Almost dwarf society is the same. Most every dwarf is also the same. When I was young I liked Flint Fireforge well enough. Running into Flint Fireforge (actually Gimli) #3492309 is utterly uninteresting.
Authors at least occasionally do something interesting with elves. Not all elves live in trees, not all elves are (near-)immortal, not all elves are magical, not all elves shoot bows.
Boo on all bearded Scottish craftsmen who live underground and like axes, hammers, drinking, and precious gems and metals, not necessarily in that order.
@decado I love dwarves! Don't get me wrong! I just prefer eye-candy to bearded, drunken, stinky, short, fat, loud, armored, stereotypes...even if said eye-candy is pompous, arrogant, vegetarian, tree-hugging, weakling, aloof, flakey, wimpy, sissy, frivolous, freaky-fanbased, and overrated. I may be shallow, but at lest I got my priorities straight.
Almost dwarf society is the same. Most every dwarf is also the same. When I was young I liked Flint Fireforge well enough. Running into Flint Fireforge (actually Gimli) #3492309 is utterly uninteresting.
Authors at least occasionally do something interesting with elves. Not all elves live in trees, not all elves are (near-)immortal, not all elves are magical, not all elves shoot bows.
Boo on all bearded Scottish craftsmen who live underground and like axes, hammers, drinking, and precious gems and metals, not necessarily in that order.
I think that you are a victim of poor writing rather than actually disliking dwarves.
Bless my corrupt soul, but I only chose dwarves because I so wanted to romance Varric! Damn u BW - are the Cullenites the only ones deserving bit of fan-service?
But well done Cullenites, really! (It was nice to get non-complicated sweet-hearted romance for a change even if Dorian convinced me to roll one male inki as well)
Edit: PS. I am also a little bitter of the terrible things they did to poor Bann Teagan in "Trespasser."
I think that you are a victim of poor writing rather than actually disliking dwarves.
Gasp - I must second the above. I mean: Varric! (DA 2 & Inquisition)
Varric is one crafty story vehicle in giving DA2 the spin of being "a story within a story" - told by a storyteller that admittedly "lies a lot." The total fantasy show-down with Bartrand in second chapter is to my mind a narrative masterpiece in gaming, and also quite amusing. When I read it was originally planned that each chapter of DA2 would also include an alternative take by Varric, I most bitterly lamented this was cut.
I love Varric and his voice acting by Brian Bloom is simply marvellous. Dragon Age dwarves' lore per my interpretation have borrowed pretty heavily from Indian caste tradition, but at the same time the surface dwarves like Varric present moves and shakers.
Also, Khelgar in NWN2 might be a bit stereotypical "I fight and drink" sort of dwarf, but his interest of becoming a monk was quite atypical at least.
Finally, in Two Worlds it was never explicitly revealed why dwarves had closed down their borders, but it did get me wondering...
Gasp - I must second the above. I mean: Varric! (DA 2 & Inquisition)
Varric is the reason I said "most dwarves" (hey, I said DAII was my favourite CRPG ever; of course I appreciate Varric). Well, not entirely - there's also that dwarf girl that wanted to study with the mages that was one of the few things I remember fondly in DA:Origins, and also G'nolga, whom noone is likely to have heard of. Bioware fanartist Aimo's dwarven OC is cute and funny... but they're a few pearls in a vast sprawling ocean of GimliClones.
It's fair to say that I may be a victim of poor writing in my general disdain for dwarvenkind, but it's a poor writing that's endemic to the fantasy genre (both in written and game form). I wager everyone here knows The Standard Dwarf Archetype - and there are more dwarves fitting that archetype than every other kind put together.
(I also hate Plucky Peasant Farmboy With Simple Country Values, while we're taking about the originality-related failings of the genre. It's not just dwarves!)
Take this as a playful hyperbole but I deem Varric so fondly that he is a Christ-figure for his entire race in my eyes, lol.
But truth be told, I've mainly liked the dwarves that I've encountered in gaming. Khelgar is a companion I like, I find Oghren banters quite funny, Varric's bro is right old blackguard to boot and his lover a very sassy paragorn of engineering - not forgetting our savant extraordinaire Sandal.
