Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Stainless Veteran]

this paragon of bovine beauty, who, in addition, would fuck anything with a hole,

bbut... Freddie Prinze Jr.

His VA? What about him, other than he's married to Buffy?

 

[abnaxus]

I'll just wait for Cassandra animu mod

 

[Bubbles]

His VA? What about him, other than he's married to Buffy?

 

[Caim]

Do we already have the "default look" for the Inquisitor, like we had for Hawke?

 

[Saber-Scorpion]

What the hell happened to Cassandra between DA2 and 3 anyway? In 2 she looked good, but for Inquisition Bioware decided to go to town on her face with the ugly stick:

I guess that's what left that scar.

 

[Bubbles]

Do we already have the "default look" for the Inquisitor, like we had for Hawke?

That would hardly work with four different races, would it? Although most of the promotional material does show a human sized Inq in full armor wearing the dumb-ass looking Inquisition helmet:

 

[pippin]

Do we already have the "default look" for the Inquisitor, like we had for Hawke?

That would hardly work with four different races, would it?

Nah, just stretch the character's face here and there and you'll have the different "races". I do wonder if they will keep the larp-friendly option of removing helmets from the cutscenes. Or, better yet, make helmets actually useful this time, ffs.

 

[Commissar Draco]

What the hell happened to Cassandra between DA2 and 3 anyway? In 2 she looked good, but for Inquisition Bioware decided to go to town on her face with the ugly stick:

I guess that's what left that scar.

Showing pretty white wymyn is both sexist and racist you cis het patriarchal scum.

 

[Echo Mirage]

I'm surprised they made Cassandra a straight romance option.

But then again, I'm even more surprised that Bioware even has a straight option.

 

[Commissar Draco]

I'm surprised they made Cassandra a straight romance option.

But then again, I'm even more surprised that Bioware even has a straight option.

its as straight as Commissar is :kwanzania:loving liberals this beauty lacks only Adam apple to qualify for

 

[Zed]

uncanny resemblance to a codexer. can't remember who. surf solar? dunno. one of the indie/mod devs.

 

[Volourn]

Yeah, really did some damage to Cass. WTF

And, still no fuckable dwarf females? WTH And, since there is romance in PE we can't even have fun with the female dwarf ranger in that game. LMAO

Once again, dwarf fanboys get screwed and not in the good way. <>

At least in DA1 and DA2 we had HOT human females to mix with.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

uncanny resemblance to a codexer. can't remember who. surf solar? dunno. one of the indie/mod devs.

Do we have Nosferatu indie devs here? Surf Solar's pic looked like a poodle, so I doubt that it's him who you have in mind.

 

[tuluse]

Bela Lugosi was the greatest programmer of his time.

 

[Nikaido]

Do we already have the "default look" for the Inquisitor, like we had for Hawke?

That would hardly work with four different races, would it? Although most of the promotional material does show a human sized Inq in full armor wearing the dumb-ass looking Inquisition helmet:

The armor design in that game is even worse than DA2 so far. Which says a lot really. Jeez can't they just copy real world armors for once, because even armor that was made specifically for real world combat looks better than all the shit they come up with in their fantasy setting.

 

[Tytus]

uncanny resemblance to a codexer. can't remember who. surf solar? dunno. one of the indie/mod devs.

Do we have Nosferatu indie devs here? Surf Solar's pic looked like a poodle, so I doubt that it's him who you have in mind.

 

[Bubbles]

The first reviews of the romance options are in:

i still can’t believe it. a few hours of crying and rage and i can’t believe. i can’t believe blackwall, who we no nothing about, including who his voice actor, who literally blends into the carpet is an li over vivienne. he is even straight. what bizarro world am i in.

*crying* everyone’s so conflicted on my dash & I desperately want to agree with some of them but then I don’t want the other half to take it the wrong way even though it’s respectful & polite. fudge nuggets

i in no way condone the harassment of the bioware devs but

i am actually so pissed about this like i know bioware is great in that they even offer same sex romance in such a stupidly heteronormative industry but like???

for a company that preaches equality its bullshit that there are not an equal number of same sex/opposite sex li’s

you can excuse it as “realism” all you want, this is a fantasy game where impossible things can happen and the fact that there are more options for straight characters is gross

Bioware Equality: Where you can date substantially more Alien/Fictional races than actual POC. Oh and they’re mainly light skinned fictional races.

complaining abt an LI being straight is absolutely not the same thing as complaining that an LI is gay or bi

do not. compare queer people looking for representation. to the dudebros that actively send us hate. to the people who constantly oppress us.

seriously just stop that is disgusting

Yeah…
While I’m keeping my critical theory knife in the drawer until after I’ve played Inquisition, I have strong doubts about the potential for many unfortunate unintended (or unconscious) racial statements to be made. Same goes for the race-gated Solas romance.

