I would like a writer at Bioware to explain to me how out of all of the characters they could have picked, what made them think that murderous pirate Isabela would give two craps about a crewmember's pronouns? She would keel haul the whiner and sail on.
@@unknownknowable The Nashville shooter, nearly 2 decades as a woman, then one year of having to pay for her own drinks (credit to Ryan Long for that joke XD)
Just a few years ago, that push-ups scene would've been a satire. Satire will be dead soon. Anything satirists bring to the table will be played straight in some circles. I'll miss satire.
In a funny kind of way, they accidentally made Isabella lie about her apology. She basically crossed her fingers because nobody at BioWare caught the fact that she did half of “the barve”.
@gringles true. Insult someone, call attention to the insult, carefully lecture about what a true apology requires.....then obviously not do what you described? She's diabolical
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the words gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender were ever used in the DA series despite featuring characters that check each of those boxes. That side of characters was explored using language that exists in the game’s world, not ours, and it feels especially weird to hear Isabela, queen of political incorrectness, be the one to lecture characters on this issue.
Still be proud of them. Bioware that is. Not BiowarEA. Late 90s/early 00s was truly special. Baldurs Gate 2 is my favourite game ever. Not even Larians awful writing can change that.
Remember when self- flagellation was exclusively the domain of religious fundamentalists? Rofl its just insane that they put this in a fantasy rpg video game.
@@promark5317 fr, as an atheist, looking at current Atheists+ makes me wanna vomit projectiles. They became so open-minded they joined a secular cult. I miss the times american christocultists were the most funny low-hanging fruit to poke at.
"The writing is, frankly, terminal. It lacks any nuance, wit or wisdom. It cannot communicate ideas, except to say them aloud to the camera. It manufactures petty, unbelievable tension because it doesn't know how to create anything more real, and it's too scared to ever be truly confronting or dark for fear that it might make the audience uncomfortable. Every interaction between the companions feels like HR is in the room, and every interaction led by the main character Rook sounds like he's addressing an under-12 soccer team before a semi-final or teaching toddlers to properly share toys." - SkillUp, a man who is not tremendously difficult to please in my experience
Thanks for going against the game journo grain and actually being honest with your criticisms. We need more people like you to call the industry out for bad design and writing choices. Happy Halloween!
Preachy writing is never good and using modern words usually indicates a lack of creativity. I am very mixed on this game. I would never want to do their quest. That is just horrible writing.
They have a non binary character? This is a fantasy world! Hell, they should have got a shape-changer as a side character. At least that way this sexual ambiguity crap would come off as lore based and feel less like attending some lecture.
"Look, I'm doing a lightly incomfortable thing instead of apologizing, I'm such a good person!" Also, choosing the pirate as a moral example, of course. Remember kids, you can murder as many people as you want, but don't you dare misgendering people or not wholeheartedly approving of their gender expression, that would be bad.
The fact that previous lore existed in the game universe for referring to non-binary people without literally saying 'non-binary' not only shows the writing incompetence, but also an ignorance of the narrative history of Dragon Age.
Also in that scene Isabela exclaimed "maker's panties", what was the point of that, in Thedas? Liliana would have stabbed her I think. A point being made often is that Larion made BG3 inclusive without struggle sessions and forced affirmation. Also I agree that "romance" in gaming is way over rated. In BG3 I had great relations and influence with companions I liked without ever pushing the "bang" button, completing thier arcs and mine without "romance" cutscenes. Player agency matters.
I'm glad you are enjoying the game. Sadly, I don't think I would. It's not even just this egregious scene. The modern vernacular, quirky characters (Bellara is literally an "adorkable" Disney-Pixar movie character), and the severe lack of choice-related consequences which leaves the player very lacking any agency are among the reasons this game, while looking in some ways like the Dragon Age world, doesn't feel like one at all, for me at least. I enjoyed both your articles on the game. Very informative, well-written and honest. I particularly liked you pointing the irony of the aforementioned scene and the section you included from MrMattyPlays. Both an excellent insight and comparison.
My problem w/ the entire "identity" discussion is that it exists purely to impose themselves on others. My identity doesn't matter. Your identity doesn't matter. No one goes out of their way to identify us how we WANT to be identified. I had zero choice in my name, let alone my biology. Those people BELIEVE they do. It's completely selfish while accusing others of acting selfishly, or self-important. It doesn't work in OUR world. It's never going to work in such a fantasy setting. The fact of the matter is, our "identity" will only ever serve to impact us negatively. A select group of people demand they be celebrated for theirs. No. No one gets to demand to be celebrated for the identity they chose while demonizing others for the identity they had no hand in. And lets be real, 99.999% of those people share the same identity, but chose one that simply benefitted them in the moment. I've known a LOT of people that have openly admitted that to me, themselves. From the little we know of this character, it would have been killed long before we had any chance to meet them. They come from what could be considered the perfect communist society where you fall in line, are reprogrammed and fall in line, or you cease to exist. From birth, you are set to serve a purpose and if you fail in that, you have no value to that society. That is Sten's internal conflict during DA:O. Iron Bull contemplates needing reprogramming again in DA:I. This is a character that would not be allowed to exist within their society. If they lived to run away, they would be pursued and destroyed no matter the costs. That is the reality of the society as it has been given to us. As the consumer, I have every right to say that after 3 games, plus the animated movies and comics, you no longer get to morph this society however you want to on a whim. You have established your lore, you can bend it here, tweak it there, but you no longer have the right to make massive changes because it suits you. BioWare is dead. DA:O and ME2 were the last breaths of a once great company. DA:I, for what it was, was that company expelling the last of the gases that remained. This BioWare proved that it can't write itself out of a wet, decaying paper bag.
Speaking of being mean to your party, I remember KOTR letting me order my wookie companion, who owed me a life debt, to murder his best friend with his bare hands because she didn't like it when I turned to the dark side.
There is a way to do it organically. Cremisius, "Krem". It's been done. If they wanted to add trans representation, in my opinion, they should have brought Krem back; at least he was funny. Instead we got performative lecturing.
This. I really liked Krem when there was a lot about Inquisition I didn't. I loved how they made it clear what Krem was without any obnoxious language or performative shit. Krem mentioned it in passing if you specifically asked about it, and otherwise it was just a fact about the character.
I’ve played the game for a few hours. While I am having fun, I can’t help but feel this game could have been so much better. The game feels like it took all its influence from other games in the genre, specifically God of War (2018) and Ragnarok, while not remaining true to its own roots as a dark fantasy. I miss the depth of roleplaying options, the tactics of the top down gameplay, or being able to take control of my party members. Everything is so streamlined and linear than before. It’s not awful but it feels a lot more shallow than before. Veilguard is what I see as the pinnacle of a 7/10; the game is good but it lacks that certain something of being truly great.
