Calax

I'm not saying an antogonist boss-style character... I mean on the most basic level, generic enemies that you usually plow through by the hundreds/thousands during the course of a game.

True, but I was more referring to something like is referenced in the OP's article. A Generic Hero Person who's rescuing the Generic Love Interest from the hordes of Evildoers. So Female soldiers in most shooters. Consider Last of Us. A game that generally is considered good about gender politics. The only women who are "enemies" are when they're not considered "human" anymore.

Slightly off topic, but if we get what Bruce etc want and have equal representation of genders among protagonists... would they object to antagonists being similar? Or are we saying that it's A-OK to have a female protagonist mass murdering the male population of a universe, but god forbid a female model be used in a "mook" capacity?

Flemeth is also a dragon and theoretically her personal plan is what sets the stories in motion for all three games. First by ensuring the darkspawns defeat by saving the Grey Wardens, then by helping Hawke and co reach Kirkwall, and finally by a batman gambit of having Morrigon give birth to an Old God. Right now the trilogy could be the downfall of the Chantry and the Church of Andraste. There's a dragon that guarded the ashes of Andraste, and Flemeth as two major forces within the story of the church... the one at the Bone Pit is just ridiculous.

Except that star wars is nothing like that in general. The Handmaidens were something unique to ONE Jedi master who had them indentured. It took the Tevinter teaming up with the other nations to push back the Qunari rather than just the Magi, and the population can tell the difference between sith and Jedi (especially when the Sith ran their own empires, rather than Revan's piddly rebellion)

Either different times for the warnings or different locations within town.

... Under 8 weather statements Tornado Watch Tornado Warning Tornado Warning Flash Flood Warning River Flood Warning River Flood Warning Tornado Warning Pollen Statement

The whole " generic white man rescuing bikini clad babes" is more symbolic, I don't think its meant to be taken literally? But even then, "generic white man rescuing babe" isn't as prevalent as he (or Anita Sarkesian(?)) might suggest. Nor nearly as sexist if you change how you view the situation. Or are you going to suggest Tomb raider falls into same category because the lead is chasing down somebody that she cares about (In a non romantic way pervert). This article and others who hold similar ideas only view things from the meta level, when within the story the characters wouldn't actually be "sexist" because they're just trying to save somebody who's important to them, but we yell at the tale because of the perceived stereotypical story is about specifically a GUY saving a GIRL from EVIL [insert bombastic music]. I wonder if he (and Anita) consider Bioshock Infinite to be sexist....

On the larger discussion, I can't think of many games recently where you're the generic white man rescuing bikini clad babes. Closest one I know of is FarCry 3, and in that game there were far more issues in the game than just the gender politics.

My dad was constantly telling me when I was younger that this was a totally capable substitute to milk.

Just what I've been waiting for!

I'd hope it'd be above an E game... I don't want my Blood Mage to be making little hearts come out of his hand instead of actual blood.

You know... I think the problem with character development in DA 2 is that it's got the big time gaps... so a lot of the development happens offscreen.

If you go to the store page it's only 75%.

Merill was all about how nieve she was about the world outside her own. Aveline was about how she followed the rules and was by the book Isabela was about sex Varric was all about stories and nicknames Fenris was "Grr Tevinter!" Anders was about his conflict with Justice, and how it related to the Circle of Magi Anders was probably the most depth to him, but his character is almost out of left field when compared to his character in Awakenings. And Bruce, the person who I know that's closest to Isabella IRL is a Lesbian who still has other interests beyond sex. Isabella feels like she's just "Sex sex sex sex SHINY! Sex"

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements? I kept trying to put her in my party and saw some of her banter during the time sink's that were created with the game. And deliberately put her in my party for certain events (her distaff counterpart, Zevran's appearance). I should point out I didn't exactly like Zevran for the same reasons. He was less clunky with "I <3 sex" but still it permeated his whole being to the point it just got boring. Also I tend to play Warrior/rogue characters which means that Zev and Isabela were redundant. With the way that the game is designed, DA2 seriously needs to amp up the amount of AOE possible given the only way they increase difficulty is by throwing more enemies at you. Now you're just manipulating the results by using her in the scenarios where you (rightly) expect her to confirm to your bias... True... I'll be kinda working on a warrior, and will try to use her (I did seriously try to use her but she just died so freaking much) But how far I'll get on a second playthrough (back to back no less) will be the question. I might swap to DA1 then go redo DA 2 but I don't know.

I'm havin a hard time following your logic here. If you kept her out of the party, how can you comment on the writer's achievements? I kept trying to put her in my party and saw some of her banter during the time sink's that were created with the game. And deliberately put her in my party for certain events (her distaff counterpart, Zevran's appearance). I should point out I didn't exactly like Zevran for the same reasons. He was less clunky with "I <3 sex" but still it permeated his whole being to the point it just got boring. Also I tend to play Warrior/rogue characters which means that Zev and Isabela were redundant. With the way that the game is designed, DA2 seriously needs to amp up the amount of AOE possible given the only way they increase difficulty is by throwing more enemies at you.

