It is true that Cullen fandom has grown and, in fact, that it has morphed into something humongous and unrecognizable, but I have seen a lot of other new people come in for other aspects that aren't Cullen related. Although, I suspect that I have been aware of rush of incomers since Feb 2014 because my tumblr has a lot of meta that people started reblogging back then. There were days when my activity feed was useless because I would see nothing but 200 likes or reblogs of some old meta from 2012. My follower count quadrupled during the months leading up to DAI's release. Thus, I think these experiences have made me aware of all the new blood across DA fandom, rather than just within Cullen fandom.
Fully agreed that it has all been themes and variations on the same old drama. For you: old people, same old drama. For me: new+old people engaging in the same old drama.
Not only have I also seen the same negativity you mention here -- negativity from unmet expectations -- I have also seen many unrealistic or poorly proportioned expectations. For instance, have you seen some of the twitter copypasta tumblr posts from the Bioware devs that have been reality checks to gamers/fans about the amount of work that goes into making a game? (Wait, didn't you reblog some of those posts? ;)
...idk, given the purchasing price of a AAA game plus the extra cost all its DLCs and given how long a gamer must wait for a AAA game to come out, I can understand why fandom can turn into the complaint hotline when the game isn't exactly what the gamer wants. But I also know how impossible it is for developers to meet those expectations, despite their final crunch working 'til 2am most nights for a few months. Believe me, I know. I guess I just sympathize with all parties involved.
ANYHOW. Enough of that.
I want meta conversations about all the implications of everything that happened, not endless rants about how people think the game should have gone differently.
Now that I have vicariously seen how the game ends -- and I think Trespasser was very interesting -- I too am interested in stepping back and looking at Thedas end-to-end to see what all of this implies because quite a few mysteries were cleared up, more or less.
I must admit that without Trespasser, the initial game didn't really work for me. There were aspects of the main story that really bothered me (in a critical theory way, and in a "not my media, nope" sort of way) that were left hanging with a giant WTF but then, later, those aspects were beautifully resolved in Trespasser. Honestly, I like the game's main story far far far better after watching (sadly, not yet able to play) a few "Let's Plays" of Trespasser. That said, while playing the original game late last year, I enjoyed the side quests and the random open world aspects far more than the main game. Also enjoyed Cassandra's, Leliana's, and Josephine's stories very much (worth the price of the game, for me). Cullen's romance is very interesting from a feminist perspective and has wiggle room for parallel-but-different interpretations. But the main quest line from Corypheus onward failed me ... until Trespasser.
I sort of feel like the balance was off in how they presented the main story but, overall, the ideas are Intriguing.
I had plenty of criticisms and haven't been shy about sharing them. But the balance is off, at least in terms of me being able to enjoy the conversation.
Yep. The discussion on tumblr is a mess. Oddly, the discussions on reddit have been far more interesting and far more civil. In my experience, the best discussions about the kinds of lore things you are talking about have mostly happened away from fannish tumblr's eye.
ATM, I don't have a working machine that can play DAI. Once that problem is solved, I want to go back and finish up quests I didn't have time to play last December and then play through the DLCs. The Dwarf and Elf lore plus the implications it all has on the Chantry's telling of history already has me thinking. It's an interesting world they've built. Curious where they will go with it.
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Fully agreed that it has all been themes and variations on the same old drama. For you: old people, same old drama. For me: new+old people engaging in the same old drama.
Not only have I also seen the same negativity you mention here -- negativity from unmet expectations -- I have also seen many unrealistic or poorly proportioned expectations. For instance, have you seen some of the twitter copypasta tumblr posts from the Bioware devs that have been reality checks to gamers/fans about the amount of work that goes into making a game? (Wait, didn't you reblog some of those posts? ;)
...idk, given the purchasing price of a AAA game plus the extra cost all its DLCs and given how long a gamer must wait for a AAA game to come out, I can understand why fandom can turn into the complaint hotline when the game isn't exactly what the gamer wants. But I also know how impossible it is for developers to meet those expectations, despite their final crunch working 'til 2am most nights for a few months. Believe me, I know. I guess I just sympathize with all parties involved.
ANYHOW. Enough of that.
I want meta conversations about all the implications of everything that happened, not endless rants about how people think the game should have gone differently.
Now that I have vicariously seen how the game ends -- and I think Trespasser was very interesting -- I too am interested in stepping back and looking at Thedas end-to-end to see what all of this implies because quite a few mysteries were cleared up, more or less.
I must admit that without Trespasser, the initial game didn't really work for me. There were aspects of the main story that really bothered me (in a critical theory way, and in a "not my media, nope" sort of way) that were left hanging with a giant WTF but then, later, those aspects were beautifully resolved in Trespasser. Honestly, I like the game's main story far far far better after watching (sadly, not yet able to play) a few "Let's Plays" of Trespasser. That said, while playing the original game late last year, I enjoyed the side quests and the random open world aspects far more than the main game. Also enjoyed Cassandra's, Leliana's, and Josephine's stories very much (worth the price of the game, for me). Cullen's romance is very interesting from a feminist perspective and has wiggle room for parallel-but-different interpretations. But the main quest line from Corypheus onward failed me ... until Trespasser.
I sort of feel like the balance was off in how they presented the main story but, overall, the ideas are Intriguing.
I had plenty of criticisms and haven't been shy about sharing them. But the balance is off, at least in terms of me being able to enjoy the conversation.
Yep. The discussion on tumblr is a mess. Oddly, the discussions on reddit have been far more interesting and far more civil. In my experience, the best discussions about the kinds of lore things you are talking about have mostly happened away from fannish tumblr's eye.
ATM, I don't have a working machine that can play DAI. Once that problem is solved, I want to go back and finish up quests I didn't have time to play last December and then play through the DLCs. The Dwarf and Elf lore plus the implications it all has on the Chantry's telling of history already has me thinking. It's an interesting world they've built. Curious where they will go with it.