The Impact of Dragon Age Veilguard’s Conversational Choices

With the launch of Dragon Age: The Veilguard came discussions on how BioWare decided to implement character creation and identifying characteristics for players wanting the full role-playing experience. As developers embrace the larger gaming community with these options, I feel it’s important that we look at these implementations holistically. In the case of Veilguard, this includes the variations in story-telling and character development that are dependent upon player choices.

Over the holidays a close friend reached out to me regarding he and his daughter’s experiences with Veilguard. While I have these types of interactions on a weekly basis with various games, this one was different, and it provided perspective that I would otherwise not have ever been granted. You see, my friend’s daughter is a teenager who is currently struggling with gender dysphoria.

*Please note there will be some very minor spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veilguard within*

In the spirit of this article, please allow me to be completely transparent with you. I was born in the late 1970s and grew up in an age and environment where these types of discussions were never heard of. If I’m being completely honest, even being gay was something that was either hush hush or shunned depending on the situation. As a straight, white male, it’s not that I had any opposition, it’s that it was never even a topic at all. Obviously, in hindsight, it’s terrible that people felt they couldn’t be honest about who they were.

The friend who reached out, who happens to be ex-military and a straight, white male in his 40s as well, commented on similar:

The military had a “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy for decades. I knew the policy was insulting, but I don’t think I realized how harmful and oppressive it was for so many people. I mean, they were literally told to not talk about who they are, or they would get in big trouble. It’s just so terrible.

Thankfully, this has generally evolved a great deal in the decades since (though I understand we have a long way to go). I feel fortunate to have been brought up the way I was, so being an ally comes naturally to me. And it’s the reason I felt the need to highlight this discussion for a broader audience.

For those who haven’t played Dragon Age: The Veilguard, some quick context. One of the characters that you gain in your party is named Taash. Taash is a Qunari dragon-hunter who is struggling with gender dysphoria. And over the course of the game, depending on your selections as the main protagonist, you can influence how expansive the conversations with Taash are. What most players probably don’t realize are the lengths BioWare went to to provide a meaningful experience on the topic.

In my play through, for example, I said I was comfortable with Taash being herself, and they eventually were referred to as “they/them” while becoming a romance option. For my friend and his daughter, it was a completely different experience, and one that ended up having a significant impact on their relationship.

My daughter is going through some challenging times. She’s not comfortable in her body, and has gender dysphoria. She hasn’t changed her pronouns yet, but I’m sure it’s coming. I am completely for people living life the way they want to, and I’m definitely an LGBTQ+ ally. It’s different when it’s your own kid, though. I will support my daughter in every way, but I try my best to not show her I’m struggling as well. Anyway, her and I are playing DA together in parallel. I have a dwarven fighter, and she has an elven rogue. Notably, her character is in a female body, but identifies as he/him.

What’s important to highlight is how different the interactions are between characters depending on the decisions you make.

During the part of the game early on when you first get to your room, your character interacts with Varrik’s mirror. That interaction is probably relatively benign for most people, but if you say you’re not sure about yourself, or if you’re uncomfortable in your own skin, the game remembers the encounter and gives you certain trans options throughout the game, and situations occur that help your character on their journey, and also help others on theirs.

What is likely lost on the vast majority of players is how impactful those decisions can be for certain people playing the game. While I accepted Taash as they were and thought very little about it, the eventual conversations and decisions were far more meaningful for my friend and his daughter.

Most notably, so far, has been Taash. How my daughter’s character and my character interact with her are completely different. She has way more options that feel way more meaningful and significant than my character’s options. Don’t get me wrong, my choices make complete sense given how my character sees himself and the world, but I’ve gotta tell you, it’s downright emotional and deep how her character interacts with Taash and others.

I’ve never seen a game do that before, and it’s exactly what my daughter needed. I wanted to let you know that this game has content that’s deeper and more relevant to some people in ways that most will never know. It honestly blew me away.

I have 84 hours in Veilguard, and it was one of my favorite games of 2024. As I noted, I accepted Taash for who they were, opened romance options, and carried on playing the game. For me, and seemingly for my friend as he noted, we recognized the significance of the interactions, but for us, personally, they were relatively benign.

But for his daughter, her choices led to new interactions. Interactions that genuinely made a difference in her life and helped her with complex and complicated feelings. And it’s that accomplishment by the team at BioWare that I feel is important to spotlight.

I founded Seasoned Gaming as a way to bring back a sense of gaming community I felt was getting lost in modern industry coverage. Growing up as a geeky kid playing video games in the ’80s, they were a niche. A toy. They were seen as something only “nerds” engaged with. From the Atari 2600 to the NES explosion, to the arcade revolution, they all further fostered a real sense of community. And that emboldened us to come together, regardless of any differences we had as, quite frankly, they didn’t matter.

I’d argue that gaming is still doing that today. While it may be in different ways, and we have to contend with plenty of bad actors in the space, at its core, gaming still has that magic ability to bring people together in ways other mediums cannot. I will forever feel that’s worth celebrating.