Redeemable Villains

Hello it's been awhile, I like to play a little game called: Surprisingly Similar Character and Story.

The Protagonist is an already established Villain, both to in-universe and to the audience, who felt guilty for his past deeds and ready to atone for a better life. The Protagonist is very snarky and can manipulatively lie to help himself out of situations. While the Protagonist honestly wants to be good and works hard for a better life despite a few underhanded methods, many other characters refuse to believe that he is nothing other than a bad guy and putting more pressure into his goal. The Protagonist in despair gives up being a better person but also gives up being the Villain he was before in favour of a more beneficial amoral life and to give the finger to the Antagonist who mocks the Protagonist’s life choices.

Is this: ‘Saul Goodman from Better Call Saul’ or ‘Loki from Agent of Asgard’.

I’m a fan of both of these characters, I’m not why but I really got an appeal for redeemable villains especially if their redemption is hard to get. I would like to see more of this role of a villain trying to get redemption, I think it’s mostly I could relate to the fact it’s because they’re trying to be new people trying to get of a reputation of their shameful past.

I was rooting for both Saul and Loki to have the life they’re wanting to achieve but at the same time know that they’re not going to get that life and in the end became the villains they shamefully hated, for Saul’s case because it’s a prequel and for Loki’s case because of comic books. I would still want to see more of their story especially since they both accepted to be villains.

While there are loads of examples of redeemable villains (like Darth Vader), I also want to talk about a bad example that I also just recently just thought about.

Loghain from Dragon Age

Contains Dragon Age Spoilers

The prick himself

Loghain is what happen when you put a hateful idiot of a villain and put him in position of a well-meaning morally grey villain. This tends to be a common problem with B

ioware when they write antagonists where they either a flat villain or they turn into one.

His crimes are very villainous and/or idiotic to the point it’s very difficult to even forgive him in the first place. The guy betrayed his own King not because of greed or power but because he’s afraid of his King making an alliance over his hated enemies (the fantasy French people). Well that is not all too bad it actually get worse, he destroyed an army of experts capable of fighting a much more bigger threat and brand the survivors as wanted criminals, created a civil war for more power, make deals with slavers and having a even more flat villain as his right-hand man. If that is not a recipe for an unforgivable villain to you, then I’m afraid to even ask what is.

The face of Loghain haters if you let him live

At the end you could either kill him or let him join the Grey Wardens, which could be a punishment worse than death if you see that way, at the expense of the fan favourite companion’s friendship, you could see why so many people would just kill the guy. If you do redeemed him, he’ll start being more likable but it’s pretty hard to accept that if his crime a comparable to dictators.

Of course the expanded universe wants to establish that Loghain is a misunderstood figure whose action is justifies which is totally different from we been introduced in the game and does not work. The third Dragon Age game, Inquisition, establish the “Loghain did nothing wrong” as a valid viewpoint which is bizarre when in Origins actually made terrible crimes.

It can be good to have a likable villain, even morally grey villain, but wrong to have a ball of hate as likable villain, although it’s also wrong to have a ball of hate as anything other than itself. Loghain may or may not be completely unlikable, that’s your view, he’s just written badly in a world that is supposedly morally grey. Although Loghain is not the only Dragon Age villain that has that problem, he’s just the only that could be “redeemed”.

Beautiful Trees with No Branches

There are minor spoilers for Telltale's The Walking Dead

Recently I’ve been playing Telltale Games even finishing the ones that I should have finished earlier and I’ve got to saw I really love the games despite their biggest obvious flaw that all their Adventure Games have in common.

The Telltale Adventure Games are actually good by design since it makes you really immerse into the stories you are given, even if the writing of those stories are iffy. Their games give you control of a character, or in their later games characters, where you give control dialogue and major choices within the story. It has to be noted that you do not have full control with your characters but only the personality and how they handle situations. For example my version of The Wolf Among Us Bigby is different, though not unique, from anyone else’s version of the character.

Every game has a flaw and Telltale got one of the biggest and the most obvious flaw, the fact that they lack branches from big major choices. What made Witcher 2 so impressive is that the major choice, siding with either the brutal Blue Stripes or the radical Scoia’tael, at the ending of the Chapter One gives you two different versions of Chapter Two, something that you don’t see in many ‘Choice Games’ these days. The Telltale game doesn’t really have that same branching like in Witcher 2 and when it does it later combines really quickly.

Spoilers: He dies either way

For example in the first season of the Walking Dead episode 1 you got a choice to save one of two people but the one that survived died in episode 3 and there is nothing you can do about. It’s the same with every other ‘Save or Not’ choices where you didn’t just exactly save them but instead just slightly prolong their lives and there’s nothing you could do that prolong it even further, it’s like being in a Final Destination movie.

Telltale say’s that ‘Choices Matter’ which I would agree but ‘Consequences Matter’ too because if you in a big Moral Dilemma and either way the same thing happens then it makes you feel that your choices doesn’t truly really matter. If consequences do not matter you could be free for being a complete saint or a complete prick because it does make a true difference in the Telltale worlds, like in the ending of Mass Effect 3 where Buzz Aldrin calls Shepard a hero who saves all despite the monstrosities Shepard could make.

The Face of a Benevolent Hero who saves the Galaxy

I mean yeah it’s true that everyone has a choice but like in real life not every choice matter, choose a brand of toothpaste does not have a world-shattering effect but your behaviour does have a effect to your personal life.

I’m not saying every Choice Game should have different consequences from all choices since writers cannot write different branches of stories. The best I could think that does this quite well is Alpha Protocol, a game which I could consider to be a true Choice-&-Consequence game since the Developers make all the gameplay mechanics and characters react to your choices, behaviour, gameplay actions and even your FREAKIN appearance. I could even become the Shadow Ruler of the World as a “Pacifist” that looked like Gendo Ikari. I do believe Alpha Protocol is a game that Telltale should aspire to.

Obsidian briefly shows a 'hentai tentacle' flowchart of Alpha Protocol's choices

Well I do hope their current games Tales from the Borderland and Game of Thrones does have some branching like at the end of Walking Dead Season 2 because I really liked their games so far and I want them to grow into something better than it should be rather than stagnate. I do recommend giving Tales from the Borderlands a try even though I’m not a fan of the Borderlands world, mostly because of Gearbox.

References: http://youtu.be/5owJbBO1CT4

Gamers and the Journalists

Last couple of days was raining Cats and Dogs but that’s like every day with Politics. Recently came the ‘Quinnspiracy Turmoil’ where people are forced to sides, where people got silenced, entertainers got betrayed by fans as much as they betrayed their fans and who fault was it: Everyone in shades but none greater than the Games “Journalists” themselves.

Meet EA

The reason why I say everyone is at some fault is because it’s what I believe in, gamers all have good and bad eggs but the bad egg rubbed everyone the wrong way and not only that but the majority gamers actually indirectly supported the corruption within the Games Industry and Games “Journalists” even if they know it or not. ‘Vote with your Wallet’, you pay for games from companies you trust and you don’t from companies you do not want to exist another day. I vow to myself that I would never buy another game from EA (with the exception with Dead Space) after I lost all respect for them because they lost all respect to me and many others. It’s sad because many gamers don’t follow this and just give money regardless whether they do or don’t deserve the money and that’s why many games company like EA still exist, they always seemed to be forgiven. The reason why gamers actually indirectly support the corruption is that Games “Journalists” is that they always go on their websites and each click on their site gives it more the reason to still exist. Games “Journalists” would also create controversy on their own for more clicks which then uses the Gamers’ outrage to generate even more clicks.

                “Where the only winning move is NOT TO PLAY.” – Wargames, 1983

I have to tell when the first time I started despising gaming “journalists”. I know they were pretty bad before but when the Mass Effect 3 Ending controversy came I just noticed something really odd. The gaming “journalists” are mostly hivemind-like because there is rarely any, if not no, mainstream journalists that speaks out the Ending, they seemed less of defending the ending and more irrating anyone who speaks out against the endings, even the gaming “journalists” who never played the Mass Effect games aggressively criticize the gamers. It’s then I declared that the most trustful reviews are yourself and your friends but I still believe that gaming journalism could be improved, that’s why I supported the more independent gaming journalists like Gather Your Party.

With the ‘Quinnspiracy Turmoil’ actually proves how deep, not just the corruption of the Gaming “Journalists” but, how much there is of a conflict with the disagreeing gamers, it’s like a Cyber War. I heard that a gaming blog no longer exist because they refused to take down an article about Zoe and that’s what horrifies me because it seemed the Gaming “Journalists” have the cyber police or something, it does not help that any discussion is deleted.

I heard of The Fine Young Capitalists’ Indiegogo project and I got a few doubts with that project but there is one thing I notice that is special about them, they talk to people. They answer questions, they justify their actions and they hardly, if never, irritate people. They did a much more transparent and better job than the Gaming “Journalists”, which seems like more like a reason why the Gaming “Journalists” never even talk about them, not even negatively.

I know that it’s going to get worse form here unless the problems with the Gaming “Journalists” have been solved. My solution is that people should stop clicking into their sites and that the Gaming “Journalists” go back to step one and/or more better Independent Gaming Journalists took their. The sooner this is done the better.

Introduction

Hello my name is Jjwoww and this is an experiment I'm working on with a blog to express my opinions on various hobbies I like and how it can be great and at other times really really shit.

You see I love playing Video Games and I really like games of what they do best, be fun and maybe have a interesting story to tell. However lately the Gaming Industry and Gaming "Journalists" seemed to be taking the road to the wrong direction especially the Gaming "Journalists". They both become big businesses that focus appealing the lowest common denominator. For the Gaming Industry, some companies are forgivable as long as they make quality games and don't hammer their gamers however the Gaming "Journalists" are the biggest joke that some took seriously. It's tragic seeing a hobby becoming or became a parody of itself.

Recently Polygon, a Gaming "Journalist" website, have posting articles on mixing video games with recent tragic events, namely Ferguson, for no reason other than clickbait (Do not go on their website, do not give they attention they lust after for, besides Polygon's web design has poor taste). I am actually so pissed about all this and I should know that I should have been over it because this is not the first time that happen and Polygon is obviously not the first website that did something similar. There is a cancerous mix between Video Games and Real Life politics and I believed it's best if the two stay independent because my main appeal of Video Games is escapism not the political messages behind the games. A game that forces political agendas down my trout leaves me with bad taste.

This is why I make this blog, to express my opinions and see if I can do a better job than those nitwits. I like to point out I'm not very qualified with English, I can make spelling and grammar mistakes, and I'm not going to be an actual Journalist any time soon but that's okay because I do not want to actually get paid for my opinions, or at least when it comes with video games. So I'm telling you that you should make up your own opinions of video games or just go on more independent gaming websites that does not want clicks for money or getting paid by the Gaming Industry.

So yeah that is basically alot about my opinions rather than myself. All I could say about myself is that I have an interest Video Games, Movies, Comics, Books and Football. My favourite video games genre are role playing games, not those MMORPGs. I'm planning on getting a PS4 for Bloodborne by the time the game released, I'm a Dark Souls Fan but not a fan of Dark Souls 2.

I would be writing more articles in my blog, if there any feedback then please write in the comments section.