Intent is Everything

wantthepharaohs:

commanderbishoujo:

generichenle:

serahspectre:

commanderbishoujo:

you know why I’m so livid

because EA is singlehandedly responsible for fucking up all three of those franchises they are trying to brag about by expecting developers to churn out AAA product in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee

because for years queer Bioware fans and allies have fought tooth and nail, ranted and wrote letters and forum posts, suffered the hate and trolling by the straight dudebro fans, to get even the problematic kind of inclusion that we do have in these games

because people who aren’t fans don’t even know Commander Shepard—of either gender—can be gay or bisexual

because every single instance of Pair the Spares results in a hetero pairing

because the asari are still Discount Lesbians

because queer female Shepard seems to only exist for the titillation of straight male dudebro players and not actual queer female players

because the only way to have same-gender romances with the majority of the Normandy’s crew is to use a fan hack program

because Jack was bisexual and in a poly triad in her backstory only to show how wild and crazy she was

because Nyreen Kandros was killed off

and these motherfuckers want to take credit for the good shit?? let them take credit for all of that shit too

I think you really overestimate how much of a say EA has in the writing department… 

I think you really need to have a seat and understand the context of a post before you add your two cents to a discussion.

The context of the post is a press event in which EA is touting LGBT inclusivity in its franchises, specifically bragging about The Sims, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect, and lauding themselves as great allies and champions of diversity because of these franchises. The entire point of the post (and the like, four or five posts before that in this discussion) is that if EA wants to unfairly take credit for the work of the developers they buy out, then they should rightly take all of the criticism those developers received as well. The point is that EA is trying to have its cake and eat it too.

So next time be quiet when grown folks are talking if you come into a discussion and don’t understand the context in which it is happening.

#buying a property does not mean you inherit only the parts that make you look good #EA had a hundred chances in a hundred ways to make this right #NOPE #equality and inclusion regularly take a back seat when it’s dudebros paying attention #and then get trotted out for the ‘correct’ audience when the timing suits EA #nope #nu-uh

impressioniste:

imagineyuorotp:

Imagine person A of your OTP unironically using bad pickup lines on person B.

They work.

The primary principle on which every Dragon Age romance operates.

For this, see A Little White Lie.

On Narrative Design (Part 9 - Writing, BioWare Style)

dgaider:

(Part 8 available here.)

I’ll warn you right now, this post is probably only interesting to someone actually curious about the nuts-and-bolts of dialogue-writing. I’m not sure how much of it applies to other sorts of writing… some, perhaps, but a lot of what we do for games is specific to games. This has become self-evident over many years of hiring: namely that it’s not enough to possess skill with prose. You can write a good sentence, but unless you know what to do with it, it’s not going to work in a game.

Read More

isaviel:

forever falling for the non-romanceable side characters 

Bioware has spoiled me

janiejanine:

lifeofkj:

ilikelookingatnakedmen:

iapetusneume:

confuzzeldmind:

I find that I am hard pressed to play games where I can’t choose to be a female protagonist. Even for FPS or whatever, here be this 26-40 yr old white male over and over and over and over again.

“But the character is male.”

“You can’t expect them to change a whole story just so you can have boobs.”

You know, half the time when I get a chance to pick my character’s gender I do pick male.

But.

But.

At that point it’s a choice.  And it remains a choice for anyone and everyone who plays the game.

And with all my Dragon Age and Mass Effect games?  The very first time I played them was with a female PC.  Because I could.

Bioware hasn’t spoiled you. They’ve included you. Other publishers need to catch up.

Emphasis mine. Because hell yes.

Reblogging for bolded.

Yes. I really don’t play any games that don’t let me play a female. I have zero interest in playing a male character.

spicyshimmy:

to everyone who is still as butts deep as ever into bioware fandoms and posts and reblogs and likes and shares the excitement every day and shows no sign of stopping any time soon:

maker bless you for making me feel so much less alone.

punmonster:

i always seem to follow all the nice people/ nice parts of the fandom

the bad parts of the fandom seem like some far off land that i only hear about through folklore and the tales of swarthy fishermen

my post mass effect 3 plan: illustrated

firaxa:

1. be highly cautious toward any glimmer of hope that the ~clarification DLC will be quality
2. assume and elaborate on head canon
3. play the DLC
4. if it is good, be satisfied but still emotionally scarred
5. it it still fails, revert to head canon status and fangirl mass effect as usual