#Thess Plays DA:I

[thessalian]

Thess vs Playthroughs

Okay, now that I’ve been all deep and philosophical and shit, I’m going to go play another playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Not specifically because I want to for the story, but for the gameplay. It strikes me as a little sad that I would play a fucking Bioware game for a thing that’s not the story, but hey.

I can console myself that I’m playing for the NPCs too, I guess. I just finished my Astrid!Herald Solasmance playthrough (that did not go well) and now I’m debating whether to continue the magicking with Lira!Herald Cullenmancer or have another Molly!Herald playthrough so that I can romance Sera.

Lira romancing Sera would be funny but so OOC I can’t stand it. Lira likes her military-ish guys (TOR-version married a military surgeon, TSW-version dates an ex-marine). Besides, elven mage + Cullen always makes sense to me because my first DA:O playthrough was a Surana and ... yeah, the crush thing.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Dragon Age Executive Dysfunction

Right. Now that I’ve done my first proper, 100% completionist playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins, with the Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt and everything, it’d be a total waste if I didn’t continue and see what happens with DA2 when those things are completed rather than assumed. And see what happens in DA:I when I’m not having to rely on the Keep which occasionally decides that either Alistair left you or you died when that isn’t what happened. I mean, total waste.

Right?

RIGHT.

Okay also maybe I just want to play DA2 and the fun parts of DA:I in an All Molly, All The Time sort of way. And maybe liveblog because it’s been awhile since I liveblogged a Molly!Hawke and people seem to like that kind of thing.

I can do an All Meep, All The Time Jallira playthrough of the series later. Because that’s the other temptation - boot up DA:O again and start fresh as the world’s meepiest, most shy elven mage getting booted into the whole Warden-ship Because Reasons. And I’ve never liveblogged a Jallira before.

......DAMNIT, EXECUTIVE DYSFUNCTION, ONE THING AT A TIME.

...Fuck this, I’m flipping a coin. Or rather, rolling a d20 because that’s what I have to hand. Odds - DA2 Molly!Hawke; evens - DA:O Meep!Warden.

*shakeshaketoss*

That’s a two. Meep!Warden it is. Then I’ll have two proper, 100% completionist playthroughs of Dragon Age: Origins to choose from when I replay the other games!

Because I don’t give my executive dysfunction enough to work with. Yeesh.

Right. ALL MEEP, ALL THE TIME. Meet the ... well, not ‘newest’ Hole in the Headcanon archetype since she’s been around for over a decade and versions of her have been seen in Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, and Pillars of Eternity. But certainly the quietest. We start with Jallira Surana. (Because Jalliras are Jedi, clerics or mages.)

[thessalian]

Thess vs Improvement

So the weather’s not a lot warmer but it is a bit warmer. And while the pain flare isn’t completely gone, it’s gone enough that I can sit upright without wanting to scream or cry (though I’m going to have to go out to the corner shop for painkillers that aren’t full of codeine soon; I try not to lean on the mallet-meds when I don’t have to, and yesterday I really had to so I’d rather not do it more if I’m not in quite as much pain, but I do need something). So I’m taking at least a little advantage of feeling better. Hence finally doing the final battle on Dragon Age: Awakening on Molly!Warden.

I’ve already done some chores - watered the plants, repotted my spring onions now that they’ve started rooting, that kind of thing. I do have some further chores to do - trip to the shops, laundry, and starting my bolognaise sauce for upcoming Acts of Lasagne. Or possibly bolognaise pasta bake, which is a little easier to assemble. Haven’t decided yet. Anyway. Point is that after that, I’ve pretty much got a clean slate, and there are decisions to be made. I’m significantly trying to take it easy at the moment - I can’t take much more of the pain I’ve had the last few days - but I am owed some fun. So the options:

Molly!Warden vs Witch Hunt and Golems of Amgarrak. Haven’t done either of those; could be fun.

Meep!Warden. I started a F!Surana but was having some issues with game crashes, which I have since mostly resolved.

Unfinished DA:I playthroughs. I’ve got at least two that I haven’t quite got to Trespasser yet. I could finish Jaws of Hakkon on Meep!Herald.

Horizon: Zero Dawn NG+. Still in the middle of The Frozen Wilds, should probably finish that, and maybe it’d stop me jonesing so hard over not being able to play Forbidden West.

Something to think about as I make my slow and careful way to the shops. I figure how I feel after having walked to the shops is going to determine what I do, given this “not feeling so bad” is before I actually exert myself. I may end up just having to fiddle with Capybara Spa, for all I know. But the chores do have to come first.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Unconditional Love

Thinking about the whole “New video games” thing. You know, the one where I’m hardly hyped about anything anymore? Not that I didn’t enjoy Dragon Age: Inquisition - enough for replays, anyway - but that and Andromeda (which I still haven’t finished and have no intention of doing so) pretty much killed my hype for the New Hotness.

...Except for the one game I can’t play until it gets a PC port from a company owned by Sony, who are using their console exclusives to ensure people have to buy their hardware and so it takes years if it happens at all. Hell, Guerilla are so console-focused they don’t even have keyboard support for Horizon Forbidden West. So ... y’know, thanks for the accessibility options, Guerilla. (Sorry - I’ll pause to let you wipe the sarcasm off your monitor.)

