I've pre-ordered The Masked Empire and Last Flight. I will be pre-ordering whatever ultimate collector's edition is announced the day it's available.

 

I was not satisfied with ME3s ending and had many strongly worded opinions. However, that didn't negate the 27 or so hours that I liked about it.

I submit to you all that the Maker is in actuality the biggest, baddest Pride demon in existence. Why?

 

"From an early age, Andraste suffered troubling dreams of a then obscure god known as the Maker. Slowly, she began to make sense of these dreams, and came to interpret them as answers to the questions that plagued her."

 

Dreams.  From the Fade.  Where the spirits live.

 

"The spirits shape their world to cater to the unconscious thoughts of the living, creating what the living call dreams."

 

Another quote  says a very similar thing: "When spirits encounter a visitor, most can't help but mine the visitor's mind for their thoughts and memories, and may use these to shape the visitor's perceptions and trick them into thinking their dreams are reality."

 

I am reminded of a quote, "When someone asks you if you're a god.. you say 'Yes'!!"  What if that's what a spirit in the Fade did? I'm just going with Pride, because, well... it seems an obvious fit.

 

 

 

Side note: I'm interested in what stories were told of the Maker while he was an "obscure god." Was he just a craftsman like Hephaestus? Was it through Andraste that he bacame the Maker of all things.

Well, if there's going to be a discussion about it, I wonder what dark secret about the Wardens could come out now. I knew they were shady the minute Ser Jory got shanked by Duncan. Talking to Avernus didn't help. The only people who think they are traditional type of heroes are people like Wynne. Who was just an old woman raised in isolation on books and fairy tale.s  DAO already showed us that being a Warden is whatever you make of it. Hero or not. What seems to be emphasized is fighting the blight and protecting the Warden's strength by any means necessary.

 

The Wardens started to appear sketchy to me when we got Larius' tale of what happened to Malcom. Then there's Bregan/Geneivieve and their "at all costs" mentality. Kristoff in Warden's Fall doesn't come off as heroic at all to me. Stroud felt detached. For q while, I was on Sophia's side due to Arland's exceptional douchery, but she and Avernus went to the enemy for essentially personal reasons. Alistair and The Warden almost seem to be an exception to the Wardens' general behaviors.

My situation is probably really weird. I was all about Dragon Age's first release. I knew someone who was (for a short time) a writer on this project in its very early stages. But then I read the Penny Arcade webcomic. I hated the thought of the Templars - the entire concept provoked some strong reactions. So I skipped it completely.

 

Then I came across Mass Effect right before 3 came out and did 2, 3, and 1 (I'm on a PS3). After already burning through all the DLC, I looked into DA again. as a human mage. I barely got past the Joining and kind of gave up. It felt generic, bland, and the graphics were so out of date as to be difficult to watch.

 

Fast forward a few more years to early February '14. I was stuck at home with the flu and didn't feel like putting even more hours into Skyrim. So I popped in DA:O to give it another shot. I tried a different origin this time (human noble). I still had all the same thoughts. But this time i noticed that each generic trope had a slight twist to it. And over time, I saw that all the slight twists kind of went together. And then I started to pick up other companions than just Dog, Alistiar, and Morrigan. Okay, it was pretty interesting. I played through the entire flu - when I probably should have been sleeping. Bought all the DLC and ordered DA 2 sometime around the Landsmeet.

 

I then picked up all the Dark Horse comics, the novels, the tabletop RPG, the Seeker, Redemption, the machinima, World of Thedas, and the collector's edition strat guide for DA2.

 

Kinda went all in.

The argument against the Keep sounds to me like it's about exclusivity and money = status. It seems to be the same mentality that says Coach passengers must use the bathroom at the back of the plane, even though they're only 5 rows away from the one behind the curtain.

 

But we pay for the experience - not the knowledge. Part the price a non-DLC player pays is getting cool plot spoiled. And it's not like all the info isn't out there for them anyway. Thinking that paying for DLC prevents them from knowing stuff is simply wrong.

 

But, the anti-Keep people don't like the idea of someone benefitting from DLC they didn't pay for. The benefit isn't gameplay experience, or knowing stuff, or even past events having an impact on the current story. The actual benefit is having a choice. If the non-DLC guy just gets a default story, that's fine; that guy still gets to make all the DAI choices that everyone else does. He just doesn't get a say in what influences the story made by previous choices.

 

Personally, I have no problem with the Keep because of Context. Ticking boxes is very not the same as having to make a decision in the moment and not know if this is the one that will lead to a change you might/might not intend. Heck, some choices you don't even know are choices.

 

As someone whose first ME game was ME2 (PS3), I had no idea what a lot of the choices in Genesis meant. And it was kind of a let down to have the Virmire choice already laid out for me by the time I got the opportunity to play ME1. That was part of the cost for not playing them in order. But none of that changed the fact that my Shepherd was more alive to me simply because I was able to fine tune parts of his personality and experience that would come into play later.

