5 réponses à ce sujet

[ThatHippoGuy]

 

Hi there! I'm a long-time BioWare fan. KotOR was the first RPG I ever played, and even today I still go back and play from time to time. I've been enjoying Dragon Age since release, and I was looking forward to trying Inquisition when it came out, but what appears to be some pretty disturbing comments by one of your employees has me concerned both in regards to the game, and as a matter of general principle. I stumbled across this image the other day and, since you've always seemed to me a company that thrives on healthy communication with its fanbase, I thought I'd come straight here to ask about it.

 

The obvious question: is this a real thing that Mr. Gaider said? I'm shocked and a little baffled by this comment, so my immediate reaction was to assume this couldn't be real. These comments seem ignorant of the fact that whether aimed toward a fantastical species or not, many living human beings in the real world, my little sister included, are born and live with dwarfism. To state that she can only pursue other little people in a relationship, or else be viewed as disgusting by someone, and to further imply that anyone who is attracted to her is a pedophile alarms and angers me, to say the least.

 

I'm not unreasonable, and I'm hoping there's a context here that I am sorely lacking, or else that at some point in the past Mr. Gaider has offered some kind of explanation or apology for these comments. Until now, I guess I had simply assumed that Mr. Gaider, being gay himself, would understand what it's like to live in a society where you're called a freak and a deviant for wanting to be loved. I hope I wasn't mistaken in assuming such.

[David Gaider]

I think he was talking about the dwarves. In the game.

 

That is so. Fantasy dwarves are not real-life dwarfs.

 

Also? I was joking, as I believe I even mentioned in that thread. Those comments were after people took something I'd said earlier out of context to mean "David Gaider thinks dwarf sex is gross" ...when what I'd said was that we'd reviewed the sex scenes in DAO with a "worst case scenario", and the Alistair scene was done with a dwarf made to look like a young girl (with pigtails and such) and that had left me a little traumatized. I clarified that as well, but nobody paid any attention to that clarification either, so I've pretty much given up on trying to assure people that I don't hate dwarf romances.

 

So, yup. Dwarves are gross. Eww. Feel free to quote that out of context and spread it around.

[David Gaider]

Regardless of whether it was out of context or not; you shouldn't be saying things like that; at all. As a little person I abhor the use of the word "dwarf" and you shouldn't be using phrases that can be taken out of context like that. Why not just say that you don't like writing Dwarf romances or that you'd prefer not to include female dwarf romances in the game? Why feel the need to type out "Dwarves are gross. Eww."

 

Do you have some prejudice against little people?

 

Sorry, but I'm not going to go any further down this particular rabbit hole. DA dwarves are not "little people", period.

[David Gaider]

Thank you very much for the speedy response. I'm glad to hear that I simply mistook your post for something that it wasn't. It's distressing to come across what looks to be someone disparaging a family member's existence from an authority in the gaming community, so I appreciate you clearing the matter up.

 

Sure thing. I'm sure somone will eventually come along later who misses the clarification as well, but such is life.

 

Take care, hope you enjoy the game.

[David Gaider]

Regardless, as lead writer and one of the figureheads of this game and Bioware, you should choose your phrasing more carefully. It stops people from taking your meaning the wrong way and prevents people from taking things out of context. Yous till haven't explained why you didn't remain professional and state that you weren't interested in writing female dwarf romances rather than just saying "ewww dwarves"

 

I am not in PR and do not speak in phrases chosen for their carefully-constructed banality. Even if I did, I'm certain that such statements would be misinterpreted by some (deliberately or not), so there seems little point. So I choose to speak like a human being--deal with that as you wish. Estimations on my professionality I leave to my employers.

[David Gaider]

And I think we're done here. The question was asked and answered, and the OP even responded and seems happy. Anything else can be taken to a new thread, if it really must.