I have submitted for a refund. There are two reasons. I did not care for the gameplay. Also I did not think that this game resembled in complexity DA:O, DA:2 or DA:I. The second issue was that the game was causing my CPU to run at 88 - 90C, even after the shaders were compiled. I turned it down to medium quality and the temperatures were still running very, very high. (The computer is an i7-13700KF, RTX 4080, ASUS ROG Hero MB, 64GB of RAM, a Noctua D15.chromax black CPU cooler with six Corsair LL case fans.) Until today the highest temperature for anything was running Baldur's Gate 3, which ran around 73C and that was known to be CPU intensive. I have traditionally liked Bioware, but EA has caused the developer I knew and loved to take massive shortcuts and lose quality. I really wanted EA to do well with this because I look forward to the next Mass Effect game, which I now fear is in jeopardy.
I like that story of Sir Dinadan because it fits with a lot of examples from both history of folklore of women 'passing' as men to go to war, from St. Joan of Arc to Deborah Sampson in the American Revolution. It addresses questions of gender roles and those who challenge them in a way that makes sense for the setting while respecting the reader's intelligence and moral integrity. It's the dogmatic, heavy-handed, preachy approach that bothers me rather than the existence of these characters.
I know its been said so many times before, but unfortunately, even when female characters like the ones you mention are written well, I will reject it on its face because who knows if it will become preachy or not. I ain't got the time to find out. The messenger killed the message in its cradle.
Well said and measured take my friend. I think we have forgotten as a culture that we can like something overall and still be critical of things that deserve critisism.
I remember Krem a transgender man in DA:I and it never felt like a case of pushing an agenda. In that game it felt natural and it didn't feel like the game was trying to lecture me about mis-gendering.
Great information and measured approach. It's so odd they appropriated "California" culture to insert into Thedas. Now other countries are also complaining that they've colonized their language with nonsense words to approximate gender neutrality and nobody notices these devs are breaking their own taboos against cultural appropriation and colonization. If it suits them then they aren't breaking any rules because everyone else is just wrong by their dictate. I hate this us vs them mentality, but there's no other way to frame this. Creating division and animosity never has a good outcome. The phrase divide and conquer keeps coming to mind, but who is actually going to benefit from the ensuing chaos? Not our society that's certain.
I've said it before and i'll say it again. Every single bit of dialogue and interaction in this game feels like it's straight out of a Scooby Doo episodes. The Dialogue wheel is next to useless and every response should just be "Zoinks" or "Jinkies". There's a serious lack of tone and quality to the writing which has become even more apparent after i went back recently and stuck 40 hours into Origins. And then we get to the Combat... I love BG 1/2/3, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire and Origins because they had weight to their combat systems, you needed some forethought and tactics to proceed. I played a mage, I am animation cancelling attacks, blinking and dodging around attacks without cooldown while i have AOE and attack indicators. It's no longer a playing a video game representation of a Pen and Paper RPG. I am playing Conan the Barbarian with a skin. Then we go and see Paul Tassi who gave the game an 85/100 go onto the FPS podcast and say "I did not enjoy BG3, I didn't finish it... I did not enjoy Origins either". That's everything i need to hear to understand his score and how its diametrically opposed to my interactions with the game. I'm happy to report that this game only cost me €15 for a 1 month EA Play pro membership on PC. Lucky that i was able to cancel that after a month.
"Making it about themselves." What you mean like the whino who is upset they didnt use their biologically incorrect and reality defying delusion words they wanted them to. Making it about themselves like that? Thats a bit rich.
It can be a fun game and also irritating. Sounds like that's true for this one. It's a pass for me. The dialogue (even the non-pronoun stuff) sounds like something a high schooler wrote. Bioware has fallen a long way from KOTOR.
I'd agree about the noble savage trope. I'd disagree about the politics stuff a little. Asking a question seems less provocative than imparting a message. If you have an existing property or legend, then a starting point is fidelity, not using it as a vehicle. I guess, if you created the property, then maybe you can say "it's mine and I can do whatever the hell I want with it". And empathy risks being manipulative. You could probably confuse people into thinking playing along with someone who thinks they're a cat is empathetic. So there's always a value judgement. Is non-binary a real thing? Is it useful? Or does it propose a model of reality that people disagree with or find just not highly meaningful? I'd point to the arthurian legend stuff. As described, a lot of people are going to read that knight as just being within the normal range of female behavior. And an author approaching a story has the question of intent. Do they start with the property and work forward or do they start with where they want to get to? I suppose you could argue that if the audience can't tell, then it doesn't matter.
I disagree, the writing treats you like a 5 year old. If you took a shot for how many times ‘we awoke the old gods’ or ‘we need to deal with the old gods’ or ‘don’t you know what we have to do? We have to stop the old gods’ you’d be dead in the first hour.
Thank you for this video, came across your Forbes article which led me here. Appreciate you addressing this issue with nuance, it feels difficult to discuss since criticism of any kind seems to get couched in bigotry. There seems to be a growing trend in over the top preachy versions of messaging that is dividing people more and more. I hope thoughtful and intelligent conversations like in this video can push the medium forward.
Ngl, that song is kind of fire. Long time follower on Forbes, first time commenting here. I try very hard to not succumb to the anti-woke hatewagon and actually wait for content creators to give me multiple outlooks, and you've basically confirmed my worst fear for this entry - they just couldn't resist preaching. At this point I'm all out of empathy, compassion, understanding; I just can't fathom this brain-breaking level of self-defeat these developers seem to champion. All they had to do was not preach. If multiple content creators came out and said "Shockingly, despite there being progressive elements there's very little to no focus on it" I'd buy the game and probably appreciate it. Krem in Inquisition for instance was a surprisingly funny character with a surprisingly minor role, exactly like it should be. Guess I'll settle for just watching the fallout, maybe high seas it. On to the MHW Beta.
I think it's because, basically, the devs seem to have contempt for their players.Players can't be allowed to make bad decisions, or say mean things, substantive differences in values are not allowed, they have to instead be educated. This is reflected in the gameplay too, but at least you can tweak the gameplay unlike the writing. One example is the "origins" - despite appearing to be different, they're all actually the same. Player was told to do something, doesn't do what they're told, they were right, and now an authority figure is angry. I'm only.a few hours in and so many parts read like children's books or morality plays.
