[John Browns body]

Окей, я реально не знаю, как это написать. Как-то так:

Я хочу поговорить о DA2.

За последние 4 месяца на BSN я достаточно наслушалась "THEY CHANGED IT NOW IT SUСKS" и "U R DUMB CUZ U LIEK SMTH I DON'T", поэтому если кто-то из аж 31 моих ПЧ может обсуждать это, не переходя на оскорбления в адрес BioWare - было бы очень круто

@темы: я хочу поговорить об этом, reality is overrated

Comments

[yussef]

Даже не знаю, с чего бы оскорблять биовар.)

[John Browns body]

Охохо, с чего начать

- BioWare продалась, хочет только денег, ненавидит олдскульных рпгшников, DA2 - "dumbed down console button-masher hack&slash for 8-year old Call of Duty fans", DAO IS THE ONE TRUE RPG!!!!!
- DA2 - копия Mass Effect 2, BioWare обленились, не могут придумать ничего нового. Ну и конечно, Mass Effect 2 - это "dumbed down console button-masher hack&slash for 8-year old Call of Duty fans" и BioWare ненавидит своих фанатов
- Майка Лэйдлоу нужно уволить и заставить работать дворником, а лучше вообще оставить без зарплаты на всю жизнь, потому что он главный по игре, которая мне не понравилась //да, люди реально так говорят. На полном серьезе
- о боже! протагонист с голосом! YOU RUINED MY ROLEPLAYING EXPERIENCE!!!
- Хоук самый отвратительный, тупой, никчемный протагонист в истории рпг, который занимается только тем, что доставляет посылки незнакомым людям в Киркволе, а потом три года не делает вообще ничего!
- The Witcher 2 is the pinnacle of RPG!!! (причем тут DA2? а я откуда знаю? )
- В DA2 нет сюжета! Где мой главный антагонист? Где мои эпические битвы? Мы только бегаем по одному убогому городу и трем пещерам, убивая тысячи ниндзя-парашютистов без видимой причины! Bioware, мы требуем возвращения generic ancient evil, чтобы мы могли бегать по Ферелдену, убивая тысячи darkspawn без видимой причины!
- YOU RUINED ANDERS HOW COULD YOU HE WAS SO COOL IN AWAKENING!!11!!ONELEVEN!1!!
- ALL LI ARE BI MY IMMERSION IS BROKEN THE FRANCHISE IS RUINED FOREVER/OH NOES ANDERS HIT ON ME BIOWARE MADE ME GAY!!!!
- ....
мне продолжать? )))

[Мир Бенедиктов]

ANDERS HIT ON ME BIOWARE MADE ME GAY! аа бггг за одно это только пылать биоварям в аду

[John Browns body]

Конечно! из всего, к чему можно придраться в этой игре, это - самое страшное!

Ughhh...У меня уже даже нет желания писать длинные саркастические скрыто-оскорбительные тексты на эту тему, как сразу после релиза. После четырех месцев на форумах мне остается только скорбить о человечестве

[John Browns body]

"You don’t beat Dragon Age 2; Dragon Age 2 beats you. And then it kicks you when you’re down and spits on you" (c)

[John Browns body]

OMG I LOVE THIS PERSON SO MUCH I WANT TO MARRY HER BRAIN

ipgd wrote...


I think it actually draws a lot of its impact from its role as a sequel to DAO: specifically, the awareness of sequel-pattern expectations. A lot of the dramatic tension is derived from setting you up to expect significant player agency (through the player's familiarity with DAO, and a series of "illusionary" choice options early in the game such as Meeran/Athenril), and then denying it to you (e.g. as with Leandra, the Chantry, etc.) in a way that links the protagonist's in-narrative sense of helplessness to the player's own metagame "frustrations", if you will. Unlike DAO, which consistently offers the player choices that heavily impact the narrative, or at least enforce an illusion thereof, DA2 forgoes the illusion entirely as the game progresses and rubs it directly in your face. By the end, the player is made to empathize with Hawke's powerlessness in a way a purely linear series would not have been able to accomplish.

