Bioware Receives Cupcakes as a Thank You for Female Inquisitor

[Esmeralda Portillo]

Bioware Receives Cupcakes as a Thank You for Female Inquisitor


Fans thank Bioware for promoting the female Inquisitor in their promotion of Dragon Age: Inquisition with cupcakes.

Back in 2012 Bioware received a large batch of cupcakes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116530-Gamers-Ship-400-Cupcakes-to-BioWare-in-Protest-of-Mass-Effect-3] as a form of protest for the three endings available in Mass Effect 3. Fans were outraged that the endings seemed to be carbon copies in different shades of color, so they sent cupcakes reflecting that. It was a bittersweet treat to receive. But now Bioware employees can see cupcakes without experiencing post-traumatic stress.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/AllanSchumacher/status/485144828431200256]

Project CupcakeQuisition came to fruition because fans wanted to express their gratitude to Bioware for making the default character featured on the promotional material for their newest game Dragon Age: Inquisition female, for playing as other female characters in their E3 demos, and for their inclusiveness of the LGBTQ community in general. The depictions of the character were gender neutral at first, but the E3 trailer confirmed the character was a Female Inquisitor. As a result, fans banded together and a few weeks later Bioware received a special delivery.

One of the leading participants of the cupcake project blogged about her reasons why she helped send the Dragon Age team 22 dozen mini cupcakes on July 4th. One of the reasons listed was how despite Mass Effect having the option to be either female or male, Male Commander Shepard was always seen as the real Shepard, "It's just frustrating to always be the afterthought. Especially when even the company that has built its reputation on inclusiveness still puts a white male face on every game."

In a forum thread about that very topic, Bioware developer Allan Schumacher got involved and mentioned he was taking that feedback back to his team. Then the trailer for E3 was shown, making fans feel like they were listened to, " We wanted to show how much this mattered to us, and so after weeks of organizing, cupcakes happened. And the response from the devs has been greater than we imagined. "

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/KarinWeekes/status/485163604488908800]

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/Cameron__Lee/status/485160847732248577]

Source: Tumblr [http://ellorgast.tumblr.com/post/90808424958/why-i-helped-send-the-dragon-age-team-22-dozen]

Permalink

 

[Rutskarn]

"OH MY GOD FEMINISTS ARE NEVER HAPPY LITERALLY NOTHING EVER DONE TO INCLUDE WOMEN IMPROVES ANYONE'S LIVES WHARGAHBLARGHA"

It's good to remember sometimes that just because every form of progress doesn't satisfy somebody, steps forward like this do satisfy most people. It's just that the news cycle and social media scenes amplify distaste a lot louder than satisfaction.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

*original opinions*
EDIT: read through the article now, I guess it's a nice gesture that they are advertising the female inquisitor.

Pardon my earlier comments, shouldn't jump to conclusions based on the title, I will better myself.

 

[SacremPyrobolum]

Well, cupcakes are always welcomed. But wasn't their a similar trailer with a male character?

 

[Allspice]

So... including a basic option into an RPG with character creation warrants cupcakes?

I'm sorry, what? I'm not one to use this term, but this is "Social Justice Warrior" territory right here. A female character in an RPG is not a 'fun extra' or 'cool additional content', it's the bare minimum in a game that warrants role-playing.

Yes it's nice, but this is just strange.

From what I can tell from reading the article, this isn't about the fact that there is the option, it's that the default for their promotional material is female:

Project CupcakeQuisition came to fruition because fans wanted to express their gratitude to Bioware for making the default character featured on the promotional material for their newest game Dragon Age: Inquisition female, for playing as other female characters in their E3 demos, and for their inclusiveness of the LGBTQ community in general. The depictions of the character were gender neutral at first, but the E3 trailer confirmed the character was a Female Inquisitor. As a result, fans banded together and a few weeks later Bioware received a special delivery.

EDIT: Glad you read the article and changed your original post.

 

[Redryhno]

So when are they sending these cupcakes to their local soup kitchen like they did with the last batch on the grounds of,"We don't know what might be in them"? Ya can't throw one thing out and dismiss it one time because you didn't like the response of the original ending(s) and then turn around and go all-out thanking everyone involved just because it was a positive cupcake.

It's an rpg that's founded on the basis of your character, BW's story and how you go about it, this really shouldn't be as big of a deal as it is...Beyond maybe the advertising being of a female front-and-center, but ME3 had a better middle ground as far as I'm concerned having both Sheps on the box art.

And even after watching that trailer you couldn't really understand it was a woman except for the boobplate. Even the art they cut to at the end was pretty much gender-neutral.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

So... including a basic option into an RPG with character creation warrants cupcakes?

I'm sorry, what? I'm not one to use this term, but this is "Social Justice Warrior" territory right here. A female character in an RPG is not a 'fun extra' or 'cool additional content', it's the bare minimum in a game that warrants role-playing.

Yes it's nice, but this is just strange.

