Dragon Age Origins vs. the MMORPG
Who doesn’t like a good old fashion role playing game (RPG)? The gaming community in the last decade has been overrun by the increasingly popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) genre. This style of gameplay has lead the classic gamer astray, where once a solitary elf could peacefully rend justice against a horde of the undead, s/he now requires 24 of his or her virtual “friends” in order to defend herself/himself. This forced social behavior has a new enemy in Dragon Age Origins, the new Bioware game released late in 2009.
This solitary RPG touted by Bioware as a “Dark fantasy epic” has won over the playing time of many a digital gamer. As many stories of this type begin the main character is a somewhat exceptional young member of his or her society who is shaped by the retreat from that society and into another. In the case of this game the “Gray Wardens” provide that new home. The Gray Wardens are a foreign band of militants that rely on their fabled ability to defeat the mythical “Blight”, in order to have freedom of movement throughout the world of Tedas.
This game provides a stark contrast to that of MMRPG’s in that once again a gamer can enjoy to solitude of ripping through evil minions without being forced to deal with n00bs running up and asking them for gold, or pug’s who don’t know how to play their class and then ninja all of the loot. Dragon age Origins provides a light at the end of the darkness with both the classic party style game play of Baudur’s Gate, or the freedom to focus your control on a single character and pre program the rest of your parties tactics into the game.
Thank you Bioware, for at least the temporary freedom you provide us from the clutches of the MMORPG’s or this world.
