Dragon Age: Inquisition lead writer David Gaider won’t hide the game’s homosexual options behind some sort of sexuality toggle. On his personal Tumblr, Gaider answered a fan question concerning a checkbox that would hide all homosexual dialogue present in the game, giving those uncomfortable with these sequences a choice to opt out.
The writer isn’t too keen on the idea.
“There are a few issues with that, from a development perspective. The first is our need to treat every version of the game, whether that feature has been turned on or off, as a legitimate way to play and thus one we must test,” he wrote. “The more fundamental a mechanic that is affected, the more things it can touch (even inadvertently) and thus the more testing it must receive. We need to be concerned not only about whether that variant works, but also how it affects the play experience.
“Beyond that, when it comes to content options like the so-called ‘gay toggle’ …my question would be ‘why?’ We don’t allow the player to de-select other sorts of content. A ‘violence’ toggle? A ‘mention of slavery’ toggle? A ‘sexual situations’ toggle? Why would we have a ‘gay’ toggle? Even if that was just to set the player’s personal preference, and we didn’t think that was incredibly on-the-nose to put up front, would de-selecting the ‘gay’ toggle mean a player should expect to encounter no gay characters? Ever? You don’t think there are those who would interpret it as exactly that?”
The BioWare team is still unsure if there will be romance options in Dragon Age: Inquisition, but if there are, they won’t be taking this fan’s suggestion.