DA:I, discord for sports anime, some other stuff?

[nanslice]

I haven't played a single Dragon Age game but I still got hyped over the DA4 announcement. imperion suggested I start with Inquisition so here we are! I spent approximately 17 hundred hours in the character creator and came up with this lil dude. I'm playing him as sweet and thoughtful and kind. ♥


click to see bigger!

His name is Falwen and I love him and I'm specifically going after Iron Bull this playthrough, haha. XD

I'm really surprised at how good this game looks! I mean, it's glitchy as fuck, haha, but everything looks really nice for the most part. I've been playing FFXIV which, like most MMOs, just doesn't look as good (it's a beautiful game! Just, due to the MMO aspects, some things have to be toned down, at least that's my impression from playing MMOs vs single player games).

There's a new discord channel for sports anime! All ships, kinks, whatever are welcome, please no shaming or anti behavior! Click here to be invited! Please, if you are interested in chatting about sports anime or any ships or anything, join us!

Signups for getyourwordsout 2019 open on Dec. 14th. I'm probably going to give it a shot! I'm pretty terrible at keeping up with this but school will no longer be a distraction so maybe I'll actually get some writing done. If any of y'all are planning on doing it, let me know! We can cheer each other on. I have a discord for original fiction (but I may open it up for all writing!) so we can have writing sprints and stuff like that. :3

I came perilously close to signing up for the Book of the Month Club. XD Each month they offer up five options and you pick one! It seems like a really great way to read books I might otherwise not know about/pick for myself. I would like to be a more varied reader! It's incredibly tempting. :\a

Speaking of reading, I can't wait for Goodreads 2019 reading challenge to go live and yes, I know, it's early December, there's still time, I just! The New Year is so inspirational to me. XD

Comments

[adrianners]

Oh wow, please keep us updated on your Inquisition experience! I can't imagine starting there from a lore standpoint, but I also can't imagine trying to play Origins for the first time in 2018.

[merit]

That does sound like a good way to read more varied books! I tend to read my favourite genres mostly. I have tried to dip my toes out of the SFF rut but hahah I keep on going back because they're my favourite~~

[inkstone]

I definitely planning to do GYWO in 2019 again. I'm switching to word count next year, though. (I did habit this year.)

I also have a BotM club subscription! I don't get a book every month (you can skip) but I use it to read thrillers and mysteries.

[nanslice]

I will, absolutely! I know there's a ton of lore and I'll be missing some of it but I'm hoping there's books or something available haha. I've also been talked into playing DA2 after this one and while it'll be out of order, I should be able to piece it all together. XD

[nanslice]

Yeah, I tend to stick to YA fiction and while that's great and my favorite genre, I really need to spread my wings a little bit, haha.

[nanslice]

I'll be doing word count for 2019 as well! Probably the lowest one since I'm terrible out of practice writing.

Thrillers and mysteries are what I would be using it for! There's one for December that looks very interesting. I haven't signed up yet but. Very tempted. ;3;

[soundofwonder]

Well, this reminds me that I got to finish origins for once! I was aiming for a specific ending but I felt bad being mean, and one of the dlcs was extremely tedious and long, so I stopped.

Then I shall finally move on to DA2 lol.

[wishfulclicking]

It's been years since I've played Inquistion (it, too, was the first I finished, even though I had started Origins). I really enjoyed that game and hope you enjoy it as well. If you have any inclination to try out DLC I would suggest Trespasser.

That bookofthemonth thing looks interesting. I didn't meet my goodreads goal but I press on to 2019.

Good luck if you do GYWO.

[yuuago]

Ahh yes, you're not the only one excited for starting a new Goodreads challenge. ;) Same heeeere. It's kind of silly, because I could read stuff any time, but there's just something nice about starting a fresh list!

[ashkitty]

Ooh. I love DA and will talk about it all the time. I wouldn't have started you with Inquisition, though! Origins remains my favourite, but also there's so much lore and backstory and the decisions you make there influence what the world looks like in the other games. But I'm glad you're having fun! (My Inquisitor is Dalish, too.)

[ashkitty]

Golems of Amgarrak?

[divinemusings]

I haven't played a Dragon Age game in a LONG time. I've heard Inquisition is good.

[nanslice]

Thanks for the tip! I'll probably try out DLC once I get a bit further along in the plot. :3

I also didn't meet my goodreads goal but 2019 is a new year haha.

Thank you! I'm definitely going to do it.

[nanslice]

Exactly. I have books but I'm being careful not to pay them any attention or make a list early because I don't want them to be "old news" by the time January rolls around. I don't know why I'm like this lmao.

[nanslice]

I've been warned that I won't necessarily like Origins but I might go back to it! I do really like that each game builds on each other based on your choices in the previous games; that's really cool. :o

[nanslice]

I've heard it was the best of the three? But I don't know! I basically am playing this one because 4 is suppose to be a direct sequel haha.

