Former Dragon Age lead Mark Darrah believes that modern AAA games will pare down diversity and inclusion in response to increasingly vocal online commenters.
Darrah, who worked at BioWare for decades, had a hand in creating games that served as the most progressive titles of their times. Baldur’s Gate 2 introduced a canonical lesbian character; Jade Empire has same-sex romance. Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect both feature LGBT romances, were criticised by mainstream media while hate campaigns were largely ignored by gamers.
Today, a lot of those hate campaigns come from gaming groups, or at least faces that have pushed to associate themselves with gaming. For Darrah, it seems that the vitriol surrounding these online discussions are likely to have an effect this time around.
“I think we will see a reduction [in representation], honestly,” the Dragon Age creator said. “Unfortunately. At the very least, I think we’re going to see that it’s going to be pushed into the background a little bit.”
While diversity, especially in RPGs, has been a touchstone for many games, Darrah expects AAA titles to pull back on their offerings. While that appeases one crowd, it would undoubtedly anger another, which the BioWare veteran believes will be countered by still including diverse characters, but pushing them more to the wayside.
Darrah explains that a game company might “say we have the same number of characters with this identity or this identity, but whereas in a previous game maybe they were followers, now they’re secondary characters”.
With that said, Darrah doesn’t see diversity in games going the way of the dodo, but with the vitriol of modern online commenters, it will likely be slimmed down. “I think that [Dragon Age: The] Veilguard flew too close to the sun, I guess, and fell out of the sky,” he said. “This is not the only thing that happened, but it triggered the attention of [this group].”
For games that continue to include diverse characters, Darrah suggests studios get ahead of the hate and reveal their plans earlier. “Some of this is done by these groups for money,” he said of the ongoing “anti-woke” movement. “They either don’t believe what they’re saying or don’t care… you can’t stay mad at that for three years, It burns itself out.”
“That would be my preference,” he continued. “Like, let’s walk through our character creator. Like, elves can’t have beards or whatever or it’s not historically accurate to have Asian people in your fantasy game or whatever thing they’re going to get mad at. But it’s like your game’s not coming out until 2029 and you’re talking about it in 2026, right?
Let’s talk about it. Let’s blast it out there. Let’s just be loud and open and have the conversation really early and, yes, engage in the discourse because the reality is, in 2026 for a game coming in 2029—unless you’re GTA—no one cares.”
“How do you get there from here? Where it seems like we’re going 50 miles an hour backwards.”
Dragon Age lead Mark Darrah on discussions about representation
As a creative behind some of the most diverse games of their time—their work on Dragon Age introduced many to bisexual characters, queer relationships and storylines about the plights of discrimination—Darrah expects less representation but not a full eradication. “I think we will see less of this in mainstream games,” he said. “I think there be studios that say I will not retreat from the fields and good on them. But I think some will.”
They continued: “I feel very strongly that one of the ways to weather this is by actually engaging in the conversation earlier because a significant percentage of this is done for money. If you make it not really worth their while, they will wander and go complain about something else.”
As a creative that has worked on a number of progressive games, Darrah sees the ongoing hate campaigns as poor education. “I do think education is the way you get out the other side,” he said. “But how do you get there from here? Where it seems like we’re going 50 miles an hour backwards.”
On top of the moral issue, there’s also the game design issue. RPGs are, in their essence, role-playing games where you imbue a role and explore possibilities. Diversity gives you choice. Having lesbian representation, for example, gives you more romance options, allows characters to talk to you difference. Judy Alvarez in Cyberpunk 2077 is a fully lesbian character, not player-sexual like many other RPGs, and you can only experience her romance story as Female V as a result of that.
When it comes to the reality of human difference, Darrah believes it’s all fair game to represent in video game form. “I think it should all be on the table,” he said. “I think this because I think this is not just an opportunity to explore different parts of your own identity, which there is some of that… but it’s also an opportunity to try to build some empathy.
“Moving away from the conversation, I played a really strong character and I’m in a wheelchair. So I got to experience to some degree what it’s like to be a really strong character, or really fast character, or really smart character. And I think that’s what RPGs are for. So I absolutely think this should all be on the table.”
Right now, across social media, there’s a large pushback from certain crowds against any inclusivity, but diversity is likely to stay. Despite the vocal crowds, diverse games sell. Baldur’s Gate 3 saw the same slew of hate campaigns against it which were then twisted towards positivity once its popularity was made clear. With that in mind, Larian’s next RPG, Divinity, will likely be just as diverse, if not more so, than its predecessor.
As for the future of BioWare, Darrah doesn’t know what the plan is for diversity in the next Mass Effect game. Following Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s heavy criticism, although much of this was simply down the poorly-written dialogue, there is an expectation of reigning in, but as the RPG sets to explore the universe once again, what would Mass Effect be without diversity?
