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GDC: Ragnar Trnquist is awesome


I entered my meeting with Ragnar Tørnquist armed with an array of questions from self-professed Ragnar Tørnquist fanboy (and DS/Revolution Fanboy) Ludwig Kietzmann. By the time we were done playing with Dreamfall, it was apparent that Mr. Tørnquist was really cool and probably wouldn't mind making Ludwig's day with an autograph. He graciously agreed and asked what to write...



In the short demonstration of Dreamfall I was confronted with more than one "fuck" in the dialog, to which Tørnquist smiled knowingly, telling me although it was most certainly a mature game, some things have changed in the six years since The Longest Journey's release. Following controversies like "hot coffee" and the current political climate surrounding video games, the full frontal male nudity seen in TLJ's intro was no longer an option. He explained that the inclusion of nudity, though adding a valuable sense of realism, simply wasn't worth the deleterious effect it would have on retail acceptance.

So when he wrote that he was sorry for "the lack of full frontal male nudity in Dreamfall," he was being quite sincere. The absence was not artistically, but culturally, motivated... and it also made for the greatest autograph ever! Thanks, Ragnar!