Shift in Gaming focus

Last week I canceled the last monthly revolving subscriptions we had to MMOs.  It wasn’t because of expenses but rather out of a complete lack of desire to log in and deal with the MMO environment.  Tired of developers that flat out lie, constant skill resets, communities of various games, and the endless grind for faction or gear.  I would rather curl up on the sofa, turn on the console and play a single player game or co-op game with hubby. 

MMOs are a great value for the money you spend compared with a dinner and movie once a month but given all the other choices of entertainment, MMOs aren’t cutting it anymore.  I’m tired of paying money for content that I have no interest in (i.e.. “end game” raids) and then losing access to that content once I’ve canceled my subscription (i.e.. Lord of the Rings Online).  Give me a single player game where the content I purchase is available to me whenever the mood strikes me to log on and play.

I’ve been burned out before but this time just feels different.  Usually news from Blizzcon interests me or sucks me back in, but this year I could care less: zero interest, haven’t read a single blog or tweet about Blizzcon.  Finding out who the Prophet was in Elder Scrolls Online so early in the story killed it for me, why bother to log-in the remainder of the story was just killed for me.  Everquest 2, and SOE games in general, are routinely killed by the stupidity of their marketing and accounting departments.  Their pricing structures and lack of appreciation of their customers, oh hell their failure to recognize that their pricing is completely out of whack with their competition, is just aggravating and infuriating.

I won’t claim we will never again sub to a MMO but honestly, much like my warden above I believe we are riding into the dawn toward console (XboxOne) and single player PC games.  I’ll still share impressions from games but they won’t be MMOs.  Up first on the console are Halo: Master Chief Collection, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and then finally DragonAge: Inquisition.  It is truly an excellent week plus of game anticipation.

If you follow on Twitter I will probably be much more active on my other account @stitchersflock or on @Path, send me a DM if you want to add me on Path.  Have fun gaming!

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Xbox One: Dragon Age: Inquisition

October 7th I can be found safely curled up in my sofa lost in the latest adventure from Thedas.  Dragon Age: Inquisition finally has a release date and I am ready for what looks to be a significant improvement from Dragon Age II.  It looks to be a promising Fall for Xbox One games, although Inquisition is also releasing on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, PS4 and PC.  Id the videos, screenshots and gameplay footage can be trusted, then Bioware looks to be well on their way to saving the Dragon Age franchise.

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Women and Gaming

Blizzcon just ended and once again another gaming convention has come and gone with an ever present male bias in gaming.  It happens every gaming convention, not just Blizzcon.   I get my hopes up that some gaming company somewhere will present reveals, cinematics, or a new major character(s) that are women.  I fear that is never going to happen however.

The executives, hell almost every panel member, is male.  The new character models on the Warlords of Draenor site are so far male only models.  The only models shown during the art panel and discussed were male models.  Sure they showed a slide of a female dwarf and gnome, but these were non-animated slides and are not available on the website.

Every major character discussed at Blizzcon was male.  Why?  Warcraft has so many amazing women that would make excellent vehicles for story telling: Sylvanas and Jaina immediately spring to mind.  There are so many story lines possible with just these two woman alone that it is inconceivable to me that they are left to languish and sit there on the sidelines.  Sure we heard from Jaina a couple of times in Mists of Pandaria but her story was left  unfinished from the brilliant treatment Jaina received from Christie Golden’s Tides of War.

Star Wars:The Old Republic does a somewhat better job.  Satele Shan is the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and she isn’t a figure head that players have no interaction with either.  She is a strong, lead female character but SWTOR isn’t a great example to draw on unfortunately.  SWTOR is extremely story driven by the player’s in-game choices thus allowing Bioware the opportunity to write strong female characters into cut-scenes. Bioware, in general, writes strong, prominent female characters but even these characters aren’t the “star” of any Bioware game.

I want development of lore from the games I play that involves women.  Women play games, write about games, and want game developers to recognize that we are more than just a small, insignificant portion of their player base.  We are more than spell slingers and healers.  We tank, we burn stuff down quickly with blade and spell alike.  We lead raids and guilds, we write about our gaming experiences and we bring others into games we play.  What do game developers fear in making a woman front and center in a game?  That their male audience won’t play because of the presence of a strong woman lead character?

It’s time that gaming developers recognize that women play games and that we want stories that are balanced between the sexes. My characters, are more than a plate bikini digital image to feed the imaginations of young men.  Women everywhere deserve equal lore representation and focus as male characters.

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Dragon Age: Inquisition: Dragon Keep Announced

Dragon Age has always been a story where your choices and decisions impact the world.  For the third installment of the game, the details on how past decisions will be handled and implemented has just been announced.

Dragon Age Keep will allow players to customize the world of Thedas according to past decisions made.  Don’t worry if you’ve lost files or if they’ve become corrupted over time.  Past decisions can be implemented by the player within the keep without having to access previous saves.  The Keep will exist on the cloud.

Head over to the announcement for more detailed information on the decisions behind the making of the Keep.

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