#what do you take me for bioware?!

[ladylannisterxo]

the "you don't fit the inquisition" option for sera is so stupid. why is it there at all? why is she the only companion it pops up for? why is it so easy to accidentally select? like if i didn't want her here, i would have said no when she wanted to join from the jump 🙄

#yes this stems from the fact that i accidentally selected it and then suffered a mini panic attack #thank GOD you can still change your mind if you choose it #was about to fully reload after not having saved for awhile if that's what it took #can't ask sera to LEAVE #what do you take me for bioware?! #sera #dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #'s' speaks

[sun-marie]

BG3 has two of the most thoughtful, unapologetic, no holds barred depictions of men with abusive female partners I've every seen (Wyll + Mizora and Gale + Mystra), which is so rare to see in any media but especially video games, and some of the Larian writers seem determined to convince me it was 100% by accident

#and like with mystra they even managed to do it without demonizing women as a whole!! #like wow if I could believe y'all did that on purpose I'd be impressed! #i know mizora isn't technically wyll's partner but you know what I mean #imo larian is running into a similar trap bioware has fallen into #where they are waaayyyy too present in their fan communities #bc like nearly everything the writers said about the game recently has made me go :/ #and I think a large part of what they're doing is trying to appeal to a specific and very weird part of their fanbase #i'm conflicted bc on one hand i'd love to get a patch to give some of the underwritten companions more content #but on the other hand I like what we have and really *really* don't want them to change/take it #bg3 #wyll ravengard #gale of waterdeep #marie speaks

[misspickman]

My unpopular bg3 opinion is they tried way too hard to make some of these characters mean and flippant which is meant to make the player more interested in them and clearly this has worked on many (good for you !) but personally i could not care less. If 80% of what a character has to say to me is bitchy i will simply leave them at camp for most of the game

#Is this a skill issue of mine yeah maybe. I just find it annoying #At best and off-putting at worst like is there no better way to show that shadowheart is going through stuff/have her be mean that isnt #Her getting pissy that you have respect for a bunch of dead slaves #That was wild. I didnt ask her either she just had the need to let me know she thinks these slaves aint shit bc they didnt fight back #Thanks larian! #Wild take maybe idk but i dont think that makes her interesting i think it makes her off-putting. In this case #I generally like shadowheart this just sure is a thing to have her say. And not give the player an option to respond in any way #Ill get over this single line but im mad now. This isn't the only instance of this #I guess both larian and bioware think that characters thinking slavery is kinda ok is not a deal breaker #Txt #I know that these characters soften during the game. I have played a fair amount of it. I did shadowhearts quest i know whats up. Still #In both her and astarions case i think theyre written to have some wild takes on whats Ok to do that get kinda swept under the rug #if you manage to shove them in a Good direction. But u dont. Actively see them grapple with any of it #They just suddenly go wow im better now. Yay. I suddenly dont want to enslave other people for my power (in astarions case) #Like this switch flipped bc of my one roll? Idk. Im not super convinced #I know this is how the game works. I just think it could have been written better

[came-out-of-the-coffin-desisted]

writing dragon age fanfiction is so so so so hard for me because every time i spot another historical inaccuracy that’s like “i don’t care that it’s fantasy they have the same level of technology this is WRONG” i have to have a moment of like. “kaed NO ONE ELSE will EVER care about this. you watch ‘ranking period dramas on corset accuracy both in construction and writing’ videos on youtube for entertainment normal people simply do not give a FUCK about medieval castle layouts!”

and yet this cycle continues, because the dragon age devs so so so so clearly DID research but they did BAD research and it HAUNTS me. like WHYYYYY is there only one courtyard that isn’t even really a courtyard in castle cousland WHY is the “main hall” huge with no furniture while the great hall “dining room” is tiny as fuck and in a horrible to access spot WHY are there no ovens in the kitchens where the FUCK do they bake the breaaaad!! like ok fine cool servants get beds in thedas i’ll bite. that fucks hard, actually! but WHY are there more servant rooms than rooms for visiting nobles do you honestly think anybody in the middle ages fucking had servant rooms???? they slept on the FLOOR in the GREAT HALL! and WHY is there a fucking library and a ‘treasury’ (which what the fuck is THAT there should be a DON-JON in there you locked your valuables in the TOWER at the TOP, not in ONE room centrally located on the first floor with TWO guards!!) like i KNOW it was for level design i KNOW it was but oh my fucking g-d it’s gonna KILL ME to write out creeping through corridors when there WERE NO CORRIDORS! like look at this. look at this.

castle cousland: stupid, awful design, honestly they kinda asked to be coup’ed with their garbage unsurvivable castle that supposedly nobody sieges regularly even though it’s literally a death trap. there is ONE main exit, no way to trap your enemies, and only one official guard post that i can see. fuck awful.

harlech castle in wales: it took 115 years for someone to successfully take this castle, and it’s withstood COUNTLESS sieges, you can go visit it right the hell now if you go to wales (not at all getting into the evilness of the english building castles in wales, that’s not the point i’m trying to make.) see how the outside makes it so that even if your enemies breach the walls, to actually reach anyone important they have to survive the volleys of arrows from the ramparts? and then presumably kill everyone ON the ramparts, or the minute you go to open a door or try to drag someone out, you’re going to get shot full of arrows. that’s after breaching TWO heavy doors (which would require a battering ram both times) which would wake up the entire castle LONG before they got anywhere NEAR the heir to the castle’s wife and child.

and before somebody says “oh well kaed maybe you just don’t know your castle building periods very well” think again. i know my castle building periods. that style above is concentric (harlech castle’s initial construction was finished in 1289 and was one of the first finished castles in england in this style,) which came after the keep and bailey style, which came after the motte-and-bailey style, which came after the burh (which arguably WASN’T a castle but whatever,) etc. there are no fortified castles in english history that look like castle cousland, because it’s fucking indefensible. now, this does lead to the question of “oh, well, what is the timeline for the game, maybe there’s something you missed!” so let’s examine the time period of origins:

