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    Mass Effect 3

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Mar 06, 2012

    When Earth begins to fall in an ancient cycle of destruction, Commander Shepard must unite the forces of the galaxy to stop the Reapers in the final chapter of the original Mass Effect trilogy.

    EA Responds to Homophobic Campaign Concerning Mass Effect 3

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    MordeaniisChaos

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    #1  Edited By MordeaniisChaos

    Recently EA's VP of corporate communications spoke out against the hateful campaign aimed towards gay and lesbian relationships in Mass Effect 3, saying "Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about protecting children, it’s about political harassment."

    As a homosexual man myself, I find this incredibly refreshing. Not only did this statement say "hey, this isn't a game for kids and it is very clear about what the game involves in the rating, placed on the box," but when on to call out the actual point of the hateful campaign. Involving a number of "family oriented" organizations, a letter campaign found thousands of hateful, homophobic messages at EA, claiming that the inclusion of homosexual content wasn't advertised, and was just a message paid for by pro-LGBT groups.

    Being gay, especially bisexual, isn't really all that hard in the real world. People can be assholes, but most of the people you experience in life will be good about it. Even if they don't agree with it, they treat you like a human being, like anyone else. However, in certain sub-cultures, such as the gaming industry, that fact can start to blur a little. People aren't held back by guilt, they often find themselves going further than they would in reality. As a result, a fair amount of hate can arise, especially from the more... enthusiastic... crowds. It makes me sad seeing some of the bullshit that happens in the community, but generally even in this immature and rowdy and anonymous section of society things aren't that bad.

    But people are rarely very concrete in opposing the bullshit and the hate. They typically just say "sorry you weren't happy with our product, hopefully in the future we will perform more to your expectations."

    Which is what makes this statement kind of refreshing and put a smile on my face. It wasn't an apology to anyone. It was clear, concise, intelligent. It was a statement. It essentially said "we aren't fucking stupid, this isn't about the children, we did nothing wrong and you can kindly shut up because we aren't listening." Admittedly probably a little more supportive of my cause and aggressive than it really was, but the idea remains the same.

    I found it refreshing, and honest, and direct; but I'd like to know what this community feels. Often, you guys are pretty cool with homosexuality (I've had maybe one incident since I started following the site way back at the beginning, and that was more of an over-cautious reaction in which my thread was locked), so I'm curious what the vibe is here. And I look forward to people telling me I'm reading too much into it! And stuff :)

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    Branthog

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    #2  Edited By Branthog

    I appreciate EA's response, but when I first read the "outrage" from the ignorant twat side of life, it just pretty much reduced my hope for humanity. All manner of violence and shooting brown people in the face and strapping explosives to dogs? That's cool. Someone in the world might experience something that they can personally identify with that is not the same as what I identify with?! BOYCOTT!!!!

    The only thing I find a turn off about Bioware games when it comes to the sexuality is that I sometimes feel like the same sex characters are doing everything short of whipping their dicks out to convince me to get at it with them. It just feels like a reductionist attempt at creating emotion and experiences through the game by inept story-telling and game-mechanics (then again, that's not really specific to the same sex interactions, either -- because Jessica Chobot's stupid pointless character tried to throw herself at me in the captain's quarters out of like nowhere, because . . . I guess Bioware figured if you can't make sure the player gets a shitty five second sex scene at some point in the game, they're going to feel ripped off...?).

    As a straight dude, I'm totally looking forward to the chance to play through a gay character or a lesbian or even transgender or anything else. I mean, why not? Imagine if David Cage did something with the amazing graphics and voice acting of that demo from GDC a couple weeks ago (with the robot girl) mixed with the game play of Heavy Rain? That could be pretty incredible.

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    MordeaniisChaos

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    #3  Edited By MordeaniisChaos

    @Branthog: To be fair, some of the straight romance options were pretty "HEY TAKE MY COCK/VAGINA". The only romance I've really enjoyed in that series was probably Liara.

    Bioware is a bunch of nerds that barely understand sex and are too nervous about romance to portray it more intelligently.

