The newly released Dragon Age Inquisition has just about the best handling of transgender issues of any mainstream video-game title, handled with grace through character creation, cut-scenes, and play:
“Let me know if you need help binding,” Krem teases one character with big pecs.
What follows is a brief conversation about trans issues and gender identity, without ever using those words. It’s sort of an opportunity for straight games to ask a transman what it’s like to be trans, without the risk of offending a real person.
About transmen, Bull says, “they are real men, just like you or me.”
And if you slip up and call him a woman, Bull corrects you: “he’s not a woman. … Krem’s a good man.”
The game was already pretty friendly to gender fluidity, since it lets you create female characters with an Adam’s apple and beard, or male characters with makeup. As IO9 pointed out, it would be nice if your character had an opportunity to explicitly declare their trans status as well, but oh well. Maybe that’ll come in Dragon Age 4.
Is This The Best Trans Character In The History Of Video Games?
(Thanks, Timmo!)