at the very, very latest, origins could be based off of the BEGINNING of the british “wars of the roses” (the civil wars between the various members of the house plantagenet) which began in the 1450s— this is personally what /i/ think origins is based off of, for a couple reasons. 1) trevelyan was a real person— g.m. trevelyan was a british historian who wrote about the wars of the roses, and in one instance there’s a quote of his the devs almost verbatim used for the design of the free marches: “the Wars of the Roses were to a large extent a quarrel between Welsh Marcher Lords, who were also great English nobles, closely related to the English throne…” they ixnayed the part about the marcher lords being ferelden nobles, i imagine because it was too complicated, but trevelyan? marcher lords? a close relationship with this country? (i.e. like somewhere that might take in their refugees after a catastrophe?) cmon. 2) because ferelden is fucking huge and the histories are kinda weird, because they aren’t 1 for 1, i’m gonna say that we have to use the norman conquest of england as our unification date. in other contexts i wouldn’t try to argue this, but in this one, i’m saying 1066 is the unification date of the anglo-saxon kingdoms into england. calenhad gives us a hard unification date for ferelden— the first landsmeet was in 5:42 exalted, ergo origins is 388 years later. the wars of the roses started in 1455, 389 years after the norman conquest ended. 3) the wars of the roses happened because of a succession crisis— admittedly, these two succession crises are very, very different, but there are definitely parallels between loghain and henry vi and alistair and edward iv. henry vi was crowned at a young age (loghain largely ruled for maric at various points in his life, starting when he was very young,) and was very ineffectual— he suffered from an unknown mental illness which made him extremely unstable and unable to rule for large periods of time. loghain, on the other hand, ruled when the /theirins/ weren’t stable, so you argue he had the opposite— meanwhile, his policies WEREN’T sustainable, whatever you might think of him. loghain is too shaped by his own experiences to be a truly good leader, and by the time his rule/anora’s rule is threatened by cailan, he’s sacrificed enough of his principles that he’s willing to commit atrocities (notably, margaret of anjou ruled during the worst parts of her husband’s mental instability, which again could apply to loghain OR anora, as they ruled fairly jointly after a certain point.) edward iv was the son of richard of york, who was eligible for the throne at a very young age (18 to alistair’s 19) because his father was dead. he was coaxed and led into battle by his cousin, the earl of warwick (also known as the kingmaker— sound like a protagonist you might know?) that’s about where the similarities end, but that’s largely because alistair is a grey warden— if he weren’t, he’d probably be able to have kids and end the question of succession. but he can’t, which, assuming the devs eventually remember, WILL lead to another civil war. hence why i say this is at the BEGINNING of the wars of the roses.

another option that could be argued but makes much less sense and i have no evidence for is that alistair has similarities to edward ii (second son who only became king because his brother died, married a more powerful woman to consolidate power, not very good at ruling, no offense to alistair,) but that still puts origins at like 1307-1327. in either case, they would have been using concentric castles— and given what time period castle cousland was originally built in, it would have been built as a motte-and-bailey, which would NOT have lasted four hundred years. so the castle had to have been rebuilt, and bryce cousland would have had to update that rebuilt castle, because no one lived in it during the orlesian occupation. so where the hell does this winding, weird multi-level design come from?

i GUESS— and this is SO charitable— they could have designed castle cousland based off of a country house design from the mid 1500s, but none of them look like that, either. they’re exclusively rectangular, for one thing, and one of the huge bragging rights of owning one was that they weren’t fortified— they came into fashion during a period of relative stability under the tudor rule, when it was considered guache and maybe even treasonous to build a fortified castle. ferelden is NOWHERE NEAR a period of stability, if anything at the end of origins they’re entering their greatest period of INstability, given what happens in inquisition, and that no matter who ends up on the throne, there’s no way for them to have children. so there’s NO way this castle is a country house, or inspired by one.

leaving us with the final conclusion that a) the game devs definitely did do research into the time period because i can fairly directly trace a line between the event i think inspired origins and the plot, but they didn’t do enough research to figure out what the everloving fuck the BUILDINGS looked like. so these castles make no fucking sense and can’t possibly be called historically accurate even with the fantasy defense, and b) i care WAAAY too much about this for somebody who isn’t even a medieval historian. my area of expertise is the paleolithic, i have no clue why this bugs me so bad i spent four fucking hours writing this post.

#anyone: so what are you getting up to on spring break? me: uhhhhhhhhhhh *spends four hours writing a bioware calloit post about their #historically inaccurate castles* Normal Things #it took me four hours bc i had to pare it down like 8 times btw. i could have kept going #btw there are image descriptions on the maps #dragon age origins #dragon age #long post #actually i take it back i DO know why it bugs me and it’s because they made this g-dawful design part of the plot on every single occasion #like highever? would never have been sacked if not for this design. redcliffe? whole story is about infiltrating this castle through these #extensive dungeons they never would have fucking built bc there’s no use for them. the palace in denerim (which doesn’t even have a name) #is so so so fucked. we can’t even get into it but i HATE it. denerim is a city small enough that not all the banns arls and teyrns can have #their own estates in the city meaning they would need rooms in the palace dedicated to them. where are those rooms??? if’s tiny as hell. all #they needed to do was to put up some extra wings you can’t go into that’s all they needed. i’m so so so annoyed by this it’s such a pet #peeve of mine. especially since skyhold is SOOOOOO good if’s the pinnacle of dragon age buildings no one else will ever be her #there’s multiple courtyards. there’s a garden. there’s the stables centrally located there are concentric walls there’s that weird palace #thing in the center with the world’s hottest great hall. there’s a FORGE there’s a keep there’s a guest wing there’s a tabern there’s #ANOTHER tower you can build there are sentry posts there’s a gatehouse there’s a bridge no one will ever replace her in my heart i know this #skyhold baby you are so so so sexy and delicious and everything a fantasy castle in a video game should be MWAH

[b0tster]

As a "not contract bound" dev who works on a project that you are (I assume) completely in control of, how do you choose the release date and why'd you choose one before finishing the project? Asked not in a "why'd you do that to yourself" way but in a "I wanna understand what's the logical process behind it, maybe it is smart to do it and I wanna know why".

I thought that it'd be logical to first have a finished thing and then say that it'll be released at "date_name_wgenever", instead of setting a certain date and then crunching yourself to fit it. But maybe it helps you somehow to not overwork yourself on the project thinking that if you have all the time in the world, why not add a thing or two, which results in project taking forever to be marked complete, or maybe you just have a pet birthday at that date and wanna make it symbolical lol, idk.

let me be clear here

i am not crunching on bbkart, or any of my projects for that matter

---

now, with that out of the way, time to talk about time frames and productivity. our labor doesnt operate on a linear scale. spending a decade on a game compared to a year will not mean that that game will be 10 times bigger. humans just dont work like that.

something ive picked up over the years is that productivity is like a gas: it will expand to fit the box its put in.

if u give urself infinite time, the gas will just dissipate. but of course if u squeeze it into a release thats too tight, u get an explosion (crunch).

now, im more of a 'find the fun' kinda developer. i make my tools and mechanics based on a loose concept and then decide what the game will be after once i have everything in front of me. in that initial period i do not set a release date, its impossible to predict how a games dev cycle will play out, so i dont bother and just focus on finding whats fun.

once the final game actually starts to take shape, i am capable of making an informed decision on how much labor is needed to finish, and i set an internal date that i do not make public. once im a few months out from that date, i will make an adjustment if neccesary (both bbpsx and kart had their internal date pushed back by a month) and then announce it. that sets it in stone and I have a runway to release.

mark darrah (bioware) talks about something he calls the 'hockey stick', which is the idea that once u get to a certain point, completion urgency kicks in and u get the drive to make the decisions neccesary to finish the game. cut this, reroute focus to that, crunch on this (dont do that last one, ever, but its important to bring up where crunch manifests. some advice: you either cut or you crunch. choose cut).

darrah talks about how to trigger completion urgency (one example is making a demo, be it publically released or exclusive to an event) and the fact of the matter is that a deadline will do it. of course, if completion urgency kicks in too close to the deadline, you get crunch, but if it kicks in earlier u will get things done in a way that doesnt leave permanent damage on your body and mind.

i know this is a very long winded answer, but i hope i was thorough enough to explain the benefits of setting a deadline and how that doesnt always have to end in crunch, like the question implied.

