Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

I've had low workload the past few weeks and have been subjected to dozens of corporate courses on trust and diversity, being the best person I can be and managing my feelings, and DAV REALLY is the videogame version of that. SkillUp hit the nail on the head with his "HR in the room" comment. That was not hyperbole, this is exactly it.

Everyone acts super friendly and tries to be non judgemental because obviously this is how you get stuff done at work. It's called being professional. But surely these writers know that zero conflict is NOT good storytelling??
Honestly, how do you fail storytelling 101 like that?!

Of course the message is a noble one. If everyone acted like Rook we'd live in a fucking utopia without wars. But we don't! That's the thing, it's not how the world works. And Thedas sure as hell has never been a nice place for a lot of people either. Thedas has fucking SLAVERY! So where are all these slaves?? Haven't seen any in act 1 at least. Only those trying to free them.

People who have been abused for centuries don't all of a sudden all get along. People don't work like that. People hold grudges, they have biases. They are racist. People get literally brainwashed by religion or other leaders into doing all kinds of fucked up shit. Or their parents even. Money and power is what makes any world go round. It's not pretty but that's life.

Interesting stories happen in complicated worlds. I cannot fathom how DAV took all that away in favor of the most simplictic unrealistic therapy session for insecure teenagers. A game where the bad guys are all just mustache twirling cartoon villains and everyone else is a hero and on the same page. That shit is so BORING.

Like so many I was expecting a full on war between the Qun and Tevinter. The elven gods should have set a slave rebellion in motion, an elven uprising, and then even more discrimination and murder of elves out of fear. Instead I agree that every faction has been declawed. There is no gray, there is only pure evil terrorizing everyone. Remember how in ME3 despite the reaper invasion the difference races still has their petty squabbles?? They were still scheming and triny to be top dog. You needed to get them to get along and it wasn't easy because people are stupid like that. Is any of that in DAV?

You can have inspiring hero stories in dystopian fiction. It's the contrast that is interesting. How people cling onto their humanity despite everyone else taking whatever they want. Or how people just get screwed over by the system and end up messed up for life. Take Fenris and his very understandable hatred for mages. He can sort of come around at the end, sure. But the dude has massive anger issues that don't really go away. That's realistic. People are messed up and sadly a pep talk won't fix deep trauma. That's so naive, it makes me want to tear my hair out.

Nothing about the DAV companions and how they just get along like peaches talking about fluff is realistic. They don't even talk about the world ending bullshit going on outside much. I'd be an anxious mess. They'd rather talk about fucking coffee like they're coworkers having a chat in the break room. I understand needing distraction in times of stress but the way it's presented doesn't convey that at all. They're all having a jolly good time.

Hell, there is more disagreement in actual friendships! I butt heads with friends all the time because we disagree on stuff. People hurt each other all the time because nobody is collected at all times like Rook. It's so idealistic, it's ridiculous for a PEGI 18 game.

DAV is so toothless and unrealistic it's really frustrating. This is not a fantasy game, this is modern day office culture the game.