Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a true First-Person Game Character Creator

Game designers have been on the rise lately. At least, that’s what they tell me. Cyberpunk 2077 lets you create your own gender, Forza had a wide variety of pronoun options, most games choose ‘body type’ instead of gender. But none of that really matters. Dragon Age: The Veilguard allows you to change in a significant way.

Even in the best parts, you can feel the influence of Corinne Busch, the casting director on The Veilguard who is also a trans woman. Along with sexual (in the case of Cyberpunk, maybe even fetishised) options around the size of the bulge – the genitalia itself is not visible – there are well-rounded options. You can lower the voice, instead of having to choose between spiritual femininity and Masculine. You can make an Adam’s apple. You can add top surgical scars. He is the friendliest gamer I have ever seen.

The Trans Character Creator does not make a Trans Character

But the thing is, that doesn’t matter either. It’s trans friendly, but not really trans. You can ‘look trans’ with, say, superficial surgical scars, but you can look trans in Cyberpunk 2077 with the aforementioned genitalia. Doing so was the subject of one of the game’s most popular posters. These options are only skin deep, although The Veilguard has some of them.

It does something interesting with gender as well, but I’m not sure it will be enough to matter. Along with choosing your pronouns, you also choose your gender, independent of gender. We are told that pronouns only show how Rook is spoken, while gender is how they see themselves. But what exactly does that mean?

I have argued that, regardless of whether I am transsexual or not, any transsexual person can be trans in my personal canon. The same can be true for non-customers if they don’t have enough of a tablet, like Link. In fact, most people don’t have that in their heads. But unless the purpose of the project is to confirm that the person is cisgender, there is nothing to stop you from thinking otherwise. These artists often provide a physical representation of these ideas.

The Veilguard Makes More Than Part of Your Backstory

This is not the case in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. If you want them to be there, your Rook really changes. It starts with a mirror, as it often does with trans people. Gifted to you by Varric, you can decorate your house with it beforehand, and when you interact with it, you can react in different ways – including discussing your gender. These options keep you from being trans or non-binary (or they can be ignored, of course), and allow your Rook to express how they feel about themselves.

Just like your background or lineage, this opens up unique dialogue options for you later in the game. It puts your extraneous content into the reality of the game, like your role as an elf, not just an aesthetic you add to the character creator and forget about. It’s part of you, and The Veilguard lets you be part of your game.

Furthermore, The Veilguard understands the reality of being trans. In romance games, you get The Conversation. You can get to know Taash, not just giving advice from the sidelines. When the questions are about changing yourself for the better, or rejecting tradition to be true to yourself, you can go back to Rook’s experience to appreciate the challenges.

The players are even wrong at times. One character accidentally mistakes another, and the atmosphere changes. Bellara, caught in an embarrassing silence as a spectator, doesn’t know what to say. A Rook can accept a quick apology or seek something from the heart. There are real and raw daily events that you don’t get from a bunch of development partners who pat themselves on the back to see how big they let your crotch bulge get.

Many games can point out injustice to their character creators, but few can support it in their world. They don’t even bother trying, they are satisfied that the bare minimum is more than what was expected or needed. Dragon Age: The Veilguard tries, and the effort pays off. It’s the first game that lets you have a transgender character, not just a transgender avatar.