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    Branthog

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    #4  Edited By Branthog

    @MordeaniisChaos said:

    @Branthog: To be fair, some of the straight romance options were pretty "HEY TAKE MY COCK/VAGINA". The only romance I've really enjoyed in that series was probably Liara.

    Bioware is a bunch of nerds that barely understand sex and are too nervous about romance to portray it more intelligently.

    Yeah, I mentioned that in my reply, too. The whole thing is just portrayed very poorly. It's like the writer responsible for the romance is a ten year old kid writing what they *think* love/romance/sex/relationships are like.

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    MordeaniisChaos

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    #5  Edited By MordeaniisChaos

    @Branthog said:

    @MordeaniisChaos said:

    @Branthog: To be fair, some of the straight romance options were pretty "HEY TAKE MY COCK/VAGINA". The only romance I've really enjoyed in that series was probably Liara.

    Bioware is a bunch of nerds that barely understand sex and are too nervous about romance to portray it more intelligently.

    Yeah, I mentioned that in my reply, too. The whole thing is just portrayed very poorly. It's like the writer responsible for the romance is a ten year old kid writing what they *think* love/romance/sex/relationships are like.

    And then it just gets sexier from there.

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    Damian

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    #6  Edited By Damian

    It's great to have the option to be a gay, bi or trans Shepard. But the part that makes me wary of it is that NPC's in Bioware games aren't really ever gay. They just swing whatever way that's convenient, which makes their character seem wishy washy. That said, Zevran is bi, and for whatever reason that seemed well established (I'm hazy as to if he actually made that explicitly clear). But that most (all?) of the other romancable Bioware NPC's who swing both ways come across... forced, and IMO harms the solidity and dimensionality of the character.

    I haven't played 3 yet, so maybe this exists, but I'd like them to make an actually homosexual crew member, and be firm about it. Shepard is the character we control, not the NPC's. So we shouldn't control their sexuality.

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    excast

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    #7  Edited By excast
    @Damian: Well, I think that is an inherent problem in trying to create a game about choice.  How do you make these characters be all things to all people?
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    deactivated-6418ef3727cdd

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    I thought it was great that EA held their ground and held up a giant, but very eloquent, middle finger to all the hate groups. On a side note, I think the gay thing might have something to do with why EA got voted the worst company in the world recently. Not unimaginable in a country where Santorum stands a chance of becoming a president.

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    Questionable

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    #9  Edited By Questionable

    A simple fuck you should have sufficed. really any more words wasted on these homophobes is a waste of oxygen. Its not like you can revert them trough logic. Years of god infused indoctrination and undiluted ignorance made sure of that.

    What kind of ruins it for me in Bioware RPG's is how everyone automatically swings your way. This removes any repercussion from the game for selecting a gender. Everyone being bisexual is counter productive to establishing a believable world, so much it hurts. The worsed offender of all perhaps being Alistair.

    I believe Dragon Age origins was the only recent game of theirs that did a half-decent job of that even when their only dating element just meant bribing everyone to fill a literal meter.

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    mandude

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    #10  Edited By mandude

    Pretty neat response. Short of using weaponry, I don't think they could have put it better.

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    JazGalaxy

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    #11  Edited By JazGalaxy

    I agree that the gay options in bioware games are a little too present in a straight environment. I remember in jade empire, I was just nice to Skye a few times and suddenly he was trying to get at me. It's frustrating in bioware games because all the sudden I find myself trying to manipulate the numbers just so my guy doesn't sleep with this other guy and thereby ruin my other relationship. I would rather have an option saying I'm straight at the beginning of the gems to keep unintentional gay content out rather than have the gem keep trying to guess if I am. gay players would probably feel the same

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    MordeaniisChaos

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    #12  Edited By MordeaniisChaos

    @Damian said:

    It's great to have the option to be a gay, bi or trans Shepard. But the part that makes me wary of it is that NPC's in Bioware games aren't really ever gay. They just swing whatever way that's convenient, which makes their character seem wishy washy. That said, Zevran is bi, and for whatever reason that seemed well established (I'm hazy as to if he actually made that explicitly clear). But that most (all?) of the other romancable Bioware NPC's who swing both ways come across... forced, and IMO harms the solidity and dimensionality of the character.

