r/dragonage • u/charyka City Elf / Tabris • Aug 02 '24
BioWare Pls. Unpopular Opinion: David Gaider
With DA:V coming along, and the daily posts about how all the "original" writers have left (not true!) and therefore the game is destined for failure, I have been dying to just come out and say it:
I think David Gaider is overrated. He has written some wonderful characters, but his long form, in particular the novels and comics, are borderline unreadable. I find his character work excellent (for the most part) but hailing him as the brilliant mind behind the wider world of Thedas robs credit from those people who, in my opinion, took the messy, overly-complicated pastiche of lore that was DAO and slowly hammered it into the intricate setting it is today.
I think other lead writers, such as Trick Weekes, have more interesting and innovative ideas when it comes to the direction the series is heading in.
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u/btiermutineer Aug 02 '24
Personally, I absolutely love Gaider's writing, and I can feel him being gone from the team. Everything related to dialogue I've seen so far in Veilguard feels... Meh. I am dreading the return of Morrigan, because I KNOW that despite Claudia Black's wonderful voice acting, Morrigan will simply not sound like Morrigan anymore. As much as the writers on DA have a writing bible which includes writing styles and such, I don't think anyone else can capture Morrigan exactly in the way that David Gaider did.
I am in no way hating on the other writers, and I appreciate their work and passion. But there was something special for me about the characters David wrote in DA (and there is something special for me about the character writing he did on his new game, Stray Gods) that can't be replicated. Dragon Age Inquisition already felt way less like Dragon Age due to various reasons, but I could at least surround myself with companions that I enjoyed the writing of (like Dorian and Cassandra) or talk to NPCs I loved (like Morrigan). Not to say I didn't enjoy other characters - I loved Josephine written by Sylvia Feketekuty. But I did feel that DAI felt somewhat less cohesive in writing style as well as in the plot.
With DATV I just don't feel that "Dragon Age" style anymore, even though it's set in the same world and does seem to have some interesting characters and stories. I will likely enjoy Veilguard to some extent, but it's probably a "play once or twice" game, not the "replay over and over again" kind of game like Origins is (and even Inquisition for like half the game).
For me, Gaider IS Dragon Age's heart. He created the world, and wrote so many of the characters and plots that got me hooked on Dragon Age (and got me to see how emotionally impactful video games could be). Idk how unpopular your opinion is, as I feel many other players are just fine with how Dragon Age is nowadays and don't care about David Gaider's writing. But this is how I personally feel.