Journal of Other Forum Analysis (Volume II, Issue 2)

[Uncle]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/dragon-age-the-veilguard-released-a-year-ago.1340953/post-147181753

Dumb fucks not realizing that the progressive side has been the pushing for removing any sort of fantasy racism from videogames or mention of slavery because it's considered offensive for some reason. The toothlessness of Veilguard is an encapsulation of all the things they pushed for to cause the least amount of offense in progressive spaces

what do you mean, toothlessness?? they have tough conversations full of passion and conflict all the time, like this

The worst crime of Veilguard is that the player character is so agreeable. You can't even tell this dumb fuck that they are a dumb fuck. 

genuinely there was a time in video games like this when you could have a major impact on your party members' outlook on life and nudge them toward being non-binary or not, and it would affect future conversations and their combat barks and everything, and it was awesome

in Pillars of Eternity, you have this stern and guarded elf mage on your team named Aloth, he suffers from a sort of magical multiple personality disorder, with the spirit of a feisty low-born peasant woman taking over his body in high stress situations, who initially saved him by beating the shit out of his abusive father but tends to escalate tensions at the exact wrong moment

this is a pretty identity-based thing, right? Aloth is literally a "system" and ultimately you can talk him into embracing his other half or suppressing her, and both are valid decisions with logical, reasonable discussions surrounding that choice


or look at Skyrim, where the only companion with any story or personality is Serana from Dawnguard, who is basically girl Alucard, and you can nudge her into giving up her vampirism or accepting it

and oddly enough, the path to talking her out of it involves not pressing the issue, just kind of being quietly accepting...if you push her, she gets angry with you and doubles down on how vampirism is a part of who she is, but if you don't question it and treat her for who she is, eventually she gets to the point of wanting to give it up, which is an interesting conversation all its own

again, both choices are treated as valid in the game and it's actually interesting storytelling, world building, and character development