    I haven't played 3 yet, so maybe this exists, but I'd like them to make an actually homosexual crew member, and be firm about it. Shepard is the character we control, not the NPC's. So we shouldn't control their sexuality.

    I agree, Bioware has always been a little... weary to commit? They try to be all things to all people, but manage to do it without letting dudes fuck Garrus, which seems to be all gays care about.

    There are characters that are gay, in fact the gay guy seems to only exist to be the gay romance-able guy. Part of his back story has to do with him being gay. And by part I mean, most, from what I've heard.

    EDIT: and Zevran was basically an obnoxious Russian twink, so yeah, it was pretty transparent about that in the game. If it wasn't said in the normal course of the game (I always killed him, cause fuck that, he tried to kill me!), I don't think it was too far down. I only let him live once and didn't care much for him (again, tried to kill me!) so I didn't delve too deep. I was too busy hoping against all hope that Alistair would at least be Bi or something.

    @S0ndor said:

    I thought it was great that EA held their ground and held up a giant, but very eloquent, middle finger to all the hate groups. On a side note, I think the gay thing might have something to do with why EA got voted the worst company in the world recently. Not unimaginable in a country where Santorum stands a chance of becoming a president.

    Actually I believe there was an article that said pretty plainly, the worst company thing was a bunch of homophobes on /v/ or something banding together.

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    Damian

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    #13  Edited By Damian

    @Excast: If there are, let's say, 8 characters to possibly romance, we could break it up as 3 straight, 2 for each homosexuality, and a bisexual. That leaves at least 3 choices for any desired orientation, and would actually save on development effort and disc space, as they don't have to record both Shepards' lines in all romantic instances. Plus we would eliminate Branthog's problem where it feels like everyone's champin' at the bit to get into Shepard's pants.

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    Andorski

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    #14  Edited By Andorski

    EA PR must have jumped in excitement when they received the homophobic write-in campaign.

    "Shit, we get to be the good guys this time? We gotta get on this."

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    Jimbo

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    #15  Edited By Jimbo

    It's a pretty transparent PR move to try and change the story to anything positive. Let me know when MaleShep is sucking Jacob's cock tongue during half time at the Super Bowl or something. EA care about these things right up until it costs them a $ to do so.

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    darkdragonmage99

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    #16  Edited By darkdragonmage99

    Honestly I had issues with all of the relationships in mass effect 3 I felt like there was no build up it was like he were just talking to them and all of a sudden your in a relationship in or out situation.  
     
    The two games before you had to play the entire game connecting to who ever you ended up with in mass effect 3 it's like talk to them 3 times and lets fuck. 

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    celegorm_menegroth

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    I think the PR response is interesting. Personally, with no offense intended toward the gay and lesbian community members participating in this thread, I wish that Bioware would've stuck to a more rigid uniformity as to the choices you can make involving some characters throughout the series. Wasn't there a push for Bioware to include more "freedom of sexual choice" between ME1 and ME2? Where was the strong PR response then?

    Personally, I have no problem with the inclusion of a gay/lesbian romance option in a game. If it's done for the right reasons, and it's done well ( from a sociological or cultural standpoint, I would enjoy playing through a well written rpg from the juxtaposition of different backgrounds ... and not just the "paragon vs renegade" one; I'm sure a male vs female military officer's experience would be different, but to my knowledge that has no effect on ME ). But it seems to me that there were changes made in the hopes of selling a few more copies of the game ... because the people who were complaining were gamers who wanted something added to the game. Now, the complaints are coming from people who aren't interested in buying copies of the game, and the "third and final" game has shipped ... so it's pretty easy to tell them off.