I have commented in several comment sectons about Isabela doing it being unrealistic Disney trash, as well as what is allowed to transpire with Taash that we were shown so far regarding old (pre-DA:I even, DA2, DA:O, comics with Isabela's run in with Tamassran) lore. Context: I am from Post-Soviet space where organized and anarchic criminal movements with gopniks and bandits were rampant for 40 some years. We also have lovely past with camps and mental institutions as a punitive reeducational measure for any dissenters daring enough to raise their head and exeedingly lovely Caucasus region with honor-lifesubscribtioncancellings for runaway unwilling brides and LGBT folks. Ever heard of ghey-camps in Chechnya? Straight up torch-ure and soil-fertilization. That's what you look for as reference points when writing dark/realistic fantasy criminal organizations and totalitarian ideologies. Not quite Middle Ages with roasting people in bull or other elaborate devices, but brutal, unkind stuff. Considering push-ups and excuses in chavs/pirates/gopniks/any banditry like this. They tend to be hypermasculine anarchies or primitive pack hierarchies that cultivate strenght, so generally working out is respectable, BUT. Culturally, when you join gopota, if you ever wanna rise above dirt level, you're not permitted to show any remorse even if you eff up seriously because to be sorry is to lose your criminal status, show weakness. In more hardcore criminal cultures they even shunned having family or partner, because such connections are often used to bring you onto your knees. Even our lovely archlich in Red Keep Pootin keeps his offspring, concubines and bastards private and didn't negotiate around Kursk and Beslan and Nord-Ost due to same logic. You show your soft underbelly within cultures like this > you instantly lose respect and become a target for dogpiling/mutiny. Considering Qun, again, I don't see enough fear or threat of Taash's 'community' coming for her mom, the deserter (Tal-Vashoth) or her/they/wthself, lovely 'cultural Qunari', breeding stock. KGB hunted down deserters in the west even if they just escaped to live peaceful life. World's-most-peaceful go for the 'westernized' kin all the godforsaken time, look up all the acid attacks, batterings, beatings, forced marriages and honor-you know reports. You know what happens to NB people in ME? They escape or live in closet or get pulped. That's ho the world functions with cults like this, sadly. So, we had an established lore with Tamassran, reeducation, Tal-Vashoth being hunted and thus having to live pretty far to the South at times, Talis... Where are the dire consequences for being a very special Qunari flower even in multicultural Rivain? These writers deserve being left in the middle of wild nowhere for intensive grass/snow-touching to understand it's not only cringe, but betrayal of tone of the setting, not dissimilar to GoT seasons 6-8 when every important character suddenly gained plot armor and portable teleporter and has no consequences coming for daring moves unless writers wanna use it for drama what so ever. The reason GoT or DA pulled off the dark/realistic vibe was because of gravity of consequences striking you often when you make choices, and the choices being tough. I don't mind salacious bisexual assassin knife-ears or whoever in my videogames, if they're written sensibly and fit in the setting. People having their tastes and feelings, even very paraphilic or ringing mental issues, exist, and they have place in adult entertainment to provoke reflection, how and why you're comfortable or uncomfortable with then. But I mind when current day western softness dispells any illusion of setting and turns dark fantasy into My Little Pony cringefest, and when I am denied a choice to go murderhobo or just leave them behing and play my game alone if I don't happen to like any of the insufferable c00nts devs set me up with.
Going to a mainstream news outlet, reading an article on popculture and politics in gaming, and not being gaslit and told you're a racist, sexist, bigoted alt-right transphobe for having qualms with the presentation? It's a breath of fresh air... Thanks.
I'm here for the AI songs 😅. I'll probably pick up on a Steam sale next year. DAO is one of my favs of all time, this doesnt feel DA. If you like it, cool. If not, cool. The free market will decide if this is "good". Back to the Monster Hunter beta!
Thank you for giving a balanced review of this game. So far, I've heard a lot of negativity around the messaging and pronouns (etc.), but not a lot of information on the actual game play. If you're 10-12 hours into the game and still enjoying (and not encountering a ton of preachy nonsense) then I may actually give the game a try. (Maybe when it goes on sale...)
From what I remember about the quanri lore this should have been an ez slam dunk. TNG did this decades ago (as cheesy as the episode was) with the non binary race where an individual wanted to be female.
Bioware's writing was surprisingly good when you were a kid, but going back to that stuff I don't think it holds up too well. I think people expect too much from them even when they were at their best tbh. I'm gonna give this new one a go, but I'm a little bummed I saw one negative review in particular that said the game never gets gritty and I think if i actually had not heard that my brain wouldn't have thought to be on constant attention for it now lol
Your views mirror mine exactly. Forbes is where I found you, Lol. You put it far more eloquently than I could. It feels the seasoned writers were paired with novice writers who have no sense of subtlety. Or nuance. And the one who wrote Solas is the same writer who wrote Taash. I don’t understand what happened.
DragonAge is textbook dark fantasy and Origins had many moments that would never see the light of day in most modern AAA game development. I just can't get past this current day writing despite any other merits the game may indeed have. I watched an hour or so of a livestream and that was enough to convince me I'll never play this game. There's ZERO immersion, the writing just throws me out of it and in a narrative driven, cinematic RPG that's fatal.
The "why" is likely a superiority complex in one or more of the writers. There was a vaguely similar scene in Mass Effect Andromeda. A character is expressing insecurity of feeling like an outsider as they've never or had little (forget which) interaction with people outside your race. ALL your options in responding to this are sociopathic, abusive (gaslighting) rude. Its clear the writers interpreted this character as a racist, despite that making no sense.
Good video mate. My issue with this is not about whether i agree with the message being pushed or it being present. I'm sick to the back teeth of shows and games essentially breaking the fourth wall to berate me if i disagree with the message. Characters cease behaving how they should, rpg options are removed, and the story grinds to a halt in service of a timeout to hector the viewer about some grievance. For example, in the witcher 3 dlc blood and wine, one of the fist fights is against a woman concealing her identity. When revealed, geralt goes on a rant about how anyone who foesnt think women can stand toe to toe is no real man. I struggle to explain how much i hate this. Geralt lives in a world where women are frequently god like sorcerers, expert swordsmen and sometimes actual dragons. Why would anyone in that world make comments like this? They wouldn't, it exists only to berate the viewer.
I appreciate this review. Ive said the same thing. Theyve had "progressive" characters in oadt games and books but it was subtle and woven well into the story. This is toddler level, disney foolery, preachy bull.
Tbh Bioware already did trans preaching in Inquisition, the scene with Iron Bull and Krem. I never liked this and it is sort of retcon of what we know about the Qunari. They have such strict roles in their society, including about gender roles, that Sten can't really believe you're female if you play as such in Origins ; if he worked under the logic used in Inquisition he would just see your character as a man since she's a warrior. I still loved the game but could've done without that, same thing here though I'm getting started tonight for Veilguard.
Because game devs, and in particular the creative devs/writers, believe they 'need to teach people'... both how to tell a decent person (from scum), and how to correct said scum (or how to dismiss them). The thing is - not only is the sacitmonious BS, but it's invariably wrapped in just really poor writing. The biggest problem is that this literally reinforces all the crap that the 'anti-woke' brigade keep saying; and vidicates their suspicion of modern games and the influence of consultancies like SBI...
