Veilguard Isn’t the First Dragon Age Game to Face ‘Woke’ Criticism - eviltoast
  • Phegan@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    Anyone who doesn’t play a game because it’s woke, has their head so far up the culture war ass, they have lost all reason.

    It’s also the same people where the message behind more subtle media is lost on them. Starship troopers, for example.

    • bread@feddit.nl
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      17 days ago

      There usually aren’t many complaints of something being woke if the product is actually good. I think the main takeaway is that nobody wants to be lectured, and told they are wrong for having a different opinion, and amateurish writing can easily come across as preachy or being a self-insert.

      • Case@lemmynsfw.com
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        16 days ago

        I picked up Veilguard because I enjoyed Origins and Inquisition. The second game… at this point, I don’t think I took it right and its my problem and I need to give it another chance.

        I’m still very early into the game, but the only “woke” thing I’ve seen so far is variable gender identity during character creation.

        You want to play a “woman” who looks masculine, with atypical male traits, even a penis, and a deep voice? You know what, I’m glad the option is open to people. It doesn’t vibe with me personally, but I’m glad that people I care about can make a character that is “them,” because who hasn’t made themselves in an RPG at some point in their life, best they were able.

        Again, I’m early to it, but that is all of the “woke” shit I’ve seen.

        For the record, I have friends and family in the LGTBQ+(whatever, doesn’t matter) that I support.

        I don’t want hate in my heart, and I’ve worked very hard to overcome some biases that came from my more “southern” upbringing. Hell, one of those biased views from the past is now openly trans, and I was the only family member they talked to because they couldn’t talk to anyone else.

        I’m imperfect, as all humans are, but it isn’t hard to fucking TRY, just a little, to realize that someone else’s self image and happiness doesn’t affect mine other than what pronouns I use to refer to them. Fuck, its not hard. Just don’t be a dick.

      • PunchingWood@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Pretty much this.

        I will likely get downvoted into oblivion for saying this (as usual), and I will prelude by saying that I generally never care if there are gay, trans or whatever stuff in games. But transgenders and pronouns were never ever a thing in the Dragon Age franchise, and now they suddenly feature these so prominently. They just handled this very badly.

        The fact that writing is generally just plain bad for this game, these inclusive options also seems to affect the rest of the game as well. And it indeed makes it look like they focused on the wrong narrative so much. The way Skill Up reviewed the game was perfect, his best summary was “it’s as if HR is standing in every room” or something along those lines. Like nobody is allowed to insult, or be insulted, in this franchise that used to be pretty dark and grim.

        • november@lemmy.vg
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          16 days ago

          But transgenders and pronouns were never ever a thing in the Dragon Age franchise, and now they suddenly feature these so prominently.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krem_(Dragon_Age)

          Every Dragon Age game has had pronouns because that’s how fucking language works. Your brain has just been poisoned by right-wing outrage over “pronouns”.

          Also, “transgenders” isn’t a word. “Transgender” is an adjective, not a noun, not that I expect that to mean anything to someone who freaks out about “pronouns”.

        • Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com
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          16 days ago

          But Dragon Age was never good, either.

          The first one was mediocre at best with some good ideas, and it was all downhill from there.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Yeah but have you seen the cutscenes of DA:V?

        If that childish word salad sounds “preachy” to you, you need to go to a different preacher! Yours can’t even english.

        How can this sound preachy to anybody? Has the fascist right lowered their own standard of education enough to where they think Marvel-style dialogue is normal?!

    • acosmichippo@lemmy.world
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      16 days ago

      agreed, there is so much lore more to criticize about this game but of course this is what gets headlines and rage clicks.

      • Vega@feddit.it
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        17 days ago

        Imho it’s marketing. The game is bad, writing is bad, gameplay is boring after a while, it seems (except for technical optimization) the game itself is a big mobile game. The “woke criticism” is exploited by ea to sell more, since it create engagement and hide the real flaws of the game

        • ms.lane@lemmy.world
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          16 days ago

          Remember when EA did a whole gaywashing thing after being voted worst company in America, two times running.

          Pepperidge Farm remembers.

    • overload@sopuli.xyz
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      17 days ago

      For some reason the second most followed curator on steam is Sweet Baby Inc Detected. Its pretty widespread brain rot.

      • Agent Karyo@lemmy.world
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        16 days ago

        Sweet Baby Inc Detected

        Never heard of this. It took me some time to even figure what their comments meant.

        It’s almost comical to see how obsessed people are about this stuff.

        Don’t get me wrong, the commercialization of minority themes and the preachy attitude can get annoying, but it’s hardly a dealbreaker if the gameplay and/or story are good.

        Games are full of extremely stupid and lazy tropes.

        • overload@sopuli.xyz
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          16 days ago

          That’s it. The Alan Wake 2 “race change” actually allows for some interesting links between Quantum Leap and the Alan Wake stories, but it was seen as a DEI situation. If a game is bad, it’s generally bad for reasons beyond DEI or wokeness.