izzy's playlists!
Stranger Things
Cosimo Galluzzi
Discoholic 🪩
Fai_Ryy
★
bliss lane
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
The Bowery Presents
PR's Tumblrdome
RMH
🪼
#extradirty
Game of Thrones Daily
h
official daine visual archive
Mike Driver
JVL
The Stonewall Inn
Product Placement
seen from China
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from South Korea
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from United States
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Russia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Lebanon
seen from United States
seen from Poland
@tubermylord
Random Monday - Veilguard ADLs
Having to eat food was probably a bit annoying for Solas to accept. But discovering pooping must have been disastrous and heartbreaking.
Also, I never found toilets in the Lighthouse, so I guess he was just hovering over edge.
hamwarmer 40k
One of the major faults of Veilguard's dialogue is how often it's shaped by generic platitudes and sound bites instead of actual specific things happening or being talked about in the narrative. "Sometimes people let you down", "Family makes things complicated", "Bullies are always drawn to power", "It's just people trying to live their lives", "You have to take care of yourself every once in a while", "When your heart and your gut are both telling you, 'Do what you can'--"
My biggest issue with this is not a quibble over whether or not these things are true (like all platitudes they are trivially true, whether or not they're appropriate or correct things to say in the context the characters say them), but that they are a style of placeholder dialogue that exists to avoid having to give specific details or actual development. They could only be interesting if they were argued against, demonstrated, or interrogated for meaning in some way. Instead, the characters often take these things as read, and so nothing comes of it.
Like the line "How many exceptions 'til tyranny?"--a one-off sentiment expressed by a Lich at the end of Emmrich's questline. It doesn't exist to provide meaning or create a conversation. It exists to provide a cheap explanation as to why Emmrich is not allowed to both become a lich and to revive Manfred. There is no impassioned argument on behalf of a grieving Emmrich, torn between the protege that he loved and the life's work that he is about to give up, spurred on by the phobia that defines his motives. Nobody thinks to argue that as a wisp Manfred wasn't a "mortal" who is "supposed" to die to begin with (but then, it's either canon-breaking that they can resurrect Manfred at all, or it's no big deal and they don't need lich approval to do it, and there is no in-between on this one I'm afraid). There is no exploration of what it looks like when a Lich has "exceptions", whether in the past or during the course of the story (since Johanna was obviously not trying to resurrect people in terms of what made her a bad lich). And are there circumstances where "no exceptions" can also be a form of tyranny? How would that work? Could Rook argue that on Emmrich's behalf?
Of course not, this is cheap glue holding the scene together, we can't interrogate it or it'll fall apart.
All of Veilguard's platitudes are like that. Neve says "The gods were people, and people can let you down"--no one wants to challenge her on this? No one wants to argue that "let you down" is a MILD phrase to use for "the people you selected to protect you decided to enslave and torture you instead"? No one wants to argue that they SHOULD have been better, they were practically gods! No one wants to push their basic faith that sometimes people DON'T let you down? If someone were to push back on this line, then it might have told us something about Neve or the character arguing with her. It might have given us actual specifics in terms of what is going on--in what way were the gods "people" and what made them tyrants? Could someone else have done better? Is there no other way this could have gone? But this is filler dialogue. You're not supposed to think about it. It is supposed to paper over the scene in your head so the writers don't have to tell you any more than that. You are expected to nod your head at this aphorism and keep going.
This is, incidentally, why so much of the dialogue comes across as blandly lecturing the player.
And it's not a SURPRISE that the game with the amateur writer as narrative head where they spent the majority of the development time with no idea what the hell they were doing with the story is chock full of filler dialogue, but it is, you know, irritating when it's the sequel that was supposed to explain shit to us. What is Tevinter like? Oh, you know. Like any place with people living in it. What were the ancient elves like? They were people trying to live their lives, of course.
I don't need the game to be having arguments with itself all the time to be clear, but platitudes are something you write when you don't have anything to actually say. When you know that Bellara's problem is that her brother has become suckered in by a charismatic cult leader and is about to do a ritual that will kill/torture people, then your advice to her should be about that and not that she needs to “do what [she] can but take time for [her]self too”. "Family is hard" CAN describe this situation, but it can also describe a million other situations and so if I was Bellara I think I'd get kind of pissed that it feels like no one's actually paying attention to my specific problem.
Yeag... Dialogues in this fucking game never had a chance given the potentially larger context that only made the "amateur writer being a creative lead" worse.
tis one of those days when the piss and the raging hate towards other men are doing the loud ass boiling kettle noises in my head
Characteristics of a specific layer of males in particular that just sends me to a stratosphere:
Middle-aged willfully ignorant cap-wearing fence-sitting gun&ball dad gamers with emotional intelligence and analytical skills of a brat 12 year-old teenager and argumentation of a toddler
Masq-pilled useless internet warriors going out of their way to make the most indirect beating-around-the-bush milquetoast stand from their fence against the obvious bad because they can be sure no one else will publicly judge them for it
The fucking "I know what I don't know, I bet they are as stupid as am I, so it gives me a license to shit on someone who I think is equally unknowledgeable" cunts
School bully brain residue carriers laughing behind the back of someone making genuine attempt at improving themselves.
