Dragon Age II: EA boogaloo

[hammerofglass]

The whole Mass Effect 3/Dragon Age 2 debacle really was at the peak of the "all triple-A games get perfect scores because reviews are blatantly a division of marketing" period of game journalism. It really is to bad the "actual consumer movement" aspect of Gamergate was never able to get any traction before the proto-Alt-Right completely took it over.

I will say I still remember parts of ME3 fondly. The conclusions to the Genophage and Quarian/Geth civil war plots were great and actually delivered on the promise of decisions across the franchise affecting the outcome.

[Darmani]

(note do NOT edit with the BBCode always says "too few characters" in error)
Honestly I don't even think it was simply just that. The way you're describing it feels more conspiratorial than the lack of complete professionalism it overall was. These were a bunch of friends who were trying to make friends with people who have the same Hobby and career aspirations that wanted to make things incredibly easy for themselves and credibly intricate and intimate with the people who they were reviewing. In addition to this a lot of the product that they were reviewing they were getting for free extras while at the same time getting early builds with the complete understanding and inclination to assume that any problems that they saw or just be fixed later.

They weren't secretly owned by the companies they didn't have to be owned by the companies. They were friends with the people that they were reviewing and they were log rolling their friends.

the real fall down, for me the proof of the suspicions, was with alien colonial Marines and other instances where was beyond obvious that these people weren't even good at their jobs. They couldn't spot a vertical slice even though they had a term for it and felt that breaking their ndas was too damaging to warn the consumers when they were promoting the games only two weeks before the things would expire. Then suddenly it was all oh boo-hoo our jobs are hard and we were Bamboozled and it's not our fault.

Add in the moral chastisement in the editorial pieces and while I don't agree making someone's private romantic life subject of a bunch of news it was pretty obvious that people suddenly only grew ethics in proximity to the people that they cared about. And that was not the common gamer. It felt incredibly humiliating. To realize that you weren't equal to these people anymore. you were a walking wallet.

It felt deeply insulting.

And they did this by hiding behind politeness and ethics or constantly chastising the moral failing of everyone around them. When it seems the number one reason they were doing that was so that that way they had a product to sell. So effectively we were being groomed so that we can look good for sale.

I did not own the consoles or a PC that could play these games. I was however happy when the bloom was falling off the BioWare Rose because people were often taking those games and using them as a gigantic bludgeon for how can you and why Japanese gaming sucks. Getting just a little perspective with a little failure on one game series that was emblematic of Western gaming superiority was much appreciated. Make no mistake I think that both markets can produce distinct and interesting product that can learn from and grow an adapt from each other. And I'm now looking back on the whole thing with more pleasantness.

But God that smug.

And yes this is the game and or set of games where they really started to show it. smug doesn't actually have a reason. it's a state of feeling and or being. People were smug about Dragon Age 2 and how they were aspiring it to be and what they wanted the Gaming Community to be and how they wanted it to serve them. And they were the same way about jrpgs, how Gamers were supposed to conduct themselves at conventions, and on and on.

One of the things that I liked about gaming, more from the pen and paper side, was that we had such a strong connection with the creators the players and the major influencers. They deserved respect and when they told us about something we need to consider it. But that was the respect of someone who was working on a project, but never could rightly claim to be a greater moral Authority like a priest or professor. No secret unique knowledge.

But somewhere along the lines it's pretty clear that's what they wanted to either become or saw themselves as. Then again if you've got to constantly regulate a YouTube comment section how else are you going to think about things?

The biggest thing that I heard about Dragon Age 2 was the attitude about its primary writer. what was it Rhianna Pratchett or was that Jennifer Hepler? At the time gaming was definitely trying to expand to be seen, as Chuck mentioned, a novel or a deep artistic medium. So there was an overall sense of distain for people, especially women, coming in telling us that now we were going to be proper fans with proper artistic games that can actually be fit for other human consumption. As opposed to whoever was playing before. Which was hilarious because let's face it the reason why Electronic Arts BioWare got popular in mainstream culture wasn't because of its respectable literary roots.

