#it won't work Bioware

[championsandheroes]

Oh, Hawke, one day you'll succeed in defeating a big bad villain for good. ("But wait," you say, "What about the Arishok? He died, surely?" Lies and slander. One day Hawke will succeed…)

We are eagerly awaiting the dignified return of the Arishok over at Patreon and society6. He'll be back any day now.

#champions and heroes #Dragon Age 2 #Hawke #Corypheus #Meredith Stannard #no Sten being the new Arishok doesn't count #I want THAT one #the one who used Hawke as a stress toy #don't try to give me a new one and just name him the same thing #it won't work Bioware #it will be just as effective as Hawke is #that is to say it would be a lot of energy wasted for disappointing results

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE VIRMIRE SURVIVOR SURVIVORS

Spectre Ashley Williams & Spectre Kaidan Alenko "Not a lot of other people have had my back since the beginning..." Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

#mira makes gifs ✨ #kaidan alenko #ashley williams #mass effect #mass effect legendary edition #dailygaming #this set has literally been cooking in my project files since before i started priority: mars and i finally figured out how to edit it!! 🥹 #i swear i think i had at least 8-9 different drafts trying to figure out how to organize the video in the frames #i hated like every draft i had bc none of it looked like the picture i had in my head and my original plan was just not gonna work lol #but ya know if bioware and EA won't give my faves any content then i'll do it myself! #and they can tell me only one survives virmire as many times as they want and i will continue to ✨not listen✨ #no one could ever make me choose between them #kaidan alenko and ashley williams you are EVERYTHING #they could NEVER make me hate you #if the world is against y'all then i am against the world

[murmel-malt]

it’s warden time 💙

#my art #dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age fanart #dragon age origins fanart #warden brosca #dragon age dwarves #bioware #grey warden #hero of ferelden #dwarf warden #dwarf commoner origin #when you have the need to make a new warden but EA won't let you play Origins #2 and inquisition work just fine only origins doesn't #i am big mad

[wampiryzm]

im really sad and disappointed by the dragon age day today. i really hope whatever they give us next summer, and that the game itself will be good, or at least decent.

#i really wish i was joking but if after all of this the gane turns out bad i think my heart will actually break #i know this is pathetic but like. this series ks what made me passionate about games. its really important to me #bioware and ea are getting more sbd more shitty and it saddens me. i just hope all the work the employees icluding the people who were let #go will pay off. and thag they will be all compensated appropriately incluging the severance to the ones who were let go #i love this series eith a passion and i just hope whatever they do won't bring its downfall

[jaykingingram]

Well, it seems it's my time to join the chorus. It's been a good ride.

Last week, I was unfortunately laid off by EA. Though I'm optimistic about the future, I'm saddened this is how it ends. I'll miss being BioWare's community manager. Still, I'm not gonna let that get me down.

The past 4y+ of working with BioWare and my time before that on Star Wars were both incredible privileges full of memories I'll cherish forever. Dragon Age in particular holds a special place in my heart for how long I've worked with this team, but every project has been a dream.

Though I'm sad I won't be there at launch, I'm still excited for you all to see this team's work. I believe in BioWare so much and hope you love this game as much as I do.

To my teams, it was a privilege to work with you. To my communities past and present, it's been an honour.

#bioware #dragon age #mass effect

[northern-passage]

just found one of my favorite pieces of writing advice when it comes to interactive fiction, i think if you've read literally any of my work, it will be pretty obvious how much i use this in my own writing. i actually couldn't remember where i read this for the first time and on a whim i went through my twitter likes and found it in a thread. i'm going to transcribe it for ease of reading, but this is all coming from Alexander Freed (@/AlexanderMFreed on twitter)

he has a website here with other compiled writing advice about branching narratives and game design, though he never posted this there and hasn't really updated recently (but still check it out. there's some specific entries about writing romance, branching and linear & other game writing advice)

original twitter thread here

It's Tuesday night and I feel like teaching some of what I've learned in 15 years of branching narrative video game writing. Let's go in-depth about one incredibly specific subject: neutral / fallthrough / catchall response options!

Player ownership of the protagonist in choice-based branching narrative games (a la BioWare, Telltale, mobile narrative games, etc) is a vital aspect of the form.

The ability for the audience to shape a Player Character, to develop that character's inner life in their own mind, is unmatched in any other medium.

The Player determines the character's actions and THE MOTIVATIONS for those actions. The character's psychology can literally be as complex as the Player can imagine. However, this works best when there's enough space for the Player to develop those motivations. No game can offer enough options to support every interpretation imaginable; much of the character has to live in the Player's head, without necessarily appearing on the screen.

That's complicated. We're going to unpack it.

Generally, when presenting choices to a Player, we want those choices to be as interesting and compelling as possible.