From what I can tell from reading the article, this isn't about the fact that there is the option, it's that the default for their promotional material is female:

Project CupcakeQuisition came to fruition because fans wanted to express their gratitude to Bioware for making the default character featured on the promotional material for their newest game Dragon Age: Inquisition female, for playing as other female characters in their E3 demos, and for their inclusiveness of the LGBTQ community in general. The depictions of the character were gender neutral at first, but the E3 trailer confirmed the character was a Female Inquisitor. As a result, fans banded together and a few weeks later Bioware received a special delivery.

EDIT: Glad you read the article and changed your original post.

Sorry about the initial post. I've been watching a documentary today that made me a bit more fired up :/

In any case, yes, it's a nice gesture.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I may be getting too cynical and jaded because my first thought was that they did this as some kind of PR maneuver. This gender controversy in gaming industry is for some reason pretty big (I honestly don't give a shit about it) and it's an easy way to score some positive points. We're talking about it. And other gaming websites will too. It's free advertisement. Well, minus the cost to make the cupcakes. So yeah, I don't believe that fans were behind this.

 

[weirdee]

I may be getting too cynical and jaded because my first thought is that they did this as some kind of PR maneuver. We're talking about it. And other gaming websites will too. It's free advertisement. Well, minus the cost to make the cupcakes. So yeah, I don't believe that fans were behind this.

you could claim the same thing with fan dissent, except replace the conspiracy starter with a rival company

 

[Sniper Team 4]

So I completely missed the fact that it was a female. My Dragon Age character is always a female so I guess it didn't register in my brain as anything special when I saw the trailer the first time. Plus, I'm a guy so I don't notice these types of things as acutely as girls.

All that being said, I've always felt that the Dragon Age team listens very well to their fans. They tried something different with Dragon Age II and when it didn't work out, they did their best to fix what they could. The DLC that did come for the game addressed a lot of complaints and even went so far as to make fun of the original game itself. And then we're always hearing about how their making adjustments to the third game. Oh, you don't like the idea of only playing as a human in the game? Fixed. Open world and more exploring? Done. Female on the cover art instead of generic white dude number five-hundred thirty-two? You got it.
I'm really hoping that they manage to pull all of this off with the final game. Dragon Age remains untainted to me because I enjoyed the sequel, but I'm still leery of BioWare after Mass Effect 3. This game will repair my trust or utterly break it depending on how it goes.

 

[Elberik]

OH MY GOD! get over yourselves! If you hand out prizes to whoever showcases a female character then you're part of the problem! You're swinging too far in the other direction.

 

[UberPubert]

This is really bizarre to me, and more than a little frustrating.

Bioware has clearly had gender options in their games at least since I booted up Baldurs Gate 2 as a PC gaming tyke in 2000, but they're getting a pat on the back for advertising it as the default now that sexism in vidja gayums is a hot topic.

I've heard nothing but vitriol for their depiction of female characters and approach to relationships these past few years because of the anger surrounding this topic, and now that they've pandered (intentionally or otherwise) to their pettiest critics on the most superficial level in a way that doesn't change what they've been doing for over a decade, they've earned their cupcakes of inclusiveness approval?

I really hope they make female inquisitors wear a chainmail bikini.

 

[Westaway]

Oh wow. This is way too funny. These people are literally gifting a company for pandering to them. They're literally rewarding a conpany for exploiting their sensibilities. Paying for the product wasn't enough. They need to show just how loyal they are to this company. This is comedy gold. Holy Christ these are some really, really unintelligent people we're dealing with here.

 

[ayvee]

Well. Come for the cute cupcake story, stay for the inexplicably depressing comment threads, I guess.

 

[EyeReaper]

So, Bioware fucks up ME3's ending, and people ship them cupcakes. Bioware puts a feMC in their trailer... and gets cupcakes for it.

Is this just the common response for everything BW does? and Didn't Mass Effect 3 do the same thing? I know at least one trailer for it starred femshep.

 

[Radoh]

Seriously, cupcakes to Bioware again? I seem to recall they were sent 400 cupcakes for the Mass Effect 3 ending thing back when it was first released, and now as a reward for doing what they did back then? I mean, Femshep showed up in the commercials for ME3, why didn't they get a batch of cupcakes then?

Clearly the answer is every time Bioware does a thing they should get punishment/reward cupcakes so they can think about what they did/be proud of their work.

 

[-Dragmire-]

Did they eat them this time? As I recall, they donated away the last batch.

 

[Frankster]

I honestly was under the impression FemShep was the face of mass effect series, at least after Me2 and most definitly for Me3. In forums it was common to big up femshep, on commercials and trailers I remember it being Femshep,etc...

To point I felt like a naughty rebel for sticking with MaleShep and even enjoying Hamils voice acting.
Just goes to show how hanging out on the net distorts my vision of reality.

 

[Erttheking]

OH MY GOD! get over yourselves! If you hand out prizes to whoever showcases a female character then you're part of the problem! You're swinging too far in the other direction.

So people aren't allowed to engage in negative feedback OR positive feedback? What the flying hell are people SUPPOSED to do then?! And "Whoever showcases a female character?" The hyperbole surrounding these arguments strikes again. Can you even show me one other case of this happening?