Dragon Age 2′s “Rival System” Replaces Origin’s “Approval” System, Is Worrisome

Samara: Shepard, I am emotionally distraught because I have to enslave two of my own daughters and I have to kill the third.

Shepard: Shut it, Samara. 
Shepard–Shepard’s a badass. He can say what he wants when he wants, and it’ll turn out his way. With the exception of two moments–those involving Miranda and Jack, and another involving Legion and Tali–no matter what Shepard chooses, things go his way. The only difference is the dichotomous morality assigned to your two choices, which are conveniently  quantified for you: 4 renegade. 3 paragon. And all those numbers do (aside from showcasing either a hideous Shepard or a normal-looking one) is go into a repository which waits until you’ve amounted enough points to say the next level of Shepard Badass.

So, the above situation: Shepard can tell Samara to go to hell, because he simply doesn’t care about her problems. Sure enough, Samara complies: Shepard might as well be Orpheus, after all. Now, imagine for a second, the above situation in Origins…Samara wouldn’t just take it. She’d be displeased. Telling her to GTFO might be so striking that she even chooses to leave your party, because your attitude/philosophy are so grating, she cannot stand the thought of staying with you. But now, according to a preview by PC Gamer, the “approval system” which made the above possible is going to disappear. Party members will stay with you no matter what you do or say, they will just become your “rivals.”

Sure, there are a number of problems with the previous system: most notably of which, is the fact that it was both quantified and visible to the player, as well as easily affected via gifts. Despite these issues, Origins’ system meant that players could not have their cake and eat it, too. So, you might have amassed a great army of Golems…but your decision means losing Shale, and getting snuffed by more do-gooder party members.

Essentially what the system did was make a player think and consider the weight of their options. Is this choice worth getting, despite the fact that Alistair will disapprove? Is there some validity to the reason why Morrigan approves of this choice? It’s not so much wanting to please your party members (though the fact that you might adds a layer of humanization to the mix) as much as it is considering an outlook which is not yours.More importantly, it was a way for the writers to prod the player, frame the suggestion that maybe what they are pickingisn’t the right choice, by making party members get in your face about your decisions. Maybe picking to kill the boy at Redcliffe would be faster, but is it right?

Shepard, on the other hand, never has to validate any moral quandaries. His choices are already denoted as good or bad, moreover, should a teammate’s philosophy conflict with the morality of the decision, well, that’s too bad. Shepard gets what Shepard wants and everyone else just has to deal with it, end of story. Every choice is the “right” choice, paragon or no. 

The rival system has potential, as a possible result of clashing ideologies: after all, some people will just deal with other people’s shit because they have no other choice. Having rivalries as the only outcome (and the justification why people will stay with you, no matter what your choices are), however, eliminates the complexity which the approval system provided.
Still it’ll be interesting to see how they plan to flesh out the rival system…there could be some depth to the system, just of a different kind.

http://nightmaremode.net/2010/12/03/dragon-age-2s-rival-system-replaces-origins-approval-system/

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Just read the bolded, most of the rest is bickering!

I like the idea of party members becoming your rival's....not exactly sure how it will work IN the game...but it sounds good.

Inbeforeanyhatecomments.

 I love what I'm reading here. They really are making great improvements to DAII.

Inbeforepcfanswhine.

Yeah I like this idea too......fine you won't have characters leaving your party anymore....but so what.

that was confusing...it seems more of a system that's been used before or a mish mash. I think they're just superficial differences that would be the outcome. which is fine. There was no real reason to kick your party members out, unless you wanted to be a jack ass... the option to kill wynne and zevran before you got them was pretty cool. though.

I'm not hyped for this game anymore at all (not because of this), but there's tons of better looking games coming out, and dragon age had problems as it was and now it looks worse... but still, its bioware hopefully it will be good.

I tried so hard to keep everyone in the party in DAO but of course either Alistair or Morrigan would leave depending on my choices. I really didn't like it too much but wasn't a big deal for me since hardly anyone left and no one was fully pissed at me. But since your party members can't leave in DAII, it then makes it much easier for me to not to try too hard trying to keep everyone happy and in the party all the time.

great, I can finally tell everyone to stfu and do as I say, then kick their asses  if they want to rival my authority.

(well, I hope it works that way)

I don't like it. I liked the fact that my group changed around depending on how I treated them and I liked the risks involved when speaking to my companions, now that's all gone. I loved Dragon Age, but I'm not a huge fan of Bioware and I really hope they don't mess this up.

Prepare for whining from a PC gamer; Bioware are losing their shit. They have always been the best, or at least among the best, at interpersonal relations in games but it seems like they're tossing even that aside to please more casual gamers who aren't likely to enjoy what an RPG is at its core.

Why are they doing this? To sell more and make more money of course. Which is fine, but it seems increasingly likely that I won't be picking this up any time soon when it arrives and I remain unsure about all future Bioware games if this is the route they are picking; to deny and repress all that they have been and all that their fans have loved about them and their games in the past.

They may gain some ground and sales on this but in the end they might end up losing (like I've said countless times, RPG's are not a good to water down, you'll end with a product that lacks the depth to capture true RPG fans and has just too much for more casual gamers, you'll end up in no-man's land).

Goddamit, Bioware.

I'm neither defending nor for this current change decision... The one int he original DA was kinda broken cause you could just find that mirror... or whatever item was 15 affinity and give it to x character...and imo atleast was broken.Without having dialogue to advance affinity. Etc.

But other bioware games have done it well.

The sequel to the spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate keeps kicking Baldur's Gate fans in the nuts.

Seriously.

Fuck off, BioWare. Fuck. Off.

I intend on buying this 2nd hand.