No matter what reasons or excuses the devs give for their decisions to race-gate Cullen and Solas, this is coming from the same company is giving us yet another unfortunate statement about socioeconomic class:

• Lesbian Sera (poor, elven, underclass) and gay Dorian (upperclass Tevinter mage) mirroring the strong economic inequity between lesbian and gay households in north america.

Plus their prior unfortunate statements about ethnicity/race:

• Overtly sexualizing two of the three (DAO+DA2 only) LIs who directly read as non-white (Zevran, Isabela), which mirrors centuries of hurtful real life stereotypes in western culture that overtly sexualize the racialized Other.
• Portraying the LIs who read as non-white at or near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder: Fenris, Isabela, Zevran.

Not to mention all of the other problematic things so far. The many, many other things. Despite what Bioware does well, their media is often unintentionally insensitive to people who are not cis, white, or straight.

So, no matter what reasons Bioware gives for race-gating Cullen and Solas, late this November my critical theory knife will be sharp and ready.

Let’s get one thing straight before somebody starts showing their ass: I don’t care who is romanceable. It’s a game. That has nothing to do with this. Schmooples could be the only romance in the game, and I wouldn’t care.

What I care about is the fact that there are two romances available to women who prefer women, two romances available to men who prefer men, and 2 gay characters and 2 bi characters up against 4 straight characters.

The world is not divided into “straight” and “not straight.” It’s divided into a wide array of sexual and romantic orientations, ranging from all to nothing. 4 straight and 4 not-straight isn’t equal, so straight fans who want to talk about “equality” can sit right the fuck down. That is heteronormativity on a nauseating level and I’m tired of seeing it here.

And normally, this would piss me off, sure, but it wouldn’t enrage me. This time is has, because Bioware hasn’t just dropped the ball on representation, it’s double-crossed the sizable portion of its fanbase who are LGBTQ+. They use us in marketing. Sure, there hasn’t been an outright “look at all the gays we’ve collected” ad campaign, but when people on the street hear “Bioware” the first thing most of them will think is “LGBT.” That is a very good amount of the press around Bioware; that they respect and care about the LGBTQ+ community. Our presence in their fanbase gets them money and good press.

Despite the fact that they have us to thank for a significant amount of their fucking hype, we get “half and half” heteronormativity, gay men and women have been told to fuck off, and then our own fandom lashes out at us for daring to speak about it. Between the announcements of Solas and Blackwall as straight characters, Bioware has shown how much of a fuck they actually give about the part of their fanbase that has done arguably the most for them. Not a single fuck.

Don’t reduce LGBTQ+ fans’ rightful anger over a lack of adequate representation to “hate” and “hysteria.” No one has said shit about your faves, and this isn’t about Blackwall, Vivienne, Solas, or anyone else. It’s about Bioware pretending they are here for us for as long as we can help their fucking marketing, and then shoving us aside.

The Lack of Understanding I See on my Dash is Appalling
Please do not shit on people who are upset.

Please do not assume people who are upset or venting in their own private space/blogs are also sending hate to developers.

Please feel free to be enthused that the person you were hoping to be LI is, in fact, LI!

Please do not make people feel like ‘bad fans’ or ‘the shitty fandom’ for being upset.

Please do not make false equivalences by making POC exchangeable (but you have Josephine, why are you forgetting about her and being upset about Vivienne?), or by making LGBTQIA+ members exchangeable (1 bi +1 pan + 2 homosexual = 4 gay so it’s even with 4 straight!!)

Please understand this does affect people emotionally and can compound issues they see or deal with in every day life.

Please understand it’s not just about who is LI.

Please understand that ‘story reasons’ can still be problematic reasons.

Please remember that just because you are not upset, does not mean those who are, are ‘overreacting.’

(edit: I adjusted the ‘equation’ to include Iron Bull as pan, not bi, even if the equation is meant to be a gross opinion, as Iron Bull’s sexuality shouldn’t be ignored for the sake of a point)

This is what gets me about them specifying that Iron Bull is pan. A lot of people see that term as more inclusive of different gender identities (I don’t share that belief, but I do understand why some people would be uncomfortable with calling themselves bi and I respect that).

But how the fuck is someone going to be pan in a world that is pretty much entirely void of gender identities outside of male and female. I’m not trying to strip Bull of his orientation (he’s pan, end of story), but for me it all came across as Bioware trying to get more cookies for representation, and it fucking sucks.