As said, in Two Worlds dwarves are only alluded to but they clearly have their own political system and aims, and are in mission of subterfuge and alliances, and have a rather mysterious gift of a vortex to wake up "natural gifts" of their newborns that the PC gets to enjoy.
There are also very interesting elven characters of course as well. I am a big fan of Sand for example.
Edit: @Ayiekie I was quite seriously trying to think of dwarves that would annoy me minus Peter Jackson whom I think sold out his talent, but I cannot really think of any. But I admit my gaming focus is reasonably narrow. Plus I don't really read fantasy literature save Pratchett whose penmanship I am too liable to love whatever he writes.
On the contrary, if I am to be annoyed, it would rather be by BioWare elves such as Merrill and Solas to whom no atrocity is too evil or extreme as long as it restores something elven.
Well Korgan is my favorite npc in the bg games so there's that, as for dwarves in general I don't know.
Elves all depend on the setting and how much self-insert masterfully idyllic flawless super race, is injected into their description and so on by the writers.
Comments
*sniff*
Why are there no half ^ those.
19con019dex lol
Authors at least occasionally do something interesting with elves. Not all elves live in trees, not all elves are (near-)immortal, not all elves are magical, not all elves shoot bows.
Boo on all bearded Scottish craftsmen who live underground and like axes, hammers, drinking, and precious gems and metals, not necessarily in that order.
I love dwarves! Don't get me wrong!
I just prefer eye-candy to bearded, drunken, stinky, short, fat, loud, armored, stereotypes...even if said eye-candy is pompous, arrogant, vegetarian, tree-hugging, weakling, aloof, flakey, wimpy, sissy, frivolous, freaky-fanbased, and overrated.
I may be shallow, but at lest I got my priorities straight.
But well done Cullenites, really!
Edit: PS. I am also a little bitter of the terrible things they did to poor Bann Teagan in "Trespasser."
Varric is one crafty story vehicle in giving DA2 the spin of being "a story within a story" - told by a storyteller that admittedly "lies a lot." The total fantasy show-down with Bartrand in second chapter is to my mind a narrative masterpiece in gaming, and also quite amusing. When I read it was originally planned that each chapter of DA2 would also include an alternative take by Varric, I most bitterly lamented this was cut.
I love Varric and his voice acting by Brian Bloom is simply marvellous. Dragon Age dwarves' lore per my interpretation have borrowed pretty heavily from Indian caste tradition, but at the same time the surface dwarves like Varric present moves and shakers.
Also, Khelgar in NWN2 might be a bit stereotypical "I fight and drink" sort of dwarf, but his interest of becoming a monk was quite atypical at least.
Finally, in Two Worlds it was never explicitly revealed why dwarves had closed down their borders, but it did get me wondering...
It's fair to say that I may be a victim of poor writing in my general disdain for dwarvenkind, but it's a poor writing that's endemic to the fantasy genre (both in written and game form). I wager everyone here knows The Standard Dwarf Archetype - and there are more dwarves fitting that archetype than every other kind put together.
(I also hate Plucky Peasant Farmboy With Simple Country Values, while we're taking about the originality-related failings of the genre. It's not just dwarves!)
But truth be told, I've mainly liked the dwarves that I've encountered in gaming. Khelgar is a companion I like, I find Oghren banters quite funny, Varric's bro is right old blackguard to boot and his lover a very sassy paragorn of engineering - not forgetting our savant extraordinaire Sandal.
As said, in Two Worlds dwarves are only alluded to but they clearly have their own political system and aims, and are in mission of subterfuge and alliances, and have a rather mysterious gift of a vortex to wake up "natural gifts" of their newborns that the PC gets to enjoy.
There are also very interesting elven characters of course as well. I am a big fan of Sand for example.
Edit:
@Ayiekie I was quite seriously trying to think of dwarves that would annoy me minus Peter Jackson whom I think sold out his talent, but I cannot really think of any. But I admit my gaming focus is reasonably narrow. Plus I don't really read fantasy literature save Pratchett whose penmanship I am too liable to love whatever he writes.
On the contrary, if I am to be annoyed, it would rather be by BioWare elves such as Merrill and Solas to whom no atrocity is too evil or extreme as long as it restores something elven.
The discworld dwarves are pretty cool overall, I'd say.
Elves all depend on the setting and how much self-insert masterfully idyllic flawless super race, is injected into their description and so on by the writers.