I understand the technology is backwards and the time/money investment would be ridiculous. BUT, I do think it would be super cool if they did some tiny DLCs for both DA:O and DA2 that wove some new elements of Inquisition into the previous stories. Not necessarily a separate storyline (ala The Stone Prisoner), but just some new dialog, cutscene, easter egg, or something that we'd find on replay that ties to the new storyline. Maybe prequel versions of some of the new NPCs (Companions or others).

I get the impression that the OP would like to see more concrete personal consequences for actions chosen by the player. Many of the choices in the DA series have felt like there was always one "right" answer that allowed you to have your cake and eat it too.

 

One of the best examples I can think of is in Awakenings. You have to choose one: Save the Keep or Save Amaranthine. If you save the Keep, Amaranthine is toast. But if you save Amaranthine, it's possible to have minimal damage to the Keep and it's population.

 

An example that I think matches the OP's idea (If I'm reading it right) would be taking Bethany on the Dark Roads expedition. If you do... things will happen. If you don't, things will happen but not so bad

I apparently pick two that just stay in and then rotate through the third. In Origins it was Alistair and Morgan. In DA2 it was Varric and Anders (third slot was almost always Isabela). I don't see any reason that I won't follow that format again out of habit. Definitely Varric, the rest will depend on their personalities. Iron Bull looks like a good candidate.

Warden: Huh, that's funny. We look an awful lot alike and you look just about my age as well. You say you were born in Ferelden, yes?
Hawke: Come to think of it, I'm the only one in my family with red hair. But that's not uncommon in Kirkwall. Every third person I've talked to is a ginger.
Inquisitor: Yeah, that's so interesting. [/eyeroll] So what's with the Antivan and the Apostate you're hanging out with?
Hawke: I wouldn't make any judgment calls just yet. Let's see who walks through that door for you.

PS4. Though I may get a PC copy as well if a toolset is released.

I want *my* character to be the special snowflake. I don't need the "last dwarf from the primaeval thaig awoken from a special millenia old sleep chamber." Bit I would like the companions to have individual character/personality. Zevran was just one of a hundred Antivan Crows, but his personality was highly memorable (whether you liked him or not, you certainly noticed him).

Varric - but not an emotional LI, wouldn't want his personality to change.

Cullen - Primarily for the history - he's been involved sine the beginning.

Petrice - but it would go south pretty quick

Norah - romanciong someone who has absolutely no other plot involvement might be interesting

Karl - If there was a "save Karl" option and then later a romance.

Behind everything will be someone we have seen a connection to. It may not be Corypheus, but it could be someone as yet unidentified connected to him. It's not going to be completely new player with no previous introduction. I'm guessing someone from Origins for the simple reason of "If you show a gun in Act One, you need to fire it by Act Three). Inquisition looks like a big ol' gun is being fired.

 

It's also not going to be a moustache-twirling villain who only lives for Chaos. Despite what Alfred said, people who just want to watch the world burn make for terrible plot. Even of it looks that way at first glance, there will be a bigger picture revealed later.

 

I don't believe it's Flemeth simply because she seems to be in it only for herself, and she gains little to nothing from these events.

 

I'm of the personal opinion that the rip in the Veil is a distraction. A huge one mind you, and it may serve another purpose ultimately. But ripping open the veil doesn't seem to be a big enough goal in and of itself.  that said, *a* reason for it could simply be the "fade spirits are jealous of humanity." Justice was really getting seduced by the experience of being human.

 

But what's bigger than that? Where is the dramatic tension on a character level? The big reveal will be a twist of some sort (possibly even a twist on a twist) and will have a deeply rooted character motivation at its heart. One of the only ones I'm coming up with is tied directly to the original magisters.

 

It's not just to be evil, but destroying the Maker's creation is a huge middle finger for the perceived damnation they suffered. They're going to think the punishment was far too severe for their crime. The prideful never think their arrogance is misplaced.

 

The OGs seem too foundation level to be responsible, though Flemeth being an uncorrupted OG isn't too far fetched. And of course, Morrigan and the OG Baby will probably be significantly involved in the resolution of the Flemeth plotline. Morrigan turning Flemeth's plan against her, even as Flemeth thinks Morrigan is dancing on her strings, would be great. It's a version of the "I know that you know that I know" deal.

 

Back to the mastermind though. I just had a thought while typing all this. having a mortal human ultimately be behind all of this, a chantry person for example, would be a dramatic coup. Think of it - if you're a devout, true believer who wonders why the Maker could have abandoned everything just because of the Magisters, what would be a way to get his attention? Do everything you can to put the world in jeapordy - force the Maker's hand. If a mortal could have manipulated these things, set forces in motion simply to get Dad to show he still cares... AND if you can pull it off believeably, that would be strong.

 

So now I'm going with that. The ultimate string puller is a mortal who wants god to come back and fix everything and love his children again. If anyone could undo all of this and turn Thedas into a paradise, it'd be the Maker.

 

(I'm not saying the Maker will show up or anything, just that, in this hypothesis, that could be the reason behind the crazy.)