The problem is people flaunting the fact that Sera is gay, even going as far to make fan art with her holding a “male tears” mug, while also claiming that characters are not meant to bend to the will of the player. But the second Cassandra was announced as straight, every single fucking person in the fandom denied it. They said, “it’s cannon and no one can stop me” while also destroying people who said that “Sera is cannon straight.” WHILE ALSO saying Gay People don’t get enough representation in games. And I’m not saying that in itself is a problem- video games obviously need a more diverse cast than “token Caucasian male bangs white curvy women.” I’m saying that people who demand for Bioware to make non-player centered characters while simultaneously bashing Bioware for not making enough lgbt characters, but then retaliating by saying “we just want more rep, what’s wrong with that? We’re not overreacting” is the mother-fucking problem.

And if there is a quality about a person that makes me go from “you’re pretty neat” to “I want to destroy every fucking atom in your cunt body with my bare hands” in 0.02 seconds is people who are fucking hypocrites.

This fandom is fucking filled with the shit asshats. I want to physically kill each and every one of them.

tl;dr: If you are a hypocrite I will shit on your grave after I killed you with my bare-fucking hands.

Aroace Blackwall encouraging homoromantic asexual Vivienne to act on her giant crush on biromantic asexual Cassandra.

 

[dryan]

snip.

This is so entertaining! If you keep posting this, I'll keep reading it all night long.

 

[Lhynn]

Someone please tell me these people are trolling.

 

[XenomorphII]

Wow. I sure hope they are, but doubt it.

 

[Nikaido]

 

[Stainless Veteran]

The first reviews of the romance options are in:

i still can’t believe it. a few hours of crying and rage and i can’t believe. i can’t believe blackwall, who we no nothing about, including who his voice actor, who literally blends into the carpet is an li over vivienne. he is even straight. what bizarro world am i in.

*crying* everyone’s so conflicted on my dash & I desperately want to agree with some of them but then I don’t want the other half to take it the wrong way even though it’s respectful & polite. fudge nuggets

i in no way condone the harassment of the bioware devs but

i am actually so pissed about this like i know bioware is great in that they even offer same sex romance in such a stupidly heteronormative industry but like???

for a company that preaches equality its bullshit that there are not an equal number of same sex/opposite sex li’s

you can excuse it as “realism” all you want, this is a fantasy game where impossible things can happen and the fact that there are more options for straight characters is gross

Bioware Equality: Where you can date substantially more Alien/Fictional races than actual POC. Oh and they’re mainly light skinned fictional races.

complaining abt an LI being straight is absolutely not the same thing as complaining that an LI is gay or bi

do not. compare queer people looking for representation. to the dudebros that actively send us hate. to the people who constantly oppress us.

seriously just stop that is disgusting

Yeah…
While I’m keeping my critical theory knife in the drawer until after I’ve played Inquisition, I have strong doubts about the potential for many unfortunate unintended (or unconscious) racial statements to be made. Same goes for the race-gated Solas romance.

No matter what reasons or excuses the devs give for their decisions to race-gate Cullen and Solas, this is coming from the same company is giving us yet another unfortunate statement about socioeconomic class:

• Lesbian Sera (poor, elven, underclass) and gay Dorian (upperclass Tevinter mage) mirroring the strong economic inequity between lesbian and gay households in north america.

Plus their prior unfortunate statements about ethnicity/race:

• Overtly sexualizing two of the three (DAO+DA2 only) LIs who directly read as non-white (Zevran, Isabela), which mirrors centuries of hurtful real life stereotypes in western culture that overtly sexualize the racialized Other.
• Portraying the LIs who read as non-white at or near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder: Fenris, Isabela, Zevran.

Not to mention all of the other problematic things so far. The many, many other things. Despite what Bioware does well, their media is often unintentionally insensitive to people who are not cis, white, or straight.

So, no matter what reasons Bioware gives for race-gating Cullen and Solas, late this November my critical theory knife will be sharp and ready.

Let’s get one thing straight before somebody starts showing their ass: I don’t care who is romanceable. It’s a game. That has nothing to do with this. Schmooples could be the only romance in the game, and I wouldn’t care.

What I care about is the fact that there are two romances available to women who prefer women, two romances available to men who prefer men, and 2 gay characters and 2 bi characters up against 4 straight characters.

The world is not divided into “straight” and “not straight.” It’s divided into a wide array of sexual and romantic orientations, ranging from all to nothing. 4 straight and 4 not-straight isn’t equal, so straight fans who want to talk about “equality” can sit right the fuck down. That is heteronormativity on a nauseating level and I’m tired of seeing it here.