#lilith answers #bloodborne kart #completion urgency

[paarthursass]

not to advocate for MORE sexism in bioware games or anything like that but like...the "gender equality" in DAO is so poorly thought out and by that I am SPECIFICALLY referring to women in the Grey Wardens.

Sure yeah Alistair makes that off-hand comment about how "there aren't many women in the wardens" that's more indicative of the writing team's sexism than anything else, but genuinely speaking I think there's actually a valid reason for women to not be allowed in the Grey Wardens.

You cannot tell me that Alistair and the HoF were the first to discover what Broodmothers were and how they were made. You cannot tell me that Grey Wardens have been fighting back Darkspawn for centuries and they do not know about Broodmothers. And if the Grey Wardens know about Broodmothers, then they must know that sending female Grey Wardens down into the Deep Roads is a bad fucking plan.

I can understand concessions being made during a Blight; hell, being a Grey Warden is such a Shit Job that I can understand the Grey Wardens being willing to take in anyone. But like...the women who join cannot go down into the Deep Roads for their Calling. And I would argue that them going down into the Deep Roads at all is a bad plan unless they've got some equivalent of a suicide pill with them in case of capture by Darkspawn.

It honestly is baffling to me that there's NO mention of protocols for female grey wardens during their Calling or expeditions to the Deep Roads being different AT ALL. All it would take is Alistair saying something along the lines of "So that's why there's so few women in the Wardens" after they discover the Broodmother.

Because a woman joining the Wardens isn't just risking death.

She's risking a horrific, violating transformation that turns her into a creature that endangers everyone.

#sophie.txt #dragon age #dao #dragon age origins #grey wardens #anyways say your gender equality in ur game is performative without substance without saying it's performative and without substance #genuinely the broodmother thing is so viscerally horrifying and female wardens are still expected to go into the deep roads to die??? hello

[felassan]

BioWare have announced that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has hit its Alpha Milestone, a huge step forward in the game's development [source].

A blog post by BioWare General Manager Gary McKay reads:

Game Update

A New Milestone for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

Moving closer and closer to completion. Hello,

In my last blog, back in February, I talked about the next Dragon Age™game entering the production phase. Well, we’ve come a very long way since then, and the team is incredibly happy to announce a huge step forward in the development of the game you now know as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf™: We have just completed our Alpha milestone!

Up to this point, we’ve been working hard on the various parts of the game, but it’s not until the Alpha milestone that a game all comes together. Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience.

NOW WHAT?

Of course, the game is not finished by any means, but Alpha is one of the most important game development milestones for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we can now turn our sights toward bringing the visual fidelity to its final form and iterating on gameplay features. The big question now is, “Where do we focus our efforts?” To answer that, we solicit feedback from a number of sources, including our Community Council members who each have unique perspectives and experiences, our quality verification team, and extensive internal playtesting. Gathering feedback from multiple sources gives us the greatest insight on where we need to spend more time improving the experience.

Additionally, we can now evaluate the game's pacing, how relationships evolve over time, and the player’s progression, as well as narrative cohesion—essentially how the story comes together. We can take the story we’ve written and see if we’re expressing it well through the characters, dialogue, cinematics, and ultimately, the player’s journey. Now that we have the ability to do a complete playthrough, we can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to our fans.

Hitting Alpha was the culmination of so much effort from the entire team and we used this milestone as an opportunity to come together and celebrate. We held a hybrid-style event with people onsite while others joined remotely and the team showcased their work to everyone at BioWare. We even took some time to do something fun and non-work related—a virtual escape room where we had to work together to help someone on camera find their way out. It was a really great time, and no matter where our devs are, it's important to share these types of moments together.

START TO FINISH

Now that we’re finally able to experience the entire game, for me, my favorite part is the characters. Whether followers, allies, or villains, they’re woven into the game in ways that take a concept that’s always been a part of the Dragon Age DNA—stories about people—and push it further than ever before. The characters help contextualize the world and the stakes, and I can’t wait until we’re able to start really discussing them in depth.

It’s also exciting to finally be able to bring our fans to parts of the world that we’ve previously hinted at, but never been able to fully explore—like the city of Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. We’ve talked about Minrathous in previous games, and now you’ll finally be able to visit! It’s a city built on and fuelled by magic, and the ways in which that has come through in its visual identity, and what that looks like in comparison to previous cities we’ve visited in Dragon Age, are pretty spectacular.

As I mentioned earlier, the Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done. We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.

IN CLOSING

Of course, Dreadwolf isn’t the only thing happening here at BioWare™! We have a team hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect™ game. And we look forward to celebrating our community on N7 Day next month. The SWTOR team also continues to work on their next update, so keep an eye on SWTOR.com and their social media accounts for any and all details on the coming game update.

It’s an incredible time at BioWare! We have so many cool things to show you in the future. Until then, thanks for being part of our community. We couldn’t do this without you.

Stay well,

Gary McKay

General Manager [source]

#dragon age: dreadwolf #da4 #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #bioware #mass effect #next mass effect #video games #sw:tor #mj best of

[livingsurreal]

What is it with Baldurs Gate 3, that this game has so many characters I completly obsess about? I am usually a "one-true-blorbo" kinda girl. Fenris, Solas, Garrus, Jaal. Those are my Bioware blorbos.

I might try to smooch some one else but it never really works out.

Now for some reason, in BG3 my brain makes blorbos out of half the cast.

Astarion is my No 1. He is a very angry feral cat and I will love him till I die. He is perfect and sweet and angry and deserves sunlight and hugs and sweet gentle kisses and patience and a fucking hero in shining armor who stands beside him, without expecting shit in return. Who is there and is his shield and voice of reason. Some one who doesn't save him but gives him the space and chance, so he can save himself.

But damn, there is Raphael who takes way to much space in my brain lately. Give me that pillow princess and I will make him so much better he forgets what contracts even are. This poor sweet devil prince who never experienced love or someone who truly cares about him. All he knows is terms and conditions and life is so much more than transaction. Such a shame that he cant be romanced ingame. He is just the best devil and damn he looks soo soo yum. (WHERE IS MY RAPHAEL ROMANCE)

Karlach who is the bestest ever and I want her to ride me into the ground, and I want to hug her and hold her hand and never let her go and tell her is is the best thing since the invention of icecream and she deserves EVERYTHING!

Gale, sweet Gale who deserves unconditional true love, kindness and so many kisses. Someone who tells him "you are enough" and just loves him and blows him till he sees stars.

