#i think this is the first time I've been genuinely frustrated at bg3 fans.

[unsettlingcreature]

i'm not going to tag the person because i know this is me being an angry little thing and i just want to get feelings out rather than start beef BUT. I just saw someone compare the towns in BG3 to the towns in Morrowind AND Oblivion AND Skyrim, saying that BG3 towns feel like real towns and i just-

okay, first of all, those three games were all originally made over a decade ago. morrowind was over two decades ago. we cannot, in good faith, compare the games properly, not just because of their age but because the games are trying to do different things.

that aside, if we WERE to compare them. all three of those games were originally made for older systems, that typically did not have the same amount of juice that current computers have. additionally, they had to be compatible with consoles. in order for the games to run somewhat decently (at least by bethesda's gloriously buggy standards) and with the technology they had available at the time, it was probably impossible to make a game with even ONE town that compared to how busy and lively they are in BG3.

and then they tried to pull enderal into the comparison, saying it sort of makes the towns feel better like, yeah! because enderal didn't have to release on consoles or be optimised for low-end PCs! the computer I used when enderal first released would CHUG for enderal on the lowest quality settings compared to skyrim.

i'm- ouuuurrrgghhhhhhhhhh- we don't have to compare baldurs gate three to every video game in existence blease im begging u

[ems-wrens]

Dragon Age: Veilguard Spoilers Ahead

Just finished my first playthrough of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and while I had a lot of fun, I can definitely see where a lot of the complaints are coming from.

Preface with this is the first DA game I've ever played, and the knowledge I have of the previous titles is limited.

First things first, the things I liked:

Holy shit the combat. That was crazy. Coming from someone that avoids combat focused games (sims and Minecraft, or any mobile game), or has realized they prefer turn based (Baldur's Gate 3) combat, I absolutely loved DA:V's combat. It felt like I was literally flying around the battlefield, and I was only playing the warrior class. I've heard mage goes absolutely crazy in this game and am excited to try it out. It's also really beginner friendly with combat. I've played some of the Spider-Man ps4 games and those were an absolute nightmare (part of that does have to be attributed to my unfamiliarity with console, but I've never been able to pick it up even after hours at a time playing).

Character creation. Oh my god I'm in love with the character creator. I've seen more than a few people complain that their Rooks always look like a gigachad with the jawline but honestly, skill issue. Like genuinely. It took me less than 10 seconds to figure out how to give my Rook a softer jawline and rounded cheeks. I liked the variety in body types and shapes (looking at you bg3 with your body types boiled down to tits or no tits, and occasionally tall titties or tall no titties).

I will say it was disappointing that, despite all the time spent in character creation, I rarely saw Rook. At most, you can see the general body shape and their face for most of the game. A few armors are more revealing, and let you see more of Rook, but all of the casual wear (that I found, I know I missed a lot of them) seems to cover Rook neck to toe. I would have also liked for some of the tattoos and body paints to have been locked for certain Rooks (either permanently or until a certain point). At minimum, labeled in a way that I got a sense of the world itself.

I knew going into the game that elves in DA were the only ones I ever saw with face tattoos, so my Rook (a human) did not get one despite how pretty I thought they were. But I really feel the vallaslin should have been locked for non elf Rooks in character creation. Sure, you can make the argument that to someone like me, who's playing this game as their first entry, would have no clue why they were locked and potentially be frustrated and confused, but that's what the world-building of the game is there for. I also think it would have been interesting if Rook couldn't paint or tattoo the symbols of other factions on themselves until they'd gotten a certain approval from that faction (i.e. my Shadow Dragon Rook couldn't paint Warden symbols until a moderate or excellent standing with the Wardens), however I realize that would probably be a time-consuming endeavor for the devs.

I also really enjoyed the companions. They're fun and have a variety of personalities, without ever being evil (I'm not really a fan of evil companions). I also enjoyed all of their stories, even if the conclusions for some of them didn't make the most sense (the game pushing you to free the archive despite Cyrian dying for it and it being Bellara's life work, I get that it had the potential to be dangerous, but also that was a wild "good ending" for someone who actively studied history her entire life to just...throw all that knowledge away).

