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Chasing Alistair
Most of the folks who play role-playing games don’t actually want to 'role-play'. Fantasy games are popular because they’re familiar. They’re the comfort food of genres. But only a fraction of the people who play them really wish they had pointy ears, mead on tap, a crypt in the basement and a dragon in the garage. Games surround us with make-believe, but we don’t believe in it, any more than we believe in the dinosaur at a miniature golf course.
Except that once in a while, a role-playing game sucks us into playing a role. It happened to me in Dragon Age: Origins, and believe me, it took me by surprise. Because when I started the game, I played the same kind of character I always play: a regular, human woman.
Like a lot of guys I know, I regularly play women in role-playing games. It’s a strikingly common thing, and I’ve heard dozens of reasons why we do it. Some claim it’s because the male archetypes are so dull, and we’re tired of playing Captain Chesthair of the Bicep Brigade for the billionth time. Others like the karmic justice of seeing a female protagonist storm in this time and save the day, while the guys all cower and hide. Or maybe, just sometimes, we roll a female toon because we want to know what we’d look like in a dress – though I can tell you, I wouldn’t look like I do in World Of WarCraft.
Personally, I have no idea why I prefer female avatars. I’ve also never had to think about it too carefully, since whichever you choose, the mission’s the same - get out there and kill something. But in Dragon Age, the experience takes at least one major turn if you’re a woman: you get different romance options. (And oh yeah, watch out: the rest of the article is filled with spoilers about the characters.) Dragon Age has something for everyone, man or woman, straight or bi. Judging by the fan fiction, sultry swamp witch Morrigan, the flaky songstress Leliana and the super-acrobatic assassin Zevran are all big hits in the tent parties. But I wound up talking with Alistair.
Alistair’s a nice boy. He really is. Literally a royal bastard, he was kicked out of his home at a tender age and raised in a monastery. Alistair grew up to earn a spot in the Grey Wardens – the elite squad that travels Ferelden, whaling on anything that looks ugly. And in spite of his screwy upbringing, Alistair’s funny and charming. He’s loyal and happy to take orders – and he’s always good for some banter.
My mage, Illyana, always struck me as dour. (Does anyone in Dragon Age ever smile?) Raised in the mage’s tower under heavy guard by a bunch of fundamentalists, she had nobody to talk to but a bunch of stuffy scholar-types and emotional eunuchs. But with Alistair, everything was different. All of a sudden, I was cracking jokes like a classic screwball comedienne.
Here’s the other thing about Alistair: he’s a little gawky, and not that tough. I threw him in with Sten and Morrigan, and they picked on him mercilessly. After all, he’s a nice guy and an easy target. I could imagine him growing up, honing that sense of humor and charming smile as a shield after getting kicked around his whole life.
I took him under my wing. I picked out a new set of armour for him, and welcomed his advice on the tough decisions. I even helped him out with some family conflicts. I noticed that every time we got to chatting at camp, he’d make this sweet puppy dog face. And when Morrigan jibed him about whether it was cool for Grey Wardens to “fraternise” with each other, he got all flustered and blushed.
You know where this was going. Alistair had a crush on me. And so, secure in my own sexuality, I went for him. Sure, at the same time, Leliana was starting to bat her eyelashes at me and ask me if I considered it strange for a woman to have feelings for another woman, or would I find that totally hot, and if the latter, how ‘bout it? But I was playing a character – and Alistair’s the guy my character went for.
But once I set my sights on him, he turned out to be even tougher than I thought. Alistair – who, remember, grew up in a monastery – doesn’t know much about women, and they kind of make him nervous. He 'fesses up that he’s a virgin, and while he was up for the long jolly smooches, every time I asked him to go back to the tent, he would get cold feet. In fact, the first time I took a pass at him? He blushed and freaked out. I had to give him a bunch of gifts and save his life a few more times before he finally, stammeringly, said that maybe he’d be up for it, if I thought it was a good idea, and if I was sure, and – and at that point I cut him off and said, “Follow my lead”. I dragged him to the tent, and for a n00b? He was very sweet.
Somewhere along the line, I started to realise that my mage didn’t remind me of me: the character I related to was Alistair. Sure, I may be a handsome, dashing columnist today. But growing up, I was always plenty awkward. I tried to be funny because I couldn’t be cool, and even when a girl talked to me, all she got was stammers. More than ever before, I had to acknowledge the problem with swapping genders in games: I might’ve tried to role-play as a woman – but the character I really understood was the guy.
