Dear EA- NOBODY WANTS A LIVE SERVICE DRAGON AGE GAME

Almost everything you have an issue with, IS BECAUSE DAV started out as a live service/multiplayer game.  You can see it in the bones, and it was known a few years ago that the next DA game would be online/multiplayer....and then several things happened, like failure of Anthem, and other MP games, the success of Star Wars single player and EA had a change of heart......the issue is, most of the really good people who made the earlier single player games left and lessor knowledgeable people were left or hired, and in my opinion, the ones hired were less interested in a good story and more in inserting themselves and their personal issues into the game.  They were less wanting to make an interesting game based off the DA world and instead wanted a engine to push their real world politics.  Many of the issues in the game have little to nothing to do with DA world history or feel.

But yeah, the problem with DAV originate with it being a multiplayer game.....not because it doesn't have it.  In a MP game it is hard to have in depth dialogs with supporting characters, in depth romances, and likely nudity and such have to be limited, because it is MP....whereas a single player game, seeking to maximize the experiences of a SINGLE PERSON, can do all that, if they are willing.

Exactly! Agree with everything written above, very well put. 

A sad way for ones previously favorite rpg series to end. 

mcsupersport wrote:

Almost everything you have an issue with, IS BECAUSE DAV started out as a live service/multiplayer game. 

The live service concept was after pivoting once already, so technically it started out as single player (project Joplin), but I think very little of that first iteration remains. The official art book has some concepts for Joplin that looked really promising (e.g. the hub being a ship).

The live service DNA is certainly felt, though, especially in the progression systems (e.g. randomized loot).

I see that as nothing more than an excuse. They changed the 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦  nature of the game, therefore they should have put those hallmarks of Dragon Age back in. To me that reasoning is nothing more than "well, we didn't feel like it".  Which seems to be the case, and is unacceptable. 

Project Joplin was the multiplayer concept. I am holding the artbook in my hands on the chapter.

Finally! A hater that can explain why they hate it! It is so painful fighting a losing battle all over social media, only to get knee capped by the EA boss not defending the product, and Bioware turtling with goofy press releases that mean nothing. 

They've done nothing to encourage people like me, who've just crossed the 600 hrs mark, that the future of Dragon Age is not in doubt. I will address your novel in a bit. It'll take time to go point by point. I do disagree with you on the main point to an extent. The best option at this point would be to have a Borderlands style co-op game, vs BG3. 

I was personally able to introduce two people to the game. Full disclosure, my sister and our mutual BFF are both Dragon Age fans, me being an Ultra fan, but they were wishy washy because of the now out of hand "Anti-woke" crusade. Lol They are both at 300+ hrs now.

This entire time we have torn through the game finding hidden events, bosses, unique cutscenes and conversations, builds and gear combinations, shared our shipping clips etc... It has been a blast. One problem. We can only shareplay our gameplay and share pics and clips. We can't tear through the world together like we did in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands (Foreshadowing).

In a Borderlands style game, you can have an amazing single player experience and also an outstanding co-op experience. Drop-in, drop-out. No problem. Shared progress. BG3 co-op is a confusing mess, you have to compete for party approvals, and you're campaign locked. I believe there is a mod to increase party size, but I'd wait for one approved by the dev team so you don't have weirdness happening. We'll see what this patch does. But yeah, there is one or more less party members to boost approval for. 

My mistake then. I thought Morrison was the live service iteration.

I did promise a response. Enjoy that formatting compatibility. Haha

1. The writing was poor or lacking in places, but the same could be said for every single Dragon Age game. I always encourage people to go back an play through the previous games. It is easy to forget how bad it was after 10, 13, and 15 years? lol Your binky is not what you think it is. I say that as someone who got through college solely because Inquisition existed to keep me sane.

Something else, most of your crew are operatives. Not scholars or intellectuals. Even Bellara, though intelligent, is essentially a normie. Bioware didn't do well in explaining that in the marketing materials. You're a northern Thedas Spec Ops group given mandate by the Inquisitor to hunt down and stop Solas. Your group is made up of made of operators and specialists. The most intelligent and or qualified people spew jargon when they need to. Usually your three mages.

