Say what you will about Bioware, its games, or its writing of late, but at least the company has been progressive enough to always allow for representation of people of all sexual orientations within its game. Queer gamers probably get the best representation in Bioware’s games, so when there was a recent rumor that stated Bioware was going to back away from its stance on supporting queer gaming, Bioware senior writer David Gaider took to his blog on Tumblr to dispel all fears.
“Categorically not true,” Gaider said. “I understand there are some people who prefer the idea of being able to romance any character who is able to be romanced, with any playable character. That may have been a happy by-product of the system in Dragon Age 2, for them, but that was not its purpose. Its purpose was to allow more than one option for every type of player, no matter who they were. That remains our goal.
“Who says [gender is] the only limiting factor [for how romances work]? We’ve not said how the romances will work at all, so that’s quite the assumption,” Gaider continued. “I understand the concern about possibly ending up with the ‘short end of the stick’, but I’m not sure where the [Dragon Age] team has yet given the impression that will be so. I’m not going to tell you your concerns don’t have validity–I’m actually quite familiar with how it feels to have my interests treated as a secondary concern when it comes to popular entertainment–but I’m hoping that concern need not equate with panic at this point. We’ve got a lot of time yet to discuss this.”
Fears and apprehensions on the side of the queer gaming community are very valid in this case, although judging by Bioware’s past track record in handling matters like this, I think it is reasonable to be confident that they will attempt to be as inclusive as possible.