#and arguably da2. i personally like it but a lot of people don't

[broodwolf221]

i've been rotating that stability poll in my mind with the da2 crew a lot lately, so here are some of my thoughts/rare da2 meta from me 😂

order of most to least stable is roughly:

merrill or isabela

bethany

fenris

aveline

carver

varric

anders

no hawke bc that's variable and no sebastian bc i haven't personally played with him (altho i tend to think he'd be low on the list)

now, the whole thing about "stability" as a metric is... interesting. it allows for a wide range of interpretations. while things like reactivity and unpredictability factor in, i tend to prioritize self-awareness/being self-possessed/security in one's self over everything else

merrill and isabela - they both know themselves at a deep level. both are dealing with a Lot of shit throughout the course of the game, but i don't rly love the idea that understandable reactions to traumatic events = unstable. in fact, understandable reactions to traumatic events is a characteristic of stability. grief, mourning, fear, anger... all of these have a place. so out of everyone, these are the two i find the most self-possessed. i'd argue that isabela may be less emotionally healthy than merrill bc bela seems to be a bit more about repression whereas merrill is actually letting herself grieve, but they're still very close and i keep switching who is #1 so

by the same metric, bethany seems quite self possessed/self aware as well. she knows herself, and while it's ofc influenced by others, she is not dependent upon them for her sense of self

fenris is dealing with a ton, but his reactions are, again, ones i would define as stable, particularly given that he has outbursts but will apologize and make amends. he is actively and consciously learning and growing, and while he is fairly self-contained, he also has friends beyond the little group, has other jobs, jokes around... he's building a life for himself in the closest he's ever come to peace, and ofc there are growing pains with that, but they seem like reasonable ones

aveline is mid on the list bc despite the fact that she's very stalwart and loyal, i don't find her to be particularly self-aware. for everyone previously listed, they would still be who they are without the people in their life or the job they have - aveline doesn't feel that way to me. she seems to define herself by her duty and her sense of responsibility. while an argument could be made that such values are just as much a form of self-awareness and knowledge as the rest, i don't rly buy that personally, at least not in her case. she feels like she's doing what she thinks she ought to do. like she's been guided by smth into a role and accepted that as her lot in life and defined herself by it, even though she's not entirely that. and i feel like she doesn't know who she is beyond that. repressed! but unlike bela, who is consciously repressing some of her shit, aveline just doesn't seem to realize there's even other ways she can be

in a lot of ways, carver does know himself... but how he defines himself is so deeply roped into hawke. his self-definition seems to be in the form of a constant comparison. without hawke, he would be someone else, and i don't think the path to self-awareness/self-possession can be walked via comparisons

varric is so.... he will throw away his own moral code to follow hawke's. he's loyal to a fault, arguably with an obsessive quality to it, and although he does seem to know himself decently well, he's willing to subsume himself in service to someone else's priorities and being. now, again, an argument could be made here that willing subversion of one's own priorities to another is a conscious, deliberate act and thus a form of self-awareness, but it just doesn't feel like it rly holds up to me

now, anders... i love him so much, but the man is in a constant crisis state throughout the game. and, like fenris, he's discovering himself in freedom for the first time - but unlike fenris, this is the very beginning of his self-discovery. so he's kinda all over the place. he settles a bit over the course of the game, begins to discover who he is under the ongoing trauma of being in the circles and isolation and joining with justice (which, i love them, but i do suspect it was traumatic - for both of them!) and becoming a grey warden and just- everything! and at the start he's still in hiding, and you can't really know yourself when you're stuck in survival mode (speaking from experience)

[haldenlith]

*eyes the new Dreadwolf "trailer"*

Hmm.

(Cutting so that if you don't want someone raining on your parade, you can easily just keep scrolling. But I want to get this rant off my chest.)

Why on this green (for now) Earth are you all losing your shit?

Why?

For starters, it says reveal, not release. Curb your enthusiasm. Saying "reveal" means they're saying, "hey, we'll actually have a REAL trailer and game to show you guys! ... In 2024!"

They're building hype for... a trailer. (I'm assuming it's going to just be a trailer. I'll be genuinely shocked if it's more than that.) And probably (maybe) when they're intending to actually say a release date. Which... ugh. Reeks of a bunch of suits in a marketing meeting going, "You know what'll really get people going and maybe get them to preorder our game? HYPE! Hype up the trailer! Which will then hype up the game! The money prints itself!" And I hate to say that it seems to be working, given the response I've been seeing.

