 It's not gay if it's an elf
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Jan. 2nd, 2010 @ 01:05 pm 
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By the way, if anyone's actually wanting a Dreamwidth invite code, let me know.
So, in an entertaining inversion, for the past couple of days Chas has been playing Demon's Souls on my PS3, and I've been playing Dragon Age: Origins on his computer.
My Romance Status: I was at the point of occasional kisses with Morrigan, but I was getting frustrated with the fact that she is, essentially, a giant bitch who gets pissy with me every time I'm nice to someone in front of her. And then we met Zevran, who's all friendly and charming and nice and has had such a hard life and he just needs love, and who actually likes you more when you just talk to him for a while, and who doesn't get pissy at you all the time. So my character fell into bed with Zevran almost immediately. So we've spent a lot of time talking, and had really a lot of sex because Zevran likes you slightly more every time you do that, so Zevran totally adores me and eventually, I swear, I WILL convince him that there is more to life than sex and death and THERE WILL BE GAY LOVE.
When I made the case to Chas that it totally wasn't wrong to drop Morrigan like a hot rock after making out with her, because we never actually TALKED about anything to do with Our Relationship because she wouldn't let me, and therefore there were no promises made even implicitly, he agreed that it was okay, but only because it's Morrigan and she's a GIANT BITCH.
I may play the game through again as a jerk, in which case we'll probably get on better, but it just doesn't seem consistent for my current character. Maybe if I play as a mage. Or an elf. Both categories have grounds to be grumpier people.
Apparently it's not that strong in later parts of the game, but the gameplay experience does have one thing I find very cool: if you play as an elf, it can offer grounds for gamers with societal Privilege to empathise more with the experiences of minorities.
Because in the Dragon's Age world, people are racist towards elves, and it seems to be a thing where people who play as an elf are angry and bitter towards the bastards who treated them so shabbily. This could be good for people who wonder why minorities seem so angry about stuff - being able to empathise with it and see that no, it's actually a completely reasonable way to feel.
Of course, this could make playing an elf unpleasant for people who have similar experiences in real life. It could also be cathartic for some. DA:O isn't really pretending that the origins are fun - playing as a city elf could be inherently triggering for some people, too. Games aren't always nice.
Note to self: Posts should be forthcoming on Florence Nightingale and why she deserves to be lauded in part for being such an awesome person with severe disabilities, and also why she's emblematic about how common perceptions of historical figures can be viciously skewed by the kyriarchy; on Demon's Souls and its reception and what it says about games and gamers; on revisionist history and why people are stupid.
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| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) sqbr |
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January 2nd, 2010 07:57 am (UTC) |
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Have you played as a commoner Dwarf? That's what I'm doing right now (I'm not very far in because I suck at games like this), and one of the major antagonists in the origin story is the class system. And the character's all IN YOUR FACE CLASS SYSTEM I'M AWESOME. And then she fights against the evil pimp oppressing her sister! (Which is a bit dodgy and would be dodgier if my character were male, but hey) And then later on, from what I've heard, she may get a girlfriend.
You can't get books with plots this designed to appeal to me :)
But yes, it's nice to think of this maybe having some small mind-opening effect on gamers. One lives in hope.
On the other hand, there is what Sten* says of Ferelden: "No one has a place here. Your farmers wish to be merchants. The merchants dream of being nobles, and the nobles become warriors. No one is content to be who they are." :P
What I like in rpgs is a lot of shades of grey, rather than boring black and white. Dragon Age has a lot of grey.
On the note of dwarves, I like that the Dwarf society, despite being the most rigid and conservative in terms of class, honour, etc., is the most sexual liberal that you find in the game. Though that doesn't really get shown much in the game, it is supposedly part of the background. Or at least the Lead Writer seems to say it is: http://old.dragonagecentral.com/thread/690080
None of the societies seem free, they all have hard-set, unfair views of some kind, and in each of the origins you are in some way forced to become a Grey Warden (an aspect of the game that really annoyed me). In some cases Duncan invokes the right of conscription to get you out of trouble, but in other cases he essentially says that he'll only save your life if you become a Grey Warden. Whilst it could be excused as 'rail-roading' your path towards the main plot, there are several other events in the game that gave me the distinct impression that the Grey Wardens are the most utilitarian 'sacrifice of the few, for the good of the many' faction in the game. For a start there is the whole "we won't tell anyone what the initiation ritual is, because otherwise people wouldn't volunteer", which I think is a rather negative view akin to saying "if we told you that you might get shot, you wouldn't have joined the army".
But, anyway, I like how many different viewpoints are presented, and how the preconceptions of your character are often challenged. Throughout the game there is the Big Bad Blight in the background, and you are definitely against that, but is that what 'good' means? Maybe I am just too postmodern, but throughout the game I felt that there was no definite right way of doing things. For example, in several cases you see demons actually making their hosts more happy and satisfied, but it is an illusion. Of course, from my background I'm always going to favour free will and truth, but there is a definite sense of moral ambiguity, especially when my character herself has cheered up people with white lies that encouraged their hopes and dreams.
Anyway, I have rambled on long enough for now, so I shall leave with one other Sten-ism:
"Get used to disappointment. People are not simple. They cannot be defined for easy reference in the manner of: 'the elves are a lithe, pointy-eared people who excel at poverty.'"
In Dragon Age, my favourite moments in playing this game have been when this has been true, when you have been faced with the complexity of characters, races, and beliefs, and are forced to admit that you can't really judge them or claim to understand them. In the first review I read of the game, the reviewer said:
"I know much about the elves, the dwarves and the mages: I've been to their homelands, experienced their cultures, influenced their lives and been influenced by them. But I've no idea what it's like to be a Dalish elf. I can tell you all about being a noble human, my family's past, our relationships to the ruling classes, and most of all, the horror of loss and betrayal that surrounded me. No part of the game is without this enormity of history."
Having played it, I think that that description is an exaggeration, but still there was enough elements of that to set it well above the average game.
* Of course, Sten is not a nice character. He's unfriendly, he seems cold, and he has preconceived notions such as the idea that women cannot not be warriors. But he serves to provide a counter to the Western values that I, and others, approach the game with, and he's a lot less annoying than Alistair :P
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| From: | sqbr |
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January 5th, 2010 04:10 am (UTC) |
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*nods*
I haven't played much yet (I got stuck in the Wilds and am waiting until Cam has a chance to help me out. Yes, on easy! I suck :)) but it certainly seems to be an interestingly nuanced world and I like that. I've been kind of using it to fill the void by running out of Avatar: TLA episodes, and one of the things I really liked about that was that most of the antagonists were just people doing what they felt was right.
One of my friends hooked up with Morrigan and apparently sleeping with her does not end well, so I'd stick with Zevran!
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