Okay so... here's the thing. I've been seeing a lot of posts that simultaneously defend DA Veilguard and argue against pretty much any and all criticisms. And like... okay... so... okay. Just... okay. Since people's reading comprehension is severely lacking - let's start by saying that if you love the game, that's fine. No one's saying you can't love this game. It's a fun game to play. The characters are interesting. The voice acting is pretty good. The writing is... uh... up to... personal preference? Most of it is good. The game itself, the actual game, runs flawlessly. I've personally done ten full playthroughs, start to finish, most of them include every side quest there is, and I have had it crash only once and have witnessed only one glitch. So, that alone says a lot. It shouldn't but in this day and age - it does.
But there are issues with the writing. Big ones. And these aren't personal preference kind of issues. And the anti-criticism posts I've been seeing have all missed the mark on the real problems with the game. One of the most recent anti-criticism things I've seen has been revolving around slavery in the game or rather, the lack of.
To better organize my thoughts on this, it's formatted a bit oddly.
The anti-criticisms seem to argue against = DA Veilguard didn't address slavery in Tevinter. And thus, the anti-criticism is that the audience should just know that slavery is a thing. And that the player base should assume that the blood that the blood mages are blooding themselves with come from slaves. And, there's no reason it should be shoved into our faces.
The actual criticism though = DA Veilguard sterilizes slavery in Tevinter. This is actually a two part problem in the game. 1. We only see one slave in the game and he's in the Necropolis. We see none in Minrathous. We only find out from an ex-slave Rook that this is a part of their backstory in a single line dialogue never to be revisited again. 2. The game leads one to believe that only the Venatori keep slaves.
The reason this is a problem = Slavery has always been a thing in the DA universe. And 'everyone in Thedas' knows that slaves are a very big thing in Tevinter. Slavers comb far and wide for slaves specifically to sell in Tevinter. People are stolen all over for that purpose. So, in Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Imperium, we should see slaves. Not saying they had to show an auction or public whippings or anything but they should have been there. Doing the shopping, following their 'masters' around, running errands etc. Things we know they did. We know from Orana that she and her Papa did the shopping for their Magister master. We know from Fenris that he went out into the city with Danarius all the time as security, intimidation, and to just be shown off. (We also know that there's no such thing as a free slave in Tevinter, so that rules out the argument of us only being in the "poorer" part of Minrathous and thus, not seeing them - especially the elves.) We know from Dorian that his house had slaves. That most did/do. And that, even to the much adored Dorian, slavery is "better than being poor". Like, it's such a part of the life there that it's literally everywhere.
So, the only people who would think that only blood mages have slaves are people who have played DA2 only, and only know about slaves from Orana and Fenris, who both had horrible experiences involving slaves and blood magic. And still, they said nothing about Ventatori. But according to Dorian, slavery is just how it is in Tevinter. Not just Venatori own slaves. All Magisters own them. Everyone of a certain wealth owns them.
And, before anyone balks, it is unknown whether or not Maevaris actually owned slaves because prior to Veilguard, even the Lucerni had nothing to do with anti-slavery. (I like to think she didn't but who knows.) They were only ever supposed to be anti-Venatori and by extension, anti-corruption. But slavery was never included in that until they heavily implied that in Veilguard.
There's a difference between shoving something in someone's face and understanding that it's a part of the world. If Veilguard is the first game that some people have played, how are they supposed to know that slavery is such an intrinsic part of life in Tevinter and not just something the evil Venatori do as another thing that makes them ultra-evil? Because that seems to be a big chunk of the player base. Which makes since, the last DA game was ten years ago. And in fact, even for those who played Inquisition - maybe some of you need to go play that game again. There's a very frustrating conversation with Dorian in that game that is very enlightening into the way that Tevinter people just think about slavery and how different it is.
Now, could Dorian have learned not to be a pro-slavery person? Uh, yeah. Of course. Did everyone in Minrathous suddenly turn anti-slavery over the past decade? Unlikely. Especially if you're still getting newspaper headlines about slave uprisings in other cities.
And that's the other side of this. We have the Shadow Dragons, right? Their whole thing seems to revolve around freeing slaves. Even though they're supposed to be about so much more - what we hear the most about is freeing slaves. And that's great. But... what slaves? Where are they? They... got them all out? Awesome. Seriously, though. We don't even see remnants of them being moved around. Rook has an optional stumble-upon side-quest to save potential slaves (3... they save 3...) in Minrathous and that's... it. That's it. That's all.
And it's not that they don't want you to see horrific things. Ghilan'nain's tooth eye is fucking horrifying. Desiccated bodies just lying around in droves is horrifying. So then, what exactly was their reason for not showing any real signs of slavery?
Because it's not that it's horrifying. Showing a slave trailing behind a master in the market isn't horrifying. It's uncomfortable. It incites anger, injustice, and tons of other very strong emotions. As it should. That's the point.
A fictional character with a chomping eyeball is just horrifying. Even the poverty that is shown in the game doesn't actually show real poverty. Everyone has somewhere to go/live. They don't look really dirty, they aren't sleeping on benches w/ dividers inhibiting them, or pushing around carts with all of their belongings, or starving, etc. And they give you a way to help them (give coin). So you can pat yourself on the back. But it doesn't make you uncomfortable.
And that's the biggest criticism of the game. Things that would make the average person uncomfortable are not in the game. Slavery, nope. Antivan crows buying kids? Nope. Severely questionable training methods for assassins? Nope. Not even mentioned, actually. But a grandmother starving her own grandchildren are in the game, oddly enough. Just in a codex entry, mind you - not like... out loud. Because again. Uncomfortable. Child abuse and all that. A non-binary character facing actual bigotry? Nope. Tranquil mages? Nope. Visualized sexual imagery? Nope. (Which, not a huge loss but w/e). The Blight transforming people all the time, like that being what the blight does? And it being oober contagious and/ transmittable to the point of like blood in mouth/in a cut or you've just been around it too long, you're now blighted and will not die, nope - you will become a darkspawn? Nope. Hell, even addressing a real argument after the fact? Nope. Discomfort. The whole elves in alienages being treated like absolute shit and having their lands stolen and all of that? Nope with a capital N.
So many things that are a part of Thedas, a part of this world, big parts, that are just... carved out. The problem with presenting a half-assed Utopian world to a fan base that was in the shit in the last game is that... it comes off as half-assed. It does appear to be catering to a specific age group that should not be playing a game like this. Because there still are things in the game that are very adult. Torture. Killing (duh). Human (elf) sacrifice. The loss of a loved one/ loss of a Mother!
And while yes, I get that the game is the result of multiple start/stop projects - that reason (excuse) can only get them so far. When the steps to fix these very big issues would have taken less time than the steps they took to gloss over them, then it cheapens the game.
So - while the game is fun and the characters are interesting. It's more of a... spin off. A fan fiction of Dragon Age rather than the next game in the series. You can't take it too seriously if you want to really enjoy it if you've been a Dragon Age fan since before Veilguard. If you're used to Thedas as we've known it for the past 16 years - you cannot take this game seriously. Take it as a fun game to play but... only skin deep. Don't go looking for the same kind of thought-provoking veiled real-world issues that previous games and books have had. Because this is decidedly not it.
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