Pretty much this.

I will likely get downvoted into oblivion for saying this (as usual), and I will prelude by saying that I generally never care if there are gay, trans or whatever stuff in games. But transgenders and pronouns were never ever a thing in the Dragon Age franchise, and now they suddenly feature these so prominently. They just handled this very badly.

The fact that writing is generally just plain bad for this game, these inclusive options also seems to affect the rest of the game as well. And it indeed makes it look like they focused on the wrong narrative so much. The way Skill Up reviewed the game was perfect, his best summary was "it's as if HR is standing in every room" or something along those lines. Like nobody is allowed to insult, or be insulted, in this franchise that used to be pretty dark and grim.

I picked up Veilguard because I enjoyed Origins and Inquisition. The second game... at this point, I don't think I took it right and its my problem and I need to give it another chance.

I'm still very early into the game, but the only "woke" thing I've seen so far is variable gender identity during character creation.

You want to play a "woman" who looks masculine, with atypical male traits, even a penis, and a deep voice? You know what, I'm glad the option is open to people. It doesn't vibe with me personally, but I'm glad that people I care about can make a character that is "them," because who hasn't made themselves in an RPG at some point in their life, best they were able.

Again, I'm early to it, but that is all of the "woke" shit I've seen.

For the record, I have friends and family in the LGTBQ+(whatever, doesn't matter) that I support.

I don't want hate in my heart, and I've worked very hard to overcome some biases that came from my more "southern" upbringing. Hell, one of those biased views from the past is now openly trans, and I was the only family member they talked to because they couldn't talk to anyone else.

I'm imperfect, as all humans are, but it isn't hard to fucking TRY, just a little, to realize that someone else's self image and happiness doesn't affect mine other than what pronouns I use to refer to them. Fuck, its not hard. Just don't be a dick.

Yeah but have you seen the cutscenes of DA:V?

If that childish word salad sounds "preachy" to you, you need to go to a different preacher! Yours can't even english.

How can this sound preachy to anybody? Has the fascist right lowered their own standard of education enough to where they think Marvel-style dialogue is normal?!

Imho it's marketing. The game is bad, writing is bad, gameplay is boring after a while, it seems (except for technical optimization) the game itself is a big mobile game. The "woke criticism" is exploited by ea to sell more, since it create engagement and hide the real flaws of the game

Sweet Baby Inc Detected

Never heard of this. It took me some time to even figure what their comments meant.

It's almost comical to see how obsessed people are about this stuff.

Don't get me wrong, the commercialization of minority themes and the preachy attitude can get annoying, but it's hardly a dealbreaker if the gameplay and/or story are good.

Games are full of extremely stupid and lazy tropes.

I've seen a few valid criticisms, which I get. It's hard to make a choice-driven narrative in the post-BG3 market and not get held to a higher standard. "Written by committee" is one such descriptor I've heard.

For me, as a fan of Dragon Age: Origins, I also can't say I prefer the dip into the actiony, grindy sort of combat mechanics the game appears to have now.