But compelling, dramatic choices tend to be revealing of character. And no game can support hundreds of options at every choice point for every possible character motivation a Player might imagine.

This sort of narrative CANNOT maintain its integrity if the Player is forced to constantly "rewrite" their characterization of the Player Character on the fly. You want your Player to feel like they have more than enough viable options at any given moment.

At the simplest level of writing, this is where "fallthrough" responses come in.

In the examples above, each moment contains a response which furthers the story but doesn't imply a huge emotional choice for the Player. The Player is asked to choose A or B, agree or disagree, but can sidestep the issue altogether if desired.

These "neutral" responses are vital if both A and B don't appeal to the Player... or if, perhaps, the Player likes A but not the WAY A is being expressed. Milquetoast option C works for anyone; thus, the Player is never forced to break character because of a lack of options.

Questions work well for this sort of neutral option. Tacit agreement and dead silence also serve, in certain sorts of stories--as a Player, I know what's going on in my silent character's head and the game won't contradict it.

The important thing is that I'm never forced to take a path that's outright WRONG for my character. Even if other characters misinterpret the Player Character's motivation, my character's inner life remains internally consistent.

"Neutral" responses aren't the only ways to go, though. Some responses are appropriate for any character because they're tied to the base character concept.

Here, for example (from @/seankmckeever's X-Files), the Player is a marine on a mission. The Player can respond abrasively to her partner's fear or look into the issue (out of compassion or genuine belief), but our fallthrough is actually the TOP response.

There's no version of our marine who would absolutely break character by picking "Stay calm and on mission." It's not blandly neutral; rather, it reinforces aspects of the character we can be sure of and gives the Player an option if nothing else works.

Different sorts of narratives will use different sorts of fallthroughs. A comedy might treat the option to say something funny as a fallthrough, of sorts--it's entertaining and will never violate the characterization the Player has created.

In a quest-driven RPG, a fallthrough response can often boil down to "How do I move to the next step of this quest?"

That said, the strongest moments in a narrative will often have no "fallthrough" response at all. They'll work by creating multiple responses that, by overlapping, cover all reasonable Player Character actions while still leaving room for the Player to ascribe motivation.

#cataloguing this before twitter explodes LOL #only thing i changed was the 'Player' pronouns because :-) #this was so fucking frustrating to do the tumblr post editor fucking sucks ass and kept breaking with every picture i added #i did add img descriptions... i did my best #also i cannot believe this is the guy that wrote the rogue one novelization #one of the best star wars books hands down #umm anyways #writing #interactive fiction

[askagamedev]

a lot of people are probably asking you this, but if they aren't... do you have any clue what's going on with bioware? first moving swtor to another studio, which seems like it can be both a good or a bad thing, and now they're laying off 50 more people? studio veterans included?

this just seems like a very weird move to me, if not outright shitty. i want to believe in bioware, i love their games, no matter how flawed they are, but in the three years i've been familiar with them, things seem to be getting worse and worse. i know that DAD is in alpha so probably this layoff won't affect its quality too much, but again, that looks like a terrible move towards the employees themselves and the studio's more distant future.

Bioware is basically following the publisher mandate. In March of this year, EA declared that they were going to cut roughly 6% of their workforce (~800 layoffs) to lower costs, likely because they (like many tech companies) over-hired during the pandemic and need to correct the burn rate to appease their shareholders. These 50 devs being cut are Bioware's unfortunate sacrifice to the layoff declaration. As to whom and why, I suspect it is a combination of things.

Bioware probably had some kind of incubation team working on a secret new project that wasn't a sequel to an existing current franchise. I know that they would often have one or two such teams going at any given time - Anthem was one such project, as was the short-lived Shadow Realms project. New projects like that are much riskier than franchise sequels, so it is likely that the publisher decided that the risk moving forward was too high and they cancelled the experimental projects in favor of focusing on their established brands (Mass Effect and Dragon Age).

It is also likely that some of the long-term veterans are quite expensive to keep - they have high salaries and have been around long enough to collect on many of the big benefits EA offers, like sabbatical leave and the like. There's also the real possibility that there could be some bad blood or major creative differences between the current studio leadership and some of those veterans that were let go.

My heart goes out to those affected and I really do hope they land on their feet. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that employers never deserve any more loyalty than they're willing to give their employees. The employer will never choose an employee over its own survival, so we as workers should expect to do the same for ourselves. I never consider long tenure at an employer to be worth much when it comes to the business decisions, because I know how little it is worth when all is said and done. Business gonna business.

