@Kierkegaard said:

@believer258 said:

@Napalm said:

Renegade your ass out of that situation.

Excellent choice of words, my friend.

On topic, I wish they had an option to just turn off homosexual (or heterosexual, for fairness) romances in the menu or at the beginning of the game. I know you can back out anytime, but I just don't want to initiate talking about it in the first place.

Besides, leaving the option open for every crew member makes it seem like all of them are bisexual. Except for the Asari, I don't believe that any of the species in ME are all bisexual and it makes suspension of belief even harder when you realize that your ship is full of people whose sexuality is of a relatively rare type. I dunno, it just doesn't feel right to me.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm homophobic. It just means that having one or two bi options and several options only for male and several only for female Shephard would have made the game's romances seem a lot more natural.

Okay, so, life lesson here: Gay, straight, or Bi, there is no flashing light on a person. Being comfortable with who you are, in life or as Shepherd, means that when people of the same or opposite sex hit on you or take something nice you said as romantic, as long as they do so without objectifying you, the decent thing to do is to be honest and nice to them.

Dancing with my girlfriend in gay clubs is great! The atmosphere is really fun and the music is intoxicating. If other men hit on me, I kindly say I'm straight and we're good.

You want Mass Effect to imitate real life romance? Criticize the hokey leading dialogue and cinemax-quality sexy talk. Having Shephard be an equal avatar for all people in this world is the best approach Bioware could make. Shame it took them this long.

Here's another life lesson: Listen and read better before telling someone a bit on how they should live.

I was not talking about Shephard. If someone wants to role play as a gay Shephard, that's A-OK with me. I'm talking about how most or all of the love interests are bisexual. I just find it odd that the Normandy seems to be chock full of bi people, some of whom were on the Normandy before and showed no signs of interest in a male Shephard (like Kaidan).

But a quick look at the actual romance options reveals I was a bit shortsighted. Not all of them are available for both characters; this is the impression I was under before.

On another note, Samantha Traynor is, according to the ME wiki, a female-only option. And I had already played chess with her and everything! Fuck. I don't want Jessica Chobot and I have no interest in fucking a blue alien, so I guess this Shephard is just going to do the knuckle shuffle every now and then.

EDIT: And I agree that the lovey-dovey dialogue sucks like a ho on the day the soldiers come back.

...

...

Gee, that's quite a simile considering the material at hand.

I like the idea that everyone in the space-future is a space-bisexual.

The level at which people worry about this sort of thing happening always amuses me. Maybe it's because I am actually gay, but I'm not sitting here worrying about accidentally having my video game character fuck Ashley. If it really does worry you that much, just quicksave before a conversation. I'm not one of those people that leaps up to scream "homophobia!" at every conversation where "gay" is an issue, but this sort of thing is never some sort of controversy in the reverse.

@believer258 said:

@Kierkegaard said:

@believer258 said:

@Napalm said:

Renegade your ass out of that situation.

Excellent choice of words, my friend.

On topic, I wish they had an option to just turn off homosexual (or heterosexual, for fairness) romances in the menu or at the beginning of the game. I know you can back out anytime, but I just don't want to initiate talking about it in the first place.

Besides, leaving the option open for every crew member makes it seem like all of them are bisexual. Except for the Asari, I don't believe that any of the species in ME are all bisexual and it makes suspension of belief even harder when you realize that your ship is full of people whose sexuality is of a relatively rare type. I dunno, it just doesn't feel right to me.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm homophobic. It just means that having one or two bi options and several options only for male and several only for female Shephard would have made the game's romances seem a lot more natural.

Okay, so, life lesson here: Gay, straight, or Bi, there is no flashing light on a person. Being comfortable with who you are, in life or as Shepherd, means that when people of the same or opposite sex hit on you or take something nice you said as romantic, as long as they do so without objectifying you, the decent thing to do is to be honest and nice to them.

Dancing with my girlfriend in gay clubs is great! The atmosphere is really fun and the music is intoxicating. If other men hit on me, I kindly say I'm straight and we're good.

You want Mass Effect to imitate real life romance? Criticize the hokey leading dialogue and cinemax-quality sexy talk. Having Shephard be an equal avatar for all people in this world is the best approach Bioware could make. Shame it took them this long.

Here's another life lesson: Listen and read better before telling someone a bit on how they should live.

I was not talking about Shephard. If someone wants to role play as a gay Shephard, that's A-OK with me. I'm talking about how most or all of the love interests are bisexual. I just find it odd that the Normandy seems to be chock full of bi people, some of whom were on the Normandy before and showed no signs of interest in a male Shephard (like Kaidan).

But a quick look at the actual romance options reveals I was a bit shortsighted. Not all of them are available for both characters; this is the impression I was under before.

On another note, Samantha Traynor is, according to the ME wiki, a female-only option. And I had already played chess with her and everything! Fuck. I don't want Jessica Chobot and I have no interest in fucking a blue alien, so I guess this Shephard is just going to do the knuckle shuffle every now and then.

EDIT: And I agree that the lovey-dovey dialogue sucks like a ho on the day the soldiers come back.

...

...

Gee, that's quite a simile considering the material at hand.

I was responding to "I know you can back out anytime, but I just don't want to initiate talking about it in the first place." The concept of making sure no gay or straight people or at least possible romances exist in your playthrough to save you from... whatever... is the bit I'm getting at. That's some bullshit, like I said. I don't regret the lesson.