    Moving to the tangent topic in the thread, the romances themselves: As is mentioned above, when Bioware attempts to be all things for all people ... they show their weakness in their core as a company; and that is that Bioware cannot work outside of their tight little box. Yet, they're trying to move out of that box, constantly. They're trying to be a developer who makes a shooter rpg, a traditional tactical rpg, that can crank out an action rpg at break-neck speed, develop an mmorpg that has shooter, melee and competitive pvp overlays ... They're going in ten different directions at once.

    I think all of this touches upon the root of a problem ...

    ... Bioware simply isn't a company that prioritizes good writing.

    They claim they do. They advertise that they do.

    Reality is ... they aren't. They're too busy trying to reinvent the kind of game they're making from one to the next to be bothered with writing. Or, they foolishly believe that they can rely on the great premise to carry them through. Or, they're leaning on the high quality voice acting to gloss over the often-times awful dialog.

    I've played my share of Bioware games, and the subpar writing is a central theme. Sure, the games look great. Some of the mechanics are neat. And even the premise of the games can be fascinating. A lot of the characters are truly great and memorable. But it's how they all work together ... that's where things fall apart. ( example: Tali and Legion had one spat ... and two minutes later and the whole thing is swept under the rug and you never hear about it again? Legion's people slaughtered some of Tali's friends just a short time prior. And now Legion is hanging out in a computer core. Tali's spent her life being paranoid about the Geth and active computers. A two minute exchange and all of that is a thing of the past? There were so many opportunities like that example where Bioware could have made the interactions of the crew much more ... given them some dimensions, some life. Instead you have a ship of cardboard standees. )

    But once you get past the shiny exterior you're left with the grim truth that ... Bioware can't, as a company, write a decent story. To make it worse, how they build games hardly promotes a good story, either. Who really believes that in any recent Bioware game that you are taking part in an epic adventure with a tight-knit group of comrades? ... Comrades who, technically for weeks or years at a time, could be found glued to one part of the ship, and never speak to one another. And you want me to buy that my character is having an "intimate" relationship with someone about as free to choose their own actions as a potted plant? It feels closer to rape under duress, than a romance, to me.

    As a result I find myself playing as an above poster does: I have to constantly consider what kind of conversation choices I am making to at least try to avoid the romantic entanglements. And not just the same-sex variety ...

    I try to avoid them all. They all make me feel dirty with how pathetic they sound, feel and work as a representation of a supposedly meaningful "personal" relationship.

    There's my one post for the quarter ... I'm sure someone will claim I'm trolling.

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    PassiveKaerenai

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    #18  Edited By PassiveKaerenai

    As an obnoxious Russian twink myself, here's my problem: I have yet to witness a gay Bio-mance that was actually remotely sexy. Give me more 'is he, isn't he' awkwardness! Give me more dramatic coming-out sequences! With a fetch-quest attached! Give Shepard the opportunity to first turn the guy down, and then slowly come to terms with his feelings! Give me the ability to punch bigoted reporters for their snide insinuations! etc.

    A lot of wasted drama, anyway. If Bioware wants to show homophobes, then they should make the gay content irresistibly good, not just peripheral and 'there'.

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    TheHT

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    #19  Edited By TheHT

    @Damian said:

    It's great to have the option to be a gay, bi or trans Shepard. But the part that makes me wary of it is that NPC's in Bioware games aren't really ever gay. They just swing whatever way that's convenient, which makes their character seem wishy washy. That said, Zevran is bi, and for whatever reason that seemed well established (I'm hazy as to if he actually made that explicitly clear). But that most (all?) of the other romancable Bioware NPC's who swing both ways come across... forced, and IMO harms the solidity and dimensionality of the character.

    I haven't played 3 yet, so maybe this exists, but I'd like them to make an actually homosexual crew member, and be firm about it. Shepard is the character we control, not the NPC's. So we shouldn't control their sexuality.

    There are 2 characters in ME3 who are exclusively homosexual.

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    Dagbiker

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    #20  Edited By Dagbiker

    @PassiveKaerenai said:

    As an obnoxious Russian twink myself, here's my problem: I have yet to witness a gay Bio-mance that was actually remotely sexy. Give me more 'is he, isn't he' awkwardness! Give me more dramatic coming-out sequences! With a fetch-quest attached! Give Shepard the opportunity to first turn the guy down, and then slowly come to terms with his feelings! Give me the ability to punch bigoted reporters for their snide insinuations! etc.