I had a transgender friend, who I accidentally misgendered. She was really cool about it, shrugged, and said, "It happens. I understand it's a change. Try to do better next time." And that was it. No harm, no foul. Wasn't it said (albeit about movies), "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." In my experience, the message is generally given in subtext, rather than on the nose. If it's in your face messaging, it moves from entertainment to propaganda.
I dunno, if I apologized to a friend for a minor mistake and they told me to "Try to do better next time" I might question that persons value in my life. An apology in that situation is already an unspoken promise to do better in the future and telling someone to do better when they just said they'd try to do better is kinda cringe. Its like talking down to a child.
Dragon Age Origins, much like Baldur's Gate 3, are great RPGs made for everyone that happen to have gay characters and very well written ones at that. Veilguard writing feels immature and patronizing. Wake me up if they ever do a DAO remaster like Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
It's a disgrace for the franchise. This isn't really a DA game, only they just labeled in the title with that so they can sell well, it's a very old business strategy actually, nothing new. They changed too many things, & that's the most controversial part actually for most "veteran" DA players about this Veilguard.
A good writer can make anything work but alas BioWare no longer has that. The style also I agree sucks. In terms of LGBT BG3 and Cyberpunk has done that far better but even BioWare of old. Veilguard seems rather childish/ HR.
I have no issue with their divisive politics in games. Go make a game in a contemporary environment like Life is Strange and I'd say fair enough. Nothing wrong with modern politics there. It just has no place in a medieval fantasy RPG. Same with the Marvel humour - it has no place in that setting. I have a big enough problem with US accents in an medieval RPG as it is. Just as you wouldn't like a Western (RDR3) where everyone had British accents for some reason.
Agreed, US and British accents in fantasy settings are both out of place. Western culture in general doesn't really fit fantasy very well. Most stories/myths are more South-Eastern in nature.
I don't think I can play this, it's way too much cringe and seems to have been written in such an annoying and lame way. Real shame as I loved the earlier games. Great video though Erik.
From what I have seen the dial9g gives the player no real chouce. It appears you are forced to be a certain way. I personally don't care about the gender stuff, it has alwaus been in these games, but we had choices that mattered.
I don't really think there is a natural or organic way to introduce this stuff into a story. The purpose of its existent is to bend people into using said language soley to please people's own self-aggrandizement.
@@Anthony19byrne you wouldn't use that language. That's the point. Trans people were around before the word trans existed. Granted, it's a thing percentage of any given population, but they absolutely could include it in a way that didn't just parrot modern terms.
@@ErikKain In inquisition Iron Bull had a scene where he discussed members of the Qun being born in one gender and living like another. They called it Aqun-Athlok. That would have been better than this whole non-binary modern terminology. Iron Bull's scene with Krem handled that better than this ever could. And preferably if they didn't make the murderous pirate that in previous games who wouldn't give two F's about this discuss this.
Watched 8-hours of streaming. It was crap. Boring combat with 'bullet sponge' enemies. I've seen better writing from HS students as they 'Tell, not Show."
So, as a DA fan, I actually think if it would've been ANYTHING esle beside Dragon Age game, it could be even fun. Call it "Woke Age:Transguard" and people could play without backlash. But the fact that they made this slop "Dragon Age" is offensive, repulsive and disgusting.
The weird thing is that there was an easy way to be "woke" and write stuff that would generate empathy to "non white cis men" . In DA inquisition, Tevinder is the most homophobic region in Thedas (Ferelden is "don't ask don't tell" andin Orlais is any prejudice about sexuality is a faux pas) . One of the most charismatic and lovable characters, Dorian, is a gay man that left Tevinder because his father wanted force him into magic ritual to turn him heterosexual. Also, one of the funniest companion banter happens when he and Iron Bull are lovers (Also, Iron Bull's right-hand man is trans). There is also the racism against Elfs and lots of other stuff already in the world that did a better job being "woke" in previous games than this ridiculous, on the nose, dumb dialog that I've been seeing in DAVE.
What other reviewer said: it feels like HR is in the room on all interactions
I would like a writer at Bioware to explain to me how out of all of the characters they could have picked, what made them think that murderous pirate Isabela would give two craps about a crewmember's pronouns? She would keel haul the whiner and sail on.
sir, you live in the past where good lore meant something. We live in the progressive future where gender is king.
@@seanmurphy7011 she would be the type to misgender someone on purpose to toughen then up.
You don't understand. Even mass murderers can be Ts. Just like Buffalo Bill.
It's all good, all very inclusive.
@@unknownknowable actually, it seems more likely
@@unknownknowable The Nashville shooter, nearly 2 decades as a woman, then one year of having to pay for her own drinks (credit to Ryan Long for that joke XD)
So, Isabella, pirate, murdered, occasionally slave trader is epitome of caring about others now.
that's not Isabella, just like any returning character, its a cosplayer LARP-ing as the real characters.
Just a few years ago, that push-ups scene would've been a satire. Satire will be dead soon. Anything satirists bring to the table will be played straight in some circles. I'll miss satire.
She only does 5 push-ups, she's kinda sorry.
I counted 2
In a funny kind of way, they accidentally made Isabella lie about her apology. She basically crossed her fingers because nobody at BioWare caught the fact that she did half of “the barve”.
@gringles true. Insult someone, call attention to the insult, carefully lecture about what a true apology requires.....then obviously not do what you described? She's diabolical
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the words gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender were ever used in the DA series despite featuring characters that check each of those boxes. That side of characters was explored using language that exists in the game’s world, not ours, and it feels especially weird to hear Isabela, queen of political incorrectness, be the one to lecture characters on this issue.
They definitely did that with Dorian in Inquisition. He has a whole speech about it
They introduced Maeveris in the 2012 comics but I don’t remember if the term trans was used.
The silver lining here, is that I'm really happy with how Get Preachy With It turned out. I'm gonna have that in my head now.
Great song!
@verazollinger6862 thanks!
That was very good
@@ErikKainthe song is absolute fire. Great work
That was absolutely hilarious, and really good actually.
As a guy that lives in Edmonton, I used to be so proud of BioWare. Now they're a a fucking embarrassment.
Go cats!
It's not the same bioware. The old crew left ages ago
Still be proud of them. Bioware that is. Not BiowarEA. Late 90s/early 00s was truly special. Baldurs Gate 2 is my favourite game ever. Not even Larians awful writing can change that.
Great analysis of the dialogue, fair and critical.
Breaks my heart what they did to dragon age I loved the previous games
DID YOU ASSUME MY GENDER?!
PUSHUPS NOW! Apologizing isnt good enough.
Kill me now.
Remember when games were progressive, even extremely progressive, without ever resorting to this?
