BioWare Apologizes For Representation of Trans Character in Andromeda

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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BioWare Apologizes For Representation of Trans Character in Andromeda

BioWare says that the Hainly Abrams character "was not included in a thoughtful or caring way".

Mass Effect: Andromeda developer BioWare has released a statement via Twitter [https://twitter.com/bioware/status/849671752192077828] today regarding a transgender character from the game. Hainly Abrams, the character in question, is a scientist encountered in a minor side-quest within the game. When prompted about her past, she reveals to the player character that she used to be a man named "Stephan".

BioWare apologizes for her implementation, saying that she was "not included in a thoughtful or caring way". It apologized for anyone who interacted with and was hurt by this conversation.

"This was never our intent, and an unfortunate by-product of the iterative process of game design and a change in structure of the character's dialogue," it added.

You can view the reportedly offensive scene in the video to the right. Complaints from the LGBT community apparently arose because Abrams seems like a "token" transgender character, who very quickly and ham-fistedly reveals her transgender origins with almost no prompting.

"Once the changes are implemented, Hainly will only reveal certain information to Ryder after they have developed trust," said BioWare.

Source: BioWare [https://twitter.com/bioware/status/849671752192077828]


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Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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See Bioware should just apologize for Andromeda all together. And give refunds. And then apologize a second time. And never make a Mass Effect again.
 

Bedinsis

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Steven Bogos said:
Complaints from the LGBT community apparently arose because Abrams seems like a "token" transgender character [---]
Source: BioWare [https://twitter.com/bioware/status/849671752192077828]
Where did you get that information from? All sources in this news post links to the same tweet, where tokenism is never brought up.
 

Blazing Hero

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Of all the complaints and problems people had this is the one they specifically go out of their way to apologize for....? Really BioWares priorities have gotten pretty damn wacky these days.
 

Parasondox

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I didnt know she was even Transgendered. However​ do want to know how on earth this game got the final go ahead with it having SO MANY BUGS!!!
 

Secondhand Revenant

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I actually missed that entirely because I skipped through the dialogue tbh. Saw her mention she had an old name but missed what it was entirely lol
 

Kreett

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Nov 20, 2009
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Silentpony said:
See Bioware should just apologize for Andromeda all together. And give refunds. And then apologize a second time. And never make a Mass Effect again.
As long as I like it nothing else matters, 9/10
 

Zulnam

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PC dribble aside, did they apologise for the overall quality of the game or the mediocre main plot?
 

Macgyvercas

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Feb 19, 2009
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Not gonna lie, when I got to that bit of dialogue, my reaction was something along the lines of "Oh, she's transgendered. That's cool. Now where's this quest I'm supposed to go on?"
 

Combustion Kevin

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Wouldn't it be a grand sci-fi setting where sex changes are so easy and simple to perform that one can refer to it as casually as if it's about getting their ears pierced?
 

Cold Shiny

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They apologize for an element in the game that no one cares about, but they don't apologize for the very disappointing game.

Bioware is terrified of some internet LGBT randos but couldn't give less of a crap about consumer confidence.
 

Makabriel

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Wow. Yeah, totally didn't even realize that what she was talking about. I thought she changed her name because she was going to a new galaxy and wanted a fresh start. Didn't even dawn on me that's what that was about.
 

LysanderNemoinis

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Nov 8, 2010
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Adam Jensen said:
Holy crap, that's horrible and hilarious :D
No human alive acts like that, transgender or otherwise.
You've never been to Tumblr then, have you? For some people, it's pretty much the only thing they see themselves as and the entirety of their identity. As for Bioware apoligizing, I'm not surprised. The game could be broken (it is), could have bad animations and voice acting (it does), have average combat (it does), and a poor story (it does), but God forbid a few people who played their game (or probably just heard about their game) that makes up one third of one percent of the population complains, then it's time to prostrate themselves. The actual gamers and customers, fuck them.
 

Ukomba

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How odd, the reaction of the perpetually offended at everything crowd to being pandered to was to be offended. Who could have possibly foreseen that?
 

mad825

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I'm surprised that they still haven't apologised for making the black squad mate boring as fuck for the second time trying.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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Ukomba said:
How odd, the reaction of the perpetually offended at everything crowd to being pandered to was to be offended. Who could have possibly foreseen that?
I'm sorry, but wasn't the shoe on the other foot with Dragonspear? All the idiots screaming about tokenism of having a transgender cleric being open and forthright? I distinctly remember it, I remember saying; "You know what ... as a trans person and familiar with D&D, I can totally see a cleric being quite forthright, open, and direct with the subject matter. Because occasionally I wish I could be so confidant and forthright with it, sometimes, and that's what D&D clerics do."

But apparently all the internet types didn't think that response merited much weigh then when they were screaming 'tokenism'...

Frankly, I don't care. I've met heaps of people that don't mind being open about being trans. I for one am on the fence about secrecy and openness. Mainly for being a pretty secretive person in general. For starters;

A: I haven't heard about it till now.

B: I wasn't planning on buying Andromeda until it was patched about 100 times and on sale. Because it's BioWare ... and Bee-dubs, like Bethesda, have been shit for the better part of about 16 years.
 

infohippie

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Guys, the old Bioware we knew and loved is gone, they're never coming back. They're now nothing more than EA's "socially progressive" unit that they can point to as evidence of their social awareness credentials.

mad825 said:
I'm surprised that they still haven't apologised for making the black squad mate boring as fuck for the second time trying.
More like making the human squad mates boring as fuck for the fourth time in a row.
 

Addendum_Forthcoming

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infohippie said:
Guys, the old Bioware we knew and loved is gone, they're never coming back. They're now nothing more than EA's "socially progressive" unit that they can point to as evidence of their social awareness credentials.

mad825 said:
I'm surprised that they still haven't apologised for making the black squad mate boring as fuck for the second time trying.
More like making the human squad mates boring as fuck for the fourth time in a row.
Complains about trans people in video game being presented as bad writing >>> check.

Complains about BioWare correcting bad writing >>> Check

Complains how people complained about the bad writing >>> check

Complains about how people complaining about people complaining about the bad writing >>> check

Complains about people complaining while complaining about the people not complaining about fictional people >>> check

How about not buy BioWare games until they're less shit? Solves all your problems. You'll get no argument from me that BioWare is garbage, the difference is I'll only buy their game after I know it's properly patched and working acceptably, and when they are no longer making so much of a profit on it (because I'm spiteful like that).

Solves literally all people's problems.

Video game companies will not change if they know that people are just going to throw money at them anyways.