Wyll who deserves someone loyal, and sweet, who stands beside him and doesn't throw him away and tells him he is perfect the way he is. Also dances in the moonlight yayyy!

Dammon with his cute smile and sweet voice who needs to be smooched very gently. (WHERE IS MY DAMMON ROMANCE? Also he and Karlach would be perfect for each other if not romanced)

Rolan with his snotty attitude who needs to be smooched very hard. Also he needs to be fucked against a wall. (WHERE IS MY ROLAN ROMANCE)

Zevlor who deserves all the hugs and love. Also he needs someone who grabs his horns while riding him into the ground. (WHERE IS MY ZEVLOR ROMANCE)

Lae'zel and Shadowheart are made for each other. They are my sweet angry baes who really need to take a room and fuck it out of their system. Sorry, I would love each one of them but I just don't dare to come between them. But I will be their cheerleader and be the most embarrassing friend when they finally stop being silly. How sad is it that our companions dont find each other if we dont romance them. They deserve love, and Tav/Durge cant kiss them all!

Halsin who gives the sweetest bear hugs and seems somehow lost in Act 3, and should be kissed and hugged and be given lots of little ducky plushies.

Jaheira who is just the coolest and a damn good friend and gives great (bad) advice and who would share a blunt and a bottle of wine and I would listen to her stories all day, I love her so much. We all should have a Jaheira in our life.

Minsc who also tells the best stories and if you want really good (bad) advice you would ask Boo. He would be the best (worst) wingman, and the no 1 person you go to when you have a bad day. He just makes everything better. When in doubt just go and do some asskicking and everything is good.

How can ONE (1) game have so many wonderful characters, where I want to band almost every single one of them.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion #raphael #bg3 raphael #karlach #dammon #rolan #zevlor #lae'zel #shadowheart #gale #wyll #halsin #jaheira #minsc #companions #blorbo

[average-mako-enjoyer]

Mass Effect LGBTQ+ representation issues and some headcanons

I've seen a few Mass Effect posts about the sexuality of the trilogy's characters, and I'd like to add my 5 cents, since none of those posts take into account the whole xenophilia aspect of canon relationships. And some of us are here for it. For the aliens. I am here for them. I'm not sorry.

Also, I have to acknowledge the fact that Bioware has made some very questionable choices, and the in-game representation is bad. Like BAD-bad.

I.E.(this list is going to be looong):

All Male Shepard/Kaidan Alenko dialog for ME1 and ME2 was written and fully voiced, but NOT INCLUDED in the final version of the game. And I know that the same thing happened to FemShep/Ashley, but that a bit different because...

The only "gay" romances in ME1 and ME2 are for femShep, and either with a female-representing human-like aliens (who like to dress in tight clothes that emphasize the size of their breasts), or with the equally feminine Kelly Chambers in ME2. Because, you know, guys who buy this game will be more tolerant of two "hot chicks making out" (insert a bunch of mods that make your femShep wear only lingerie and look like a TikTok e-girl) than a more realistic same-sex romance.

Especially when this romance is between two guys. Because ew. Right, Bioware? But you also wanted to sell your games to LGBTQ+ folks, so you installed a…

… so-called "gay button" into your games.

Before ME3, no one except for "hot chicks asari" states their sexuality. You can go through two entire games as a straight character completely surrounded by other completely straight characters. Oh, maybe Kelly likes aliens a little too much, but "who doesn't like asari", right? Even asexual salarians are into them. Sure, a straight woman like femShep…

"Hot chicks making out" really sells those game copies, I guess.

If you think ME3 is better, think again. The only two gay characters in the game are Cortez and Traynor, and they are both supporting characters, who are not even in your squad!

Cortez and his whole "I lost my husband" drama is conveniently placed on the lowest deck of the ship, so if this story offends your bigoted sensibilities, you can just ignore him along with the "dumb jock" Vega who is really unpopular with the players. Is it because he's really friendly with an openly gay character? Oh, who knows?

Meanwhile, Traynor is either mocked (oh, she found EDI voice hot and commented on that! what a shame! awkward lesbians, amirite?) or fetishized (don't get me wrong, Donnelly is funny, but his remarks about Traynor are even more yucky than the way he talks about EDI and lube).

But don't get mad about all this, because all the women in the trilogy are fetishized and heavily sexualized. The best example of this is Samara, whose character design is a war crime.

Bioware made Benezia look horrible (she tried to make Saren change his ways not with her power or wits but with those giant bazooms and the cleavage, I guess), and then they doubled down in ME2 and gave a warrior samurai nun a boob window. A FUCKING BOOB WINDOW. Because boys buy games, and they love boobs, y'know.

Oh, and any inappropriate remarks made by NPCs in the game are directed only at the femShep. Just like the MShenko romance, the male version of the dialog is fully voiced, but conveniently excluded from the game. Because guys can't tell other guys that they look hot in "that soldier getup". That can make bigots uncomfortable.

And let's talk about bi representation, because Bioware apparently hates bisexuals as much as straights and some queers do (trust me, as a bisexual I've experienced both types of hatred, and it's ugly). The only bisexual characters in the game are Kaidan and Diana Allers.

If you're a bigot playing as the maleShep, you can "safely" kill Kaidan on Virmire in the middle of the first game and not have to deal with his uncomfortable love confession at all!

So, yeah, Bigots: 1, Representation: 0. The bisexual is successfully killed, congratulations!

If you play as femShep, you won't even know that Kaidan is/was bi. Because who wants a bisexual guy who is comfortable with his sexuality? You can't sell that kind of romance to the good ladies who buy this game.

Diana Allers romance, meanwhile, is laugh-worthy. If you play as maleShep, you won't even know that she's bi. And if you're femShep, this romance is as insignificant as the one with Kelly, you won't even get an achievement for it! You can also kick her out of your ship without any consequences, so she will be KIA offscreen. You will find about it via fucking email. Bigots: 2, Representation: 0. Both of dirty bisexuals are successfully killed, congratulations!

The bi-xenophile Kelly suffers the same fate: no achievement for her romance, you cannot continue the romance after ME2, and she will either take a poison pill and die or be killed in the Collector's Base/Citadel offscreen in ME3. If she survives both the base and the Cerberus attack, you won't even get to say goodbye to her before the final battle of the game. Bigots: 3, Representation: 0

9. And I almost forgot about Omega DLC that kills the only female turian in the game. Who's also into asari. God, they did her dirty.

"Those were different times," you might say, but all of this could have been fixed in 2019, when the Limited Edition was released. Instead, we just have fellow modders changing the design of Benezia and Samara, restoring MShenko (one of the most healthy, respectful, and mature romances in the entire trilogy) and other gay romances in the game, making all NPCs flirt with your character, adding female turians and krogans to the environment, etc., etc.

Still, I think these games are great. The characters, the cinematics, some aspects of the writing, great! I love that canon. But the LGBTQ+ representation in those games sucks. Big time. But that doesn't stop me from having a bunch of headcanons. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to separate out all the characters for the games in which they debut.