I’d forget all about it if the ads weren’t literally everywhere here. Half the buses I pass. The big IMAX theatre at Waterloo. Which is rich when you consider it’s basically becoming a PS5 flagship title and a PS5 is nearly impossible to get here. And adverts stay on buses for months. It feels like rubbing it in. It’s the one damn game I was hyped for right from the start and just ... grumbling. Lots of grumbling.

At least I’m not interested in the other current video game that people are yelling about. FromSoftware has its niche, great, but ... well, a) it’s a FromSoftware game and they rely on being incredibly difficult so that’s zero accessibility for me right there, and b) George RR Martin is involved and I had about enough of that out of ASOIAF, thanks. Didn’t even pick up the books after A Feast For Crows, don’t know if that series is ever actually getting finished, but Game of Thrones was enough for me. I know how it nominally ends. That’s a hard nope.

I do wonder if I’m ever going to get really hyped for a video game ever again and not end up disappointed on one level or another. DA4 ... well, apparently it’s looking at a 2022 release after all, which I don’t like given EA / Bioware’s attitude to crunch and that “Bioware Magic” bullshit that had literal stress casualties - I worry about the staff killing themselves over this shit and would rather have the game in 2023 than to think about people jeopardising their physical and mental health. And I’m side-eyeing it a lot even though they did say they dialed back their multiplayer focus after Anthem bombed. I know nothing will ever live up to the expectations that hype normally sets, but ... I just want to love a game despite its flaws. I did with DA2 - because, come on, it had its flaws and still does, but I loved it. I don’t love DA:I. I like it okay, but it’s conditional on forgetting certain zones exist. Or, like, I love ME3 conditional on entirely headcanoning the ending. I miss loving games unconditionally; where I don’t have to say, “Well, besides that”. Where ‘that’, whatever it is, gets waved off because hey, game! Like the Deep Roads in DA:O ... and even the Fade in DA:O (though I still cheered at the existence of the “skip the Fade” mod - just because I can do it doesn’t mean I’m not grateful to not have to).

Then again, there have been some lately. Horizon Zero Dawn (which is why the Forbidden West being a nope is such a blow). Wildermyth. The Pillars of Eternity games in moderately recent memory. I loved those. I still have the games I loved when I first played and still love today - most of the Dragon Age series, Shadowrun Returns, KOTOR...

Well, maybe I’ll love DA4 and Bioware will earn my trust back.

...And swine may soar, but I can hope, right?

[thessalian]

Thess vs Greedfall

So, I bought Greedfall - it’s on sale on Steam at the moment and payday’s Wednesday and I had enough, so I figured, fuck it, why not?

Is it good? Ish. I mean, it isn’t exactly thrilling me to my core here. The combat system’s a little simplistic and doesn’t open up until higher levels. (So’s the ability tree, for that matter, but we’ll get to that.) The design is kind of like if you took Skyrim, swapped the open world for limited zones, and then dipped it in brown paint and Georgian Era colonialism. The plot is reminiscent of the second act of Dragon Age 2 so far, in that you are Somebody Important in a place that you were not born and everyone is asking you to sort out their damn lives, including your friends, while there’s something much bigger and potentially eldritch lurking in the background about to eat half the world. The graphics are okay for what they are but I am not the best judge since nine times out of ten I don’t give a shit for graphics. The voice acting isn’t revolutionary but hasn’t made me want to throttle anyone yet, so that’s okay. The subtitles, on the other hand, have the kind of glaring spelling issues that makes me, who hates playing a game like this without subtitles, want to turn them off - the perils of a French company not hiring decent translators and approaching American English spellings from first principles. (Yes, I know the Americans use a Z instead of an S in some things, but that only works for verbs so spelling the noun ‘merchandise’ with a Z is actively painful.)

So it’s not great, is what I’m saying.

Is it bad, though? No. It acknowledges that not everyone manages well with that particular combat style by having a very wide range of difficulty settings, including a mode they call “Discovery”, which is effectively Story Mode+. It’s not quite god mode invincibility, but it’s close, and for someone who just wants to get through the fighting to figure out what the fuck is going on, that’s all you need. I haven’t found the combat intolerable despite its limitations, so that’ll more than do. And while lower levels do limit you somewhat in terms of what you can do, the options themselves are fairly interesting, giving you options beyond “go in there and hit the dude until he stops moving”. You can just crouch in stealth mode, but there’s also a disguise mechanic, which is sensible; keep your head down so your hat partly hides your face, and the uniform you’re wearing will be all the cover you need to go where you want. While picking locks is the only way into some chests, it’s not the only way into all locked buildings, as you are given the option to make a small bomb and blow a hole in a door, wall or other obstacle. Want to talk your way into and out of trouble? Charisma and Intuition, and you can do that. While it’d be nice to start with more than one of those skills (especially since they share the same skill tree with some of the physical abilities like climbing and balancing and wearing decent armour), the fact that they exist makes it worth playing. And not having to juggle a whole bunch of manoeuvres is good anyway.

So it’s not bad, it’s not great - it’s average, and that’s fine. It’s a game I can play when I’m not in the mood for either an open-world trek or micromanaging a team (DA:I and PoE respectively), and I want to do something fun without being overtaxed. So I’d pretty much recommend it but only if you can get it on sale because I’m not sure it’s worth the full $40 or so USD.

