Orson Scott Card is a staunch opponent of gay rights and same-sex marriage. If you didn't know that already, you probably discovered it last year during the controversy that Shadow Complex was based on an Orson Scott Card novel.

One of the "outs" afforded Shadow Complex during this controversy was that Card didn't actually write the game. He didn't directly benefit from its success. The game's storyline featured very little of the crypto-fascist fantasy stuff in his novel and none of his politics. The game was "just" a Metroid style platformer with almost no social commentary. In interviews with the developers and the game's writer, they seemed suitably distanced from -- indeed, even embarrassed by -- Card's politics. So if you took issue with Card's stance on homosexuality, you could play the game with a clear conscience. At least that was what the creators of Shadow Complex hoped.

The Dragon Age license has no such "out". Orson Scott Card will be writing the comic books based on the game, which are due to begin in March. The politically pointed blog Border House raises a relevant point:

The added irony here is that, despite valid criticisms, Dragon Age is one of, if not the, most progressive games out there in terms of sexual inclusivity. It has two bisexual characters, and allows for homosexual sex and relationships. There is an obvious conflict of interest here, especially in terms of the storytelling: will the backgrounds and personalities of the bisexual characters be rewritten or ignored? Will they be part of some inane and insulting "I had a same-sex relationship but I learned better!" plot? Or will they simply not exist at all?

Border House further asks why Card is being hired to write the comics when there are already some wonderfully talented writers at Bioware who actually wrote the game.

The answer, of course, is that none of those writers are as famous as Orson Scott Card, whose fame is partly a tool of the movement to oppose same-sex marriage and gay rights. Just something to keep in mind when the Dragon Age comics appear next March.