3 réponses à ce sujet

[odiedragon]

Dammit.  Even though I'm an elitist who's opinions don't matter, I can't get this out of my head and move on.  It's okay if you think my opinion is bunk though. 

I've done some heated lambasting of the changes from Silent Player-Created PC to Bioware-Created Hawke in the past week or so.  I've been irrationally angry about the changes that have been made for DA2.  I still believe that the game will be The Cinematic Adventures of Sword!Shep rather than a true RPG.

But you know what?

I realized last night that's not what I'm so mind-numbingly angry about.

I'm angry because Origins was set up as the beginning of a greater story.  Sure, it was epic in its own right.  But we need look no further than the title of the game for confirmation of this.

The game was called Dragon Age: Origins.  Not Dragon Age: The Fifth Blight or Dragon Age: Ferelden.

It was supposed to be the first chapter.  The beginning of something greater.  A game in which our choices would have long-reaching consequences.  A story with it's own arc and resolution, but with a lot of loose ends and plot points that are begging to be followed up on.

And now, instead of that, we're getting a wholly new story with a new non-unique PC.

This sets Hawke up to be the obvious scapegoat.  The whipping boy for our deeper concerns and disappointments.  And it makes people who are not happy with the new direction look like a bunch of complainers who will never be happy.

It's not Hawke that's upsetting most people, I think.  It's the fact story that was clearly set up to be continued is no longer going to be told.

I mean, look at all that was put into motion and will now never be resolved.

• God-baby (or not)
• Finding Morrigan. 
• The fact that no matter WHO you put on the throne, Ferelden is poised for another civil war because there will most likely not be an heir.  Except maybe god-baby.
• Your decisions in Orzammar, and how that affects the dwarves going forward. 
• Relations with the elves, depending on whether or not you killed Zathrian. 
• What will happen with the Circle of Magi, depending on whether or not you saved or killed the mages, and especially if the Circle gets its freedom in the end.
• Empress Celine being spurned for her proposal of a "permanent alliance" with Ferelden.  Even if events lead to her offer no longer being applicable (such as putting Anora on the throne) she still would be miffed about it.  Even more so in the cases of Alistair/Anora, Alistair/Warden, or Anora/Warden.
• The Architect and the effects of letting him live or killing him
• The Warden's disappearance several years after the end of Awakening (and Alistair's too, in some cases... I for one still really want to know why King Alistair would be willing to run off with his Warden mistress but not his Warden queen, but that's just me)

The most galling however?  The fact that both the Origins and Awakening epilogues imply that our Warden's story is not finished.  Sure, you could say that Awakening is the futher story of our Warden.  But all Awakening does is bring up MORE plot-points.  There is no resolution of the outstanding ones.  It's a side story that takes place after the Blight which only brings up more questions.

THAT'S why people are railing against the changes.  Hawke is the embodiment of all these issues, so he gets lambasted and scorned.  But his existence, his VO, the dialog wheel... these are all extraneous to the true underlying problem.

New stories are fine.  Great, in fact.  But I know I was hoping for some resolution/continuation of that which was set up to be continued.  Not getting that continuation feels like betrayal, irrational as that may be.  It also makes me not even want to play DA:O again, for all that I enjoy it.  Where before it felt like we were being set up for something even bigger and more epic, now all I can think is "What's the point?"  Aside from killing the Archdemon, the story is incomplete.  And now that we know the story will not be continued... Maybe someone else can get past that.  I can't.

That's where, I believe anyway, the true source of the rage lies.  Not in Hawke.  Not in whatever cosmetic changes Bioware makes.  It's the fact that we're left hanging, with no hope of resolution left.

When I read the line in my sig below, I had one of those epiphany-like moments.  I literally stopped reading and stared at it for several moments.  This, I thought, THIS is the theme of the entire series.  Dealing with difficult matters, and how our choices therein affect our outcomes.  Now... now it all feels meaningless.

And none of that is Hawke's fault.

Modifié par odiedragon, 15 juillet 2010 - 03:24 .

[David Gaider]

DanteCousland wrote...

Davids comment got deleted....

I deleted them. I've addressed this too many times already, and In Exile did a much better job of it.

[David Gaider]

Sleepicub09 wrote...
but what you said before  made it sound like we will be importing our decisions into DA2. Tis is true.Yes?

Yes, it is. I thought this had already been established, no?

Your decisions are imported-- naturally they don't all have relevance to Hawke personally (as it's a new character) but they do affect the world. In many ways, Dragon Age is about Thedas and how it changes as much as your characters' place in it.

[Stanley Woo]

We've already got a thread discussing DA2 being different than DAOP. Please take your conversation there. We don't need everyone with a strong opinion creating their own new, separate thread on this. Thank you.



End of line.