(And if it helps, it’s got Ramon Tikaram - the voice actor known to most of you as Dorian Pavus - and Alastair Parker - aka Blackwall - in it someplace. Oh, and for SW:TOR fans? Lydia Leonard - aka Lana Beniko. And for the FFXIV crowd, Michael Maloney - Varis voz Galvus - and antony Byrne - Biggs. ...Oh gods, Gyuri Sarossy’s in here, and the only thing I know that one from is as Inbeda’s Noh mask in TSW... Basically there’s a lot of voices you’ll find familiar in here and the IMDB Voice Actor game is a lot of fun with this game.)

[thessalian]

Thess vs Executive Dysfunction

I want to play a game but I don’t know which one.

Witcher 3′s out; the controls are too fiddly, particularly given my current limitations.

DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT BALDUR’S GATE 3.

I could try something with a first-person perspective but those still scare me and I might wait until the amitriptyline kicks in a little harder (or I get on a higher dose) before I risk migraines that hard. Besides, the last time I tried Dishonored I couldn’t get past the damn tutorial because apparently I couldn’t hide worth shit. Though I have improved since then.

I’m in the middle of a DA:I playthrough but I’m basically at the point of having to do the Hissing Wastes to feed my completionist tendencies and I hate the Hissing Wastes. But the sooner I start it, the sooner it’s done.

I did start a Pillars of Eternity playthrough. I could go back to that. I haven’t even reached Dyrford yet on that one.

Then again, I could kick off a playthrough of Shadowrun Returns. Haven’t played that one in awhile.

I’m almost tempted to try Mass Effect: Andromeda again? But since the game hasn’t changed since I last picked it up, I don’t know why I think I’ll like it any better.

Jedi: Fallen Order’s out - I haven’t figured out the good keybinds yet and anything that relies on blocking is kind of out of my league. (I prefer a game that lets you hang out at a distance and blow the living crap out of things, or dodge rather than straight-up block / parry / riposte.)

Speaking of, I guess there’s trying for Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey again.

Or I could go Zen. I have The Room 4 and a bunch of hidden object games I haven’t touched yet.

Or Sims 3. There’s always Sims 3.

None of them are quite right, though I’ll probably enjoy any of the ones I pick up. Except the ones I’ve nixed because I can’t handle the controls or I refuse to be one-shotted by intellect devourers again. I should probably just eenie-meenie-miney-moe this shit. I just want comfort, nothing too challenging and which I can deal with through pain, weariness and a bit of fibro-fog. This is why I’m veering towards Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun Returns (turn-based or at least strategy “game pauses while you sort your shit out), DA:I (comfortable pair of old shoes) and the Zen stuff. Doesn’t really narrow it down much.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Origin Stories

I’ve figured out what DA:I needs and was seriously missing. I mean, besides something that actually links some of the dead, meaningless zones (*coff*HISSINGWASTES*coff*) to the main plot. So, here it is:

Origin-specific quests that aren’t just a little bit of side colour on the war table.

DA2 didn’t have that problem - it was all Hawke, all the time, so it was inherently personal at a core level by default. Hawke’s origin was set in stone from the beginning, so they didn’t really have to worry about it.

But Origins’ charm was always largely about how personal things got. You’re playing a Circle mage? The bit in the Circle Tower was really personal as you saw what happened to the halls you once called home. Love the Circle Tower or hate it, you still knew people there, and your in character reaction to it was really hecking personal. Both dwarven origins got serious character development potential when you got to Orzamarr, given Bhelen’s either patron to your sister or your traitorous brother (though I’d argue that dusters got the most personal shit in Orzamarr just because of the bit in the Carta hideout and Leske). Dalish elves were a little short-changed at the Brecilian Forest but you at least got to see a clan and hear news about your own, and they more than made up for it during the shriek attack, given Tamlen. Alienage elf? Oh, look; Loghain’s selling your dad into slavery. Human noble? Howe. All the Howe. So much Howe.

Inquisition, though ... all you really get that ties the story to your character’s background is a couple of bits at the war table and some dialogue options. Now, maybe this is supposed to represent how your entire life takes a back seat to the Inquisition, but that didn’t hold true for anyone else. All of your companions got way, way more connection to their backstory than you did to yours, and you’re the main fucking character. Hell, even non-companions got more involved on a personal level with the plot than the Inquisitor does - XREF: Morrigan.

When a character you never even see in this game and whose identity you might not even understand if you never played Origins gets more attention at the war table than the main character, there’s a problem with emotional investment with the main character on a base level.

I admit, I’ve only ever played human and elf thus far - I know what I like, and I know damn well that I’m going to have to skip Warrior in general because I find ranged works way better for me in this game because of how they changed the mechanics, so I’m going to have to change a couple of ideas on what I want my dwarf and Qunari to be character-wise - but given that the most you get about your Dalish clan is some extra dialogue, the ability to romance Solas, and a war table questline that, if you don’t handle it just right, gets your whole clan dead... Well, I don’t imagine they did that much better on surface dwarves and technically-Tal’vashoth. And I haven’t heard any evidence to the contrary from anyone else.

