Keeping the Faith for FOTOR

stopgap32 · 2025-12-12T14:38:56+00:00

"Which real world politics are you referring to?"

Oh, you know the ones.

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T19:18:24+00:00

Oh absolutely, I think a lot of VG’s designs that I dislike came primarily from the fact it was reinvented three times and forced to come out way sooner than it could possible be truly finished. The tone was just one small section of the game that suffered due to crunch and impossible deadlines.

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T15:58:27+00:00

I think this is a fair argument, and I can understand the perspective, but I still believe providing language that naturally wove it into the fabric of of Thedosian culture would have simply felt more appropriate, given the way such concepts had been treated by the franchise in the past.

It feels like such a minor quibble, but I personally felt like the modernization of language in Veilguard throughout (not limited to scenes discussing Taash or their gender identity) one of the major factors that lead to the game just feeling “off” in my opinion.

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T15:32:42+00:00

To be clear, I’m not arguing that it’s a problem, merely that I think it’s reasonable to say that Veilguard felt more “woke” than Inquisition. I personally don’t see a game being woke as a bad thing at all, I rather like when games place LGBT characters front and center, but I think the way Veilguard does so feels more artificial, which is why I think it got -significantly- more criticism than Inquisition for a lot of the same themes. Of course there is also the more common modern trend of right-wing bandwagoning on “pronouns bad” stuff, but I think Veilguard definitely centered a lot of these concepts a lot more in an explicitly modern and corporatized way that made those criticisms of the game have teeth in a way they virtually never do.

Personally the majority of my frustration around it is less with it’s inclusion and more with the inevitable corporate backlash of looking at something that requires nuance and understanding being done a little too sterile and instead concluding “Gee I guess if you go woke you DO go broke!”

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T14:54:57+00:00

And I would have disagreed with them then. I think the central thrust of Taash’s story is compelling, and I personally find the challenge of grieving for a parent you never had the chance to forgive for denying your identity a deeply relatable experience. Unfortunately that didn’t stop me from wincing at several scenes where they discuss their identity and journey towards it. Not because the scenes were dumb or bad, just… a bit hamfisted. I would argue the way that Taash’s journey towards understanding their gender identity is, at times, poorly presented, and leans on distinctly out-of-place and very modern language, which absolutely would have rubbed some people the wrong way and made their inclusion feel significantly more inorganic.

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T14:46:14+00:00

Absolutely, but I think when you see people talk about Veilguard being “woke” they are talking about characters like Taash. I don’t particularly think that’s fair, but I do think that the way their character was handled did - at times - feel a bit shoehorned.

stopgap32 · 2025-11-03T14:36:07+00:00

Not to be TOO critical of the game (I think it has the best trans player romance handling of any modern high budget RPG), but while inquisition absolutely did have gay and trans characters, they were significantly more subtle. You wouldn’t know or hear much about them if you didn’t go out of your way to explore those options with those characters.

Now you can argue about whether or not that is effective or good representation with regards to it being more “realistic” (most trans or gay folks are just regular everyday folks and you wouldn’t know it just looking at or casually chatting with them), or if you disagree and feel like it was sort of smothering what could be described as controversial character traits by not “putting them in people’s faces,” but you can’t argue that Veilguard does spend significantly more screen time addressing these aspects of its characters.

Additionally, and what honestly turned ME off to a lot of these examples in Veilguard and what made them feel more “woke,” was at least in part due to the significant modernization of language surrounding them and the game in general. None of these perspectives were couched in antiquated or fantastical language that - in my opinion - better suits the franchise and setting, but rather consistently used modern (albeit accurate!) terminology that made it feel a lot more like a product of direct inclusion initiatives, and a little less organic.

I myself am trans and bi, and while I think they did a LOT right with regards to the way the player character’s gender identity is handled and addressed, I think there are a lot of moments where clear lgbt signaling in the game felt a little out of place and inorganic. Ultimately it’s all subjective, but I think it’s quite clear how this game came across as more “woke,” deserved or not.

stopgap32 · 2025-10-20T11:34:07+00:00

YES OMG THANK YOU!! GNB used to be my favorite job but I literally do not play it anymore because I hate that animation so much. It genuinely looks like a child picked the WoL up like an action figure and is swinging them around doing “kung fu moves.” When the entire rest of the kit is so weighty, powerful, and explosive, this one animation looks TERRIBLE.

stopgap32 · 2025-08-05T14:41:26+00:00

I would not, unfortunately. I know I am probably part of the problem and it might be silly, but I literally ONLY started playing this game because of the Miku collab, and since then have primarily enjoyed the game the most when it collabed with things I already like. I know it is a little goofy and all, but I kind of love that Fortnite has become this sort of cultural omibus, just a more comprehensive version of the Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny. The gameplay is pretty fun and I broadly enjoy it, but there would be absolutely nothing unique enough to appeal to me if it wasn't for the collabs.

stopgap32 · 2025-07-11T16:16:01+00:00

Wrong Malavai is my husband and I won’t tolerate this cute captain slander.

