Countdown to Veilguard - Choices

Choices... are they important?
I'm sorry this video ends on two seconds of just a black screen, it absolutely refused to export with the actual footage over the sound. I've been using Premiere Pro for a decade and that's never happened before, so that's fun.
ANYWAY follow me on TikTok for shorter sillier content! / artyphex

[@DarkKing009]

I swear our dwarf Merchant has become the new Duncan

[@DarkKing009]

The ruler of Orzammar, Fereden, Orlais, and the Divine all being irrelevant greatly angers me. Kingmaker: - 25 great disapproves

[@DarkKing009]

Every time I see a video concerned about Dragon Age 4 half of them devolve into complaining about diversity. Not talking about the real issues of and concerns of the Dragon Age series future installment. We have real concerns about Dragon Age 4 but it's being distracted by cultural war nonsense.

[@Artyphex]

Exactly, that's part of the reason I'm doing this, there's real problems with Dragon Age and real worries for Veilguard, none of them have anything to do with top surgery scars

[@DarkKing009]

@@Artyphex I think this decision has moved people from pre-ordering the game to waiting for it on sale. They already waited 10 years they can wait another 6 months.

[@sonnenblumefrau2048]

​@@DarkKing009 I pre-ordered it. I'm not waiting nearly two years later, ten years is a long time.

[@DarkKing009]

@@sonnenblumefrau2048 I personally never pre-order video games especially now the digital download age. I wait for reviews of trusted sources and fan reactions such as yourself. Then I probably buy it on sale I've never seen a video game be worse more than $50.

[@shadowtheshadowlord]

Me during inquisiton: should I drink from the well or should Morrigan, will it be really bad? Me years later: "turns out it doesn't matter"

[@tetrabelle]

Definitely sad that the choices arent coming over but this video has made me feel a bit less sad

[@DarkKing009]

you only have to kill her if you do not Harden her or you do not actively desecrate on her God in front of her. She's really easy to manipulate.

[@Scream_Lord]

Is Varric dead, or is he just gonna be locked away in a storage closet for the next 40 hours?

[@Xazarlar]

I have to correct you on the soul of Urthemiel - if you choose not to do the ritual then whichever warden kills the archdemon will destroy both their own and Urthemiels soul - which means that whether Flemeth absorbed the soul or not can't be mentioned. I wasn't expecting it to transform the game, I'm not naive, but a change to a quest where it's mentioned, a fight being a bit harder because of the soul? Maybe even just a mention? That would at least have acknowledged a loose end that's gone unaddressed since back in 2009

[@MrSilz-jb4ik]

As an OG fan it is obvious to me that this game is not made for the fans. This game tells us that our past with the games and Bioware does not matter, quite literally. I cannot think of a bigger middle finger to all that were emotionally invested in the original games, I for one hope Bioware is unalived by EA, i no longer recognize my favorite studio and would rather it die than also see current-day Bioware destroy Mass Effect any further than they already have. This game is obviously a soft-reboot not a true squeal made for original fans. They want to cater to a new audience and i won't give them a single dime for that.

[@ZoeyPaigeLunaPhD]

Continuing to pile choices from past games is just gonna fuck up your budget and your resources. After a while, I’m sure it gets to be too much. I’m fine with it. At this point just give me a good game.

[@jakesherwood1551]

I left a huge set of comments on ur tiktok so I'll paraphrase here. I believe they can make a very good story and continue a few stories and conclude and give closure to others if they pick a good Canon world state. This does suck but I almost understand needing to focus the narrative because there are SO MANY tendrils hanging on from the first 3 games. Morrigan need to have (Connor I think his name is) her son and I want alister and adorable to rule ferelden with loghain dead by the hero of ferelden. Whoever stayed in the fade in inquisition needs to come back though that may be one of the 3 choices. Anders should be alive. There is a very good focused Canon world state here and there has to be analytics data from the dragon age keep on what choices most ppl choose most often. I'm a dragon age where so I'm extremely hopeful they will do right by us and I don't blame them necessarily for focusing the narrative. Only the future will tell.

[@jakesherwood1551]

HOW DO U KNOW VARRIC DIES? I KNEW HE WASNT PLAYABLE BUT WTF!

[@Joy4everM0RE]

It’s not definite that he dies, but he definitely gets stabbed.

[@Artyphex]

I don't KNOW he'll die, but he's giving off every death flag there is. I am pretty damn sure the man is dead

[@sonnenblumefrau2048]

​@@Artyphex there's a screenshot of him having his chest wrapped up in a bed at the Lighthouse. DarthShadie Lavellan showed it in a short along with Varric having been stabbed.

[@Kross415]

Could you point me to any game that spends 1-2 months of marketing focusing on how heterosexual every companion is, or how heterosexual the VA voicing my male characters are, like BioWare did, just in the oppossite direction? I think we have very different ideas about what ''catering to'' is. There's a big difference between being inclusive and diverse and straight up cheap virtue signaling and tokenism. The biggest example being the top scars having their own exclusive toggle instead of being with the rest of the scars, as they should. As per the rest I mostly agree with what you said except on the appeal to new players. If you have a franchise and need to change it to accommodate potential new fans you're probably going to destroy what your previous fans loved in the process. SW or LotR are pretty recent examples. It's like a sport, either you like it or you don't, you don't try to change it into something different so you can have fun while ruining everyone else's. And regarding the word ''overwhelm'' they don't want to ''overwhelm'' players by letting them take direct control of the companions, they don't want to ''overwhelm'' players by giving the companions full sized skill trees, they don't want to ''overwhelm'' players by giving them to many options to set the world state at the start of the game. I'm tired of the word ''overwhelm'' being used to excuse every simplification of the game or lazy decision made by the dev team, and it has been used into the ground.