Someday, we may see a game that truly gives you the perspective of someone wildly different from you – a different race, a different gender, a different set of life experiences – and that does it so well, you can actually see the world from their eyes. This would be a different thing and a more exciting one than the gender-bending in today’s adventures. It would be problematic for sure, but it would raise the stakes on all the guys who say they play a female just because they want to see a nice butt on their screen.
I don't know how it'll work, or what I'll do with it when it comes. But I do know one thing: I'm in love with the next king of Ferelden, and before this is over, he's going to make me his Queen. Or he's never getting his armour back.
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Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court 30 Monmouth Street Bath, UK BA1 2BW
England and Wales company registration number 2008885
I can see why you dig him. He's totally hot :-)
Lovely article! I think I'm automatically suspicious of anyone who doesn't adore Alistair.
My character never had any intention of making him be king. He makes it very clear it's not his bag, and having come from the treacherous royal backstabbiness of the Dwarven Noble origin, the last thing she was gonna do was push the man she loved into that life! At the end of the day, she decided the decision to pursue the crown had to be his alone, and respected his wishes. So I guess you can see why I might be slightly "serves you right! " regarding his dumping you after becoming king. ;) If you're gonna push a guy into his Dutiful Role of Extreme Duty, don't be surprised when he decides he might as well go all the way!
Having said that, I have watched the scene in question (savegames ftw!) and Darpaek is totally right about the bullshit excuses, and the general feeling that some things are not in character/not making sense. I was also very pissed that, since you can agree with him beforehand that he could marry Anora and keep you as mistress, he then totally goes back on his word - why did you not say this BEFORE! It was, in fact, just like a real life breakup - lots of acrimony and half-revealed motives and "you're not the man I fell in love with!"
But yeah, I dunno why you'd choose that path anyway. My character and Alistair blew off their respective thrones and rode off Grey Wardenning into the sunset together. And... let's just say that if one day an Elder Dragon God Thingy with Alistair's eyes turns up... well... they'll just have to deal. (Now that, to me, was the more interesting moral dilemma!)
Wow, that's a terrific solution and it kills me that I didn't think of it. I don't think I was brave enough. I thought I was really set to become Queen, and that Alistair somehow belonged on the throne, and would rise to the occasion - which he almost does. I also thought that if I suggested we bail, he'd think I'm shirking my duties and my influence would go down. And yet running off into the sunset makes so much more sense.
And you're right about the break-up. My favorite part of the whole game was calling him "an ass."
As for the Elder Dragon God Thingy ... yeah, it really makes me wonder, isn't choosing that solution the most evil thing you could possibly do? Who the hell knows what Morrigan's up to? I didn't put enough thought into that one, because it was definitely a bad, bad idea. Maybe the sequel, "Dragon Age 2: Holy Shit!" will come with a warning on the box: "Did you decide to sacrifice yourself, instead of taking Morrigan up on her offer? Then don't play this game, your canon turned out ducky."
Although I knew I wanted to avoid making him KIng, I, like you, wasn't sure how it was going to turn out if I took that route. I saw the dialogue options that let you marry him off to Anora, and was totally floored - was THAT the safest option? I could never do that, of course... but... just how dangerous was Anora? If I made her queen would she allow Alistair live (and unless you're careful, she DOESN'T - I dodged a bullet there, in some endings she executes him!), but if I made Alistair king without her as an ally, would she turn the Landsmeet against us and cause us to lose it all anyway? I was horrified that marrying them together might be the only way to avoid bloodshed. I admit I tried following those dialogue trees on one savegame, out of pure car-crash curiosity, and it's *brutal*, it makes you feel like you're ruining the lives of everyone involved, for the sake of political stability. And it's just plain *sad* - Alistair says something along the lines of "But I don't WANT anyone else! Even for pretend!" - and it made me wish I hadn't maxed out my Coercion, 'cause I really wished I hadn't been able to talk him into it. ; _ ;
But anyway, I knew I couldn't really do that to him, and luckily we made it through and put Anora on the throne without anyone getting executed. Phew! Wait, what, a Grey Warden has to die?? O hai Morrigan...
So... the most evil thing you can do? Hey, buster, that's my happy ending you're sullying there! Seriously, though, I agree that it's a nightmare of a decision, it made the Landsmeet seem a cakewalk. I actually had two takes on it, one being my characters, and the other me as a veteran RPG player.
