David Gaider

Name:	David Gaider
Also Known As:
Occupation:	Senior Writer at BioWare
Medium:
Works:	Baldur's Gate 2, Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dragon Age
Official Website(s):	@davidgaider
Fan Website(s):
On Fanlore:	Related pages

David Gaider is one of the main writers at BioWare, responsible for many of the characters and story lines of Dragon Age, including the character writing for Dorian in DA:I.

Attitude to fans

Gaider seems to have a positive opinion of the Dragon Age fandom, made evident of his willingness to work with fanartists Aimo and Jakface. Responding to a question on twitter, Gaider replied: "@sharon_akins I support fanfic fully, but I can't read it, sorry. People are free to fondle my characters without my needing to see it. :)"

On September 10, 2012, Gaider retweeted fanartist carrinth's comic regarding Dragon Age's armor designs: "We REALLY need to make this hat. Att'n @mattrhodesart: http://carrinth.deviantart.com/art/DA-Mage-Hats-270995043 …" Matt Rhodes, a senior concept artist at Bioware, and Mary Kirby, one of BioWare's writers, responded:

@MagicLoveHose: @davidgaider @mattrhodesart What if the hat had its own SUB-hat? And then the sub-hats have sub-sub-hats and the dream is 3 levels deep

@davidgaider: @MagicLoveHose @mattrhodesart Sort of a Ukrainian nesting doll, but with hats? And when you get to the last hat-- CESPENAR leaps out!
‏@mattrhodesart: @davidgaider Ha! I'm drawing it up now. Seriously, those poor mages really do need some hat love.
@BioMaryKirby: @mattrhodesart @davidgaider Matt, you are my hero.

@davidgaider: @mattrhodesart Yay! I would totally wear the SHIT out of that hat.

Gaider was active on Tumblr, but left with the following message:

Here’s a week’s notice that this blog will be coming down (as of next Friday, Jan. 30th), so if there are any posts you want to keep then now would be the time to find and save them.

As for why? Nobody’s telling me to do this, if that’s what you’re wondering. I came to Tumblr as a place to blog and maybe interact with some of the fans who otherwise wouldn’t go anywhere near the BSN. I find myself not enjoying it, however. I don’t enjoy the format of the site (the lack of decent post archiving being my biggest complaint) and I certainly don’t enjoy those people who insist there is one and only one way to use Tumblr (which is as a chat site, where everyone must spend 100% of their mental energies devoted to social activism).

I do really enjoy my interactions with a great many of the people here, however. I receive a lot of messages daily, most of which I can’t respond to but which range from the thoughtful to the kind to the heartbreaking. So thanks to those folks, and if I do decide to blog again elsewhere, I hope to speak with you again.

Kink Meme Scandal

In 2011, Gaider posted on Twitter that he had anonymously posted porn somewhere.

After a joke from flutiebear based on the tweet that Gaider had posted Zevran x Wynne fic on the kink meme, some Dragon Age fans became upset at the prospect of Gaider lurking around the fan community while others welcomed it.

Sexuality in video games

In March 2011, a user named Bastal posted a long essay on the BioWare Social Network regarding his anger that BioWare neglects the straight male gamer. Gaider's response was noted for being polite and thoughtful, despite the homophobic tone of the original author.

The romances in the game are not for "the straight male gamer". They're for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention. ...And if there is any doubt why such an opinion might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as "political correctness" if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They're so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance.