As part an IGN feature discussing the future of video game story telling alongside writers such as Neil Druckmann (The Last of Us) and Davey Wreden (The Stanley Parable), Tomb Raider writer Rhianna Pratchett gave her take on just how long we’d be seeing variations of the same old “men with guns” plot lines that preempt the most successful annual blockbuster.

“The industry isn’t going to ditch guns anytime soon. Not completely. They’re just too heavily entrenched. However, I do hope it starts expanding its verbs and finding new ways for players to interact with worlds, characters and game mechanics. From a gamer perspective I can’t help but think that it would be nice to sometimes travel to these amazing, exotic and imaginative locations, and not have to shoot the locals in the face.

“As for the ‘men’ part – Again, I think 2013 was a pretty good year for female characters, both NPCs and protagonists. Although in gaming terms ‘pretty good year’ means that there were some, and they were cool, interesting and well thought out, rather than anything approximating equality.”

“As well as more female protagonists (and antagonists) I hope we start to see a broader spectrum of representation in age, ethnicity, sexual and gender orientation and ability. You only have to look at TV shows like Breaking Bad, Luther or Orange is the New Black to see how popular a bit of diversity (or as I like to call it, ‘real life’) can be.”

Pratchett also feels that the medium could use with more diverse depictions of masculinity. “On top of that, I still think there’s a lot of scope in broadening the way games approach depictions of masculinity, which is still extremely narrow in scope. It would be nice to see a panel about gender in videogames and it not just be about one gender! Because, frankly, they could both use work.”

Last we heard from Pratchett, she denied being a part of the Mirror’s Edge reboot – namely because the dev team in the original made the decision to remove all of Faith’s dialogue and shoehorn the story in.

The good news is that DICE is revisiting Mirror’s Edge, with a next-gen origins reboot that will release “when it’s done” for the PC, Xbox One and PS4, as was revealed at last year’s E3. The bad news is that Rhianna Pratchett, the original game’s writer and who has also written Overlord, Tomb Raider and Heavenly Sword, won’t be involved with it. Why? Because the original game’s script was heavily edited and she found herself unhappy with the result.

Responding on Twitter, Pratchett stated that, “It’s really lovely that people care enough to ask whether I’m involved with Mirror’s Edge 2, but I’m not & wasn’t asked. Let’s face it ME1’s story didn’t review that great (for many reasons). So I consider myself a casualty of that development process.

She continued that, “By all accounts it’s a new team on it, so go along, I say. Create cool stuff. We always need more of that.” So she’s certainly optimistic about the future of the franchise’s story.

Pratchett then talked about how she joined the project while it was already on-going and that, “The script got hacked up at the 11th hour due to a decision to remove all of Faith’s level dialogue. Too much of the game had been designed before they got me in, which made what we could do more limited.”

Yes, that’s right: Some one at EA/DICE thought it was worthwhile to limit, in some way or another for whatever reason, Terry Pratchett’s daughter for the original Mirror’s Edge. Who, quite figuratively, has writing in her blood.

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