Responding to concerns raised by gamers and user reviews over the inclusion of a line intended as a jab against #GamerGate supporters in Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Beamdog CEO Trent Oster released an open letter stating the studio’s plans to remove the line in the game’s next update. We covered these concerns in an in-depth piece.
Oster stated that the studio had received a lot of feedback centering around Mizhena, a supporting character who revealed she was transgender. He promised that the studio would improve the writing and presentation of the character and offer her more development, presumably so she doesn’t seem like a token character.
He wrote, “We’ve received feedback around Mizhena, a supporting character who reveals she is transgender. In retrospect, it would have been better served if we had introduced a transgender character with more development. This is a lesson we will be carrying forward in our development as creators and we will be improving this character in a future update.”
Oster also addressed some of the criticism individual developers at his studio had received.
“While we appreciate all feedback we receive from our fans, both positive as well as negative, some of the negative feedback has focused not on Siege of Dragonspear but on individual developers at Beamdog — to the point of online threats and harassment,” wrote Oster. “I just want to make it crystal clear that Beamdog does not condone this behavior, and moreover that it will not have the desired effect as we stand behind all our developers 100%. We created the game as a group, and moving forward we’ll work on the game’s issues as a group, which I believe is exactly as it should be.”
The developer stated that the company will address the game’s multiplayer issues, which were reported on by many players who purchased the expansion pack. However, he did not address broken mod support.
As for Minsc’s line, Oster wrote: “Looking back on the line, we agree with the feedback from our community, it has nothing to do with his character and we will be removing the line.”
