Maybe her goal is to institute that kind of thing in the DA series, we don't know, all she said was she would like to skip combat. And games that let you skip combat are praised for the ability, so why bash her for that? I don't understand the double standard here.
This is the internet.
Anyone who's been on it for more than a day knows what online discourse entails. Considering that Bioware seems to have a lot of passionate, and a lot of young, and a lot of hot-headed, fans (and detractors), people working for Bioware should know what to expect when they say things that seem, at first glance, to be totally contrary to what Bioware is about -- that is, video games. The problem with interviews is that it's easy to misrepresent yourself, or to be misrepresented. I also think other writers at Bioware may have tinted people's perceptions of Bioware writers in general...
I don't know. My wife is kind of the same way. She's a gamer, but she does have very specific tastes, and not all games appeal to her on the same level that they do me. At the moment, we're finishing up on our most recent playthroughs of Mass Effect 2, in preparation for Mass Effect 3.
[snip]
Nu_clear, I understand you and your wife's position, and I'm not against it. What bothers me most about the idea of skipping combat is this: it's a superficial catering to a demographic. Instead of, for instance, allowing diplomatic solutions to conflict, or allowing you to boost your edge in combat, through, say, the hiring of mercenaries, so that you're never in danger of dying, allowing you to skip combat in ME would be a disingenuous, short-sighted and empty gesture of welcome to people who aren't "really"/typical gamers.
Compare cinema and video games. Cinema has enough niche genres and products that everyone can find something they like. This is not the case with video games. I'd like to see us offering the option of diplomacy, or strategy, or ingenuity, rather than removing (metaphor alert) what makes Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris. Can you imagine something like Walker Texas Ranger with all of the combat cut out? It would be even more terrible than it originally was.
Combat isn't just there for gameplay purposes. (It shouldn't be, anyway... ) It's also there for pacing. Remove the combat from ME. What do you have? You have a series of disjointed, awkward cutscenes. Now, if you could replace that combat with something else, such as fierce negotiation, or haggling with mercenaries as to how much it will cost for them to do X, Y and Z...
Or, better yet, release another space opera franchise that doesn't rely as heavily on combat.
As for the interaction between story and gameplay. It's true that it is other people's job to implement the writers' work, and if this implementation is botched (like it was in DA2) it can lead to horrible results. Can you see how the inverse could be true, too? How a writer could negatively impact the work of the coders, designers, editors and artists? A video game is a collaborative effort. If you don't understand and enjoy it, you really shouldn't be in the industry. That goes for any industry.
As regards your comments about how the interwebs have treated Hepler, and the level of discourse around this issue: I agree.
» Sun May 13, 2012 3:03 pm 
