BioWare Explains Why There's No Homosexuality in Mass Effect 2

[thenamelessloser]

The PG-13 explanation is just plain lying. The game has more profanity than the first one (how many PG-13 movies have the f word). ME2 I think was also hyped to be a "darker" and more mature game than the first one. Yet, the first one had a possible lesbian relationship...

 

[Fappy]

I think Casey Hudson's answer sounds a lot more reasonable. Video Games, especially in the current generation, have always borrowed heavily from movies, so building a game like "a PG-13 movie" sounds a lot more understandable to me.
[small](it also explains why there's no actual nudity in these games)[/small]

I find Muzyka's answer a little bit puzzling. The Mass Effect series has always had this "build-your-own-adventure" vibe; in theory, Shepard should be the players' concept, not the game designers'.

I tend to agree with this. The culmination of the romance in part 1 was far more...well, physical, than in part 2. Honestly, I can live with fading to black instead of watching characters knock boots in the uncanny valley. But I'd still rather have the option to bed the ladies should I want to.

I mean, seriously, have you seen Miranda's ass?

I have "investigated" it on several occasions, yes.

 

[kotorfan04]

Bioware, let me see if I get this straight, the player has the choice in the first game to either commit/not-commit genocide TWICE, and chose whether he wanted to allow the ruling galactic council die, and all that is kosher but if he considers having rough hairy bum sex with other guys... well shit we have a story arc in mind.

 

[Lucifron]

Why all the damnable fuzz? How the hell can anyone give a shit about the lack of hairy bum sex in Mass Effect 2? Why, Why!?!?

 

[data_not_found]

The real ballsy move to make is to have ONLY gay relationships in ME3. I mean, come on, if you can bump uglies from another species why would gender matter at all? I mean, shouldn't everyone get a piece of that fine angular ass on Garrus? Mmmmmmmm.

 

[Brandon Lum]

That's actually frighteningly true, but, still like almost everyone else has said here already, Dragon Age had it, so why not Mass Effect?

I suppose my view on this would probably be that Dragon Age had that Medieval theme going there and somehow that supposed to be okay with them, but suddenly when you go to space and jet rocket several thousand years ahead like Marty McFly, people suddenly become homophobic. I dunno, the fact that they dodged the bullet doesn't help the situation.

Oh well, Bioware.

 

[Abedeus]

Bioware should simply say that the characters you can have sex with are not gay. Hence no gay relationships.

That could work, except for females and Asari...

But really, it shouldn't bother people. It's not programmed in, so don't try to make them change it.

...Females can be gay, too... and all of the girls are straight in ME2. So are the guys. Asaris aren't considered "female", they have one gender with female-like features.

And I don't know what do Asari have to do with anything in ME2. You can't, no matter what gender you are, have a relationship with the Justicar, except for the "I really like you and what you do" or the "I'd kill you if I wasn't honor-bound to serve under you" attitudes she can have.

 

[WastedHero]

I have not played any of the Mass Effect games (okay, I played five minutes of the first one, but got distracted), but I'm going to throw my 2 cents in here anyway.

...hmmm...uhhh...I can't remember my original argument. In my defense my kind of drunk, but gay people are cool and if you want to be gay in a video game thats cool too. I don't have any problems with that.

Thank you

 

[Abedeus]

Bioware, let me see if I get this straight, the player has the choice in the first game to either commit/not-commit genocide TWICE, and chose whether he wanted to allow the ruling galactic council die, and all that is kosher but if he considers having rough hairy bum sex with other guys... well shit we have a story arc in mind.

Because Kaiden/Keidan (I hate him so much, I don't remember his correct name) isn't gay. Why would a straight guy want to have sex with a homosexual?

 

[Dark Angel Warlord]

well maybe the gaming world isnt ready to see male on male hot sexy action
and prefers to see girl on girl action since NO OFFENSE TO ANY most game players are male

 

[WolfThomas]

I had a friend who summarized it quite well, with they're either "dicks, pussies or arseholes" logic (borrowed from Team America).

Dicks: "Only Lesbians are hot (Liara, Yeoman Kelly), gay guys are gross"
Pussies: "Oh noes after the whole sex scandal of the first one, we don't want to get any more controversial press"
Arseholes: "Homosexuals don't sell games"

Honestly I don't see why it's a problem, it's implied everyone is more open minded in the future and hardcore religiousness is pretty rare. Inter-species sex is a lot weirder in my book.

 

[GoGo Yubari]

I wouldn't have a problem with their answers if they hadn't already allowed a lesbian option in the first game. The PG-13 answer is bullshit because it's an M rated game, and considering the amount of f-bombs they dropped in #2 I think they've moved past the family friendly image someone suggested earlier in the thread.

All in all I find their answers to be a bit of a cop out. They could have said "It would feel natural to turn one of the supporting characters gay" or "We didn't want to throw it in there to be a gimmick, if we do it we'll do it right" or "We already gave you femshep on Liara, what more do you want from us?"

By the way, the "Asari aren't female so it's not lesbian sex" is bullshit. The Asari carry the baby and give birth to it, so what is that if not a female?

It's incongruent with the original, really, say what you will, a lot of the reason why the original was interesting to people was that you could have a female shephard do it with that asari chick. Even though the "do it" really wasn't much. They -could- have taken that to an actual romantic level and have an interesting story to it in ME2, but I guess they dumped it like the novelty to sell more copies as it was.

My suspicion is their new EA overlords coerced the homosexuality out of it to look 'cleaner' on EA's clearly spotless reputation (try not to laugh too hard.) I cannot really prove that, its just an educated hunch based on their business practices.

Definitely agree. It reeks of censorship but I still think a lot came from Ray and Casey themselves since they are now part owners of EA are they not?