Mass Effect:

MaleShep/FemShep: Both are canonically bi. Both don't mind the alien physiology thing and polyamory. Both are "married to your job" type, so they were okay with casual sex and one-night stands, and only mellowed out while in charge of the Normandy crew. Because of convenience, both had more hetero than same-sex hookups.

Ashley: Straight as a plank and xenophobic, but not homophobic. She's definitely into maleShep, but more into the idea of him as a sole survivor/war hero/butcher of Torfan than an actual person.

Garrus: He likes turian and quarian women. And both fem and maleShep. But with maleShep, he's more busy with the whole "flirt him to death" aspect of their bromance, so there's really no time to get on the floor and get dirty.

I also feel that turian society in the game is very patriarchal, so Garrus has a bias towards femShep and feels less restricted by her rank. With mShep, I think he would have only acted if mShep had specifically pursued that relationship. But mShep is also more interested in just flirting with Garrus.

Kaidan: Canonically bisexual (more into women) and demi. Not into aliens, but not xenophobic. Not a stranger to casual sex, but would really prefer to go steady because #introverted and has enough problems already. "How can you flirt with all these people, Shepard, it's exhausting…"

Liara: She's into both versions of Shepard. And maybe a bit into one drell. Classic demi/asexual. Also, imo, all asari are agender and Liara is not an exception.

Tali: Is a mess and can definitely go cross-species (her romance with Garrus is canon, after all). She's also a massive nerd and a bit kinky. I think she's into human/turian/quarian males, but maybe this femShep really is THAT SPECIAL.

Wrex: Krogan women - that's his sexual orientation. Real bros with mShep, more cautious with femShep because bias. Another "married to his job" character.

Joker: Straight and nerdy. #Irony. Too cool for homophobia.

Chakwas: More married to her job than anyone on this list. Cool lesbian aunt.

And this post is already so long that I'll make a separate one for ME2 and 3.

#mass effect #commander shepard #ashley williams #garrus vakarian #kaidan alenko #liara t'soni #tali'zorah #urdnot wrex #jeff moreau #headcanons #lgbtq headcanons #ranting #fuck bioware #my stuff #my thoughts

[vigilskeep]

sorry if this is an insane question, it's something i've been wondering about and you are the dragon age lore understander in my mind: ...is there canonical information about divorces (or annulments) in thedas? like, in dao you can find out that eamon suggested cailan 'put anora aside' but that's very vague about logistics. it's probably just something bioware doesn't care about but it haunts me. if cailan had tried to divorce anora and marry celene to create an orlais-fereldan alliance and the divine hadn't approved could thedas have had its own anglican church situation

[the below answer should be read with the visual of me with a white-knuckled grip of frustration leaving indents on steel]

there is NO lore and it drives me INSANE !!!

david gaider, on a random forum discussion post, said “there is annulment. there is no concept of ‘divorce’”. this along with the discussion of cailan setting anora aside is as far as i know all we have

so ‘annulment but no divorce’ is presumably drawing from andrastianism’s catholic inspirations. which basically means that divorce isn’t a thing but a marriage can be declared “null” if you can come up with a reason it was never valid from the start. to go for the henry viii example, he tried to have his marriage to catherine of aragon annulled on the grounds that she had married his late brother first, and he’d suddenly and conveniently realised this meant their marriage had never been okay. the pope refused, because a) a pope had already given henry and catherine permission to marry despite those circumstances meaning the marriage was literally fine and popes aren’t supposed to take that kind of thing back and b) also as an aside, for separate reasons the pope had had his city sacked and been taken prisoner by catherine’s nephew the holy roman emperor like five minutes ago, and so had reasonable fears for his health if he said yes

(sorry if any of the above historical info is slightly off it’s been a while but that’s pretty much the gist)

i have... absolutely no idea on what grounds you could annul cailan’s marriage to anora. but we really have no data on what the chantry considers grounds. could her supposed infertility be enough? it’s impossible to say. maybe eamon was working on some argument, it’s clear he’s been pushing for this for years

that said, if cailan himself was moving to marry celene, he’d have a much better shot at getting that annulment, if only because what’s the divine going to do, not grant an annulment to the guy the orlesian empress wants to marry? this is where anora not having any useful emperor nephews really lets her down. her father could certainly raise hell in ferelden, but they have zero reach in orlais

(as an aside, all this is something i’ve thought about for one of my absolute favourite dragon age timelines, sebhawke divorce. tell me inquisition wouldn’t be improved by starkhaven desperately trying to get an annulment meanwhile the divine is fucking exploded. you can’t.)

[lily-orchard]

Why don't you like Astarion? Besides annoying simps?

Short Version: If I had a nickel for every time a game released in 2023 prominently featured a male character being abused and them becoming a Chaotic Evil psychopath who eats people, I'd have two nickels.

Long Version:

Astarion is one of those characters who is built around "the twist" in that he's actually an abuse victim and former sex slave. But in order to keep that guise up, he spends much of the game being the single most unrepentantly evil psychopath the Baldur's Gate series has ever seen. He manages to out-cartoon Dorn Il Khan.

So you end up in this weird situation where the guy who was enslaved and treated terribly disapproves when you object to those things, and who keeps acting in complete contradiction to what his experiences should have taught him, making the twist less impactful. Ironically they could have used the "Approves/Disapproves" thing they stole from BioWare to actually surprise the player, but that would have gotten in the way of the player's "I can fix him" fantasy.

Like I said, trauma is only interesting as a narrative tool when it influences how a character thinks. But when writers only go as far as "cycle of abuse" and stop there, you end up with a boring character who is borderline offensive.

Astarion is a particularly egregious example of this because his character only improves if the player is big on the "I can fix them" brainrot, so his backstory is "I was some guy's plaything" and then his story in game is about becoming the PLAYER'S plaything.

I look at people who insist Astarion is "so deep and complex" and what I see are the people who spent years writing Sylvanas/Jaina fanfiction where Jaina was some horny idiot wanting the evil lady to step on her and pretending they were doing Sylvanas' character justice. And those are the writers.

Astarion is a fucking blow-up doll. His personality, appearance, mannerisms, and fucking VOICE are all built from stock types, and plays off extremely violent and hateful tropes about abuse victims that like most writers today only get as far as "hurt people hurt people" and stops trying after that point.

And while it is true that abuse victims can often go on to hurt others, it's not part of some villain arc. It's a complicated situation of unlearning survival strategies, which no story that covers this subject ever takes seriously because that might get in the way of "I can fix him! Villain rizz!"

Gee, I wonder why an abuse victim doesn't like the villain fetish version of an abuse victim.

I already played one game that prominently featured this garbage, why are you expecting me to pretend it's own duplicate is somehow different?

Astarion's character fucking sucks. It's always sucked. These tropes have always sucked. Doing them for the 100th time doesn't magically make them not suck. And the only people who think his character doesn't suck are people who think "cycle of abuse" is a porn tag and whose ideal skin treatment involves Clorox.

