Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Thread

[Heroic Liberator]

The fuck is wrong with Bioware, they are like NASA forgetting how to go to the moon.

Both are symptoms of the same disease. A cure seems to be in the works, however.

The poppamolization has been going on for a very long time. Each game after BG 2 was more simplified than the one that came before. This trend will never end.

Retvrn 2 Tetris.

 

[Harthwain]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

Them not announcing the sales officially yet is also sending a message, and we have other ways to judge how bad the sales are.

Dead Space 2 had budget of 60M + 40M for marketing, so that'd be 100M. It sold 4M copies. It was considered a disappointment. The budget for Veilguard was above 250M (not even counting marketing!) and the unofficial sources (I read there are two now) say it sold around 500k copies. You can do the math.

This whole thread is full of upset people, to be honest

You misspelled "happy".

 

[Gargaune]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

Which they won't (because sales suck). What information we do have - Steam stats relative to comparable titles, immediate retailer discounts, no DLC plans - strongly indicates poor commercial performance, and whatever counterclaims the press circulate are transparently disingenuous.

 

[Silverfish]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

When will that be?

About a month before Mass Effect 5 in the hopes that lifetime sales are high enough to claim "from the studio behind the bestselling Dragon Age: The Veilguard!"

 

[NecroLord]

The incompetence of tranny devs is staggering

Narcissistic psychopaths only seek validation because they are still stuck in the infant phase.
They could never grow out of that phase and deal with and heal their issues.
They do not care for writing good stories, stories about life, death, war, peace, brotherhood, transcendence. Nothing.
They only want more and more mediums to deliver their twisted ideology onto everyone else, willing or not.

 

[Ibn Sina]

Already disappeared form steam global 10 ten one week after release lol.

 

[Fargus]

i wonder how many idiot normies refunded this dogshit after buyer's remorse got to them

 

[Modron]

Probably less than you might think, pretty easy to slide past the 2 hour mark especially in a game with character creation (even if said system is real sad).

 

[Harthwain]

i wonder how many idiot normies refunded this dogshit after buyer's remorse got to them

There were supposedly 30k refunds.

 

[Oberon]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

This whole thread is full of upset people, to be honest

Well I'm not upset, I quite enjoy the schadenfreude of watching massively expensive, decade long development cycle woke projects fail

 

[Odoryuk]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

This whole thread is full of upset people, to be honest

Well I'm not upset, I quite enjoy the schadenfreude of watching massively expensive, decade long development cycle woke projects fail

Didn't they recieve the DEI money upfront and don't really care about the sales?

 

[Oberon]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

This whole thread is full of upset people, to be honest

Well I'm not upset, I quite enjoy the schadenfreude of watching massively expensive, decade long development cycle woke projects fail

Didn't they recieve the DEI money upfront and don't really care about the sales?

Probably from (((Blackrock))) seeing as it's development spanned the height of ESG, but you might be thinking of Dustborn, another woke disaster of an RPG which famously got funding from the Norwegian government.
But spectacular failures like this are what turned ESG into a dirty word and effectively killed it.

 

[Artyoan]

If you wanna know what EA's expectations were read these statements by the CEO:

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/dr...ews-and-limited-competition-in-the-aaa-space/

"When we think about what we have with Veilguard right now, we have a storied studio in BioWare, we have a storied IP with Dragon Age, we have a team that took extra time to make sure the world was rich and the characters were interesting and the story was compelling," Wilson said.

"I think we're going into a market that has limited competition for this category of game, given some of the moves that have happened across the broader industry," he added, seemingly referencing the shift toward live-service that's happening across many AAA studios, EA included. "And so while I think it's too early to predict the outcome, the critical reviews have been incredibly strong. The team feels really energized by what they have delivered. And my sense is that, yes, it has breakout capabilities."

This is the quarterly investors call, not some bullshit PR piece, so it's likely what he actually thinks. It's obviously not the "breakout" they hoped for, but if they were aiming for that they were probably ready to accept the risk of it failing also.

Imagine what the game would be like if they didn't take "extra time" to improve the characters and story. Saying there's "limited competition for this category of game" means he didn't think they'd be competing with BG3 for players, which they absolutely are.

