#because it's my only veilguard-specific tag for my own thoughts at the moment

[invinciblerodent]

I'm gonna just come out and say it, if you don't mind me adding a bit of tongue-in-cheek, bitter commentary.

I think in hindsight, Bioware may have made a bit of a mistake with revealing as much about their concept for Joplin as they did.

Not in the slightest because it wouldn't have been a fun game if it had been made real, or because the creative process wouldn't be interesting to see, or because I wouldn't understand them wanting to share something they worked on so much and obviously liked before it got canned. I really enjoyed thumbing through the artbook and toying with the thoughts it sparked, and I too thought it was a clever idea that would have been nice to play. The mistake part of it has nothing to do with what it is.

I think sharing it was ultimately a mistake because by including Joplin's concept art, they put their trust in their audience's ability to look at something that has very little- to fuckall to do with anything else, go "huh, neat", and move on.

Which, turns out, is something many seem categorically unable to do.

"But Dragon Age Joplin would've been the game we WANTED-"

Dragon Age Joplin doesn't exist. Didn't exist. Never would've existed. Dragon Age Joplin was an idea, it was a collection of what ifs and concept art. It wasn't a game. If it had become a game, it wouldn't have looked anything like the concepts we see in the art book (which are very cool and pretty!). The PRACTICALITIES hadn't been considered yet. The issues around writing, casting, sculpting, animating, all the very expensive and time-consuming realities of making a game. It was just ideas

If Joplin had been allowed to continue without any of EA's interference, would it have been a better game? Maybe! Part of me wants to say probably! But we CAN'T KNOW because the game DOESN'T EXIST and NEVER EXISTED

It wasn't snatched out of our hands. It was never there! It's easy to look at ideas and fill in the blanks yourself perfectly, but it wouldn't have BEEN perfect regardless. I can promise you that

Maybe it would've been better. It also could've been worse. We will never know because the game was never real