Legal Niches

Dragon Age: Political Simulator?

By pete_gallagher

Of course the BioWare hit is not a political simulator per se, but the game's myriad of races do serve up one political situation after another, which an article in the Examiner explores.

 The author calls Dragon Age 'rife' with politics:

The dwarfs bicker with each other about who should be the next king, conducting back room deals with you to advance their cause; Zevran – an assassin who attempts to kill you – tries to smooth talk his way into your good graces, convincingly arguing how he could advance and aid your cause; and Loghain betrays his king and, yet, you still have to convince the nobles to rally to your cause and not side with Loghain.

Given the success of the title and this country's (growing) general distaste of politics, the author wonders why gamers put up with politics inside the game:

Partly, we put up with the politics in Dragon Age, because we enjoy the story. We deal with, suffer through, tolerate the politics because they help move the story along and we actually like them in the context of the story.

Oh yeah, there's also the fun aspect:

Almost every dialog in Dragon Age will eventually give you an option to just kill them all. Ahhh. How satisfying. No pressing of the flesh. No back room deals. Just action.

There's never a political situation in Dragon Age that can't be solved with the point of a sword.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).