Video Game Questionnaire
Jun. 3rd, 2020 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alaterdateLittle meme I decided to answer bc why not?
First game you ever played: I honestly think it was Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis.
Favorite game: Dragon Age. Specifically Dragon Age 2. I've played it at least 30 times, I'm not even joking. I've legitimately tried to assess how many times I've played it. And I'm still gonna play it more because, you may be surprised, I haven't done everything.
Game you hated at first but now love: Gonna say Deadly Premonition for this one. The controls are awful and the story doesn't make any sense. It aggravated me so much, but by the end I was a pro at the shit controls and I was having a lot of fun.
Game you used to love but now hate: I don't think there's any I loved into hate, but maybe into not caring. 🤔 The Final Fantasy series maybe. I used to be a huge fan, but now I don't care.
Game with the best group/companion(s): Dragon Age 2, don't @ me. No, actually this is hard. Origins objectively has really good companions.
A game with your favorite ending: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Bawled my eyeballs out. Knew that was coming, would NEVER be ready for it.
A game with the WORST ending: Alright, I'm gonna say it: Uncharted 4. I feel like the entire storyline for that game was eugh (because of Sam), but I was waiting, waiting for the cool thing, and NOPE.
Best character customization?: Drawn to Life. Lol 😂
Your favorite playable character: I'm just gonna be so biased toward Dragon Age aren't I? Hawke. Outside of Dragon Age, probably Nathan Drake.
The funniest playable character: Ok again, Dragon Age: the Warden. So much funny shit for the Warden to "say" and stuff that's not actually a joke, but is hilarious to me. Non-Dragon Age, Nate again lol.
Your favorite companion(s): Fenriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssss.
Companions you could live without: Samuel Drake. I hate him!
Favorite game friendship(s): Ngl I cried at the end of Final Fantasy XV. The photo album thing??!! Why would they do that to me 😭
Favorite companion banter: Anything Shale ever has to say to anyone. And Nate joking with Sully.
A relationship you loved, but went bad: Inquisitor/Dorian. I first watched my friend play through it and it was like "oh, that sucks." But then I played through it and I was like "WOW!" in a bad way. Dorian is great, but his romance arc sucks, and sucks even more under certain conditions.
A relationship you weren’t sure of, but loved: Warden/Morrigan. I originally wanted to romance her on my first play through, but turns out she wasn't gay. So then when I played as a dude next I went for it and it was better than I thought, I really loved her. Also Inquisitor/Cassandra. I wasn't expecting anything great, but I ended up loving it and it's still one of my favorite playthroughs. I think it depends on having the right character too. (Gdamn I wish there were rivalmances in Inquisition, could you IMAGINE, whew.)
A character you wish you COULD romance: I wish you could have romanced the characters in Awakening. Even if you cheated on your LI or broke up with them to do it. The Orlesian Warden substitute guy gets no lovin' 😔 Also Vivienne!!!
A minor character you wish could be a companion: Uh, drawing a blank. A companion I wish for in the future though would be Vaea from the Knight Errant comics. Oh, but YO, what if there had been a Qunari companion in DA2 😮 Sarebaas or that tal-vashoth guy on the coast?? Hawke would have been in even more trouble.
Shoutout to a random NPC: That Templar voiced by Gideon Emery in Lothering.
A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: I've never watched a whole ass PT and didn't/haven't played the game, I don't think. But I used to watch people play Fire Emblem a lot. Now I only watch people play Minecraft (and sometimes The Sims).
Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: Minecraft lmao. I LOVE watching Minecraft, specifically Hermitcraft, but I only really played Minecraft on PS4 (had the PC version a LONG time ago), but the update to it just kills me and I cannot play anymore.
Online gaming or solo?: Solo. I tried to play an MMORPG once, yeah, not for me. Multiplayer is not my thing either.
Why do you play video games?: Well, I've always played video games. They're fun and I love the stories that they've come to have. I think even if you play a game alone you can always talk to someone else who has played that game too, so there's always a sense of engagement within and without the game. I've met good friends because we played the same game and I have something I truly love sitting there on my shelf. Yeah.
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Date: 2020-06-04 09:13 am (UTC)And oh, interesting - care to say more on your feelings about the Inquisitor/Dorian romance? I definitely have my own reservations about how they chose to spin it, even though it's the "canon" romance for my Inquisitor.
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Date: 2020-06-04 08:17 pm (UTC)When Inquisition first released my friend would come over to my house and play it as a male Trevelyan romancing Dorian. Even came back to finish Trespasser on that file. So I saw Dorian's romance play out. He was pissed that Dorian was going to go be a Magister and saw it as a break up with his character, but at the time I didn't agree it was a breakup (hence my milquetoast "Oh, that sucks.").
Cut to a few years later (~2017-2018) I make a male Lavellan. Now, it's been years since Inqusition came out and I've seen all the discourse about Mr. Pavus and his attitude toward slavery and ppl mad that others romance him with a Dalish elf, so I'm like "I've seen his romance, how much different could it really be as an elf?" Well, very different because I read a lot more into different things. And I think it also has to do with how I roleplayed this Lavellan (self-hating, angry, angst magnet). I also had Fair-Weather Friends on and that added a whole 'nother layer of things along with a beautiful little bug I fell victim to.