[subastian-swallows]

HLC ROMANCE — WHAT WE DESERVED

Ominis Gaunt — Head Empty, Thoughts

This has been requested by the lovely @tinaexe and obviously NEEDED! Like the Sebastian one, I feel like as a fellow BioWare fanatic — romance is my forte, in games! Ominis is a little harder as most will be based on what if’s, as unlike Seb, we don’t fully get a developed relationship with him in the game. (We kind of are friends at the end?) So because of this, we only truly see him expanded through Seb’s quest line.

So, let us begin at the beginning:

If you decide to be in Slytherin, you meet Ominis in the Common Room. I actually really love this interaction! I think it’s a nice way to set him up as a character, but would have loved more dialogue options — a big thing the game failed on. I understand it wasn’t their aim, but more dialogue, more choice, would make relationships develop more and make your own character feel more real. I think the only bad thing about this interaction, is that he is too sweet straight away (HERE ME OUT LOL) Ominis comes off as someone who is very picky with his friends, I would have loved to have him more indifferent here — just for a lovely enemies to lovers type thing. Think Morrigan from DAO but more tame…way more tame lmao. (This is just me, tbh it fits his character that he’s kind. I also like the idea that he’s extra kind because of how he grew up — but easily snaps if upset) If you aren’t meeting him here, it would also be DADA! I like the idea that he would make fun of Sebastian losing here, perfect opportunity for romance points — the curiosity of you beating Sebastian would win points with him for sure. Flirty-ish dialogue could be added here!

Now, I’ll do gifts first this time — mainly because we don’t really spend any time with Ominis lmao, so from here, apart from some quests like the scriptorium etc will be my interpretation! With gifts for Ominis! I like the idea of him being a sweet tooth, so the idea of being able to buy sweets from Honeydukes would have been so neat for this. (This would the small relationship point add on.) for bigger gifts, I like the idea of him being into more refined artefacts! Like interesting things you find on your journeys. Think:

Sculptures/art type stuff: x20 romance points

Flowers: x10 romance points

just for fun lmao — dark magic artefacts: -30x romance points

Unlike Seb, Ominis should be harder to romance! I stand by the idea, that he is hesitant and feels more complicated when it comes to love. Considering his upbringing, bringing down the walls is the first step! This is where more dialogue plays into part, remembering things that are brought up later — a big bonus to romance points!

Now interesting idea, re-meeting Ominis in Hogsmeade! I think with an Ominis romance for it to work alongside the plot — it would be mostly through Sebastian. (Drama for all those that love both — me everyday battling my inner demon of wishing to romance anyone else, but Alistair in DAO!) I like the idea of him interrupting your visit with Sebastian and perhaps helping alongside you and Sebastian with the troll! Would have been really neat to see more action from him. Flirty dialogue could be added, but it would be met with a flustered/confused Ominis.

This is where we linger from the quest line a bit, because well let’s be honest, Sebastian would never let Ominis know he’s taking you to the restricted section. So, this is where I kind of make it up. I think a small quest would work here with Ominis OR simply another one on one conversation. This could be where you learn a little more about him, if you picked the right dialogue OR you could upset him. I think a big part of this game would have benefited with a main character that had more choice. Even in Mass Effect you get two options, sometimes three — same with Dragon Age Inquisition, but the main character still feels more real, simply because of the choices! A quest for Ominis here, could be anything really, maybe he’s in the library and needs help with something or you find him in the DADA tower needing help etc.

Undercroft, baby! Here is the thing, I love the idea of Sebastian still taking you here — but like Sebastian’s one, Ominis should have caught you in the act! I would have loved to have him pissed off and you have to work your way out, but actually getting the chance, rather than him automatically not believing you or giving a shit. This would be the first instance of where romance points matter, if you have enough he apologises and takes it out on Sebastian, if you don’t, he takes it out on the both of you and is grumpy.

Scriptorium. This is the quest. I would feel like this is the major quest to determine whether you are locked into a romance arc with Ominis and I could even agree that this would be where you’d lock in either of the boys! I’d like to think that this quest should have had more chances to side with either boy, depending on who you wanted and what you believed. It needed more banter, comforting dialogue where you could commend Ominis for helping you both and it would have been perfect for flirty dialogue — making him all flushed and shy. This would also be where he starts to see you as something more, if you pick the right dialogue. Perfect opportunity for Ominis to take care of you when Sebastian crucio’s your ass.

Relic moment. OKAY! Here would have been so perfect to show that your romance points mattered. Imagine that depending on how you’ve interacted so far, it would determine if he would trust you or not. He was too trusting at this point, TBH. He knows how Sebastian is, not you and so this felt a little strange to me. So the idea, that at this point your romance points mattered, to determine if you had to curse him would be HUGE. Because if you had to curse him, I’d love to see it be a huge factor that he can’t be end goal. By this point, I think you also have to be completely against dark magic and Sebastian using it. This would be big points for Ominis’ romance.

Conversation about Sebastian it’s Ominis! Worried! You express what is going on, the mine situation etc. This would be where Ominis is more shy and clear with his feelings without actually telling you, if your romance points are high enough. A gift from him? A ROSE?

Solomon quest, rip. Ominis would need you to be fully on his side here. You would need to have the opportunity to support him in this and with dialogue omg I hate it. Still agree with being able to stop Sebastian, having enough romance points with Sebastian, to the point of stopping him before he does anything — would tie into if you could complete Ominis’ romance. I like the idea that they tie in together here and you had to have thought about both throughout. Ominis and Sebastian are practically brothers, so it makes sense.

THE ENDING: You could only get a good ending IF you save Sebastian, I just think it’s very fitting. If you can stop Sebastian, I feel like Ominis can really open up. If you don’t I think he would be toooo heartbroken for a romance. If you succeed, you get the kiss and hug scene and he shows his appreciation for you — thanking you for being there for him RIPP

Bonus: Winter Ball like Sebastian — only agreeing to go with you if romance points are high enough. ALSO, I like the idea of a moment to stick up for him or he sticks up for you. BECAUSE CUTE.

I might have missed stuff and more definitely could be added, but this is the basic romance plot line — that could have worked. We just needed more dialogue, more options and more quests for him!

#hogwarts legacy #ominis gaunt #hogwarts #ominis x reader #ominis gaunt x y/n #ominis x you #ominis x mc #ominis hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy ominis #ominis imagine #ominis #hogwarts legacy mc #ominis gaunt x you #ominis gaunt x mc #ominis gaunt headcanon #ominis gaunt x reader

[blacktabbygames]

Good mornighternoon. Do you have any advice on making writing and/or coding branching dialogue less confusing?

It's always going to be confusing and difficult to keep track of branching, but here's some things that I think have helped. Gonna break this down into a few sections to make it a little easier to follow.

Foundations and Research

So much practice for me came from being obsessed with Bioware games growing up, especially Dragon Age and Mass Effect — just keeping track of complicated branching world states in complex games you already enjoy is extremely good exercise, and the best way to get better at thinking about a medium is to consume and discuss things in that medium.