My character did not, of course, want to pimp her boyfriend out to a witch so she could get a demon-baby. Duh. I mean... what if Morrigan was better in bed than her! :P But... she didn't trust Riordan to make sure he was the sacrificial lamb (and good thing too, that idiot!) and she was just so very very scared that Alistair would be the one to make it (again, presciently - unless you leave him out of your party, he WILL prevent the player from sacrificing herself, if he loves her.) So, yes, probably not a good idea, and the selfish option, but she was weak enough to take it. Bad Grey Warden? Maybe, but it's not actually that clear-cut.
Morrigan was my character's friend, and the way she laid it out, she made it seem like something she was doing, yes, for her own ends above all, but also because she thought it would help her friend. Also, Morrigan claims that the child will not be a.) a monster b.) a threat to Ferelden or c.) hurt. She says that she is not creating an abomination, but trying to preserve the essence of the old god, before it was corrupted. If it wasn't Morrigan saying it, one might even interpret it as a pure, quasi-religious motivation! Of course, it IS Morrigan, but even so, my character trusted her. Maybe foolishly, maybe because she really wanted to trust her at that moment, but still. It actually didn't occur to her/me until later that Morrigan might be planning to use the child as a body-swap vessel to extend her own life, which seems an obvious conclusion in retrospect, and might have changed my decision had I thought of it at the time, but even then, we don't know for certain that this is her plan. Anyway, my point is that to me, it wasn't obviously an *evil* choice, and I ended up deciding that it was the path my character would have taken.
This stressed me out no end. Sure, I admit part of me wanted to make Alistair sleep with Morrigan just for the sheer WTFery of the notion, but for my character? I've played a lot of RPGs, and well, this looked VERY much like the sort of choice the game was gonna PUNISH her for. Taking the devil's bargain, the easy way out with the hidden catch. If nothing else, I thought that Alistair would freak out about it later, and blame me, if not break up with me - which I would have been chagrined by, since I told him the truth about the ritual, and he went into it with eyes open. But I suspected the game would not like me sullying the purity of the romance, I suspected I was "supposed" to reject Morrigan and trust to Twue Wuv to see us both through. Or something. Because the noble choice is so frequently the best one, over the more pragmatic, survival-seeking option. I thought I had screwed up my happy ending by doing it, but I felt like I had to stay in character, whatever the cost. My character did what she thought was best, out of love, even if it was foolish.
Which is why I was so bloody surprised that it turned out OK! For now, anyway! I was happy, I felt like my choices had paid off. The outcome was not without a shadow over it, but I felt that, considering the alternative was Heroic Tragic Sacrifice, that I had taken the path that felt right for both of them. Not to be kings, or queens, or legends, or martyrs, but just Grey Wardens, quietly, together, for whatever time they had left. A less heroic ending, perhaps, but a human one.
You choose the girl because girls are generally more deadly & manipulative
Think about it. For every powerful or successful guy there is usually some Lady MacBeth at home who subtly manipulates or bullies the guy into 'super motivation' - then the guy has more chance of being successful. Basically everything that any guy will ever do is because of some hot girl being a basta to him, see
Maybe some spoilers... I'd figure as a professional video game blogger you'd know the requirements for becoming royalty in DA:O, but I get the impression that you don't... you might not want to read this:
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Oh man, don't get your hopes up for the crown. No spoilers, but becoming royalty (male or female) is limited to the Human Nobles. Otherwise, the best a non-noble girl can hope for is to be the girlfriend Alistair keeps on the side. And then the option to be the "consort" is only available if you make certain choices much earlier in the game (the consequences of said choice aren't self-evident at the time, either). From the way you've described your playthru, it doesn't sound like your character would make the particular choice at the point it was presented.
The only reason I write this is because I - like it sounds like you - got really wrapped up in my character. I'm not usually a cross-dresser, but it sure is more appealing to watch the butt of a female toon running around for hours on end. LOL This was actually my third playthru and I had planned on romancing Alistair and becoming queen - my mistake that there wasn't a disclaimer on the City Elf female at character creation.
Unrequited love and heartbreak make for a terrific story - except for when you're playing the main character. I was seriously, IRL, upset that the character I'd poured 60-70 hours into was denied her only selfish ambition. I'm sure I would have played through the heartbreak story at some point (to unlock the Ultimate Sacrfice achievement - which I ultimately chose to do with this character), but it's just bad writing on Bio's part to force your character unrealistically into a certain ending to force the "drama" on you as the player. I'm not saying it should be easy - but for a character with the ability to convince Alistair to do something rather repulsive (to him) just to spare the life of his love (or, more likely the more I think about it, to spare his own life) - it would have been nice to have the ability to convince him that things could work out. I REALLY felt cheated by the ending for my lil city elf hottie - particularly because of the method they used to have Alistair spurn your character's affections.