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#the business of video games #financial things #layoffs #warts and all #working in the game industry

[notebooks-and-laptops]

I think it's kinda funny that DAI managed to work into it's core themes the fact that the inquisitors character/choices are basically meaningless as they barrel forward into becoming a legend and said legend runs away from them. Because. It kinda. Means they get a get out of jail free card for making a RPG where few choices you really make matter. Because that's kinda the point? You're just a figure head who can't control how people see you or remember you just like the first inquisitor. But also. This worked just barely for this one game and I really hope that bioware don't think they can pull that shit in DA:D because it just won't fly a second time or if the theming is different. Like I can live with and enjoy dai despite it being worse in many regards to da2 and dao because it being bad at certain things kinda sometimes fits with it's overarching themes? But also don't pull that shit again it's shady. U feel?

#dai #dragon age

[dragonageconfessions]

Reminder

Please do not send me links to clickbait youtubers. I won't be posting them.

The majority of those sites take everything they read and hear out of context and some of what they post is often libelous. And they do not only do it to Bioware. This has happened to other game companies too. These clickbait youtubers sole purpose is to cash on fandom negativity, panic, etc among the more negative fans who enjoy assuming the worst. These youtubers only care to profit on the toxicity of the fandom. I refuse to contribute to that.

And since having done this blog for a long time I've come to see that there are many fans who can't seem to understand that there is a difference between true criticism of greedy corporations and trashing a developers' hard work not to mention having no understanding of how games development cycle works.

Awhile back John Epler tweeted that he played Dreadwolf in front of the staff. The game is coming. And that's enough for me. I'll make my judgment known AFTER I play the game.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. -SMC

#Dragon Age Confessions #Mod Note #da fandom critical

[felassan]

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from some older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube videos where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago. (The source of each snippet is linked after each point.)

"I would be incredibly surprised if we did see Desire Demons [in future games], but possibly. I saw some updated concept art." [source]

Chat asked "Do you think we are going to be able to spend points on attributes again in DA4 or nah?" and Mark replied "I don't know if they'll do attribute points, I suspect not...?" [source]

Chat asked "Do you think DA4 would be able to read DA:I saves since they're both using Frostbite?" and Mark replied "Oh, it doesn't matter, the reading the save games is nothing to do with Frostbite. The reason why Inquisition uses the Keep instead of save game reading is because of cross-generational stuff, we didn't want people locked to a platform. So I think it's quite possible that DA4 will use the Keep. I don't think they'll do save game reading, because the Keep exists already". Chat followed up, "I wonder if DA:I was made to even create plot flag data at all, what with the Keep already being a cross-game option" and Mark said "DA:I does store plot-flags in their save games, but yes, the intention was always to store them in the Keep, not to mine them out of save games". [source]

Chat asked "Would Oghren be done differently today?" Mark replied, "I do think Oghren would be done differently. He either needs to be more serious, as he's always treating his trauma with alcohol, or he needs to be somehow made more comedic. But I don't know that BioWare would make a character like Oghren again". [source]

They won't drop the name Dragon Age even if they switch in-world ages. Chat asked "DA5 should wrap up the Dragon Age series, and then any new game should be set centuries ahead of the Dragon Age". Mark replied "I mean if you wanted a massive reboot you could set it a long time in the future, have a new Dragon Age, that they've called it that for some reason, but I don't think there's a need for that." [source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length.

One of the reasons why Dragon Age hasn't kept the same protagonist and has moved around the world a lot is because DA:O wasn't originally really intended to have a sequel, so it leaves a lot of dangling things depending on the choices you make (different rulers, many different states for some characters like Alistair, etc) [source]

What happened to Dragon Age Journeys? Facebook gaming died [source]

Game of Thrones was floating around in the studio during the time of the development of Baldur's Gate 2. "I do think it was at least consulted, it was read. What GoT did to fantasy in its moment was sort've show you could have a bit more politics, a bit more human-human conflict" [source]

On a hypothetical DA:O remaster: Tech-wise, there aren't that many people who know how to work with the engine, although it's a relatively simple engine. If they used a different engine it wouldn't be a remaster but a remake. For a remaster, you'd keep the same engine and turn the knobs as far as they could go, which would limit how far you could take it. Chat said "the Aurora [DA:O] engine isn't really being maintained, there's nothing to actually remaster there" and Mark replied "the code exists, it's in EA's repositories, you could get it running, updated DirectX version, remaster all the textures, you could do that" [source]

On this he also said "it's not gonna happen unless they can get the money from EA to do it as an external project and bring in external people, because otherwise you're just taking people from other things. Or unless EA suddenly decides that BioWare can hire 50 people, which seems...". "If you took something like Mass Effect and updated its Unreal version, that would be a massive amount of work just to do that. You don't really get anything for just doing that, particularly. You might be able to have it run at a higher resolution" [source]

The fact that MELE actually did well means that the chance of a remaster for DA is significantly higher than it was before. But EA doesn't like spending money. The devs had been trying to do a ME remaster since shortly after the last gen started, so basically since 2014 [source]

