Dragon Age: Origins seems very familiar...

[Borotor]

Anyone given a go at Dragon Age: Origins? I played thru it before starting to read WOT and found myself reading plenty of things I had just played thru.

 

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

 

In Dragon Age, the Kingdom of Ferelden is under relentless attack from THE BLIGHT. On the game they're just orcs tho. Soldiers who are specially trained to deal with the blight are called WARDENS. A bad guy's name is Logain.

 

As you can see there's some pretty big elements they borrowed from WOT. I'm not sure if there's more. Those are the ones I could think of at the moment.

[Krakalakachkn]

I thought the storyline of Dragon Age was more generic, and as a big fantasy epic, you're definitely going to see some familiar elements common in all fantasy stories.

[Krakalakachkn]

However, it certainly couldn't hurt Dragon Age to borrow a little bit from a story as good WoT.

[Hallow]

Oh cmon, three very generic fantasy names and you claim they're copying WoT? A bit harsh don't you think? Dragon age also has dwarfs and elves, which are nowhere to be found in WoT. It also has a completely different outlook on magic, where ALL mages are considered abominations and are closely guarded by Templars, where as in WoT you have female channelers wielding immense political power and enjoy high social standing. Comparing the Wardens (It's Grey Wardens btw, not just wardens) of Dragon age to the wardens of WoT is also a pretty strange comparison. Wardens in WoT protect the Aes Sedai, they do not specifically battle the blight (would be more akin to Dragon age's Templars in this way I suppose, except they obey the Aes Sedai, where the Templars boss the mages around.)

[Jehaine]

On the subject, does anyone else find it odd that Humans only have the Noble subtype available? I mean, you meet Daveth in camp and he's certainly not a noble, nor are the thousand or so generic soldiers battling it out against the darkspawn.

 

Given that the Dwarves and Elves had a nice 'downtrodden' class to play with, that move certainly surprised me.

 

Also, my fingers are itching for a Chasind barbarian PC, but i disgress.

[Spectre]

I realize that many fantasy books are carbon copies of each other (Although dragon age is a video game and not a book), but the similarities between dragon age and the wheel of time are uncanny.

 

Here's a list of elements in Dragon age that may sound familiar to you readers:

 

-The Qunari are a group of invaders that claim they wish to improve people. Everyone is "equal" so long as people do their duty. Oh, and they have "mages" (yes i said mages) on leashes.

-The dragon reborn, there is literally a child in the game with the reborn soul of a dragon (not the same, i kno but still).

-THE CICLE TOWER of mages in the middle of a LAKE, yes they have that

-the country Orlais plays "the Great game" (they don't rlly call it that)

-the blight, the taint, the dream realm, the "Maker" (the creator) are also some noticable elements

personally i love both the wheel series, and i love the game Dragon age. but these similarites are just bugging me to no end.

would any of you out there say that Bioware should be sued?

[Taei]

On the subject, does anyone else find it odd that Humans only have the Noble subtype available? I mean, you meet Daveth in camp and he's certainly not a noble, nor are the thousand or so generic soldiers battling it out against the darkspawn.

 

Given that the Dwarves and Elves had a nice 'downtrodden' class to play with, that move certainly surprised me.

 

Also, my fingers are itching for a Chasind barbarian PC, but i disgress.

They only have a limited set of origin stories which doesn't allow for a non noble Human hero. I agree, they should have added one, but that's neither here nor there.

[Taei]

I realize that many fantasy books are carbon copies of each other (Although dragon age is a video game and not a book), but the similarities between dragon age and the wheel of time are uncanny.

 

Here's a list of elements in Dragon age that may sound familiar to you readers:

 

-The Qunari are a group of invaders that claim they wish to improve people. Everyone is "equal" so long as people do their duty. Oh, and they have "mages" (yes i said mages) on leashes.

-The dragon reborn, there is literally a child in the game with the reborn soul of a dragon (not the same, i kno but still).

-THE CICLE TOWER of mages in the middle of a LAKE, yes they have that

-the country Orlais plays "the Great game" (they don't rlly call it that)

-the blight, the taint, the dream realm, the "Maker" (the creator) are also some noticable elements

personally i love both the wheel series, and i love the game Dragon age. but these similarites are just bugging me to no end.

would any of you out there say that Bioware should be sued?

 

*sigh* Let's see the Creator/Maker (good) and the tainted one (evil) where have we all read this before.... Just about every good/evil story ever written. If you want to be that picky about it should they all be sued for copying the <insert your religious text here>'s good versus evil story?

 

There are similarities and there are differences. It's the fantasy genre, get used to it.

[Elend]

The lack of human commoner is due to development time issues, unfortunately. They had planned on it and began working on it but never completed it, as I understand it.

[Toy and Minion]

Now, I don't mean to get off on a rant here, but I actually see a lot more connections to Arthurian Legend, to be honest. But WoT takes a lot from Arthur too, so there are bound to be intersections between them.

 

The dragon in the soul of a child, could be an allusion to Arther (Alistair) and Morgan (Morigan) having a child (Mordred). Arthurs father, Uther PenDRAGON's CoA was a Red Dragon if I recall.

 

As for the Circle Tower in the middle of Lake Calenhad: Very Arthurian as well. Avalon was in the middle of a lake. And yes, wichcraft abound there.

 

As for the Blight, possibly another allusion. To the plague. The two words are rather synonymous. I guess they could have called it The Affliction, The Bane, The Canker, The Curse, The Eyesore, The Rot, The Scourge, or The Withering. Like that last one, actually.

 

As for Orlais, they're basically the French, so I don't pay them too much mind anyhow.

 

Of course, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

[Werthead]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

[Samwell Tarly]

DA:O seems to be combination of pretty much every known fantasy motif/cliché in order to make sure it gets broad audience and it will be second game which gives us story that stands on it´s own.

[TheDeceived]

In Dragon Age the mages who are made tranqual also say somthing WoT related, at Ostagar their is a tranquil mage who says that they still them from their power and emotions.

[Elend]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

 

There are a few WoT Easter eggs but aSoIaF is clearly the dominant influence in the game.

[Samwell Tarly]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

 

There are a few WoT Easter eggs but aSoIaF is clearly the dominant influence in the game.

Attmosphere yes, setting not so much.

[SinisterDeath]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

 

There are a few WoT Easter eggs but aSoIaF is clearly the dominant influence in the game.

Attmosphere yes, setting not so much.

 

 

Maybe if they killed your favorite companions within the first 6 hours, and kept on killing them... Maybe.

Far as I'm concerned, wot is more dark than DAO, DAO is just got excessive blood spray, which can basically be toggled up on virtually any game.

 

Plus, in ASOIAF they actually described sex scenes, where as in wot, they are implied, same as in DAO. ;)

[Elend]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

 

There are a few WoT Easter eggs but aSoIaF is clearly the dominant influence in the game.

Attmosphere yes, setting not so much.

 

I'd argue that its at least clearly more like aSoIaF in the setting than WoT.

[Samwell Tarly]

They've mentioned George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as being an influence, as well as their own Baldur's Gate games, but I don't recall the developers ever mentioning WoT.

 

There are a few WoT Easter eggs but aSoIaF is clearly the dominant influence in the game.

Attmosphere yes, setting not so much.

 

I'd argue that its at least clearly more like aSoIaF in the setting than WoT.

 

Probably... I´d say this combination of fantastic, yet gritty is actally closest to Andrzej Sapkowski´ Witcher of which the RPG game is the most known in the West, altough that was hardly intention on BioWare´s side. Anyway, personally I´m not sure if the second game will be worth buying, I didn´t feel DA:O was so entertaining like Mass Effect, for example.