On Mods in Dragon Age, a snippet from "Players Like Me - Representation in Gaming" Panel
EDIT: I wrote this the night of the panel, but didn't upload it until now. I believe I've edited it for as much context as possible. The representation panel was great, so I will cap on everything at a later time.
ORIGINAL: I wanted to take the opportunity to post this before later tonight, as I think it really is important to hear. The entire panel is extremely important, actually, and I want to give it proper time to lay out for everyone to digest with as much possible context as possible. But as I mentioned this particular subject over Twitter, I wanted to give this section its own light ahead of time. Here's the snippet from my upcoming panel wrapup on "Players Like Me - Representation in Gaming".
Also, thank you to Bioware for addressing this question. While this line of mods isn't something that I'd personally install, I do respect the fact that people can enjoy it on their own time privately, and the modders who simply made it available.
Special Note: I tried my best to write everything Mike Laidlaw and Melanie Fleming were saying to best avoid misunderstandings and inconsistencies. I missed a couple of things, but this is the gist.
A person in the audience asked about what the developers thought of the "Dorian Bisexual Mod" which he felt was, in essence, a complete disregard of Dorian's story, and he strongly disagreed with this mod.
Laidlaw took the question head on. He says that as a general rule, he likes mods. He appreciates the effort that modders take to add or extend the world, as it is the ultimate compliment. He says that in someone releasing a mod changing something fundimental, that "does not in itself bother me". He also referenced the Cassandra bisexual mod as well in this context. Because the end user has to install this, and it is not built into the game, that's not a problem. That does not an offense.
However, where the mod "goes off the rail" depends on the modder's language. If a modder has the language like "I have fixed the character by..." and follows it up by the change they have made in their mod, that's where the problem lies. The idea that they "fixed" that individual. Laidlaw does not mind changes being mdae, and people opting into that change. But if a modder were to do so, with the assumption that changing one's sexual identity is a good thing, "that's a disturbing line of thought."
Melanie Fleming also followed up by saying that there's a line that needs to be carefully considered and not crossed. The offense is if someone took someone else's art and swiped a paintbrush all over it with the intent of "fixing".