While I would never seek to be in the disapproval zone for any character (I'm a people pleaser and even fictional characters need to approve of me or I'll Cry), I think the companions not being able to have negative disapproval is kind of disappointing. They can disapprove of your choices, but honestly as long as you're still bringing them on quests and completing their personal quests, ending the game with anything less than 8 approval across the board is probably very difficult (my lowest was Neve, who still managed to be at 9.5 by the end of the game, and I wasn't doing anything crazy to win her approval and missed a ton of her quests bc I didn't go back to the lighthouse to talk to my companions enough). It could have been so interesting to have companions that would leave (similar to bg3) if you had low enough approval. It wouldn't even require Rook being evil, they could just be constantly making decisions that companion doesn't like. Or even companions that are less helpful and willing to share their contacts if you keep pissing them off, making you the player less willing to bring them along, but knowing it's the only way to actually get them to help.

Okay, the things I really didn't like.

The romance. What the fuck. Granted, I've only romanced Taash at this point, but holy hell. It starts so strong and sensual (they sniff up your neck for gods sake to smell your pheromones), and then you really don't get too many scenes after that. I'm not really one that cares about romance and sex in games, but if you're gonna promise it, I will be expecting it.

From what I've heard, basically every romance in the game is similar to this. Strong start, weak ending with a fade to black sex scene (I've heard Davrin's is the most explicit, but I think I've heard it said that his is still fade to black after undressing). And like, I have nothing against a good fade to black. I don't need to see these characters bumping uglies, but at least give me some foreplay or something before you do so. Undressing and picking Rook up, then fading away to when Taash and Rook are just cuddled up on the bed after is...kind of disappointing. "You sure know how to welcome someone back." (Stated right after supposedly having sex, which i'm not convinced of considering Rook still had their undergarments on) Yeah, I wish we'd gotten to see any of that, Rook.

The writing. I'm not gonna say it was like, the worst thing ever and god-awful and I'll never play the game again, but you can definitely tell it was sitting in development hell for over a decade. Some of it is pretty shaky (how, in this entire group of people, did no one notice Rook would talk to "Varric" semi frequently, and no one decides to confront them. After Rook helped all of them through their issues. That just feels careless, and like Rook is sidelined in their own story, which we'll get to). Some of it outright doesn't make sense (the codex entries for the Crows and their in game behavior never matches up right; what do you mean this is a brutal group of assassins that torture the children they take in to make them better assassins, but also they're just fun cute freedom fighters). Also, from what I've gathered, Solas just straight up being a liar in the final act goes against his entire character from the previous games? Again, I'm not overly familiar, but even just my experience with DA:V, him turning out to just be a liar feels like it undercuts him massively. After promising Rook he won't bring down the Veil, actually, yeah no he's still gonna do that, except it's partially just a play on words because the Veil won't come down by his hands, but killing Elgar'nan is what'll do it instead. That reveal...feels like it was supposed to be more clever than it actually was. "Oh the god of lies and deception deceived me, how could I have not expected this turn of events?" Like, I'm sorry, it would have been so much more interesting had he done literally anything else.

Rook. Oh my god. Rook feels, at times, like the village idiot. The amount of times they say "huh?" or "um, what?" is ridiculous. My Rook is from Minrathous, it was in the character creation. Viper knows Rook. Neve knows of Rook prior to meeting Varric. Why, as we're walking around Minrathous, is Rook constantly asking questions about things, or having confused responses when Neve explains something inherent to the city. And listen, I love Rook's general attitude. I like how they're kind of feral no matter what response you choose (sometimes the dialogue options are just "pick how unhinged you wanna be"), but why, in their casual dialogue, do they seem to know absolutely nothing? Also, and maybe it's just my game, why does it feel like the companions never really talk to Rook much when you're traveling. They talk to each other almost non-stop, but almost never to Rook directly. About, occasionally, but Rook is normally silent and uninvited to these conversations.