At least for non-noble males, Anora's excuse makes a little more sense - but it's still pretty unrealistic. My evil human mage from my second playthru thinks, "Sorry babe. Take it or leave it. I'm leading an army." The arl wouldn't support insurrection, but the dwarven king owes me a huge favor (in fact - he owes me a throne LOL), I have the control rods for the golems, the elves/werewolves are personally loyal to me and have no love for the humans, and the mages owe me huge and, as we discovered in the tower, are quite susceptible to promises of freedom from the Chantry. Anora, in particular considering her character, should be responsive to the realpolitick aspects of the threat, and considering her political position at the time of your discussion, should have been susceptible to coercion. Quite likely, she'd probably find the ruthlessness attractive. I wasn't quite as upset about my human mage - I don't IRL like Anora as much as I like Alistair's character - but it still sucked and seemed pretty shallow and unrealistic to me.
Worse is Alistair's excuse. Instead of Anora's more understandable objection, Alistair's excuse centers around biology. No spoilers, but the biological excuse just doesn't hold water because it's not unique to non-human non-nobles. I haven't played a human female noble yet, so I don't know how they explain it away (I'm just guessing it's ignored - again, bad writing and it'll have "interesting" effects on DA canon LOL). Alistair also has no knowledge basis to make the biological claims he makes - he's barely more a Grey Warden than you are, and as is revealed several times throughout the game, doesn't know sh*t about how Grey Wardens work. I think I would have liked it better if Alistair had simply used the same excuse as Anora.
The worst, though, is the boon at the end. I reloaded my Ultimate Sacrifice game to an earlier save to replay the ending on the hopes that at the end of it all - me, the conquering hero surrounded by adoring nobles and cheering peasants - could ask Alistair to be his Queen. It wasn't even an option. Seriously, a click and three lines of dialogue (at the least, if Bio wants to maintain it's crappy ending, a refusal - but completely ignoring the rather obvious desire of the player is ridiculous), maybe even a short cutscene, and everyone could live happily ever after. I realize things don't work like this in the real world, and I appreciate the use of unrequited love in storytelling, but I don't play fantasy games to get slapped in the face. Particularly in response to Anora's excuse, one of the boons is to be granted land and title - and you're given the Teyrn of Gwaren. Seriously?! The Arls that wouldn't support me as king would swear fealty and be directly ruled by me as a Teryn? Absolutely ridiculous! Eat control rod, wh*re! LOL
Even Bethesda rewrote their ending for FO3 when their fanbase revealed to them how lousy it was. I wonder if this will be DLC down the road?
Sorry if I spoiled anything for you Chris, but I just finished playing my lil city elf hottie and I would spare anyone devoting multiple days worth of their life to getting their hopes up just to get kicked in the balls in the end.
This is supposed to be fantasy Bio! Where's the fairy tale ending?
Ha, so, I appreciate that explanation because I hadn't been able to get a clear answer.
SPOILERS:
Here's what happened: when I filed this column over the weekend, I hadn't finished the game - but I had read some spoilers that there was a way to become queen, and I assumed that that meant romancing Alistair. I definitely expected the happy ending - in past RPGs, once you've slept with an NPC, the two of you are 'til death do you part, and that's basically the end of that storyline.
So, imagine my surprise when Alistair falls all over me, we get him the throne - and then he dumps me! Yes, the game included a couple hints that royalty might mean things change between us, but what? I agree with all your critiques - the explanation doesn't make sense if it doesn't apply to human nobles, and I didn't get the consort option, nor would I have gone for it. I also wish the other NPCs would have responded. (I thought Leliana and I were confidantes!) But I give Bioware props, because it was a real gutpunch, and probably the highlight of my experience.
SPOILERS:
Yup. It definitely invokes IRL emotion - which is a good thing, I guess. Then again, the emotions are frustration and helplessness - and Tetris accomplishes the same emotions in me! LOL
I'm a poor kid from Detroit. While my terrific family has always supported me in all my endeavors, I put myself through college. I've built my life from my own bootstraps. As the game progressed, I really empathized with my lil city elf hottie. She was gonna be the poor girl done good, you know?