Wasting too much time on Twitter randomly "calling out bad actors" because that is their equivalent of a "male protecting his space" without putting any actual fucking effort. Chest-beating pathetic stock trader vibe
Can talk your ear out about sports and cars, but ask them to do any basic theme analysis of the latest book they've read and they get immediately tired
Secretly playing Umamusume Horse Derby and Pokemon, while badly hiding this fact from their dad circle cuz it is not a cool male gaming activity
When someone is having a valid crashout about the state of the world and just venting next to them, they roll their eyes in annoyance and exhaustion because of "that person is not seeing the silver lining, they just want to be negative".
Any in-depth media analysis they encounter is "too negative".
Endlessly posting Trump gifs as reaction memes "cuz I actually hate him and use him a meme" as if there is not enough of the orange face being posted around
Random centrist spats while shaking their fist at the cloud
"I say what I want"-like pushback when they get called out for not reading the room with their drunk-uncle-truth-nuking talk derailing other conversations
"God I hate this guy" every time they see someone they decided to randomly dislike for a plethora of contrived petty reasons in the given week. When called out on this behavior (because it is obnoxious), they go on a defensive with the usual "leave if you don't like it, it is my space".
"I am not well versed in LGBTQA+/gay/women/[insert anything] stuff, but I have no problem with them either"
Overusing "weirdos" in their speech and labeling everything that is 2 inches outside of their comfort zone as "this is sooo weird"
Easily impressionable "I didn't know that these words have meaning" types
Switching into a sleep mode when people around them use a bit more T H E S A U R U S
Shit-talking cowards that cannot say fuck you to a person worthy of a "fuck you" in the same chatroom with them, because they might appear as an asshole as it might damage their digital circle and connections (it won't).
Usually type too slowly
They love using their social media with their real name attached to it as a personal sloppy whiny scream bucket not realizing most of their content just indicates a general lack of therapy hours
Not realizing that their minor inconveniences are just minor inconveniences and other real people can see the entire spectrum of their endless bitching
Posting vague "people just don't get it........" silent screams for attention/help like it is still Facebook 2009. Talk to your wife, dude, it might help.
In a constant inconsistent hypocritical pendulum between "idk I liked it, not sure why others are mad" and "Idk why people liked this, this sucks"
Probably Star Wars fans
They manage to find a modicum of sophistication (to them) in yet another Call of Duty to justify buying it every time
Fucking love military shooters in general
Have a wall of collectibles, some of which are just pure goonery
Thin-skinned enough to get personally offended by fictional characters being slightly rude. Not at them (in a videogame context), just talking rudely in general. Passive smoking profanity victims.
Probably have a podcast or a Youtube channel with other similar dads.
Calling out gamer behavior despite being one of the worst gamer specimen - the consequencelessly opportunistic spineless shit-talkers
Smart enough not to fall into using the rightwing rhetoric, but too dumb to being able to argument anything else beyond their misinformed surface level understanding of something.
tis one of those days when the piss and the raging hate towards other men are doing the loud ass boiling kettle noises in my head
that one time I accidentally made femSolas
YT randomly started to throw Susie Dent content at me. Whoever's idea was to put her into that video and whoever was doing this unhinged editing and put it out on the British television - I wish you long in good health.
(taking a long look in the mirror) would be nice if you just stop talking about veilguard
(sighs)
(clicks "Post now")
this is why i sort of avoid bsky bc like. what do you mean. is it that imperative to pick on people's exact tone and wording to... imply they're stupid and don't know what fanfiction is, bc they're being mildly negative about something? lmao?
Even with all of Veilguard's sins towards the sanctity of the creative processes and with the way it retroactively killed the interest in the rest of the series, you could still kinda forget about it and still enjoy Dragon Age Origins at least (as it is the most self-contained game in the series)...
... right until you unlock that secret ending with illuminati from across the ocean. This is such a surgical "fuck you in particular" right at the end, the finality of it is almost an art of its own. A monument to self-destruction and creative meandering resulting in one single "fuck it".
Fucking insane how insistent is that game to having to kill every single bit of worldbuilding.
we might need those in the future
disco elysium style dragon age interactive fiction game but the Voices are spirits vying to possess you
Peak. Now, what would be the context for this achievement in DA?
Also, I recommend Esoteric Ebb on Steam, it is the closest we have to fantasy DE.
Truly a shame we've never found a dry-humped-to-tatters pillow labelled "Felassan" in Bad Script font or something like that in the Lighthouse.
You can leave Bioware, but Bioware cannot leave you. Case #717489.31.C
Archetype Entertainment, a studio made by former Bioware devs, noteably by James Ohlen, published a highlight for their upcoming Exodus game that is treated like the best Mass Effect-like thing since aspirin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Ye3SVxfAg Particular highlight shows the dialog system... by showing people's backs for the majority of the video and with no subtitles.
