Why "Dragon Age: Inquisition" Might Be The Best Game Ever For LGBT Gamers
Dragon Age: Inquisition, the latest installment in the crazy popular video-game series, is being honored by GLAAD for including a variety of LGBT characters.
Electronic Arts and Bioware, which released the game in November, are receiving special recognition for Inquisition "for the many complex and unique LGBT characters prominently integrated throughout the game."
Related: 9 Great Games For Gay Gamers
Players can choose their own sexual orientation, with straight, bisexual, and gay relationships each telling different stories. And if your character is male, you can even romance Dorian, a witty charmer with magical abilities, a righteous sense of honor, and some torrid same-sex passions.
Inquisition also includes a trans-male character, Krem, who demands respect and gets it. “He’s not a woman,” declares one ally. “Krem’s a good man.”
"I wrote Krem as best I could, and the editing team looked at every line and cleaned up dialogue and paraphrases that could give the wrong impression," explains Dragon Age scripter Patrick Weekes. "I then passed him to two friends in the [genderqueer] community… who showed me where I was absolutely messing things up and gave me constructive feedback on how to improve. "
Weekes says he wanted Krem "be a positive character who was living his life happily now."
Dragon Age celebrated the honor from GLAAD on twitter:
— Dragon Age (@dragonage) January 21, 2015
Why is it such a big deal? Video games offer increasingly complex worlds where players can create new identities and interact with communities of other players. Seeing yourself—or meeting someone different from you—is a very big deal, indeed.
"I think Bioware does a lot for the gay community in terms of representing us in their games in very significant ways.," says gay gamer Jake Weatherman. "Inquisition turned out to be a huge game for them, and to finally wholly represent the LGBT acronym by introducing a prominent—yet non-playable—transgendered character is an incredible thing to put in front of the masses—and it's worthy of GLAAD's attention."
Here's hoping we see even more complex LGBT representation in the world of video games. Below, check out some Dragon Age: Inquisition gameplay to see how BioWare handles gender issues in a most awesomest way.
