Incoming rant-y wall-of-text!
So... The Black Emporium. Where to begin? How about 3 months ago, when the beta program featuring the BE was announced? February 13th. On that date, the BE must have been in a playable state, and from the looks of the screenshots in the announcement, visually complete. So what took so long? Why the 3 month wait to release it? I’ve heard that Xenon lacked a voice in the beta, so that’s one reason, but that doesn’t sound like it would have taken 3 months to rectify. The mirror and stores must have been working too, so the testers could actually test things. If the DLC was released shortly after the beta, I wouldn’t be making this thread, but as it stands, I am very disappointed. Here’s why:
In all this extra time, people wonder what is taking them so long, and they naturally think it might be because they’re adding cool new stuff, especially when the description says there are “new schematics”. Not too crazy to think that they might finally add the first qunari-specific armour, is it? Or at least new schematics for armour in general. Unfortunately, we got nothing that wasn’t in the game already. Re-skins of armour and schematics for some of the unique weapons that are already in the game. You can now craft Sulevin Blades. Cool, I guess, but that’s not what I get from “new schematics”. Technically, they are. Be very careful how you take any description in the future; this is PR speak if I’ve ever seen it.
You can buy every crafting material (except the ones from JoH). That’s a good addition. They are very expensive and limited though, and if you have to go adventuring to find enough gold to buy them, you’ll won’t be lacking in materials anyway. You can’t buy any fade-touched materials (not even one of each or something), so the main draw of this is to either get a material for the armour-tinter or dragon materials. Adding these is a lot better than not though, so thanks.
I am also very disappointed that they did not bring back Hawke’s VA to voice Xenon, instead hiring someone else. Unless the voice, tone, and mannerisms are just completely different, in which case I’d be confused as to how and why Hawke’s VA did it so differently this time. There is no Urchin, no Thaddeus Gigantus Crumbum the Third. There are also no codexes to read except for Xenon’s. A little disappointing compared to DA2, but not anywhere near my biggest issue.
Another unfortunate aspect of the DLC is that if you have JoH, you won’t have much use for it, since you’ll get loads of crafting materials in it, as well as Tier 4 weapon and armour schematics without any gold spent. Still good for people who don’t have JoH, yes, but if they added some cool-looking new armour in the BE (which I expected), this wouldn’t be an issue.
Another positive thing is that you can go there before Skyhold and use the mirror of transformation. I don’t think I have to explain why that’s great. What’s not so great, is that for me (trust me, I know other people have uses for the mirror) is that there isn’t really a point, since I don’t need to tweak my character and there are no new options in the CC like removing the infuriating sideburns, or new hairs. It was pretty cool how you could age Hawke and give them new scars or longer hair in DA2 between acts, but that only works if you have enough hair to actually do that. Now, I know a lot of people who like to defend Bioware are screaming in their head right now, shocked that I wanted or hoped for new hair. Now, hoping was never the same as demanding, or even requesting. Did I hope for new hair? Yes. Did I request it? Yes. Did I demand it? No. Hope I cleared that up 
In fact, there are a few things I hoped for and requested (since it took so bloody long to be released), and here they were:
- More hair (without sideburns and male-pattern baldness)/a way to remove sideburns...
- Being able to save an appearance as a preset
- More casual outfits
- Tinting for Skyhold outfit and possible new casual outfits.
- Armour toggle for Skyhold.
Now, I’m particularly disappointed about the lack of tinting for the Skyhold outfit and/or an armour toggle for Skyhold. Why? Because those things already exist in the game! They just need to unlock them for us to use! It's just sad that after so many months, they still can't do those 2 very simple things that have been repeatedly asked for since launch. With the DLC being advertised as cosmetic, and with the addition of the CC being accessible at any point in the game, this would have been the perfect opportunity to implement these things and more importantly, if they didn't do it now, it makes me wonder if they ever will. So yeah, I'm feeling rant-y. 
Mike Laidlaw's comment at launch was something like:
“If it was simple we would have done it.
If we didn't do it, it wasn't simple.”
Sorry, but I'm inclined to disbelieve that. It's a great catch-all excuse, sure. But I know for a fact that you can tint the Skyhold outfit that appears under mage armour, so the mechanics are there. I also know that modders have implemented an armour toggle by "switching a 1 to a 0". I know that new hair would require work, but this? This can't possibly be too hard to accomplish in 6 months if the PC community did it within 1. Besides, that was the response at launch. If they couldn't do it at launch for whatever reason, put in the effort now. It's been almost 6 months. It's not like it isn't one of the most requested features or anything...
I definitely understand that you can’t just snap your fingers and make new hair meshes appear. But you’d think that they could have made a few in 6 months (the actually did make one for Isabela). You would also think, that in that time, they might be able to at least make some of the current hairstyles not usable by the Inquisitor available, such as Josephine’s, Cassandra’s, Leliana’s, Morrigan’s, Alistair/Cullen’s, Calpernia/Anora’s, Blackwall’s, Sera’s… You get the point. You can use Varric’s after all. You might argue that we shouldn’t have access to the more unique styles, but I’d rather look slightly similar to one companion than indistinguishable from half of the NPCs.
I was also hoping for a way to remove the horrible and frankly insulting sideburns from the hairs I want to use on my female characters, but no luck. Honestly, that should have been a higher priority than even new hairs, and once again, modders fixed it in very short order while Bioware are apparently unwilling or incapable to do the same within 6 months with more resources and a better understanding of Frostbite 3. This would have been the opportune moment to introduce a way to save a face as a preset as well. You could even make a few faces at once instead of having to restart the game to do so. No luck there either.
Also, I am a firm believer that any complaint is valid if a previous game made by the same company (or in the same series) did the same thing much better. That's why lack of good hair is a very valid criticism (among other reasons) and that's also partly why lack of casual outfits is another. ME had a few options, and things are supposed to improve as you make more games.
I don’t think my hopes for the Black Emporium were ridiculous. For a while I hoped for new hairs and tinting for the Skyhold outfit, but after the description of the DLC, I stopped hoping. That’s what I was supposed to do, right? So basically, when I downloaded it, I thought “Hey, at least I’ll hear Xenon again, and get a few new armour schematics to try on. I love cosmetic customization!” I got none of even that! Can I really be blamed for those expectations?
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I want to emphasize how if Bioware was better at communicating with their fanbase (on the official forum), we wouldn’t have these hopes. And they are hopes, not expectations. Bioware is aware of the most requested features since launch. Among them are new hair and an alternative Skyhold outfit. Now, since they are aware, it is their job to communicate their intentions to us. It’s not difficult, here’s how it would look:
-Yes, we are working on this.
-No, we have no plans to add this.
-We are looking into it, but can’t guarantee anything.
And bam! Just like that, you’ve changed the whole situation. Now people won’t expect or hope for (usually reasonable) things to be added if you don’t plan on adding them. I also understand that the devs are busy with work on new DLCs and patches (and I appreciate that), but in no universe does that mean that between them, none have time to say one of the 3 statements above. More importantly, the devs themselves don’t need to directly. That’s the job of a community manager, which we don’t seem to have.
Does all of the above look unreasonable? I, for one, don’t think so.
TL;DR: Bioware needs to get better at communicating, and what the hell took this DLC so long to come out?
Retour en haut
And I do know you're not the bitter type, so if you're angry, it's probably warranted 
