LGBT characters are tricky territory–the audience may not be receptive, and those writing the characters may not have the neccesary understanding to write a character that is nuanced, isn't just tokenism, and isn't a stereotype. It's rare to find a character that manages to hit all those notes, but Bioware is one of the few studios that has managed to pull it off. Not only do they give you the option for same-sex romances, they've also written some of the best LGBT in games right now. And they're one of the only studios brave enough to pursue this, in spite of the criticisms we may have of their depictions.
In an interview with The Border House, Bioware writer Ann Lemay spoke about this, and why Bioware pursues it.
Has the greater inclusion of LGBT characters in BioWare stories been an intentional trend by the teams or is it a byproduct of creating larger worlds?
I want to say it’s a result of both. There is (growing) intentionality in BioWare development, particularly when you look at the history of characters developed across our games. (Specifically, see the interview that Patrick Weekes and Dusty Everman did on writing same-gender relationships in ME3, if you haven’t read it yet.) Creating larger worlds also means that you end up drawing inspiration from (we hope – we try) the same equivalent in life. That means looking at real people and situations, which results in LGBT characters whom we try to portray to the best of our abilities. Why would we ignore part of the real world while creating our own? David Gaider’s response to the “straight male gamer” is an example of this approach.
We don’t always get it right. But if we don’t try and we don’t work at being aware of what we do and then work to fix mistakes, then we can’t improve on anything.
One day, hopefully, we won't even have to note that an LGBT character has been included. Bioware will have helped with the groundwork for that day.