Second, that trailer is a giant red flag, in my opinion.

This whole ordeal that is Dreadwolf's advertising has been a red flag, honestly, but anyway...

Why? Well, for starters, they're still using extremely vague bits of art in their trailers. Bioware is being extremely careful to show, well, nothing. They've shown concept art and... an almost animatic? The Solas trailer was barely animated artwork. Artwork doesn't equal an actual functioning (or even half functioning) game. With this, we only saw some maps, some more location concept art, and we got some character(?) voice over.

The fact we are this far into (presumed) development, and they still have nothing of substance to show is, again, a red flag. The common criticism from folks like me that are jaded and cynical is usually "where's the gameplay?", because we've seen too often games that hide the gameplay because it's extremely rough and would hurt sales. Or, worse, they pull a Watchdogs or Anthem and use fake gameplay. (Note that the latter is a Bioware game.) However, shit, they don't even have a fancy pre-rendered story trailer to show us. They still have nothing. Still. Or, worse, aren't willing to show anything. Worse because what are you so afraid of that you won't show your progress?

The other red flag that immediately stood out to me, as someone with mild interest in the story, is that something seemed narratively off from the bit we did get.

I don't think that was Solas at the end, but it was clearly meant to be the antagonist. I mean, sure, on one hand, while it didn't sound like him, they could've gotten a different VA. But also it didn't sound like him like... personality wise, dialogue wise... I genuinely don't think it was him. So who is it? Who is this new Big Bad Evil Guy? And why?

Because you (Bioware) spent an entire game (and arguably background bits of DA:O and DA2) AND DLC building up and into Solas being not just an antagonist but The Antagonist. What he intends to do is an immediate threat to the entire world. Or, spoilers for Dragon Age: Inquisition, he is again endangering everyone with his schemes.

So... why are you changing it? In a game that is a named after him? I could be wrong, as I'm speculating from the tiny, tiny, itty bitty speck we got, but something felt... different. Solas previously stated he was looking to reunite the two realms and undo what he did only to fix his mistake (destroy the Veil and reconnect the Fade and... whatever the normal realm is called, I don't remember right now), because he felt it was best for everyone (mainly the elves), and that he knew it was going to kill a lot of people. Hell, this is re-established in a different trailer for Dreadwolf. He wasn't doing it to take over and reign over anyone, so the "peace and comfort of my reign" line at the end of the trailer is what's making me go, "wait a minute." Like I already had low expectations and apprehension, and you somehow made me more apprehensive. Damn.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me if they're changing things last minute. They did lay off the veterans of the team. I would think they'd lay them off after they've written and done everything important, but these days, with what we've seen with the gaming industry, the suits/management don't seem to always be too bright. Shit, we know with Bioware that management is a shitshow, after all the exposes after Anthem crashed out.

I guess, given the track record, I'm extremely critical of Bioware right now. It feels like they're the guy that's trying to sell you a grift, going "oh yeah, this car is the bestest ride, it'll give you everything you're after!" "So can I actually see it or -" "NO! No no no, it's, uh, getting the tires changed! Haha! It'll be great though! Trust us!"

I don't know, man. I hope the game will be good, but the flags are all real red to me.

(Also, for the record, I will melt into hysterical laughter if the reveal next year doesn't even show a release date. Like it will be the biggest case of "leading you on" I've seen in a while.)

[bosmer]

you're right, I'm still a bit skeptical on anthem myself but I don't want it to do badly. I love mass effect and dragon age with all my heart and idk what will happen to them if anthem flops

I can’t imagine Anthem doing anything other than flopping. Absolutely no one seems hyped or even interested, we all just wanna know about DA4. And after reading an article saying they’re still figuring out DA4 it makes me think that we won’t even get to see it because Anthem will flop and EA will shut Bioware down. After the mess that was Mass Effect Andromeda what we really needed to see was an old IP coming back strong and making us have faith in Bioware again. Why would anyone buy a new IP game from a company that has consistently given poorly received games since 2012? Especially an IP that has strayed so far from the basic Bioware game format we expect.