#dg plays mass effect

[dgcatanisiri]

I am so fucking SICK of people bashing Ashley.

Like, why is SHE the one who gets the "racist" label when we have "casually calls anyone of another species 'a credit to their race'" Garrus Vakarian, Wrex calling every salarian he meets "pyjak," which is clearly being used as a racial slur, and Grunt chuckling over being imprinted with racial hatred?

Let's see, what is different about HER than any of THEM?

What makes it worse is how many people who should VERY. MUCH. KNOW BETTER. just judge her on the basis of a conversation which they only take as "she racist!" and not "I'm concerned about something on the ship, and am approaching my CO privately with concerns they can allay with very little effort, and yes, I have trouble seeing the foreign governments taking our best interests into account when making decisions, a difficulty that I do not allow to interfere with my duties or interpersonal relations."

And like... She's proven RIGHT come ME3, when the Council hangs Earth and the Alliance out to dry during the invasion, and she even manages to avoid any "I told you so" on the subject.

Again, it's pretty clear what the problem here, and it bugs the freaking HELL out of me that there are so many people out there who absolutely should know better who DON'T.

[felassan]

In this September 2023 episode of The Corner of Story and Game (“a podcast about the stories inside of games, the games that writers play, and the writers that create games”), it’s an interview with David Gaider. he talks about his early days at BioWare, a bit about Dragon Age development (including about an idea they had at one point for a Revelry demon or similar), about Stray Gods, creating a musical RPG, and crafting branching narratives in games in general.

A few quotes and notes are under the cut (due to length.)

Host: “Looking back, if you could give one piece of advice to young David before he started down this road, what would that piece of advice be?” DGaider: “That’s a hard one. […] I worked for BW for 17 years. I think my advice would probably have been, don’t give your loyalty to a company. It probably sounds a little depressing, but I mean, I think I always threw myself into my work as if it was my life, and I think that in the long run that was detrimental. Because, I mean, companies are companies, they put themselves first. You are ultimately expendable. You can give everything to them, be intrinsic to making them successful, but they’re never gonna give you that kind of love back, so. I think that would’ve been good advice to hear. It’s like, they called me ‘The Machine’ [because of how much he wrote so fast]. I did sooo much work to the point that it affected my health. I burned myself out. I had like three different periods of burnout while I was writing and they were each progressively worse than before. I always looked on it at the time as like a personal failure, like oh my god, I can’t write anymore, maybe this isn’t what I’m supposed to do. It stressed me out, it affected my health, I gained weight, you know, it really affected me on a personal level because I attached so much of my personal self-worth to how good I was at this job. […] That was a lesson that was a long time coming.”

--

DG: “The thing about Dragon Age, weirdly, was that every time a game went out it always sold better than anyone ever, on the publisher side, than anybody expected it to. We always expected it to be selling worse than Mass Effect for some reason, but it always sold better. [laughs] To my eternal amusement.”

--

DG: “I really enjoyed working with the composer and writing the lyrics [for the musical scene in DA:I after Haven is attacked]. So having done that, I had this idea that sort of wormed its way into my head, possibly after watching the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The thing I liked, the musical element of it was diagenic, like it was in the world, it was happening and everybody knew they were singing, it wasn’t just a metaphor for them expressing their feelings, like they knew they were singing and it was weird. And I was like, oh, what if we did something like this, and it’s happening, and we have a dream realm, in the Fade, and what if the characters, like there was some kind of demon, a demon of Revelry or something like that that was making them sing.” The whole team, especially voiceover and localization, were very excited about this idea, but the bosses were like whoa, whoa [as to them it sounded like a lot of work to do], “if we sell 10 million copies, then yes we will do that DLC.” “which was sort of their way of saying no, because there was like, no chance, but we got pretty close, surprisingly.” “But they kind of pooh-pooh’d it, I think the main worry was they thought it wasn’t a very commercial idea. I mean like, I don’t think you understand our audience, but okay.”