There's a glitch with Dorian's romance quest The Magister's Birthright where if you do it, but don't clear it from getting stuck as "to-do" in the Journal, even though Dorian's card changes and you're still romancing him, Trespasser reads it as you having not done it. WELL, happened to me. SO I get to Trespasser and Dorian completely disregards the relationship, calling Lavellan "Inquisitor" instead of "Amatus" and I'm like ??? then I find out about the bug and I roll with it because 1. WAY too late to fix and 2. how delightfully angsty lol. That combined with FWF has made their entire relationship so ROCKY. Which I still feel is appropriate with a Lavellan (especially a non-mage one). For the whole DLC my party was Dorian, Bull, & Sera and Dorian and Bull kept having the flirty banter and I'm turning around like "Hello, I'm right here!?" And the game couldn't make up it's mind about Dorian and Lavellan either because I didn't get the Amatus scene + kiss/heart option at the beginning (as if they were never together or broken up), I got the "how many paramours have you had these last two years??" line (as if they were broken up), BUT I also got the "Yes, I'm going to Tevinter, but you'll always be the man I love, Amatus" line + the kiss (as if they were together). SO HUH? lol.
Honestly, it was a lot of fun, but I created the conditions for the romance to EXTRA suck, y'know and so I never saw his romance as completely sweet again like I had when I watched my friend play it. I've also kind of come to think that his romance is more about the Magisterium & Tevinter than it is about him? And the more I think about Dorian's laissez-faire attitude about slavery and how he wants to go back to the Imperium to "be a martyr" and kill his father's assassins I'm like bruh all that shit you talk about "the Magisterium needs to do better" when you're just gonna go and be a part of it? Idk maaan 🤷♂️ Still my canon romance for that World State lmao. (I have 2 World States * dabs *)
Phew, sorry if that was long, I really enjoy telling the story of the glitched romance tho! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Dorian's romance too.
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Date: 2020-06-05 08:29 am (UTC)Oh my god. That glitch made everything so much worse, hahaha. I try my best not to wade too far into BioWare Fandom Discourse; I do actually romance him as a Dalish elf, but to me that's part of why it works that they don't exactly settle down and get all domestic. My Inq has his fight that he's waging one way over here, and Dorian wants to start leveraging the power his birth gives him over there, and maybe one day those two strategies will meet in the middle. Either way, he's not about to tell Dorian he shouldn't go trying to at least pave the way with some reform.
The thing that niggled at me early one was mostly Protagonist Problems: "On the one hand Dorian’s romance side-quest kind of bothers me because it involves disregarding his wishes on a personal matter, which sits even more awkwardly when his companion side-quest can already have you deceiving and pressuring him about his family relations for his ‘own good’. (What is it with this game and undermining Dorian’s ability to decide things as an independent adult? Even the most positive reading of the IB/Dorian relationship sets him in the role of someone who needs to be repeatedly dragged out of serious denial about what he wants.)"
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Date: 2020-06-05 04:43 pm (UTC)I don't really participate in the discourse, but there's one discourse heavy DA blog on tumblr I sometimes browse through cuz I'm nosy 😳 Yeah, romancing him as an elf is not something to gather pitchforks about like people were doing, it's just different. Really does make sense that they can't just settle down. And the "You can't come to Tevinter" lines landed differently. It's kind of shocking to realize your boyfriend's entire country would dislike you (for more than being the herald). My Inq also never told Dorian he shouldn't go back to Tevinter. I just personally don't imagine him doing much if he plays by their rules (with or without blood magic). But perhaps he will, in DA4 😁 I can't wait.
Ooh, you're completely right about that! Both of his quests contain options to deceive him and go against what he says. And especially in the Amulet quest, the Inq has a line like "What's the problem?" or something like that if you get the amulet back on your own. I think in general too, the Inquisitor has too much power in his friend's lives. But it definitely takes deep root in Dorian's during those quests. I remember David Gaider (Dorian's writer) saying Dorian would be "less-than-thrilled about his life choices" in an IB/Dorian romance, so even then, like you say, it writes him as somewhat swayed into a choice (healthy or not). (On a side note: Gaider drives me up the wall with some of the stuff he says/said over the years so aaahH!)
This is all more food for thought for me! 💡
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Date: 2020-06-06 02:54 am (UTC)Yeah, whether or not Dorian CAN actually make major changes from within the system is entirely up in the air. As is what BioWare thinks a major revolution would look like. I'm excited but... wary. Some pretty topical issues these days lol.
Gaider can shush >> Death of the Author reigns forever and that's that. You're right about the Inquisitor having too much power in his friend's lives, though. I know it's always the case in these sorts of games; you're the grand protagonist and you choose what you think is right for other people whether they want you to or not! The point is to have you be an active part of the story, and that means not passively sitting by and watching events unfold. It still ends up feeling a bit wonky from a narrative perspective.
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Date: 2020-06-07 05:59 am (UTC)VERY TRUE!