    A lot of wasted drama, anyway. If Bioware wants to show homophobes, then they should make the gay content irresistibly good, not just peripheral and 'there'.

    This is what they need to do with the straight sex too.

    More awkward moments.

    Like who takes off their clothes first or weird Fetishes, or odd mannerisms like someone never wanting to take off there socks, or leaving their shirt on.

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    Brendan

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    #21  Edited By Brendan

    @Excast said:

    @Damian: Well, I think that is an inherent problem in trying to create a game about choice. How do you make these characters be all things to all people?

    You don't. You make certain well developed characters the way that they are, and then it should be the character's option on how to respond to them. What I'm saying is that you should respond to the world, but the world shouldn't morph around you.

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    Kidavenger

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    #22  Edited By Kidavenger

    I don't understand why Bioware keep pushing this stuff in their games, it doesn't really bother me, but they just seem to be trolling their fanbase at this point, and it doesn't seem like they can afford to operate that way anymore. I used to regard them as highly as Blizzard and Valve and in less than two years now, there is very little to look forward to from them anymore. Dragon Age 3 is their last chance as far as I'm concerned; if that game isn't a home run the Bioware name may aswell be retired and just start calling them what they are; EA jr.

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    Hailinel

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    #23  Edited By Hailinel

    Good on EA for defending the game. It's just a shame that Bioware has a near complete inability to write romance that isn't comically forced and awkward.

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    artgarcrunkle

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    #24  Edited By artgarcrunkle

    Homophobes get the media attention they want and the romances in ME are ridiculously poorly written. Everyone loses as usual.

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    cexantus

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    #25  Edited By cexantus

    It sounds like some of you wanted Mass Effect to turn into a dating sim (*implying it isn't one already*)

    @Kidavenger: Hyperbolic. Hyperbolic everywhere!!!!

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    falling_fast

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    #26  Edited By falling_fast

    Every time I think the drama around this goddamn game is dying down, something else crops up.

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    stryker1121

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    #27  Edited By stryker1121

    @Branthog said:

    The only thing I find a turn off about Bioware games when it comes to the sexuality is that I sometimes feel like the same sex characters are doing everything short of whipping their dicks out to convince me to get at it with them.

    Are you talking about Zevran from Dragon Age in particular? That's the only character who basically threw himself at me, and even that's not so unrealistic. Zevran was just a male bimbo and there are people like that IRL. I thought BioWare did a nice job with gay characters in ME3, too. Cortez's character was deftly handled and when his respect for my Shep started to turn into something a bit more, i was able to kindly brush him off.

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    Vegetable_Side_Dish

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    This sums it up nicely.  
     


    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.


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    Jeust

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    #29  Edited By Jeust

    I for one welcome the freedom of choice. Nobody is forcing the player to make an homossexual character. I think some people do have too much time on their hands, and start worrying about meaningless things, like players other than themselves being gay in a video game.

    I don't have any problem respecting another person's sexuality or any other personal choice.

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    matiaz_tapia

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    #30  Edited By matiaz_tapia

    @MordeaniisChaos said:

    @Branthog: To be fair, some of the straight romance options were pretty "HEY TAKE MY COCK/VAGINA". The only romance I've really enjoyed in that series was probably Liara.

    Bioware is a bunch of nerds that barely understand sex and are too nervous about romance to portray it more intelligently.

    There's no good system to handle relationships beyond using the dialog wheel. That's regrettable, but that doesn't mean they are dumb, awkward nerds who don't understand sex ( believe it or not, they are normal people too). It just means there's no system for it so, sadly, it becomes gratuitous.

    Liara's relationship is run by the same limited systems, but it became more complex because it runs though 3 games...That's the biggest difference.

    There's no realistic body damage model either, and the science doesn't make absolute sense. But give them a break...They are trying and they cannot make a full fledged dating sim on top of all the other things they also had to do.