You mean, like the last three Dragon Age Games?
Pepperidge Farms remembers. So do I.
Remember when self- flagellation was exclusively the domain of religious fundamentalists? Rofl its just insane that they put this in a fantasy rpg video game.
BG3 was just last year.
@@promark5317 fr, as an atheist, looking at current Atheists+ makes me wanna vomit projectiles. They became so open-minded they joined a secular cult. I miss the times american christocultists were the most funny low-hanging fruit to poke at.
"The writing is, frankly, terminal. It lacks any nuance, wit or wisdom. It cannot communicate ideas, except to say them aloud to the camera. It manufactures petty, unbelievable tension because it doesn't know how to create anything more real, and it's too scared to ever be truly confronting or dark for fear that it might make the audience uncomfortable. Every interaction between the companions feels like HR is in the room, and every interaction led by the main character Rook sounds like he's addressing an under-12 soccer team before a semi-final or teaching toddlers to properly share toys." - SkillUp, a man who is not tremendously difficult to please in my experience
Thanks for going against the game journo grain and actually being honest with your criticisms. We need more people like you to call the industry out for bad design and writing choices. Happy Halloween!
Preachy writing is never good and using modern words usually indicates a lack of creativity.
I am very mixed on this game. I would never want to do their quest. That is just horrible writing.
I hate to admit it, but Erik's AI music for his videos is my favorite use of AI on the planet.
@@lovecraft7676 lol thanks
Thank you for your honesty.
They have a non binary character? This is a fantasy world! Hell, they should have got a shape-changer as a side character. At least that way this sexual ambiguity crap would come off as lore based and feel less like attending some lecture.
This is a very reasoned and fair criticism and it's sad that theres not more space for this in the discourse
"Look, I'm doing a lightly incomfortable thing instead of apologizing, I'm such a good person!"
Also, choosing the pirate as a moral example, of course. Remember kids, you can murder as many people as you want, but don't you dare misgendering people or not wholeheartedly approving of their gender expression, that would be bad.
The fact that previous lore existed in the game universe for referring to non-binary people without literally saying 'non-binary' not only shows the writing incompetence, but also an ignorance of the narrative history of Dragon Age.
Also in that scene Isabela exclaimed "maker's panties", what was the point of that, in Thedas? Liliana would have stabbed her I think. A point being made often is that Larion made BG3 inclusive without struggle sessions and forced affirmation. Also I agree that "romance" in gaming is way over rated. In BG3 I had great relations and influence with companions I liked without ever pushing the "bang" button, completing thier arcs and mine without "romance" cutscenes. Player agency matters.
I'm glad you are enjoying the game. Sadly, I don't think I would. It's not even just this egregious scene. The modern vernacular, quirky characters (Bellara is literally an "adorkable" Disney-Pixar movie character), and the severe lack of choice-related consequences which leaves the player very lacking any agency are among the reasons this game, while looking in some ways like the Dragon Age world, doesn't feel like one at all, for me at least.
I enjoyed both your articles on the game. Very informative, well-written and honest. I particularly liked you pointing the irony of the aforementioned scene and the section you included from MrMattyPlays. Both an excellent insight and comparison.
My problem w/ the entire "identity" discussion is that it exists purely to impose themselves on others. My identity doesn't matter. Your identity doesn't matter. No one goes out of their way to identify us how we WANT to be identified. I had zero choice in my name, let alone my biology. Those people BELIEVE they do. It's completely selfish while accusing others of acting selfishly, or self-important. It doesn't work in OUR world. It's never going to work in such a fantasy setting. The fact of the matter is, our "identity" will only ever serve to impact us negatively. A select group of people demand they be celebrated for theirs. No. No one gets to demand to be celebrated for the identity they chose while demonizing others for the identity they had no hand in. And lets be real, 99.999% of those people share the same identity, but chose one that simply benefitted them in the moment. I've known a LOT of people that have openly admitted that to me, themselves.
From the little we know of this character, it would have been killed long before we had any chance to meet them. They come from what could be considered the perfect communist society where you fall in line, are reprogrammed and fall in line, or you cease to exist. From birth, you are set to serve a purpose and if you fail in that, you have no value to that society. That is Sten's internal conflict during DA:O. Iron Bull contemplates needing reprogramming again in DA:I. This is a character that would not be allowed to exist within their society. If they lived to run away, they would be pursued and destroyed no matter the costs. That is the reality of the society as it has been given to us. As the consumer, I have every right to say that after 3 games, plus the animated movies and comics, you no longer get to morph this society however you want to on a whim. You have established your lore, you can bend it here, tweak it there, but you no longer have the right to make massive changes because it suits you.
BioWare is dead. DA:O and ME2 were the last breaths of a once great company. DA:I, for what it was, was that company expelling the last of the gases that remained. This BioWare proved that it can't write itself out of a wet, decaying paper bag.
Like most people I love a lecture from HR in my fantasy games.
If this is the kind of writing we can expect in the next Mass Effect game, then you can count me out, this absolutely horrible dialogue.
Well, Andromeda could have clued you in.
Speaking of being mean to your party, I remember KOTR letting me order my wookie companion, who owed me a life debt, to murder his best friend with his bare hands because she didn't like it when I turned to the dark side.
Sounds like that would irreparably traumatize Veilguard's writers.
@@BulletSponge178Anyone, kinda, but NOT IN A GAME. They self inserted too hard, and they happen to be confused and vacuous people.
I loved Isabella in DA2. She was fun and sassy. I have no idea who this lame weirdo is who has stolen her name.
This is probably the best take i heard on Veilguard and how badly it handles sensitive topics and goes full woke SJW mode.
There is a way to do it organically. Cremisius, "Krem". It's been done. If they wanted to add trans representation, in my opinion, they should have brought Krem back; at least he was funny. Instead we got performative lecturing.
I was about to mention Krem. You beat me to it.
This. I really liked Krem when there was a lot about Inquisition I didn't. I loved how they made it clear what Krem was without any obnoxious language or performative shit. Krem mentioned it in passing if you specifically asked about it, and otherwise it was just a fact about the character.
I’ve played the game for a few hours. While I am having fun, I can’t help but feel this game could have been so much better. The game feels like it took all its influence from other games in the genre, specifically God of War (2018) and Ragnarok, while not remaining true to its own roots as a dark fantasy. I miss the depth of roleplaying options, the tactics of the top down gameplay, or being able to take control of my party members. Everything is so streamlined and linear than before. It’s not awful but it feels a lot more shallow than before. Veilguard is what I see as the pinnacle of a 7/10; the game is good but it lacks that certain something of being truly great.
@@MrDe4dGuy34 absolutely
They see themselves as marginalized minorites, so thats why you cannot treat them mean...
I have submitted for a refund. There are two reasons.
