FahRENheit06 wrote...
Do I care that DA3 is human-only? Not especially, and only in an overall criticism to the games industry that isn't exclusive to Bioware: what is with the trend of creating a multitude of species and races, then always focusing on bloody humans?
I agree completely, though it bothers me more than it botheres you.
I was actually just thinking the other day, "Why is it that in virtually all fantasy games: other races like dwarves and elves
used to have expansive empires, but humans are the dominant race when the game takes place? And why do most conflicts take place in human settlements?" I know Tolkien started it, but I'm also a little annoyed that so many fantasy writers are just copying it. (Even Dragon Age, which states that dwarves used to dominate the underground before the darkspawn and elves used to dominate the surface before humans, and 3/4 of DA:O and 4/5 of DA2 having human-centered conflicts.)
I was actually thinking the other day what a nice change of pace it would be if humans weren't the dominant race for once, but just one of many while others like elves and/or dwarves have the expansive dominant empires. Not even have humans as a slave race (as it would still imply that humans are special to the players and the central conflict would still drag back to humans), just kind of average and most settings and conflicts are about other races and kingdoms. (For instance, most of the game takes place in and involves saving an elven kingdom from some epic conflict, and most NPC's you run into are elves, dwarves, and other non-human races.)
But I don't think such a game will be made any time soon because a) players aren't interested in conflicts that aren't specifically about humans,
the game industry doesn't want to challenge players by presenting them with a story or setting that isn't all about humans, c) if writers were more honest with themselves, I think they share player prejudice. If humans aren't at the center of it, it's not worth writing about or fighting for.
But DA2 forced us to not be us, but to be Hawke through our lens (not a criticism, but an observation). So, why not allow us to be a Dalish or dwarf through our lens? Bioware is just admitting all their efforts go into humans and let the other interesting races be background to the master human race.
It bites, doesn't it? It's such a shame because BioWare has created genuinely interesting races, cultures, and conflicts, yet they're all reduced to bardboard settings for humans to walk through. DA2 frustrates me especially 'cause there are so many interesting racial and cultural conflicts all over the city, yet only the ones that involve humans get any semblance of depth.
Qunari, elves and dwarves only get mentioned when their actions affect humans (Qunari making human nobles and templars uncomfortable, Dalish making humans antsy by hanging around the city, the coterie mugging some poor sap), but otherwise they get at best an off-hand mention once or twice (unnamed elven fanatics lamenting Qunari seducing droves of city elves away from their ancestral culture, elven mages lamenting how they have to deal with the double oppression of being elves and mages, Hawke's buddy Varric having to attend some boring merchant guild meeting), at worst they don't get mentioned at all. Their job is just to stand there and look fantasy-esque so the human player and character can feel like they're in a fantasy setting.
Specific to DA3: We'll see how it pans out. Interesting origins are worth more than a hundred different playable races. To me, DA2 didn't fall flat because it focused on one human, but because of the reused environments, tedious battle structure and very disjointed story arc. That Hawke happened to be human is fairly irrelevant, though I'm sure some of the interactions between Varric and Fenris would have been more interesting as a dwarf or elf.
I actually think Hawke being human contributed to the overall poor game quality. Kirkwall has many different races, cultures, and conflicts from all sides: the coterie, the dwarven merchant's guild, the city elves, the Dalish, the Qunari, the mages (human
and elven), the templars, the nobles. But since Hawke (the protagonist) can only be a mage, templar and/or noble, those were the only conflicts that got any sort of depth or exploration. Everything else got left flat as a cardboard cutout, and as liable to fall over.
Retour en haut
and suffer the same fate as elves, low birth rates.
