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

There were always reactionaries making a fuss out of nothing. I remember, I think it was the Quartering?, making a video complaining that Onward had a lesbian character who had about 5 lines at most and under 5 minutes of screen time. It's very tiring. The crux is, as I mentioned in a previous post, the entertainment industry putting the blame for their failures on the consumer and using diversity as a shield. 

Ghostbusters 2016 failed because no one wanted a reboot and you can't ad-lib an entire movie, not because of sexism.  She-Hulk failed because the showrunners thought owning the 'chuds' was more important than good writing or keeping to the spirit of the character, not because of sexism. Veilguard's troubles are because of Bioware's writing failures and design decisions, not because Taash is non-binary. 

I get it. I'm Ace, the only iconic representation I've had in popular media is freaking Jug Head from Archie. People are desperate for representation. No good, however, comes from accepting corporate slop because its got a character you share a trait with. 

These are excellent and very well presented points. I think, some subtlety is also a prerequisite for good fiction writing especially coupled with concise but nuanced choice of words that leaves room for the reader to accentuate. The differences between sinister, evil, malicious, nefarious, and foreboding may be considered a simple example of a nuance/subtlety.

I highly doubt it has broken the million copies and if it has just barely. The marketing was quite unsuccessful to sell the game, tons of dislikes on all the videos.

I have been called "n*zi-adjacent" on this very forum.

You get used to it

I have been labeled conservative AND woke (proof of certain two groups' idiocy) in other forums where actual bigots such as misogynists were surprisingly left alone, only for not agreeing with every point of certain ways of thinking. I guess I'll have to get used to it too.

It has it's uses. While I had the 'admin stats' page open:

Around half of reports result in 'no, that's just a fair opinion', i.e no action to take.
Very very rarely does reporting appear to be malicious. Over-reporting has itself been sanctioned, but very rarely.

Of the rest, half (25% of total) will be things like careless spoilers.

Sanction or ban-worthy are less than 10% (mostly sanctions, not bans) and mostly to protect us under ProBoards rules.

A 'report' is often: 'hey, things are kicking off in here'. I find reports quite helpful, but under the circumstances, perhaps that's to be expected.

Veilguard certainly isn’t a flop on the level of Concord or Kill the Justice League, but it definitely isn’t a huge success either. Concurrent players on Steam have dropped from a high of 90,000 to around 20,000 and I’ve heard reports it sold nearly on par with Star Wars: Outlaws, which itself was a disappointment.

Same, I don't relate to characters based on gender, etc. I have related to Aloy, Cal Kestis, Shepard, Ryder, Revan, The Exile... all very different characters that have nothing to do with me. But I see in them traits I find relatable all the same. And this is IMO far more interesting than a, shall we say, self-insert sort of character.

These anti woke assholes ruined the discussion for sure.

Like I said before launch, one of the problems with this game is that it released precisely when the "anti-woke" backlash was (and is still) growing. But regardless of the motivations behind the criticisms, this isn't a zero-sum equation. And no matter how loud said backlash grows, it doesn't prevent anyone who wants this game from purchasing it and enjoying it.

I gotta say though, I think their initial promotional material represents the game much better than the later trailers.

What BG3 proves, unlike Veilguard is the lesson: "You should never preach harder than you entertain"

THAT is "inclusivity done right"