And normally, this would piss me off, sure, but it wouldn’t enrage me. This time is has, because Bioware hasn’t just dropped the ball on representation, it’s double-crossed the sizable portion of its fanbase who are LGBTQ+. They use us in marketing. Sure, there hasn’t been an outright “look at all the gays we’ve collected” ad campaign, but when people on the street hear “Bioware” the first thing most of them will think is “LGBT.” That is a very good amount of the press around Bioware; that they respect and care about the LGBTQ+ community. Our presence in their fanbase gets them money and good press.

Despite the fact that they have us to thank for a significant amount of their fucking hype, we get “half and half” heteronormativity, gay men and women have been told to fuck off, and then our own fandom lashes out at us for daring to speak about it. Between the announcements of Solas and Blackwall as straight characters, Bioware has shown how much of a fuck they actually give about the part of their fanbase that has done arguably the most for them. Not a single fuck.

Don’t reduce LGBTQ+ fans’ rightful anger over a lack of adequate representation to “hate” and “hysteria.” No one has said shit about your faves, and this isn’t about Blackwall, Vivienne, Solas, or anyone else. It’s about Bioware pretending they are here for us for as long as we can help their fucking marketing, and then shoving us aside.

The Lack of Understanding I See on my Dash is Appalling
Please do not shit on people who are upset.

Please do not assume people who are upset or venting in their own private space/blogs are also sending hate to developers.

Please feel free to be enthused that the person you were hoping to be LI is, in fact, LI!

Please do not make people feel like ‘bad fans’ or ‘the shitty fandom’ for being upset.

Please do not make false equivalences by making POC exchangeable (but you have Josephine, why are you forgetting about her and being upset about Vivienne?), or by making LGBTQIA+ members exchangeable (1 bi +1 pan + 2 homosexual = 4 gay so it’s even with 4 straight!!)

Please understand this does affect people emotionally and can compound issues they see or deal with in every day life.

Please understand it’s not just about who is LI.

Please understand that ‘story reasons’ can still be problematic reasons.

Please remember that just because you are not upset, does not mean those who are, are ‘overreacting.’

(edit: I adjusted the ‘equation’ to include Iron Bull as pan, not bi, even if the equation is meant to be a gross opinion, as Iron Bull’s sexuality shouldn’t be ignored for the sake of a point)

This is what gets me about them specifying that Iron Bull is pan. A lot of people see that term as more inclusive of different gender identities (I don’t share that belief, but I do understand why some people would be uncomfortable with calling themselves bi and I respect that).

But how the fuck is someone going to be pan in a world that is pretty much entirely void of gender identities outside of male and female. I’m not trying to strip Bull of his orientation (he’s pan, end of story), but for me it all came across as Bioware trying to get more cookies for representation, and it fucking sucks.

The problem is people flaunting the fact that Sera is gay, even going as far to make fan art with her holding a “male tears” mug, while also claiming that characters are not meant to bend to the will of the player. But the second Cassandra was announced as straight, every single fucking person in the fandom denied it. They said, “it’s cannon and no one can stop me” while also destroying people who said that “Sera is cannon straight.” WHILE ALSO saying Gay People don’t get enough representation in games. And I’m not saying that in itself is a problem- video games obviously need a more diverse cast than “token Caucasian male bangs white curvy women.” I’m saying that people who demand for Bioware to make non-player centered characters while simultaneously bashing Bioware for not making enough lgbt characters, but then retaliating by saying “we just want more rep, what’s wrong with that? We’re not overreacting” is the mother-fucking problem.

And if there is a quality about a person that makes me go from “you’re pretty neat” to “I want to destroy every fucking atom in your cunt body with my bare hands” in 0.02 seconds is people who are fucking hypocrites.

This fandom is fucking filled with the shit asshats. I want to physically kill each and every one of them.

tl;dr: If you are a hypocrite I will shit on your grave after I killed you with my bare-fucking hands.

Aroace Blackwall encouraging homoromantic asexual Vivienne to act on her giant crush on biromantic asexual Cassandra.

And that's exactly why one shouldn't make tumblrinas their primary audience. Also someone should point them to BL games, preferably to Nitoropurasu Kiraru ones, they seem right in your average BSNtard alley.

 

[pippin]

I wonder how Gaider reacts to this kind of posts in his private life, where he's not forced to keep a PR-friendly persona. Since we already know that he thinks most of the BSN crowd is "toxic", I guess he just grabs a bottle of vodka before reading this kind of stuff.

 

[Echo Mirage]

At this point, I feel as if I need the codewheel off of a box of cornflakes to decode all this modern biodrone bullshit.

 

[dryan]

It's also funny that the queer freaks are complaining about 50% representation, when it's much higher than in real life.