Key things
- Dragon Age series creator David Gaider dismissed the notion that The Veilguard would resurrect the series.
- Gaider referred to people promoting this criticism as “tourists”, implying that the Dragon Age franchise has always been “woke”.
Criticism Dragon Age: The Veilguard becoming “woke” is uninformed, suggested series creator David Gaider, calling those promoting it “tourists”. His rebuttal is just the latest development in the culture wars that recently included the upcoming Dragon Age game.
Several popular online message boards, including VeilguardThe Steam discussion forum has recently been flooded with criticism regarding the fourth entry in the long-running franchise being “Awakened”. Some of the posters who contributed to this wave of complaints seem to have had a problem Dragon Age: The Veilguardhis companions are canonically pansexual and claim that this attempt to offer different options for romance robs them of their personhood. Others seem angered by the game's diverse cast of characters for various reasons.
Dragon Age Creator Says Series Has Always Been “Woke”
Dragon Age series creator David Gaider recently decided to respond to some of these complaints by noting how “the usual suspects are upset about how 'woke' the new Dragon Age is, an apparently sudden and unexpected development in the series.” Following up on this train of thought, the veteran in this industry people who spread this sentiment “f*****g tourists” in a recent post by Bluesky. The label was intended to indicate that these critics were falsely presenting themselves as Dragon Age fans who would have known that the series could have been categorized as “Awakened” since its very first entry that hit the market way back in 2009.
In a follow-up interaction with another user, Bluesky Gaider clarified that he has no issues with people liking or disliking whatever they saw from the upcoming Dragon Age game so far. His remark was instead only intended to counter that notion Veilguard introduces a new level of “wokeness” to the franchise.
The usual suspects are apparently upset about how “awakened” the new Dragon Age is, apparently a sudden and unexpected development in the series. Damn tourists.
While Dragon Age the series has always been fairly inclusive, starting before the word “woke” was even part of the widespread English language, and long before it was adopted as a sarcastic pejorative for anything perceived as progressive. This might help explain why the first three main installments weren't as polarizing, since they debuted at a time when large-scale online culture wars of this sort just weren't a thing.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to hit the market on October 31st, when it will launch on both PC and the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Although Gaider has been quite vocal recently about his views on the game and the wider perception surrounding it, he has not been involved in Veilguard's development when he left BioWare in 2016.