--

The host asked "What would you say is the best compliment you've ever received on something you've created?" DG said that nothing really hit home as much as a fan's response to his character Dorian in DA:I. he related how this is the character he put most of himself into as a gay man, and how a lot of players were personally affected by Dorian and his story. one one occasion, a player emailed him and expressed that they had been contemplating ending things as they hadn't been able to come out due to their religious family. they were feeling conflicted, and played the game as a form of escape. "Dorian was a revelation" to this person and game them the courage to come out to their brother, stand up to their family and move out. the player told David "I just wanted you to know that your character saved my life."

--

internet discourse started mainly around the time that DAII came out. around then it reached its height and they received a lot of hate, which was very concerning and distressing for DG personally. but moments like the one Dorian inspired were the kind of thing that made it worthwhile. "To actually touch someone to that point is like, wow."

--

"I never thought back when I started that games could be anything else [than heteronormative]. that's just the way I assumed it would always be. I never considered the possibility of an alternative until Jade Empire. there was a different team, I didn't work on Jade Empire and I still don't know who to this day brought up putting same-sex romances into that game, but here I was working on Dragon Age when I heard that they were doing it and that the company was okay with it. I was shocked. I was like, can we do that? Can we put that into DA? Is that a thing we can do? The idea that I could also tell stories that took more personally from my own life, that was news, and powerful." it was a revelation for players and for the people making the game.

--

[source and link to complete interview] <- pls note there's quite a bit more discussed in the interview than what is noted in this post.

[kcnnarys]

What games are you currently into? I've been trying to get back into Dragon Age and Mass Effect when I stopped playing earlier this year due to a break down (I had also deleted my blog during that time....oh yeah this is the person that sent DG memes to their friends to harass them. I'm not dead 💃)

OMG HELLAUR QUEEN . i really need to get back into dragon age i fear i had so much fun playing plus i have da1 da2 and da:o so . let me join you in that. but rn im playing subnautica and borderlands 2 which are both SAUR fun

[dgcatanisiri]

It drives me nuts that you pretty much have to actively TRY to get Miranda killed on the Suicide Mission, but she is NOT a companion in ME3.

Like... Right there, that gives me more feeling of ME2 having weight and consequence in ME3 - I've been open before about how ME2 feels more like a slog of a game for me, but part of that is also based in how watered down everything it does that carry forward are, because it feels like all those characters we spend ME2 getting to know are shunted to the side to bring the ME1 gang back together. Having this one character carried forward is a major step there.

It also would mean that Miranda would get moer than a reheated version of her loyalty mission as her contribution in ME3 - I like the idea of her trying to wrest control of Cerberus, or at least its resources, from the Illusive Man, basically trying to rebuild it into the image that she talks it up as in ME2, as humanity's answer to salarian STG or asari commandos, rather than the racist xenophobic terrorist organization it is.

[dgcatanisiri]

The thing is, I 100% fully and absolutely believe that Cerberus, the Lazarus Project, and Miranda specifically would go to any length to recover Shepard, all on their own. That opening cutscene where the Illusive Man tells Miranda that her job is to see to it that they don't lose Shepard... That's enough for me to believe that even death would be seen as a minor impediment to the business of ensuring that Shepard remains an asset for humanity's greater galactic advancement.

Including Liara in this business was not just unnecessary, it was actively damaging to her as a character.

She makes the selfish decision to chase down Shepard's corpse on her own, to not even acknowledge anyone else in Shepard's life, up to and including Ashley/Kaidan, who may have actually been Shepard's love interest - or, in a case like mine, playing Shepard as a gay man, HAD to have known of his attraction to Kaidan that bullshit game mechanics do not allow the expression of - and then hand it off to Cerberus on the off chance that they will be able to defy all known laws of science and nature to achieve.

Like... Again, going off the perspective that this all plays out for me, Liara doing all of this? This is not a grand gesture of undying love. This is an act of selfish obsession.

And the only reason I can think to have hardwired this in, made this the way that things play out, is that BioWare wrote her story ONLY with her in mind as a love interest. That they wanted this to be the grand gesture of undying love and gave no consideration to how anyone not romancing Liara would see it, because why WOULDN'T you romance Liara? She's everything a heterosexual male could want from his arm candy of a love interest, being inherently devoted to him and an awesome badass, but NEVER outshining him.