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    ZombiePie

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    #31  Edited By ZombiePie

    Well EA are partners in the "It Gets Better Project," but their response is still commendable.

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    Branthog

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    #32  Edited By Branthog

    @stryker1121 said:

    @Branthog said:

    The only thing I find a turn off about Bioware games when it comes to the sexuality is that I sometimes feel like the same sex characters are doing everything short of whipping their dicks out to convince me to get at it with them.

    Are you talking about Zevran from Dragon Age in particular? That's the only character who basically threw himself at me, and even that's not so unrealistic. Zevran was just a male bimbo and there are people like that IRL. I thought BioWare did a nice job with gay characters in ME3, too. Cortez's character was deftly handled and when his respect for my Shep started to turn into something a bit more, i was able to kindly brush him off.

    Most recently, I was thinking of James Vega and Steve Cortez. I was nice to both. I talked to both a lot. And next thing I know, they're making comments toward me that are very clearly open doors to sexual advances. (That stupid Jessica Chobot character and Kelly's replacement also did the same). It just feels so awkward when you're enjoying a game, enjoying the characters and then the game stops and says "THIS IS THE POINT WHERE YOU START TO INITIATE THE SEXING, IF YOU'RE INTO THAT". I don't actually think they handled it well in ME3, because I shouldn't *have* to brush it off. It shouldn't even be an issue. Basically, every character you are nice to opens the door to sexual relations with you -- regardless of gender. It just feels so... skeevy.

    Like I initially mentioned, it's actually a problem with all genders in all directions in Bioware games (the girl voiced by the woman from Boardwalk and Anders in Dragon Age II were other examples of that). I think it just comes across more strangely (as a straight guy, at least) when I'm just listening to my shuttle pilot or mechanic/squadmate talk about stuff and next thing I know he's basically opening himself to advances from me. The solution to that is not to make any of the characters throw themselves at you (unless it's part of their real nature) and to make the whole process more complex and deeper . . . and more subtle.

    As for the whole "gay experience versus straight experience". I still say "go for it". Not only because choice is always good in everything, but because I do believe that it's good for people (even adults) to be able to enjoy literature, film, games, music, and art of all varieties that incorporate things about them. Characters and experiences shouldn't always be "dashing straight white male". How about some of my fellow fatties? Other ethnicities? How about women? Other sexual preferences and gender switchers?

    And for those who don't like it, of course, they could just choose not to play gay characters -- but let's admit it... the reason all these people are complaining to EA is because they feel guilty about wanting to play gay characters. There's a pretty significant history of "though doth protest too much" when it comes to intolerance of these types of things.

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    pyromagnestir

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    #33  Edited By pyromagnestir

    That's about as good of a response as they could make to the dumb folk. As for what you say about about gamers being touchy regarding homosexuality, I'd be surprised if any less than 90% of the people who are so obnoxious online with the hate speak really gave a shit at all about someone being gay in real life (or at the very least will not be bothered once they grow up). Most of them are probably just obnoxious dumbasses who like to throw naughty words around that bother other obnoxious dumbassess. At least I hope so. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

    As for the "romance" these games always been about shit's about to go down, Shep is gonna get some before shit goes down, and not real romance. At least that's how I've seen it.

    @Damian said:

    @Excast: If there are, let's say, 8 characters to possibly romance, we could break it up as 3 straight, 2 for each homosexuality, and a bisexual. That leaves at least 3 choices for any desired orientation, and would actually save on development effort and disc space, as they don't have to record both Shepards' lines in all romantic instances. Plus we would eliminate Branthog's problem where it feels like everyone's champin' at the bit to get into Shepard's pants.

    You've just described pretty much exactly how Mass Effect 3's relationships are broken down, and have how the relationships in ME games have worked for both previous games minus the gay option, so I'm not sure I get the problem...

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    Praxis

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    #34  Edited By Praxis

    I respect BioWare and EA for taking a firm stance on this and refusing to lend any sort of credence to these criticisms. I think David Gaider's lengthy response in defense of same-sex romances in Dragon Age II is pretty much the gold standard for how companies should deal with these kinds of individuals, which is to say they need to be told in no uncertain terms that they are dead wrong, and that in arguing that their tastes should be indulged to the exclusion of others, they are in fact less deserving of being catered to at all.

