Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Star Wars: The Old Republic: No Same Sex Relationships
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Respect is a two way street.
QFT
Bottom line the last thing Bioware/ EA/ Lucas arts needs from this multi million dollar investment is to be dealing with public outcries from either side of the aisle and even having a remote chance to be dealing with legal issues, congressional hearings and getting the wrong press from commentators. I wouldn't touch it either.
I'm curious if concerned parents would also prevent a child from rolling a character of the opposite gender because they were worried that it might make their kid gender dysphoric. That seems a little more 'out there' than turning a kid gay, doesn't it? But it's kind of playing on the same field.
And if they didn't have too much of a problem with it, what would happen once they reached one of those heterosexual only relationship arcs where's the kid's character would have only one option, and that's to follow through on a relationship with a character of the same gender as they are in real life. Would this be damaging as giving them a choice in the first place?
I'm reasonably sure that anyone who has trouble with same sex options in the game would also have a problem letting there son roll up a female character, or their daughter a male character. Maybe the latter not so much because it can be more easily justified with vanilla logic, but I doubt either possibilty would often be permitted. But it's going to happen, so what then?
FATHER: Is that your character?
SON: Yeah a Smuggler!
FATHER: It's girl you know.
SON: Yup. She looks cool too.
FATHER: Erm ... but wouldn't you rather make a guy? You know, a big mean fella that no one would want to mess with?
SON: Nah, this is good. I'm gonna kick some ass with this one! Oops -- sorry.
FATHER: ...
Just from pure curiosity, I wonder how these kinds of conversations play out.
Chosing a character of the opposite gender is very different from engaging in a same sex relationship.
edit: Father: Hey she is hot. Can you make a redhead?
Son: Yeah, watch..
Father: Not bad .. Not bad..
Why does the percentage matter? Because if you remove everything from a game that doesn't appeal to some tiny segment of the potential audience, it isn't very long before there is pretty much nothing left, because everything "offends" or at least doesn't appeal to someone.
And it isn't bigoted to not include an option; it's only bigoted to include something and paint it in an exclusively negative light. The worst that can be said of not including an option at all is that the experience is less complete. The argument that it is somehow bigoted not to include same sex romance options is ridiculous; by that standard most books, comics, movies, tv shows, other games, etc. etc. are deeply bigoted products, by virtue of not including something which has absolutely nothing to do with the story they are telling. Does not compute.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
Star Trek????
Dont care.
Remember Old School Ultima Online
Er...if you're talking about avatars in a game there's no sex. The relationship is poorly simulated. You can't be in a heterosexual or homosexual relationship in a video game.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Yeah, pretty much my reaction too. My question is what happens when they hit a romance plotline and they only have one avenue open to them -- the one that's hetero for their character, but not so for the player running it. Is that a problem?
Maybe they patch in the gay later on as RMT. Pay2Gay? Free2Gay?
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
lol this thread shows how low the world has become. i mean really ??? Reallyyyyy??
You mean how the world still is? lol yep still got some uneducated lingering about.
I think it's a big slip up on Bioware's part. I think there would have been less controversy if they had just included same sex companion relationships like they do with all of their games. It's not a new concept.
This was the funniest thing I read all day. Lol.
Gay Wars...
Male Jedi in mid drifts and stacks. I don't think that represents what Star Wars is at all. Let's be honest, when it comes to homosexuality, there isn't a real set standard or reasonable limit to how players would like to present themselves. Allowing this in an mmorpg opens Pandora's box to what should be allowed in the game. The gay community would make the game about sexuality and sexual expression and not about the Star Wars experience. This is something ANY gaming company should try to avoid as this could change the over all vision and direction of the game altogether. Who is to say that the gay community wouldn't expect more versatile "gay" expressions through the game through outfits, character customizations and character animations. A girl may prefer their character to walk like a guy and a guy would prefer to walk like a woman. Why wouldn't the gay community be outraged because ToR and ToR alone discriminates against homosexuals?
Homosexuality is was and always will be more about "sexuality" and sexual expression. It is an adult topic because it's more about sex and sexual expression more than it is about personal preference. It's one thing to give players this option in a single player environment but in an mmorpg, it's all about making a point and sometimes ones need to express themselves could clash with the vision and direction of the game itself.
What a sad development
I should note my vote on that particular subject was that I would pursue no romantic relationships at all.
meh, removed most of my post as it was more applicable to my real life views on things. For an MMO really it should be most about the MMO and players should make most of their own RP/content themselves. So really whether NPCs act in same-sex ways or not it doesn't preclude anyone from RPing such things with others if they want to.
Because it's a game and not a real life relationship...
Badspock, removed most of my post and made it more about MMO
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
^Post is disturbing. If gay soldiers have been serving their country in Iraq and Afghanistan (and long before that even), and proudly hold their partners hands, then why can't two bounty hunters? Don't make your issue in imagining that into someone else's issue.
Second, there is reasonable. And there is beyond reasonable. Just having same gender romance arcs is reasonable and fair. The argument that if you make things fair, then they will ask for much much more is ridiculous.
Third, homosexuality is not more about sexuality any more than heterosexuality is. Do you really REALLY think gays have more sexual expression than straight people? Have you turned on a tv, watched youtube, gone out in the street? Proclaiming that being gay brings with it more sexual expression that being straight sounds rediculous even if you live under a rock, considering that most gay people tend to be modest in public so much so that you would probably think they were straight.
Although I don't agree with people's reasons for playing the opposite gender. There's no way to tell as there is no sex test upon character creation.
How ever, including homosexual content is preventable. Because the developers have control over the content.
{mod edit}
-Azure Prower
http://www.youtube.com/AzurePrower
Which is typically why romance is left out as defined content in MMOs. It opens up a can of worms because it touches on a controversial topic.
Adding ingame character relationship choices for only hetero choices creates the mess you see in this thread. Adding both options creates another quagmire where you have one playing the "think of the children!" card, amongst other bigotted views. Either way, people will be upset.
And yet, what exactly is this NPC romance relationship option really adding to the game? How many players are actually excited that they get to flirt with a scripted NPC autonomaton? Does it really add to the story or atmosphere of the game over what players would be able to pursue themselves simply by RPing with other players?
Really, the NPC romance 'feature' seems to just stir up far more trouble no matter how it's executed. I don't think it's worth all the trouble it's causing.
If the purpose of the game was a sex simulator or getting as many partners and they excluded the gay option, I would understand this debate alot more. If they decided that there were only gay relationships in the game, me being straigth, would have absolutly no problem at all. It would not, in any way, make the story of my character any less interesting. Don't think I ever went into a game with story, a book or a movie thinking "I wonder what kind of sexual relationships the characters will have".
Although I agree that's more of an adult topic, my main issue is that the same rules don't apply to heterosexuality. That's considered acceptable, but homosexuality is not. Both are issues of sexuality and one isn't moreso than the other. If it's fine to include elements of one, then why not both? If the topic of sexuality (through a tenuous extension of romance) itself has no place in the game (I'm even willing to accede to that), then neither varieties should be.
The real problem lies in that many people still see homosexuality as immoral, even though they vociferously deny it. Sorry, but with that as the foundation for debate, I'll just never be able to accept arguments based on it. Treat sexuality as one specific thing and don't try and divide it into it's "good" and "bad" halves because they don't exist.
The issue is that it's a double standard. If the same-sex NPC relationship option doesn't need to exist because it's a minor part of the game, then the hetero NPC relationship option doesn't have reason to exist either.