#And speaking of Bioware

[gaywatch]

Were you ever into Dragon Age?

When they announced Veilguard I had to wipe away actual tears

[rossenn]

Cole in a grassy field like what more could you possibly need

[spinaholi]

how are y’all inquisitors doing atm

[felassan]

nature is healing

[wizardsix]

bioware either writes a trans man and allows the player to invade his privacy out of nowhere or writes a buff nonbinary character and makes it their whole personality. just stop. I'm fed up with it and I'd rather have a game w no trans rep than butchered trans rep and forced allyship.

there's absolutely no need to use our modern terms in a fantasy setting. its very weird and jarring and shows how little bioware cares. it's not difficult to make up their own words or just talk about it in a more natural way. you'd think for a fantasy world that has made up languages they could easily make up a word to describe genders and sexualities, so what's the issue? why don't we get the same care everything else (supposedly) does? like how come no one uses the words gay or lesbian or even bisexual but it's easily implied through dorian saying "I prefer the company of men" and sera's "we have too much in common bc we both like women"???? how come they can say that in a way that doesn't break immersion but taash has to go crazy about gender and write "trans/non-binary/genderfluid/agender all so so super valid I am affirmed" on the walls??

I get what they were trying to do with taash's story but it's not executed well at all especially with that fucking misgender scene. bioware I can assure you most people won't dissolve when they're misgendered. saying sorry or just correcting yourself and moving on is ok. its preferable actually. we don't need a character to stop the conversation to give a speech about how misgendering is bad and apologizing is also bad and act all white knight for us. it's embarrassing. like if I didn't know any better id say they were making fun of us. that's how fucking bad this writing is.

I'm sorry to the people who just accept the bare minimum, but it IS cringe and annoying to have our existence watered down to "trans" and "valid". why can't we just fucking exist without being turned into freakshows to gawk at. trans people deserve better representation than this caricature. we deserve basic fucking respect. our existence is much more complicated than cis people could ever understand and I'm sick of people pretending to care.

[godslittlesadge]

so ive taken some time so marinate in my salt about the 3 choices imported decision and in that time i read some articles and

so this was all a lie lmao

[sun-marie]

BG3 has two of the most thoughtful, unapologetic, no holds barred depictions of men with abusive female partners I've every seen (Wyll + Mizora and Gale + Mystra), which is so rare to see in any media but especially video games, and some of the Larian writers seem determined to convince me it was 100% by accident

[ellstersmash]

[inquisitor-julia]

I think I've just pinpointed exactly what about having nothing about hawke, the warden, or most of the inquisitor's choices matter is bothering me....and disclaimer I will still be playing and am excited for da:v

BUT

I just watched someone playing da:I for the first time *agonize* over who to leave in the fade in adamant and I was struck by the fact that it genuinely doesn't matter. It will not be followed up on as far as we know. You can just say your Hawke made it out and everything was fine and that can be canon. But for me that is just taking away the gravity of choices made even retroactively in previous games? If I can say whatever I want to have happened is what happened then what is there to agonize over?

I'm genuinely not sure how to eloquently word this but taking away even the barest mention of my choices in passing npc conversations or in a random codex somewhere feels like...taking away some of my agency as a player in a series very focused on choice...

Now I do understand that they can't carry everything over and they don't want to alienate new players I get all of that and i understand that whether my warden brokered peace in the brecilian forest probably doesn't matter with the da:v plot but it doesn't have to be all or nothing and putting nothing of choices like who to leave in the fade or who becomes divine is really kind of cheapening those choices for me in their respective games a little bit.

