New Dragon Age Add-On: Play as Darkspawn

BioWare has announced a unique new add-on, Darkspawn Chronicles, for Dragon Age: Origins Awakening wherein the player can fight as darkspawn. In this alternate storyline, your original character dies in the Joining ceremony, and instead you control darkspawn trying to thwart the Grey Wardens' quest to defeat the Archdemon. This DLC brings to mind the recent debate of whether choice is a positive or a negative in gaming. Some gamers (including myself) have trouble making "unethical" choices in video games, even if those choices lead to better loot or abilities. However, the new DLC does not appear to give you a choice; you are definitely campaigning against the side of good. I am reminded of the level "No Russian" in Modern Warfare 2, where the player is forced to go through the level either participating in or just witnessing the mass murder of innocents in an airport. Some players treat games as just a challenge to be beaten and as such, will make the most profitable choices in any scenario and may not be as affected by the ethical dilemmas that sometimes arise. Others approach such content as Darkspawn Chronicles and No Russian with a certain amount of distaste and may even hesitate to play at all. I am not sure if I will be able to hunt down Alistair and the Grey Wardens without qualms after having him as a party constant in my first playthrough and this question of morality could interfere (despite the inherent silliness of becoming attached to video game characters) with my enjoyment of the add-on.

26 Infinity Ward staffers leave; 2 join Respawn

Another update on the backlash from the West/Zampella sacking: since the lead Infinity Ward developers were fired by Activision, 26 other IW employees have voluntarily left, with 2 joining up with West and Zampella at Respawn (funded by EA). This is clearly terrible news for the Modern Warfare 2 dev team. I won't be surprised to see a steep decline in game quality for the next installment and/or a lack of continuity with the rest of the series.

Update: Sacked Infinity Ward Developers Sign with EA

Jason West and Vince Zampella, developers fired from Activision's Infinity Ward, have officially signed with EA, coming as no surprise based on the preceding events of the last month. They are creating a new company called Respawn Entertainment which will grant exclusive publishing rights to former employer EA. Infinity Ward is still wholly owned by Activision and the question of legal rights to the Modern Warfare brand will not be settled until July at the earliest. In the meantime, keep an eye out on the aptly-named newcomer Respawn; I am sure we can expect development to begin on a fantastic new FPS.

Activision vs. Infinity Ward Update

Looks like Infinity Ward is fighting back. The two lead developers who were let go, Vince Zampella and Jason West, are filing a lawsuit against Activision. It turns out that the royalties from Modern Warfare 2 were just about to kick in, making the timing of the devs' terminations suspiciously lucrative for Activision. In addition to attempting to gain some sort of compensation for their groundbreaking work, the devs are also trying to regain the rights to the Modern Warfare brand. If they are successful, and in my opinion they will be, so much for Treyarch; the co-developer has exclusivity with Activision and as such would no longer be able to participate in the development of CoD7.

Activision fires lead developer at Infinity Ward

Story at Kotaku

A lead developer at Infinity Ward, Jason West, has been fired by Activision for insubordination and breaches of contract. Vince Zampella, another lead dev, was also present in meetings with management and his status with the company is currently unknown. As respected as West is, I don't think it's a stretch to expect other IW developers to jump ship with them. I have two main questions at the moment:

1. Where will West and whoever follows him go? IW devs (then under 2015, Inc.) left EA in late 2003 for Activision in order to develop non-Medal of Honor titles. After the success of the Call of Duty series, I'd be willing to bet that EA is tripping over itself trying to recruit the IW boys back on their team.

2. What will this mean for future installments of the Call of Duty series? The brand is one of the strongest in the industry and they know it - note that Activision's new FPS Singularity, developed by Raven (exclusive contract with Activision), was delayed to June 2010 due to strong demand for CoD: MW2 despite solid hype and positive previews. Clearly they are maintaining focus on existing brand awareness and not so much on riskier new ventures. I wonder which way they will go to keep the series on top: keep CoD mainly at IW with presumably weaker developers, or shift more responsibility on to Treyarch (lesser dev of MW, known to be working on CoD 7)?