I trust you can see where the flaw in this approach is without me needing to point it out.

[dgcatanisiri]

Even if I wasn't opposed to and even repelled by Reyes on a character level, my core issue with him as both a romance and taking over Kadara Port ultimately is the how of it. Where to have the opportunity to lock him in as a romance or even just let him take control of the port is not just letting Sloane die, but actively choosing to do that, and in doing so, betraying someone who does not trust easy.

She turns to Ryder for help with facing the Charlatan, at a time when the Initiative as a whole is on her shit list. She chooses to trust Ryder to watch her back. And to side with Reyes is saying that she was wrong to do that. That Ryder was not someone to ask for help when she needed it most.

Like I understand not liking Sloane's MO and attitude, sure, and even not trusting her based on her history, both in game and expanded universe-wise. But considering that Kadara is an ongoing gang war where no one has clean hands in deed or motivation, I refuse to consider that worthy of a summary death sentence. Everything Sloane and the Exiles are up to is something that Reyes and the Collective do as well - the Collective always shows up at the Oblivion lab, Sloane calls the Initiative paying her a protection fee and Reyes calls it a tax. Hell, at the Collective base we go to, the ONLY REASON the prisoners stop being tortured is because Reyes put out orders of the Collective being on its best behavior for the Pathfinder - which is controlling the image that Ryder gets of them. And those prisoners end up being executed if Reyes is forced to run.

And then you have the romance lock in being Reyes and Ryder making out like five feet from Sloane's still warm corpse, which... Ugh.

I don't care what popular fandom opinion is. I'm always saving Sloane.

[dgcatanisiri]

It's so frustrating how just a few dialogue tweaks could make Liara's use on Mars better. I'm still frustrated how she basically boots James out of the party in a time where he still hasn't proven to new players his worth, but... It'd be a little better.

Like I'm convinced that her greeting from Shepard is swapped around between romanced and friend - it SHOULD be friends giving the "good to see you, Liara" greeting, while a romanced Shepard would greet her with a starry voiced "Liara." But no, it's switched around (gee, wonder if this has any connection with that damn bug that makes a Paragon line on Mars mean Atheyta will claim Shepard and Liara are in a relationship...).

But also instead of the remark how Ashley/Kaidan "have become quite capable," which... I'm sorry, Liara, who is it that hid under a console on Therum, while the others were active combatants against a krogan battlemaster, again?

Instead, she should remark that Ashley/Kaidan "are holding up quite well, considering Earth." There, her remark goes from having an undercurrent of superiority, even jealousy (depending on everyone's romance status), to a compassionate comment. Add in a remark of how she doubts that she'd be holding together as well in their place, you have some foreshadowing for Thessia later.

Seriously, though, Liara does nothing - aside from a biotics tutorial - that couldn't be done as easily on her part as a voice on the comms. So keep James in the party a little longer, give him some banter development, then have Shepard have him head back to the shuttle as they get to the tram in the name of giving them a quick exit, and THERE Liara joins (at the same point of getting the tutorial on 'hold position' command, which could also cover the biotics tutorial, just a bit later).

The issue so frequently centered on Liara is that it takes SO LITTLE to make her presented even slightly less overbearing in terms of story favoritism, and yet...

[dgcatanisiri]

Seriously, the long hold on Liara panting with exertion after defeating the Broker is just SCREAMING "Shepard, you totally HAVE to kiss her! Why aren't you kissing her?!"

Like this whole DLC is already a Liaramance with the serial numbers filed off to claim it's for any Shepard, but every time Shepard and Liara aren't actively engaging in plot-based activities, it is VERY clear how Shepard is written from the stance of romancing her, rather than even just be friendly, let alone my preference of keeping her no closer than arm's length.

[dgcatanisiri]

For the results of a project called "Firewalker," the M-44 Hammerhead is actually very bad at any sort of crossing of fire, both flame-fire and gun-fire.

Recommend rebranding.