 

[blindthrall]

Personally I don't see the big deal. They didn't consider it, monogendered aliens can't be gay because they're only one gender, and if they didn't want to wedge it in just because then that's their right as the creators to do so. Granted things are getting a bit out of hand here in this debate but at least it's been moderately civil-

So Bioware is saying that FUCKING AN ALIEN, which is technically bestiality-

...nevermind forget what I said about civility. I sincerely hope you were joking because that is just out-and-out stupid. Beastiality is the act of having sex with a nonsapient animal. Alien species are clearly sapient. I guess by 18th century rules when blacks were considered sub-human, having sex with one would be beastiality under your logic, yes? No I certainly hope not. Of course defending the player's right to pursue relationships with aliens is just going to add more fodder for this and spin off another increasingly bizzare debate so I hope this dies right here and now.

Back to the topic at hand. I really don't see the big deal. It's not really "equality" if you're wedging in all possible relationship options just to appease a certain group. You can't please everyone, and it's more than obvious that the lack of full-on same-sex relationships did not hurt ME2's sales.

Well. I was half-joking. I said TECHNICALLY bestiality, if only because we've never had to deal with sapient nonhumans, so the laws aren't there. By my definition, bestiality is sex with a living creature outside your species. Nobody, even the diehard racists of the nineteenth century, ever said black people were anything other than Homo Sapiens, so I don't know where you're getting that from.

Here's a hypothetical for you. Let's say we discover tomorrow that dolphins have somehow created vast undersea metropoli, and have their own language. Would fucking a dolphin still be bestiality? I would definitely say yes, whereas sex with a Neanderthal no, since that stays within the species. I have a feeling the answer for most people lies in how humanoid the other species looks. Keep in mind none of the naughty bits in Mass Effect offend me (I want to bone Liara as bad as the next nerd) but I think it's funny how the controversy is about gay sex in a game where you can fuck aliens.

And any sex within a monogendered species would be homosexual, that's what the word means.

tldr; Why can't I hump a Hanar?

 

[GoGo Yubari]

... I'd have preferred they simply keep it as "we didn't want to write and record dialog for male and female romances of both sexes because that would've cost money. Seriously thats triple the romance dialog!"

The reasons they gave are utter crap.

Hell, an actual good reason is "homosexual males scare our target demographics."

Actually the male voice actor who plays Shephard said that he DID recite lines for gay male romance for Mass Effect but they never made it to the final game. That's yet another reason why there is anger about the issue on their forums. The lines were already there and it was pulled. Wussed out censorship plain and simple. Guess they just want the kiddies to buy Mass Effect games.

 

[Daipire]

\But they don't bring up the fact that asari all look like females and you can have some kind of homosexual relationship if you play a She-Shepard... so relationships in the game are not completely heterosexual.

Oh, so it's not homosexualitiy, it's beastiality, and that *can* be put in video games? :S

No offense to all the beasties out there (or whatever it's called) but i'd be better with my video game characters screwing a dude, rather then a dog.

 

[Dark Angel Warlord]

just like brokeback mountain ruined cowboy movies
i dont think they wanted a gay romance scene to ruin thiers
im sure most gay men wouldnt care anyways they are too busy on fashion wars or fudge packing brownie games
( JOKING )

 

[BeardMk2]

Saw this on Kotaku earlier. They dodge the question and respond with some BS about it being a PG-13 movie (despite the game being rated M. You know, for mature).

I can't stand Bioware anymore. I was on the edge, but they've dodged questions like this more than once (see AngryJoe's Dragon Age: Awakening review, and the interview in it) and that, coupled with their newfound lack of quality products, is ridiculous.

You're kidding, right? You "can't stand" Bioware because they dodged what in truth was a controversial question designed to get a controversial answer?

Not sure where that lack of quality products comes into it either, unless you seriously believe ME2 and Dragon Age were both steaming piles of poo (putting you in strong disagreement with both critics and the majority of gamers)...not yo mention their upcoming SW:TOR

 

[Byers]

Well, being a lesbian was clearly not contrary to Bioshock's concept for the character, so that sounds mighty thin to me.
You could bed Liara in the first one and the annoying secretary wench in the second one, as a female character.

Also, the game is rated M for Mature, so I fail to see why anything should be turned into a PG-13 movie. If there's one thing 13 year-olds aren't, as a demographic, it's mature.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

... I'd have preferred they simply keep it as "we didn't want to write and record dialog for male and female romances of both sexes because that would've cost money. Seriously thats triple the romance dialog!"

The reasons they gave are utter crap.

Hell, an actual good reason is "homosexual males scare our target demographics."

Actually the male voice actor who plays Shephard said that he DID recite lines for gay male romance for Mass Effect but they never made it to the final game. That's yet another reason why there is anger about the issue on their forums. The lines were already there and it was pulled. Wussed out censorship plain and simple. Guess they just want the kiddies to buy Mass Effect games.

That why every Mass Effect game has been rated M, and all the tie in novels mature as well? To appeal to the kids who can't legally buy the games?

I tend to agree with this. The culmination of the romance in part 1 was far more...well, physical, than in part 2. Honestly, I can live with fading to black instead of watching characters knock boots in the uncanny valley. But I'd still rather have the option to bed the ladies should I want to.

I mean, seriously, have you seen Miranda's ass?

You have no idea how hard I'm fighting the urge to friend request you right now...
...though, I still prefer Tali.

I'm with you there. First male playthrough, I romanced Tali without question. The second playthrough, I planned on romancing Miranda. Then I talked to Tali again. I now have two playthroughs with a romanced TAli. No male playthroughs with anyone else. I also have a female playthrough romancing Garrus.