BioWare details ambitious social network

By Robert Purchese Published 28 October, 2009

Share Dragon Age heroes on all formats.

BioWare wants to provide the Dragon Age community with a MMO-style hub where heroes can be viewed and scrutinised and all in-game progress automatically tracked.

Online producer Fernando Melo - speaking to Kotaku - said having a social experience typical of multiplayer games was "really important" these days, particularly for single-player experiences.

All three versions of Dragon Age: Origins - PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - will connect to the BioWare Social Network. Individual heroes will be shared with the world on an avatar screen so others can see how you look, what items you have and what attributes you boast. Statistics like "Greatest damage dealt" and "Most powerful foe slain" will also be tracked.

The Social Network is in beta at the moment with features subject to change. The bulk of the work, explained Melo, will be done post-launch.

Ideas for the future include detailed story-tracking, showing which of the myriad paths you chose to walk down. Event tracking isn't implemented yet, but will, like an in-game journal, note your quest progress.

"We were trying to figure out how to create these water-cooler moments that people could talk about without spoiling it for people," said Melo. "We wanted to have a way that complements that instead of random [forum] threads."

PC owners of Dragon Age: Origins will also be able to post screenshots and share them with friends. Otherwise, all three versions will work with the Social Network in an identical way.

This BioWare Social Network, coupled with two years of planned DLC and a detailed Flash spin-off of Dragon Age, show the considerable effort behind the dark fantasy RPG. From BioWare's perspective, it's another incentive for people to buy a legitimate copy rather than pirating it.

"We wanted to make this very clear this is not a DRM solution. The win was taking a playbook from Valve by adding additional value for players," concluded Melo. "Our benefit is more indirect in terms of feeding the community and getting them engaged with Dragon Age as a franchise."

Look for our Dragon Age: Origins review closer to release.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • qoobah #1 2 years ago

    These guys know their craft. Hats off for the effort of systematic introduction of social elements to inherently single-player experience. These days everything is about the community.

  • skillian #2 2 years ago

    Absolutely, they are masters.

    And I know they didn't want this story to be about piracy, but I have to quickly say that this is the way to deal with it. Give added value to your legit players, rather than gimping your game in a futile attempt to stop it and dragging down your paying customers at the same time.

    Good job, and I'm really looking forward to this game now.

  • hiddenranbir #3 2 years ago

    I am on this facebook of Dragon Age...it is nutty.

  • kangarootoo #4 2 years ago

    A very cool idea indeed. I don't play mmos, but I am impressed.


    "Give added value to your legit players, rather than gimping your game in a futile attempt to stop it and dragging down your paying customers at the same time."

    Truth.

  • kingmong #5 2 years ago

    more people should take copy from valve's playbook in this regard. because of the value for money, support available and all around attitude, paying for something like the orange box feels worth every penny. you really feel you're supporting a company who deserve it.

    the same is not true of most other overpriced rubbish - particularly on the consoles. how people justify charging the same price at launch for PES/Fifa's annual patch as Valve charged for the orange box is beyond me

    in other news: bioware ftw. looking forward to this one massively

  • Moribundman #6 2 years ago

    If its going all cross platform on this, can we create a character now on the PC creator and use that via my Bioware online profile on the 360/PS3 versions? Going forward this would be handy to use your guy/gal on different versions of the game.

    From what I gather the Bioware forums store all info you upload from the PC character creator so given this cross platform "hub" it shouldn't be difficult to implement... If you start playing the console version (which I preordered) and decide you'd prefer the PC version it'd be great to switch your character over!

    Wonder if they'll do this with ME2? Would be a handy way for PS3 owners to pick up a PC/360 game if the rights prevent ME1 being released by EA.

  • Gurrah #7 2 years ago

    I don't understand the praise... who needs all this crap? I want a proper single-player experience, not people showing me how big their metaphorical dragon-cocks are. If there's one thing I hate, it's playing a properly involving single player game and all of the sudden pops up an annoying message. For this very reason I always switch off the Steam friends-list when I am playing something in single player. This game is not and will never ever be a successor to the brilliant Baldurs Gate series. It's a big pile of marketing bullshit, combined with features nobody needs and cares about and a TWO YEAR DLC plan... wtf.

  • rhinoxious #8 2 years ago

    @Gurrah

    Though not as passionate about you, I did stare in disbelief at the Twitter option shoehorned into Uncharted 2!

  • Hantheman #9 2 years ago

    Good idea. People only dislike it because they're grumpy sourpusses.

  • Eraysor #10 2 years ago

    Add Mass Effect to it and it'll be epic win.

  • Shikasama #11 2 years ago

    I must admit that a 'Dragon Age Armoury' seems truly superflous. It's a single player game, a lot of characters are going to be the same.

  • WinterSnowblind #12 2 years ago

    @Moribundman
    You can link your Gamertag/PSN ID to the social site to get the bonus item for the console versions, but they've said it wouldn't be possible to take over your actual characters.

  • ardamillo #13 2 years ago

    This is a good idea. After Mass Effect, I remember lots of people uploading wonky photos of their Shepards to the Bioware forums - it was quite fun and this should be better.

  • Rack #14 2 years ago

    So it's a DRM solution?

  • cobaltfram #15 2 years ago

    I really don't get the point of this. Why can't I just play the bloody game already? This seems like EA trying to shove "broader" appeal into the game. It just all seems like an unnecessary, and regrettable, waste of resources.

  • hiddenranbir #16 2 years ago

    Because not many will go for a rpg that requires the same level of attention in tactical combat that BG did. (probably a bit less)

    Why else do all their promo vids show nothing but ridiculous blood splatter, sex, more blood and more sexy sexy.

    I don't really like the whole DA dedicated facebook site. Is this the future? Is every game eventually going to have its own mini-facebook community? I much prefer the old fashioned, let the people form their own communities.

  • moozaad #17 2 years ago

    They should have wasted their time writing coop or multiplayer functionality. Facebook for DA? really? come on... who's actually seriously going to look at it more than once?