Building on that, I think that the best media to take a deep dive into to improve your own craft is something that you really like, but that feels like it missed the mark in a few areas that are important to you. Again, revisiting Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I absolutely loved the way that those games set up challenging decisions, but was frustrated at how easy it was to circumvent those choices entirely. By the time Abby and I started work on Scarlet Hollow, I feel like I had a strong foundation from obsessively consuming those works and the two of us discussing at length how we wanted to handle branching compared to games we've enjoyed in the past.

The Big Picture

The bigger your project, the more important it is to have intentionality to your choices. With both Scarlet Hollow and Slay the Princess, we decided on the major themes of the story and wrote down and outlined all of our Big Plot Points before we wrote a word of the actual script.

It can also help to come up with Rules for your piece that fit within your outline. These aren't necessarily ever words that are directly communicated in the game, but rather something for you to personally follow (and to break, on occasion). To give some examples of rules we've come up with for Scarlet Hollow: Every chapter must have a "major" decision with seemingly only bad outcomes towards the end. Each of these decisions must have a secret "out" mapped to a trait. Each trait gets exactly one out. Every episode must contain at least one decision where the focus is the player's relationship with Tabitha. The story must come back together in a recognizable structure after a split. As an extension of that last point, subsequent playthroughs must feel both Similar and Different. Again, these aren't hard and fast rules, and one of the joys of writing is knowing which rules you should break and when you can break them. (So if you're reading this post and trying to use it to theorize about future plot developments, good luck!)

Having a finished outline and rules are important because then, as you work on the minutiae, you'll already have a strong framework to build around. Suddenly, when you're crafting decisions and thinking about cascading consequences, you're not just branching out into an infinite void: instead, you're actively working to draw everything into a set of predetermined thematic and structural points.

The Little Details

When it's time to write your script, it's very important to remain focused in the moment — if you think too long about the scale of a branching narrative and the work it requires, you'll find yourself easily overwhelmed. Just work on one menu at a time in one scene at a time, and you'll find a way to keep things straight and to get it done.

When writing a menu, define your player's options with intent. What are the things (within reason) that you would want to do in a scene? What emotional range do you want to grant the player? Do two options cover the same intent and emotionality? If so, condense them, and keep the option that's more fun.

Emotionality is very important here, so I want to take an extra line to emphasize it. Ask yourself, "what are the different reactions a player might have to this, emotionally" and find a way to let them express those emotions. Letting them express those emotions doesn't always mean you let the *action* behind those emotions work — it's more about acknowledging those feelings and letting them bake into the narrative.

Bolding this one because it's very important track everything. A lot of the callbacks and references in Scarlet Hollow aren't actually pre-planned — we just make sure to track most player decisions so if we realize we want to make a reference to something that might have happened, there's already a variable in place for it. An example of this that comes to mind is the "dead moms" callback in Episode 4, which we didn't plan in advance, but when we realized how right that callback was for that scene, we already had that information tracked.

I think I accidentally talked about a lot of stuff outside the scope of your question, but narrative design is such an interesting subject and I like talking about it. Hopefully this is helpful!

#scarlet hollow #slay the princess #narrative design #writing #game #game design #game writing

[dreadfutures]

i don't like that solas vallaslin rewrite scene post because a) a lot of solavellan writers have tried addressing that or something similar and it always makes me roll my eyes when we all forget the classic takes and repackage them as new, b) a lot of people on reddit and tumblr and elsewhere have wished for the same thing, c) it always misses the even bigger problem with the vallaslin scene to me.

in that scene, solas stops short of telling you that the gods were evil.

the marks might have been slave markings that were turned, over the ages, into marks of pride and belonging in the culture of the Dalish. and that story is about the Dalish surviving, persevering, and clawing back what makes them connected to their past, when the world would stamp them out.

That's a great story and one that should be respected. Solas acknowledges this twice.

But the vallaslin isn't just a mark of adulthood and a mark of being Dalish. To them, it is not tied to escaping slavery -- because the Dalish don't know that story, until Lavellan finds out in the grotto from Solas that the vallaslin were slave markings.

The vallaslin are dedications to the gods.

To the evil gods who are very much still a threat to Thedas, and very much Solas's enemies.

The more and more we learn about the Evanuris, the more and more the religious practice of worshiping the Dalish gods stands out. The Dalish are very religious. Your Lavellan might or might not be, if you headcanon--and many players aren't religious, or at least are agnostic. Maybe to your Lavellan this is solely about the 'slave marking' part of what Solas tells her in the grotto.

But there is enough dialogue in DAI that Lavellan *can* be very devoted to the gods. And throughout the other games and media, worship of the Dalish gods is important to their culture. With the gods not being locked away forever, not being dead and distant, and being very much evil, that practice feels like the real problem behind the vallaslin scene.

Yeah, I think Solas is "shackled to the past" but not about this. We don't know what his plan really is, we don't know what he really cares about so much in elvhenan that drives him to bring about an apocalypse now. We don't know fully what he thinks was better, or worth bringing back, or worth undoing, besides the 'magic used to be everywhere and we didn't used to hate spirits' bit. There's more to it than that, that we have yet to see.

But we DO know he views the Evanuris as his enemies; we know from him, and from much of the supplemental material (Hi, Hormak) that they were incredibly cruel and monstrous to their people; we know they are not dead, and they are not permanently locked away; we know that they may be unleashed in the future. The Dalish worship them, and dedicate themselves to them, and invoke them in their lives.

We have the very ominous phrase: "Belief makes you more."

From a Bioware-critical/fandom angle, it is uncomfortable to tell a group heavily coded as indigenous and ancient that actually, all of their history is a lie. It's uncomfortable to tell them that actually, Historically Oppressed Group, you were once just as bad as the people who oppress you now.

Sure, you can change the formula of the vallaslin so he can't take it off of Lavellan. Have Lavellan say with even more gusto that now she'll take this knowledge back to her people, so they can truly celebrate all that they've overcome and reclaimed.

That doesn't change that this is a deeply religious group and a religious practice tied to the biggest threat to his past, and to the future.

I think it's a very surface level reading to think that Solas looks at Lavellan and sees 'slave.' She is indomitable, she is Dalish, and he has said before what he admires about her--and her people.

With all that we know, it seems like it's so much more than that. And I think it's pretty shallow to ignore that.

Fans have tried to headcanon this away in a million directions. A popular one: "What if the 'Evanuris' were just really powerful mages who had taken on the names of the true elven gods as an intimidation factor? That way the Dalish aren't ACTUALLY worshiping evil beings, and their whole culture isn't a lie." Sure! then Solas is 'shackled to the past.' If you headcanon that, then the vallaslin and the names of the gods were never really about the Evanuris, so no harm done that the Dalish still worship them. Solas is totally in the wrong for wanting to remove the marks of slavery and god-dedication from Lavellan's face.