"necessary" has unnecessarily large amount c's and s's that often necessitate double checking the spelling, it is such an unnecessary necessity
Smugjug rig by @moctor
The thing is that, unfortunately, Veilguard is the natural conclusion of the Dragon Age franchise, or at least the trajectory that was started with Inquisition.
Dragon Age: Origins is a Dark Fantasy (specifically, Bioware described it originally as Dark Heroic Fantasy). It has its light-hearted moments, but almost every single main questline is steeped in horror, in injustice, in facing the fact that the world is cruel and full of oppression and injustices. There are glimmers of hope, and we are given the opportunity to right some of these wrongs, but the game is still - at the end of the day - interested in being a Dark Fantasy. This is why the world-building is the way that it is. Our elves aren't like other fantasy elves, they've lost their history and are oppressed by humans. Our mages aren't respected and revered like other fantasy magic users: they're discriminated against and put in glorified prisons. Our dwarves don't have a thriving society overflowing with wealth: they're dying out and are clinging to a caste system that leaves most of the population disenfranchised with no way out. The game does interesting things with all of these world-building points, but all of these choices are in service of the Dark Fantasy genre.
Dragon Age 2, for all its faults, continues this trend. Hawke's story is a tragedy. They lose potentially both their siblings and their mother, and they are ultimately helpless to save Kirkwall. They are surrounded by persecution and oppression that they are exempt from in Act 2 onward due to their privilege as a wealthy human, and there is nothing they can do to utilize that privilege to aid the people around them. The elves still suffer. The mages are tortured and oppressed. Dragon Age 2 very much still lives in Dark Fantasy.
And then Dragon Age: Inquisition rolled around, and it felt...different. Markedly different. Suddenly the game wasn't interested in being Dark Fantasy anymore: it's a power trip. You're the leader of a powerful, militant religious organization and you get to command armies and conquer lands in the name of the Inquisition. The oppression is still there, but the game is much less interested in examining it in a meaningful way. Whereas in Origins your background allowed you new perspectives to the world, Inquisition's various backgrounds changed little other than what people called you. Yes, the Inquisitor can be discriminated against at the Winter Palace and can experience micro-aggression from various NPCs, but that's...it. There's no hard look at the Alienages, no further examining of the caste system in Orzammar, and the mages's struggles are swept aside in favor of "both sides"ing the argument with the Templars. Because in this game, we are now the institutional corruption. But the game can't examine that, not really, because it is no longer interested in being Dark Fantasy. Inquisition is closer to High Fantasy: it's about building your army, about fighting cool dragons, about feeling powerful and heroic and fighting the Evil Wizard Magister. It's about courtly intrigue, about showing up and looking cool, about getting to mess in another country's politics with zero repercussions, because we're the Inquisition. Our villains are no longer pillars of corrupt institutions, but extremist outliers.
And then, ten years later, we get Veilguard, which is not interested in being Dark Fantasy at all. It's all about building your team, about being scrappy heroes against impossible odds (though at least this time we're not forced to be the figurehead of an imperialist religious organization). There are some moments of horror, but the overall tone of the game is not Dark Fantasy. Which is why there is no real engagement with Tevinter's institutional corruption, with its long-held practice of slavery. This is why the game rips the Antaam away from the Qun and pretends like they were the only problematic aspect of it. This is why there's no true examination of how elves are oppressed or of the caste system in Orzammar.
And here is where the issue lies, not just with Veilguard, but with the series as a whole. Because these institutional evils that Origins initially placed before us were never meant to be challenged, not really. The Warden can make things better for their community if they so choose, but the level of influence they can have over the institutions in play is very small. But that's fine, they had an Archdemon to kill. But as the games progress, as we start to move further and further away from the Dark Fantasy genre, we also start to move away from seriously examining the corrupt institutions at play.
Because all of this was just set dressing for Dark Fantasy. And as soon as the games were no longer interested in being Dark Fantasy, they stopped examining these institutions. Because a series of games made by centrist Canadians was never going to actually let us topple these institutions, or examine why things are the way they are, or actually make meaningful changes. That was all just there for Dark Fantasy.
Yeah, over time you can see how the writing room and leadership succumb to this allergy towards Dark Fantasy with every game. Darrah, Weekes and others were pretty chatty about how dark topics were essentially grating on the developers over time, so they were shifting towards High(er) Fantasy in every department (especially art). I guess "Good Vibes Only" are necessary when you work in a sexist workplace infamously grinding people to dust.
Given what we know about them now, this "dark themes are sad to write about" just speaks to me of a thin skin. There are a lot other developers in the industry who are capable of just repeatedly pushing for it without draining their mental health with their own writing. I assume because these people have actual hobbies outside of their work.
Deviating from the darker tone (especially in visual presentation, which a lot of people often associate with DA) and effectively telling the community to "deal with it" was certainly an interesting method of a creative suicide. Also doesn't help that Weekes, who didn't want to write about Tevinter at all, came from Mass Effect which is a more modernist "feels good beating the bad guys" universe.
