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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