Games journo when Veilguard director decries haters as tourists

Former 'Dragon Age' Lead Writer David Gaider Bashes Critics Accusing 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Of Being Woke: "F***ing Tourists"

John F. Trent

8 - 10 minutes

Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider bashed critics accusing Dragon Age: The Veilguard of being woke describing them as "f***ing tourists."

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

In a post to Blue Sky, Gaider wrote, "Apparently the usual suspects are upset at how 'woke' the new Dragon Age is, an apparently sudden and unexpected development in the series."

He added, "F***ing tourists."

David Gaider on Blue Sky

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Gaider also responded to one individual asserting that the individuals decrying Dragon Age: The Veilguard as woke are people who gave up on BioWare over a decade ago.

Gaider said, "If they gave up on BioWare a decade ago (or more, for those of whom DAO was "the last good game") then they were never going to buy the game anyhow. At which point: why should Bio listen to them? "Abandon your fanbase and woo us instead!" …okay, sure Jan."

David Gaider on Blue Sky

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been properly criticized as woke given the game's character creator features the option to toggle top surgery scars with the implication that players can create mentally ill characters that have self-mutilated themselves believing they can change their gender.

Given the inclusion of this option it's likely it was done to normalize this destructive behavior in real life.

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

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Not only does it include this, but Game Director Corinne Busche, a man pretending to be a woman, who also describes himself as a "queerosexual gendermancer" has claimed the entire series is "inherently queer."

Busche said in a developer story on BioWare's website, "As a queer trans woman, I have a perspective on the games that not everyone has. Dragon Age has long been a place where LGBTQIA+ folks can see people like themselves, represented respectfully. It's inherently very queer, and it's such a rare thing for marginalized communities to have representation where we feel proud and powerful in how we are depicted."

He added, "It's so deeply meaningful for so many. I often get emotional when I think about what it would have meant for a younger version of myself to see someone like her in a game, and as a hero, no less. I hope we can be a safe place for our queer players to know they are not alone, that they are brilliant and worthy, that they are not only welcome but celebrated."

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Game Director's X bio

Busche also made it clear he is indeed guiding The Veilguard to adhere to this vision, "Game directors are sometimes thought of as big personalities who are singularly responsible for the purity of their creative vision."

"But for me, it's really about being a steward for the vision that we, as a team, have collectively defined. I get a high-level view of everything as it's coming together and can steer the project as it does, but ultimately it's about empowering people to work together, play with ideas, offer critiques, and make decisions, all to help create a cohesive experience for the player," he said.

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

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Furthermore, IGN's Alex Stedman detailed that all of the game's companion characters are pansexual. He wrote, "Busche insists that they're all specifically pansexual, and that might come through in what you learn about their backstories."

Busche explained, "Their past experiences or partners, they'll reference them and indeed who they'll become romantic with."

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

He continued, "For instance, we saw Harding. I might be playing a straight male character flirting with her, but I choose not to pursue a romance. She might get together with Taash. So my perception, my identity has no bearing on their identities and that comes through really strongly."

He went on to detail, "It's not until the later parts of the game where you really commit to romance and it gets pretty spicy."

This was also confirmed by the game's Creative Director John Epler who told G*merant, "There's a difference between playersexual and pansexual. All companions are canonically pansexual."

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

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All of these things are indeed "woke." Father Chris Alar MIC explained the history of the term back in a YouTube video in March.

He began, "Today, woke is a slang term for activism especially progressive activism. The word woke was first printed in a 1962 New York Times essay and traditionally was said to mean being conscious and aware or awoke if you will. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that the term originally meant well informed or up to date, but now it chiefly means alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice."

"So today it's intertwined with such things as cancel culture, critical race theory, gender redefinition, and DEI or diversity equity and inclusion to just name a few," he elaborates. "And it's everywhere: schools, companies, and all the way to the highest levels of the government."

He later shared that woke philosophy "holds to an antagonistic social theory, as we said, which deconstructs language, which denies moral norms, and which sees reality only as an incessant struggle between oppressor and oppressed."

Father Alar went on to cite Pope Francis as to why this ideology and its various tentactles should be opposed, "Even Pope Francis expressed his deep concern over cancel culture the practice of silencing individuals, institutions, and even entire cultures that are determined by a select few to hold incorrect values or views. He said, 'Under the guise of defending diversity, it risks silencing balanced and respectful positions. A kind of dangerous one-track thinking is taking shape, one that denies history, or worse rewrites it in terms of present day categories whereas any historical situation must be interpreted in the light of that particular time and not that of today.' Slavery would be a good example."

Next, he mentioned Archbishop José Gómez, "Then LA Archbishop José Gómez also spoke against this when he said, 'Today's critical theories and ideologies are atheistic.' An integral part of the agenda is diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates end up discriminating against members of groups that have not been determined to be oppressed or under represented. Gomez said that secular movements promoting social justice and wokeness are pseudo religions that should be understood as replacements to traditional Christian beliefs. He said today's critical theories deny the soul the spiritual dimension of the human person and think that it is irrelevant to human happiness. They reduce what it means to be human to essentially just physical qualities: the color of our skin, our s*x, our notions of gender, our ethnic background. As Martin Luther King Jr said these are the very characteristics that we should not be judged by."

A screenshot from Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024), BioWare

READ: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard' Lead Writer Confirms Protagonists Will Not Be Able To Use Blood Magic: "It's Not The Road We Want The Hero To Walk Right Now"

Clearly, The Veilguard is woke, but according to Gaider, it seems to have always been woke, but there was not transgender propaganda, pansexual companions, and claims that the franchise was "inherently queer" in 2009 as far as I can recall.

The terms pansexual and transgender were hardly even in the English lexicon until around the early 2000s according to Google Books' Ngram Viewer. But this is not a surprise because woke ideology is all about there being nothing but woke ideology and it fully embraces ever more progression into degeneracy.

A screenshot of Google Books Ngram Viewer for the terms "transgender" and "pansexual"

What do you make of Gaidar's comments?

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