[dgcatanisiri]

BioWare has Shepard make the wrong argument about destroying the Heretic geth. It's not about "if there's even the slightest chance of them choosing to worship the Reapers, we need to be safe and wipe them out." And what's really frustrating about it is that the better (and, honestly, fully Paragon) reasoning absolutely fits in with the whole thing about the game in general.

The Heretics made a choice. They chose to follow the Reapers. They were making the choice to infiltrate the geth and lie to them by spying. These are the consequences of that choice. The consequence is that in making themselves a threat to others, they've chosen to be viewed first and foremost as enemies. They have chosen to be a force that opposes both the organic races around them and the geth they broke away from.

They made their choice. They're allowed to do that. But that does mean they face those consequences.

And BioWare in general is weird about this - you get Paragon points at first for acknowledging that rewriting is functionally like brainwashing an entire race, which is pretty blatantly a condemnation, but then NOT brainwashing the Heretics is the Renegade choice?

I mean, you could even see it as reflective of the later Collect Base choice... except the positions are reversed, and destruction of the potential threat is seen as bad and the continued existence of this potential threat in the wrong hands is good. So I don't really get what BioWare was going for here. MAYBE arguing that wiping out the Heretics is akin to genocide, but... That really feels like a stretch when you factor in that the Heretics are explicitly a faction of geth, not the whole.

[dgcatanisiri]

"Don't come aboard the Normandy, Liara. Let's keep things professional."

"Okay, Shepard. By the way, I'm totally gonna keep your dogtags and never tell you about it."

Professional, huh?

[dgcatanisiri]

I get it conceptually, that they could only have so much variation with the ways that the characters could be developed, considering that they're both player options, but I really REALLY wish that the Ryder twins could get more relationship variation in-game.

Like... I legitimately don't play them as "partners in crime" kind of siblings. I definitely like the idea of playing some strain between them - the Ryder family overall is a dysfunctional mess, no way that didn't impact the twins.

It's one of the biggest messes of Andromeda's writing - the main plot elements seem to talk up the value and importance of blood family, but the side quests are more about how blood lets you down and found family is more important. And it's not that these ideas can't coexist, but they're both jockeying for status as the central idea, which... just turns both concepts into hash.

[dgcatanisiri]

"My sources said you were alive," Liara says.

When she is responsible for Cerberus having their body. For the purpose of resurrecting them.

I have my many complaints about Liara in each game, but I honestly think that, for all her limited screentime, ME2 may actually be the worst about giving Liara a pass and allowing her to do and be a very questionable person who Shepard should be even slightly more skeptical of, while treating her as perfectly shining paragon.

Like really, I don't MIND morally ambiguous Liara. I just want her to be QUESTIONED about her morally ambiguous actions, to face blowback from the fact that she decides things and the people around her only get to react.

Y'know, twelve years after ME2 released, we're in full swing of talking about the bodily autonomy of people all over again. Liara, in giving Shepard's body to Cerberus, decided her wishes for Shepard superseded what they - or even a romanced Ashley/Kaidan, who would have qualified as Shepard's next of kin above her - would have wanted with them.

AND NEVER IS THIS QUESTIONED. The only moment of anger from Shepard (which is bugged that you only get to have the opportunity to ask the question ONCE) is about her keeping it secret, not that she did it. And the dialogue loops around to the friendly, casual 'let me know if I can help,' as if no one expected Shepard to be angry about this, about Liara deciding "I want Shepard alive for me, so I will allow this."

I don't hate Liara. But I absolutely would keep her at arm's length at the closest after this, which is IMPOSSIBLE to play in the game, unless you simply do not talk to her AT ALL, and even then, there are plenty of moments where she shows up anyway. I would love to explore the character of Liara in taking her questionable actions and actually questioning her - I'm not saying she needs to not do the things she does. I'm just saying that she should not be given a pass of these things, that being angry about her choices should be accepted as entirely viable.

That BioWare can't picture anyone being angry at Liara, can't imagine any reason not to invite her as close as possible, is all over the writing of these games. And that's a PROBLEM.