I did not care for the gameplay. Also I did not think that this game resembled in complexity DA:O, DA:2 or DA:I.
The second issue was that the game was causing my CPU to run at 88 - 90C, even after the shaders were compiled. I turned it down to medium quality and the temperatures were still running very, very high. (The computer is an i7-13700KF, RTX 4080, ASUS ROG Hero MB, 64GB of RAM, a Noctua D15.chromax black CPU cooler with six Corsair LL case fans.) Until today the highest temperature for anything was running Baldur's Gate 3, which ran around 73C and that was known to be CPU intensive.
I have traditionally liked Bioware, but EA has caused the developer I knew and loved to take massive shortcuts and lose quality. I really wanted EA to do well with this because I look forward to the next Mass Effect game, which I now fear is in jeopardy.
I like that story of Sir Dinadan because it fits with a lot of examples from both history of folklore of women 'passing' as men to go to war, from St. Joan of Arc to Deborah Sampson in the American Revolution. It addresses questions of gender roles and those who challenge them in a way that makes sense for the setting while respecting the reader's intelligence and moral integrity. It's the dogmatic, heavy-handed, preachy approach that bothers me rather than the existence of these characters.
@@DVX_BELLORVM absolutely this
I know its been said so many times before, but unfortunately, even when female characters like the ones you mention are written well, I will reject it on its face because who knows if it will become preachy or not. I ain't got the time to find out. The messenger killed the message in its cradle.
I've played it, it's not dragon age at all. what we wanted was dragon age, what we got is crap.
Worth of below twenty that comes with EA Pro Membership ✅
Well said and measured take my friend.
I think we have forgotten as a culture that we can like something overall and still be critical of things that deserve critisism.
I’m always reminded of the fable of the sun and the wind competing to get a traveler to remove their coat.
I remember Krem a transgender man in DA:I and it never felt like a case of pushing an agenda. In that game it felt natural and it didn't feel like the game was trying to lecture me about mis-gendering.
Read your articles and came here immediately to give you my support. You caught my thinking perfectly about this entire ordeal.
I thought I was the only one who disliked romance in these rpg games. Also, "Get Preachy with it!" what a banger!
@@ayotundeayoko5861 I just can't stand it. It feels so artificial, like this goofy minigame
The way the pirate lady has that weird smile on her face throughout the entire interaction gives me Andromeda vibes.
Great information and measured approach. It's so odd they appropriated "California" culture to insert into Thedas. Now other countries are also complaining that they've colonized their language with nonsense words to approximate gender neutrality and nobody notices these devs are breaking their own taboos against cultural appropriation and colonization. If it suits them then they aren't breaking any rules because everyone else is just wrong by their dictate. I hate this us vs them mentality, but there's no other way to frame this. Creating division and animosity never has a good outcome. The phrase divide and conquer keeps coming to mind, but who is actually going to benefit from the ensuing chaos? Not our society that's certain.
I've said it before and i'll say it again. Every single bit of dialogue and interaction in this game feels like it's straight out of a Scooby Doo episodes. The Dialogue wheel is next to useless and every response should just be "Zoinks" or "Jinkies". There's a serious lack of tone and quality to the writing which has become even more apparent after i went back recently and stuck 40 hours into Origins.
And then we get to the Combat... I love BG 1/2/3, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire and Origins because they had weight to their combat systems, you needed some forethought and tactics to proceed. I played a mage, I am animation cancelling attacks, blinking and dodging around attacks without cooldown while i have AOE and attack indicators. It's no longer a playing a video game representation of a Pen and Paper RPG. I am playing Conan the Barbarian with a skin. Then we go and see Paul Tassi who gave the game an 85/100 go onto the FPS podcast and say "I did not enjoy BG3, I didn't finish it... I did not enjoy Origins either". That's everything i need to hear to understand his score and how its diametrically opposed to my interactions with the game.
I'm happy to report that this game only cost me €15 for a 1 month EA Play pro membership on PC. Lucky that i was able to cancel that after a month.
"Making it about themselves." What you mean like the whino who is upset they didnt use their biologically incorrect and reality defying delusion words they wanted them to.
Making it about themselves like that?
Thats a bit rich.
It can be a fun game and also irritating. Sounds like that's true for this one. It's a pass for me. The dialogue (even the non-pronoun stuff) sounds like something a high schooler wrote. Bioware has fallen a long way from KOTOR.
They apparently can't tell the difference since they're saying this is their return to form in writing and gameplay.
I'd agree about the noble savage trope. I'd disagree about the politics stuff a little. Asking a question seems less provocative than imparting a message. If you have an existing property or legend, then a starting point is fidelity, not using it as a vehicle. I guess, if you created the property, then maybe you can say "it's mine and I can do whatever the hell I want with it". And empathy risks being manipulative. You could probably confuse people into thinking playing along with someone who thinks they're a cat is empathetic. So there's always a value judgement. Is non-binary a real thing? Is it useful? Or does it propose a model of reality that people disagree with or find just not highly meaningful?
I'd point to the arthurian legend stuff. As described, a lot of people are going to read that knight as just being within the normal range of female behavior. And an author approaching a story has the question of intent. Do they start with the property and work forward or do they start with where they want to get to? I suppose you could argue that if the audience can't tell, then it doesn't matter.
I disagree, the writing treats you like a 5 year old. If you took a shot for how many times ‘we awoke the old gods’ or ‘we need to deal with the old gods’ or ‘don’t you know what we have to do? We have to stop the old gods’ you’d be dead in the first hour.
Thank you for your balanced perspective. I told someone it’s like Dragon Age made by the creators of My Little Pony.
Thank you for this video, came across your Forbes article which led me here. Appreciate you addressing this issue with nuance, it feels difficult to discuss since criticism of any kind seems to get couched in bigotry. There seems to be a growing trend in over the top preachy versions of messaging that is dividing people more and more. I hope thoughtful and intelligent conversations like in this video can push the medium forward.
Thanks Erik. You hit the nail precisely on the head in this one.
Ngl, that song is kind of fire.
Long time follower on Forbes, first time commenting here. I try very hard to not succumb to the anti-woke hatewagon and actually wait for content creators to give me multiple outlooks, and you've basically confirmed my worst fear for this entry - they just couldn't resist preaching. At this point I'm all out of empathy, compassion, understanding; I just can't fathom this brain-breaking level of self-defeat these developers seem to champion. All they had to do was not preach. If multiple content creators came out and said "Shockingly, despite there being progressive elements there's very little to no focus on it" I'd buy the game and probably appreciate it. Krem in Inquisition for instance was a surprisingly funny character with a surprisingly minor role, exactly like it should be. Guess I'll settle for just watching the fallout, maybe high seas it.
On to the MHW Beta.
