Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thread

[Iluvcheezcake]

Aaand banned from the DATV forums. Took em long enough :]

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

View attachment 57382
I think we may have reached new heights of clown world.

We’re going back to the trenches with this one. So, it’s no secret. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the latest “DEI game” to be subjected to criticism with zero bearing on the actual game itself. Because I’m tired and already exhausted myself talking about diversity in games, I’ll keep this one mercifully brief.

This brand of “criticism” extends to YouTube where content creators aren’t bound to any kind of journalistic integrity. Sure, a few YouTubers provide thoughtful feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of a game. But some of them couldn’t care less about worthwhile, relevant, informed discourse.

https://web.archive.org/web/2024110...lguard-and-the-necessity-of-games-journalism/

Wow this is next level mental illness

 

[Warrax]

Taash's entire quest is an HR training course for the approved way to handle coworkers who claim they are "non-binary".

They've picked the most obnoxious aggressively immature character because it lets them show all the possible sensitive interactions. You are supposed to only offer support even if they are unreasonable. They have different misgendering scenarios and how everyone should behave in each case. There's the unaware misgendering by Rook, and the mistaken misgendering by Isabela. In each case someone who knows better like Bellara should softly interject and say "umm... actually... " and correct the speaker, who should then promptly apologize and repeat the right pronoun. The Bharv scene is a suggestion for some sort of light-hearted group-imposed punishment for conditioning, like a donation jar. There's no deliberate misgendering of course, because it's so reprehensive it's unspeakable, apparently.

And then there's the "how to come out as non-binary" if you are an angsty teen and want to piss off your parents.

I just want to know whose idea it was to put this in a Dragon Age game in place of actual relevant content.

 

[Yosharian]

Played through the DAO City Elf origin story. Kind of boring. The writing isn't very good in places, the human noble villain is is overly dramatic and doesn't feel like a real character as a result. The controls and camera viewpoint are awkward. The combat has depth obviously but it's not very engaging at the start because you have such limited access to stuff.

Still, what struck me more than anything is the complete control you have over what your character says. I can be a right bastard towards all the humans, even the human prince guy. Or I can be nice. I can even be horrible to members of my family, or the other elves in the city quarter. It's a far cry from Veilguard's neutered toxic positivity.

Anyway I don't think this origin is as good as the Dwarf Noble or the Human Noble ones.

 

[Padzi]

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.
The worst and boring one is Dalish Elf.

 

[Camel]

Played through the DAO City Elf origin story. Kind of boring. The writing isn't very good in places, the human noble villain is is overly dramatic and doesn't feel like a real character as a result. The controls and camera viewpoint are awkward. The combat has depth obviously but it's not very engaging at the start because you have such limited access to stuff.

Still, what struck me more than anything is the complete control you have over what your character says. I can be a right bastard towards all the humans, even the human prince guy. Or I can be nice. I can even be horrible to members of my family, or the other elves in the city quarter. It's a far cry from Veilguard's neutered toxic positivity.

Anyway I don't think this origin is as good as the Dwarf Noble or the Human Noble ones.

The Dwarf Noble is the best origin, the Magi and Dwarf commoner are good. I liked the lore about the dwarves, Orzammar and ruthless dwarven politics. Nobles treating commoners and the Casteless dwarves as dirt and them living in squalor were pretty novel for RPGs. The double gut punch of Bhelen's betrayal with the battle of Ostagar and losing Duncan who saved your life is memorable if you start as Aeducan.

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.
The worst and boring one is Dalish Elf.

Both Elven origins aren't good.

 

[Yosharian]

Played through the DAO City Elf origin story. Kind of boring. The writing isn't very good in places, the human noble villain is is overly dramatic and doesn't feel like a real character as a result. The controls and camera viewpoint are awkward. The combat has depth obviously but it's not very engaging at the start because you have such limited access to stuff.

Still, what struck me more than anything is the complete control you have over what your character says. I can be a right bastard towards all the humans, even the human prince guy. Or I can be nice. I can even be horrible to members of my family, or the other elves in the city quarter. It's a far cry from Veilguard's neutered toxic positivity.

Anyway I don't think this origin is as good as the Dwarf Noble or the Human Noble ones.

The Dwarf Noble is the best origin, the Magi and Dwarf commoner are good. I liked the lore about the dwarves, Orzammar and ruthless dwarven politics. Nobles treating commoners and the Casteless dwarves as dirt and them living in squalor were pretty novel for RPGs.

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.
The worst and boring one is Dalish Elf.

Both Elven origins aren't good.

Yeah I'm thinking if I do try this again, I might try the Dwarf commoner.

I might not bother though, it hasn't aged very well.

 

[Larianshill]

I command that you post more. But above all else, I command.

 

[Artyoan]

Update on my prediction. Metascore is 79 on pc, 83 on ps5. So my 82 was fairly close. Reviews on steam are not mixed but still mostly positive so I missed there.

I was right about the main criticism but the biggest complaint seems to be the writing in general, not just the story/characters. Even a few minutes on the dragon age reddit reveals that the hardcore fans find it be childish and the whole thing feels Disney/Marvel. To top it off, a secret true ending taints the previous Dragon Age games while plot developments render those games meaningless anyway since everyone in those regions is likely dead. Bravo.

Judging by EA's silence, they aren't even going to say it held up initially. They may just admit that it underperformed out of the gate and substantially so. If it were selling well, I imagine they would say so and Schreier wouldn't be quietly deleting tweets.

So in conclusion, my prediction was mixed as I actually overestimated the game.

Deleting tweets?

He deleted his tweet bashing the 'chuds' since DAV was on top of steam sales for one day and had 70k or so concurrent players. Only reason to delete is that his primary reason was false and that the game is selling well under expectations.

 

[Semiurge]

Taash's entire quest is an HR training course for the approved way to handle coworkers who claim they are "non-binary".

They've picked the most obnoxious aggressively immature character because it lets them show all the possible sensitive interactions. You are supposed to only offer support even if they are unreasonable. They have different misgendering scenarios and how everyone should behave in each case. There's the unaware misgendering by Rook, and the mistaken misgendering by Isabela. In each case someone who knows better like Bellara should softly interject and say "umm... actually... " and correct the speaker, who should then promptly apologize and repeat the right pronoun. The Bharv scene is a suggestion for some sort of light-hearted group-imposed punishment for conditioning, like a donation jar. There's no deliberate misgendering of course, because it's so reprehensive it's unspeakable, apparently.

And then there's the "how to come out as non-binary" if you are an angsty teen and want to to piss off your parents.

Even Taash's mother looks like a tranny.

I just want to know whose idea it was to put this in a Dragon Age game in place of actual relevant content.

Look at the visage of that sad looking thing that once went by the name of Andrew.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

View attachment 57382
I think we may have reached new heights of clown world.

We’re going back to the trenches with this one. So, it’s no secret. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the latest “DEI game” to be subjected to criticism with zero bearing on the actual game itself. Because I’m tired and already exhausted myself talking about diversity in games, I’ll keep this one mercifully brief.

This brand of “criticism” extends to YouTube where content creators aren’t bound to any kind of journalistic integrity. Sure, a few YouTubers provide thoughtful feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of a game. But some of them couldn’t care less about worthwhile, relevant, informed discourse.

https://web.archive.org/web/2024110...lguard-and-the-necessity-of-games-journalism/

VICE.com in anno domini 2024. Ignore it, culturally dead since the late 2000s. Almost zero chance it isn't pure rage bait for clicks.

I didn't read any of these, but I'll provide predictions on what I think they're about.

View attachment 57389

Prediction: "We have to walk back that 9/10 review because people are getting mad."

I read it. Notably it's the Senior Features Editor being deployed to do damage control. No direct criticism of the original review but they've realised the gap between 9/10 and reality can't be bridged and that there's a serious credibility problem here.

Everything that's old is new again. Whole new generation of gamers realising the professional reviewers are in bed with PR lately; as many of us did way back when. Hope they'll learn to question dogmatic assumptions about their favourite games too.

 

[Fargus]

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.

In city elf origin Hawke from Dragon Age 2 rapes your cousin and bitchslaps you at your wedding. It's kinda funny how they picked the actor who played a minor villain rapist in prologue to be the male voice of Dragon Age 2.

 

[Swen]

I'm surprised it's still at 73%

 

[Camel]

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.
The worst and boring one is Dalish Elf.

I liked saving your sister as a male City Elf, felt more realistic.

 

[Warrax]

Even Taash's mother looks like a tranny.

I just want to know whose idea it was to put this in a Dragon Age game in place of actual relevant content.

Look at the visage of that sad looking thing that once went by the name of Andrew.

Andrew was apparently a theater/AV nerd in high school and first got into the industry as an "environment artist" and hired at Bioware as "design director". It certainly explains why all the budget was apparently spent on environment design. The fact that all the character models have masculine bodies, all the men look effeminate, and all the women look trans is almost certainly a deliberate choice by this person.

But someone promoted this "design director" who was not a gamer to a "game director" within a couple of years and let them loose. I'm curious whether EA had the idea for a DEI simulator first and picked someone to carry it out, or if the idea came from Bioware.

 

[Shuruga]

I have a soft spot for the setting and interactivity of DA:O and so this review from a Redditor that points out how D:V fails so spectacularly in respecting its own heritage struck me as a good read.

 

[Lovely Feather Pillow]

I'm surprised it's still at 73%

I'm not. The people that bought the game despite everything they saw are the target audience.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[Konjad]

I'm surprised it's still at 73%

Probably because nobody is buying it anymore

 

[Lovely Feather Pillow]

I was kind of invested until the tranny YouTuber started talking. Yizikes.

 

[GloomFrost]

In DA:O city Elf orgin story is better for female Elf.

In city elf origin Hawke from Dragon Age 2 rapes your cousin and bitchslaps you at your wedding. It's kinda funny how they picked the actor who played a minor villain rapist in prologue to be the male voice of Dragon Age 2.

The saddest thing is that none of that is even remotely possible anymore in modern industry. The last hope was CDPR but they are cucked too now.

 

[Padzi]

I didn't know that DA:V devs doesn't know who tf Zevran is (14:10).

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I was kind of invested until the tranny YouTuber started talking. Yizikes.

Is an anti-woke tranny tho.

 

[Cryomancer]

I'm surprised it's still at 73%

Because nobody is buying anymore.

If you look by the amount of reviews, Elden Ring has 715,296. BG3 has 594,268 and the Monkey game has 717,128. Failguard has roughly 2.3% of the Monkey game number of reviews.

 

[Tyranicon]

I have a soft spot for the setting and interactivity of DA:O and so this review from a Redditor that points out how D:V fails so spectacularly in respecting its own heritage struck me as a good read.

You know you done fucked up when somebody writes that many words in an angry rant.