[dgcatanisiri]

My heart wants me to rant again on the mistreatment of Gil Brodie in this game, by reducing him to a walking turkey baster and refusing to actually do the work of the "making me a better man" arc that the romance culmination scene claims he's been through, on top of the microaggression (...nah, macroaggression) of how the romance scene is framed - no build up to the sex, just "wham bam!" because it's not like gay guys care about the build up, no, they just want sex, so who needs the build before throwing things into hot and heavy, right?

My mind is tired and needs sleep, and also recognizes that none of this I haven't said before.

I still demand reparations for this, BioWare.

[dgcatanisiri]

Part of what makes things on Kadara so frustrating for me is how BioWare so BLATANTLY stacks the deck against Sloane - she meets Ryder and is closed off, not opening up with Ryder, while Reyes is amiable, he's then outright poised against her as an antagonistic figure, which makes him seem more appealing, you get to flirt with him (he's also the M/M romance option who was available at launch and NOT burdened by homophobic writing), he gets this touching little character beat, all that... Not to mention the fact that his voice actor is one that the BioWare fandom tends to be pretty positive on overall.

So with all of this, of course the majority opinion is to gravitate to him and not Sloane.

But the thing is, you look around, you see that Reyes is manipulating Ryder. He feeds them a cultivated image, has the Collective dress up their actions and deeds in the nicer appearance, with the base out in the Badlands itself showing that they are expecting Ryder to show up, and that they then want to be on their best behavior around the Pathfinder. Unlock the door to their prisons, the door that is defaulted to locked, the guard on duty only stops the torture when Ryder drops their title. And those prisoners all end up executed if Sloane survives the encounter with Reyes and the base goes hostile on Ryder.

Like... Sloane had justification for going rogue in the first place. Her harshness is in response to the harshness she's endured trying to survive - the lessons learned by fighting the kett, by having people who were let down by the dream dependent on her to get them to safety in a place hostile to their very existence, the fact that survival meant fighting, and it's harder to turn that off than it is to start.

Reyes? He's looking for power without the risk of being out in the open, hence him being the Charlatan, hence him using Keema as a face in Kadara if he's allowed to kill Sloane. He's trying to find a way to hold all the cards in Heleus - he's undermining Sloane in an effort to take the port, giving him a major power base in the cluster, he's working with the angaran Resistance, has a place enough to be directly under Evfra's purview, and in allying with Ryder, he gets in good with the Initiative. The only local power he doesn't have an in with is the kett. And he gets to look all saintly, because he's the nicer alternative to Sloane, he gives an anagara a token position at the head while he pulls the strings, he gets to seem to be able to give Ryder a look at this softer, gentler side... But end of the day, all he is is a nicer face of the same shit that Sloane and the Outcasts have been doing all the same, and helping him take Kadara is saying you've fallen for his act because he was NICE. To Ryder, specifically.

And, end of the day, here's where I say the moral option is to side with Sloane - she calls on Ryder and ASKS for their help. Despite all the harshness that she's had to pick up over her time in Andromeda, she swallows her pride to ask Ryder to have her back. And to let her die is to say that her trust being placed in them was wrong. That she was right to be harsh, because look where showing vulnerability gets you - dead on the ground, while your killer and your betrayer make out five feet from your corpse.

Fuck Reyes Vidal.

[dgcatanisiri]

The bare minimum for me, beyond anything about disliking him as a character, that I will forever come back to... letting Reyes shoot Sloane is Ryder choosing to let her die because they don't like her. Reyes does the same shit she does, just dresses it up nicer. So it's just what do you want - someone who you know where you stand, or someone who smiles to your face as his knife goes into your back?

The fact that so many people seem to just take him at face value when he smiles drives me nuts. It's honestly bullshit that they even MADE him a romance option - take that out and he'd likely be viewed as even A LITTLE sketchier.

Though, legit, in my mind, a subsequent DLC would have had him show up and do a Bull-in-Trespasser and be in a position of betraying Ryder. If I had my way, it'd be something he'd do regardless of any of Ryder's choices, too, considering that very much fits the guy who shoots Sloane with a sniper while arranging a duel with her.