I literally tore apart the Landsmeet dialogue to find out where I had gone wrong. I chose the "girlfriend option" by accident the first time - there's no way my lil hottie was gonna be Alistair's trick. It doesn't help that there's isn't more than 8 words in any dialogue choice anywhere in the game (and some of them don't even make sense after you hear the response, either). Vaguery doesn't equal complexity - you know? Essentially, the line is something like, "No one can tell a King what to do..." and he started going into how he couldn't have a girlfriend on the side - and that's not what I meant at all when I selected it. I guess I was influenced by my previous playthru with Anora and my mage, but I thought his excuse about the two Grey Wardens being infertile together was him blowing smoke up my butt because I was an elf.
I went back to my Landsmeet autosave and did it over. I got lucky and was able to sneak a quicksave in at the end of the fight with Loghain. And from that point, I must have spent two hours reloading and trying every single option to see where I had screwed up. They give you all these dialogue options, but other than the girlfriend option, they're all degrees of acceptance or petulance. My 32 cunning, rank 4 coercion - who was able to persuade the Legion of the Dead to abandon their sacred duty to come topside - couldn't convince non-hardened Alistair that their love was worth it??? Like I said in my OP - heartbreak is a great storytelling tool, I would have played through the heartbroken ending just to experience it - but there has be some option other than being his personal wh*re (and the game, rightly, should make it far more difficult).
At the very least, try it and see if infertility results. You're going to dump me because the dozen GWs you knew (for only 6 months!) before the war only mated with normals? You didn't even know how to kill an archdemon! You don't even know how to do the Joining! You didn't even know about the secret stash of GW uber-loot hidden in the Denerim warehouse! But somehow you're an expert on GW mating procedures? You're a f*cking virgin - did you EVEN ask?! Did this topic just come up while y'all were getting drunk under the table by the fat guy?
There's no shortage of real world stories of Catholic nobles dealing with infertility (not all of them resulting in beheading, either LOL!) This is a world with magic. Maybe the blood mage Morrigan made me spare in Soldier's Peak could help us. Morrigan knows how to save us from the demon death curse - Ill bet she could help us have an heir. At the very least, you're willing to sleep with Morrigan to save your own life - how about we have a surrogate seed an heir to save our relationship?
The worst part is he dumps you in front of all your friends - and, I agree with you, not a mention from anyone afterwards! Heck - the SOB made me dump Leli for him (again, not a dialogue option)! Other than Wynne, I didn't have a single companion at that point below 90 - Leli, Morrigan, Sten, and Oghren were all at 100! Not a single one of them piped up and told him what a dumb*ss he was being? Could you really imagine Morrigan being silent (especially since our love gives us incentive to help with HER plan)? This would be a GREAT way to allow non-human nobles to be Queen - if you're 90+ with 5 or more companions, and Alistair is non-hardened - he buckles under the communal "WTF!?"
And the process for "toughening up" Alistair is totally counter-intuitive. I knew going in from my previous playthrus that you could "harden" Alistair and Leliana - and that would affect certain dialogues and their epilogue. If you didn't know - after you visit his sister in Denerim you have to select the "Everyone is out for themselves" option. This will "toughen him up" the same way killing Leli's old bard-boss will "toughen her up." If you "harden" Alistair, you can select the Girlfriend option and he will keep you on as the "Princess-Consort" (OMG LOL!) It would seem to me that if you "harden him" then he should dump you. If he's wimpy Alistairs, he's never disobeyed me once in our whole relationship - but suddenly he grows the stones to throw me aside in the name of - his contrived - "duty"? WTF?
How about giving us some options? He dumps me - why can't I tell him to go away? Fine, you're king. The army follows me, and Ill bet if you ask the 8 other people in the room, they'll follow me, too. Now, go away.
How about I (Persuade/Lie) and tell him I'm already pregnant? It's not the first time a chick had lied about this to keep a man. Tough for him to wiggle out of the relationship AFTER the coronation! HA!
Or how about I kill him and let Anora out of the tower? Before I'm convicted of regicide and treason, Riordan pops out invoking the Rite of Conscription and reveals that the archdemon can only be killed by a GW and since he and I are the only one's left in Ferelden and since killing the archdemon is a death sentence they release me. The Riordan "surprise" is the next major dialogue after the Landsmeet anyways. Maybe even Riordan could fill the Alistair/Loghain hole in the party (I'm under his supervision until the battle is over - if I survive, it's the gallows! LOL).
