So before I start what is going to be a controversial topic, let me just say that I have been a Bioware fan for years. My first game (and probably the one I have the most nostalgia for) was Neverwinter Nights. I played the expansion packs Shadows and Hordes, played Knights of the Old Republic (which seemed in my view to be Neverwinter in disguise), and am now playing Dragon Age, which is my favorite franchise to date.
I love fantasy (moreso than sci-fi, and that's the only reason why I haven't yet played Mass Effect). I love Bioware because they do a special brand of fantasy. Where other developers will create a world for the moment you're playing in it, Bioware will create a multi-century world history full of culture and politics and war. Where other developers will create race factions for the sake of competition, Bioware will create an entire socio-economic web of privilege and oppression. Where other developers will make an entertaining video game, Bioware will make an complex, thought-provoking experience that just happens to be a video game. As anyone on this forum can probably attest to, Bioware is definitely something special.
What I want to address is the representation of Asian identity in Dragon Age Inquisition. It worries me that out of all the possible party members and friends of the Inquisition, I don't see many Asian faces or Asian names. I don't see any of the main followers as Asian. I don't see any of the enemies as Asian.
The only person who might possibly be Asian is the Inquisitor, and that would be an aesthetic choice at character creation. I notice that a couple of the default heads have Asian features, which is certainly an awesome thing.
Now, since I'm from the United States, I suppose Asian identity to me is a lot different than Asian identity in the world as a whole. I'm not going to pretend that I know what Asian means in other countries, because I don't. So I'm speaking with my experience living in the United States, a very diverse nation when it comes to race, and perhaps because of that, a very troubled nation when it comes to race.
To Bioware's credit, Dragon Age has been more welcoming to people of color than any other major fantasy franchise that I can think of. In Dragon Age Inquisition, not only are there two strong people of color as party mates - I'm talking about Dorian and Vivienne - but there is also a strong person of color as a council member - and by that I mean Josephine.
What distinguishes Dragon Age Inquisition from its two predecessor games is that for the first time, even the common folk walking around the game are people of color. The NPCs in a town and the random enemy spawns include people of color. This is a huge and groundbreaking accomplishment. Because people of color are not only the "unique" ones in your party but also the "normal" ones you encounter.
Here's where it starts to get complicated - I am going to dare to call Dorian and Vivienne black characters, and Josephine a Latina character, although I know this is far from an accurate statement. Nevertheless, it is the closest I can describe the difference between a "black" person of color and a "Latino/a" person of color and an "Asian" person of color.
What I fail to see in Dragon Age are specifically "Asian" people of color.
Granted, what Bioware does have in their library is the Jade Empire release, a role-playing game set in a Chinese-inspired world. But I feel that Jade Empire does not address the issue I'm trying to discuss. For a lot of black, Latino, and Asian people, oftentimes there is a lack of representation in a game like Dragon Age, a game that is quite obviously situated in a European-based fantasy realm. It is no great stretch of the imagination to find French influences in the Empire of Orlais, or English influences in the Kingdom of Ferelden. If the only place that an Asian person can be a party mate or a council member or an NPC is in Jade Empire, a game in which almost all the characters are Asian, then I think we have a problem on our hands.
I can say for certainty that there is a current competitor on the market who released a sci-fi MMO with "Asian" people of color - notably a robot from India and a faction leader from Japan. So it is indeed possible to include Asians in a sci-fi fantasy setting. Granted, this certain competitor is not nearly the storyteller and world-builder that Bioware is, but that's why I think Bioware can do it, too, and do it better.
It may be argued that this is a never-ending spiral of who belongs and who doesn't. If we include Asian people, then what about people from the Middle East? Don't they want to be part of the game too? What about indigenous people? What about people with disabilities? What about elderly people? What about people with bigger body types? We can't possibly include everyone - all games have a start and end point, and invariably someone is bound to be left out. There's not enough time or money or space to create a game that embraces everyone. It's unrealistic.
True, there may not be enough time or money or space. But we are dealing with fantasy, storytelling, and art - all of which are not the most practical things in the world, and definitely not realistic, but we enjoy them anyway. What is it that resonates so strongly in our hearts, that makes us turn to games and books and other seemingly frivolous things to make sense of our world, or to imagine a better one?
Dragons exist in almost every world culture - perhaps thanks to a universal storytelling tradition, or perhaps thanks to dinosaurs. What I'm wondering is this - might there ever be an Asian dragon post-Inquisition?
Retour en haut
I'm not the emperor of Asians though, and don't speak for everyone, so I suspect others may feel differently on the subject, and I respect whatever they may think.
)
