• Dragon Age II Helped a Young gamer Come Out of the Closet.
    57 replies, posted
[quote]When we get mired in arguing over whether or not games are harmful to impressionable young players, it's easy to forget that sometimes, they can be amazingly inspirational, or even helpful. The BioWare blog regularly runs interviews with the writers, producers, and artists who make their games. This week, Dragon Age and Star Wars: The Old Republic senior writer Jennifer Hepler was on deck. When asked about one of her proudest moments working in game development, Hepler came back with a touching answer: [quote][U]ltimately, I decided that love and passion were human universals and I was going to write the male-male romance as romantically as the female one. When the game came out, we got a letter from a fan, a young man who was coming to terms with the realization that he was gay. He said that he had never seen a gay romance portrayed positively, and he was terrified that he was never going to be able to fall in love or have a meaningful relationship with anyone. He was considering killing himself, he said, until he played the Anders romance – it was the first time he had seen anyone portray a gay relationship as genuinely romantic and loving, and now he was going to devote the rest of his life to finding that kind of passion... That was an amazing moment for me, because it showed that the characters we create in these games really do have a genuine effect on people, even if it's just a few of them. Just because we're making games, it doesn't always has to be "just a game."[/quote] As for details about the next game? Dragon Age 3 continues to remain the worst-kept secret in the video game industry. Hepler mentions that she's working on a game that is "at the end of pre-production and beginning of production," without once mentioning what the game actually is.[/quote] [url]http://kotaku.com/5917549/how-dragon-age-ii-helped-one-young-gamer-come-to-terms-with-coming-out-of-the-closet[/url] Something good came out of that game atleast.
Well I guess the game wasn't so shit afte- Oh wait.
[quote]Jennifer Hepler was on deck. When asked about one of her proudest moments working in game development[/quote] [quote]Jennifer Hepler [...]proudest moments working in game development[/quote] [quote]Jennifer Hepler [...]game development[/quote] Lol
[QUOTE=JgcxCub;36301918]Lol[/QUOTE] MOAR LIKE, "GAY DEVELOPMENT" I'm so so sorry.
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;36301957]MOAR LIKE, "GAY DEVELOPMENT" I'm so so sorry.[/QUOTE] asshole. this is pretty neat, though.
please don't start with the jennifer hepler shit. It's a dead horse nobody wants to see trotted out anymore
[QUOTE=Lambeth;36301960]please don't start with the jennifer hepler shit. It's a dead horse nobody wants to see trotted out anymore[/QUOTE] It's always worth wondering why someone who doesn't like video games goes to work for a video game company.
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;36302010]It's always worth wondering why someone who doesn't like video games goes to work for a video game company.[/QUOTE] "I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games"
I can understand Hepler not being interested in games. She just writes the story that the game uses. She wrote the Dwarfs in DAO so she isn't that bad.
Doesn't dragonage have a 15\18 rating? er... bad parents.
[QUOTE=BloodRayne;36302208]Doesn't dragonage have a 15\18 rating? er... bad parents.[/QUOTE] Right, like most of us didn't start playing M-rated games way before the "recommended" age. If the parents think the kid is mature enough to handle the game's content, then that's up to them. It's not like this is Saint's Row The Third we're talking about which, sadly, I had to sell to a fucking 5 year old since his parents said it was okay.
[QUOTE=Thom12255;36302195]I can understand Hepler not being interested in games. She just writes the story that the game uses. She wrote the Dwarfs in DAO so she isn't that bad.[/QUOTE] Yeah the dwarves were one of my favorite parts. [editline]12th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=BloodRayne;36302208]Doesn't dragonage have a 15\18 rating? er... bad parents.[/QUOTE] Says the person with a bloodrayne name and avatar
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;36302010]It's always worth wondering why someone who doesn't like video games goes to work for a video game company.[/QUOTE] Well, someone who isn't much of a gamer working in gaming industry isn't anything new. I have talked to a concept artist for eidos montreal who did prop design for Deus Ex Human Revolution and now th4ef, he used to work in movie industry but because movie industry was pretty much dying in montreal and gaming industry was pretty much his "only hope", and he has been working there for 3 years and he doesn't play games. This really has nothing to do with this but well being a writer doesn't really require you to play or even like games.