You look at this guy's background and he's another clueless non-gamer. Hired originally at EA because he was a jock and they were making sports games so needed someone who'd actually played sports.

After getting involved in investing and trading for several years, quarterly conference calls are no different than marketing. Company leadership lies egregiously to their own investors, just in a different style for a different people. He may believe what he says here but I doubt it. Going in without a hint of DLC suggests he knew what it was. He can always say it was 'disappointing' and then offer no reflection on what that says about his own competence. Many such cases.

 

[Yosharian]

We know nothing about real sales until EA announces it, you dumbfuck.

This whole thread is full of upset people, to be honest

Well I'm not upset, I quite enjoy the schadenfreude of watching massively expensive, decade long development cycle woke projects fail

Didn't they recieve the DEI money upfront and don't really care about the sales?

Probably, but they'll destroy the long term prospects of the franchise/company

 

[Nerevar]

I'm too tired to care. I don't even want to play it to see how bad it is and I finished Da:2 and ME:A (free versions).

 

[Larianshill]

Retvrn 2 Tetris.

The final Bioware game will be like one of those flash porn games, where you play Tetris, and if you're doing well, you're rewarded with porn.

 

[markec]

 

[Konjad]

oh no, they noticed!

 

[Hammer Of The Heretics]

It's the standard 'media' two-step: Blatantly lie in pursuit of an agenda, then fake a superficial objectivity in an attempt to regain credibility.

 

[thesecret1]

Are there still any poor sods out there that listen to IGN? I thought such rags got pretty much entirely replaced by the steam rating

 

[Semiurge]

bluesky site that is a huge leftist echochamber

"No white clouds in my blue sky". How fitting.

Pure speculation on my part: c-suite wanted the old regions written out with a view towards continuing to reinvent Dragon Age as a YA or romantasy setting going forward. Chasing the ever cryptozoological modern audience, tasteless and profitable, "unburdened by what has been" so to speak.

Maybe EA considers Mass Effect and Dragon Age to be two sides of the same thing; Mass Effect for the mature audience with a slight skew towards male preferrence, and DA as the YA-oriented franchise with a heavy skew towards females and queers.

Pure speculation on my part: c-suite wanted the old regions written out with a view towards continuing to reinvent Dragon Age as a YA or romantasy setting going forward. Chasing the ever cryptozoological modern audience, tasteless and profitable, "unburdened by what has been" so to speak.

I don't know, I don't buy it. Isn't Tevinter also technically an old region? I think it's the decision of the writers, who were too high on their own farts. When you have no respect for the original work, it makes you do crazy things.

If you read some of the things Epler and Busche have said, it's clear they felt weighed down by established lore and player's choices. Their approach was to avoid complication rather than embrace it. Here's an Epler quote from this IGN interview:

For Dragon Age: The Veilguard, among many reasons why we moved to Northern Thedas is it becomes a little bit more of a clean slate for us. There's not as many decisions you have made up to this point that have an impact on what's happening in Northern Thedas. And we don't have to speak directly to things like who is the Divine? Because again, that's happening in the South.

They see complicated narrative as a liability and resent the CRPG player base that demands it. Since Origins they've been trying to ditch that fanbase by appealing to the brainless button=awesome crowd. Nuking the DA lore is just another step in that direction.

Fair enough, as I've noted before, I have no experience with the setting myself to draw on. From the outside looking in, Veilguard seems like a distinct tonal shift towards the preferences of a different specific audience rather than those of the typical lowest common denominator.

I think you're both right, actually. The new group of writers wanted to nuke the lore in order to make room for their self-inserts and whatever else their brilliant minds could conjure up, unburdened by what came before. And what they wanted to do with that clean slate was to write YA style romantacy. One of the few remaining mysteries in my mind is whether this was due to a push from EA to go after the younger audience (them dumping 120 million into the utterly horrid Immortals of Aveum which - yes I stand by this - had worse YA/Marvel writing than even Veilguard, remains very perplexing) or a deliberate choice by the writers.

Personally I'm leaning towards it coming primarily from the writers. There was one point in the trans critique that jumped out at me, about how similar all the writing feels to something called BookToc, right down to specific tropes and the terror of offending anyone. I've never heard of this community, but we all know how easy it is to get sucked into and consumed by groupthink, so I can most definitely see a group of writers up the asshole of this community shitting out this drivel and thinking "yeah .... BookToc is gonna love this."