Not that the games were trash and that they haven't built up a fanbase Brick by Brick. But it was like, "okay popular now, time to get rid of the losers they're holding us back." The problem is you can't criticize these ladies because they got very genuine amounts of bile thrown at them. Like Chuck said there were genuine complaints to throw at the games but what kind of consumer has actual intelligent complaints about a product. There's a reason we have to do all that QA testing. And presumably that's what all these games media lunkheads are for. But they seem to be more concerned about making sure them their friends and the companies that they work for that were deeply interdependent on each other got their pay days and were in good spirits

So they're getting raw undiluted customer reaction on 1 end. With flattery and whatever you would call Rockies manager doing for him and Rocky 3/4 from the people who are supposed to be keeping them Sharp and representing the interests of the raw consumer bridging to the knowledgeable industry worker.

And the thing is you can't say that gaming wasn't it improving along these lines.

That it wasn't a good thing that we had an actual writer on the team. Maybe ultimately they just needed to put aside the false advertising. but that's just it

I mentioned rageaholic. His Dragon Age 2 review hits it on the head by comparing the game 2 Final Fantasy 13 witch as a representative of jrpgs with used as a bludgeon against the entire Market of Japanese gaming. Well it turns out nobody had a problem with the linear design and what have you. they just prefer the tropes traditions and pandering that came with PC gaming and BioWare versus 'anime.' And maybe it's me but it just feels like it's pandering to a more specific Western of crowd as opposed to playing off to younger Japanese gamers


It's sort of like listening to moviebob complain about how sexist gamers are remember him going on diatribes about Megan Fox's body and or presence in the Transformer movies. What set these people off?!

[Xaios]

Mmmm, the Voyager callbacks. Gotta love em.

[tacomoney]

Guys if DA2 has cursed Chuck we need to end the people who did this to him.

I need a party strong and true to defeat the EA board who allow these terrible decisions .

A champion to use as our tank to break through the HQ of EA.
A assassin to disable anybody who goes after our tank.
A spirit healer to keep our party in good health.
Finally a blood mage so we can sacrifice these schmuck's to lift the curse on Chuck.

Who will embark on this worthy quest ?

[BunBun299]

Funny thing about the Dragon fight. I also ran into trouble with it. Though it wasn't the game crashing on me. I just ran into a glitch where the big dragon wouldn't come back down to fight after I killed its offspring. And I couldn't hit it up on its ledge even with Varric.

I had to reload several times before the fight would finally finish.

[Archanubis]

Poor SF Debris; I think the only media personalities who have worse luck than him are Donald Duck and Waspinator.

[name_here]

I'd advise him to try burning down his house for the insurance money, but it's probably too damp to catch.

[Nevix]

Archanubis: "Poor SF Debris; I think the only media personalities who have worse luck than him are Donald Duck and Waspinator. "

EDIT: I couldn't quote the prior post, so I quoted it a different way. END EDIT

But his perseverance and determination levels are through the roof!

Granted... "through the roof" is a bit easier now, but that just means those levels go a little higher when launched.

...

Okay, that may be a bit too soon for the roof damage jokes.

Let's just sum this up with the statement that I have a lot of respect and admiration for SF Debris and how much he's gone through while producing his review series.

[TV-366]

Hmm, looks like the server change won't let me quote either (while also insisting I'm using too few characters), so...

Nevix: "Let's just sum this up with the statement that I have a lot of respect and admiration for SF Debris and how much he's gone through while producing his review series."

You and me both. Despite his house apparently falling down around him and the fact that the game is frustrating him in more ways than one, he's still doing his best to be informative and funny. Cheers for sticking with it, and rest assured that I'm very much looking forward to watching this series through to the end!

[Madner Kami]

"TV-366" said:
"[...] and rest assured that I'm very much looking forward to watching this series through to the end!"

So you're into torture-porn? Brave of you to admit that here.