In a recent interview, BioWare's Dragon Age II lead designer Mike Laidlaw expressed his belief that a lot of casual and action gamers are ready to play RPGs (Role Playing Games) but they don't realize that.
"For me, I guess, fundamentally, there are more people who are ready to play RPGs than realize it," he said. "These are people who will play FarmVille. These are people who have shot enough people in the head that they've leveled up in Medal of Honor. They've gained XP and have received awards as a result. That's an RPG mechanic. They've played [Grand Theft Auto] San Andreas and they've run enough, and gotten buff enough, that their endurance is a higher. They've leveled."
"It's honestly on RPGs to try to figure out how to take the mechanics that people are actually loving in other genres and say, 'No, no, no. We had those years ago, but we understand that they kind of were scary,'" Laidlaw added.
With the eminent release of Dragon Age II, fans of the original Dragon Age have expressed their concern that BioWare is "dumbing down" the sequel in order to appeal to wider audience. Responding to those concerns, Laidlaw admitted that the combat has been made "more responsive and faster" in Dragon Age II and that that can be seen by fans as "dumbing down."
"I think that from a certain point of view that means -- to use internet parlance -- 'OMG you are dumbs down like action game!'," he explained. "I mean there were decisions that we made as a team that said, 'Okay, this is, I think, more welcoming. Not 'dumbed down' or anything like that, but welcoming."