Unfortunately because of /v/ I've always known her as hamburger helper
jennifer your fanfic characters dont count as real gamers
[QUOTE=Sir Whoopsalot;36302010]It's always worth wondering why someone who doesn't like video games goes to work for a video game company.[/QUOTE] Well I don't know the video games industry has a nasty habit of being a little too insular sometimes. Can't hurt to have the perspective of someone who isn't nuts about video games.
[QUOTE=SPESSMEHREN;36302076]"I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games"[/QUOTE]People still get their panties in a bunch over a professional writer not being an avid gamer? The vitriol directed at her when that was revealed was absolutely baffling, and quite frankly pathetic.
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;36302373]a professional writer not being an avid gamer? [/QUOTE] a professional writer, heh
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;36302373]People still get their panties in a bunch over a professional writer not being an avid gamer? The vitriol directed at her when that was revealed was absolutely baffling, and quite frankly pathetic.[/QUOTE] >jennifer hepler >professional ahahahahaha if you actually believe that then im so sorry for you
Yeah people get their panties in a bunch because the game was shit and so was the story. Literally everyone hated DAII.
Seriously. Play Dragon age 2. The dialog is so fucking terrible.
-snip-
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;36302373]People still get their panties in a bunch over a professional writer not being an avid gamer? The vitriol directed at her when that was revealed was absolutely baffling, and quite frankly pathetic.[/QUOTE] Calling her the cancer that was killing bioware was pretty terrible [editline]12th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=LeonS;36302459]>jennifer hepler >professional ahahahahaha if you actually believe that then im so sorry for you[/QUOTE] Well she got paid for her writing and she has published work out there so yeah I guess she is a professional writer.
[QUOTE=Lambeth;36302527]Calling her the cancer that was killing bioware was pretty terrible [editline]12th June 2012[/editline] Well she got paid for her writing and she has published work out there so yeah I guess she is a professional writer.[/QUOTE] oh so its fine to hire horrible writers pretty sure its not she who is the cancer its the people who eat this shit up
[QUOTE=Jericho_Rus;36302406]a professional writer, heh[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=LeonS;36302459]>jennifer hepler >professional ahahahahaha if you actually believe that then im so sorry for you[/QUOTE]Professional as in that's what she does for a living, her job description etc. I make no assumptions about the quality of her writing, though it is quite telling that she only started getting singled out as a terrible writer and solely responsible for DAII's shitty dialogue, story etc [I]after[/I] it was revealed she doesn't like to play video games.
[QUOTE=MR-X;36302496]Yeah people get their panties in a bunch because the game was shit and so was the story. Literally everyone hated DAII.[/QUOTE] I enjoyed parts of DAII. Varric and "comedian" Hawke were delightfully entertaining, the Quinari subplot was interesting, and the combat was often fun. DA:O is superior by miles, but I definitely didn't hate DAII
[QUOTE=LeonS;36302577]oh so its fine to hire horrible writers[/QUOTE] you said it not me [editline]12th June 2012[/editline] I did and still do hate DAII but I don't blame it on Hepler.
the phantom menace's writing is superior to the piece of excrement that is dragon age 2
[QUOTE=LeonS;36302651]the phantom menace's writing is superior to the piece of excrement that is dragon age 2[/QUOTE] Well the dialog is probably better in DAII
Y'know it just occurred to me that not one person here has actually commented on the article and instead we've got a DAII/JenniferHepler hate circlejerk going on. Anyone else find that a little bad on our parts? To actually be on topic: I think it's pretty cool that DA2, flawed though it is, gave the kid the courage to accept himself. That's not always easy to do. [editline]12th June 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=LeonS;36302651]the phantom menace's writing is superior to the piece of excrement that is dragon age 2[/QUOTE] Let's not get crazy now. I watched Phanom Menace recently and DAII kicks the majority of its dialogue up and down the street.
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