You Can Thank Women For Dragon Age 3’s Lack Of Creepy Sex Plot

Kotaku - Hearing that women make a difference in game development is one thing, seeing what it means in practice is another. Recently, David Gaider—lead writer on the Dragon Age franchise—posted a blog about how having women on his writing team affected something in Dragon Age 3.

[Axonometri]

Thank you Women.
Keep your sex garbage plot lines out of my games... They will be much more enjoyable now.

[SilentNegotiator]

Thank you, prudes! Now we can enjoy the violence, sex free!

[TheTwelve]

Thank you women, then. There are all kinds of other ways for people to have fake-sex on the internet. I don't play games to get hit on by virtual males and females. --- 12

[Axonometri]

How do I get disagrees for having my own opinion on what I like or dislike? Our country is far too liberal.

[aliengmr]

You put your opinion out there for people to read and some disagreed with your opinion. Plus, you came off a bit challenging, which added fuel to the fire.

Which country are you referring to?

[PraxxtorCruel]

Not surprised. There was once this one other game I liked and when I heard they were making a sequel to it. This was years ago, 10+ . I was excited, when the game came out and I played it, I found they had replaced the last male project lead with a woman lead. The game had practically been rewritten, it had nothing that made the prequels great. Was a complete abomination.

[Alos88]

Is anyone else wishing they knew more about this cut content? It's hard to imagine how it would have divided people like this with what little information we have.

[Sketchy_Galore]

I just thanked one and they threw me out of the coffee shop. Maybe I shouldn't have been so loud and aggressively sarcastic.

[pech11ac]

"Sometimes it takes a woman...". Jesus, thats patronizing from someone who is trying to inspire feminism - or is she? It seems as if men should stop writing plots and let the pros (the women) take care of that.

She is missing the point in the examples she mentions and the cut from Dragon Age she is referring to, never gets explained; so what is it those female writers are on the fences about?

Back to her last remark; while men apparently don't see sexual plots where women see them, it seems as if women don't see patronizing comments where men see them. Sometimes it takes a man...

[League_of_Draven]

I don't think it matters. We all know Dragon Age 3 is going to suck because it's following in DA2's footsteps instead of DA:O's footsteps. The last good game they made was DA:O so it's going to be downhill from there. I'll just skip DA3.

[DraconicPanda]

its like you read my mind O_o

[cleft5]

Why would they ever think it was a good idea to talk about content that they cut out of their game before it is even released? Sometimes it's more important to just shut the hell up, rather than seek pointless praise.

With that said, I am glad that they got rid of a potential scene that could be seen as rape, but it is quite offensive to think that if the team was composed of men mainly this would have been missed. As a man, I can assure you that I know the difference between rape, implied rape, and just sex. I am glad they caught it, but lets not start acting like all men are stupid pigs that can't differentiate between what is or isn't rape.

[Ogygian]

Right, ok, fair point that from a different angle a scene may be viewed as rape, but why cut it on that basis?
We all know that rape is a traumatising act of violence, but surely as long as consequences are accurately portrayed then it can help to teach people exactly how wrong it is? Perhaps even try and focus on looking at how the female deals with it?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not justifying rape, but the question exists: Is our trying to delete it from mainstream media (games in this case) doing more harm than good? Surely rape portrayed in an educational way (which teaches players of the emotional trauma experienced by the woman) would benefit society?

I'm firmly opposed to glorification or sexual abuse against women or men, but I disagree with game developers dodging taboos like this to satisfy bigoted, ignorant reporters. People need to be taught that rape is an act of violence which causes lifelong pain for the victim, and what better medium than games - the most interactive of all.

[Heisenburger]

I'm admittedly a bit of a prude. I don't like sexual situations/sex in my movies, or my games. It makes me uncomfortable to watch it. If I personally wanted to watch sex I'd watch an adult film.

That's my putting what I'm about to say into context....

I don't try and force my feelings *on other people. I don't think there is anything wrong with liking it. Just because I'M not crazy about it doesn't mean that it should not be allowed.

Having that stuff in movies and games doesn't affect me if I avoid it. Even in Dragon Age/Mass Effect you can just ignore the options.

In movies i can simply look at the ratings to know if it has anything sexual.

This is how it should be: People like me don't have to do it/watch it. People who DO like it/want to watch it have the option to do so.

I suppose that this whole discussion could really be boiled down to one counter question: Is this woman a virgin?

[TheTwelve]

I don't mind it in games. But I also don't need it in games. Escapism, especially when it comes to sex/romance/love is actually dangerous. --- 12

[cleft5]

Was with you until the: Is this woman a virgin question. I don't think that really matters, because she might just be very conservative or something.

The main point is that while they wanted to make a very creepy scene, they didn't want it to be rape or anything close to it. That's why I think it was great that they caught this before it was taken the wrong way, but I the idea that they caught this because a woman pointed it out is just a bit silly. After all, there where other women their who said nothing at all.

They caught this because they fostered an environment where their employees didn't feel afraid to speak up or this person in particular was brave enough to voice her opinion. Boiling down her decision to speak up as being because she was a woman is in fact overlooking the reality of the situation and is actually creating a situation of discrimination. They are saying, she caught this because she was a woman, not that she caught this because she was brave enough to speak her mind and voice a concern that was clearly shared by all the other women who said nothing.

[Heisenburger]

Didn't ask you, buddy.

Lol just kidding! I completely agree with you.

[Psychotica]

Aren't people going to be killed in this game? Isn't that worse than rape?

[BuffMordecai]

Wasn't it a woman writer that gave the game its crappy sex plots?