I know the entire dev team is working on DA4 and DA:I is basically done, but I would seriously pay money for, in the spirit of ME3′s Citadel DLC, a DLC pack that unlocks a bunch of origin-specific quests. Actual quests, not just war table “pick a solution between diplomatic, sneaky or military” shit. If your family’s using the Inquisition’s name to their own advantage, you should have the opportunity to fucking confront them. If your clan’s getting threatened by red lyrium bullshit, you should have the opportunity to personally handle the situation before anyone gets hurt, whether it’s “I’m the only person who could convince my clan to up stakes and leave”, “I’m the only person who could convince the town sheltering them to stop being assholes”, or “YOU THREATEN MY CLAN AND YOU FUCKING DIE”. A Qunari should be able to join their old mercenary company on a mission and introduce them to the Chargers - maybe even replace the Chargers if Bull’s loyalty quest goes a certain way. House Cadash would be a major asset and it’d be fun to be able to get them out of trouble.

Varric talks a lot about how it’s nice to remember that the Inquisitor’s a person, not just an ideal. It would have been nice if Bioware had remembered that in more than just a throwaway comment or two from one sodding companion.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Executive Decisions

After some thought, and a snack ... no, it’s going to have to be DA2. I haven’t played it in so long and honestly, much as I was looking forward to Molly!Warden vs Sigrun ... it’s not so much the graphics that bug me as the UI. Plus I may have fixed the crash issues but there’s still some Issues, at least part of them involving the transition of information to the Keep for passing on to DA:I playthroughs. For some reason, half of the stuff I did as Molly didn’t register, and it never seems to give you “Stayed alive, stayed Alistair’s mistress, Morrigan had God-Baby” unless you make the changes on the Keep website directly.

Plus I remember finding navigation through certain sections of Awakening frustrating as hell, and much as I love pre-Justice Anders, and Sigrun, I don’t want that. Maybe DA2 recycled some ... okay, most ... okay, all of its area maps in blatantly unsubtle ways, but at least I knew where I was going most of the time.

Nope. Onward and upward. Onward to Kirkwall, and Molly Hawke!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Comfort Gaming

For me, this whole situation with lockdown and the like isn’t hard because of the whole “staying indoors” thing. It’s the “not having anything to do” thing. I really do not fare well with idleness. I have to be doing something, be invested in something, or I start going ever so slightly crazed. They say that idle hands are the devil’s plaything, but for me, it’s a little different - I need something to occupy my mind, or it starts going to particularly bad places on the depression scale. Most of my jobs may have been shit, but at least I feel like I’m doing something, and employment keeps me from getting lost in the bleak that’s in my own head, whether it’s the job itself, the complaining about the issues inherent in the job, or some combination of the two.

It’s been getting bad, I admit it. I’ve been in a not great head-state lately. So I sat down and tried to figure out what I could possibly do about it. Video games are, as always, a great thing in terms of keeping one occupied, but it had to be the right one. Story-driven, obviously; nothing gets me out of my own head like an invitation into someone else’s head, as it were, so anything that I just zen out in front of is out. Nothing too frustrating, either - I acknowledge that I am not in a place where I can deal with failure, mentally speaking, so nothing new until I’m feeling better; no new mechanics, no attempts at first-person just in case one of them won’t spark off migraine, nothing like that. Something that takes up a lot of time, whether through story stuff or otherwise. If it sparks off the invigorating power of pure spite by inspiring a 100% completion for fiddly bullshit? So much the better.

Hello, Dragon Age: Inquisition.

I’m not ashamed to say I like this game. Neither am I ashamed to say that it has some significant problems. It can be both. It is both. But right now, it’s also exactly what I need. It’s not too taxing, it’s got good characters and ... well, a story, anyway (and yeah, annoyance at the bits that are insufficiently explored dead ends or pulled out of someone’s arse is the kind of thing that does at least get me out of my own head), and I can grumble about the fucking Hissing Wastes for awhile. For my current purposes, it’s perfect.

Is it a backhanded compliment to say that it’s the game I need right now specifically because it’s mechanically fun, not too taxing, and flawed enough to grumble about without being so flawed as to be unplayable? Probably. Does it matter? No. It’s a game that’s worth playing - and in fact replaying - specifically because it is the game I need right now. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be flawless. Hell, no game - and in fact nothing in the world - is entirely without flaw. I don’t have to brush its flaws under the rug to still enjoy the game when I need it. So thank you, DA:I, for being around when I just need something precisely like you’re offering - nothing more, but nothing less either.

(Besides ... and I apologise to those who loved it for this, but it’s my personal experience and no judgement on your personal preferences ... I can at least finish it, never mind replaying it, which is more than I can say for Mass Effect: Andromeda. I’m sure it had its good points; I just couldn’t get into it enough to get past the frustrations and never came close to finishing. Sometimes I think I should try it again, and then never do. Maybe when I feel better.)

Anyway, a Molly!Herald playthrough is always fun.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Name Recognition

Fandom at once interests me and weirds me out. This isn’t a callout thing; this is legitimately me not getting it.

We got, like, three images over less than a minute in the EA Play stream and everyone is already making the fan-squee noises about Dragon Age 4. Which is great! Everyone needs something to get excited about, especially these days! Just ... is it wrong that I kind of worry about the fact that memory seems to die in the face of name recognition?

