Can't Stick the Landing – RPGs and poor endings.

 Not so long ago, I wrote about Dragon Age 2. I read a lot of reviews of the game, and ended up liking it in spite of some of the things others mentioned that bothered them. Yeah, the same few areas were re-used over and over again. Yep, game was too damned short. And it sure would have been nice to get out of Kirkwall just a little bit more.

What bugged me most, and almost enough to wreck the game for me, was the tepid final act. The ending was abrupt and seemed forced, with characters behaving in ways that were supposed to be designed to make final choices difficult. The problem is, a good ethical/moral conundrum should not rely on all sides being equally unpleasant. “You're all jerks, but I hate this guy a little less, so we go with him.” That's not a well-written morality tale, it feels more like the attitude of the average apathetic American voter.

Don't give me that look, You know what you did.

This isn't the first time that a game I've played has had an incredible buildup, only to let me down at the last moment. The most striking example I can think of is Fallout 3 (to be fair, I've played NONE of the expansions or DLC.) Throughout, Fallout 3 had an engaging experience, your choices seemed to matter and I was having a good time. Then, you get to the ending, and you are forced into a “this or that” choice, both of which aren't very good... and you can't even back out and decide later. I gritted my teeth, unhappy but resolved to see it through, and then got the ending. I'd beaten previous games in the Fallout series, and expected to see the consequences of my decisions and how they affected the world. Not so. The vast majority of the decisions I made turned out to be utterly meaningless as far as my ending.

This ruined the game for me, and is the reason I didn't continue on with any of the additional material.

War. War never changes. And neither does the ending, aside from 2-3 choices you made.

Thinking back on it, a lot of the Final Fantasy games were like this, too... the ending got so weird that I disconnected with what came before and stopped caring about the story. What is it about so many modern RPGs that have great beginnings, great mid-game, and then completely fall apart somewhere in the Third Act? There are a few things that will utterly ruin a game if included in the ending.

1. Radically changing your storytelling right at the end: This includes not only the “we're all in a dream/the afterlife/the matrix” or the sudden inclusion of aliens or magic “a wizard did it”, but establishing one kind of pace and one standard for player input for the game, and another for the ending. Talk about ruining suspension of disbelief.
2. Huge buildup to a climactic conclusion, and insufficient closure before providing a cliffhanger. Cliffhangers are annoying enough in games, but they really rob the player of the experience if after hours and hours of struggle, there's no moment of “victory.” If you take away the feeling that a hero's fight accomplished something, who cares what happens next?
3. Cardinal Sin: Do Not, I repeat, DO NOT let a character other than the one the player controls swoop in to be the deciding force in victory. If this ultra-badass is the real hero of the day, why did anyone else bother to show up? Thanks, I always wanted to play “unintentional sidekick.”

Almost everything listed above, in one game.  The ending is somehow less comprehensible  than being an underwater soccer star whose father becomes a Satan Whale.

What games really infuriated you with a letdown at the end? Was there one in particular that everyone else seems to hate but you actually kind of liked the ending for? Let me know.

Today's Article Brought To You By the Letters D, L and C

Today's article is up late because so far, Dragon Age 2 is very, very good. One of the few advantages, from a geek's perspective, to not having a job is being able to pick up a new release that has been carefully budgeted and saved for on launch day... and play the hell out of it.

I installed the PC version after getting back from all of the day's errands, and installed the unlock items from Facebook, Penny Arcade and the other myriad sources that a shiny promotional item could be earned pre-launch. Then I redeemed the code for “The Black Emporium”, which is their free incentive DLC, that comes with a mabari warhound. Thinking about it, I then went and purchased “The Exiled Prince” launch DLC and installed that.

The Exiled Prince made a lot of people pretty mad. The usual geek complaint is that on launch day, if you buy a game, you should have access to everything the developer created for that title, without paying any extra. Day One Downloadable Content is like the developer making a whole game, then cracking off a piece of it and holding it for ransom, or so the argument goes.

I don't know that I agree with the groupthink on this one. When the original Dragon Age: Origins came out, there were also 2 pieces of launch DLC, also one free and one you pay for. The idea was to test free DLC as a means to control piracy and get a little bit more developer money from the secondary sales market (as free DLC ain't free after it has been downloaded once) and to see what people would be willing to pay for in terms of extra content. DA:O had as our freebie “The Stone Prisoner”, which added an interesting recruitable character and associated quests to the game, and the premium content was called “Warden's Keep”, which added an area, a questline and some merchants to the game.

