Wed, Sep 09, 2009 | 20:14 BST
BioWare hopes “out of place” music for Origins videos “wakes you up”
BioWare’s lead designer for Dragon Age: Origins, Mike Laidlaw, has commented about the seemingly out of place music associated with videos for the game.
Most contain heavy style rock/pop, and most recently, Marilyn Manson’s “This is the New Shit” was used. This type of music is usually not something one associates with a fantasy title; however, Laidlaw says that there is a reason for this. BioWare wants to “shock” you enough so that you take notice of the game.
“I think part of the reason it’s infamous is because people were surprised and just weren’t expecting it,” he told D’toid. “What they expected was a long string of flutes and some harpsichord, perhaps. Quite frankly, Dragon Age ultimately is about surprising the player in terms of their expectations of fantasy.
“It’s going to shock them in a lot of ways. At the same time there’s a deep RPG in there, and a great story, but what I think that particular campaign achieved is, it hit an element of the game, and the game’s about eighty hours for average players, so you certainly can’t make a three minute marketing spec that covers every friggin’ element of that, so you pick a part of it and go, ‘let’s talk about violence for a while, and while we’re talking about violence, we’re going to play some music that, essentially, is pretty violent.”
More through the jump.
“And if that wakes you up and shocks you and makes you go ‘aurururgh,’ is that really a bad thing? Because what it does, I hope, is make people go, ‘y’know, what is up with this Dragon Age thing?’ and they go digging a little further and discover that there’s far more than just killing some people, but at the same time, killing people is a very real part of the game, there are many, many deaths.
“We have a persistent gore system, so there you go.”
Loads more through the link.
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Posted in: EA, PC, PS3, RPG, Xbox 360
Tags: bioware, dragon age, Dragon Age: Origins, mike laidlaw, origins
12 comments
#1
Hunam
09/09/09, 8:23 pm
All the rawk adverts were pretty awful in general and put a lot of people off the game.
#2
Freek
09/09/09, 8:32 pm
Gratuitous use of heavy metal, violence, sex and gore, all extremly cliché and about as far away from “surprising” and “interesting” as you can possibly get.
#3
Hunam
09/09/09, 8:33 pm
The worse was that there was no game shown at all, just the same recycled 5 cutscenes, just in a different order with different cuts.
#4
Aimless
09/09/09, 8:43 pm
It’s a shame that everything else about Dragon Age seems intent on sending me to sleep.
Okay, I’m being facetious. It does look a bit rubbish, though.
#5
Phoenixblight
09/09/09, 8:53 pm
Thanks AImless haven’t seen that one. I am looking forward to this game. There has been no good RPGs this year this being a Bioware IP gives it a lot of hope. I can’t wait for this game. The music didn’t put me off the game then again I am a huge Manson fan. =-P
#6
Uncontested
10/09/09, 12:07 am
I went and pre-ordered Dragon Age today. U mad?
#7
hitnrun
10/09/09, 12:18 am
“Quite frankly, Dragon Age ultimately is about surprising the player in terms of their expectations of fantasy.”
Nothing says “spirtual successor to Baldur’s Gate” like shocking and challenging players in terms of their expectations of fantasy with rawk music, over-the-top cutscene gore, and plonking sex.
#8
Neolucifer
10/09/09, 2:08 am
It’s a shame , i think that a lot of power metal and fantasy rock stuff actually suits very well medieval games and movies (nighwish ? apolyptica ? Dream theater ? hammerfall anyone ? )… far more than the abused and uninspired Lord of the rings or Gladiator OST clones we keep getting .
But EA/bioware had to go with pure crap instead . nothing against manson , i quite like many of his stuff , but it’s probably his less inspired work so far .
Let’s be honesthere … the whole “this is the new shit” isnt about shock … it was about using repetitive , fast and loud sound to give some fake sense of urgency . To fake the game being all about action , wich despite the overused same footages since the game’s announcement heavily edited , doesnt seems to be the case .
I dont even see why bioware waste time commenting on those misleading and failed videos
#9
Phoenixblight
10/09/09, 4:50 am
We know what song it is but the average person would not. I agree its not Manson greatest song but I don’t think it would work with Beautiful people =-P
Its just a clip of the song at the end of the trailer. Its not the entire trailer nor is the entire soundtrack of Dragon AGe going to have metal. Its beeen stated it will still be the normal “Lord of the Rings” type music.
They are trying to get word out that this is a mature rated medieval fantasy game.
#10
Galactic_Barret
10/09/09, 7:31 am
Maybe I’ve been watching too much UC2 footage, but that animation seemed so… false.
I haven’t listened to the song yet, but I doubt it could be more off-putting than the game itself.
#11
Phoenixblight
10/09/09, 7:47 am
UC2? Its not made with the Unreal engine if thats what you’re getting at.
Starting to think all UK people have very seperate style of taste with videogames. You go to American Game site and the reaction is completely different like Through the Mirror different.
#12
endgame
10/09/09, 12:10 pm
shocked by the song that they have chosen for the trailer, in a f**king good way! that’s one of the reasons why bioware is the best rpg developer out there. they have that something in their games/trailers that u can’t name, u can’t describe, that u just know that’s something that makes that game perfect. old gamers know what i’m talking about.
also shocked by the first book, again in a good way. awesomeness inked. default/standard writers should bow to david gaider. he’s a genius!
and also shocked by the WHAT? 80 HOURS!? UNF**KINGBELIEVABLE!!! and that’s just for ONE of the origin stories? omg. i spent more than 60 hours in MEPC which u could finish in less than 10 hours or so. i can’t even imagine how much i’m going to spend in this one.
and the last thing i’m shocked about the fact that ppl have doubts about a bioware game!? r u retarded!? or just new to the scene? or maybe u don’t like RPGs. ’cause there’s no other answer really. if u don’t know what bioware can do then stfu and don’t buy the game! but don’t pollute the website with your w/e.