.adrift

In preparation for the next Dragon Age installment, I'm trying to get as many diverse playthroughs as I can. Which is hard, because I just refuse to make certain choices!

But still, I just finished DAO and DA2 playthroughs I really enjoyed. 

Ceres Cousland - a warrior princess, married to Alistair and ruling Ferelden alongside him! This has been a very fun playthrough for me, because I've put a lot of thought into what Ceres is like, what her story and relationships are like. I know she is very much her father's daughter and misses him dearly. She has also always been wanting more for her life, but unsure of how to find it. Becoming the Queen and being on her own with responsibility of decisions definitely helped her a lot.

Besides, this is the first time I got around to playing Awakening and other DLCs and I adored it. Awakening needs more attention! I love many of the companions and the story is chef's kiss.

Briar Calanthe Hawke - a mage and a hedge witch. I loved exploring her story and it was rather heartbreaking for me as well. Where my first Hawke was laughter and kindness and piercing words, Briar is nothing but kindness and love for her family. She could use a little "me" time, but after running away with her lover Anders this may have to wait a bit.

Now I'm trying to figure out where to go with a DAI protagonist. I really want to have a Lavellan to romance Solas because of his involvement with all the upcoming events. So I might just do that! I have so many Lavellans though!

In any case, I'll probably make some kind of a meme later to fill out more information about all my DA OCs :)

 I started this blog last December or so, and I haven't been quite active here as on other platforms. Would love to rectify that and continue sharing my thoughts on videogames and such, how about that? :D

I have some new Skyrim characters and screenshots, some from Dragon Age and some from Destiny 2!

Lately I have been lamenting that I didn't have enough time to read books. Because, you know, reading is important, and when you don't get to finish at least a book a month or even once in half a year, you feel like you've let yourself down.

But it doesn't mean I'm not developing via other means? When I don't have time to read, maybe I'm doing something else. Mostly playing video games, of course, also playing D&D and just working on other random projects. Those, too, are the means of learning new stories and developing oneself.

I feel like games don't get enough credit for this and often left out of the queston of self-improvement entirely; and instead blamed for everything ever. It's so very unfair, because there are people, developers, who put immense amount of hours and effort into telling a story that you will finish in maybe 150 hours of gameplay and that fit in just 50 gb of space on your computer. But in those 150 hours you will learn as much as any book might teach you. Relationships, plots, choices, eye candy - there is so much games offer. The majority of my creativity and imagination has been built off video games since I was a child, and books were only a pleasant contribution when I could sit myself and enjoy a story through pages.

And what a fantastic means of storytelling gaming is! There are puzzles, RPGs, shooters, walkers and simulators. You either create your own story or you journey through one already written for you. You take the game and turn it into a skeleton of your own adventure, you "headcanon" additions on top of it and create variations and branch the story off. Perhaps, games steal a bit of the visual imagination, but only a little. Artists visualise concepts that they come up with while gaming, writers build whole new stories with their own vision, and none of those stories are the same.

I just find it fascinating and so very underrated and admirable.

Yes, I also played a lot of Dragon Age lately to lead me to those thoughts! :D