#you're not doing what you think you're doing for fandom health and bioware's not gonna love you back. chill

[rachelamberish]

i see we've reached the toxic positivity stage of the discourse

[kaija-rayne-author]

Section 12 in review of Dragon Age Veilguard

96 Hours in, 94 hours playtime..

Obligatory disclaimer, feel free to jump to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Spoilers for Dragon Age Veilguard (and other Dragon Age stuff, I'm a Lore fiend.)

Section 11 is here.

So, the whole Mourn watch section with the half Lich was very well written and put together. Had an interesting (if not difficult) puzzle and a poignant ending. Loved it.

Did the Treviso sequence where Illario gets his comeuppance. Even though it's a very stale plot idea, it was so very well written and executed (har har) that it's a shame they fired Lucanis's writer. (Mary Kirby wrote Lucanis.)

They probably should've kept her and let her write a lot more than that. The game would've been so much better. It might’ve actually approached good.

Instead of something that when my partner saw me loading it up he said 'wow, you look like you're about to be tortured'.

Rueful face. So much of this game has felt like torture that having two sections on the same day that were legitimately good is odd.

The ones with Taash in Rivain were fun or sad, depending. But still well written and put together.

Still seem to have more to do. Gonna play for a few more hours. It's rare and nice that it's actually curiosity I'm feeling while logging in tonight, vs. any of the gamut of yucky emotions this game has treated me to.

Oh! Before I forget and in the name of attempting to provide a fair review, I do really love the light puzzles and ancient elven tech stuff. That's been a great deal of fun.

There are good parts to this game, but they just don't make up for the shit.

...

A. Single. Meaningful. Glance. As an intimate scene? Fucking DAO had better than that! Are they serious? Is there more in the final sequence? Dear gods, if I'd paid for this game I'd be bloody furious. Incandescently, explosively furious.

Let's talk about consumer expectation. It's something anyone hoping to sell things has to be aware of.

In its, what, 14 year Dragon Age history? Bioware has set certain expectations with their market share. As I mentioned, DAO, while dated and with poor graphics, actually had something extremely suggestive for the intimate scenes. You had no doubt what the characters were doing. Same went for DA2. Not much actual nudity, but again, no bloody question about what was going on. In DAI, some was sweet, some was saucy, but it was even more clear what was happening.

So the expectation for a behind door scene that you got to see has been set. If there had always been fade to black meaningful stares for the intimate scenes, fine, whatever. But that has not been Bioware's history. And it certainly isn't their gaming market's expectation.

Expectation isn't as important in a standalone game. There's no weight of expectation like there is in series work. Unfortunately for everyone who bought this game, the expectation of so many years and so much material has been firmly set. And a long, searching, intense look doesn't cut it. Are all the Romances like that? I don't have the stomach to replay it that many times to find out.

I still have to finish the final sequence. So it's possible my utter disappointment will be fixed, but given the way Bioware has structured its games in the past, the Romance parts were finished before the final sequence.

My level of disappointment with this game has been high all along, but this is indeed the shit cherry on top of the shit sundae of this game.

Hah! And to think I'd actually hoped for an intimate scene between Solas and Inky! (Hysterical, breathless, cackling. OMFG.)

The problem with market expectation? And not meeting it? Is that you utterly lose the confidence and trust of the people who buy your stuff. And that means they're less likely to buy your stuff again. I certainly won't ever buy anything Bioware makes again. I'm out. I'll enjoy the previous games, but if I'm right about my predictions? Veilguard doesn't exist as part of my universe. I'll pretend it wasn’t ever made. Unless I decide to write a long fix-it fic. Because OMFG.

If, as an author, I shifted from rather explicit, panties-melting intimate scenes to closed door fade to black... I would be betraying my reader's expectations and losing their trust.

If this is it for the intimate scenes? Oh man. Bioware, you fucked up.

Pre-play pithy commentary

If you want to skip the snarky paragraph ^?

13th review here.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Review 3 for Dragon Age Veilguard

13 hours in 11 actual playtime

Spoilers for Veilguard

Disclaimer the same as on the others. Skip to the cut if you've already read it.

I'm not an asshole disclaimer (same as the first one, if you read that, you can just skip down to the cut.)

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Review 2 is here.

So I'm waiting for my kids to go to freaking bed. I've gotten a few hours of playing in so far today.

It got a little more interesting after seeing Solas again. (And not just because I'm Solavellan. I honestly hate how he looks.) I mean just in the storyline.

It might almost be feeling like there might be a story somewhere in this mess? Aaaand it still hasn't caught me up. But at least I'm not cussing at it and wanting to rage quit anymore? (not holding my breath that that's gonna last.)

Saw some things I don't want to spoil that I was hoping to see in the game. But dude... did they have to go right along the middle between red and brown hair? Way to completely pander to everyone. Have some courage Bioware.

I used to think of Bioware games as interesting and groundbreaking fun. Starting to think they're going the way of milquetoast. Bland. I'm still holding off my complete opinion. I'll finish it first. But so far? The best parts of this game? Are the sets, environments, and backgrounds. It's about the only thing that feels like Dragon Age.

Did get a chance to meet some of my favourite characters from Tevinter Nights. So there's that at least.

I do love what they did with the characters from my favourite stories in that book. At least the ones we met so far. (And I absolutely called it on TN being a prequel book for this game.) You don't need to read it any more than you need to read any of the other supplementary materials. But those materials do give you a greater depth of enjoyment of these games. Just because you get to see characters you met in different formats in the games. And catch a few jokes you wouldn't otherwise.

Met Lucanis. Reserving judgment. Lolz. Anyone following me for a while will understand why. But as of this moment, I still like Illario better. In case you're curious, here's why.

Oh and I've absolutely decided I hate Lace Harding. This is not the Lace Harding I wanted to romance in DAI. And yeah... it's been eight years game time (Ten if you count Trespasser) and people change. But that much? I doubt it. The way she's depicted in this game is much closer to how the comics depicted her. Judgmental, close-minded, and just... unpleasant. If you're a Solavellan... you may not want to take her to some of the things in the Crossroads. She says things that anyone with freaking eyes could see aren't accurate.

She can just sulk in the Lighthouse for the rest of the game unless I absolutely need her for something.

Review part 3.5 here