While the next entries in BioWare's biggest franchises, Mass Effect 4 Will Miss A Big Opportunity If Shepard Returns

Dragon Age & Mass Effect Might Not Live Up To Past Entries

Mass Effect Legendary Edition promo art featuring a collage of the main cast in space.

Although Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf have shown very little of what the games might look like, comments from former BioWare writer David Gaider on Twitter could point to a troubling conclusion. Gaider, formerly a writer for games like Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, and KOTOR, as well as the former lead writer on Dragon Age, recently posted a Twitter thread commenting on the undervaluation of writers - saying specifically of his time at BioWare that it "turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were... quietly resented."

"Suddenly," says Gaider, "all anyone in charge was asking was 'how do we have LESS writing?'" With both Dragon Age and Mass Effect owing their success in large part to a strong focus on narrative, BioWare's seeming undervaluation of writers could spell trouble for the series' future entries.

BioWare's Biggest Franchises Are Built On Strong Narratives

Dragon Age: Inquisition promo art featuring the cast of characters in battle and a dragon outline in the sky.

Of course, with Gaider having left BioWare in 2016, and currently working as Creative Director at Summerfall Studios on the game Stray Gods - which Gaider said in an interview with Screen Rant was originally conceived as a musical DLC pitch at BioWare - there's been plenty of time for BioWare to course-correct. Both Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4 have relatively challenging narratives to tackle, with ME4 in particular having to pick up after the controversial ending of Mass Effect 3. While the gameplay of both series is solid, the failure of Mass Effect: Andromeda shows that if the narrative and writing around the gameplay is lacking, any new games won't be able to match the best that each series can offer.

Although some games can certainly get away with bare-bones or lackluster writing on the strength of their gameplay, both Dragon Age and Mass Effect are series built on the back of strong narratives, and as a former employee, Gaider's statements could paint a troubling picture for the quality of writing that fans can expect from future entries. For future Dragon Age and Mass Effect games to live up to their potential and be the best that each series has to offer, BioWare will need a strong emphasis on the games' writing.

Source: David Gaider/Twitter