Lady, EVOLVED 
reviewers really think that the reason people play bioware games is for the characters
@Lady They're ONE of the reasons, at least for me
@coriander there are definitely bioware characters i have liked but if that was the reason i was playing the game i would have finished inquisition
@Lady That is fair
They are A reason, but they are not THE reason
@coriander i’m definitely getting extremely jaded by latest trends in fandom and marketing but i am growing very tired of media criticism that views characters in isolation rather than as something which develop out of and participate in a more wholistic narrative world
i was reading reviews of dragon age books on wikipedia and lots of critics evidently were like “this was good but i wanted more inquisition characters and less worldbuilding” and (a) read fanfiction and (b) idk learn how to appreciate a good story??
like anders is compelling as a character because of reams and reams of worldbuilding about the specific relationship between magic and religiosity; “powerful white man mage thinks he’s oppressed” would be cringe as fuck if magic weren’t established in the exact way that it was
these are “characters” but they’re not REALLY characters so much as symbols for specific positionalities and how the machinations of power and culture play out thru individuals
and having that reduced to “alistair tells good jokes” or “i find iron bull very fuckable” style analysis just feels bad to me, idk
@coriander oh yeah i mean they’re good bad jokes
@coriander but yeah i mean, bioware games are character driven narratives, there’s no doubting that, and part of this is just me seeing more of the machinery behind what makes the magic work than other people, which is not necessarily a good thing, and part of this is me being jaded about how every media franchise is trying to lean in on recognizable characters that fans feel attachments towards that they can just keep cashing in on, instead of telling novel stories
BUT even beyond all that, like, i like My Neighbor Totoro for the characters. and no Bioware puppet has half the personality of Little Sister, or could ever, really, because their job isn't to be complete characters, it's to be plot drivers and tools for the player to build narrative around
(which is, contextually, much more important! it's a roleplaying game!)
@Lady Yeah I totally get that, I guess I just wasn't sure what exactly you were getting at with your initial post lol
But yeah I totally agree that the times Bioware characters are great are also exactly the times that the characters interact with the world itself in interesting ways
Also I was always under the impression that Alistair always told AWFUL jokes, but that that was the draw =P