David Gaider, lead writer on the Dragon Age series and a 17-year veteran at BioWare, announced his departure from the company on Friday.
Some news: I must sadly announce that, after 17 years, today is my last day at BioWare. I'll miss my team, and wish everyone here the best.
— David Gaider (@davidgaider) January 22, 2016
The surprising announcement didn't come with any additional details, so it's not clear what Gaider's next move will be. For now, it's worth taking a moment to consider the impact Gaider's had as a key creative force at a major game studio who also happens to be openly gay -- and a vocal force for more inclusiveness in games.
The work speaks for itself. He's written some of gaming's most memorable characters, such as HK-47, the "meatbag"-despising assassin droid from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Cassandra, a holy warrior and powerful female figure from the Dragon Age games.
Gaider also wrote Dorian Pavus from Dragon Age: Inquisition, which he said was the first "fully gay" character he'd created. Dorian's complex, heartbreaking backstory involves an intolerant father who tried to "correct" his son's homosexuality using a forbidden form of magic.
BioWare is known for its enormous, story-heavy role-playing games. In addition to facing grave, world-threatening obstacles, players also contend with interpersonal relationships that, in many cases, lead to romance.
Gaider spoke to IGN ahead of Inquisition's launch in 2015 about how tricky inclusion can be in an industry where the "default," as he puts it, is for characters to be straight, white and male.
"No character ever has to justify why they’re straight, white, and male," he said. "The moment you make them anything else, you suddenly need reasons why that’s okay…or do you?
"A certain amount of deliberateness is required to challenge the idea of a default, and while it feels a bit unnatural to do so, it’s absolutely necessary. It’s a way to create without unthinkingly doing things the same way simply because that’s how you’ve always done them."
Gaider's first BioWare project (and first game) was Baldur's Gate 2, in 2000, which didn't feature any same-sex relationships. That wasn't even in "the realm of possibility" at the time, as Gaider wrote in a 2014 opinion piece for Polygon.
"When the romances in Baldur's Gate 2 were made, I didn’t even think to suggest we should include same-sex romances … because why would you? It just wasn’t done."
As the years passed and the world started to shift toward a more inclusive mindset, Gaider grew to be more outspoken about expressing his views and steering the misguided toward more rational thinking.
"The romances in the game are not for 'the straight male gamer. They're for everyone,'" he wrote in response to one fan's angry response to Dragon Age II "neglecting" BioWare's "main demographic" in its inclusion of one gay romance (via GLAAD).
"We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention," he continued. "The 'rights' of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent 'right' to get more options than anyone else."