Dragon Age: The Veilguard Character Customization Controversy

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Overview

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Character Customization Controversy refers to an online controversy surrounding both inclusion and lack of certain character customization options in the upcoming 2024 role-playing video game Dragon Age: The Veilguard (DATV), namely the ability to give your character top surgery scars or cellulite and inability to increase their chest and glutes size past a certain point. The gaming controversy went viral on X / Twitter and other sites in late September 2024 after the character creator was revealed by developers BioWare, with some praising the inclusive features and others finding them "woke" or problematic.

Background

On September 19th, 2024, multiple gaming media and content creators posted videos of the character creator from the preview build of the upcoming RPG Dragon Age The Veilguard developed by BioWare. The videos revealed that the character creation tool allowed options for adding top surgery scars, vitiligo and cellulite, among other features, and limited the maximum size of the character's glutes and chest to a perceivably modest amount.

For example, on September 19th, 2024, YouTube^[1] channel GameRiot posted a 26-minute-long preview of the character creator that received over 46,000 views in four days (shown below).

On the same day, several accounts on X^[2] / Twitter made posts expressing outrage about the top surgery scars being a customization feature, some of which went viral and sparked further discussions.

Notably, a September 19th, 2024, post made by X^[3] user @Mangalawyer listing various features of the in-game character customization received over 2 million views, 1,400 reposts and 7,500 likes in four days (shown below).

Online Reactions

Later on September 19th, 2024, X^[4] user @Grummz made a post in which they wrote that the game's customization features also included giving a character vitiligo and cellulite, commenting, "These are obvious fetish self inserts being foisted on gamers." The post (shown below) garnered over 2,000 reposts and 19,000 likes in four days.

Also on September 19th, X^[5] user @Mangalawyer shared a post about the limit on maximum glute size in the game (example shown below).

Following the posts, the customization features sparked a viral debate on X / Twitter, with users arguing over the inclusion and lack of customization options in the game.

For example, on September 19th, 2024, X^[6] user @CerberusX posted a screenshot of @Grummz's post, calling them out on being angry at the game for allowing for self-insert options. The post (shown below) received over 3,600 reposts and 62,000 likes in four days.

Several threads on Reddit discussing the character creator in DATV were posted to the site in late September 2024, with some criticizing the features of the in-game tool while others mocked those outraged by the inclusivity added to it.

For example, posts to the subreddits /r/KotakuInAction^[8]^[9] and /r/Gamingcirclejerk^[10] received hundreds of upvotes and comments each within one to four days.

The character creator for DATV also spawned various memes. For example, on September 21st, X^[7] user @TheBugleDaily1 edited in a photograph of musician Taylor Swift into the character creator screen, with the post (shown below) garnering over 280 reposts and 2,200 likes in two days.