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    JasonR86

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    #35  Edited By JasonR86

    Homophobia is the dumbest and most nonsensical of all the phobias.

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    Arker101

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    #36  Edited By Arker101

    @Hailinel said:

    Good on EA for defending the game. It's just a shame that Bioware has a near complete inability to write romance that isn't comically forced and awkward.

    QFT

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    Skald

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    #37  Edited By Skald

    They're on the wrong side of history, and they're going to have a hard time explaining this thirty years from now.

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    Animasta

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    #38  Edited By Animasta

    @JasonR86 said:

    Homophobia is the dumbest and most nonsensical of all the phobias.

    I'd argue that xenophobia is just as dumb to be fair

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    JasonR86

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    #39  Edited By JasonR86

    @Animasta said:

    @JasonR86 said:

    Homophobia is the dumbest and most nonsensical of all the phobias.

    I'd argue that xenophobia is just as dumb to be fair

    It's certainly up there.

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    JasonR86

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    #40  Edited By JasonR86

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    This sums it up nicely.

    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.

    Wow. That is a hell of a reframe dude. What was the valid issue again? I must have missed it.

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    Vegetable_Side_Dish

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    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    This sums it up nicely.

    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.


    Wow. That is a hell of a reframe dude. What was the valid issue again? I must have missed it.

    Increased representation and hopefully acceptance of LGBT relationships in mass media, or just in general.
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    JasonR86

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    #42  Edited By JasonR86

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    This sums it up nicely.

    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.

    Wow. That is a hell of a reframe dude. What was the valid issue again? I must have missed it.

    Increased representation and hopefully acceptance of LGBT relationships in mass media, or just in general.

    So your issue then is that EA is not being genuine when they make an announcement that supports a greater acceptance of the LGBT community in video games? That might be true but it is an assumption. And a cynical one at that. Why can't you just throw EA a bone when they try to do something nice regardless of the motivation? They get enough shit as it is.

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    Animasta

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    #43  Edited By Animasta

    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    This sums it up nicely.

    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.

    Wow. That is a hell of a reframe dude. What was the valid issue again? I must have missed it.

    Increased representation and hopefully acceptance of LGBT relationships in mass media, or just in general.

    So your issue then is that EA is not being genuine when they make an announcement that supports a greater acceptance of the LGBT community in video games? That might be true but it is an assumption. And a cynical one at that. Why can't you just throw EA a bone when they try to do something nice regardless of the motivation? They get enough shit as it is.

    maybe you haven't heard, but EA is the worst company in america, so there's NO WAY they would do something positive for no reason!

    <_<

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    Vegetable_Side_Dish

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    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    @JasonR86 said:

    @Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

    This sums it up nicely.

    This could hardly be a more obvious attempt on EA’s part to selfishly leverage a valid issue to garner sympathy.

    Wow. That is a hell of a reframe dude. What was the valid issue again? I must have missed it.

    Increased representation and hopefully acceptance of LGBT relationships in mass media, or just in general.

    So your issue then is that EA is not being genuine when they make an announcement that supports a greater acceptance of the LGBT community in video games? That might be true but it is an assumption. And a cynical one at that. Why can't you just throw EA a bone when they try to do something nice regardless of the motivation? They get enough shit as it is.

    I'm sure it's true. 
    I don't like it because it's a smokescreen for their horrible business and PR practices elsewhere in the industry. 
    I don't like it because it's wholly disingenuous and insulting, expecting us to believe there's some company-wide ethical code driving this multinational company that has proven to have very little respect for employees and customers.
    It's irrelevant because there have already been dozens of games with LGBT characters, and more recently relationships, since the 1980s, including Bioware games.  
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    viking_funeral

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    #45  Edited By viking_funeral

    It seems to me that coming out strong against homophobic complaints about Mass Effect is a simple way to paint the entire fanbase which is upset with their game as being bigots and irrational. People in the know will realize that it's a bunch of different fractions upset for different reasons, and that more than likely they don't even agree with each other, but it's a pretty standard PR reaction to hope that your detractors do something extreme so you can paint them all as extremists. And this doesn't come long after EA was voted worst company in the Consumerist poll. (Yes, some of you are very upset about an internet poll that didn't vote Bank of America as the winner for the 6th time. Get over it. It's an internet poll. You might as well get upset at the polls on GameFAQs).