It feels like Rook is an outsider to the companions. And I've seen a lot of people say that it feels like Rook isn't even a main character in the game, which after finishing it, yeah. The companions are the main characters, not Rook. Rook almost takes the mentor role for the companions to make sure they're ready for the final battle, but no one ever checks in with them until after Rook was presumed dead in the Fade. No one ever tries to help Rook through their issues, or ever asks if something's bothering them after they've all decided they need to work through their personal shut before fighting the gods. Towards the end, especially after being in the Fade, it almost felt as though Rook was the companions Varric. There to teach them, build them up, and ultimately die for them.

Now, I know Rook doesn't actually die, and the companions do spend a lot of time rescuing them, but it feels...brushed over. I've seen some different things from others, but none of my companions brought up how much they missed Rook after getting them back. None of them checked on Rook except Taash, who even then, let it drop fairly quick. The relationship between Rook and their companions feels very one-sided. Rook so clearly cares (and cares deeply) about their companions, while the companions seem at times nearly indifferent to Rook.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts that I needed to get out. I don't normally go on tangents about things like this, but I don't have anyone to talk to about this game irl and it's been driving me up a wall.

I don't hate the game, and that's a lot of the reason I've been hesitant to interact with anything critiquing it because some critiques have been valid, some have really, really not been. I liked the game, and I will be replaying, but there's some issues that are hard to look past.

This is a little rambly, and I didn't check over to make sure it made sense, but...yeah.

[bg3-npc]

I wanna share my "BG3 Through Fandom Osmosis" experience:

Baldur's Gate 3 has been trending frequently on here since it's release. Besides being a video game, I had zero knowledge of it. It was trending so often I'd periodically check the tag out of curiosity.

However I was never there very long, because the tag was mainly Astarion. I'd skim the few top posts and get the gist of his deal: asshole with a tragic past, vampire, you can actually fix him, ect. I saw the appeal, but it wasn't there for me personally.

I didn't look any further into the game for a while because I didn't care about the only character getting engagement. Karlach had some attention at first, and she had grabbed mine. Unfortunately, content for her subsided and became outnumbered by Astarion stuff. The only other character I saw that piqued my curiosity in the game was quickly shoved to the side in favor of the vamp.

It wasn't until I saw a post of Wyll that I found out there were other companions to play. I went back to the BG3 tag for him, and imagine my surprise when I found out everything this game has to offer. Quests, character creation, multiple choices and endings, more hours of various content than Game Of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. You name it, this game has it. You can even play without the vamp! He's not strictly necessary for game completion! Endless gameplay options, but I had no idea because I saw NO content besides Astarion.

Is it nice to see a white guy that's actually a well developed character? Obviously! I like seeing people talk about him with actual canon instead of stuff people gleamed/made up about him. (At least most of the time.) That said, it's a disservice to anyone unfamiliar/interested in this game to give Astarion sole focus.

What if, and this is blasphemous I know, someone isn't drawn in by him? If there's no content for anything else, the assumption will be he's the best part of the gaming experience. From an outside perspective, you'd think BG3 is nothing more than a ~Special White Guy~ Dating Simulator. If you have no interest in him, why would you ever look further into the game?

If there's no new people playing BG3 and/or participating in fandom, then eventually even Astarion content will run dry. I don't want that for anyone in any part of this fandom! However, you've gotta have fans of different parts of the media itself if you want to keep a fandom alive.

It's also a bit insulting to the anyone who worked on anything non-Astarion related. All the energy that went into this massive game, only for everything outside of a singular character to go mainly ignored? While I've heard the other companions are "less developed", none of them are underdeveloped. They hold different parts of the game in themselves. There's so much to learn and work off with them. You're genuinely missing out on the game by ignoring them!

General Fandom Disclaimer™️: I'm not bashing anyone's love of him. If he's what you're drawn to, he's what you like. It's not your job to make fan content or engage with anything outside of your likes. Fandom is an individual experience, not advertising or a recruiting service. It's just personally frustrating cause there's literally an entire world outside of that vampire, but you wouldn't know that from looking at this fandom.