Would you like a new DLC introducing a brand new hero of another race, with a brand new adventures? Well, as the developers have said, Inquisition will not be introducing these, leaving us with just a possibility to choose gender of a human hero. Although the decision wasn't warmly welcomed by fans, an idea has arisen for BioWae to ship addidional downloadable content starring a fresh playable character. Although the company didn't decline the idea, nothing has been confirmed yet...
Since it doesn't look like we'll see the Origins angle return again and we're playing yet another set human protagonist. I'm wonder if people would be up for a DLC or two where we play a protagonist that's from one of the other races? I think it could provide a good opportunity to show a different experience to playing a human, even if just for a little while.
"Could be done I guess. I think we'd have to evaluate whether or not people would be interested enough in that rather than playing as their main character some more.
I know we did similar stuff on DAO (Leliana's Song, Darkspawn Chronicles). Could be tech/experimental advantages in doing it on a scale like this, so it's certainly not something that is simply "bad idea" though we're a loooooong ways off from thinking about DLC".
Allan Schumacher
"The main issue with such a thing would be modifying existing dialogue files-- we've always had an issue with doing that in previous DLC's. Brand new dialogues, however, are no problem... but I'm assuming one would want to both be the new race and also fit into the existing story.
So it might be possible, providing (as Allan said) it was something the Powers That Be thought might be desireable as DLC (I'd be leery of the whole "this should have been part of the game! How dare you sell us this!" response), but could prove problematic on several levels".
David Gaider
"From the perspective of Cinematic Design, at least, I'd be opposed to any added races via DLC - at least if they carried back into the main game.
Limited to DLC/Expansion areas and plots? Sure - it'd be a not inconsiderable amount of work to design conversations and scenes around three distinct races (elves wouldn't be -too- bad, but dwarves animate differently and what looks good on a human might cause a dwarf's neck to collapse into itself), but it'd be known work.
Going back through the whole game and reworking everything around three races, however, would be an undertaking fairly close in scale to making the game in the first place, and I doubt you'd ever see a DLC team with more than four or five cinematic designers. And, frankly, I like to see my family occasionally".
John Epler
Update[]
So let me get this straight:
When everyone wants to play an optional race in DA3, BioWare's response is "NO". But when optional races become DLC, BioWare is taking that into consideration.'
Does anyone see something wrong about this? Seems to me they're exploiting their fan base yet again. They did a similar act with the prothean DLC.
"I don't think you actually read the thread.
BioWare people are quite against the idea of having any sort of DLC that brings optional races back into the main story because it's way too difficult and expensive to do. If we were going to do something like that, it'd be much easier, cheaper, and efficient to just do it in the main game.
When I said it could be considered, it was explicitly only as the type of DLC that would be disconnected from the main campaign as it'd allow it to be done on a scale that would be manageable. I further elaborated that it'd also require a degree of confidence that a "sidestory" would be acceptable as DLC, rather than something that is done by the main campaign character. So even if we said "yeah we could make races work in a DLC," it'd still have additional considerations before we actually did it.
So since you asked if you got this straight, I'll just state: no you did not have this straight. You have misinterpreted what was said and drawn incorrect conclusions. I'm not sure how you came to said conclusions, but in the interest of setting the record straight, I figured I should probably notify you that you were wrong. It appears that you were seeing what you were wanting to see or something. Whatever you saw, though, isn't reality".
Allan Schumacher
From the perspective of gameplay and player choice, I'd then be opposed to cinematic design playing a large part in the game.
And yes, I know BioWare is committed to cinematic presentation. And I don't blame John Epler for wanting to do his job well (which he does) or for standing behind BioWare's stated commitment.
But I want no one to lose sight of the cost of that commitment. We pay a steep price in lost or compromised features in order to have this cinematic focus.
"The cinematic focus is a feature as well.
These are the balancing acts that the creative leads have to make, this feature vs. that. They are hard decisions and none are taken lightly. I'm sure Mike and Mark (and the rest) understood fully the reaction they would get when they announced human only.
Wether the choices that are made are the right ones, I guess will be found out when the game comes out".
Blair Brown