[ashkitty]

I don't know your taste in games well enough to say for sure - there are good and bad things about all of the DA games. I think Origins has the best NPCs and relationships, and the story is excellent. The quests themselves can get a bit tedious, but this is true of all games to some extent. ('Go here, kill darkspawn, collect loot, kill more darkspawn, cutscene.') The graphics are obviously not as good as the later ones, but it's not like Oblivion with its creepy Uncanny Valley faces or anything. ;)

DA2 is a good story but the execution's not as great. You can only talk to your friends if there's a quest to do so, and the sidequests get SO repetitive. But it has its moments, and I actually really like the framing device. I haven't played any of the DLC to it, because there's no collected edition and I never pay more than about a tenner for anything. (This is also part of why I play a lot of games years after everyone else. *g*)

Inquisition is by far the prettiest, and they brought back the 'being able to talk to your companions whenever you want' which helps you control the story a bit more. The open world is nice too, because sometimes you just REALLY don't want to deal with the Deep Roads. ;) I've finished the main game but not all the DLC yet, so we'll see how I feel later - Trespasser is supposed to be fantastic but I've been putting it off. (Partly to replay Origins, partly because that's the end of my Warden's worldstate for now, and I'm not ready!)

The best bit is definitely getting to see references to your old character and how the worldstate changes, and seeing what happens to your friends. I love that the lasting consequences stick around to the following games, and not just in one playthrough.

[lassarina]

I'm definitely doing GYWO so let's do the thing!

[soundofwonder]

Yep, that's the one. I completed it in my last playthrough but gave up on the main story lol

[nanslice]

Sweet! I will definitely bring that discord back from the grave then! :3

[ashkitty]

God that was tedious. Not even the good kind of challenging, just stupidly hard. I did it once, but I won't play through it again.

[evilpettingz00]

DA4?????? OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And why did I not hear about this two days ago? I blame FB. Stupid FB.

[evilpettingz00]

Agreed--I wouldn't want to start with Inquisition, especially considering...that thing that I think was supposed to be a surprise but wasn't for me.

Also, I think that if you think you might want to play the whole series, it would actually be better to start with the first one, not just for the sake of lore, but I think it's hard to enjoy the earlier graphics & mechanics after playing the more recent.

[evilpettingz00]

I have a fairly embarrassing post about my DA characters here.

[nanslice]

I will admit, I got that advice from someone who loves Origins but said she could never in good conscious recommend it to anyone, haha. I may have to eventually just do a complete playthrough of all of them in order! But I'm going keep on keeping on with Inquisition right now. ;3

[adrianners]

It's tough because I think Origins would be difficult to get into in this day and age regardless of playing 2 or Inquisition first. Speaking for myself, I quit the Baldur's Gate remaster after two hours of pure frustration because of the finicky mechanics that were barely explained, and I grumbled my way through KotOR a few years ago because I loved the characters enough to suffer the game itself. That's about where I suspect DA:O would fall for a lot of new players now even though it's still my favorite combat system of the three. Worst case scenario, that's what Youtube is for!

[ashkitty]

Fair enough! I, on the other hand, recommend it to everybody. ;)

But obviously you are already IN Inquisition so best play that through first!

[ashkitty]

We don't know each other yet so I can't see it, but I feel like we could be friends and talk about DA characters if you're interested. :)

[evilpettingz00]

Certainly! Glad to meet you! :D

[nanslice]

Oh! For some reason I didn't even think about youtube for Origins! Which is silly since I used to watch let's play of scary video games because I'm a huge coward. XD I might have to look into doing that. :3

[nanslice]

Haha yes! I love getting everyone's opinions on this! If nothing else I'll youtube it for lore purposes.

Yessss, I'm really enjoying it! I'm glad the battle system isn't too complicated. :3

[nanslice]

AWWW YEAH NEW FRIENDSHIPS! I'm so glad. :D

[nanslice]

ooooh my gosh, I love this. ;o;

[evilpettingz00]

What?

[nanslice]

Your DA characters post! I love it! I want cf to do something similar haha

[evilpettingz00]

Oh, LOL, thanks! :D

[evilpettingz00]

I just wish I'd had screenshots of my characters to include in it, but I played them on two different consoles and it would have been a little too much work to get them. :P

[adrianners]

Youtube is a lifesaver for all of these games because of the conversation trees! It'd take a hundred playthroughs to see everything. Plus there are some choices I just can't make even if I roll an evil or amoral character, so I get to see the Bad Thing without causing it myself. (T_T) The greatest fun, though, is playing What Were They Thinking?: Character Appearance Mod Edition.

[soundofwonder]

Yeah, I may just skip that dlc this time round...