If they ever did a remaster of DA:O you would definitely see an improvement in textures on the consoles, even if you did nothing else, simply by including the "things that already exist" (as the original 360 version had its textures smooshed down from hi-res). DA:I you could make look better just by turning the knobs up further, as most of its stuff is already authored at higher resolutions [source]

Chat asked "'This might be better answered in a video, but what are your thoughts on remakes?''. Mark replied "I think it really depends on the game, some games are very much a product of their moment so they don't, a remake is always gonna fall a little flat. Remaster, you're just kind've re-establishing that. I think you can remaster anything. Remakes, some things should just be allowed to be a product of their time" [source]

Chat asked "Was there ever interest in making games like Diamondback and Wicked Grace playable minigames like Lodestone in Fable or Gwent for example?" There was a design for a dwarven chess game that the devs were thinking about doing for DA:I, "but no, time is time". Mark thinks that they may have had the rules for Wicked Grace at one point but "I don't know that there was ever much desire for it" [source]

The art direction in DAII is much more intentional than it was in DA:O. In DA:O and other fantasy games from that time period, it wasn't very intentional, and was more just 'generic English countryside from a certain time period' [source]

Chat commented about wanting a Dragon Age MMO in future. Mark replied "I don't think you're gonna see a Dragon Age MMO. MMOs are incredibly expensive to create and maintain. It was very interesting to watch Bethesda make an MMO of Elder Scrolls and make pretty much the same statements and mistakes as were made on SW:TOR just years later" [source]

Chat commented about wanting a Dragon Age RTS game in future. Mark replied "You could certainly see, especially like a DA:O RTS, but there aren't as many RTS devs around as there were once upon a time." When chat mentioned that a Mass Effect RTS could succeed, he added "I think if you were gonna do a Mass Effect RTS you'd definitely want space combat to be part of the game" [source]

Chat asked "What DA game would you remake?" Mark replied "I don't know, that's hard to say, some of the older ones are too a product of their time to easily be remade" [source]

Chat asked "How complex was Origins to make in terms of gameplay?" Mark replied, "I'm not sure what you're asking in terms of complexity of gameplay, it's a very long game with a lot of abilities. The underlying rules are not, it's not as intricate in terms of individual bits of balance as something like a shooter, lootershooter or fighting game is. RPGs are more about, sort've piling enough stuff on it so that it kind've gets balanced through volume as opposed to balanced through individual bits of, through the actual core mechanic. Honestly one of the issues with Anthem is that I think that a lot of the people on the team weren't familiar with that style of development, and so the inner most core of that game isn't tuned to the same degree that potentially a shooter company like Bungee would do" [source]

"Lyrium [potions] restore mana, I think. Which we have never explained"

Chat asked "Why are party members auto-levelled to the same level as the party/main character when you get them in Origins? I.e. in Knights of the Old Republic they were always level 6." Mark replied "the reason they're odd levelled is exactly because of KOTOR. If they're not odd levelled, what was happening was a lot of people just never levelled them up, so you ended up taking a character and they were Level 6 and they just died [source]

"The Leliana thing [Leliana coming back in DA:I if she was killed in DA:O], it's pretty weak but an explanation was given. A lot of the other ones are.. not even bothered to be given" [source]

On-screen Leliana had dialogue telling the Chantry's version of the story of how the Golden City became Black and the Magisters released the Taint. "I don't think the Chantry is lying so much as applying an argument on top of something they don't really understand" [source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #longpost #long post #mass effect #alistair theirin #fav warden #sw:tor #anthem #alcohol cw

[exhausted-archivist]

Concept Art Moments and Ideas: What I Wish Was Kept

Pretty sure we've all been there. Seen some of the concept art and thought how cool it was and how much you wish it had made it in the final game. These are some of mine, I won't go too much into why they're not in the game, the answer is usually either one of the following or a combination of: they needed to narrow the scope of the project, frostbite was a new engine they were struggling to make do what they needed, time, they didn't feel it had enough narrative weight or purpose, or it would make the world states branch out far too much.

I'm not really wanting to discuss whether or not I agree with cutting them either. I just really think these are neat concept, ones I've thought out how they would fold in, possible ways they could have played out, and some that personally I have worked into my fic just to fully explore the ideas.

Most of the images that don't have a source link came from either the art book or the BioWare Stories and Secrets From 25 Years of Game Development (B25) book.

Now lets start with the most common one:

[Source]

I'm know others have said this, but I really wish that it had been feasible for you to become Divine. Though, honestly this only would have really worked as decision at the end of the series. While personally in my canon world state I don't have anyone I would want to put in that role. I do have an OC who I did design for that and would have been nice to see it play out. Especially come Trespasser.

