Dragon Commander Developer Blog Update

In a new developer blog writeup, Lar writes about risky content in the upcoming Dragon Commander, and the considerations developers have to make in finding a balance between asking important moral/political questions in DC without going too far and offending too many people.

The second batch I received immediately triggered every warning signal that’s been conditioned into me by hordes of producers, legal teams and I guess what my own media environment considers as political correctness. But it was representative of the things over which we debate, and that’s exactly what I asked for, so I couldn’t complain. Not that I really wanted to.

Topics covered were euthanasia, abortion, illegal immigrants, healthcare, same sex marriage, drugs, religious tolerance etc. exactly the kind of things that can get you in a lot of trouble if you dare vent an opinion that diverges from whatever position is taken by certain social, ethnical or cultural groups.

The problem I have is that we’re putting these into a game context, meaning that we need to attach consequences to whatever choice you make. The mechanics of Dragon Commander are such that whatever choice you make, certain factions will be satisfied by it while others will vehemently oppose it. But if you make a choice that fits with the faction you’re trying to please, then that can be considered as a reward, and so I can already foresee public reactions like (Larian’s new game rewards players for taking liberal view on same sex marriage) or (Dragon Commander gives you bonus if you authorize drugs). It might be interesting to note that I picked the most docile topics here.