Home Gaming Dragon Age: Inquisition wins GLAAD award

Dragon Age: Inquisition wins GLAAD award

1 min read
18

DAI sera

With all the talk about representation of various people in games, it’s nice to see that a game that does it well is getting recognized for it. There are many reasons to love Dragon Age, and if sexual orientations or identities don’t matter to you, you probably won’t care about this. But for those people for whom it’s a big deal, Dragon Age: Inquisition made a big difference.

GLAAD, America’s LGBTQ media advocacy organization, bestowed a special award on Dragon Age: Inquisition.

GLAAD also announced that Electronic Arts and BioWare’s videogame Dragon Age: Inquisition received a Special Recognition award for the many complex and unique LGBT characters prominently integrated throughout the game. GLAAD’s Special Recognition awards are typically given to outstanding media projects for which there is not a competitive category.

Dragon Age: Inquisition has a range of characters with sexualities not normally displayed in games. Beyond their usual bisexual characters, Bioware including two homosexual characters (Dorian and Sera) as well as the first transgendered character in a game to be so well rounded and prominent. There is even a loving and consensual BDSM relationship depending on who you choose to romance.

I already showed you why I thought the transgender thing was cool. It’s just nice to see representation for people of all backgrounds in such an epic and critically-acclaimed game. For those for whom these representations mean nothing, they probably won’t notice them in the game. But for those who feel marginalized by society, having a character with whom they can identify in a game can mean the world.

This is where I think developers can learn more by making more nuanced characters. It’s not about forcing representation of all types of people into every game – it’s about creating interesting characters who will do cool things when they interact with each other. Well done Bioware!

Last Updated: January 23, 2015

18 Comments

  1. konfab aka derp

    January 23, 2015 at 13:44

    As long as they can make an interesting character, I don’t care what holes they are interested in..

    Reply

  2. Galbedir

    January 23, 2015 at 13:45

    I for one am GLAAD it received this award!!!…(Sorry I had to)

    Reply

    • konfab aka derp

      January 23, 2015 at 13:46

      They should really make an LGBTQ operating system.
      Then they can call it GLAADoS

      Reply

    • Raptor Rants A Lot

      January 23, 2015 at 13:51

      Darnit. Beat me to it 🙁

      Reply

  3. RinceThis

    January 23, 2015 at 14:16

    #GG Never forget.

    Reply

  4. RinceThis

    January 23, 2015 at 14:23

    Awesome to see this. Every little bit counts.

    Reply

  5. Brady miaau

    January 23, 2015 at 14:29

    I hate it when games or movies put characters in just to be different. That is why I liked the transgender person in this game so much. There was a well roundedness, a feeling of belonging to the story. That was very, very well done.

    Sera and Dorian, fine, fine. But Mass Effect already had that, did they not? And it sort of feels a little forced sometimes (I love the Dorian character, but he is not Josephine, so he will lose every time)

    Also, I cannot stand Sera, after playing all her missions and listening to her whiny bit.

    Reply

  6. Hammersteyn

    January 23, 2015 at 14:29

    I’m SAAD that I haven’t played it yet. Stupid EA

    Reply

    • Brady miaau

      January 23, 2015 at 14:36

      How so? How EA’s fault?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 23, 2015 at 14:53

        I don’t want to give EA my money. So I waiting for a second hand copy to arrive at BT Games. Childish yes and it means Bioware doesn’t get my cash either. But I hate EA just too damn much

        Reply

        • Brady miaau

          January 23, 2015 at 15:11

          I gave my money to Xbox Live. What they did with it afterwards I know not.

          Why not buy it on PSN? Then Sony gets paid. Right? Right?

          Look, only buy it when your Destiny play is done, because it is truly a time SUCK

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 23, 2015 at 15:16

            lol yeah it does SUCK time. Big time

          • Brady miaau

            January 23, 2015 at 15:29

            I mean DA:I is a big time suck, it is very long.

            But yeah. I get your point.

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      January 26, 2015 at 14:14

      I managed to get a second hand copy from the BT Games in Tableview. EA will never get my cash! Muahahahahahhaha

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 26, 2015 at 14:18

        XD XD XD

        Reply

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    Reply

  8. BillBo

    January 25, 2015 at 09:39

    I was a bit disappointed in my romance choices and I think the “inclusion” had something to do with it. Don’t really care about the gay characters being gay or bi (or people IRL for that matter), would have been nice for Sera to be bi though… My only choices for romance were Josephine, Casandra, Vivienne and that dwarf lady. I don’t like butch women so Cassandra and the dwarf lady were out (not really attracted to little people either), Vivienne was kind of butch herself in how she acted and had the male haircut too so I wasn’t really into her either. Josephine was the only real “lady” that was straight/romanceable (I imported my story from DA2 and Lelianna was with the Warden, so she did not have an option for romance).

    Transgender, gay/bi/lesbian, butch women, a couple feminine women… they hit all the marks (except I guess a transgender man to woman?) I guess but it’d be nice if they’d have catered to their audience a little bit more. youngish males probably made up 95% of their audience so a little more choices to suit the audience would have been nice.

    Anyone else spot the transgender Bull’s Charger before “he” announced it to you at the tavern? I noticed it almost immediately. Saw Dorian coming from a mile away too 😀 Iron Bull as an option seemed really stupid and forced, though and his numerous spiels about equality too. I mean, come on, these are the most macho race out there and have slaves and commit genocides and are massively racist and have phobia’s of all non-Qun religions and they hate mages and etc….. but they’re the most sexually open people on Thedas? Gimmie a break on that one, really seemed like a public service announcement on some of his speeches haha.

    Reply

    • konfab aka derp

      January 25, 2015 at 10:14

      I picked it up quickly as well. Kudos to Jennifer Hale’s voice acting.

      Reply

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