I think it's because, basically, the devs seem to have contempt for their players.Players can't be allowed to make bad decisions, or say mean things, substantive differences in values are not allowed, they have to instead be educated. This is reflected in the gameplay too, but at least you can tweak the gameplay unlike the writing.
One example is the "origins" - despite appearing to be different, they're all actually the same. Player was told to do something, doesn't do what they're told, they were right, and now an authority figure is angry. I'm only.a few hours in and so many parts read like children's books or morality plays.
Subtlety and nuance are not in the modern BioWare's dictionary, you either get on with "the message" or you're a bad person.
Kunari society is conservative, just talk to Sten in DAO.
You're good with these AI songs. Love it.
@@LifeOfToyz thanks!
I have commented in several comment sectons about Isabela doing it being unrealistic Disney trash, as well as what is allowed to transpire with Taash that we were shown so far regarding old (pre-DA:I even, DA2, DA:O, comics with Isabela's run in with Tamassran) lore.
Context: I am from Post-Soviet space where organized and anarchic criminal movements with gopniks and bandits were rampant for 40 some years. We also have lovely past with camps and mental institutions as a punitive reeducational measure for any dissenters daring enough to raise their head and exeedingly lovely Caucasus region with honor-lifesubscribtioncancellings for runaway unwilling brides and LGBT folks. Ever heard of ghey-camps in Chechnya? Straight up torch-ure and soil-fertilization. That's what you look for as reference points when writing dark/realistic fantasy criminal organizations and totalitarian ideologies. Not quite Middle Ages with roasting people in bull or other elaborate devices, but brutal, unkind stuff.
Considering push-ups and excuses in chavs/pirates/gopniks/any banditry like this. They tend to be hypermasculine anarchies or primitive pack hierarchies that cultivate strenght, so generally working out is respectable, BUT. Culturally, when you join gopota, if you ever wanna rise above dirt level, you're not permitted to show any remorse even if you eff up seriously because to be sorry is to lose your criminal status, show weakness. In more hardcore criminal cultures they even shunned having family or partner, because such connections are often used to bring you onto your knees. Even our lovely archlich in Red Keep Pootin keeps his offspring, concubines and bastards private and didn't negotiate around Kursk and Beslan and Nord-Ost due to same logic. You show your soft underbelly within cultures like this > you instantly lose respect and become a target for dogpiling/mutiny.
Considering Qun, again, I don't see enough fear or threat of Taash's 'community' coming for her mom, the deserter (Tal-Vashoth) or her/they/wthself, lovely 'cultural Qunari', breeding stock. KGB hunted down deserters in the west even if they just escaped to live peaceful life. World's-most-peaceful go for the 'westernized' kin all the godforsaken time, look up all the acid attacks, batterings, beatings, forced marriages and honor-you know reports. You know what happens to NB people in ME? They escape or live in closet or get pulped. That's ho the world functions with cults like this, sadly. So, we had an established lore with Tamassran, reeducation, Tal-Vashoth being hunted and thus having to live pretty far to the South at times, Talis... Where are the dire consequences for being a very special Qunari flower even in multicultural Rivain?
These writers deserve being left in the middle of wild nowhere for intensive grass/snow-touching to understand it's not only cringe, but betrayal of tone of the setting, not dissimilar to GoT seasons 6-8 when every important character suddenly gained plot armor and portable teleporter and has no consequences coming for daring moves unless writers wanna use it for drama what so ever. The reason GoT or DA pulled off the dark/realistic vibe was because of gravity of consequences striking you often when you make choices, and the choices being tough. I don't mind salacious bisexual assassin knife-ears or whoever in my videogames, if they're written sensibly and fit in the setting. People having their tastes and feelings, even very paraphilic or ringing mental issues, exist, and they have place in adult entertainment to provoke reflection, how and why you're comfortable or uncomfortable with then. But I mind when current day western softness dispells any illusion of setting and turns dark fantasy into My Little Pony cringefest, and when I am denied a choice to go murderhobo or just leave them behing and play my game alone if I don't happen to like any of the insufferable c00nts devs set me up with.
Going to a mainstream news outlet, reading an article on popculture and politics in gaming, and not being gaslit and told you're a racist, sexist, bigoted alt-right transphobe for having qualms with the presentation? It's a breath of fresh air... Thanks.
I'm here for the AI songs 😅. I'll probably pick up on a Steam sale next year. DAO is one of my favs of all time, this doesnt feel DA. If you like it, cool. If not, cool. The free market will decide if this is "good".
Back to the Monster Hunter beta!
Thank you for giving a balanced review of this game. So far, I've heard a lot of negativity around the messaging and pronouns (etc.), but not a lot of information on the actual game play. If you're 10-12 hours into the game and still enjoying (and not encountering a ton of preachy nonsense) then I may actually give the game a try. (Maybe when it goes on sale...)
The longer the dev cycle went, the less optimistic I was for this. Then the trailer made me lose all hope for this game. I miss OG Bioware 😞
From what I remember about the quanri lore this should have been an ez slam dunk. TNG did this decades ago (as cheesy as the episode was) with the non binary race where an individual wanted to be female.
Bioware's writing was surprisingly good when you were a kid, but going back to that stuff I don't think it holds up too well. I think people expect too much from them even when they were at their best tbh. I'm gonna give this new one a go, but I'm a little bummed I saw one negative review in particular that said the game never gets gritty and I think if i actually had not heard that my brain wouldn't have thought to be on constant attention for it now lol
Your views mirror mine exactly. Forbes is where I found you, Lol. You put it far more eloquently than I could. It feels the seasoned writers were paired with novice writers who have no sense of subtlety. Or nuance. And the one who wrote Solas is the same writer who wrote Taash. I don’t understand what happened.
For me, the worst part is that they used Isabela for the scene. If it was a new character, then I think it wouldn't be as bad.
Thank you for putting all of the gender politics stuff in words. I have nothing against it, but my lord you COULDNT be more on the nose here.
Love the song Get Preachy With It hahaha!
Tbh, they even featured gaslighting in that game. I had that in real life so not getting any more in games.😅
DragonAge is textbook dark fantasy and Origins had many moments that would never see the light of day in most modern AAA game development. I just can't get past this current day writing despite any other merits the game may indeed have. I watched an hour or so of a livestream and that was enough to convince me I'll never play this game. There's ZERO immersion, the writing just throws me out of it and in a narrative driven, cinematic RPG that's fatal.
The "why" is likely a superiority complex in one or more of the writers.
There was a vaguely similar scene in Mass Effect Andromeda. A character is expressing insecurity of feeling like an outsider as they've never or had little (forget which) interaction with people outside your race. ALL your options in responding to this are sociopathic, abusive (gaslighting) rude. Its clear the writers interpreted this character as a racist, despite that making no sense.
