kirkwall-age

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Y'all can put a fork in me. I'm done.

#vg: dreadwolf #the last 2 tweets especially #💀💀💀

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I've been thinking about doing the same little vanilla game outfit redesigns for the Origins companions as I did for Briana Cousland (as opposed to the completely not-based-in-game-graphics-at-all outfits I keep putting Mal in), and the ones for the girls came out well!

Morrigan's top is based on a 16th century German bodice that would normally go on top of several layers, but wearing it loosely laced and by itself feels more in line to me with the spirit of her original look.

I'm having more trouble with the guys since their main looks are just their armor/gear, not clothing.

#ch: morrigan #ch: leliana

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The boy version of this!

Alistair & Zevran were trickier bc their starting gear is armor, so instead I did a little riff on one of the commoner clothing outfits for Alistair and Zevran's outfit is based off the red-orange noble clothing he's in during the post-battle ceremony.

#ch: alistair #ch: zevran

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In the works… because old habits die hard and I like shiny.

#ch: anders

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I’m sending this to Varric so he can use it as his next romance novel cover art 😏

#ch: cassandra pentaghast #ship: inquisitor x cassandra #!!!!

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Completely stealing this summary from Reddit so here's the link to that (new link since original reddit post with this summary was deleted)

'Dragon Age Dreadwolf' was internally planned for a September 2023 release but got pushed back to 2024. Currently it's planned for Summer 2024 at the earliest but could be pushed back even further (likely by the end of next year, but possibly even as late as March 2025, aka the end of EA’s fiscal). Incidentally, the next Mass Effect has been pushed further as well, as some people from the Mass Effect team have been pulled to work on Dragon Age instead. As for EA, they have started to acknowledge internally that Apex Legends, their major money-maker, is on the decline. The live-service hit has historically been able to offset the costs of their other studios, including BioWare On that note, the publisher has also recently restructured its operations. Unlike before, EA Sports is now evaluated separately from their other gaming efforts, which now fall under EA Entertainment. By decoupling FIFA and Madden from the rest, studios like BioWare will now be under more pressure to justify themselves to the publisher and its shareholders. Consequently, BioWare now finds itself in a bottom rung position at EA, making them the most obvious candidate for layoffs. Morale is low, these firings won’t help, and Jeff does not feel optimistic about the studio’s longterm future, particularly if Dreadwolf doesn’t land.

I post this to say this confirms my unfortunate belief that Dragon Age Dreadwolf has to be the best game Bioware has ever done (which frankly isn't gonna happen) and unfortunately kinda has to have the combination of a mass appeal, high quality, and mainstream success Bioware hasn't had in YEARS. And if Dreadwolf doesn't do what it needs to do, well the next Mass Effect can't be guaranteed.

I will say it'll definitely suck if Bioware as a whole ends up going under, but it'll suck hard cause EA caused it with their practice of neutering and changing so much of what made Bioware work as a major gaming company for so long. And now it's such a shell of what it was before this attempt to save it puts so much pressure the team doesn't deserve.

#vg: dreadwolf #this is my main takeaway too #for some reason people take the blame for everything to bioware and stop there #and idk their workplace from manners and tbqh it probably changed a lot over the years #but as someone who's been playing their games for the past 25 years... #the MAJORITY of my bitterness and finger-pointing goes to EA

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im sorry old friend

#ch: solas #ch: flemeth

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For the record I feel like saying "Dreadwolf is going to suck because they laid off Mary Kirby" is like... really dramatically missing the point of what's going on here.

The next game has been in alpha for nearly a year now. Kirby's work on the game as a writer was probably mostly finished. Which does not make this better. If anything, it makes it worse.

The layoffs aren't terrible news because a game we're looking forward to might be worse because of them. They're terrible news because people who have devoted years of blood, sweat, and tears to making the game good (including the person who wrote one of the two characters on which they've been hanging the entire marketing campaign for said game thus far) have been axed now that the company has decided it can probably get by without them.

The quality of the game when it finally comes out is irrelevant here. If it's amazing, it won't make this any better, and if it's awful, it won't make it any worse. What matters is the people whose labor made it exist at all are profoundly undervalued, the industry as a whole is broken and frankly abusive, and I wish everyone in it some good labor organizing.

#vg: dreadwolf #:( :( exactly this

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Finally got around to painting my Inquisitor, Shivana

#pc: lavellan

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Unexpected bard strength! 💪

#ch: leliana #ship: warden x leliana

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hi merrill

#ch: merrill

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Confession: I know the game says I’m not calling you a liar is Varrics theme but to me it fits Anders perfectly especially if romanced. “There’s a ghost in my lungs and it sighs in my sleep wraps itself around my tongue as it softly speaks then it walks with my legs” “And I love you so much, I’m gonna let you kill me”

#ch: anders

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DRAGON AGE: AWAKENING;

the architect.

#ch: the architect

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Nightingale for sir_lancelap(twitter)

#ch: leliana

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Maordrid and Solas for @mogwaei

#ship: inquisitor x solas

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There are a lot of reasons why I dislike the templar path for Carver (CHURCH COPS, WORST COPS) but one is that it just raises so many follow-up character questions that are never answered and it kills me.

How did he feel the first time they designated him to be the kill guy at some kid’s Harrowing? How could he not see Bethany and Hawke in the eyes of every single one of them? Surely he was like “wow this feels kinda fucked up right?”

Plus the constant anxiety of STILL trying to protect the apostates he knows. We know from that cut Cullen dialogue in Inquisition that people were basically scared to bring up Hawke if Carver was around. The more Hawke is a subject of conversation among the templars, the more danger she’s in.

What about the drug addiction that’s been forced on him???? And this isn’t even touching the abuses we know are escalating in the Gallows during this time period.

This Legacy banter with Sebastian is making me go absolutely feral:

I think this is the only time he implies something truly negative about the templars after he’s joined them and I gotta know more, buddy.

#ch: carver hawke #i actually prefer templar!carver (unpopular choice i know) #exactly for these reasons #like yes i recognize that the game doesn't explore this AT ALL #but admittedly my relationship with dragon age games is: 'well this is a very fucked-up thing that goes entirely unaddressed #- let me fill in the gaps myself' #i'm just happy building my own sandcastles out of everything left unsaid by canon

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being a fan of popular characters in media is hilarious cause you’ll see them reduced to a personality trait that they don’t even have. neoflanderization

#this is like.... half of the DA cast #but specifically in my heart it's the amount of purple hawkes vs. any other hawke in the fandom zeitgeist #so many bold posts that are like: hawke would ridicule them / hawke would suplex them / hawke would do this chad based thing #me (plays predominently blue hawkes with social anxiety): couldn't relate less #tag: the portrait of the blogger as a young man