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

[Jared]

Not good enough, Bioware. You could be a lesbian before! And then CARRY OVER YOUR LESBIAN!

lmao, this made me laugh so hard!

But, its true. You wanna make a free roam experience with characters, let us do what we please in terms of realtionships!

 

[LiquidGrape]

[MULTIPOST. SORRY.]

 

[TheTygerfire]

I really don't care whether there is gay in Mass Effect or not. Plus, Male Shepard's not gay. I can't picture him ever being gay either. Female Shepard obviously is though. Unisexual or not, asari are clearly female in build.

But, then again, I'm analyzing the sexual orientation of fictional characters...

 

[chstens]

To be honest, I don't care.

 

[snow]

uh oh.. I'm having war flashbacks from a few months ago when this was brought up in a thread here at the escapist... Considering the topic of discussion and the horrible memories of that thread, this may not end too well. =\

If anything, they should have just kept to themselves instead of attempting to answer the question.. No matter what answer they gave, those who were upset by their decision wouldn't be any less upset, so trying just hurts them (the company) even more.

Especially when it comes to 2 people giving different answers... Most people will come to the conclusion that they're hiding something without realizing they are just 2 different people giving their own personal take of the situation.

It's like 2 field workers working on the same farm being asked what crop they're raising... One says tomato, the other says potato.. Person who asked instantly thinks they're growing tobacco plants.

Maybe that's not as good of an example that I was looking for.. but oh well..

 

[LiquidGrape]

[MULTIPOST. SORRY.]

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

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?

*ahem*

Spoiler: DAT ASS?

I did not take this picture.

 

[Archemetis]

Seems reasonable to me, until looked at from the perspective of.

you can be a lesbian, why not a gay guy?

Which is the entire argument to me.

I'd counter that with, 'is there any reason why he should possibly be gay?'
Sure I personally was never likely to make a gay Shepard... Because my Shepard is and always will be a bisexual woman.

That's beyond the point though.

Granted for the full experience of the game the relationships are key, but they're entirely optional.
You can go through the whole game without ever really trying to interact with anyone on the Normandy.
Besides the intriguing blue alien chick who my Shepard found strangely aluring and Wrex, a battle-hardened, like-minded companion my Shepard had exactly that kind of relationship with the majority of her crew.

I can understand the first reason because as much as some may have seen Mass Effect as a "Choose your own adventure" type of game it was a very fixed narrative.
Granted so was Dragon Age, but that gave us whole other levels of choice, which weren't present in Mass Effect.

So yeah, if they flat out believed when they wrote it that Shepard could never be a gay guy, then that's their choice.

They've proven with other games that they're not afraid of the idea. So I'm not seeing an issue.

If Homosexual relationships weren't possible in any Bioware game there'd be a complete argument.

So really, yeah it should be an option, but it's not really that important.
(At least in my eyes.)

 

[LiquidGrape]

Congratulations Bioware, you keep responding to legitimate questions with asinine non-answers.
Rock on.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

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 have a problem with both of their responses. Muzyka's for the same reason as you gave. But I also disagree with Hudson's on the grounds that it seems to imply that a homosexual relationship is somehow inherently more explicit than a heterosexual one, and that simply is not the case. I certainly did not expect this kind of attitude from Bioware, considering they've usually catered to other sexualities besides heterosexuals in their other games.

The next good question being why, in a society that is supposedly accepting of homosexuality, a heterosexual relationship is "PG-13" while a homosexual relationship gets a higher age rating. The implication is of course that a homosexual relationship is somehow "dirtier", or more likely to warp your poor little child's mind if he's exposed to it. Which is fairly obviously homophobic. Of course, this is straying a bit off topic, since it's a societal problem, not Bioware's fault. But I still find that justification a little weak. It still boils down to "we don't want to offend the homophobic sensibilities of our consumers".

I have an answer for both of you, and trust me, it's not that Bioware is homophobic or anything. Actually, the answer for why homosexual relations are considered "R-Rated" while heterosexual relations are "PG-13" is actually a lot more innocent than it might seem (and I'm only saying this because [A: I don't want anyone to think Bioware is homophobic] and [B: I learned a little bit about this stuff in college])

Long story short, it's all in the positioning. Simply put, homosexual relations usually involve a position that, while perfectly normal for homosexual couples, is a little too graphic for general audiences. Take from that, what you will.

