Comments on: Inclusion Without Color in the Dragon Age

By: TomPier

TomPier — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:07:13 +0000

great post as usual!

By: Godheval

Godheval — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:55:53 +0000

Ah, but what you mention about Wrex is also one of the things that makes Mass Effect great – OPTIONS. You do not have to kill Wrex at all. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of having the necessary Charm, or dependent on whether or not you completed Wrex’s sidequest – but either way, you don’t have to kill him.

By: phantomThought

phantomThought — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:42:37 +0000

This sounds like a great game but I’m probably going to wait until the price drops some before I take the plunge and pick it up. You mentioned Mass Effect which I have played and was kinda disappointed by. Not necessarily because of inclusion/non-inclusion issues though. It was more the lackluster planet explorations. The non-mission specific ones were all formatted the same (lost satellite, precious metals/resources in 3 places, and a different color generic texture slapped on top). To get back on topic, one of the things that irked me about the game was the way the Krogan, Urdnot Wrex, was handled. Over the course of the game he mentions that his race is “more aggressive and not suited for thinking/research” or something along those lines. Around midway through *Spoiler Alert* you end up killing him because his race can’t be saved or something. That link between aggressiveness and intelligence didn’t sit well with me. As far as I know (which may not be very far ), how aggressive someone is doesn’t affect their intelligence. This also seems to be reminiscent of the association of “savages” and “animalistic” with lack of intelligence. But, yeah, that was just my take on things.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 10:13:26 +0000

I’ll definitely have to give them a try, then. The formula issue has basically prevented me from enjoying RPG’s, no matter how good other elements might be. I enjoyed early JRPGs obsessively, but seeing the same plot in nearly every single title started getting tiresome around the mid-to-late 90s. Then, it became frustrating. Now, it’s just plain offensive…

By: Godheval

Godheval — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:14:26 +0000

Well, actually all of those games are RPGs, just not Japanese – and all more action-oriented. But you’re right about JRPGs following a formula. How many people have lost their memories? How many have convoluted pseudo-philosophical plots? It was enjoyable for a time, because they were the only ones really pushing the story envelope, but once you started seeing the patterns, it got old. Most of the best story-driven games are coming from Canadian companies now, with consistency – Bioware and Ubisoft Montreal are two of the main ones. Rather than relying on convoluted plots, their stories tend to be more character-driven.