With the dust now settled on the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I've been taking some time to dip into the more contemplative criticisms that has cropped up in its wake. In particular, I've taken an interest in what people have to say about how Dragon Age handles its villainous dialogue choices.
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To be more specific, the chief criticism that I've seen is that the game won't let players be as vile and unpleasant as they'd like when they try to role-play as Thedas's biggest bastard. Several clips have skipped across the barren wasteland of my social media feed (*cough* follow me on Bluesky *cough*) that show disappointed players choosing an evil or rude dialogue choice only for their character to come out with something snarky or sarcastic that still basically agrees with whatever was said previously.
It's an odd criticism when you think about it. We live in a world where personal attacks and advocating for mass murder are only a smartphone swipe away but I suppose many of us still need our fictional fix of verbal abuse. Strange as it may be, this is also not a new criticism of Western RPGs. It was only a couple of years ago that Bethesda was in the firing line for pissing on players' shoes with some of Starfield's more puddle-deep choices.
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It's so common in Western RPGs that a popular label has become associated with this gameplay design; the illusion of choice. Evidently, the criticisms Dragon Age has received are nothing new, but why are they problems to begin with? That's what I want to examine today because, despite their issues, I still believe that these illusion of choice games have an important role to play, no pun intended, in the RPG ecosystem.
What choice do we have?
Let's start with an easy question; what exactly is the illusion of choice and why does it exist? For me, what it boils down to is that, in an RPG, players want to freely choose what their characters say and do. Thus, when a game only offers a handful of ways to say essentially the same thing, rather than a genuine variety of responses, they'll be disappointed because the fun of the role-play is spoilt.
I gave Starfield as an example earlier but Bethesda have weathered a fair few storms related to this before even that. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 copped flak from players for being too shallow in their dialogue systems. Take Fallout 4 as an example. Most dialogue interactions let you choose between four allegedly different options. However, upon closer examination, these options can usually be broken down to this; agreeing, agreeing sarcastically, asking for more details before you agree and disagreeing which, even if you pick it, still sometimes results in your character being conscripted into a task anyway.
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The result is that, despite having a choice of four dialogue options, in practice, you only get two distinct ones under most circumstances. This makes the game feel less like a complex digital role-play and more like choosing which line you want to stand in at the post office.
So, if it's less satisfying to offer these limiting kinds of dialogue options, why do game developers do it? In a word, ease. Again, to use Fallout 4 as an example, that game was the first Bethesda RPG where the main character was fully voiced. Now, imagine all of the work that went into voicing just the four basic dialogue choices for each interaction in the game. Then, double that effort to account for both male and female protagonists. Sounds difficult right? That's because it is.
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If the developers wanted to offer players even more dialogue options and a deeper variety of ways to role-play, the effort, and by extension costs required, would spiral exponentially. In an industry as cutthroat as this one, where whole studios get laid off for one failed project, that's not a cost many developers can afford to incur just so players can have a more colourful variety of ways to shit on NPCs.
It's at this point that I'd like to bring in a counterpoint that I've also seen said about Dragon Age: The Veilguard in recent weeks. Alongside the complaints about Dragon Age's dialogue choices, there was a common thread in the responses. The wording and reasoning varied but the sentiment stayed the same; go play Baldur's Gate 3 instead.
Baldur's Gate 3 (is an exception)
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If you're lucky enough the remember the somehow more optimistic era that was one year ago, you might remember the reaction that several game developers put out in response to Baldur's Gate 3's release. The most often quoted was Xalavier Nelson Jr., founder of Strange Scaffold and writer on the recent hit, I Am Your Beast. Nelson Jr. tweeted, 'This is not a new baseline for RPGs - this is an anomaly,' imploring people not to start holding all games to the standard of Baldur's Gate 3. Oh, how quickly we forget.