Is this guy worth a few bucks over a crumbling tower full of monsters? You bet he is.

People hated it. I personally appreciated what they were trying to do, instead of adding SecuROM or some equally draconian DRM software, they gave people a reason to buy their product on launch day. The only thing a lot of folks were saying is that they mixed up which content should have been free, and which was worth paying for. (I hope you can see where this is going.)

Dragon Age 2 listened to the fans, and didn't abandon its plans to rethink copy-protection to protect their game's value. They reversed roles, making the DLC that is effectively just a new area with a few toys the freebie, and asked you to pay a premium for a new (fully voiced) character, and all the quests that, while optional, add significant content to the game. Guess what the fan response was.

You won't pay for me? *sigh* Guess my house goes unavenged.

Do we, as gamers really want to send this message? Don't innovate, don't create more if you expect us to pay more? If the premium content was created, but not available at launch, would that fix it, or just spark a new set of complaints about having to wait for it.

Sometimes, as gamers, we remind me of an old joke about a bunch of little old ladies sitting at a buffet chattering away. One says “The food is terrible here. It is overcooked, under seasoned and dried out.” Her friend enthusiastically agrees, adding “And such small portions!”

I'm not here, I'm in Kirkwall

Really short article today for Fat Tuesday. Today is not only a day to pig out, eating desserts and other fatty foods (because even if you don't celebrate or believe in Lent, who doesn't like dessert?) Today is also the call to power. That's right, Dragon Age 2.

Installing this now, and from the demo... Varric is already The Man.

I've been a Bioware fan since the original Baldur's Gate, and have owned almost every game they've published since (and beaten most of them.) The focus on strong narratives, and getting something out of talking with the characters in your party and addressing their needs, learning their pasts, or just not angering them so much they attack you or leave...

Now Minsc Leads! Swords for Everyone!

I think the storytelling and art direction started strong and just got better and better. I'll likely do a few more DA2 articles in the next few days, so I'll get back to more stories of unemployed life and other geek culture (movies, music, TV and comics) articles once I've gotten this out of my system. I can even use Dragon Age to talk about a few of those divisive issues I touched on yesterday, in particular DRM and DLC in games.

Should be fun.

So enjoy your Mardi Gras week, get plenty fat on desserts, (I know I will) and here's a picture of a traditional food eaten this week, the Paczki. (I'm Irish, but I grew up in and currently live in a half hispanic, half polish area.)

Geeking Out (On a new Budget)

Looking at the entries I've posted, I want to make sure that this blog isn't all about being unemployed, and not at all about geekery. After all, It'd be easy to devolve into just whining about how bad life is (truth is, it really isn't) or carrying on with inspirational little stories that could have come from anyone. I want, occasionally, to write just about geeky things, and more often, to write about where geeky things and not having a job intersect, and how they interact. This post is gonna kinda like that second one.

I've been very fortunate to have in place a lot of geeky things that don't run me a whole lot of money, whether it means rewatching Dr. Horrible's Sing a Long Blog on Netflix streaming, playing one of the (many, many) boardgames acquired during my years at the hobby shop, or World of Warcraft. Lots and lots of WoW.

I know a lot of geeks are divided on the subject of WoW, but as I've been playing since open beta and when my wife and I were apart, it was the easiest way to spend lots of time together without lots of money, I'm definitely in the "pro WoW camp". Dungeons, levelling, crafting items, PvP, working as a team in a guild, and, yes... raiding (just killed Nefarian for 12/12 normal!) has been a lot of my gaming over the last 6 years. I spent a lot more going out to bars, and my wife and I have had a lot of fun. It may be a treadmill, but I know all the other hamsters.

Also, in the "low cost" geekery, I run several roleplaying (think D&D, not computer) campaigns for a group of friends, lately using the Savage Worlds system. We get together once a week (most weeks, unless schedule or illness forbids) have a potluck meal and I run an adventure for the group. Currently running Rippers (Think Van Helsing meets League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, if either movie was GOOD), Deadlands (Gunslingers, Zombies and magic in the Weird West), and Sundered Skies (Hrm... harder to explain this one... I'll go with "DDDDWWWWAAAARRRVESSSS INNNN SPPPAAAAAACCCCEEE!")

Luckily, my existing geek hobbies were fairly inexpensive for the amount of entertainment I get from them. I will set aside a few dollars to purchase Dragon Age 2 when it drops... more about that another day.