These are story boards from the art book of the prologue walk through Haven. The voice lines for this are still in the game files even though they're cut. Something I always wanted in the prologue was something to actually motivate me. There is no real sense of danger, and the walk through Haven hold no real weight. It's mostly telling and no showing, it feels hollow after your first play-through where you aren't curious and uncertain. It honestly would have been interesting to me if this was in there and if there were non-standard ending option outside of combat. Provoking the scared survivors to where they mob you, a timer on the mark instead of just the one check point. If it started draining your health the longer you took to get to the Breach. Things that could easily be removed if you decreased the difficulty level and wouldn't impact the game overly much.

[Left Dragon Age Art Book, Right World of Thedas vol. 2 p. 245]

To continue on with my desire for the steaks in Inquisition to be more intense, for you to actually feel some type of risk or hostility from the world. These two are more of an expansion on the attack on Haven. I wish Corypheus was given a more dramatic entrance than being seen on the hill with his Commander. That when he arrived to scoop you up, that it was more ominous and threatening. Something to illustrate as him having this overwhelming presence and force.

In Hushed Whispers had the concept art of King Alistair going with you and honestly, I feel like it is a missed opportunity. Not only would it make sense but there is a sort of thematic element with Alistair once again having to save Redcliffe from a mage. I think this also could have worked if he was king or warden. If he was a warden, it would have been a very nice way to tie in the Warden plot for Alistair and even Loghain. Would have really given the Inquisitor a reason to care about choosing between them or Hawke in the Fade.

[Source]

Matt Rhodes labeled this as Anders in the tags, and I am really intrigued by this prospect. We know by the end of DA2 if he's alive he doesn't have many friends with the displaced mages of Kirkwall after awhile. It would have been nice for him to come back in that Warden role they were considering for the cancelled Exalted March DLC. But what really makes me curious, is why he's out in what we might think is the Western Approach/Hissing Wastes and what happened to his missing right arm.

Alternatively, another scenario I would have liked to see with Anders comes from the B25 book. We see they explored the idea of Anders, as a Grey Warden in the cancelled Exalted March DLC. Honestly, I feel as if he would return regardless of if you killed him or not because we know that Justice can and has prevented fatal injuries from killing Anders before. This could have been an interesting thread to not only pull his story to an end in dai, but also introduce the Warden contact instead of the ones we had. Because he was on the run and the Wardens would offer a degree of protection so he would be unwillingly forced to return, couple that with him knowing of Corypheus - which would likely be the thing that forced the Wardens to keep him alive once they found his prison empty.

[Source]

This is Western Approach concept art, specifically this was suppose to be Adamant. Matt Rhodes describes that it was suppose to be a monastery, self-sustaining, and a place where they could cultivate their own food, weave their own fabrics. It would have been interesting to be able to see it like this, to see the game use this to not only explore how the Wardens survived out here but also how they recovered the fortress after it was wrecked in Asunder. It would have tied in nicely with exploring the fact that the reversal of Tranquility was found here, a fact known to everyone in game at this point (they just didn't know the Seekers hid it from the Chantry and mages). It would have been an excellent way to fold in Rhys, Evangeline, flesh out Cole's backstory and personal quest, and even show another side of the mages - the ones who didn't want to be involved in the war and fled to the Wardens.

Two Words: Giant. Scorpion.

Look how massive that is. I love mega fauna so much. I want something massive to be living in the Hissing Wastes and I want this to be fighting dragons. It would have been amazing. Look at the boards they put out.

[Source]

I want to believe this is for the Western Approach given the ground type and the smoke in the background. If this thing was guarding the sulfur fields by Griffon Keep? It would have been epic. Or even if we saw it fighting the Abyssal dragon. Honestly, I think more areas should have had a competing predator for the dragons to be fighting. It would have been cooler if they kept great bears (previously known as Dragon Bears) at their massive size to fight a dragon in the Emerald Graves too.

[Source]

That said, this scorpion concept gets even better when you see the concept art for smaller versions being Venatori mounts.

How do you not get stabbed bud? How do you domesticate/train this? What is the intelligence of this little critter? I can just picture a play on the scorpion and the frog happening here. This would have been really cool as mini-bosses or something of that nature. Particularly around the ruins, Venatori operations, or raids against the keeps.

Another piece from B25, we see new concept art of the Inquisitor leaving Skyhold with the Inquisition as Skyhold is destroyed in the background. We learned from David Gaider that at one point Skyhold was actually suppose to be attacked by Corypheus, but it ended up being cut due to time/scope. This is something I wish they kept, having your second base attack, you home at the point where you felt the strongest and potentially after a recent victory.