2. It ***IS AN RPG***, specifially an action RPG, heavy on the action, far lighter on the RPG. Par for the course. Some people grew up before the internet took off. So we understand and appreciate subtlety and nuance. Screw hard and fast rules. 89' baby here. Your responses shape your personality. Your choices lock you out of whole sequences, items, armor and weapons... The last three being available at the end when they are largely irrelevant... Your choices also have big impacts on party members lives, deaths, and the lives and deaths of NPCs in the game and in the future. See Minrathos, Treviso, Davrin, Harding, Viper, and The Mayor just to name a few. Also, your relationship choice is huge. Bellara and Lucanis are garbage. Harding and Taash love bomb through missions and party banter, where as the last three are more traditional with excellent pacing.

3. I disagree here entirely. You're slighting the art style, which I adore. Read the art book. Get back to me. Also, it is clearly rated M. Though I will agree with you later on a related note...

4. Idk about confused looks? They are generally excited to see you and busy with their own tasks and preoccupations. I actually like not having to spend a year running laps around Skyhold dealing with largely filler formulaic routines with characters. I'd rather quickly modify my build, get my next side quests or mainline quests, do my obligatory team building exercises and see which party banter event is available that I may have missed out on while out in the world. Also, I adore the little round table sessions versus the boring war table.

5. What I hear is that I can't kiss my Quizzy 24/7... soooo... MEH. I get it. I do. But, looking back, the relationship process in DAI is formulaic. It is. Same product, different package. Without relationships, DAI bombs. That is what won it the GoTY. Also, whoa dere!

There are three characters in DA:V that could be dropped into all three preceeding games and would thrive:

A. Harding, the teams MVP, greatest comeback in Dragon Age history. She went from "HEY! LISTEN!" Haha! Like that?!, to kinky country bumpkin dwarven waifu with Sandal level powers, no enchantment...

B. Emmrick, the team's wise counsel, outstanding in every interaction, and the cherry on top of the quintessential Veilguard experience... Mourn Watch Mage with Emmrick ship.

C. Davrin, the team's "giga chad", "aggroing" and annoying his way to endearment, what Blackwall coulda, shoulda, woulda been, intriguing hobbies, assan, and surprisingly good fun 'ship.

6. Agree. Yeah... Surprised me too. I am taking a break from BG3 to play this. I am not innocent anymore. Good Lord, Minthara and Halsin. Whew! I don't want BG3 level "interaction", but to go backward seems odd when the game is already M rated.

7. "All roads lead to Rome" choices are nothing new. Even BG3 has many of them. That being said, never compare this or DA:I to BG3. Neither measure up, nor should they. Play BG3 if you want 500 endings.

If I am a multi-billionaire, I can buy a Bugatti or a Civic Type-R. Both are fun to drive. Both are fast. But I don't want a Bugatti Type-R. I want options. BG3 is for when I want an absolute epic, a generational achievement, with strategic challenges. DA:V is for when I just want a fun, surprisingly substantial yet quick romp through my favorite fantasy IP.

8. I agree on all points except for her being one-dimensional and dumb. If you can get her away from Neve or anything involving her gender, she is absolutely hilarious and endearing.

She is not her mother, but she is not stupid. Clearly she knows her craft and can see the simplest path to a solution versus banging her head against a wall. She is young, with young people problems. But they made her go full vegan, yoga, crossfit, Tesla driver on us. "Hey! HEEEY! I drive a Tesla."

I honestly think giving her the option to meet with the Shadows, for non-binary, Iron bull for "manhood", or Cassandra for "womanhood" would have made her situation far more intriguing. It probably would have sated the ire of a portion of the drones seeking to drown DA:V in absured levels of hatred. But it would never get through to the final cut with the previous dev team.

9. Someone already said it, and I could have copped with it on earlier points, but this was a multi-player game.

10. There are a ton of new events spinning off of this game involving almost all parties. That is for "future games and projects". This is supposed to be a jumping off point, much like Inquisition was a point of convergence for MANY characters and events. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't get at least a few more books and comics out of this. If they are going to make another show, drop the cash and let the studio that did Arcane make it. It'll cost as much as a new game, but it will bring people back and add new players to the base. You have to go all in now.

11. I am not sure what else could be told. You'd end up killing the gods and chasing everyone else down for another 5-10 hours. Best to leave it to the books and comics.

