Is firsthand experience required to bring nuance to Dragon Age?

nuance =/= sanitization

most definitely. There were other forms of slavery throughout history and I think people (maybe Americans especially) tend to get confused about the difference. BioWares only real sin here is they tend to confuse indentured servitude with slavery. But then that was slavery at times.

Depends on the criticism.

what if it were:  "This game is woke and racist sexist trash"?  

I think Lorerunner compared them to the Byzantine Empire when he was marathon DA O and DA 2.  

Didn't Gaider also make that comparison...?  During Origins development/pre-release hype period?

Around the same time as he called the Qun "Militant Islamic Borg", as I recall.

Meh. Vivienne didn't become Viv, the Iron Lady, because she was black. She became that way because she was a mage in Thedas. So she didn't need to be written by a black person and more than Dorian needed to be written by a Persian person...if anything, the person was also arguing that all elves should be written by black people. Just bad argument all around

Dorian is Tevinter. His voice actor is Indian but that doesn't mean that Dorian is.

I read the article just fine. It's absolutely written by a person who is bending events to fit the bone they want to pick.



This implies the writers fucked up because they were insensitive to what an aggressee in the world had been through. Even though Author admits in the same paragraph that the Devs have said, "oops, that should have been implemented differently, it was lost in the million details that is creating such a massive game over 100 departments and outsourcing art companies." But no, they did it because White Dude Bros going to White Dude Bro. Like, of all the things Author could have used to better effect to support the narrative Author was creating with their article, Author picked this one?



Author then immediately ties this to their own personal history of problems of trying to recapture their own culture as someone of African Descent but not only those of African Descent have this problem. It is also forgetting entirely that this is THEDAS and not the real world. And that the Devs have officially stated that the elves were more based on the Romani people than the African people. Not to mention that the Devs have a Word limit and they can't give 20% of the word budget to elven Inquisitors because it means more to them that this was hidden. Well, as the human inquisitor I was playing when I played that DLC, I was pretty disgusted with my own species. I also regret that I couldn't go into a giant, "you are all species-ist assholes!" rant. Have I been wronged?

Bioware makes games that are super responsive and interactive but the level of immersiveness she wants is not going to come from a Bioware game. I don't know what game the author is looking for , but she can't lambast Bioware for not making a video game completely about what it is to be an Dalish Inquisitor when you can be Human, Dwarven, and Kosith in a world where they know most people play humans. It's a Video Game and there are limitations and I'm not going to declare the Developers and Writers to be insensitive jerks who don't understand the downtrodden because my specific microchism of unique snowflake wasn't catered to directly to the amount I specifically want.

I'm not great at using the term irony correctly, but considering Author can buy a video game and blog about it already makes Author in a better place than a LOT of people so the term may apply.

Edited to reduce and add politically correct stuff, like using gender neutral nouns. I'm sure I will have ruffled feathers regardless, but I disliked being told my reading comprehension was low.

I've only played the DLC once, but I remember it being a quiet profound conversation with a lot of admittedly disappointing truths. And I kinda remember talking to the archelogist afterwards and declaring that this truth would be declared publicly and loudly. It will, in the end, probably have as much affect on the world of Thedas as the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest with the Priest History Dude. Some people will believe, others wont, and the world moves on regardless.

it dosen't though. Viv may be black...colored...but she's Orlesian (Antivan?)
Dorian isn't Indian...he's Tevinter.
Alistair isn't 'white' hes Ferelden.