    EDIT: I guess I should read more pages before commenting. If you don't think this is something that major corporations or politicians do, then you need to spend more time in the business world.

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    Damian

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    #46  Edited By Damian

    @pyromagnestir: As I said earlier in the thread, I haven't played it yet, and was only commenting on ME1&2 and DAI&II. As such I certainly ain't complaining about ME3 (though I did assume they'd stick with the old format of hetero and bisexual only). It's great to hear they've committed.

    It's not too hard to see how the old way could be construed as representing homosexuality to be a choice (as we literally chose the sexual orientation of the NPC's when homosexual romance was an option).

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    Vinny_Says

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    #47  Edited By Vinny_Says

    @Dagbiker said:

    @PassiveKaerenai said:

    As an obnoxious Russian twink myself, here's my problem: I have yet to witness a gay Bio-mance that was actually remotely sexy. Give me more 'is he, isn't he' awkwardness! Give me more dramatic coming-out sequences! With a fetch-quest attached! Give Shepard the opportunity to first turn the guy down, and then slowly come to terms with his feelings! Give me the ability to punch bigoted reporters for their snide insinuations! etc.

    A lot of wasted drama, anyway. If Bioware wants to show homophobes, then they should make the gay content irresistibly good, not just peripheral and 'there'.

    This is what they need to do with the straight sex too.

    More awkward moments.

    Like who takes off their clothes first or weird Fetishes, or odd mannerisms like someone never wanting to take off there socks, or leaving their shirt on.

    *ziip*

    -Uhh....what's with the rash?

    -Damnit I thought mordin's cream would fix this. *Blushes*

    And it was never the same for them aboard the Normandy ever again....

    Bioware pay me!

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    GreggD

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    #48  Edited By GreggD

    @Branthog said:

    @stryker1121 said:

    @Branthog said:

    The only thing I find a turn off about Bioware games when it comes to the sexuality is that I sometimes feel like the same sex characters are doing everything short of whipping their dicks out to convince me to get at it with them.

    Are you talking about Zevran from Dragon Age in particular? That's the only character who basically threw himself at me, and even that's not so unrealistic. Zevran was just a male bimbo and there are people like that IRL. I thought BioWare did a nice job with gay characters in ME3, too. Cortez's character was deftly handled and when his respect for my Shep started to turn into something a bit more, i was able to kindly brush him off.

    Most recently, I was thinking of James Vega and Steve Cortez. I was nice to both. I talked to both a lot. And next thing I know, they're making comments toward me that are very clearly open doors to sexual advances. (That stupid Jessica Chobot character and Kelly's replacement also did the same).

    That's impossible, considering Cortez is gay, Vega is straight, and Traynor is a lesbian. You can't possibly have been hit on by all of them using the same character.

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    Red

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    #49  Edited By Red

    I think ME3 handled gay relationships pretty well. I admit it was kinda weird when Kaidan hit on me (especially considering in ME1 he had confessed feelings about a girl in his biotics training, and thought Liara was cute), but hey, I can totally understand him falling in love with Commander Shepard. The shuttle pilot was fine too, as despite being gay, he never actually tried to hit on me. Perhaps if they had made Garrus hit on me I would've been a bit upset, but they didn't. And everything was good.

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    nail1080

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    #50  Edited By nail1080

    @MordeaniisChaos said:

    Recently EA's VP of corporate communications spoke out against the hateful campaign aimed towards gay and lesbian relationships in Mass Effect 3, saying "Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about protecting children, it’s about political harassment."

    As a homosexual man myself,

    stopped reading there

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