In response to The Veilguard, many players have keenly pointed out that, in comparison to Baldur's Gate 3, the game looks a little malnourished. Where Dragon Age offers a variety of choices that, at times, throttle players' role-playing, Baldur's Gate has very few such limitations. Animals, quest-givers, potential companions, you name it and Baldur's Gate 3 offers a cornucopia of options for being a villainous dick to them, should you want to.
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However, as Xalavier Nelson Jr. rightly pointed out a year ago, this is not a one-to-one comparison. Baldur's Gate 3 began development six whole years before release with a team 400-strong and spent three of those six years in early access to develop and flesh out the experience of the game through player feedback. On the other hand, while Dragon Age: The Veilguard's development technically began in 2015, the game went through multiple design resets with significant turnovers in staffing and multiple interruptions where the team had to step in to help ship both Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem. If Baldur's Gate 3 is a luxury cruise liner taking you on a tour around the world, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the Titanic just trying to reach America despite being full of holes.
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Make no mistake, Baldur's Gate 3 is a spectacular gaming achievement that should be celebrated for years to come. However, in recognising that, we must also recognise that it is lightning in a bottle. While brilliant, it is almost impossible to replicate with most developers simply not in a financial or organisational position to create something of its scale.
How do we reconcile with an illusion of choice?
It is, at this point, easy to feel deflated. If most Western RPGs aren't in the position to offer more complex choices, what's the point of them? Well, to my mind, there is one angle that we forget all too easily.
See, if you're reading this then not only do you have excellent taste in reading material, you're also no stranger to gaming. Be it as a hobbyist or a professional, you can most likely be considered an insider to gaming culture if you've made it into the bowels of the internet to find my blog. Well, whether we like it or not, not everyone is like us. Thousands, if not millions, of people who play games are far more casual than us and, by extension, don't hold the same reverence for deep player choices.
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For some idea of what I mean, look up any gameplay demo for Baldur's Gate 3 and check the comments underneath. In addition to the usual cesspit of people writing 'First', you'll find people speculating as to how, in any sane world, the game could have beaten Marvel's Spider-Man 2 to Game of the Year. For those of us who love RPGs, it's easy to forget just how much of the gaming public couldn't care less about our genre of choice.
I bring this up because I remember being one of those people. I used to stick to mainstream action-adventure games and titles with a safe and familiar licensed name. Games like Baldur's Gate 3 would've either bored or intimidated me into submission because I just didn't get the appeal. So what changed that? Well, funnily enough, Fallout 4. Yes, despite my picky criticism of the game earlier, I have Fallout 4 to thank for my love of RPGs. In a time when I was fearful of anything too number-crunchy and complicated, it sucked me in thanks to its familiar first-person shooting and easy to understand dialogue system.
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This, dear reader, is the point that I've been building to. Yes, games like Bethesda's library and Dragon Age don't always excite us as RPG veterans who like to feel as though we're changing the whole narrative through our choices, but that doesn't mean we should dismiss them. I made a similar point about Sony's love for single-player, third-person adventure games a little while back. While, as insiders to gaming culture, we might not see the appeal in them all the time, there are plenty of people for whom these games will be groundbreaking and whose perspectives will be altered as a result of playing them.
Baldur's Gate 3, as established, is fantastic, but how many of us would feel comfortable playing it without a less complex or challenging alternative easing us into the genre first. Throwing RPG newcomers headfirst into Baldur's Gate 3 would be like giving a teenager a pint of white Russian as their first drink. You might like it, but I doubt they'll be quite so keen to come back to it themselves.
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This is why I choose to defend the illusion of choice in many Western RPGs. While it might feel a little hand-holdy to many players, they offer a pathway into new genres for many people looking to broaden their pallets and, as such, are an important part of the gaming ecosystem by helping people to experience new things.
But, what do you think? Am I being too generous to lazy design choices or do you have your own story of getting into a genre thanks to a lower barrier to entry? As I so subtly mentioned earlier, I'm now on Bluesky so let me know there or through Instagram and X what you think because I'm always curious to hear what other people's experiences with these games have been like. And, if I don't hear from you, have a lovely day.
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