this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director Corinne Busche reportedly leaves BioWare (www.gamesindustry.biz)

submitted 9 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

I thought the game was pretty okay. The romance with the detective lady was a little disappointing. The difficulty fell off a cliff pretty early on as a mage with life drain.

The arc with whatstheirface and their mother not accepting them seemed pretty plausible to me. I've got a friend going through something like that now. Seeing something like that in media is meaningful to people.

The loyalty mission prompt was kind of meh. I can see that they wanted loyalty missions, but it felt like they struggled to fit them in.

Overall it wasn't quite the game I wanted, but it wasn't bad.

[–] ampersandrew 10 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

The comments here are something else. This event is completely independent of the sales of the game (a game that probably did just fine). She's a director who left a company after 18 years at the end of a project, which directors often do, because that's the best way to accept a lucrative offer without burning bridges. 18 years is a long time to stay at the same company.

EDIT: Oh, apparently this departure is a part of some manufactured internet culture war drama. Allow this from Jeff Grubb to clear the air:

Corrine Busch, director of Dragon Age, really is leaving BioWare. But I don't think EA is closing BioWare Edmonton. Was told there is nothing solid about that part of the rumor.

In her letter, she said she is moving to a new team to work on a new RPG.

Just to give you all the timeline: Two people reached out to me directly with details about the story before I ever saw Grummz or whoever's tweets (I have all those blocked). Regardless, their posts contained lies to fuel a pathetic culture war, so I never would've felt good about crediting them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

https://steamdb.info/app/1845910/charts/

About 1m estimated sales on steam, so probably 2m across all platforms, not bad - I wonder what her next project will be?

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 10 points 5 hours ago

That's pretty bad for something as big as Dragon Age.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

That's not a lot for a big game like dragon age, no?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Inquisition was almost a decade ago and didn’t have a long tail. The IP isn’t as strong as it used to be tbh

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

DA:I sold 12 million copies. That makes it the top selling game Bioware ever had.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 hours ago

Probably not what they wanted, no.

[+] [email protected] -53 points 8 hours ago (6 children)

Ya people play video games to escape these politics. Glad to see this game fail miserably

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

"People play Dragon Age to escape politics" lmao good one

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

Ya people play video games to escape these politics.

Speak for yourself

[–] [email protected] 40 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

The game is bad because of bad writing not because of politics.

BG 3 is even more "woke" and it's great.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The game is bad because it's repetitive and just not fun to play, which are design flaws.

[–] Quadhammer 1 points 6 hours ago

I've been having fun with it but I wanted a hack and slashy fantasy game that wasn't depressingly "souls like". This kinda scratches that itch.

The taash bits are a little on the nose sometimes with the gender stuff but it's really not a big deal or a lot of the game.

I really like the deep lore of the game though I haven't played any of them since like the first one or two. I like how the dialogue "feels" but I don't think there is much of an impact on how you behave other than key events, and sometimes there's a little too much dialogue, but it does seem to flow like real conversations with good voice acting a lot better than other rpgs I've played. And it's beautiful, the maps are sandboxy but layered. Some stuff is time gated so I'll be trying to figure out how to get somewhere only to give up and it be available later.

Anyway I'd give it like a 7 or 8 at this point

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

Woke is fine if it doesn't break immersion. In BG3 it feels like part of the in game universe. In dragon age it feels like it was just forced in like "hey look how progressive we are" and it's just very tiresome

It reminds me of the runescape pride parade. The whole community was mad not because they are anti gay it's just not a place for blatant real life political stuff when we are all playing for the sole purpose of escaping real life

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

The whole game has bad dialogue. It sounds stiltet or like a bad Marvel movie no matter what they talk about.

Also, including gay characters is only political if it is something you object to. Are black characters also political?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

including gay characters is only political if it is something you object to. Are black characters also political?

Exactly. I'm never even aware of these controversies until I see people whining about it online, because a gay or trans character in a video game means literally nothing to me. Why would I care?

And there are people that it does matter to; representation in media is important. So that's just all positives and no negatives in my mind.

Also makes for more variety in plots and settings. Win/win/win.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

The problem is blatant references to the real world in a fantasy game. The game literally goes out of its way to remind you that you are playing a human made video game.

With better writing this wouldn't be a problem, I agree

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Things that break immersion for some gamers:

Main character isn't a white cishet male
NPCs that don't reinforce the primacy of white cishet males
Acceptance of non-cis/het people in a story involving fantasy creatures that is otherwise totally believable, well-written, and, above all, where only this scene is clumsily delivered (and not the fact the supporting character's hat appears to be a folded bird)

No sarcasm in the third point at all. (Edit: That's more sarcasm where I'm indicating I'm being sarcastic in point three)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Otherwise well written? This game is trash. Go replay an older dragon age if you forgot what good writing is

Do you actually just assume random people are racist for zero reason in your day to day life? I couldn't help but go into your profile and I laughed when you complained about toxicity on lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I made a mistake: point three was dripping with sarcasm, so I followed with a line meant to highlight this, but I unthinkingly wrote it in the same highly sarcastic manner.

Do you actually just assume random people are racist for zero reason in your day to day life?

I have no idea what you're trying to infer. Please tell me this isn't a prelude to "all racism has some truth to it".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago

Like which gamers exactly are upset about non white npcs?

I don't understand the relevance of bringing up race here unless you meant to infer that's something which bothers me in games

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I've been working on being more civil online, so be assured the following is a much kinder response than that which I was initially inclined to:

🤡

Plus the bit about "I went on your profile and couldn't help laughing about..." It absolutely puts the big red nose on the clown. How are you writing all of this? Aren't cell phones banned for students in school in the US? Are you skiving off?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

I'm honestly unsure what you're upset about lol

How do you know if someone is worth blocking if you don't vet them a bit

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

I didn't have to vet your profile at all to figure out you're worth blocking. You did all the work for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

You are the toxicity on lemmy

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw 1 points 6 hours ago

Anyone who thinks I'm a dunce is simply upset. Reading is hard and I don't know what the words mean!

FTFY

[–] Skullgrid 4 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

exactly, which is why politics free games like assassins creed and call of duty sell like hotcakes...

wait, Ass cree is a series about political intrigue throughout history and call of duty is about warfare as a result of political goals.

Are you sure people play games to escape politics?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah uh what the hell was Mass Effect and the Witcher if not extremely political. You could be a genocidal Shepard remember, you could let the entire council die and push for a human only version. Most people who cry out "it's woke" just have never put it together before.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah but those aren't the same on the nose reminder of real life politics that dragon age is guilty of

The game literally stops to lecture you on how progressive of a game it is, it's just stupid virtue signaling

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

LGBTQ people existing in video games is only "political" if you're a bigot. It's really that simple.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago

There are lots of games who have LGBT that literally nobody has a problem with. BG3 is good example

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Yeah I think video games are primarily used as escapism

You know people play cod because they like the 6v6 arcade shooter mode, not for the story or the campaign

[–] newthrowaway20 6 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

What politics?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Snowflakes are so upset that they have to see or interact with LGBTQ character(s) in video games, because to them their very existence is "political."

Same as saying a game is "political" because there's a black person in it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2024/10/31/dragon-age-the-veilguards-clumsy-preachy-political-messaging-does-more-harm-than-good/

It will undoubtedly turn many gamers off entirely, not necessarily because they’re unsympathetic to trans rights, but because they’re tired of being preached at.

[–] SoftTeeth -2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Good dog

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Every comment in your history is toxic and negative. Blocked.