When I think about Dragon Age 4, I mostly think about Anthem. Why? Well, partly because there’s been talk about DA4 using a fair few ideas from Anthem in order to “make it easier to provide further story content”. Except that’s a problem for me, because Dragon Age as a series is not something that does well with the kind of content road map that games like Anthem are set up to provide. Dragon Age games are - or at least should be - self-contained stories, with a beginning, a middle, and most importantly, an end. Yeah, fine, that end might be a sequel hook, but there’s a catharsis to a game with an actual ending that is basically a requirement for the Dragon Age series. I don’t imagine that it’d do well with an online service sort of deal, which is basically a franchise singing “This Is The Song That Never Ends”.

But mostly? Mostly I think of the whole culture at Bioware these days. What the hell am I saying, ‘these days’? Bioware’s been shitty to its employees for awhile now, but what happened with the development of both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem was, or at least should have been, an eye-opener. The crunch. The lack of resources (the reassignment of Frostbite experts to FIFA was a particular dick move, in my opinion, though emblematic of EA’s priorities). The ‘stress casualties’. The crunch justified with an ‘it’ll be alright on the night’ concept known as ‘Bioware Magic’. That’s not magic - it’s abuse. Not to mention that the entire really interesting plot that DA4 was originally supposed to have got scrapped for something that fit the online service model better.

But show us three images of red lyrium and we kind of forget about that, or so it seems.

I know, I know, there’s no ethical consumption in late-stage capitalism, and people deserve to enjoy things. I just sometimes feel like we’re reinforcing the very dangerous precedent we’ve set. Companies like that feel like they can do whatever they want just because we’ll squee and hype and seemingly forget about all the shitty things they’ve done if they show us even a hint of the right logo, the right setting, the right character. Bioware’s not alone in this, and neither is EA, I admit it. That just means I personally end up being wary of everything.

I mean, it’s a good money-saver, that. It means I don’t buy into preorder culture, at least. I just feel very alone. Everyone going SQUEE!!! and writing the new game in their heads and will love the game even though it probably should disappoint because at least three-quarters of the fandom that I know about could write a way better story than Bioware at this point (I’M SORRY BUT IT’S TRUE; Anthem is recycled ME:A, which, while potentially elevated by some good companion characters, was a generic story at best, and DA:I was a series of good moments strung together by a pretty standard overarching plot and a lot of busywork bullshit). And here’s me, saying ... things like that.

I guess there’s some envy. I kind of wish I could be that enthused. But I can’t. I’m not saying I’m not looking at it with interest. I’m not saying I won’t buy it. However, I will say that I can’t get this thrilled over three pretty-creepy pictures. Particularly not when those pictures they show us before launch almost never look as good in the finished product, even when they’re telling us they’re showing us gameplay. I mean, did you see the promo material for Anthem? They made the controversy over the first Watch Dogs game look like nothing. (Though in fairness to Bioware, nothing will ever be as bad as the Aliens: Colonial Marines debacle.) They lie to get us excited, they lie to get us to preorder, they lie to get our money, and then we’re stuck with whatever we get.

I guess part of the beauty of the fandom is that they’ll love whatever they get. I just worry that it means that we’ll get less and less quality for more and more money, just like is happening everywhere else. I love my friends in the fandom. I think they deserve better, is all. But I suppose it doesn’t matter, so long as they’re happy. I just wish I could be. But I can’t.

The industry has lied to me too many times. Bioware was one of the last developers I could actually squee for (along with Obsidian, which is still up there for the moment), and it let me down by abusing its employees, making me dig through grindy bullshit busywork for their story and then still selling me the real ending later, and generally acting like an EA pod person. So I can’t get enthusiastic; I can only side-eye with tentative interest.

It makes me feel like a bit of a pariah in my loose-knit circle of online friends, if I’m honest. I don’t get it. I can’t do it. I don’t have the money, time, spoons, or heart to give my love to something that I have to put so much work into loving. It’s popcorn. It’s going to be popcorn. Popcorn is nice and all, but I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be anything but an okay game making whatever mistakes the industry’s going to be making in 2022 until it proves itself otherwise.

Sorry to harsh the squee. Please, carry on with the squee. I’m glad people are enjoying a thing, even if I don’t get it. I just ... don’t get it.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Undesirable Real Estate

I keep getting ruined castles built on tunnels full of evil. ASK ME HOW!

Don’t mind me. I am currently playing through Pillars of Eternity because PoE2 is sitting there staring at me (Percy in my adventuring party; I’ve had this dream!) and while I know I don’t have to finish PoE1 first, I want to. So I’m blowing through it as fast as my completionist tendencies will allow.

So now I have a really large entourage of weirdos and after beating the snot out of Multiple Personality “See Your Eventual Fate” man, I got told, “Okay, hi, castle’s yours now!” It’s like Vigil’s Keep all over again, except instead of the Deep Roads there’s ... something equally made of evil. Whee. Okay, at least a little less contagious-tainty.

Still, getting the hang of the controls more now and having a lot more fun with it, though I may have to make my party a little bit smaller because there’s a lot of people now and it has become a bit of a clustermolest. Eh well. At least things die.

I think it’s just amusing to me, the list of games I play where one of the ‘rewards’ is a big old stonepile of a building that either desperately needs repairs, is crawling with evil, is attached to tunnels crawling with evil or all of the above. In Kingdoms of Amalur, you get Gossamer End, this fixer-upper cottage you receive as a gift after murdering a lot of spiders. There’s the ME1 DLC that gets you an apartment, though at least that’s a bit less ... maintenance-requiring. Vigil’s Keep in DA:A, Skyhold in DA:I, basically every settlement you come across in Fallout 4, not sure about Skyrim but I know property’s a thing over there...

