BioWare's Heir: Diversity In Games Is Not 'Video Game Affirmative Action'

Author: by Staff

In a new Gamasutra feature interview, BioWare's Manveer Heir tells Gamasutra that he wants to expand the palette of race and other character elements in games to tell better stories. "I find that to be incredibly interesting because I don't want to see this medium get ghettoized, like what happened with comics," says Heir, who is a senior level designer at BioWare Montreal, working on the Mass Effect franchise. "So, to me, thinking about the sexual orientation, the gender, and the race of a character can change... Even the age of a character -- that can change the way your game is structured, what your game is about, the things a game can comment on, the mechanics of a game," he said. "They can bleed into several areas." Heir knows that this issue, which he is passionate about, could be easily misinterpreted. "It's not about fairness, it's not video game affirmative action. It's about actually pushing our medium to make better games, to tell better stories in our games," he says. "There are many ways to add to games. This is just the one that I'm interested in. This is the one that I'm pursuing as best as I can while working in the industry. And I just hope that other people will think about it and hopefully join the cause." The full interview, which touches on avenues innovation might come from and how writers in games can be pushed to stretch their boundaries, is live now on Gamasutra.