Dragon Age: The Veilguard brings back the original sin of preorder/digital cosmetics. But I'm oddly nostalgic about it now

I really enjoyed the latest trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but at the very end I was confronted with a ghost saying: "Pre-order Now!" Receive the Blood Dragon Cosmetic Armor." It's been a while since I heard that name.

The Blood Dragon Armor, in my opinion, is a DLC/"Digital Deluxe Edition", original sin of the same magnitude as Oblivion’s infamous Horse Armor. The hideous armor set appeared in four different BioWare games during the height of the company's popularity. It always felt unwelcome, and out of place, whether you were exploring the distant spires or a medieval dirt town. Wouldn't you think that a design would be so important or beloved to be featured in two iconic franchises?

Its first appearance, however, was the worst of all: the original Blood Dragon Armor reused an existing dwarven heavy-armor model in the game. This was one of those chunky "Massive", plate mail sets which made the warriors of Dragon Age: Origins resemble Gears of War potatoes. It's a generic design, but the texture that set it apart was awful: pearlescent, white, with a neon-red dragon streaking down one corner and, god forbid, glowing red eye slits, like a Bush-era Alienware.

It's true that the Mass Effect iteration would have been better with a sleeker design, but you couldn't get away from the color palette. It felt like you were wearing an advertisement as you travelled around the galaxy. Commander Shepard's space commando armor would have looked better with a big ole DraftKings logo on the rump, like a pair MMA trunks.

The Veilguard trailer's "cosmetic armor' phrasing makes it sound as if the neo Blood Dragon set will avoid the original's greatest sin: It was mid-to-late game gear that you got for free at the start of Origins. The RPG's balance was thrown off by the strength of armor or the amount of money you could make selling it. Inquisition had no Blood Dragon Armor and we were all better for it.

I'm so nostalgic and warm now, despite all my whining. My bile has been tempered by the years, not least because EA lost. I've always felt a sense of pity for Juul. It was the target of America's initial wave of moral panic, and legislation, around youth vaping. Now that every middle-schooler in the nation is honking away on some kind neon candy disposable vape that costs 75 cents, it seems like a joke. EA's proprietary ecosystem, which includes codes for exclusive gear as well as $10 companion DLC, is also quaint compared to the current live service economy.

In 2024, Blood Dragon Armor will be like a Golden Age comic book character reduced to slurping applesauce in a nursing home. It can't harm us anymore. All my frustrations with the EA single-player microtransaction schemes from the past melt away. The armor in The Veilguard is still pretty ugly. Even if I had preordered, you wouldn't be able to catch me in it.