It’s been a month since the full reveal ofDragon Age: The Veilguard, the long-awaited next instalment in the beloved series that began with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009. The companion reveal trailer and subsequently released 20 minutes of gameplay footage sent starving fans into a frenzy.
The fantastic work ofWesley LeBlanc of Game InformerandKat Bailey of IGNhas kept everyone somewhat satiated, but the lack of new information over the past month is one of the aspects of The Veilguard’s marketing campaign that has frustrated fans.
The Conversation Around Bianca’s Fate In Dragon Age Veilguard Is A Reminder Of How Great BioWare’s Storytelling Can Be
Bianca has been a key part of Varric’s character development. It’s a good sign that “classic BioWare storytelling” is back!
Now while this could be construed as the typical narrative of fans being impatient, I think there’s something more selfless at play. Fans of Dragon Age really like Dragon Age, and these people desperately want The Veilguard to succeed. This is especially apparent given the increased involvement of anti-fans and ‘anti-woke’ commentators actively rooting for the failure of The Veilguard because of the game’s diverse characters and sexualities. Dragon Age fans who engage in discourse now have multiple reasons to want The Veilguard to succeed.
We All Love Dragon Age
AReddit threadbemoaning the marketing of The Veilguard has gained some traction in that community. The original poster points to a ‘drip-feeding’ of information, an overemphasis on companions and hyperbolic statements from BioWare as some of their concerns.
While I believe the intentions of people lamenting the drip-feeding of information aren’t negative, that doesn’t mean their complaints are valid. Information flow is closer to zero, despite what you might think. Game Informer is continuously releasing articles, but those pieces are just giving additional insight into the conversations that LeBlanc had with BioWare when he visited the studio. It’s not as if someone at BioWare is saying, “Yes, release the article about companion philosophy,” that’s (usually) not how media-developer relations work.
In reality, BioWare revealed all the information it was willing to for the cover story. The additional context about the mentality of the developers is interesting but fans are being unreasonable when they expect every article to have some new hype-inducing snippet of information. A fair criticism is the lack of a release date, which does sting long-time fans who have waited over a decade since the release of Inquisition for a new game.
The overemphasis on companions is an interesting criticism because I would say the original poster is in the minority as I’ve primarily seen excitement about the companions. The reality of the modern party-based RPG is that you can sell a lot of games purely on connection and romance.Baldur’s Gate 3, possibly the best RPG ever, isn’t lauded for how it handled the Dungeons & Dragons combat system, but rather the strength of its characters (among many other things).
It’s the same narrative as with past Dragon Age titles, the overwhelming majority of discussion over the past decade and a half has been about the characters and world, not the ever-changing combat and RPG systems. BioWare noted this and really leaned into the characters this time around. There’s certainly a chance the developers overcompensate and lose what made Dragon Age’s characters so compelling in the first place, but who’s to say until the game releases and we can experience it for ourselves?
As for hyperbolic rhetoric, BioWare is trying to market its game. The team isn’t going to go to the media and say this isn’t the best combat system we’ve ever done and these characters pale in comparison to Alistair and Morrigan (how couldn’t they?). I appreciate the excitement of people like game director Corinne Busch, and hearing her talk about how self-realised the characters are makes me more excited, not less.
From what we’ve seen, Dragon Age: The Veilguard looks very promising. If constant discourse and speculation are actively hampering your excitement for the game, then I’d suggest stop seeking it out. You’re inevitably going to find out if anything substantial happens, you don’t have to search daily for a morsel of new information. BioWare has had a decade to prepare its marketing strategy, and I’m sure we’ll all be very excited and hyped before the game releases.
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