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Dragon Age: Inquisition


Gorth

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The Devil's Dictionary is cool, sarcasm's fine, what made it seem petty and overly defensive is that it's related to criticisms of Bioware's most recent games - any of the common ones - and acting as if all are invalid and unfair.  E.g. "Yeah, I was thinking we'd write some new characters, but evidently we only write old ones. Good to know!"  or "I have no problem with criticism, so long as people don't try to justify it by using words they clearly don't understand." The reference to things I've seen disgruntled Bioware fans complain about most, such as retcons, cliches, plot holes, lack of resolution, deus ex machinas.  

What actually bugs me is the superior, passive-aggressive vibe I get from it, because it reminds me too much of bad fanfiction writers who get offended by reviews that don't gush over their work.  I don't know Gaider, and I get why someone would get frustrated by BSN (even not as an employee of Bioware), but if I'm reading it right, that's a bad attitude to have.

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The Chantry doesn't have the Problem of Evil because while the Maker is good, he doesn't have perfect knowledge. He created his first children - spirits - and expected them to be creative. When they just copied what he'd done, he was surprised and upset. He created his second children - mortals - and imbued them with a creative spark. When they created pride, desire, greed, rage, etc, he was surprised and upset.

 

As time goes by, his children continue to piss him off. Then they kill Andreste and he leaves for good.

 

The whole point of the Chantry is that if they can convert the entire world and sing to the Maker, he'll return.

Thing is, the lore also said that the Maker resides in Golden city, which was desecrated by the Tevinter mages, turned into Black City.

But that Tevinter Mage you met in Awakening said that the city wasn't golden when they entered it, meaning it was always black.

 

By the time he said that, I rolled my eyes and thought, "here we go again, either the maker is a lie cliche, or the maker is evil cliche." Anyway, I hope that Bioware don't use cheap cliches to handle this maker, because I like the Fade and the religion in DA, among other things.

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this thread is weird

 

that horse is the final boss or something?  things as big as a dragon...


Killing is kind of like playin' a basketball game. I am there. and the other player is there. and it's just the two of us. and I put the other player's body in my van. and I am the winner. - Nice Pete.

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"What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class from medical school?"

 

"Doctor"

 

(ie, whether you're a writer or not doesn't hinge on being good or bad at it).

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I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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"What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class from medical school?"

 

"Doctor"

 

(ie, whether you're a writer or not doesn't hinge on being good or bad at it).

Yeah, I know.  It's just his self-congratulatory "I thrive on anguish, I'm a serious writer!!" pabulum that is irritating.  Dude, you wrote video game tie-ins with the skill of a 12th grader.  Get over yourself.

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By the time he said that, I rolled my eyes and thought, "here we go again, either the maker is a lie cliche, or the maker is evil cliche." Anyway, I hope that Bioware don't use cheap cliches to handle this maker, because I like the Fade and the religion in DA, among other things.

Isn't Bioware's stance that the Maker could not exist at all, a direct parallel to all religions in the real world?
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I get irritated with Gaider calling himself a "writer."  He's written a few tie-in books that were simply horrific.  Just terrible.

 

 

 

"What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class from medical school?"

 

"Doctor"

 

(ie, whether you're a writer or not doesn't hinge on being good or bad at it).

Yeah, I know.  It's just his self-congratulatory "I thrive on anguish, I'm a serious writer!!" pabulum that is irritating.  Dude, you wrote video game tie-ins with the skill of a 12th grader.  Get over yourself.

 

 

As someone who grades a lot of writing, I'd say you are exaggerating greatly.  Gaider's work is pretty average for the genre.

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I get irritated with Gaider calling himself a "writer."  He's written a few tie-in books that were simply horrific.  Just terrible.

 

 

 

"What do you call the guy who graduated last in his class from medical school?"

 

"Doctor"

 

(ie, whether you're a writer or not doesn't hinge on being good or bad at it).

Yeah, I know.  It's just his self-congratulatory "I thrive on anguish, I'm a serious writer!!" pabulum that is irritating.  Dude, you wrote video game tie-ins with the skill of a 12th grader.  Get over yourself.

 

 

As someone who grades a lot of writing, I'd say you are exaggerating greatly.  Gaider's work is pretty average for the genre.

 

The genre sucks

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I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"*

 

*If you can't tell, it's you. ;)

village_idiot.gif

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I'd have to agree, there is a tremendous amount of garbage in the fantasy genre :p

 

Gaider isn't just a writer though, he's a successful one.  He's had three books published, and I'm guessing his numbers sold is pretty good.  Now it helps that he has Bioware backing him up, but a huge amount of writers would love to have his portfolio.

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There's a tremendous amount of "garbage" in all of the entertainment fields; it comes part and parcel to the concept of the arts as well.

 

That doesn't mean it can't be fun or what not. I think that often what appeals to people reading Lord Foul's Bane is probably not the same thing that people read Ethan Frome for.