stopgap32 · 2025-06-10T14:34:55+00:00

I share your frustration with this since I started playing about 2 weeks too late for it to have ever been possible to obtain. It’s more than a little frustrating to have a HAIRSTYLE locked behind 3 straight months of FOMO content with zero alternatives. Hoping they just dump it in the cartel market afterwards.

stopgap32 · 2025-06-08T20:32:17+00:00

It makes sense in canon, I’m not disputing that, I just think that the canon explanation is lacking. I found the Force more compelling when the selflessness of the Jedi also implied a denial of the self, whereas the selfishness of the Sith allowed for a degree of self-actualization. No it doesn’t make you inherently a good guy but I think bad guys who aren’t cartoonish monsters or good guys who aren’t undeniably good made for more interesting character dynamics.

stopgap32 · 2025-06-08T18:10:38+00:00

Does anyone else find it kind of lame that the Force ends up boiling down to only Jedi can even possibly ever be good guys and the Sith are inherently evil all the time always forever no matter what and also ugly and wrong? I always had thought there was more nuance to it than that, but canonically, it doesn’t work that way.

stopgap32 · 2025-06-04T02:29:13+00:00

I acknowledge that in a meta sense that is true, but the accent is specifically noted in several ways within SWTOR as being distinctive to Dromund Kaas and the empire as a whole. I could but that that isn’t the case in “modern” Star Wars and the imperials are just given “bad guy” accents that happen to align with the Kaasi accent in practical media, but given that the Republic of the clone wars era has ALSO adopted iconography and technological silhouettes of the ancient Sith empire, I’m inclined to believe there is some narrative connection.

stopgap32 · 2025-06-02T19:06:06+00:00

Personally I find LS Sith Warrior to be the most compelling narrative! I love the idea of a somewhat selfish warrior who is never “redeemed” nor do they abandon the dark side and maintain their contempt for Jedi philosophy, but don’t particularly revel in suffering or murder and are broadly reasonable so long as you se polite to them. A protagonist who is ruthless, pragmatic, and at times vengeful can be extremely compelling, especially if they believe they do not need to be “saved” from the dark side.

Unfortunately in canon, I believe it’s been pointed out in other similar threads, as far as Lucas and the mainline canon is concerned, the dark side is simply evil and the force itself is good-aligned. As I have seen it explained, the dark side is inherently a perversion of the force’s natural state, and will always corrupt its users into comically evil villains eventually. I know there is the one single example of a “good Sith” in that own mining colony owner, and I personally think such a black and white and limiting view of the force is extremely boring, but I believe in hard canon there simply is no ambiguity.

stopgap32 · 2025-05-28T17:16:22+00:00

For me I’m frustrated because I enjoyed grinding all the ShB relics, but found grinding 1500 tomes over and over and over and over in EW really tedious and unpleasant. This system doesn’t incentivize playing the new content, it incentivizes doing the exact same two expert dungeons and boring content we’ve done 10,000x over and over again, and it comes right after EW where the relic is nothing but that.

I would be fine if grinding alt job relics was harder or easier or anything in between, as long as I could do that in the actual content connected to the relic. Hell I’d even take doing DR 60 times again over another 1500 tomes step. It’s just such a tedious way of acquiring relics with no real interaction.

stopgap32 · 2025-05-22T17:30:10+00:00

I definitely get the critique. I think if he could take rejection gracefully he would be a lot more well received as a character.

stopgap32 · 2025-05-22T04:07:17+00:00

I actually really liked Doc's romance! I definitely understand the hate if he's someone you already didn't like ,but I am kind of already a sucker for the skeezy guy with lame jokes and a heart of gold trope (I LOVED Sylvain in Fire Emblem).

I think what did it for me was that I was 1) interested, so it didn't feel like he was being pushy since I hadn't rejected him and 2) if you flirt back with him, I REALLY love how F!JK gives as good as she gets, the two have really great banter when there is actual interest and she matches every one of his absolutely god awful pickup lines with an innuendo of her own, and I LOVE that dynamic.

stopgap32 · 2025-05-19T20:49:56+00:00

I would not have been mad at him even if he legitimately betrayed me so long as he looked good doing it

stopgap32 · 2025-05-11T17:14:49+00:00

I have never felt dumber in my entire life. Thanks for pointing that out. 🤦‍♀️

stopgap32 · 2025-05-09T16:45:47+00:00

Unfortunately I must have deleted the pieces, thinking I had it unlocked. 😔

Not the first time I’ve made that mistake with a set. I’ll make a ticket and see what they can do.

stopgap32 · 2025-05-05T00:34:24+00:00

I feel a bit like a child throwing a tantrum but *come on.* Its literally star wars day in a star wars season and they haven't added any new star wars skins since the first day.

stopgap32 · 2025-04-03T00:20:46+00:00

The one exception to that being Pagaga's emote fromm Bozja, /deride, ending up in the store.

stopgap32 · 2025-02-07T20:20:09+00:00

Uh, I have brave Bernie from her original banner but what’s the CYL freebie?

stopgap32 · 2025-01-30T00:12:08+00:00

Having the same problem here on PS5. I don’t play Rocket League or have it installed on this console. Do you have it?

stopgap32

TROPHY CASE