Moments of Permanence - It's not gay if it's an elf

From: sqbr Date: January 2nd, 2010 07:57 am (UTC) (Link)

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.

(Reply) (Thread)

From: nicholii.livejournal.com Date: January 3rd, 2010 06:26 am (UTC) (Link)

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

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

From: sqbr Date: January 5th, 2010 04:10 am (UTC) (Link)

*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.

(Reply) (Parent)