It’s like, “Hey! You managed to murder your way through this godsforsaken place! And saved all our lives! Here; have some property that will oblige you to stay and keep all the bad things away! Especially when they come up from the fucking basement!”

Thaaaaaaaanks.

[thessalian]

Thess vs a Non-Milestone Birthday

Practice time again! The eternal question: “How old are you?”

...41.

Yep, today is my birthday. It’s been pretty anticlimactic so far - quiet lunch with my mother, with presents deferred until tomorrow because she left it late, doesn’t have Amazon Prime so no next-day delivery, and Amazon haven’t delivered it yet. Or hadn’t by the time lunch was over anyway. In any case, she told me what all I got - volumes 2 and 3 of the Rat Queens comic and a pair of slippers she says are very cute. Which is good because, again, my bumblebees are falling apart. Anyway, 41 is not a particularly milestone birthday, and it would be churlish of me to compare today to last year’s glorious trip to the Savoy Grill. Those things only come along once.

I think my mother was a little bummed that there wasn’t more ... festivity, I suppose, to birthday lunch. Unfortunately, the pub I chose, while serving good food, also has gastropub issue of almost everything being a bit too frou-frou and there wasn’t anything I particularly wanted in terms of drinks. I just don’t drink much; it’s a thing. But it’s not like I’m hugely disappointed. On top of the gifts that will materialise eventually, I also have Pillars of Eternity courtesy @true0neutral - which I will get to playing just as soon as I finish my current Molly!Herald playthrough of DA:I. I’m taking this one pretty slowly - I’ve been leaving the Winter Palace shenanigans for after dealing with the Wardens, and next on my agenda is Bull’s loyalty quest. At least the Western Approach is pretty well done, up to and including dragon murder. I’ve also been working through the Exalted Plains - mostly on the grounds that I want to deal with the Dalish before I go wrecking shit up to get into elven tomb for mosaic pieces. Sometimes you just want to be completionist, you know?

I had a ticket to FFXIV fan gathering, but because it’s raining and cold and I’m exhausted because my sleeping patterns are fucked to the wall, I’m skipping it. Honestly, I’m not sure I could deal with a hundred or so people I don’t know, and I wouldn’t stay for the whole thing anyway. Besides which, I’ve got Star Wars RP tonight and I need to finish off the maps required. Of course, there’s also Dungeons and Dragons tomorrow, and there’ll be at least one map needed for that too, but that can probably wait until tomorrow.

Tonight, though? Maps and video games. And coffee. And probably some writing for @thesswrites - I have more essays, at least one RP anecdote and a potential short story percolating. Speaking of, though, I suppose my birthday is a good time to flag up that if you like the kinds of things I write, both over there and over here, you could buy me a Ko-fi. Not that I won’t write anyway, mind - which I guess isn’t incentive but hey.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Silver Linings

Mildly bummed because FFXIV is down for two days while the head office relocates. But I’m sure I’ll find something else to do. I still have a DA:I playthrough I never finished because I’m at a part of Jaws of Hakkon that I hate ... but I did really want to send an elf through Trespasser. Or alternatively there’s GW2. Or any one of the numerous games I have but have not yet played. There are so many of those.

Some nice things, though. I told her what was going on in terms of life in general, and she insisted on reimbursing the £40 I spent on that anti-inflammatory prescription last week. Not that I was financially hurting without it, but I had had plans for that chunk of change. Look, I like my sofa. Sometimes I don’t want to sit at my computer when I watch things. My Freeview box is great for Netflix, but it doesn’t give me much else. For instance, it doesn’t do Amazon TV, which lets my Amazon Prime membership gather dust. I want to take more advantage Amazon TV of now that I’m watching American Gods on the regular. But sometimes I want my sofa, not my desk chair.

I don’t want to spend £80 on an Amazon TV box, but there’s a cheaper option - little USB stick that does about the same thing. I don’t like that the new version comes with this Alexa voice recognition crap but hey, whatever, it means I can watch Amazon TV stuff from my sofa. And access YouTube. And listen to Spotify. And still chat to people because laptop. Or just sit and fall asleep in front of Critical Role episodes at half-past-sparrowfart on the weekends instead of Korean horror like I normally do. Irony? It costs just a little less than what I paid for my anti-inflammatory prescription. So anyway, that’s being delivered tomorrow.

Also I have a new plushie for my collection. Apparently one of our stationery orders came with a free plush zebra. I was showing OfficeMate how to do something on the computer (fairly standard) and I notice that there’s this plush zebra sort of tucked behind her document trays. Didn’t seem to be a display piece so I asked her why she had a plush zebra. She explained where it had come from and told me she was trying to find it a home. I was halfway through saying, “I actually collect them--” when she shoved it at me. My new zebra will go in a place of honour alongside my shoulder dragon (no, @miaaoi, not blue. ...Silver-white, though. Hee!), my moose, my echidna and Clue the lobster.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Objectivity

A friend of mine was giving me a precis of Mass Effect: Andromeda last night.

...I know there are a few people on my dash who won’t want to read this. But honestly, on hearing what there is of the plot so far, my reaction was frothing rage. And the fact that I’m reluctant to go into my reasoning is down to not wanting to hurt the feelings of people whose posts I’ve read who not only enjoy the game but are actively hurt by anyone pointing out flaws in it.

