These are just a few of the ungenerous reviews the new Baldur’s Gate expansion, Siege of Dragonspear, is getting on Steam. The game has generated this response entirely because Beamdog Entertainment included a trans character in their updated material.



All they did was INCLUDED a trans character.



Baldur’s Gate occupies a place at the crossroads of video gaming, tabletop gaming, and gaming nostalgia. Obviously it’s attracted the worst elements from all of these communities. It’s also meant that a friend has faced days of harassment.

I’m not asking that you buy this game—though, that couldn’t hurt. Rather, please, lend Beamdog your support, your kind words, your appreciation for helping to make gaming more inclusive, and a reminder that adding LGBTQ content to a game wins more than public hate, harassment, and toxic reviews.

(Additionally, you should absolutely check out Kathrine Cross’s words on Virtue Signalling & Trans Characters in Baldur’s Gate.)



This company’s takeaway from this experience, in 2016, cannot be that including LGBTQ content in a video game is not worth the pain.

Your support and positivity would mean a great deal right now.

Steam page for Baldur’s Gate: Siege of Dragonspear.

Beamdog’s forum for Siege of Dragonspear.

Beamdog’s Twitter account.