Trent Oster, CEO of Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear developer Beamdog, has posted a statement on the company’s official forum in which he vows to address player complaints with the game.
At the same time, Oster also explicitly states that the studio does not condone harassment, which he says its developers have experienced in the wake of controversy surrounding the game’s release.
The studio has been criticized in particular for its handling of transgender character Mizhena. Her treatment in the game forms the center of a controversy that also includes criticism over bugs and technical issues with the title, which is an expansion to the original RPG classic Baldur’s Gate, and other complaints with the game’s content. This has led to online harassment of Beamdog developers, Oster writes. “I just want to make it crystal clear that Beamdog does not condone this behavior, and moreover that it will not have the desired effect as we stand behind all our developers 100%. We created the game as a group, and moving forward we’ll work on the game’s issues as a group, which I believe is exactly as it should be,” Oster writes.
For details of the fixes — both specific, and a broader picture of how the studio plans to approach making games in the future — read Oster’s post.
If you’re interested in better understanding the Mizhena controversy, you can read Gamastura contributor Katherine Cross’ editorial on the subject.