Lately I keep seeing comments like:
“It’s just virtue signaling devs whining.”
“Saudi Arabia isn’t open-minded, so at least games will finally be more neutral, without ideologies shoved down our throats.”
“They also have big stakes in nintendo, activiosn, capcom and nothing changed”
Let me be clear: if BioWare actually goes “neutral tone,” Dragon Age and Mass Effect stop being Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
also, Nindendo’s franchises (Mario, Zelda, Pokémon, Smash), Capcom’s (Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter) and Activision Blizzard’s games (Call of Duty) don’t touch LGBTQ+ themes or social commentary in the first place. There’s nothing “controversial” to censor…”
So of course nothing obvious changed, those publishers already weren’t leaning into progressive storytelling.
These games have always been political
Mass Effect: Entire arcs are about systemic prejudice (krogan genophage, geth/quarians, council xenophobia). Shepard is literally trying to unite clashing civilizations. Romances — including queer ones — aren’t optional fluff; they’re woven into the emotional heart of the trilogy.
Dragon Age: Mages vs. templars = authoritarian religion vs. oppressed class. The Dalish = displaced, colonized people. Party members like Dorian (gay), Krem (trans), Zevran, Leliana, Anders, etc. embody themes of identity and resistance.
This isn’t “virtue signaling.” It’s core BioWare storytelling. If you remove the politics, you’re left with generic swords and lasers.
🛑 “Neutral” ≠ neutral
“Neutral tone” under authoritarian or ultra-conservative ownership doesn’t mean “fun escapism.” It means stripping out diversity, sanitizing themes, and avoiding messy questions.
The result? Games that look AAA but feel hollow — worlds without queerness, without marginalized voices, without allegories that hit close to home. That’s not Dragon Age. That’s not Mass Effect.
Why this matters now:
People point to PIF’s investments in Nintendo, Capcom, Activision and say “nothing changed.” True, but those companies weren’t pushing queer or political themes in the first place. BioWare is different. Its brand identity is built on exactly the kind of representation that makes authoritarian investors squirm.
David Gaider (lead writer on Dragon Age) already said it bluntly: guns and football are safe, queer content is not. If EA’s new owners steer BioWare toward “neutral,” it won’t just be censorship., it’ll be the death of the very thing that made these games beloved.
TL;DR
If you’re saying “good, make games neutral again,” you’re really saying:
“Make Dragon Age not feel like Dragon Age.”
“Make Mass Effect not feel like Mass Effect.”
These games have always been about politics, identity, queerness, and resistance. If you want them stripped down to “apolitical escapism,” you might as well play something else.
Mass Effect 3 has a godawful story and damages the entire trilogy, and I am not afraid to say it
Real daring hot take. Honestly I do think some of ME3’s problems stem from the place ME2 left things. Instead of building up the Reapers, we got all this focus on Cerberus and the Collectors. The Alliance and Council are so distant and brushed off in 2, because the story wants to give an excuse for why you are with Cerberus.
This series of blog-posts by Shamus Young on the entire trilogy in order does a great job of arguing how we got here with 3.
the star child stuff is it’s own fault. outside of the game they pulled a writer over to make that star wars mmo instead of kotor 3 and that probably fucked both series.
Only ME1 was interested in cosmic horror and Lovecraftian stuff. It is a shame the series moved away from that at all. I recently played Leviathan, and I enjoyed parts of it, but fulling committing to them making the Reapers, and knowing what they are was a bad idea.