'BioWare Stopped Being Fair'; Dragon Age Dev on Role of Scriptwriters in Games
The screenwriters' strike currently underway in the United States is gaining momentum. It turns out that also in the video game industry, narrative writers do not have an easy life. The co-author of the Dragon Age series talked about the behind-the-scenes of the difficult work at BioWare.
As the week began in the United States, a major strike of screenwriters has started. In this way they want to draw attention to the problem of insufficient appreciation of their contribution to the entertainment industry, and consequently, pay disproportionate to their efforts. Game developers are also unhappy with this state of affairs, or at least that's the impression one gets from a series of tweets recently published by the screenwriter of Dragon Age, David Gaider.
He stated that narrative writers at BioWare - which is associated with featuring great stories in its games - have over time ceased to be appreciated.. Gaider added that screenwriters are perceived as trying to enter the gaming world through the back door, so to speak, despite the fact that they don't have the right aptitude for it, such as programming or graphic design skills.
The creator explained that it's exactly because of such treatment that he decided to end his adventure with BioWare several years ago.
"It may sound like a heavy accusation, but it was because of this that I left the studio in 2016. Suddenly all the decision-makers started to wonder: "why do we have worse and worse stories?". After all, a good story does itself, as if by magic, not because the studio needs to support its writers and prioritize accordingly," Gaider added with irony.
By the time of writing this news, studio representatives had not commented on the screenwriter's statement.
Finally, let's recall that Gaider held the position of chief screenwriter at BioWare for Dragon Age: The Beginning, Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. After 17 years, he decided to leave the company. In 2019, he became co-founder of Summerfall Studios. He is currently working on the Stray Gods project, which is scheduled to debut on the market on August 3 (its demo has been recently made available on Steam).