It would have reminded the player that Corypheus and his commander, Calpernia or Samson, were a real and active threat. Something missing from Inquisition honestly. It would have been interesting to see if we had to find a new base of operations or if we had to rebuild. When first settling in Skyhold everyone mentions being able to see the enemy coming, about not retreating from Skyhold. They really built up an expectation that at the very least a scare of an attack would happen.

There would have been a sort of poetic sense to Skyhold being leveled. Considering it is of Fereldan make, built on top of a leveled elven site. To have the site once again leveled, the history brought back to its foundations. It would have been a thematic foreshadowing to what Solas plans to do as well.

These are clearly just things I found interesting, things I feel would have really added to the game, and some others might not agree with. There are other things I wish they hadn't cut, but I didn't want to include anything that has been post-humorously mentioned by the devs because I wanted to focus more on the concept art aspect. A lot of decisions were shaped by circumstances we'll never really know the full scope of, and sometimes I wonder if they had gotten more than the 3-4 years they had for Inquisition and maybe on an engine that wasn't so fickle and worked better for the style of game how different it would have been.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #dragon age concept art #cw insect #cw scorpion #cw blood #wishlist of my heart #what could have been #long post #archi is yelling into the void

[kaija-rayne-author]

It's so sad. Bioware has been a staple, almost, of RPGs for a long time.

But them laying off so many people (it's 125ish over the past handful of months) really doesn't increase confidence in the company.

Even though DA:DW is in Alpha, it's going to affect how many people buy the game. Because they'll think that many layoffs will affect the quality of the game. Average people have little idea about how games are made. Alpha means it's in primary testing, meaning the game is mostly finished.

Could they have shot themselves in the foot better if they'd tried?

Fans are pissed and swearing they're done with Bioware.

A lot of fans.

And I have a Kassandra like feeling that DA:DW is Bioware's last chance as a company.

So, their behavior toward employees = loss of consumer confidence = fewer people buy Dreadwolf = Bioware sinks and we don't get any more Dragon Age after DA:DW.

Don't execs have business degrees and such?

If so, why is my ridiculous ass better at cause/effect for economics and business than they are? I've never even taken a business class.

What exactly do the execs do to earn those obscene paychecks?

Anyway, I really think it comes down to this; if we want more Dragon Age past Dreadwolf, we'll have to ignore Bioware's behavior and buy the game regardless.

And... I don't know how many people will do that. I don't even want to do that. I've boycotted companies for far less.

Edit Saturday Aug 26, '23

I need to add some thoughts to this.

Unfortunately, negative chatter will likely affect whether they release the game at all. Which sucks for people who do want it. (It's rhetorical, but it’s almost finished, why wouldn't they release it?)

I've read that Andromeda DLCs were canceled because of that. I won't be boycotting. I'm unhappy with bioware, but there's much more to consider.

For me, I've been thinking and reading what those laid off have said. It's them that are most affected, after all. It's not about bioware as much as it's about the people who no longer work there who poured years of time, love, and passion into Dreadwolf.

I don't like bioware, but at the same time, I refuse to shat on the creatives who loved and made Dreadwolf. I know, personally, how much of yourself you pour into a creative work. I'd be heartbroken if people boycotted something I'd worked on and truly loved. Even if I were no longer working at the company. I believe the devs can't even talk about it, unless/until it's released due to NDAs. Can you imagine putting years of your life and creativity into something only to have people boycott it?

And to use your status at the company as the excuse?

Kirby has said she hopes people love it as much as she does. She's one of the most affected and she's still hoping people play and love it.

And to be calmly realistic, Bioware isn't the main source of the issue. EA demanded a layoff of 800 people across all their holdings. Corporate greed. I doubt bioware would've made such awful choices without that pressure.

So even though my kneejerk reaction is to boycott, I'll buy it and play it for the creatives who poured everything into it.

Is it right? Hell no. There's no ethical consumption in a late stage capitalist nightmare world. But I'm also not going to punish the people who loved it enough to make it.

Y'all do you, but I wanted to share my more measured thoughts on the matter.

#dragon age series #dragon age #Bioware #dragon age: dreadwolf #dread wolf #solas #solavellan

[murfeelee]

BG3 INSP: Escape the Nautiloid

Githyanki Woman: Abomination! This is your end! Narrator: Your head throbs and your skin tingles. Visions run past: a dragon's wing, a silver sword--and a flash of your face seen through the strange woman's eyes. Githyanki Woman: Ugh, my head! What is this? Tsk'va! You are no thrall? Vlaakith blesses me this day! Together, we might survive. Imps block the path forward. You will assist me in destroying them--we must reach the helm before we transform. Ryuu: Transform? What do you mean? Githyanki Woman: We carry Mind Flayer parasites! Unless we escape--unless we are cleansed--our bodies and minds will be tainted and twisted. Within days we will be ghaik: Mind Flayers! Ryuu: We are turning into Illithid? There must be something we can do! Githyanki Woman: We can do nothing until we escape--that must be our priority. Ryuu: I am Ryuu; who are you? Lae'zel: Who am I? Your only chance of survival, Lae'zel. Ryuu: Is the helm our way out of here? Lae'zel: It is where we might gain control of the gh'ath--this Nautiloid ship. Once in command, we will deal with our ghaik captors. We will address the matter of a cure for this infection once we reach the Material Plane. Ryuu: Onward then. The ship won't be able to take another dragon attack. We need to get out before it's too late.