My impression is that there are two ways to think about the characters' sexual orientation. One is in a linear progression of a single, three-game story. The other is in some sort of multi-dimensional "who can these people love across all playthroughs." I think you're looking at it the second way even if you're seeing more complexity in orientations than you did before. That just doesn't make sense to me. If you're truly Shephard, your life as that character is linear and all that you know of you shipmates is linear. Unless Kaiden or Ashley say, "hey, I'm bi," then using how they act in different linear stories to understand their overall orientation doesn't make sense.

Orientation and gender are self-identified traits. The only person who can say what they truly are is that person, not someone observing them. I haven't looked into it as much as you have, so maybe more people self-identify as bi or gay than you would expect in a small crew. In that case, the ol' "this is science fiction so the percentages of orientation on the Earth in 2012 don't really matter" argument comes in.

Listen, I'm not trying to insult you. I just found your approach to the different romances in the game shortsighted and honestly a bit offensive. Felt like saying something. Probably could have had a less pedantic tone.

So this mean that if I play as lady Shepherd I can finally lez out with all the space hotties on my ship?

Couple things, yes turian ladies are just turians without the fringe. Makes sense, turians are supposed to be avian, females would be hens to the male roosters.

What bugs me is they have tits. Turians don't appear to be mammals, so what's with the mammaries. I noticed this in SWTOR, fucking Rodian ladies had tits. At least they did female salarians right by not giving amphibians sexual characteristics of mammals. Krogan appear to be done right too, as reptiles.

Now that I think about it, do hanar reproduce asexually? They're invertebrate.

"I accidentally slipped and fell onto his penis."

@Kierkegaard said:

@believer258 said:

@Kierkegaard said:

@believer258 said:

@Napalm said:

Renegade your ass out of that situation.

Excellent choice of words, my friend.

On topic, I wish they had an option to just turn off homosexual (or heterosexual, for fairness) romances in the menu or at the beginning of the game. I know you can back out anytime, but I just don't want to initiate talking about it in the first place.

Besides, leaving the option open for every crew member makes it seem like all of them are bisexual. Except for the Asari, I don't believe that any of the species in ME are all bisexual and it makes suspension of belief even harder when you realize that your ship is full of people whose sexuality is of a relatively rare type. I dunno, it just doesn't feel right to me.

And no, this doesn't mean I'm homophobic. It just means that having one or two bi options and several options only for male and several only for female Shephard would have made the game's romances seem a lot more natural.

Okay, so, life lesson here: Gay, straight, or Bi, there is no flashing light on a person. Being comfortable with who you are, in life or as Shepherd, means that when people of the same or opposite sex hit on you or take something nice you said as romantic, as long as they do so without objectifying you, the decent thing to do is to be honest and nice to them.

Dancing with my girlfriend in gay clubs is great! The atmosphere is really fun and the music is intoxicating. If other men hit on me, I kindly say I'm straight and we're good.

You want Mass Effect to imitate real life romance? Criticize the hokey leading dialogue and cinemax-quality sexy talk. Having Shephard be an equal avatar for all people in this world is the best approach Bioware could make. Shame it took them this long.

Here's another life lesson: Listen and read better before telling someone a bit on how they should live.

I was not talking about Shephard. If someone wants to role play as a gay Shephard, that's A-OK with me. I'm talking about how most or all of the love interests are bisexual. I just find it odd that the Normandy seems to be chock full of bi people, some of whom were on the Normandy before and showed no signs of interest in a male Shephard (like Kaidan).

But a quick look at the actual romance options reveals I was a bit shortsighted. Not all of them are available for both characters; this is the impression I was under before.

On another note, Samantha Traynor is, according to the ME wiki, a female-only option. And I had already played chess with her and everything! Fuck. I don't want Jessica Chobot and I have no interest in fucking a blue alien, so I guess this Shephard is just going to do the knuckle shuffle every now and then.

EDIT: And I agree that the lovey-dovey dialogue sucks like a ho on the day the soldiers come back.

...

...

Gee, that's quite a simile considering the material at hand.

I was responding to "I know you can back out anytime, but I just don't want to initiate talking about it in the first place." The concept of making sure no gay or straight people or at least possible romances exist in your playthrough to save you from... whatever... is the bit I'm getting at. That's some bullshit, like I said. I don't regret the lesson.

My impression is that there are two ways to think about the characters' sexual orientation. One is in a linear progression of a single, three-game story. The other is in some sort of multi-dimensional "who can these people love across all playthroughs." I think you're looking at it the second way even if you're seeing more complexity in orientations than you did before. That just doesn't make sense to me. If you're truly Shephard, your life as that character is linear and all that you know of you shipmates is linear. Unless Kaiden or Ashley say, "hey, I'm bi," then using how they act in different linear stories to understand their overall orientation doesn't make sense.

Orientation and gender are self-identified traits. The only person who can say what they truly are is that person, not someone observing them. I haven't looked into it as much as you have, so maybe more people self-identify as bi or gay than you would expect in a small crew. In that case, the ol' "this is science fiction so the percentages of orientation on the Earth in 2012 don't really matter" argument comes in.

Listen, I'm not trying to insult you. I just found your approach to the different romances in the game shortsighted and honestly a bit offensive. Felt like saying something. Probably could have had a less pedantic tone.

Eh. No offense was meant. In the end, I really just don't want to have to dance around dialogue options to avoid having a romance with someone I don't want my Shephard nailing. It would be great if I could talk to Cortez (or Liara... or Traynor... or Vega... or whoever I don't want) and learn more about him without that option, or even that notion, ever coming up.

@believer258: Yeah, seems like the shift from "I'm nice" to "I want to fuck you eventually" might be a little blurry. That's kinda life like, but it's a hard line to walk. Happy gaming.

Just hit it and quit it. Also, it's not gay if you didn't make eye contact.