During my reload marathon to figure out where I had gone wrong, I discovered from a spoiler that if you take Alistair with you into the city without agreeing to Morrigan's deal, he will kill the Archdemon regardless of what happens during the conversation the two of you have concerning the final blow. Since my lil city elf hottie wanted to die, she didn't bring him into the city. How about letting the player kill him in Denerim? Ever hear of a woman scorned? Vengeance served cold? If I'm gonna die - you're coming with me! We'll be together... one way or the other... LOL
In the end, she was all alone. Zevran and Sten invited her to tag along, but Leli was going back to Orlais (and refused to allow you to come with her), Oghren was hooking up with Felsi, Shale and Wynne were off on their own, and Morrigan disappeared. So here my poor lil elf was, heartbroken and alone. This has to be the worst possible "good" ending.
I wouldn't have been so upset if the whole thing hadn't felt so contrived. Did you feel the same way?
And to the other comments complaining about the lack of racism - were we playing the same elves? There's not a major NPC who doesn't comment on your race. Even Bann Teagan - who flirts with you! - comments on you being an elf. Then, when you finally meet the Dalish, they treat you like crap too! LOL Part of racism isn't about being overly rude - it's the whole world, even politely, highlighting the fact that you're different. Even with the "good" ending, my poor lil city elf hottie was sent back to be Queen of the Alienage! I felt like the whole world was shouting at me, "Know your place, elf!" LOL
Darpaek, this is so awesome - thank you for reporting back on all of this. I feel your frustration but I'm glad you spent all that time trying to work this out so that we could just sit here and benefit, and I passed this to a bunch of my friends who are also swapping Dragon Age stories.
One theory: maybe the stories aren't so inconsistent - I wonder if Alistair tells your female mage that she's not fit to bear children, as a way of letting her down gently, because the real problem is that she's not a noble? But I agree, she should still be able to talk him into it, especially with killer stats.
And if I find time for another playthrough I'm definitely going to be an elf. I get what you mean about 'the poor girl done good," because that's actually one of the things I liked best about the game. You don't start the game with some "mystical destiny" or " a sacred bloodline" or anything else: whoever you play, you're basically some nobody who was in the right place at the right time to get a shot at changing history. That made me feel like my successes and my choices were my own. But come to find out that Alistair is basically dangling the throne in front of you and then taking it away - you hit a limit, or a kind of glass ceiling, right when you're at the height of your powers. Maybe they could've thrown in a way to kill Alistair and take the thrown by force. It would've been devious but hey, like you said, after all you've done for them, don't they owe you a little more than to be Queen of the Alienage?
HA! Thanks! Your blog was very cathartic. I promise my rant wouldn't normally exist if it wasn't a holiday and I didn't have anything better to do anyways. I'm glad someone could benefit - my nerdrage is spent. =D
From searching different spoilers during my reload fest, apparently he does mention the children difficulty to a noble female but he doesn't use it as an excuse. If you "harden" Alistair earlier in the game as a non-noble, apparently he does use the "You're an elf" excuse.
You'll love the City Elf origin as a female. It's absolutely chilling! Even if you don't have time for a full playthru - it's worth the hour and a half!
I'll eventually play a Human Noble Female, but I'm going to play a HN Male next time so I can belittle Alistair the entire game, steal his crown, kill him at the Landsmeet, and then tell him to act like a man in the face of his execution. Despite my nerdrant, there ARE plenty of awesome dialogue options. =P
"Someday, we may see a game that truly gives you the perspective of someone wildly different from you"
I hope so! I'm really tired of this empty vessel nonsense in first person games. The first and only time I've ever felt I've been inhabiting a person's body was while watching (!) the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and it was an incredibly powerful experience. It worked because the main character could not really interact with the world, reflecting the non-interactivity of the audience. But video games should be able to take it even farther right?
As far as Dragon Age, the alienage stuff was interesting but really had no effect on me. I never felt like an actual second class, non-citizen. Humans treat me like shit so I talk back with the only consequence being I get to slaughter a whole castle full of them and join a prestigious organization to save the world. In the same way you identify with Alistair, maybe only people who have lived under oppression and racism can identify with a city elf?
You know, I don't pretend to know how a game could relate to specific issues of oppression and racism, but power - and the frustration of not having it - is one of the things games do very well. (Fable and Fable II both had sections where you've basically lost control of your fate, and I found both of them very, very effective.)
It's too bad the way they implemented it didn't work for you. I got a sense that the elves had it rough and had to live on the margins, but I agree with you, it's hard to feel oppressed when you can persuade or kill almost anyone who stands in your way. Just spitballing, it would've been fascinating if elvish players didn't even get to be grey wardens - if you had to win the same battles and complete the same quests, but the whole time, everyone else took the credit.
Excellent article, Chris. Glad it's not just me who gets caught up in these things...