Which they probably did. Problem is that it still fucking sucks. And when reality slaps back, it does it with an open hand.

BookTok, the TikTok book circle for troons, woketards and just plain ol' 'tards. Probably full of chinkoid bots and trolls trying to maintain the groupthink.

 

[Skinwalker]

I think you're both right, actually. The new group of writers wanted to nuke the lore in order to make room for their self-inserts and whatever else their brilliant minds could conjure up, unburdened by what came before. And what they wanted to do with that clean slate was to write YA style romantacy. One of the few remaining mysteries in my mind is whether this was due to a push from EA to go after the younger audience (them dumping 120 million into the utterly horrid Immortals of Aveum which - yes I stand by this - had worse YA/Marvel writing than even Veilguard, remains very perplexing) or a deliberate choice by the writers.

It's like Ass Effect Androgyny, except much worse. At least Androgyny was set in another galaxy, this shit is set in the northern part of the same continent, but apparently acts like the kingdoms of the previous games (Ferelden, Orlais, Kirkwall) don't exist, and also says that they've been exterminated at some point? Everything you did to save the world in the previous three games has now been made irrelevant, because all those places got destroyed anyway a few years later. Fuck you, Biowhore!

It's like that time Todd Howard nuked Morrowind because of some vindictive envy over Kirkbride's superior writing talent. IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN, VVARDENFELL NOOOOO!!

 

[Myobi]

Woah, thanks for the videos guys! Youtube was kind enough to start recommending me Dragon Age content now, big fan of this "Dark Stalker Knight Wolf" guy channel:

True Clan are similar to Moon Clan, but have called themselves True Clan, because they find themselves closest to their true wild and lycan nature. They are a completely peaceful clan, never use fire, and often can be finding resting under waterfalls. They find the change into their true forms is the greatest gift of all. They are a very old but very wise clan, and are the most nomadic of all clans. They are truly one-of-a-kind. The leader to this clan is a male silver wolf, and can often be found in forested areas, rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts, and meadows.

His 20 views 20 minute furry rants about how successful Dragon Age totally was really shine a light on the entire fucking thing, the sound of his voice has given me diabetes, but it was fucking worth it.

I should fucking sue YouTube for this sort of shit.

 

[Larianshill]

Woah, thanks for the videos guys! Youtube was kind enough to start recommending me Dragon Age content now, big fan of this "Dark Stalker Knight Wolf" guy channel:

True Clan are similar to Moon Clan, but have called themselves True Clan, because they find themselves closest to their true wild and lycan nature. They are a completely peaceful clan, never use fire, and often can be finding resting under waterfalls. They find the change into their true forms is the greatest gift of all. They are a very old but very wise clan, and are the most nomadic of all clans. They are truly one-of-a-kind. The leader to this clan is a male silver wolf, and can often be found in forested areas, rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts, and meadows.

His 20 views 20 minute furry rants about how successful Dragon Age totally was really shine a light on the entire fucking thing, the sound of his voice has given me diabetes, but it was fucking worth it.

I should fucking sue YouTube for this sort of shit.

Powerful Werewolf the Apocalypse energy.

 

[Skinwalker]

Woah, thanks for the videos guys! Youtube was kind enough to start recommending me Dragon Age content now, big fan of this "Dark Stalker Knight Wolf" guy channel:

True Clan are similar to Moon Clan, but have called themselves True Clan, because they find themselves closest to their true wild and lycan nature. They are a completely peaceful clan, never use fire, and often can be finding resting under waterfalls. They find the change into their true forms is the greatest gift of all. They are a very old but very wise clan, and are the most nomadic of all clans. They are truly one-of-a-kind. The leader to this clan is a male silver wolf, and can often be found in forested areas, rivers, oceans, mountains, deserts, and meadows.

His 20 views 20 minute furry rants about how successful Dragon Age totally was really shine a light on the entire fucking thing, the sound of his voice has given me diabetes, but it was fucking worth it.

I should fucking sue YouTube for this sort of shit.

What the fuck is this shit?