Hold The Line! We are On Our Own! Hahaha
Enjoy this rant I wrote after finishing breakfast. Suggested track to loop to set the mood is Meow by Lvsum. Because my voice sounds like Mark Wahlberg’s voice. See, now I ruined it… Let’s go!
Before we start, I am fully aware of the elephant in the room with this game. I myself have been confused and annoyed with it at times. I am also an atonomous adult capable of hitting "skip". OKAY? DO WE UNDERSTAND? CAN WE MOVE ON?
Don’t let the review bombers win! I may be responsible for this by trolling haters with PSN numbers… See the one-star review counts… Har har har If EA needs 3 million copies sold to consider Veilguard a success- erm... let's get'em there? DA:I didn't need much help to get to 12 mil in 10 years, if those numbers are to be believed, but Veilguard was expected to hit 3 mil in 3 months even with a viral campaign against it and the horror show that was development? 1.5 million is an acceptable 3 months tally in my book, but I am not a billion-dollar entertainment company that invested 100s of millions into an IP. That being said, word of mouth from fans keeping the IP alive all-over social media did help DA:I reach such a lofty number.
Just like with Inquisition, I have been singing this game's praises to everyone who asks. I waded into every filthy scrum on the internet, throwing elbows and pies left and right. Even when it was seemingly fruitless, the goal was to have at least one person to “spite the ‘opps’”. I stumbled out of the melee, bruised and bloodied, only watch in utter confusion as the Bioware DA dev team turtled into a fetal position while being tucked into bed by the EA boss before he turned off the lights. Confusion led to horror as I saw “fans”, you know, short form of FANATICS, pulling an “et tu Brute?”
If this game completely bombs, you may never get another Dragon Age. Some of us, who have been around since the beginning, are getting old. 30s, 40s, and even 50s, right? People will start kicking off before a new game can even enter development. Another 10-15 years is bad news. Haha
Get the word out and be an ambassador if you enjoyed your experience. Take people under your wing that are curious or apprehensive about giving the game a try. Befriend and enlighten people who have had a bad experience or have been reluctant because of what haters are saying. Social media. I need not explain too much as it has already worked for DA:I. I have seen a decent amount of streams and clips from players on YouTube. Good start. No doubt while under bombardment from haters... The goal is show that there is more to the game than the elephant in the room. If I had to guess without a stopwatch, I'd say the total run time of the thorn in our collective sides actually being a thorn is 25 to 30 mins across all characters involved. A playthrough should run you 50-70ish, flying, to 100+ hours depending on the person and how invested you are.
If you had a bad experience, find people who have had a good experience and inquire about what they liked and even didn’t like. Common ground is the beginning of understand you see. Rather that, than running to the first hater page you can find and drowning yourself in confirmation bias. Haha Needless to say, you will find it.
“Isn’t this kind of IRONIC, considering you’re asking me to-“
SHUT UP! We are in crisis mode, Mr. Contrarian! Let me finish.
Befriend someone who enjoys the game and play through a campaign in parallel. Sorry, I am full up. I have two friends with 200+ hours a piece doing share-screens on PS5 every other night. Where was I… Try a different class, sub-class, overall build, faction, race, love interest, character personality, there are three choices plus love interest, and or choices in general. Haters say choices have no impact… That is hilariously false. I have over 600 hours in this game. I will battle anyone, anywhere, any time over this. Haha. Some choices have very little impact, some make you very sad, happy, and others still will make you furious ,quick tangent, WASTING 80% OF THE GAME ON A BELLARA OR LUCANIS “SHIP”. I am on characters #4,5, and 6 out of 7. One for each love interest. I have had a blast!
Is Veilguard BG3? NO! AND IT SHOULDN’T BE! GO PLAY BG3 IF YOU WANT BG3! I actually took a break from my now 2,000 hours over all characters to play Veilguard. Yeah. I did. This is a quick 80 to 100hr romp through what should be one of your favorite IPs. I don’t think I have a single playthrough under 120 hours that is through the second act of BG3. Most of that time is prepping builds, relationship management, and exploring catacombs with often underwhelming payoff. Did I mention RTS? 15 to 45 min battles… Snoozeville… It is a generational achievement, storytelling wonder, and an S rank gamer score from me, sure. Still, I call balls and strikes. At 2,000 hrs I could go on and on. Need to see what all was fixed with the latest patch. ANYWAY…
Random final thought: PS5 PRO + that last patch has visuals equivalent in beauty as that of hearing my mother’s voice for the first time… Except for the armor and hair clipping in parts and places of course… It might be the most beautiful game I have seen to date on a console. For "realism" mixed with... Uh... ultra hi res Fortnite, and not the fancy artsy fartsy stuff. Flagship title well earned.
Now, go forth and multip-… I mean spread the word! I will go back to fighting the good fight. I don’t want to have my mind turn to Swiss cheese before I get another game. Haha
