Good news: the next Dragon Age will introduce Dorian, its first gay character in the series’ next installment. The bad news: Dorian, the Dragon Age: Inquisition character written by series veteran David Gaider, will be a mage.
I kid, mages are mostly alright, I guess.
But the introduction of Dorian is legitimately a progressive move for the studio, which has admirably worked to be inclusive in their games. Both Mass Effect and Dragon Age have typically offered same-sex relationships with bisexual characters.
Gaider explains why thematically he was interested in introducing Dorian:
“Dorian is gay—he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I’ve had the opportunity to write. It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where ‘perfection’ is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden. Dorian’s refusal to play along with that façade is seen as stubborn and pointless by his family, which has contributed to his status as a pariah.”
Gaider says he’s aware that Dorian’s sexual orientation might be “controversial” in some corners (there’s literally no prize for being the first to complain about the game or the game industry having an agenda), but the writer says that Dorian’s story is one that’s very important to him.
Our crew had a good look at Dragon Age: Inquisition during E3. The October 7 release will be out on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
[Source: Dragon Age via Joystiq]
what’s new, bioware?
This is the wrong way to go about this. This is a plublicity stunt.
Being gay should be one of many features of a character, not thier big selling point.
Want a good gay character? Look at Arcade Ganon in Fallout New Vegas. He’s gay. Is it his defining feature? Nope. Is it just one of the many aspects of his personality to make him a unique character? Yep. Did Obsidian make a big deal about him being gay? Negative.
Unfortunately it is like strong female characters. In an ideal world we wouldn’t need to point them out, to put them out there through public media and push them for all they are worth. However the sheer lack of them in general means that it is necessary to do so, at least for now.
I can’t wait for the day when the sexual or gender identity of a character is just a tiny barely noticed aspect, but we just aren’t there yet.
Till then? Publicity stunts actually help.
I agree. Well said.
Actually, I wouldn’t worry about the “selling point” behind this character when there is a lot more to the character gameplay-wise that there is to worry about. Bioware did a nice job writing characters in ME3 that were gay (just nonplayable) that were gay but you didn’t really tell much until it was announced by other characters or the characters themselves. So personally, I’m not worrying about all the fuss over a first fully gay party character, because with the way the world is its still something thats rather uncommon and something that Bioware hasn’t been able to really do in the past without having to worry about extensive public backlash.
And of course, he looks like Freddie Mercury
I was going to comment on that myself, hope he sings Bohemian Rhapsody