r/pcmasterrace • u/3Sayndre 7600 - 7800 XT Sapphire - 32GB DDR5 • 8h ago

News/Article EA shuts down BioWare

https://variety.com/2026/digital/news/ea-layoffs-bioware-shutting-down-respawn-dice-star-wars-battlefront-3-1236918715/
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u/ChaosReaper 8h ago

Regardless of having queer and trans characters, forcing us to sit through someone explaining what it means to be nonbinary to their parents isn’t what anyone wants from a dark fantasy RPG.

The sales and player numbers clearly rejected this game, and the discourse online was almost entirely focused on that aspect. It was absolute cringe.

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u/AdministrationDry507 7h ago

Until Reddit I never even knew the representation was going to matter

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u/ChaosReaper 5h ago

I don’t think anyone, aside from a vocal minority who clearly doesn’t purchase games in quantities that matter and gaming journalists/critics, cares about representation in games.

Time and time again buyers vote with their wallets. Representation is not a feature. It is just a quality of something.

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u/burdizthewurd 8h ago

I don’t think it’s what people want from a dark fantasy RPG in the way that it materialized in the Veilguard, sure. But I think it goes a little too far to say that the idea itself was bad. Can you not envision any way that that sort of conversation can be written to be broadly successful and emotionally effecting?

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u/ChaosReaper 8h ago edited 8h ago

I think that coming right out and saying terms like “non-binary” in a fantasy world, in and of itself, is completely immersion breaking and unimaginative.

The beauty of fantasy is you have a nearly limitless ability to imagine and introduce new elements. Races, magic, lands, and so on. You could have come up with anything that would serve as an outstanding metaphor for the experience of the LGBTQ, while also fitting the world and not referring to silly modern terms or problems directly.

When people say “I don’t like politics in my games” Veilguard is the kind of thing they are talking about. Many titles are much smarter about introducing modern themes through metaphor or through events that fit the world they are transpiring in.

Hell Dragon Age already did this better. Gender norms are a touchy subject even now but this exchange between characters fits the world, the characters backgrounds/cultures, and comes off as extremely natural. You are entertained watching them hash it out.

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u/burdizthewurd 8h ago

So, the answer to my question is yes. And it’s just a case of the writing not being up to par. Like am I wrong in summarizing your beliefs that way? (Also I am firmly of the belief that if a game like DAO with the convo you linked was released today, it would be written off as woke, anti-man slop)

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u/ChaosReaper 5h ago

I don’t think it would have been written off that way.

Generally people are fine with anything that isn’t immersion breaking.

The moment the player no longer feels immersed they by definition feel as if something doesn’t belong. When those immersion breaking things have a clear slant towards leftist political values people deem it woke.

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u/Worldly-Local-6613 4h ago

Cope.

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u/burdizthewurd 4h ago

Cope with what?