay?

You realize it's also the motivation behind the acts of many protagonists in many works of fiction, right? The ethical stance that doing a wrong for a right is acceptable isn't exclusive to terrorists or suicide bombers.

And I'd love it if you showed me where I said it makes the murder OK, because I didn't. It's an absolutely terrible thing he did for a not so terrible cause, and his reaction to it works toward showing him to not be completely terrible.

@TheHT: At least in my play-through, it more seemed like he wanted to be a Martyr, and I think some of the characters said as much. That it was just an ego thing. It's an interesting topic in gaming, I just think it was handled poorly in DA2. Nice that they tried, though.

For god sake let it be about The Warden somehow, or at least the Wardens. I'd say it is the one thing Dragon age has going for it. Shame they dropped that whole thing in DA2

@Wrighteous86: Really? That would be pretty lame. I don't remember anything like that, but Justice was warped into Vengeance because of Anders' anger with the Circle/Templars, so it's safe to say there was more substance to it than just ego, though wanting to be a martry could have been an additional factor.

@Sploder: Why Orlais? I hear this wish a lot, but I don't really understand it. I'm not sure I could stand obnoxious fake-french nobility for 30 hours.

After playing Witcher 2 I honestly no longer have any interest in this franchise anymore, besides the fact that Dragon Age 2 happened.

Right... I mean, if this is going to be like Origins, I'm fucking in! That game had great things (some of them still are present on DA2 —which I never finished—) but the one thing that I totally loved about the first one, was the combat and the challenge. In DA2 it was all gone and I really didn't care for it. I don't want "the best of both". I WANT 'DRAGON AGE ORIGINS 2: ORIGINING THE ORIGINS' GOD DAMMIT!

@Phatmac:

I'm with you, buddy. Dragon Age 2 is one of the best Role-playing games I've played lately, even though I absolutely adore the Mass Effect trilogy. I'm looking forward to more news about Dragon Age 3. This was a really smart announcement.

Does anyone else think that bioware are overrated? The Old Republic bombed after a month, Mass Effect series was disappointing except 2 and dragon age is just mediocre.

I would really like to see some more focus on the awesome lore they've built around Dwarven culture. The Dwarves had the absolute best origin stories in DA:O and I'd love some more really nasty political intrigue.

I imagine there'll be something about Dwarves. I checked the wiki a little bit ago and all of the hints make it seem like it's gonna be set in Orlais, and some character mentioned in DA2 that the Stone was under orlais somewhere I think. but since Orlesian culture seems to be set up around really nasty political intrigue by itself you'll probably get some of that in this one.