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I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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The genre sucks

Are you familiar with Sturgeon's response to that same claim about science fiction?
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"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
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I remember back in the day when Oblivion was developed, and maybe also the first Mass Effect? way back in 2005-2006; buzz words then were 'sucked into', immersed, and may favorite 'innovative'. They were used so often and so frequently that they quickly became clichées (is this an english word?) or stereotypes, thus losing their original meaning.

 

Anyway, the BSN is used to Gaider's talking points (hey, we've dealt with Chris Priestly for nearly 10 or 12 years, 5 or 6 of those as Evil Chris, we can take a bit of venting from Gaider, David). Gaider is the one person who outright tell people; "hey if you don't like the game for x,y or z reasons, don't buy it." And from being part of Bioware's community for nearly 12 or 14 years now, I find that most people on the BSN respect David Gaider for saying this. Why?

 

I think it is because it isn't marketing speech, and people at the BSN can feel that there actually is a person behind these statements, not some company drone or robot delivering prerecoded marketing messages. To me, Ray and Greg, the founder of Bioware, became just this, even if it (technically) still was their company. I mean, statements surprise and delight? etc. etc. didn't make sense at all - at least from my, and probably other's, perspective as well.

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Please support http://www.maternityworldwide.org/ - and save a mother giving birth to a child.

 

Please support, Andrew Bub, the gamerdad - at http://gamingwithchildren.com/

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Sure, that's David's twitter. I have no problem with David criticizing the use of words. I have done the same at times.

Why am I the only one that makes fun of the popular usage of "lore?" I went through that list just hoping it would be there.

 

So alone.

 

What's the popular usage of "lore"?

 

I like making fun of the word "immersion" myself.

 

am adding realism/realistic to our list.

 

List:

 

immersion

curling

canon (particularly fallout or star wars canon... "that isn't what a basilisk war droid looks like" becomes a multi-page thread? really?)

realism in reference to game development

romance threads... that invariably become gay romance threads

discussion of pets

dark (often used interchangeably with "real" when discussing theme)

twilight books/movies/fans

etc.

 

no doubt some folks is hopeful they makes our list

 

*squint menacingly at fellow posters*

 

go ahead, we dares you.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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"Integrity: (n.) Promising to do A, then failing to deliver A and making fun or denigrating those who remind you of your failure to provide A"

 

Butthurt much?

DWARVES IN PROJECT ETERNITY = VOLOURN HAS PLEDGED $250.

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I'd have to agree, there is a tremendous amount of garbage in the fantasy genre :p

 

Gaider isn't just a writer though, he's a successful one.  He's had three books published, and I'm guessing his numbers sold is pretty good.  Now it helps that he has Bioware backing him up, but a huge amount of writers would love to have his portfolio.

Gaider is "successful" because the publisher came to him and asked him to write the book, with a huge media presence already backing him up before he started.  99% of all genre fiction is written the other way around: a person writes the book, and then has to get the publisher interested, and then (if they are lucky!) they develop a media presence over years and years.   If he had been forced to compete in the open market with this Dragon Age books, they would have never seen the light of day.  They are completely average, and in many cases quite below average.  He is a terrible book writer. If it weren't for the fact that the "novels" were advertising fodder, they would have never been written.

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Hmmm, popcorn needs more salt! :)

 

(I was not at all expecting this thread to end up where it has)

It was either this or romances. Give us some yet unrevealed information and we can talk about that instead.

 

:dancing:

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"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
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You know, I have never read Gaider's books and likely never will. I don't see the point of spending my precious time and money on something I'm positive I won't enjoy. Then again, there does seem to be a common syndrome in gamers that compels them to spend time and money on things they hate.

 

Ontopic: Have they confirmed which specializations will be in the game? Will they be more fleshed out this time?

"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"you're a damned filthy lying robot and you deserve to die and burn in hell." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

"thankfully it seems like the creators like Hungary less this time around." - Sarex

"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

"we have already been forced to admit you are at least human" - uuuhhii

"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

"feral camels are now considered a pest" - Gorth

"Melkathi is known to be an overly critical grumpy person" - Melkathi

"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

"I love cheese despite the pain and carnage." - ShadySands

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Nothing about specializations. I think there's talk about specializations finally having reactivity, but it's sometimes hard to distinguish information from speculation this early on.

"Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
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Gaider gets worse at writing the more decado posts.

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"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"you're a damned filthy lying robot and you deserve to die and burn in hell." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

"thankfully it seems like the creators like Hungary less this time around." - Sarex

"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

"we have already been forced to admit you are at least human" - uuuhhii

"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

"feral camels are now considered a pest" - Gorth

"Melkathi is known to be an overly critical grumpy person" - Melkathi

"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

"I love cheese despite the pain and carnage." - ShadySands

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