14 DAY TRIAL // One of the main developers working on the Dragon Age series has defended the presence of same gender relationships in Dragon Age: Origins, saying that it adds an extra dimension to the game and that the feature will also appear in the sequel despite the complains of a minority of gamers who see the depiction of such relationships as being inappropriate.
Writing on the official Dragon Age 2 forum David Gaider, who is the lead writer for the entire series says, “So long as romances of any kind are optional and need to be actively pursued by the player in order to be experienced” they will be included.
He adds, “Advocating that nobody should be able to have content you don't intend to personally use is largely pointless - outside of a vague notion that such efforts should go towards other things, instead.”
Gaider also delivers a small theory on how content is created by the team he is a part of when destined only at a minority, saying that players should be happy to see a small portion of gamers enjoying one of the features of a Dragon Age game, because that means that different elements are specifically tailored to the needs of each group of gamers.
Dragon Age 2 will feature an already named character, Hawke, that has his race already set as human, which could limit his romantic choices in the game.
However, it's refreshing to see that BioWare, while recreating their role-playing experience from the ground up in some respects, is ready to keep delivering interesting romantic options.
Dragon Age 2 is set to be released on March 8 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and those who pre-order the game before January 11 of next year will get an upgrade to the Signature edition, meaning that they get extra in-game content including a new character.