12. I already said my piece on multiplayer aspect that. I do think Larian could do it justice. There is no one else I would trust. But It'll cost you a fortune. BG3 graphics aren't even close to Veilguard. The graphics alone for that long of a game would cost a King's ransom. Veilguard is a flagship title for the PS5 PRO, and it has earned that. IT IS GORGEOUS.

The only thing keeping me from rating this game higher than I do, which, laugh all you want, is 8.75-9 out of 10, is something you mentioned earlier. Dragon Age Keep integration. As I said, I am an Ultra fan. I have around 6,000 hrs played, 40 characters, and 3 platinums across all 4 games. DA:O was too old for me. Felt like WoW. Couldn't do it. One full run. So all of that work being made irrelevant seemed cruel. I know how hard they worked to get me this, so I will play it and be glad I have closure.

I got to cry as a grown, 35 year old man when Varric was revealed to be dead, when I saw Harding/Dav fall, and watching my boy Solas walk off into the Sunset with Inna, my Quizzy that shipped him in Inquisition. I am content.

I disagree with it being an RPG. To me, it most certainly is not. At best it's an action/adventure game with RPG elements. The problem comes in with Rook's dialogue. Very rarely does anything you say change the response from whomever you're speaking to. The dialogue choices are almost always way too similar to the other choices.  People want to have options with dialogue and we just didn't get many variations. Everyone's Rook is the same Rook and there were very few choices that mattered at all, and that's a problem.

Retort

1: yeah 15+ of a younger newer company should be a bit lesser by comparison. But it's not, I still play da1 and get as much or more satisfaction as I have in the game that's supposed to have "grown and matured" with tech and talent.

2.its kind of an rpg. There's a skill tree, there's classes. There the chose a city to save choice that still let's you have both cities, both characters stay, ya may not romance one or the other won't heal. No time to care about wither city or the people really before said choice so the effects are meh. Other than that it's what armor do I want my lesson to have? Whoo...

3. The art and world are pretty... but its cosplaying as a DA world. Elves have never been this techy, dwarves suddenly had trains by the looks of the rail lines, the forests float? The fade is whimsy? The blight change is a joke with a weak cover story. 

4. I did really miss being more involved with my people in the base. I liked having the talks in the main room that was nice, I liked having more options for scene interactions I just wish they had more substance and worth. The gifts thing was a joke. Da1 had far better gifting mechanics and that was 15 yrs ago.

5. There's more to romance than screwing ur boo. And we wanted more of that from everyone. They've been shallow and flippant about their own "struggles" or it's ALL THEY ARE. Everyone has their own tastes, out of all the da games, it's all Alistair zevran fenrins (I wish varric) Collin and solas for me.  I can't see Harding as any better than she was in 3, I may have liked her better then honestly. And davrin I really wouldn't peg as a Chad, a dude sure. But to each their own that's why there's options.

6. Pg for language sake. Doesn't really seem super mature. 

7. The fact that this is a quick romp/ fun / Debbie cake of game for someone is why it's gotten criticized. It's supposed to be a dark fantasy. The relationships were supposed to be the light in the dark bloody gruesome world.  Not the rainbows and unicorns with bloody horns now and then.

8. Yeah when there's a personality characters are usually better :)

9. Multi play should nvr on this table

10. My DA games are not the supporting role of the supporting roles. Movies, comics... anything else is NOT the reason to push out a game that's suppose to be the spine of the world and lore.

11. See above.

12. It's a desperate cash grab that didn't get the care and respect it needed to be great. This game had added to my no faith in waiting for a good follow up game. Kh3 broke my heart and soul I couldn't force myself to play more than 20 hrs cause I'd cry after from disappointment. After all bad reviews from friends and forums I knew this wasn't gonna be great but it's ok, wasn't worth the 10 yrs and love I've had for the others.

  1 was amazing for story lore characters and consequence. 2 was great to see your impact on the city. Less choices but ya felt them a lil more than the next 2 games. 3 I wish was little more... more. There was just something i was always looking  for, the graphics was it's saving point from total meh. Art and handholding friend circles wasn't gonna save 4 for me. Coulda and shoulda been better but life and circumstances didn't see for for that apparently.