Good video mate. My issue with this is not about whether i agree with the message being pushed or it being present. I'm sick to the back teeth of shows and games essentially breaking the fourth wall to berate me if i disagree with the message.
Characters cease behaving how they should, rpg options are removed, and the story grinds to a halt in service of a timeout to hector the viewer about some grievance. For example, in the witcher 3 dlc blood and wine, one of the fist fights is against a woman concealing her identity. When revealed, geralt goes on a rant about how anyone who foesnt think women can stand toe to toe is no real man. I struggle to explain how much i hate this. Geralt lives in a world where women are frequently god like sorcerers, expert swordsmen and sometimes actual dragons. Why would anyone in that world make comments like this? They wouldn't, it exists only to berate the viewer.
I appreciate this review. Ive said the same thing. Theyve had "progressive" characters in oadt games and books but it was subtle and woven well into the story. This is toddler level, disney foolery, preachy bull.
I was Straight before I played this game, now I'm gay, thanks a lot Bioware!!
Bargain bin, so that if it disappoints me even more than it has, at least I didn't pay full price.
Tbh Bioware already did trans preaching in Inquisition, the scene with Iron Bull and Krem. I never liked this and it is sort of retcon of what we know about the Qunari. They have such strict roles in their society, including about gender roles, that Sten can't really believe you're female if you play as such in Origins ; if he worked under the logic used in Inquisition he would just see your character as a man since she's a warrior. I still loved the game but could've done without that, same thing here though I'm getting started tonight for Veilguard.
Because game devs, and in particular the creative devs/writers, believe they 'need to teach people'... both how to tell a decent person (from scum), and how to correct said scum (or how to dismiss them). The thing is - not only is the sacitmonious BS, but it's invariably wrapped in just really poor writing. The biggest problem is that this literally reinforces all the crap that the 'anti-woke' brigade keep saying; and vidicates their suspicion of modern games and the influence of consultancies like SBI...
I had a transgender friend, who I accidentally misgendered. She was really cool about it, shrugged, and said, "It happens. I understand it's a change. Try to do better next time." And that was it. No harm, no foul.
Wasn't it said (albeit about movies), "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." In my experience, the message is generally given in subtext, rather than on the nose. If it's in your face messaging, it moves from entertainment to propaganda.
So you mean "he"?
I dunno, if I apologized to a friend for a minor mistake and they told me to "Try to do better next time" I might question that persons value in my life. An apology in that situation is already an unspoken promise to do better in the future and telling someone to do better when they just said they'd try to do better is kinda cringe. Its like talking down to a child.
What's up with those pushups? I'm totally out of shape but can manage better than that.
Dragon Age Origins, much like Baldur's Gate 3, are great RPGs made for everyone that happen to have gay characters and very well written ones at that. Veilguard writing feels immature and patronizing. Wake me up if they ever do a DAO remaster like Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
a game for modern audiences, by modern devs.
It's a disgrace for the franchise. This isn't really a DA game, only they just labeled in the title with that so they can sell well, it's a very old business strategy actually, nothing new. They changed too many things, & that's the most controversial part actually for most "veteran" DA players about this Veilguard.
Intentional. Made for "get them when they are young"
@@VogonJ this is a silly conspiracy.
Lol wow ...what a song😂😂
This vidoe be titled the eat crow guard 😅😅😅
A good writer can make anything work but alas BioWare no longer has that. The style also I agree sucks. In terms of LGBT BG3 and Cyberpunk has done that far better but even BioWare of old. Veilguard seems rather childish/ HR.
I have no issue with their divisive politics in games. Go make a game in a contemporary environment like Life is Strange and I'd say fair enough. Nothing wrong with modern politics there. It just has no place in a medieval fantasy RPG. Same with the Marvel humour - it has no place in that setting. I have a big enough problem with US accents in an medieval RPG as it is. Just as you wouldn't like a Western (RDR3) where everyone had British accents for some reason.
Agreed, US and British accents in fantasy settings are both out of place.
Western culture in general doesn't really fit fantasy very well. Most stories/myths are more South-Eastern in nature.
I don't think I can play this, it's way too much cringe and seems to have been written in such an annoying and lame way. Real shame as I loved the earlier games. Great video though Erik.
From what I have seen the dial9g gives the player no real chouce. It appears you are forced to be a certain way. I personally don't care about the gender stuff, it has alwaus been in these games, but we had choices that mattered.
This is got to be the single most stupid scene in a “dark fantasy” game ever.
take the politics away, the game looks average at best. if you are going to put your politics into it, make a good game
I don't really think there is a natural or organic way to introduce this stuff into a story. The purpose of its existent is to bend people into using said language soley to please people's own self-aggrandizement.
@@Anthony19byrne you wouldn't use that language. That's the point. Trans people were around before the word trans existed. Granted, it's a thing percentage of any given population, but they absolutely could include it in a way that didn't just parrot modern terms.
@@ErikKain In inquisition Iron Bull had a scene where he discussed members of the Qun being born in one gender and living like another. They called it Aqun-Athlok. That would have been better than this whole non-binary modern terminology. Iron Bull's scene with Krem handled that better than this ever could. And preferably if they didn't make the murderous pirate that in previous games who wouldn't give two F's about this discuss this.
@idiocracydude yeah that would have been perfect.
You sounds too much like someone tip toeing around the obvious.. . . .
Dragon age V having over 80 to 90% everywhere. it is fastest selling single player game on stream.
Watched 8-hours of streaming. It was crap. Boring combat with 'bullet sponge' enemies. I've seen better writing from HS students as they 'Tell, not Show."
They should let you be they/them in elden ring and watch how it suddenly becomes a bad game.
It's a terrible game
This channel sucks. 😂
TRUMP 2024!!!! Brothers we must protect the Republic!!! We must protect our games!!! We must protect our way of life!!!!
So, as a DA fan, I actually think if it would've been ANYTHING esle beside Dragon Age game, it could be even fun. Call it "Woke Age:Transguard" and people could play without backlash. But the fact that they made this slop "Dragon Age" is offensive, repulsive and disgusting.
The weird thing is that there was an easy way to be "woke" and write stuff that would generate empathy to "non white cis men" .
In DA inquisition, Tevinder is the most homophobic region in Thedas (Ferelden is "don't ask don't tell" andin Orlais is any prejudice about sexuality is a faux pas) . One of the most charismatic and lovable characters, Dorian, is a gay man that left Tevinder because his father wanted force him into magic ritual to turn him heterosexual. Also, one of the funniest companion banter happens when he and Iron Bull are lovers (Also, Iron Bull's right-hand man is trans).
There is also the racism against Elfs and lots of other stuff already in the world that did a better job being "woke" in previous games than this ridiculous, on the nose, dumb dialog that I've been seeing in DAVE.