There are other options. But yeah I think a lot of these 'rewrites' miss or forget beyond a really surface level understanding of Solas, the Dalish, and religion lol.

#blue vagueblogs #fandom critical #blue can't have fun #someone peed in blues wheaties #or whatever #kicking a hornet's nest on a saturday #delete later

[meggannn]

i've shared a lot of thoughts about dragon age vs baldur's gate 3 writing in private and why i think da banter is still the peak, but i think i can summarize/put a more positive spin on my opinions by saying if bioware writers wrote the bg3 characters, we'd see:

wyll being offended over astarion not because he's a "monster" but because he is a "monster" who has no interest in overcoming his base urges, enjoys killing, would kill again, etc; astarion would simultaneously take out his anger on wyll because a hero never came to save him and he may think wyll (even under contract) is a hypocrite for only saving people he deems are "perfect" victims

shadowheart calling lae'zel a slave to vlaakith or orpheus's will, never her own, pre-nightsong lae'zel snapping it takes one to know one

lae'zel regularly challenging halsin, wyll, and karlach to sparring matches, swordfights, fist fights, etc. first out of pride then friendly competition. by act 3 there is an actual bracket going with bets and wyll is very proud to trump them all when they fight with rapiers, lae'zel declaring "you have impressed me, i will visit you later tonight" to whoever wins

halsin actually remarking on this or that natural landscape and sharing interesting facts about the world instead of just talking about nature being in or out of balance. him saying "hm the rats in the city talk differently than the rats in the grove, nature is stifled but also finds different way of expressing itself here through the cracks" instead of just going "wow the city sucks"

several jokes or accusations about scratch eating boo, the owlcub eating boo, astarion eating boo

speaking of, several arguments about who scratch and the owlcub like more, while everyone fights over it gale smugly knowing scratch absolutely likes him most because he feeds scratch leftovers while he cooks and he's magicked up a full dogbed and inside his tent-that-is-actually-a-minimansion-inside. the owlbear cub is not allowed in though after it ripped apart a very expensive book

shadowheart complaining about patching up everyone more often as time passes because they all come to rely on her to be there: "what would you all do if i wasn't here," "die probably"—everyone

several ongoing conversations about who withers is, what he wants, if he's a god, if he killed a god, does he even sleep or just stand there watching over us all night, astarion wondering what would happen if they killed him and karlach daring him to do it

gale and wyll both being big nonfiction readers, wyll on history and gale on spell theory, wyll tentatively wondering if gale ever came across any magic that could remove devil horns and gale for once not finding the words to reply

karlach trying to bond with astarion over their mutual trauma of being recently enslaved, astarion not giving her an inch because honestly how dare she be happy or want to TALK about feelings out in the open, karlach finding someone stitched up clive for her one night and asking the team if anyone knows who did it and astarion is the only one who doesn't reply

jaheira regularly saying wow y'all are a bunch of children and everyone stops snipping at each other to start dogpiling on her for being an old woman

tldr let them be nastier. let them have real fights and friendships

#bg3 #da stuff #i could go into specific critique but i'd just sound like a hater. yes i like bg3 character writing but it could totally be better #i havent played with minthara so sorry idk about her #unfortunately it sounds like larian is editing the companions to make them nicer after people complained they're too mean??? #be real they are already so sanitized i didn't even see fur flying once

[felassan]

A former BioWare Design Director has tweeted his take on the recent BioWare and SW:TOR news. tweet compilation, as it's interesting and illuminating insight:

"My take on the SWTOR/BioWare split For SWTOR: This is a Good Thing For BioWare: This is a Big Loss A thread:

My point of view is someone who worked for BioWare Austin on SWTOR from 2009 as an Assistant World Designer through 2022 as Design Director (with some Anthem, Shadow Realms, and <NDA> years sprinkled about).

BioWare Austin (BWA) was its own studio for many years, founded in order to make that game. MMO’s are expensive, y’all.

We didn’t really collaborate with BioWare Edmonton (BWE) on the dev side much, because there was no need to (with some exceptions – they had built the original on-rails space shooting component, for example).

As a business, in this model all revenue and expenses roll up into the greater whole (BioWare), which then roll into EA’s Group, and so on.

After many years, this model shifted and changed, for a large variety of reasons I won’t get into. BWA would no longer be a separate entity, but under the same core leadership as BWE – One BioWare (BW).

What this meant realistically was you had a boxed product business that had been tried and true for years, combined with a live service MMO business that wasn’t really understood by the boxed product folks. Arguably by EA either, to be fair.

You see, MMO’s can be fairly predictable if they run long enough. We knew the SWTOR business very well. We knew how to turn every dollar invested in the game into several more. SWTOR was (and continues to be) a very profitable business, with loads of heart behind it.

But an older game isn’t sexy. It’s not new. It doesn’t get marketing orgs excited or social media teams jazzed. It’s a ‘legacy game’, despite the mountains of income coming in that other franchises are built off of.

And you FELT it, as a member of the team. It’s a fantastic dev team, filled with incredible talent. How then, with such a close-knit team, did you always feel less-than?

Well, just take a look around. Look at BW’s social media posts and count the proportion of SWTOR game/fan/anything posts compared to ME or DA. Remember that BioWare 25th anniversary book? The beautiful 328 page recollection of BioWare’s history, and celebration of all franchises?

For a game like SWTOR that had been live already for 9 of those 25 years at the time of publication, how many pages, dear reader, do you think had any SWTOR imagery or content at all? Ten. Teams notice this. They feel it, and it feels like shit.

Does BW despise SWTOR? I don’t think so – they don’t understand it, and it was someone else’s game. Does EA despise SWTOR? I don’t think so – it’s a legacy live service, and again, was someone else’s game.

As a dev on SWTOR, you feel like your game is a burden to all of the layers above you, but you persist. You put so much heart and passion into the game, and you thrive on the fans and tremendous partnership with LucasFilm.

So to bring us back to current news, imagine a team excited about a game, with incredible plans, that have felt ‘less-than’ by their own studio and company for years, being unleashed.

Being part of an org that KNOWS the MMO business, and understands those player communities and the incredible stories and connections they form.

This feels like an exciting new chapter to me, and I’m optimistic about what this means for that team and the game. SWTOR is, to the best of my knowledge, the longest-running Star Wars anything, ever. It’s a special game and I’m so happy to see where the team takes it.

As far as BW, it would have certainly be in their best interest as a business to maximize exposure and support for SWTOR publicly over the years, since the SWTOR revenue has allowed for the…unusually long…dev cycles to continue for the last several games.

But now without SWTOR, there will be less places to hide heads, R&D, and time. You’ve got blockbuster single-player experiences hitting high Metacritic scores with…2-3 year dev cycles? And the BW pattern has been…double? Triple that?

I think it will be interesting to see how the EA/BW relationship continues to evolve in this new world. /end"

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#sw:tor #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #mass effect #next mass effect #anthem #video games #long post #longpost