-- Baldur's Gate 3

MY THOUGHTS (mini rant) & CC CREDITS

MY THOUGHTS

Unpopular opinion, but I LOVE Lae'zel. She's my favorite character in the whole game (EASY #2's my daughter Karlach 🥰). People say Lae'zel's hella mean, but I like her whole melting the ice queen shtick.

My biggest complaint about BG3 is that most of the companions are way too irrelevant--other than Halsin, Lae'zel's the only one closely tied to the actual frikkin plot (unless you count that annoying wench Shadowheart blabbing about Lady Shar all frikkin day. I haven't dealt with her & the Nightsong yet). I was with Lae the whole time: get these nasty AF parasites out of my frikkin body RIGHT NOW. 🤮 To the creche! (Then we got to the creche and I was like jfc. 👀💀)

And her going on & on about Queen Vlaakith was way more interesting than Shadowheart with Lady Shar & her whole amnesia excuse (plus I just don't like her, so.... XD).

The Githyanki were giving me strong Qunari vibes from Dragon Age--but that's not surprising, since Bioware made the first two Baldur's Gate games & DA likely lifted at lot from D&D. Lae's kinda like a way more intense Sten or Iron Bull? And both the Gith & the Qun have dragon-obsessed cultures; these are my people. 💪😤

CC CREDITS

- Midnight Hollow lighting mod

- Tank pose w/ 75% OMSP resizer

- Skyrim dragon by me

- Fireextinguisherfailfx is a GREAT Fog Emitter fire-breathing effect, which I realized when I had Ryuu detonate the parasite pool, and the explosion set sim!Lae'zel on frikkin fire! That orange burst when the extinguisher fails is just perfect.

I was dying when Ryuu just STOOD there while she did all the work putting out the fires, after I told him to put out the fire FIRST! Typical; Dark Urges can't be bothered helping people, I guess. XD

Fortunately for sim!Lae, there was a nifty Restoration Station nearby where she could wash all the soot off:

- Lae outfit from Dragon Valley, boots & bracers at TSR

- Ryuu Dragon Age staff acc by @greenplumbboblover

#sims 3 baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 #mini rant #sims 3 sakura avatar gameplay #sims 3 gameplay #sims 3 wips #dragons #did i mention dragons #Dungeons and Dragons

[amexhaustedthanksforasking]

No but like, I love just how tragic Dragon Age elves are. Yeah, yeah, it's a subversion of the usual elven interpretations of the graceful, fae-like species — BUT IT'S ALSO NOT!

They WERE like that thousands of years ago. They had a thriving, beautiful civilization where they were treated fairly, with decent gods, where they could live happily. Right?

That's also not true. Elvhenan was just as flawed, if not more, than the current Thedas of the games. Slavery was still there, so many social injustices, and the very vallaslin they wear in worship of their deities were the binding blood tattoos of said slaves.

But the Dalish have also reclaimed vallaslin, however unintentionally, into not only something to worship their deities, but a symbol of their fight, their people, who they are. Thing is, Dalish aren't exactly looked upon kindly — they're considered feral, savage, or just rumors. Myth. Any elf in the city is treated as lesser by the larger populace, and the Dalish are scrambling to discover/recover an ancient history they'll never understand without help from those in that ancient history. Long after Elvhenan fall, they're still looking for the last remnants of a home no one remembers.

Then, THEN, someone from that time reawakens after a millenia. Old, tired, worn, the one who felled the very gods they worship. Turns out he isn't the worst of them, far from it, but not worthy of worship either

That's good, though. Right? Surely he'll see the injustice brought upon them and hel-

Oh, wait, his goal to bring back the world he destroyed will result in the deaths of this current world? He considers everyone in this world a mistake, the elves nothing more than a reflection's reflection of the people he lost. Lesser. Stupid. Wild. Funny coming from a wolf, isn't it

The death of these people is only an inconvenience, like breaking a few eggs-

I know which egg I want to break

-or maybe the Inquisitor makes him think "Oh shit oh no, these are people too." That doesn't stop him, though. He's still going to tear down the Veil, probably resulting in the deaths of a significant portion of the population, if not everyone. Maybe he won't succeed in the future, I don't fucking know how DA4 is going to go down, but he's got elves from all over leaving to assist him.

