Random Thoughts Upon Finishing "Dragon Age: Veilguard"

 I finished my first (but probably not last) playthrough of "Dragon Age:  Veilguard", and I have lots of thoughts I wanted to share.

Quest Analysis: Find Liara T'Soni

This is going to be a friendly rant as much as it is ramble/analysis of the mission to find Liara T'Soni.  First, there's not giving you the exact location, forcing you to search the first time (or cheat.)  That's fine; there are a couple other interesting quests to pick up in the Artemus Tau Cluster.

But then you do land on Liara's world, and something's missing.  Every other core mission, you first land, talk to some folks to get a feel for the place and maybe pick up some side missions, then get in the Mako (Virmire does mix it up and do the Mako first, but it has all the main elements still.) 

This mission, though?  Straight to the Mako.  What happened?  Checking around, it looks like exposition people and all that were planned initially, but it seems strange that of all things in this game this was the bit that was cut.  But what's even stranger is the lack of explanation.  Where are the people on this planet?

I think maybe lore later tries to cover by mentioning robotic mining, but that doesn't explain the clearly for-people mine entrances and lack of anything that looks like remote mining equipment.  And even if there's no miners, why is Liara completely alone?  Surely she wasn't the only one on this expedition?  The only one interested in this ruin?

Would it have been so hard to have a line about her killed team members, or how they fled and left her to the geth?  It would make so much more sense.  Of course, while I'm wishing, it would have been cool to fight mine equipment the geth had taken over, but clearly for some reason time ran out for a lot of things on this quest.

But the ruins look nice, and on the plus side the mission doesn't take too long.  And it's a really nice touch that the longer you take to get to Liara in-game the more delirious she is when you get there.

Random Thoughts About "Dragon Age: Inquisition"

I play Dragon Age:  Inquisition a lot.  While I've already reviewed it (and the two DLCs I have) I have many other musings and comments, so this post is for them.

What Is A Game?

What exactly is a game?  At first the answer seems obvious, but looking over the variety of digital entertainments available today, with their vast graphical ranges and mixed responsiveness and occasional need for some level of dexterity, the question quickly becomes more muddled.  As I've explored and played a lot more interactive fiction and visual novels this year, I've come to ponder this question.  What is a game?  What is just a story?  My response is my answer alone; others may well draw their defining lines differently.

So, for me a game is that in which the player has influence to create different end states.  These influences might be based on player skill or just player choices.  I say "influences" because a player doesn't have to control every aspect of the game, and there can even be randomness that changes each time.  But the player has to have some power over what is happening in the game.  Something that randomly changes every time with no relation to what the player is doing might well be interesting, but it's not a game.  And something that's the same every time, like a kinetic novel, is a story, but not a game.

In many games, of course, player skill influences at the game.  Plenty of arcade or action games need precise timing for jumping or combat, and death is a bad end state.  But player choices, like which city to save, or even purely character things like dialogue or romances, can also offer alternate end states.  And even the exact same ending might be rendered different if the story paths there are divergent and compelling enough to give it a distinct feel.

Random Thoughts Upon Finishing Dreamfall: Chapters

A few days ago I finished Dreamfall: Chapters, bringing an end to a series begun when I started The Longest Journey in college long ago (barring the possibility of another story some distant day.) Fortunately, it was a satisfying enough end, and I look forward to replaying the game all at once now that I can. And at some point I'll have to play through the whole trilogy again. But for now, I just want to note my random (spoilery) thoughts and questions about Dreamfall: Chapters and the worlds of The Longest Journey.

Walkthroughs, Or, In Praise of the Universal Hint System

Ah, walkthroughs.  In this digital age, the answers to any puzzle await a Google search away.  I can read exactly what to do in a game before I ever start it.  With some caveats, I consider this a good thing.  For puzzles, at least, there have always been a few where I just get stuck.  And in pre-Internet days, I usually wouldn’t figure it out.  I’d just remain, there, forever stuck, and never get to finish the game.  So the ability to actually see and finish all of the games I have is a definitely plus, to put it mildly.

I will admit there are times with more complex mechanical puzzles or codes where I just can’t be bothered.  I know I could figure it out given time, but my time is just too precious for something I find tedious.

Not all walkthroughs are equal, of course, and I have my preferences.  Firstly, I’ll take written over video, since I read faster than I watch and I can usually find what I’m looking for more easily.  Sometimes, for roleplaying games, walkthroughs will contain helpful suggestions for builds or party combinations or the lake.  These are interesting but not required.

And then there’s the overall format.  A cold list of instructions (and I’ve run into some without even spaces or numbers to separate the steps, which renders things practically  unreadable) might help me, but also runs the risk of spoiling me as to what comes next in the game.  And in a game with multiple paths or just optionable order to do some things, a walkthrough unnecessarily straightjackets my playthrough.

The truth is, I’m usually only trying to find my way past one obstacle.  I don’t need to know how to play the entire game; this might be the only place I get stuck.  Which brings me to the Universal Hint System praised in the title.  Not only does the Universal Hint System divide its solutions into non-spoilery individual puzzles but their solutions are hints of increasing detail, so I can at least feel a little accomplishment if all I needed was just a general idea.

Character Backstory

In roleplaying games, I get to create my character, but of course some things about that character's background are going to be decided for me.  I might decide to play an elf, but that elf is going to be from Treetown, because that's where all the elves are from.  But did my character love or hate Treetown?  What did they do there?  Why did they leave?  That might (or might not) still be up to me.

As someone who likes to create lots of different characters for lots of different playthroughs, I've found there's an interesting middle ground to this.  Too specific a background is hobbling, but too vague and I have an equally difficult time coming up with a character.

For example, In Dragon Age II the player character always comes from the same place with the same family.  They might be a warrior or mage and might react entirely differently to things due to entirely different opinions, but I always have a hard time imagining lots of possibilities with such a singular background.  It's great that the game offers your character plenty of choices, but without the excuse of varied backstories, I've had a hard time coming up with many different characters to explore them all.

On the other end of the spectrum is Fallout:  New Vegas.  The player character is a courier and no further background is given (until expanded content, anyway, and not much then, as far as I understand.)  This leaves a ton of options for character backstories, as there are plenty of reasons for someone to become a courier.  However, I've found that I miss at least a little more background.  Without something more to go on it's difficult for me not to fall into the same old character ruts.

A good middle ground for me is something like Mass Effect.  Mass Effect offers two selections from three background events (so six total variations) for your character.  Yet these events are vague enough I could come up with hundreds of characters.  If my character grew up in the slums of Earth, are they a hardcore alien-hating gangster, or just curious about exploring the far regions of space?  Up to me, but at least I know where my character came from.

This is, of course, just my preference.  Perhaps you find the more details the merrier when it comes to your character's background, or maybe you hate the idea of anything else being imposed.  Or maybe you don't give a rip.  What do you think?