Dragon Age News Thread

Super charming, but damn if that text wasn't difficult to read.

I understand why people say that, but I enjoy script like that. Then again I'm weird and like cursive writing as well.

David Gaider‏ @davidgaider
Someone wrote up a summary of a rather informal talk I gave in the Diversity Lounge at PAX Australia.

PC Authority: Ex-Bioware writer David Gaider on representation in games
www.pcauthority.com.au/feature/ex-bioware-writer-david-gaider-on-representation-in-games-479352?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pcauthority_autopost

David Gaider‏ @davidgaider
I do kinda feel like I want to respond to the first comment, though, regarding the set sexualities in DAI being a "step back".

To me, it's only a step back if you figure the game's characters aren't written as characters, but rather as potential romances for the player, and them not aligning to your wishes is, in itself, a form of denial.

I find that roughly like complaining that not all characters were okay with every decision you make. "Why can't I be evil and X is okay with it?"

There is a difference between representation and wish fulfillment, and suggesting that one cannot have the former without also having the latter does not sit well with me.

Of course, I am also a writer. A player is free to want whatever they want - they don't need an objective reason to dislike something, even if they might strive to find one simply because they figure their desires alone are insufficient. Understood.

At the very least, I rather like that we're at a point where we can argue about *how much* queer content we can get, or deserve, as opposed to whether it should be there at all.



[HASH]DAT

Emily (aka Domino)‏ pentapod
#TFW when one of the tech designers says they are low on work and asks in Slack if they can help with anything... #letmecounttheways



[HASH]DAT

What if 'I am a player who also love art'?

Casey Hudson‏ @caseydhudson
Chardonnay and Cheeseburger. #TheGameAwards

pbs.twimg.com/media/DQgIpaDV4AUh9p7.jpg

Writing a character ain't as simple as saying 'it's not a real person' (therefore it can be everything I want it to be). I suggest watching Gaider's video on character concepts for DAI, especially the part when Mary Kirby 'heard the voice' of a character and knew how to write her only after switching her skintone.
Naturally, a good writer will adjust to many changes thrown at them, but it really is way easier to craft a well-rounded character once they become a 'person' in our head, preferences and all. I certainly know that from my own work.

Also - I wouldn't believe rumors about Cullen much. People might have found some audio files or something, but from what I know they record a lot of stuff, including those they won't necessarily use, to prepare for any eventuality, no matter how unlikely. Solas also has datamined lines recorded that suggest bi romance, despite it being designed for female Lavellan by Weekes from the start.

Saying that 'it's a fact that DA writers never allow a KISA type to be a romance option for LGBT players' is not a claim I think you can substantiate. Just because the character didn't appear yet, doesn't mean that they haven't considered it, but then changes in production or NPC roster shifted their plans. We know such things happen, plus we don't know what decisions have been made for future games.

There will always be players disgruntled that some characters aren't accessible to them, or there aren't a type of a character they'd like to romance. I get it - there's not that many games on the market, especially big RPGs of that kind, that would offer such content *or* provide as much diversity as many Bioware games, but it's basically a given that with each new DA game there will be someone unhappy that they're lacking options of some kind.

That's not quibbling over minutiae. You've made a very strong accusation based on a flimsy reason. Yes, there have been total for sixteen different people, but I'm fairly sure those 16 people still don't fill any type of romance or configuration we can think of. There's no transgender romance as well. And Weekes has been heard saying in an interview that he sees no reason for transgender romance to NOT show up in the game, but for it to be featured it has to be more than just 'transgender romance'. None of characters in in DA are written with romance in mind as the most important thing about them being in the game - they are characters first. Plus, Cullen wasn't added to the game to be a romance option - the content was added to the game in which he was already featured. 

Much as I agree with the campaign for a gay KISA in Dragon Age, something else to consider is that if everyone were bisexual Cullen might never have been a romance option at all. They only planned six romances initially so that everyone could have two choices while still having gay and straight characters in the mix. If they initally gone with (just for example) Blackwall, Dorian, Cassandra and Sera and then decided to add Iron Bull and Josephine after they got the extra year of development time, Cullen and Solas wouldn't have been available to anyone.

If they had gone with all bi, there would have been four, as stated directly by Allan Schumacher in the DAI romance thread about the subject. I'm the first one to say that, even with all bi romances, you're not guaranteed to like anyone. As I said, I had the most options in DAI as a straight woman and didn't like any of those presented to me.

It wasn't my intention to focus on Cullen, and I tried to be more generic by invoking the KISA archetype and in also mentioning Jaal. Using the KISA type is just the best way to illustrate how the developers themselves are still locked into a certain mindset as to what straight, bi, and gay romance options look like, act like, sound like. Even if we ignore the complexities of Solas and his Elven Glory bits and do focus only on Cullen, the developers made the choice to have him as straight when they decided to have him be a romance option as a result of that extra year.

They've made it clear that they don't see characters like Alistair, Sebastian, Cullen, Cassandra, Blackwall, or even Avaline (who was not a LI, to the consternation of some fans) as bi or gay. It doesn't matter what they discussed behind closed doors, or what might be in the works for a hypothetical fourth game, but what we have been given in these three games, what they've actually shown us. And the history of that showing, and with the huge blundering of LGB romance in MEA, has left quite a few of those fans lacking faith. Not all, certainly, but a portion of those players do feel that way. (And no, telling some of those players that "ME and DA are different teams" does not make a difference.)



(Just to be clear, I frequently leave out the T since we're talking about sexual orientation in relation to romance options, and trans folks are not an orientation, and are themselves straight or LGBQA.)