 

[Orange Monkey]

You'd think in the future with all the aliens and interspecies sex and communication going on, no one would really bat an eye at two girls or two guys going at it hot and heavy. Or even an LGBT person being in a position of power like commander shepard. In fact, including it would of shown Biowares acceptance of these things, and seeing as racism and bigotry is a big part of the Mass Effect universe it would of made sense in the context.

 

[Dexiro]

Does the game actually show sexes?

If it does then i don't blame the developers for not wanting to animate gay secks if none of them are gay xD

 

[LiquidGrape]

Personally, I don't buy the "PG-13" motivation.
The game is rated "M" for crying out loud. These are simply poor attempts at dodging the issue but getting the bullets lodged in their spines.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I actually doubt that the lack of homosexuality was Bioware's choice, but EA's.

I mean, after all the flak they got from FOX last time, EA is scared to do anything to piss off the media. If Bioware had their say, I'm sure they'd have put it in. But EA is the publisher, so what they say has considerable weight.

Damn it, I wish that publishers weren't always such douchebags.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Interestingly enough, if you look through the game's sound files you will find that they actually had both voice actors preform some of the romance lines for all of the characters. So they were at least considering same-sex romances at some point. Frankly, I don't buy any of the excuses they've given so far as to why they dropped them since they keep changing their answer so often.

Not that it bothers me. I'm glad that there are no same-sex romances. One of the things I hate about Mass Effect 2 was that the dialogue for any potential LI characters just stopped after about 2 conversations if you didn't romance them. So not only did this limit people who didn't want romances, it also limited players of the opposite gender. You can get about 3 pieces of dialogue out of Tali as femshep. BioWare needs to change this in Mass Effect 3 so you can actually talk to your squadmates without having to be their love interest. If they bring in same-sex relationships, it's just an excuse for them to make the same mistake.

This is the same universe in which resides a space republican. The theist, xenophobic, closed minded, ashley williams.

Am I the only one who thinks Ashley isn't nearly as bad as people keep making her out to be?

 

[Kiefer13]

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 have a problem with both of their responses. Muzyka's for the same reason as you gave. But I also disagree with Hudson's on the grounds that it seems to imply that a homosexual relationship is somehow inherently more explicit than a heterosexual one, and that simply is not the case. I certainly did not expect this kind of attitude from Bioware, considering they've usually catered to other sexualities besides heterosexuals in their other games.

The next good question being why, in a society that is supposedly accepting of homosexuality, a heterosexual relationship is "PG-13" while a homosexual relationship gets a higher age rating. The implication is of course that a homosexual relationship is somehow "dirtier", or more likely to warp your poor little child's mind if he's exposed to it. Which is fairly obviously homophobic. Of course, this is straying a bit off topic, since it's a societal problem, not Bioware's fault. But I still find that justification a little weak. It still boils down to "we don't want to offend the homophobic sensibilities of our consumers".

I have an answer for both of you, and trust me, it's not that Bioware is homophobic or anything. Actually, the answer for why homosexual relations are considered "R-Rated" while heterosexual relations are "PG-13" is actually a lot more innocent than it might seem (and I'm only saying this because [A: I don't want anyone to think Bioware is homophobic] and [B: I learned a little bit about this stuff in college])

Long story short, it's all in the positioning. Simply put, homosexual relations usually involve a position that, while perfectly normal for homosexual couples, is a little too graphic for general audiences. Take from that, what you will.

You seem to be confusing "homosexual relationships" with "homosexual sex". I'm not saying there should be hardcore gay pornography in the game (or hardcore straight pornography for that matter). A few romantic scenes and a fade to black would be fine.

 

[LTK_70]

BioWare's sci-fi epic Mass Effect 2 has come under fire for not having the option of homosexual relationships

Well there's a sentence I never expected to read. Look how far we've come.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

If no-one is saying it, then how do you prove its existence? That's supposition.

The excuses are weak and contradictory. Like theres something they actually want to say but can't, as someone is off stage with a gun.

Like not wanting to give away spoilers? As upstage at GDC isn't a terrifying place enough, but to have to answer WHY game decisions are made like this?

I think you're giving far too much weight to something that, in the end, doesn't really matter a toss to sales.

Why all the need for characters to have a defined-sexual relationship anyway? It's this damn trend of having people HAVING to cover all the bases of life that destroys the foundations of a good team relationship.

How come there aren't any contact lens wearers in games? Huh? IT'S SIGHT-ist! /sigh

BioWare's sci-fi epic Mass Effect 2 has come under fire for not having the option of homosexual relationships

Well there's a sentence I never expected to read. Look how far we've come.

And how far we've slipped. Now it's mandatory.