Part of what makes the Dragon Age series such a special RPG is its branching choices and the ability to play as and romance people of various racial backgrounds. With Dragon Age 4 on the way, fans are already thinking about what fantasy race they may want to play, with some even anticipating certain branch decisions that could be in the game (such as killing Solas or not). However, there is one weakness to games with a lot of choices: branch and race favoritism.
Branch and race favoritism are not unique to Dragon Age, but the series has provided many examples. Examples include the limitations of playing a qunari Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition, the lack of romancable dwarves, elf Inquisitors getting a lot of special attention, mage Hawke being more central to the story than other classes, and so on. Branch and race favoritism are most noticed in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, making Dragon Age: Origins a good example that Dragon Age 4 should seek to emulate more than the recent titles.
The Cases Of Dragon Age 2 And Inquisition's Favoritism
A debate among fans is whether something is the game developers having favoritism or just something that turned out to be a popular choice for the players. However, the two go hand-in-hand, as what is popular usually is so because of the strength of the writing. The biggest case for favoritism is the lack of unique events for qunari in comparison with the elves. While elves got to speak old elvish upon many occasions in Inquisition, see the Fade in color, and romance any character, qunari only get to speak qunlat once, have limited romance options, and have absolutely no special dialogue when Orlais is being invaded by the Qun. Even with other qunari such as Iron Bull, qunari Inquisitors got little to no unique dialogue. They were expected to be a popular race, but that quickly plummeted when fans saw that elves could romance anyone and had a ton of unique events.
Another race that has been in the bottom rung of favoritism and popularity are dwarves, despite Varric being a fan favorite. While playable, they also got fewer unique events and fewer romance choices in Inquisition compared to elves. The biggest gripe of the fan community, though, is there have been no romanceable dwarves throughout the entire series. Three main games in, and every race has had romanceable options except for dwarves.
Lastly, fans have noticed favoritism towards mage Hawke in terms of having far more unique events and dialogue in Dragon Age 2. In fact, this is also true (to a lesser extent) in Inquisition, with the mage class having unique dialogue while warriors and rogues got less to offer. This also leans a little into the case of far fewer players picking dwarves since dwarves cannot be mages due to in-game lore.
What Origins Did Right
Dragon Age: Origins was masterful in unique dialogue and events for its protagonists, no matter their background. The game weaved in dialogue and events for every origin to come up again in the games' story. For the dwarves, they get a ton of special dialogue and events when the team travels to Orzammar. For the city elf, their place is Denerim, for the Dalish, they have special dialogue with the Dalish clan they visit. Mages get the same treatment in the mage tower, and human nobles have a vendetta against Arl Howe who is with Loghain. Even when not in a location tied to their background, the Warden character could also speak of their backstory to their companions on numerous occasions. Romances were not as numerous as in Inquisition, but they were less race-locked as well.
While Dragon Age 4 is not out yet, and many details are still to be uncovered, fans are hoping that the game will offer more love to dwarves and qunari in terms of unique dialogue and events. BioWare is known for considering a lot of fan feedback when making their games, so real progress is likely. This progress is important, too, as these little details can make the difference between a player feeling like a part of Thedas or feeling like just an outsider looking in.
Dragon Age 4 is currently in development.