I think they actually did a fantastic job with the harsh limitations of the deadline and budget constraints. They could have tried to make a straight off Origins clone without the resources to really work -- instead, they constructed a narrative that works with the constraints and almost operates because of them. I definitely hope they're given more time to work in the future, but as a bit of an experimental detour, I think DA2 is wonderful.

[...]

Though all games are interactive, few games allow the player agency within the narrative. "Gameplay" and "story" are usually sharply divided; the player interacts with the game through mechanical sequences that may resemble combat, platforming, puzzle solving, etc. depending on the game in question, but these sequences rarely affect the story. The core narrative is typically told "on rails", allowing the player to get off and "play" at predetermined spots clearly delineated by the game. The player may act out the acquisition of a key plot item or the demise of a villain, ostensibly becoming a key participant in the important events that shape the story, but he ultimately remains at the whim of the narrative; he, in effect, is only able to do what the game tells him to do. Some games are extremely linear in this respect, while others allow a more meandering approach of variable chronology, but in practice, most games have a singular narrative.

Roleplaying games, Bioware games in particular, are quite different in that respect -- by making dialogue interaction part of the gameplay itself, the game allows the player to take an active role in the direction of the narrative. Instead of simply acting out certain sequences in the narrative, the game presents the player with several branching paths that each bring the story to a different place; though these paths are also limited in number, technically little different from games with singular narratives, the presence of choice gives the player the impression that he, the player (separate from, though often in alignment with, the fictional protagonist(s)), is a critical agent within the narrative itself. In reality, he is still only able to accomplish whatever the developers have laid out for him within the confines of the game, but this feeling of agency is incredibly critical to the genre. It is an additional layer of emotional engagement that is not available to most other mediums.

Contrary to the normal path of video games, Dragon Age makes agency the standard. Rather than giving us rare moments of player agency in order to make the player feel personally responsible for the event, we expect to have agency -- and when it isn't there, we notice. Because something had deviated from the standard, it makes us feel something that purely linear narratives couldn't; at no point do we ever expect to, say, decide whether Mario rescues the princess or joins up with Bowser at the end, and we don't feel frustrated or stripped of anything when we can't impact that decision. But with Dragon Age, we do, and through that denial, the game ilicits emotions in the player that mirrors Hawke's own powerlessness.

It's certainly non-standard but I would argue that it's objectively bad or without artistic value. Other mediums have used dramatic denial and approached themes of personal failure since the dawn of time -- why not video games? Why can video games not use the inherent strengths of its medium to instill empathy with the failures of the protagonist, in addition to his successes?

[...]

Hawke's failure is in his inability to truly impact anything -- he wants to save [oh this is the no spoiler forum, you know who], and he wants to resolve the mage/templar dispute, but because of narrative forces outside his control, he cannot. The player wants the same things Hawke does, but because of game restrictions outside of his control, he also cannot impact those events. Hawke is made to feel powerless by the narrative, and the player is made to feel powerless by the game; it creates a symmetry.

This certainly isn't the direction they had to have gone, like, as I've said, in Arrival -- there, Shepard has agency and impact on the events, whereas the player does not. They could have made Hawke important and impactful and just railroad the player to victory and glory, but they purposefully chose to mirror his narrative arc to the player's lack of agency.

[...]

I don't think they could [have made put more meaningful choice in the game]. I think there was a very limited amount of choice they could have put into the game operating under the time constraints; any choices that they would have had in place of the non-choices in which they utilize denial would have been illusionary ones at best. So, instead of making unsatisfactory fake choices, they took it away and hung a giant lampshade on it. Taking a different approach to the narrative wouldn't have given us more choices, realistically.

If this were a perfect world I'd like them to make a game with unlimited time and resources, but they can't, so I'm glad they took the direction they did rather than the alternative. Given the backlash I'm sure they'll have more time to work with in the future, which is good, but for what it is, I enjoyed DA2.

мне кажется, это нужно репостить на каждом форуме "DA2 SUCKS HERP DERP"

[John Browns body]

ололололооо, Сашу посадили на коня... раз, два, три.

Боже, это больше текста, чем я написала за последние 5 лет. ДА2, что ты сделала со мной!

[John Browns body]

thedasology.tumblr.com

amazing

though of late it rings "WOMEN STUDIES MAJOR" a bit too much for my taste (i have a personal vendetta against women studies majors, yes)