No, no, it's always. We started wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Gulf, Panama, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya... Oh wait... But in the end it was for their own good, right? I knew it !!! I always suspected that Serbia was behind all those conflicts, working surreptitiously to manipulate the USA in doing its nefarious and diabolical bidding. People talk about the Illuminati but I say nay, we should be really concerned with the Serbinati, they are real and powerful and there influence permeates all aspects of our society...and you have confirmed it !!! ... Serbia... Sarejevo!?

Doesn't DA2 have a scene where you walk in on anders saying something along the lines of "Next time, be more careful" after having cured her of something... (implied to be an STD but Hawke doesn't want to know). Also DA:O starts at about year 30 in the Dragon Age. And it looks like Inquisition will be in the 40th.

But that's because both Isabella and Merill are idiots. Or maybe Isabella is a non-idiot (but not smart, either; I mean, just imagine the sorts of putrid ecosystems she's carrying around down there,) sadist who wants to encourage Merill's idiotic behavior in order to savor the terrible consequences. Agx I want to ask you and Calax something and be honest with your comments. Why is it when we have your archetypical male character who espouses all "male" characteristics like being overly sexually confident we don't feel the need to raise or discuss this but when a women character does the same we consider this lascivious and worth commenting on? Double standards? Are women not allowed to say things like "I want to bed every man who can help me with objectives in life" without us being concerned about these comments I don't consider either of you guys sexist as I've read your comments on SJ and equality issues and I think of you guys as liberal. So my point is more of a general one In summary I think unnecessary attention is given to Isabela's comments because she is a women making them and a male character acting the same way wouldn't get the same criticism I didn't say the comments in and of themselves were bad, I said that Isabella was one note, there's a difference. I mean it'd be like if a "bro" was put in game and all he talked about was lifting.... the entire game. Or if they were The Todd Except that Isabella is supposed to be more than a joke character. And while the Todd had a few moments over the course of 8 years where he was allowed to be more than his joke, Isabella's opportunities are completely limited in that regard.

But that's because both Isabella and Merill are idiots. Or maybe Isabella is a non-idiot (but not smart, either; I mean, just imagine the sorts of putrid ecosystems she's carrying around down there,) sadist who wants to encourage Merill's idiotic behavior in order to savor the terrible consequences. I didn't actually see that much of it. At best there was a token attempt for her to get back to the sea but (at least in this play through I just finished) she basically was a bundle of sex jokes, followed by some protection of Merill and an attempt at the "lovable rogue" archtype that was sort of endearing but got a bit scratchy for my tastes. At least with Merill they were trying something different, a fish so far out of water that she couldn't see the beaches, but with all of the DA 2 characters their "one note" parts overshadowed everything else. I think the problem lies mainly in that your "interaction" with them is the party banter.... which means you get a string of jokes and one liners but doesn't give enough room for real characterization like the full on conversations you had in Camp in DA1 were. The DA setting seems like a place that Chris A. would be able to just absolutely go NUTS and create something really special. In my head I ended up drawing a lot of connections to NWN2, specifically the fact that even the characters were commenting on how Hawke couldn't walk across a room without tripping over a blood mage. Which is almost a direct parallel to the band of adventurers from NWN2 and how the entire party reacted the same way when they acted as the "quest npc's" for a young group (who got an apple for saving a cat in a tree).

Yeah I'm relatively impressed with some of the lady NPC that can join your party, they aren't an Isabela but there backgrounds and objectives look fun enough I'm playing through DA2 for the first time and Isabela... is kinda one note to me.... Everything is "Sex" or how important she is. And overall her 'long term' goal is kinda boring as well. Sure, she can be hilarious with Merill but other characters have more depth to them. Although they don't seem to have the depth that was put into the DA1 companion. Her liberated and sexualised personality was one of the many things I liked about her, also those pirate boots...yes those pirate boots There's a difference between liberated and sexualized person.... and "Basically only talks of sex for the whole game"

If you end up in Iowa give me a ring.... (you probably won't but meh)

Yeah I'm relatively impressed with some of the lady NPC that can join your party, they aren't an Isabela but there backgrounds and objectives look fun enough I'm playing through DA2 for the first time and Isabela... is kinda one note to me.... Everything is "Sex" or how important she is. And overall her 'long term' goal is kinda boring as well. Sure, she can be hilarious with Merill but other characters have more depth to them. Although they don't seem to have the depth that was put into the DA1 companion. I will say, one thing I hope they do is actually show the places you're going either on a map or in a cutscene, Kirkwall doesn't feel like a cohesive whole because of the artstyle mixed with the loading screens. Denerim felt like a cohesive whole in and of itself because you saw the city from numerous angles that were all in their own city specific map, as well as the overworld. I donno, I haven't finished DA2 yet, so these are the bare impressions, but the game feels like they were trying to do Mass Effect 2's success (make the story more about the characters than the actual plot) but failed to realize that one of the reasons ME2 worked was that the characters each had a proper core plot that were the main meat of the game. DA2 has the main meat of the game being side quests that may or may not be related to your characters, as well as small (very small) character driven plots, but having the characters woven into the main plot of the act. I admit I haven't been following much about DA:I but it seems like they're gonna stick with similar combat design to DA2, which I find... ok. I just hope there's a return to the overworld map and a greater sense of an overarching plot.