I don’t want to take away anyone’s ability to enjoy the game. Thing is, if you really enjoy the game, you can probably stand to think about its problems and still like the game. For instance, I like Dragon Age 2. I thought that the protagonist not being some Magical Chosen One, instead just some shmuck who constantly wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time, was new and inspired. No Magical McGuffin, just Hawke blundering in and finding themselves with the world on fire around them, with the nagging feeling that maybe this was kind of their fault. 

But some aspects of that game were horrible, and I will freely admit that. They spent no time on map design, so you were wandering the exact same reskinned cave, occasionally chopped into segments, every time you had to go outside of Kirkwall. I hated the narrowing of skill trees (which was worse in DA:I, mind you - and who the fuck thought a fetch quest was a great idea to unlock a job class?). And there were portions of the story that relied a lot on coincidence and would have been a lot better in a more open game world. From that perspective, Dragon Age 2 had problems.

That does not stop me from enjoying it.

I want to know where it’s written that we have to give only the most positive reviews to everything before we’re allowed to enjoy them. Why we can’t admit a thing’s problems and still love it. Why we have to be ashamed of liking what we like just because it’s not High Art or some shit. If you want to enjoy janky character animation and The Bioware Story that’s so predictable I can practically tell you how Mass Effect: Andromeda is going to end, down to at least two of the Dramatic Twist Moments, without having even watched an early Let’s Play, then go ahead! Enjoy it! I’m actually being sincere here; I really do hope that the people who are happy to spend this amount on an alien dating sim enjoy their experience to its utmost. I just don’t see why I should have to refrain from pointing out the flaws because I’m somehow being ‘mean’ by not letting them say how good it is without challenging that view from an objective standpoint. You’re allowed your opinion; why can’t I have mine, particularly where I’m pointing out hard examples of how I reached that opinion?

Video game companies expect us to buy a game effectively sight unseen - sure, we get trailers, but we’ve known for years that trailers can lie. They are expecting me to shell out ... HOLY FUCK £70 for the Big Super Deluxe Edition, before the game’s even properly released, and I’m expected to take whatever they give me and like it, no matter what it is. A lot of people will give them just that. Okay ... but that’s not me. I haven’t been unduly kind to any media since Theatre Studies, when I got the first A my teacher had given in years because I actually pointed out the flaws in a production of The Cherry Orchard (which was atrocious, by the way; Chekov’s a bitch to do well).

The things I am hearing about this game mean that I am not shelling out £70 for a Big Special Preorder. Hell, I’m not shelling out £55 for the Deluxe edition. I’m not even big on the idea of spending £50 on the regular edition. So I won’t. That is a LOT of money that I could better put towards the Thess Map-Making Software Fund. I was actually considering relaunching Scent of a Warden - with some heavy restrictions on how many orders I’ll take - as a celebration of Andromeda ... but now I fucking can’t because I refuse to play the thing.

Bioware has had too much of my money for not enough actual quality content. Each game has been more and more of a disappointment than the last for me. Yes, some bits of those things I enjoyed, but when I start seeing the storyline that dragged me right out of TOR come to hit me in the face in Mass Effect (because, come on - Big Evil From Some Other Galaxy Comes To Fuck With People? Hi, Eternal Empire!), I sort of flee in the other direction. Maybe I’ll buy it when it goes on sale. Maybe. And maybe I’ll enjoy it then. But currently my opinion is “They expect me to pay over a day’s pay for this?!?”

And to those who think I’m being mean and overly judgemental and wish I’d stop and just let them enjoy it? I’m not stopping you from enjoying it. If your enjoyment is coloured by someone else’s negative opinion, maybe your enjoyment isn’t as complete as you want it to be. There’s nothing wrong with embracing something flaws and all, you know. I know from experience that it’s a far more comfortable place to be than shielding the thing from any criticism or even objective review.

Hell, I should know. I read VC Andrews novels. But I’m never going to say they’re good. They’re crap and I read them anyway, usually to rip them to metaphorical pieces and just a little bit to get a cultural viewpoint I won’t see otherwise. I also support my local charity stores by buying those overwritten piles of tripe. But I get some enjoyment out of them, so what the hell, right?

[thessalian]

Thess vs Tough Choices

Okay, I am going to have a long one about this, because it is something that Bioware needs to take to heart. It has been trying different variations on the same theme because of one success and they seem to have missed the point - the thing that made that one success actually successful.

Look. Here’s the thing. If you actually want to make a player character choose between two companions, knowing that one of them will die ... make it matter to the player character. To demonstrate how to do that, I will use the one example wherein Bioware actually did it right, and compare it to the places they didn’t.

Because we all know what that was, right? Mass Effect 1. Ashley, or Kaidan?

Here’s why that worked:

By the point in Mass Effect 1 wherein we had to decide who to go back for, we’d had a full game wherein we were ICly and OOCly attached to these two, and there was just about enough hope that we could save both of them that the first playthrough was a fucking gut-wrench. And it never got any easier. Were you the pragmatic type who didn’t necessarily go back for an individual companion but went for the bomb? If so, how hard a time did you have picking who was going to back up the team on the bomb? Either way, you spent the whole game knowing that one of those two wasn’t coming out alive, and you bonded with them anyway, both as yourself playing the game, and as Shepard.

