Let me not have to sit there watching, doing nothing, if I don’t want to. I know you think it’s your game and not my game, but please, let me skip. I know you don’t want to risk NVIDIA complaining or a marketing director screaming at you. C'mon, you'll get complaints about something whatever you do. I know you don’t want to risk complaints that I didn’t understand something or the game was too short. Let me skip anything that isn’t me playing the game, no matter how detrimental it might be to your concept of your own game. I know it’s disrespectful, I know it can be lazy, I know it ruin my own experience, I know it can even be actively anti-intellectual, but please, let me skip. I know I wouldn’t skip a chapter in a book or forward wind a film by ten minutes to get to the explosions. I know you think it’s extremely important that I understand the context of my impending actions, or that you have my full attention while you introduce an unusual mechanic.

Dragon Age, maybe I'm just not that into you.I know you worked hard on those words, those animations, that music. So get me to the next quest, get me to the next fight, get me to the end. Yet I ride on, with my precious escape key as my companion.

Things seem to be happening in that setting, but they aren't interesting enough for me to care. With Dragon Age, we only have the setting. Each tells a story which happens to have a fantasy setting. There is a creative spark in those two games. I remember being interested and experiencing something unique. I was not always the addict that I am today. Likewise Dragon Age pulls from a glossary of ideas, duct-taping them together to form a simulacrum of a story. It reminded me of the Christian Rock genre, where there is a glossary of about 200 words and phrases from which lyrics are almost exclusively chosen. Then there were the ridiculous cliches, not only in the opening film but throughout the writing. The final shot is indistinguishable from the horizon of Mordor. They were once men, we are told, 'twisted and cursed by their own corruption.' You don't say? Ever hear of the Black Riders? Yes, I believe you have. Several hooded figures in black are shown. Even some lines were nearly identical to the LoTR film narration ('it was the hubris of men that brought.'). I was immediately turned off by the outright Lord of the Rings borrowing. Looking back, the seeds of my dialogue-skipping addiction were sown as early as the opening movie.

Kotor 2 dialogue skipping