Just Think Once Again the Fate of Thedas Is in the Hands of a Woman
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), video gaming's most prominent merchandise testify, has dimmed its lights and shuttered its doors until next June. 1 game that was conspicuously absent was the highly anticipated fourth installment of the Dragon Historic period franchise from EA-endemic BioWare. This isn't so surprising since a Kotaku article detailed the turmoil going on at BioWare that led to a truly abysmal reception for its latest game: their first try at an online loot-and-shoot adventure, Canticle.
Still, I must admit that I accept thought virtually Dragon Age every day since The Game Awards of December 2018. That's when BioWare dropped a 65-second teaser and launched a hashtag that had me hooting triumphantly in my living room, #TheDreadWolfRises. I fifty-fifty wrote an article nearly who from the past games should appear in the next.
I have met some of my all-time favorite characters and gone on my most beloved adventures while traversing the carefully crafted world of Thedas (The Dragon Age Due southetting). A big part of that is due to the broader themes of how theocracy, colonization, and war impact the marginalized and enrich the powerful.
Creating worlds
of adventure, conflict and companionship
that inspire you to become the hero of your story.
The statement above is only ane of the many messages on BioWare's website that highlight how much they value story and characters in their games. This attitude has served BioWare well. Its last unqualified success, single player RPG Dragon Age Inquisition, earned a whopping 130 Game of the Year Awards in 2015 and had professional person critics specifically praising its story.
Of grade, not everyone has been impressed. BioWare frequently gets criticized by what I like to refer to equally the "dude bro regular army" for daring to include PoVs that aren't in lock step with the ascendant culture. Read: "Y'all have also many queers, coloreds, and not-hot ladies in your games!" Dorsum in 2011, the atomic number 82 writer for the Dragon Age serial at the time, David Gaider, wrote a response to i such gamer on their now-defunct message lath that was then well crafted it garnered press. Gaider, an out gay man himself, challenged the notion that video games should cater to the fabled "straight male person gamer" that all such close-minded dude bros evoke when complaining nigh diversity. Every bit a bi Black adult female gamer, this endears BioWare to me even more than.
All is non perfect, however. In addition to sexual practice and sexuality, racial oppression and hegemony are two frequently explored themes in Dragon Historic period games. There is an allegorical connection between the systemic and situational anti-elf sentiment found throughout Thedas and the anti-Black sentiment that runs rampant in our own earth. The problem is that many of these experiences are written and crafted by folks who have never been on the receiving finish of this kind of oppression. Although talent and empathy acquit the stories surprisingly far, the devil is in the details.
In fact, the usual formula of giving players the freedom to choose how they want to human action allows for just every bit much conquest, haughty disinterest in ethical decision making, and fifty-fifty slave profiteering equally opportunities to fight those evils. (I try non to recall of how many players across the globe regularly sell elves to slavers for a few in-game bucks while I'm murdering every slaver that the game will allow.)
This is why when another Kotaku article reported that a Dragon Historic period project set up in Tevinter—the slave trade majuscule of Thedas—was scrapped, I didn't share in the disappointment that bubbled throughout fandom. Quite frankly, I was relieved. I unfortunately don't see BioWare being able to craft a story taking place in Tevinter in a fashion that won't be chock full of obliviousness, microaggressions, and directly up triggers for Black players.
How can I recollect this way near one of my favorite game franchises of all time, you lot ask? Well, in Inquisition, information technology was non only possible, merely extremely easy for someone playing as an elf to brand a mistake and wipe out their entire clan while assigning missions on the state of war table. Because this procedure takes place over multiple in-game decisions and hours of gameplay, there was no mode to become back and fix information technology. What'due south more than, no one even acknowledges that it happened in the game.
To be fair, the developers admitted that this was a problem, only saw it more than every bit a blueprint faux pas akin to other similar war table missions that went amiss. To me, it resounded specially loud to run across an oppressed people who were frequently gear up upon by aggressive humans get extinguished like a flame all due to my actions. What's more is that this is my Inquisitor'south family and the only gild she'd known until the beginning of the game. To say it jettisoned me out of the heroic role play fantasy for a while would be an understatement.
Later in the "Jaws of Hakkon" mission, when it is revealed the first Inquisitor was also an elf just the altar (church) scrubbed all records of this from history, the game similarly ignores the profound implications this would have for an elven Inquisitor. I have spent my whole adult life trying to sankofa (get back and fetch) all the history of my people that has been deliberately obscured or warped by a western school system. This continued to my life in a way that was never fifty-fifty partially explored in the game.
Other ways a few high ranking Black developers could have helped BioWare is with Dorian. Sure, he'south one of their most dynamic, fun, and charismatic characters in Inquisition. But he's also an unrepentant slave owner who, even late in the game, vacillates between vacuously apologizing to Solas for Tevinter's fabulous domination of Elvhenan and encouraging the annoyed elf to enslave spirits to do his bidding.
And so at that place's Vivienne, the one graphic symbol designed as a Blackness woman. Look, I'm not suggesting that tough as nails, power enthusiast Vivienne should've dropped her unfriendly Blackness hottie condition and held easily with everyone. But how much more nuanced and mindful would Vivienne's characterization have been in the hands of a Black adult female who has spent her bookish and professional person career modulating her voice and carefully curating her demeanor to avoid the red letter of being dubbed "angry" or "difficult"? What made "The Fe Lady" into the cold, calculated defender of the condition quo? The horrors and indignities she must have faced in the Ostwick Mage Circle that led her to create her impregnable persona are never even hinted at.
Furthermore, Vivienne is immediately and permanently pit against the well-nigh lovable grapheme in the game, Cole. No i in the game seems to empathize her position. She is a Circumvolve mage that was taught to mistrust and fear demons earlier she was able to read. Of course she's scared to death of Cole! Instead, the game just casts her every bit an irrational bigot and a danger to 'innocent' Cole, a existence that even admits he is potentially quite dangerous.
And that's not to mention Sera's internalized elven racism and self-hatred that could accept used more nuanced handling from someone of a community that deals with such things.
I just…Hire some Black writers and developers, BioWare.
That way when yous explore these themes common to our feel there volition be a level of actuality Black players tin appreciate and identify with immediately while not-Black players get to savor a narrative shaped past people with a deeper connection to the bailiwick matter. Having multiple queer writers helped the sexuality content immensely; it'southward time to do the same for the racial commentary.
Patrick Weekes, the current pb author for the Dragon Age series is an immense talent. He wrote my favorite character in the entire franchise, The Iron Bull, and two others in my top ten, Cole and Solas. I accept no incertitude that he and his team volition create an incredible yarn, only if BioWare wants to level up and repossess their former glory after their last few games have struggled, leaving their brand a bit tarnished, they are going to have to evolve and invest in more than diverse, authentic voices.
Crystal is a freelance writer with credits in The Verge, Looper, Blavity, and more. She loves fantasy and sci-fi television, single-role player RPGs, and naps. Check out her website: wordyblerd.com .
Source: https://blackgirlscreate.org/2019/06/slavery-in-thedas-how-bioware-could-bring-nuance-to-dragon-age/
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