Former BioWare veteran David Gaither has criticized his former studio for its evolving approach to video game narrative, leading up to his departure from the studio in 2016 amid the troubled development of multiplayer shooter Anthem.
in a series of posts TwitterGaider said that video game writing was “persistently undervalued” – even at BioWare, which “built its success on a reputation for good stories and characters”, in Gaider’s words.
,[It] gradually changed from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we … quietly resented, with a reliance on a costly narrative seen as the ‘albatross’ holding the company back, Gaidar wrote.
“Maybe it sounds like a heavy duty, but it’s what I clearly felt until I left in 2016,” he continued. “Suddenly anyone in charge was asking ‘How come we have less writing?’ A good story will simply happen through a magic wand, rather than being something that needs to be supported and prioritized.”
Eurogamer has contacted BioWare for comment.
Gaidar is best known for his work on the Dragon Age franchise, and has played a key role in dreaming up their world. He worked on every entry in the series so far – as well as the various spin-off novels and comic books – though did not contribute to the series’ upcoming return in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
Writing is one of those subjects that is constantly underestimated. It’s something everyone thinks they can do (“I can write a sentence! I know what a story is!”), and apparently the difference between good and bad writing is lost on many people. goes. So why pay more for it, right?
— David Gaider (@davidgaider) May 2, 2023
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Gaither’s final game for BioWare was Anthem, the studio’s poorly-received take on the multiplayer shooter market. Gaider contributed to the initial vision of the game before leaving the studio mid-development in 2016. Anthem eventually released in 2019 to rave reviews.
BioWare’s boss at the time of Gaider’s departure, Aryan Flynn, left the company a year after Gaider himself, to be replaced by returning head Casey Hudson—who himself left in 2020, a year after the release of Anthem.
BioWare has since remained committed to its roots, releasing the Mass Effect: Definitive Edition trilogy remaster and promising that Dragon Age Dreadwolf will be a strictly single-player affair, following past plans to include multiplayer elements. The studio is early in development on its next Mass Effect game, which will feature at least one familiar face from the series’ origins.
Gaider, meanwhile, has gone on to produce the upcoming musical RPG Stray Gods at Summerfall Studios, the studio he co-founded in 2019. Eurogamer caught up with Gaidar last year as part of our Pride Week 2022, where our Bertie chatted with him. His work on Dragon Age and the original plans for the series never saw the light of day.