The Twitch streamer Asmongold has already drawn attention early on with criticism of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, particularly regarding the alleged LGBTQ+ agenda of the role-playing game. The game’s community on Reddit has noticed this and has now proactively protected itself from the streamer and his community. He feels treated unfairly.
What is Asmongold’s relationship with Dragon Age? Asmongold is known for being on a campaign against “wokeness” in recent months. This has been evident in his fierce criticism of the new Assassin’s Creed and his leading role in opposing criticism of Black Myth: Wukong or railing against “quota women“.
With Dragon Age, he positioned himself early on when he criticized alongside Mark Kern that the game uses “OP scars” to indicate that a character has undergone gender reassignment surgery. This was completely unacceptable to Asmongold.
Due to the ban from Twitch, Asmongold has been quiet for the past few days, but it was clear he planned to play Dragon Age upon its release and to tear it apart.
Reddit proactively bans every member of Asmongold’s community from Dragon Age
This is now his problem: As shown by Asmongold in the video “Bioware has Blacklisted Asmon,” the Reddit of Dragon Age has enacted a measure to protect against Asmongold himself and members of his community:
- Anyone who is part of Asmongold’s community – meaning they follow his Reddit – will be automatically and permanently banned from the Dragon Age Reddit and stripped of their commenting rights.
- This is intended to ensure that only genuine criticism of Dragon Age is allowed, as stated in a message being played to Asmongold.
- This regulation is meant to ensure that the role-playing game and its forum do not become part of a debate serving the “fight against woke culture”. Those who wish to talk about it can use a different medium.
This is how Asmongold comments on it: Asmongold says:
I think this is racism. Are they saying that all members of my subreddit belong to a… inferior culture? I don’t know what that is. That sounds really, really wrong. This is terrible – what a lousy generalization!
Asmongold’s statement is a reference to his Twitch ban, which he received among other reasons for referring to a culture as “inferior”.
In the comments, people agree with Asmongold:
- “Nothing says inclusivity more than: Not you!”
- “Silencing criticism is a good sign of the quality of your product.”
- “We are violating the rules because we exist. That is very tolerant and inclusive of them.”
This is what it’s about: Ironically, the comments confirm the reason for the ban. In the comments on Asmongold’s video, one gets a taste of what the Asmongold community is primarily concerned with right now: Not the criticism of a game, but the criticism of the scourges of humanity: diversity, equality, and inclusion.
That one can express criticism of Dragon Age without it turning into a culture war can be seen in the critique of YouTuber Skill Up: Dragon Age: “Sounds like the HR department is in the room” – The Veilguard is very well received, but one critic gives a devastating conclusion