[lillotte17]

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

And our little life is rounded with a sleep

[bunabi]

You know I do think you're onto something about the 'real fans' things because there is this weird belief that big artists or big streamers or whatever are somehow seen as 1) some sort of source of canon that noone else could possibly be privy too (which is strangely why their fanons get oddly taken as canon and 2) that noone who creates or is even involved in fan communities or fanbases somehow has less valid opinions because they aren't aware of the memes or 'not contributing'. Number of followers doesn't equate to importance of opinion so I respect you saying that everyone has just as much skin in the game and their opinions and experiences of the game have just as much worth as anyone elses

I have seen posts like that

'You guys abandoned DA for years, you weren't making any content, you weren't having any discussions, you don't really care', etc etc

I'm a little shocked to see how many people agree with that sentiment since it's just 'ew casuals' in a different hat; if someone's engagement w/ DA begins and ends with thinking the Wardens look cool (true!) then moving on thats still a plus one for the books

To your first point: making content as a larger account really just dooms you to being perceived as a taste-maker and expert regardless 😭 speaking from experience I wish we didn't do that

Fanon and theories are meant to be loose wiggly & open-ended; I don't think the point is to arrive at a single agreed-upon conclusion, and it gets dicey when you start selecting fans as authority figures —especially against their will

[adonneniel]

How did Bioware manage to turn elves from struggling minority to "oh no I'm the oppressor I'm so sorry for what my people did to yours!!! :("

(even though it was actually our gods who also enslaved us & we continued to be enslaved and persecuted for thousands of years after the fact. Modern DA elves have zero institutional power, but a newcomer to Dragon Age wouldn't know that from this game, lmfao)

Yeah, as one of the minority groups these elves were based on, it Feels Bad Man.

[maybevarric]

bioware devs: so we're not importing any of your choices from previous games except who your inquisitor is, their love interest, inquisition status and your inquisitor's future plans for solas

bioware devs: but don't worry! we won't invalidate the choices you made previously! :)

--

harding, talking to rook: BLACKWALL?? yeah cool guy, he goes by rainier now!

me:

me:

me: ...... he back from the dead or something????

me: is the spirit of blackwall, whomst is dead, in the ground, and not alive, suddenly telling you he'd prefer to be known as rainier????? where are you getting this from????????

[felassan]

The Infocomm Media Development Authority is a statutory board under the Singapore Ministry of Digital Development and Information. It has a website which has things like ratings classifications for video games for its region (Singapore).

This is what it lists and describes for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, bolded emphasis mine -

"Extended Classification Information ‘Dragon Age The Veilguard’ is an action-roleplaying game set in the fantasy lands of Thedas. The protagonist takes on the role of Rook to explore a world where corrupt ancient gods have broken free and are trying to wage destruction. Rook must gather a powerful team of companions to save the world. The game is rated M18 for nudity and sexual references. From a third-person perspective, the player controls Rook to traverse through varied locations, interact with other characters, undertake quests and battle fantastical enemies (creatures, demons, and humanoids comprising humans, elves and other fantasy races. The player can choose to customise the protagonist’s race, gender, faction and combat class, which determines the weapons, abilities and powers that can be used in combat against enemies. Over the course of the game, the player can recruit companions of various race and gender to the cause. Completing quests and defeating enemies earns the player characters gold and experience to level up, unlock new skills, and purchase items. Some scenes may depict female characters topless, such as during the character customisation screen or in certain romance scenes. As the narrative progresses, the player can develop relationships with party members, and optionally pursue a romance with some, including with same-sex human and fantasy characters. These may culminate in scenes of intimacy depicting the characters kissing and embracing, with some accompanying suggestive dialogue before the screen fades to black alluding to sexual activity. The M18 Classification Guidelines permit “depictions of same-sex kissing and hugging”, and “some homosexual content, if discreet in treatment and not gratuitous”. There are scenes of realistic violence depicted during battle sequences and in some cutscenes. Characters are slashed and stabbed by melee weapons or shot by arrows and magic projectiles, with blood splattering and staining surfaces. During exploration, the player may come across bloodstained environments, and carcasses and corpses sprawled about, hung aloft or impaled by objects. A scene depicts an animal being sacrificed during a ritual and exploding in a large burst of blood. The dialogue contains some use of the expletive “f**k” and its variances, as well as the use of crude words such as “asshole”, “bastard”, “damn” and “shit”."

[source, via]

The animal sacrifice part is interesting. I wonder what kind of ritual, to whom or for what purpose? Tevinter, blood magic, Venatori..?

[wizardsix]

I can't be the only one who thinks it's so lame that spite ultimately had 0 effect on lucanis whereas the writers made anders suffer for just wanting to live.

[vivispec]

.