Dragon Age after TVG

So, what was DA all about? Lol. I don't care because I never played the previous games. I also will not visit those games simply because the visual. Just can't handle it in 2025 now. I am not saying that the old games are bad just because they are old. People can say all kinds of things and blame all kinds of factors for the business failure. However, a successful franchise must evolve and welcome new players. I had no issue enjoying the Veilguard without knowing much about the previous games. As a gay man in a Blasian relationship (I am the Asian part), all previous DA games were not attractive to me at all simply because of the lack of diversity. Also, gaming studios cannot do what Apple is doing. No gaming studio in this world can remain successful by creating and maintaining its enclosed ecosystem. It does not work. They all must evolve and adapt. Any game franchise must absorb new blood and be reborn. During the process though, there may be some pain, especially when targeted by conservative political groups with evil will.  

To me, the Veilguard is a nice game. Some of the main things that a lot of those narrow-minded YouTubers are criticizing the game about are what actually attracted me to play the game. I played Blizzard's games for 18 years, and now they don't have any game that I like or play. I am fine with it. Now single-player RPG games such as BG3 and the Veilguard have helped me realize that the story telling is much better and so more important than grinding or the mechanics in a game.  

DA Veilguard has a state-of-the-art character customization system. It is impresive. I hope BioWare will use it in Mass Effect 5. The game also has astonishing visuals and effects. The story telling is not bad, and the inclusiveness in the game is a major plus to me. In my opinion, all companion quest lines following the same pattern or route isn't amazing. It feels like we are repeating the same thing over and over when finishing each companion story. The romance needs more flavor. I don't feel deeply connected with any of the companions like I did in BG3 with Wyll and Karlach. I do connect with my handsome Rook. Lol.

Anyways, sometimes people really need to learn to move on and embrace changes. 

BennettML wrote:

As a gay man in a Blasian relationship (I am the Asian part), all previous DA games were not attractive to me at all simply because of the lack of diversity.

I can get that those games are less appealing for that reason, but I wouldn't call it a lack of diversity. BioWare was more progressive than its peers, with Dragon Age Origins having gay romance in a time when that was still considered very controversial. (The lead writer of the first three games is openly gay.) A lot of people threw a fit when in Dragon Age II a male character flirted with a male protagonist, which led to review bombing on Metacritic. They were baby steps, however, since those first two games did have some poorly aged jokes at the expense of trans people.

Dragon Age Inquisition has a mix of gay, lesbian, and straight romances, in addition to having more racial diversity than before as well as a somewhat prominent trans character. If lack of diversity is a concern, then I think Inquisition at least is a game that you might enjoy.

It's true, however, that there weren't a lot of Black or Asian looking characters in the first three games. I also think that the character creators in all three games heavily favour white characters. e.g. Inquisition's character creator lacks proper hairstyles for black women, which I assume is why Vivienne is bald.

After Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem and Dragon Age The Veilguard, things shouldn't get better because these failures mean :

• Talented veterans are gone : Now BioWare is a group of newbies and some veterans who failed to develop 3 games
• Bad reputation : BioWare lied too much about their games (Fake Anthem E3 trailer, Anthem 2.0, BioWare Return to Form)
• Lower budget : EA didn't probably lose money thanks to Mass Effect Legendary Edition but they won't put more money in new failures. 
• Smaller team + Lower quality : Less people to check the bugs.

Even SWTOR became a disaster in term of game and story.

 I'm very skeptical about the future, a fifth Dragon Age won't probably exist.

Recently EA released a new DEI game. Split Fiction has sold 2 Million copies in 1 week.

It's very embarrassing for the other studios. It seems the players prefer to support good games.

All-time peak (Steam) :

• Split Fiction (Hazelight Studios, EA) : 259,003 (98.02% positive reviews)
• Dragon Age The Veilguard (BioWare, EA) : 89,418 (69.85% positive reviews)
• Avowed (Obsidian, Xbox Game Studios) : 19,198 (77.8% positive reviews)
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine, Square Enix) : 8,524 (68.9% positive reviews)

This European studio teaches a good lesson to these "big" studios.

I don't know maybe BioWare should Return To School instead of "Return To Form".