I played a Dragon Age a LOT, but it was only recently I realised something. Dragon Age was the first time I had experienced a realistic and meaningful moral predicament. Let me explain.
I was playing a good character, so every quest I'd play until I was given a choice and then go "Ah! thats the good choice and thats the bad choice" and I'd pick the good choice which to me was pretty clear cut. Thats the problem morality games have had. Moral ambiguity.
**Spoilers past here** During the Dwarven quest line I was presented with backing a specific candidate for king. To me, one was clearly good and one was clearly bad. I made my usual decision, backed the good guy and was done with it. Funny thing was, after I finished the game, the outcome of my actions was quite negative. The King I backed was dead and people were fighting more than before. "Heh" i thought, must be unavoidable.
It was only recently I realised the full extent of the consequences. The good king was old, and traditional, annddd he was (i believe) chosen by the previous king. It just made sense. The other guy was trying to sabotage the good king. Not only that but it was commonly believed that he killed his own brothers to rise in power.
During the last PC Gamer Podcast I was listening to their description of the Dwarven origin stories and the caste system and I realised... I had made the WRONG choice. The other candidate was clearly bad, but it was because I didn't understand their culture, I was an outsider. Furthermore he was young, and believed in a casteless system, something that would have freed the people. So what if he was ruthless and a murderer? He was better for the people. I had made a choice, continued with the story and it was WRONG. Dragon Age continues to blow my mind.
Dragon Age: Origins
Game » consists of 20 releases. Released Nov 03, 2009
Dragon Age: Origins is an epic fantasy role-playing game featuring a rich story, personality-driven characters, and tactical, bloody combat. It is considered a spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series.
Dragon Age and Morality
I played a Dragon Age a LOT, but it was only recently I realised something. Dragon Age was the first time I had experienced a realistic and meaningful moral predicament. Let me explain.
I was playing a good character, so every quest I'd play until I was given a choice and then go "Ah! thats the good choice and thats the bad choice" and I'd pick the good choice which to me was pretty clear cut. Thats the problem morality games have had. Moral ambiguity.
**Spoilers past here** During the Dwarven quest line I was presented with backing a specific candidate for king. To me, one was clearly good and one was clearly bad. I made my usual decision, backed the good guy and was done with it. Funny thing was, after I finished the game, the outcome of my actions was quite negative. The King I backed was dead and people were fighting more than before. "Heh" i thought, must be unavoidable.
It was only recently I realised the full extent of the consequences. The good king was old, and traditional, annddd he was (i believe) chosen by the previous king. It just made sense. The other guy was trying to sabotage the good king. Not only that but it was commonly believed that he killed his own brothers to rise in power.
During the last PC Gamer Podcast I was listening to their description of the Dwarven origin stories and the caste system and I realised... I had made the WRONG choice. The other candidate was clearly bad, but it was because I didn't understand their culture, I was an outsider. Furthermore he was young, and believed in a casteless system, something that would have freed the people. So what if he was ruthless and a murderer? He was better for the people. I had made a choice, continued with the story and it was WRONG. Dragon Age continues to blow my mind.
I haven't played Dragon Age, and the way things are going I probably won't for quite some time, if at all, but it's nice to see a game doing something where the choice isn't clear cut good or bad. I think the best example I've seen of a game blurring the moral line is in some of the side quests in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The conflict between the Fighters' Guild and the Thieves' Guild immediately springs to mind.
Yeah I also liked it a lot because the outcome didnt make me want to reload my game straight away and try all the different dialogue options, which I much admit is a bad habit of mine.
I was shocked to find out that the lesser of two evils still ended up being a wrong choice. But also maybe that what i thought was right, was wrong because I didnt understand the dwarf culture as much as I should have?
You learn pretty early on about Dwarven politics, however Behlen looks like more of a dick than he already is. So it doesn't help much.
" I played a Dragon Age a LOT, but it was only recently I realised something. Dragon Age was the first time I had experienced a realistic and meaningful moral predicament. Let me explain.Well honestly, you weren't exactly "wrong." It can be argued quite easily that the ends don't justify the means, in which case Harrowmont would prove the better candidate. I chose Bhelen just because I didn't know the stories of either politician, and Bhelen had a better impression on me (I saw Harrowmont as a dirty mudslinger, a sort of "moneybags" type character). But looking back now, if I had known the dwarf origins story, I would have obviously chosen Harrowmont.
I was playing a good character, so every quest I'd play until I was given a choice and then go "Ah! thats the good choice and thats the bad choice" and I'd pick the good choice which to me was pretty clear cut. Thats the problem morality games have had. Moral ambiguity.
**Spoilers past here** During the Dwarven quest line I was presented with backing a specific candidate for king. To me, one was clearly good and one was clearly bad. I made my usual decision, backed the good guy and was done with it. Funny thing was, after I finished the game, the outcome of my actions was quite negative. The King I backed was dead and people were fighting more than before. "Heh" i thought, must be unavoidable. It was only recently I realised the full extent of the consequences. The good king was old, and traditional, annddd he was (i believe) chosen by the previous king. It just made sense. The other guy was trying to sabotage the good king. Not only that but it was commonly believed that he killed his own brothers to rise in power. During the last PC Gamer Podcast I was listening to their description of the Dwarven origin stories and the caste system and I realised... I had made the WRONG choice. The other candidate was clearly bad, but it was because I didn't understand their culture, I was an outsider. Furthermore he was young, and believed in a casteless system, something that would have freed the people. So what if he was ruthless and a murderer? He was better for the people. I had made a choice, continued with the story and it was WRONG. Dragon Age continues to blow my mind. "
Thats the thing isn't it? Noones ever really wrong, but I felt I had made the wrong decision. However I felt more like "thats the choice I have to live with now", because of how its executed, rather than , oh crap lets reload.
Like sure the harshness is a bit much but a lot of the dwarf nobles accept that style of culture.
Trying to extrapolate any significant kind of moral satisfaction from Dragon Age is a futile endeavour. So much of it is painted in shades of grey. Gotta love it, though. I didn't exactly the same way you felt at the time, but reading that made me go "damn, you're right", because I made the same decision and saw how Orzammar fell apart afterwards. Oh well, hopefully I can redeem myself in the next game and save Orzammar again.
Game of the Year.
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