I wonder if the director being transgender influenced these decisions.
Previously, we mentioned how the excitement for the fourth installment of BioWare’s Dragon Age franchise died once the game was properly revealed. The game, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, features various character designs that many find unappealing, with the focus on diversity seemingly prioritized over functionality.
The cast includes a mix of plain men and predominantly non-white women, with one character in particular resembling a man despite supposedly being female.
Considering that the next Dragon Age installment appears to be heavily influenced by the inclusive design trends of hero shooters, and the game director is transgender, it’s not surprising that the game allows players to romance any companion, regardless of gender or race, and features nudity.
This marks a significant shift from the series’ norm, which previously included primarily heterosexual romance options, with only a few exceptions where romance was available regardless of the player’s gender.
The game industry is entering a new era, one that is heavily focused on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives over enjoyment and pleasing consumers.
Corporations like Activision are enforcing this by appointing DEI Officers to every development team, with the entire industry as a whole emphasizing inclusivity through LGBT representation, ethnic diversity, and the extermination of attractive female characters in gaming.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard exemplifies this trend with its diverse yet controversially designed companions, all of whom can be romanced by male or female players. In an interview with IGN, director Corrine Busche revealed that all companions are pansexual, meaning they’ can be attracted to anyone regardless of gender or sexual orientation meaning they’ll fuck just about anything.
Busche also mentioned that the player’s relationships with companions are dynamic. Players can reject romantic advances, which might lead to those companions forming relationships with others, regardless of gender. For example, you can flirt with a character of the opposite sex, and if you reject them, they may move on to another companion, possibly of the same sex.
In the case of Taash, a genderqueer androgynous character, rejected companions might choose to romance another character who appears to be a man but has a vagina, showcasing the game’s commitment to inclusive and diverse relationship options.
Naturally, for a large-scale RPG with romance options, there will be sex. Baldur’s Gate 3 featured numerous straight-sex romance options and vivid sex scenes, including one involving a bear. When asked whether Dragon Age: The Veilguard would include sex scenes, the transgender director confirmed that the game is rated M for mature thus it will feature nudity.
So, players can expect some unsettling glimpses of old man genitalia and flat boobs with varying skin tones. The director also mentioned that some romance sex scenes will be different from what players might expect.
Not that I particualrly care whether or not a character is depicted as a sensual and kind sweetheart in bed, versus being aggressive and rough, the design of the companions featured in the reveal trailer have been largely rejected by the gaming community at large, with the games trailer having amassed a staggering 220,000 dislikes to 38,000 likes.
Every iconic franchise today seems compromised, with beloved studios falling prey to incompetent affirmative action hires. These hires appear to delay game production significantly.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard, for instance, has allegedly been in development since 2015. Skilled developers have been replaced by a wave of newcomers who argue that typical game design is inherently racist, bigoted, and sexist. This is the impact of DEI initiatives, which, driven by BlackRock’s agendas for easy capital investment, tarnish the industry.
After the horrendous reveal trailer received a flood of dislikes, BioWare released twenty minutes of gameplay footage. This footage clearly prioritizes diversity and inclusion, featuring a Black player character in a game where only two out of seven romanceable companions are White.
Speaking of the gameplay footage, those who mocked the game for resembling Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League are spot on. Dragon Age: The Veilguard lacks significant RPG elements, instead resembling a generic action game.
For instance, throughout the gameplay, you’ll notice green “healing pots” scattered across the environment that players must break to heal, highlighting its simplistic and uninspired design.
Commenters on the gameplay reveal have criticized it for its extreme simplicity, with some players noting that enemy mobs exclusively target the player, ignoring companions entirely. The game’s visuals are unappealing, the music doesn’t match the fantasy theme at all, and healing is done by smashing ominous green-lit pots to collect extra health vials.
Needless to say, this will be BioWare’s most LGBTQ-inclusive game to date, with the director being a transgender woman. In a 2022 developer story published by BioWare, the self-proclaimed “queerosexual gendermancer” Corrine Busche stated that Dragon Age has always been queer by design.
Busche asserted that Dragon Age is inherently queer, providing a space where LGBT gamers can “see themselves” and be “represented respectfully.”
However, Dragon Age: The Veilguard represents a significant departure from the series’ roots, even more so than Inquisition. It presents itself as a generic action game with an unappealing art style that clashes with the dark fantasy tone of the franchise. Beyond its simplistic design, likely aimed at catering to “modern audiences,” the game boasts various classes and vivid LGBT romance options.
BioWare has teetered on the brink of collapse for nearly a decade now, with their recent titles like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda receiving poor ratings from players. Despite supposedly dedicating nine years to developing this game, the company has hemorrhaged employees and resources over time.
The substantial investment in Dragon Age: The Veilguard means that EA likely needs to sell millions of copies to break even, yet consumers remain largely uncaring toward their progressive agenda.
Consumers have the right to choose whether to purchase a product, especially when developers and journalists collaborate to brand abstaining gamers as racist bigots.
This sentiment holds especially true for games with a queer focus or unappealing DEI-centric character designs, given that the vast majority of the gaming audience comprises heterosexual males from all backgrounds. Continuously imposing inclusive rhetoric on every game alienates this demographic, making it difficult to compel them to purchase such titles.
The reveal trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, much like its reveal, has garnered dislikes, though not as harshly as before. In just ten hours, it has received only 57,000 likes versus 78,000 dislikes, solidifying the fact that the majority of consumers are not pleased with BioWare’s radical new direction for the series.
With Dragon Age: The Veilguard potentially being their final project, the company’s future hangs precariously on the commercial success of this game. If it fails to resonate with consumers, it will mark the end for BioWare as a whole.
Once celebrated for their exciting games, BioWare’s decade-long streak of producing progressive failures may finally come to an end. It’s time for consumers to relieve them of their misery, and perhaps it’s time for Corinne Busche to seek alternative employment somewhere outside of the gaming industry.