[@Artyphex]

I will say that your first point, the reason I can't do that is because a heterosexual man voicing a heterosexual character is not notable. At our current point in time, it is the default, people are going to assume any given man or actor is heterosexual. That is why it is never included in marketing. Now, do I think it is possible to oversell your product based on it's representation? Absolutely, and I won't even say Veilguard hasn't done that, but to say "Why don't games ever sell based on heterosexuality" is just not a strong argument. Otherwise, your points are solid and I appreciate your perspective

[@Kross415]

@@Artyphex I don't have any need nor desire of knowing if my heterosexual character is VA'd by an heterosexual male or not, as long as they do a good job is all I care about, they can be gay,non-bi or whatever else as long as they deliver. Many japanese anime male characters are voiced by women and viceversa and nobody bats an eyelash. Same goes for actors in movies playing roles. It is one thing to give opportunities to non-hetero VA's actors etc, and another whole thing to hire low quality VA's/actors just to tick boxes or fill quotas wich has become normalcy as of late. I'll clarify, I'm not saying that's necesarily true for DA4 since I'm not sure I've heard the non-bi VA's on other titles, I'm speaking in general.

[@BelieveIt1051]

Totally wrong. BioWare's disrespect for player choices is an outgrowth of BioWare's pandering to people who aren't you. Bad design is the result of woke, it isn't a coincidence. Pandering is lazy, and so is ignoring past choices. Ignoring present choices is also easy, this is why Rook speaks for the player most of the time without any dialogue prompts. BioWare is chasing a minority group that hasn't played the previous games, and the result is a bare minimum effort game. As for specific choices that are allegedly carrying over, who the Inquisitor romanced is already busted. No Lace Harding option. And no option to determine if a romanced character called it quits or not based on personal circumstances, like Cass becoming Divine, or Rainier joining the Wardens, or Hissrad's betrayal. So I doubt this option will have any significance. Probably just the Inquisitor saying he or she needs to get back to the old ball and chain [insert name here]. Keep or disband the Inquisition won't matter either, because as I predicted when Trespasser ended, BioWare is likely funneling both choices into one. Either the Inquisition shrank to just a few members, or it is disbanded entirely, and those same members are operating in the shadows. Either way, the Inquisition won't be of any help this time around. This choice only boils down to whether the Inquisitor is called the Inquisitor or something else, like the Herald or by the ex-Inquisitor's last name. Save Solas or stop him will also have no consequence on the story. At best, you only have two options here, with a third outcome for flavor. 1. The protags agree. 2. The protags disagree. Either way, Rook makes the final call. So the (ex-)Inquisitor will recommend either saving or stopping Solas, and Rook will either agree or disagree. That's it. And at worst, the (ex-Inquisitor) will only make the recommendation and then leave, making it his or her parting words. Then Rook will make the choice later. In other words, no special difference whatsoever. Just a generic cutscene that plays out in one of two similar ways. There hasn't been a Dragon Age game in ten years, but that doesn't mean this one needs to be a reset. They could have picked up right where the (ex-)Inquisitor left off after stabbing the map, but they didn't. The time-skip soft reset is again out of laziness. BioWare just didn't want to put the hard work in. New players do not need to be prioritized, because new gamers will want what old gamers will want. Just stick to the Dragon Age formula and new gamers will join in. It's as simple as that. There would be nothing overwhelming for new players. These new players would simply pick a preset worldstate like they did in DA2 and DA:I. They would experience a story that is laid out for them. Or they would go buy the previous games and play them in order to create their own worldstates. Veilguard had the potential to sell the previous three games along with it, but now it won't matter.

[@atishbhattacharya3473]

Let's not mince words. Men and women have widely different likes, dislikes, and choices. The Veilguard is not made for men, and by that, I don't just mean the lack of attractive women, although that is part of it. It doesn't cater to our fundamental desire to fight insurmountable challenges and be a hero. Instead, it appeals to the more feminine approach of building connections with companions. The game trailer superficially tries to make me feel like a hero, but it doesn't succeed. There's nothing wrong with that, just don't fundamentally change an existing series. Make your own game. Also, if I’m paying, I want the best possible experience. I don't buy the argument that it's "too hard" for them to ensure our past choices matter in the current game. And yes, I won’t be playing the game because it has an implicit holier-than-thou attitude, that having personal likes and dislikes is somehow bad if they differ from yours.

[@crimsonshadow2299]

You don't understand what you are talking about and it SHOWS 😂

[@atishbhattacharya3473]

@@crimsonshadow2299 I think I know what I’m talking about. If you want to convince me otherwise, you’ll have to present compelling data to support your claim.😊

[@crimsonshadow2299]

@@atishbhattacharya3473 hey goober 😂 the dragon age fanbase has always been predominantly made up of women and queer people 😂 the series was never for you 😂

[@crimsonshadow2299]

@@atishbhattacharya3473 oh and you're literally fighting two GODS in the veilguard 😂😂😂😂😂 you are wrong at every level 😂

[@crimsonshadow2299]

@@atishbhattacharya3473 literally nothing has been changed in the series 😂 the more you read your comment the more absurd it sounds 😂