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[Brodoteau]

 Thedas is supposed to be pretty stratified in the way the society is organized.  Elves are supposed to viewed as sub-human.  And yet, our companions have been a pretty enlightened bunch.  Despite Sten making a few comments, and Sebastien trying to move people to the Maker, there haven't really been a lot of intolerant companions in the DA universe.  

Not that this is a bad thing.  But would you like to have a companion that has "normal" Thedosian views of elves? 

I know that in ME, people were upset with Ashley's attitudes towards the aliens, but that helped to flesh out the character.  There are still people that are upset over Keldorn killing Viconia in BG2.  But that helped to flesh out the setting and the character. 

So what say you, more "Ashleys" in DA3?  

[Allan Schumacher]

Medhia Nox wrote...

Because genuine mature themes aren't actually welcome in video games - so they sit on the fringe where irrelevant NPCs partake in uncomfortable actions.

Blood and underwear sex are as "mature" as the gaming crowd is usually willing to get.

Having a racist party member can just as easily come across less like a "genuine mature theme" and more along the lines of "look we're trying to be edgy and dark."

I disagree with the notion that having a racist party member would make for a genuine mature theme, and certainly disagree with the notion that to have genuine mature themes you need a racist party member (or even racism in general).


Take a movie like Showgirls, and a movie like The Shawshank Redemption.  I don't consider Showgirls to be the more mature movie.

Maturity has more to do with the way topics (any topic) is treated and approached in a game, rather than the specifics of the what the topic itself is.

[Allan Schumacher]

I don't think including racism as a major setting element - which it is - and then shuffling it off to minor characters and the real outright one dimensional villains (Howe, Vaughan) is a particularly mature way of approaching the topic of racism.

Fine. More to the point of my post that you quoted I'm not sure how your response relates to it. At best I see you as implicitly agreeing that the maturity has more to do with the way the topic is presented (and that we failed)....

[Allan Schumacher]

My point was that simply including a racist companion character does not make for genuine mature themes, and rather that genuine mature themes have more to do with how a particular topic is approached and presented, rather than the specifics of the content.

So it was something of a refutation (I disagree that not having a racist companion character undermines any of the maturity in the DA games. If our games are not sufficiently mature, it's for other reasons), with a counterpoint.

[Allan Schumacher]

Wulfram wrote...

Well, I was saying that having a racist character in a role such as companion would in fact make the game more mature, at least in it's handling of this particular theme.

Even if this character just runs around just screaming knife ears at all elves and in general being a belligerent twit.  As such, I'd argue such a character has taken away from the maturity of the game despite satisfying your criteria.