If he's open about what he's doing the Dread Wolf doesn't lie, he misdirects, he evades, he poisons his tongue with honey, but he doesn't lie then that means these elves would prefer probably DYING. If he's not open about it, then they're being tricked. Played for a fool. Either way they lose.

The Dalish fought tooth and nail for their freedom, for the chance to find a new home and recover their culture and history long buried. They get a lot wrong, but fuck you, it's theirs, they've reclaimed it FUCK OFF SOLAS DON'T LOOK DOWN ON THEM FOR THIS, THEY'RE GOING TO BE ANNOYED IF YOU TELL THEM "hey you're wrong about the history you've work tirelessly to discover and maintain lol" AND LOOK DOWN ON THEM BECAUSE OF THEIR MISINTERPRETATION! Dumb fucking egg oml

Anyway I love the elves in Dragon Age and I love the tragedy of everything, but maybe slow down on that Bioware?? My heart can only take so much

#dragon age #dragon age origins #dragon age 2 #dragon age inquisition #solas #inherent tragedy of the elves in dragon age #i think this devolved into a fuck you solas rant #which i mean #he deserves it #fen'harel #imma crack his skull open and cook it over a fire #im thinking scrambled #add a bit of milk and salt #fuck solas (not in the fun way) #maybe this isnt a tragedy so much as me just looking at something depressing and saying “oh fuck yeah thats mine now”

[deadletterpoets]

I've played Dragon Age and Mass Effect since they were released. I consider myself a pretty big fan of both series. I am not involved too much in either fandom for reasons (they don't want me anymore), but it's interesting seeing the difference from Bioware in how they interact and attempt to hype up the fandom these days.

I won't necessarily say Mass Effect is being given the favorite child treatment it definitely feels like there's a much bigger attempt to appease that fandom (it isn't working as well as they probably think, but it's an attempt) and get them talking about what might happen next compared to the Dragon Age fandom.

Which frankly is weird since Dreadwolf is supposed to be coming out (multiple times over) within the next couple years while we still have at least 4-5 (up to as high as 9 apparently) before the next Mass Effect game. So while placating the ME fandom makes sense, you'd think the real ppl Bioware would be attempting to give a shit about their next game would be the DA fans, especially after Baldur's Gate 3 is raising expectations of what a modern RPG can do. Especially after Bioware news of so many devs being laid off and Bioware not giving them pay, using the excuse of Dreadwolf being the reason they won't pay them.

The Mass Effect fandom is holding itself together after the Legendary Edition released and so many N7 day teasers, but the DA fandom is barely coherent at the level of giving a fuck past whatever character/game (usually Origins) they consider great. The apathy towards Dreadwolf is gonna kill it more than anything else.

Summer 2024 is a gonna be a real wake up call for Bioware and whether it'll be a good or bad thing remains to be seen.

#dragon age #dragon age dreadwolf #mass effect #bioware

[mightymizora]

Mighty Mizora Masterlist

Redoing this to be a pinned post!

I'm Mighty Mizora, also known as Harding or Harding Hightown. I am a fandom old who mostly writes stuff. She/they.

Over 18s please. I'm generally quite welcoming, I hope, and welcome anons, but I won't be baited into fandom nonsense. I've been involved in far too much.

On the subject of that - no, I don't like or defend Mizora. I just thought it was a cool name, and her design is pretty cool.

Currently mostly BG3, sometimes other Larian, Bioware, Obsidian stuff. It's pretty much all videogames here folks. If there's a short woman topping a sad looking man, it's probably my doing.

OCs

I write about my OCs unapologetically. My BG3 girls are The Great Glimmergris, a Deep Gnome Bard who romances Gale, and Manva Warhelm, a Dwarven Monk, who is involved with Lae'zel, Minthara, and Gortash. You can find non-BG3 OCs in my fics on Ao3.

Written stuff

You can find me on Ao3 at HardingHightown. Stuff varies from cute dialog heavy scenes to much heavier character studies so please, take the ratings seriously!

Current projects include:

A bunch of Dark Urge/Gortash stuff collected under the series A Jewelled and Bloody Hand.

Some Wyll and Karlach stuff, which is growing

A Jaheira/Halsin fic, because everybody needs to get on this ship

An ongoing Gale/Tav fic with my Deep Gnome Bard, called Breath and Rosewater

Other things

On the subject of the bard nonsense, I also write in-universe bard songs. All of these are fine to use in your own works with appropriate credit and link back to me, they're a little gift into the fandom.

I write very silly meta and don't tag it, because I'm much more interested in throwing bits into the ocean.

I take fic requests, but they may take a bit of time.

And I love gnomes, dwarves, halflings, orlans. I am a big ol' defender of the short folk across the board. If you are too, let's be friends!