Dragon Age 2 Demo Stirs Controversy Among Fans
Anticipation for BioWare’s Dragon Age 2 has been building for months. The game’s predecessor Dragon Age: Origins moved over 3.2 million units on PC, PS3 and 360 combined, so the hype is to be expected.
Naturally that hype hit a milestone when a rumor (supported by some seemingly very substantial evidence) hit the net over the weekend about the potential release of a demo for the game.
The story dates back to March of last year, upon the release of the first and only full expansion pack for Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening. A leaflet included in boxed copies of the game bore a piece of the series signature Blood Dragon artwork and promised something for February 1, 2011.
It was assumed by most that this was the release date for Dragon Age 2, which BioWare co-founder Ray Myzuka had already candidly confirmed was in production earlier. The series publisher (and BioWare parent company) Electronic Arts also confirmed a title under the series banner would arrive within the first quarter of 2011, during a financial call that took place around that time. Everything made sense.
However, EA and BioWare revealed Dragon Age 2 in an issue of GameInformer magazine this past summer and then followed up with a full showing at GamesCom where they revealed the release date would, in fact, be March 8 in North America and March 11 in the UK. Following this everyone assumed the game had been delayed quietly before even going public.
Until BioWare confirmed a “surprise” for February 1 was still to come.
Armed with some very believable evidence and the fact that February 1 was, indeed, a Tuesday, the day Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox Live Marketplace update with new content (demos amongst) many on the BioWare Social Network forums thought the demo was a surefire bet.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday came and went with absolutely no comment from anyone within BioWare’s doors. For a community used to interacting with the developers on a very regular basis, this was worrisome.
Tuesday morning, BioWare community manager “Evil” Chris Prestly confirmed the announcement was the launching of the firms closed beta for their Facebook game, Dragon Age: Legends, which they had previously confirmed would indeed begin in early February.
Naturally, the announcement was met with (to say the least) mixed emotions. The thread in the BioWare forums extended to about fifty pages, was locked for going off-topic, and reappeared as a separate, more focused thread which is currently three times as long. Reactions run the gamut: some feel that with a month until launch, it’s really no big deal. Others feel the launching of the Legends beta is an attempt at compensation for a promise BioWare forgot. Some have even gone so far as to say it’s all downright trolling on BioWare’s part.
Most just feel upset that they waited days for a developer comment only to end up with egg on their faces. The confirmation that a demo would eventually be released on February 23 (albeit after a period of exclusitivety to GameStop employees, which starts February 11) hasn’t done much to lighten the mood. Perhaps the damage has already been done? But is it irreversible?
I spoke to Maria Caliban, a known and respected personality on the forums, to get the inside perspective. “Community members are frustrated right now. Not because there’s no demo today but because of BioWare’s silence on the issue when it was obvious a large segment of the forum community believed a demo would be available soon”, Caliban said in an email.
She also acknowledged that it’s not all on BioWare however. “The initial leak was not BioWare’s fault and they were unprepared for the forum’s reaction, but a swift response would have led to less confusion and anger.”
This author has to wonder the effect an ordeal like this will have on the community going forward. Caliban, for one, seems confident. “Most Dragon Age fans are still very enthusiastic about the game and look forward to it coming out. That excitement will only continue to increase, especially when the demo becomes available to the public at the end of February. I expect that by March, the majority of people who are upset now will see the event as a minor irritation. BioWare has a very passionate and devoted fan base.”
They say time heals all wounds, Maria. I suppose only time will tell.
Hmm, interesting article. Perhaps it would have been courteous to come out and say “it’s not the demo,” but they don’t really have any obligation to – if the community work themselves up into a tizzy and then get let down when they’re wrong, who’s fault is that?
But controversy is too strong for this, it’s more like a kerfuffle, or a drumming, inevitable disappointment that a bunch of impatient drooling redneck teens don’t understand.
Self-entitled gamers bitching on the internet? Preposterous!
Basically that.
NO NO NO NO NO!
I REFUSE TO LET FINAL FANTASY THIRTEEN BE ON THE XBOX THREE_SHITTY BECAUSE THAT S WHY I BOUGHT MY PPLAYSTATION £ IN THE FIRST PLACE AND I SHOULD BE THE ONLY PERSON TO EVER PLAY IT BECAUSE I AM COGNITIVELY DISSONANT ABOUT MY £500 PURCHASE ON LAUNCH DAY!!!!1!! RAAAAGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
Oh sorry, I was tapping into self-entitled mode for the sake of commenting and… well, oh my. Fuck the Bioware community if this is how they’re acting. They got an announcement didn’t they? Promise fulfilled.
The kiddies should consider themselves lucky they have a new game. I’m both a Dragon Age fan and a Kingdom Hearts fan, and I’ve been waiting for YEARS for an actual KH3 release date. We got confirmation of DA2 a year ago. KH2 has been out for SIX YEARS and we haven’t gotten even an announcement for KH3. And it’s all Final Fantasy’s fault. Fuck any FF after 6.
@Kevin Murphy: Well at least you aren’t bitter about it.
@Naughton: You’re gonna really hate the Communicast this week…
@Kevin Murphy: Haha. Chew on this: If it wasn’t for the success of FF7, would there even be a Kingdom Hearts?
@Naughton: Probably? Square makes more than just Final Fantasy. Dragon Quest, especially, sells a crapton over in Japan.
@Kevin Murphy: I doubt Disney would have gotten into bed with them on their Japanese cred alone. Plus, most(if not all) the FF characters in KH are from FF7 and beyond. I’m just saying that even if you don’t think they’re as good as 6(which except for 9, I agree), their success has probably helped you out a bit.
*backontopic*
Have any of these people realized that BioWare doesn’t release very many demos in the first place?
@Naughton: You know, that was actually brought up early on the discussion (early being inside the first twenty pages of the thread, which I should have linked to. Damnit.) But I actually pointed out that there was a post release demo for Mass Effect 2 on 360 and PC and the demo for the PS3 version was a month before launch. Well it’s a month before DA2 launches and all trends start somewhere.
I think it’s fair enough to be a little peeved when you’re promised something big, and get something rubbish, late. It’s not completely unwarranted self-entitlement imho.
IDK. Part of me wants to rage that one of the few dev teams even capable of producing a decent game is wasting their time creating worthless fb Fhagottry, but I suppose goofing off doing unimportant things is a good break. plus they probably didn’t make the fb thing anyway, which leads me to my second point.
Even if this dragonville thing is an actual challenging minigame, it will not be anywhere near as cool as what EA jsut did for the bulletstorm release.
@John Kershaw: I agree. EA starting teasing this a year ago! Clearly the plans changed at some point and they neglected to inform us, but did they really think people wouldn’t be able to tell?
Common sense says: Who teases a Facebook game a year before release?
@Ron Taylor: Don’t forget, we live in a world where teaser trailers have teaser trailers…