Compare and contrast with Dragon Age: Inquisition. Hell, we have an issue right from the start where it’s a toss-up as to who actually goes along on the trip through the Fade anyway. But either way, these are people you’ve never met. If it’s Stroud who accompanies Hawke ... it’s this nonentity of a Warden who more or less lucked out and got away. If it’s Alistair ... the only difference is that he’s less ‘nonentity’ and more ‘bastard son of the last King and companion to the Hero of Ferelden’. That’s what you-as-Inquisitor know, anyway. But the divide is there - ICly, maybe you’re going to save a Warden because the Wardens need rebuilding, or maybe you’re going to save Hawke because Varric would fall apart if anything happened to this person he’d sworn to keep out of this Inquisition nugshit and the nonentity wasn’t about to pull the Wardens together anyway ... but OOCly you’re sitting there with characters you got attached to on two different levels and deciding which to send to the chopping block - the guy you probably romanced at least once as another character ... or the character who, not so long ago, was an extension of you. Wrenching OOCly ... but ICly, Hawke is just ‘the Champion of Kirkwall and Varric’s friend’.

Don’t even get me started on TOR’s Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion. Unless you were playing one of two very specific classes, you spent all of a one-hour mission with each of the companions you had to choose between, and anyone else was going to have a basic reaction of, “Wait, why do I care, again?” Bioware was at that point relying entirely on the fact that most players would have tried several class stories and thus have an attachment to both. The problem with that is that appealing entirely to the OOC attachment without trying to shore it up with an equal or at least similar IC attachment completely destroys immersion. It did it in DA:I. It did it in TOR. ICly I’m supposed to care but don’t have reasons to in the same way as I do OOC; OOCly I care but for all the wrong reasons in terms of the actual story campaign.

So effectively, they’re focusing on the player rather than the character. It’s really starting to show, now. Which is funny to complain about as a bad thing, but in terms of actual story, it’s a death knell. “People love these characters; we’ll make them choose! It worked great in Mass Effect!” Except our characters loved Kaidan and Ashley. Our characters barely knew Stroud, Alistair or Hawke. They knew even less about Vette and Torian, who were selected apparently at random from a cast of dozens. Seriously, if TOR had really wanted to make it a situation, they should have picked ones who’ve been with us from the beginning. Lana and Theron, for instance. Yeah, they’d have to do without one of them in story campaign later, but it would fucking matter. And if we’d had some missions with Hawke or Stroud or Alistair, somehow - some way to get attached to them ICly before facing that choice - it would have mattered a lot more.

I’ve more or less given up on TOR being immersive. They’re focused way too hard on the player experience, however hamfisted they’re being about it, and way too little on any kind of story ... probably because of the massive corner they’ve written themselves into. Dragon Age? Inquisition tried, but was a little bit shaky on some parts in terms of the whole ‘immersion’ thing (because honestly, who did the Hissing Wastes for a full-on completionist thing and didn’t think, “Why the fuck am I doing this?”; the quasi-open world set-up did that game no favours, and I can think of at least five ways it could have been improved to make full completion ... not necessary but beneficial ... from a story perspective but never mind). I have the fear for Mass Effect: Andromeda; I really do. It looks fantastic, but I haven’t heard anything about the story and Bioware’s track record is getting shakier all the time.

For me, Bioware has ceased to be interchangeable with ‘great story and writing’. That is a fucking tragedy.

(Also yes I should be working but fuck it, I have busted my ass most of the week doing three people’s jobs and I DESERVE A BREAK.)

[thessalian]

Thess vs Too Many Games

I’m still in the middle of a DA:I playthrough (I am avoiding that stupid freezy-room in Jaws of Hakkon, tyvm). I have Dishonored 2 to play. I really should be grinding more Heroics in TOR, or run some FPs or something ‘cos we need the mats for unlocking the guild ship. TSW is feeling neglected (though honestly I think I’m largely waiting for new content at this point, even if I do have a Lumi to level but honestly I dunno if I wanna do the Beaumont boss fight AGAIN...)

...but godsfuckingdamnit now I want to play Mass Effect again.

Mostly for the insane amounts of fun I might have liveblogging the adventures of Meep!Shep. And possibly Srina!Shep, my first attempt at playing Infiltrator. Hey, might up my Widowmaker game.

And then of course I wonder what Srina Hawke or Srinaqusitor would be like and GODSDAMNIT I HAVE OTHER GAMES! I swear I need some kind of rota. I could start with the Saturday Shenanigans at Port Knowhere and sort of squeeze in the near-daily Overwatchery and go from there. Or maybe just resolve not to start anything new until I’ve finished the game I am currently on, get through that stupid freezy-room in Jaws of Hakkon and then bulldoze through Descent, ROFLstomp endgame and then go through Trespasser with my poor doomed Solasmancer, and THEN decide what next.

I’m just having Mass Effect feels. Not Andromeda feels (honestly I don’t care that much) but ShepFeels. *sigh* But DISHONORED 2 DAMNIT.

Eh, never mind. First thing I do when I get home is put that platinum-tier dualsaber that fell out of a crate the other day onto the GTN. At last check it was going for, like, 24mil or something and if I can sell it for at or around that price we could actually unlock the second room on the crew deck. Never mind the various gold-tier items. Hey, we don’t have enough people or interest in the game in general to go tackling Commanders. We unlock how we can.