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

[RanD00M]

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

Yes I have.And it is a very lovely ass.But there is more to her then her ass.You know,like her daddy issues.

OT:Well I wanted to get down with Liara again.But could I? No.So I tried to flirt with every other female.And did I get anywhere? No.
All I wanted was for my Shepard to feel the sweet touch of a woman before she had to do something quite possibly life threatening.

 

[TheTaco007]

Uhh, can't you romance Liara in ME1 even if you're a girl Shepard? I know I at least made it with the Asari Consort, though the Asari are mono-gender, so I guess it might not count...

 

[Kie]

Looks like they're just doing a whole "Ewwww we don't want gays in our game." it's pretty sad if they're going to include lesbians to be honest. One one hand though the love interest isn't a huge part of the game but even so, they should show equality. Still, their game and they can do what they want.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Wow, they were trying to make a PG-13 game? You know, this was my main complaint about the lack of nudity of any kind from the finished game (for those of you with very long memories). They already made a 15 rated game, swearing, violence, bloodshed, supernatural dread of a sort, and yet for some reason, stopped short of nusity. It didn't make any sense to me.

I would have been fine with a PG-13 game, had it actually felt like a PG-13 game, with much less swearing, violence etc. Instead it feels like they made a 15 game, then pussied out at the last minute about all of the sexual options.

 

[Lucane]

It's their game. If the lead writer envisions Shephard as straight, then straight he/she can be. If you want a gay character so bad, go make a game with a gay character in it.

It doesn't mean they hate gays, for fuck's sake. They go through the effort of producing a story and people whine because the story isn't how they wanted it; it seems pretty childish to me.

I guess you can't make everyone happy.

Your sexual preference doesn't have any effect on the main story it's a side story you can choose to sleep with the whole other gender of your crew or no one at all and if you play as a renegade both ways you'd have the same ending. So saying it's a story arc is a weak excuse.

If it's that shepard is straight is the canon story it's still illrelivant as an excuse to say they didn't want to program it in since you'd have to do whatever they want till they say take over since they could code the the option and just say it isn't canon. Now if they say there wasn't time to code it properly then there'd be nothing to argue or that it never came up in debate in development would work too but how they ansewered bares a shadow of doubt.

 

[Tharwen]

a) They had no problems with that with Dragon Age

No-one cared about the sex in Dragon Age.

And the difference between the relationships in Dragon Age and the relationships in Mass Effect 1 & 2 is what exactly?

Almost nothing, but there was almost no media coverage of the sex in DA that could have drawn attention to the homosexuality.

 

[drisky]

Wait... they used a "PG-13" justification?

HOW IS GAY SEX LESS "PG-13" THAN STRAIGHT SEX!!!!

That is fucking bullshit, the same crap that Microsoft used to pull on gay gamers since revealing their sexual orientation to be the "wrong" way was somehow "explicit"?!?!? Shameless homophobic double standard.

Hey you guy want to know really why? Because Mass Fffect is Bioware's dumbed down for the mass market franchise, and red necks don't like homosexuals, even hate hot lesbian sex(!) and in plenty of plenty of European and Middle Eastern countries too homophobia is absolutely endemic.

But I have to blame Microsoft here, this bullshit didn't happen with Dragon Age Origins (by Bioware but MS had no creative control), I think Microsoft leant on the developers and what they are saying now is pure rationalisation of the crap those bigots at Microsoft twisted them into doing.

And who say you had to "just do the same lesbian sex scene" again when you are happy to do straight sex scenes. I'm telling you, 100% post-decision rationalisation, they want that bigot money.

Can you really name a PG-13 movie with a gay main character. There's only one reason why you can't have it in PG-13 movies is because its controversial. Some old fashioned parents wouldn't want to have there children learning anything about gay relationships and will cause an uproar if they see it. There are gay interest movies but the only one that was ever mainstream was brokeback mountain, its not a matter of it being more explicit, but a matter of what society still claims as "decent". Censorship constantly shifts to meet social norms, the filstones used to have a cigarette commercial after every episode, that changed after the health risks and cigarettes became something that raised parental guidance ratings. With any luck we'll see the opposite effect with gay relations over the years and it is more socially accepted, but for now it is just not present. There haven't been any homosexual relations in PG-13 movies, therefore if you want to have a game emulate that, you wouldn't have it ether.

All that being said the argument that Mass Effect is ment emulate a PG-13 rating is flawed. This is mainly because the asari are somewhat of a sexually explicit race to begin with. A species that can mate with any life from would not be in a PG-13 movie. The asari are basically designed to be an erotic race, especially sense they have female bodies. The only reason to have them look that is to fulfill lesbian fantasies.
Not to mention the strip clubs. Because of this the argument that Microsoft might be restricting Bioware makes more sense than Bioware trying to restrict there edginess them selfs.

Anyways I feel the game always had more a problem with sexism anyways. Correct if Im wrong sense I have yet to get a chance to play ME2, but at least in ME1 the only races that had both genders represented were the humans and the quarians, basically saying that that the more "ugly" alien races can't have women because only attractive women are allowed in the game, and that always bothered me more than no gays, plenty of games don't have gays so why should mass effect be the only one that gets in trouble for it.

 

[Galad]

Lol a gay shephard whats he gonna do throw rainbows at sovereign or run in the corner and hide when big blasts happen everywhere...
I can understand how it wouldnt " fit " the characters image

There are manly gays too, or so I've noticed.

It *would* feel awkward to portray him as one of those though. And the Asari/femShepard relationship is not homosexual despite some people's wishful thinking.

 

[LiquidGrape]

It *would* feel awkward to portray him as one of those though. And the Asari/femShepard relationship is not homosexual despite some people's wishful thinking.

Oh yes it is.
By all reasonable logic, asari are female.

To quote someone brighter than myself:
"They give birth, they suckle young. Just because their race does not have males does not mean asari are any less female. Asari can play a semblance of a male role in reproduction, but they contribute no genetic material in the process, and apparently possess no analog to male human genitalia."

 

[mechanixis]

I saw this a while back, and found it kind of amusing. Bioware's defense of the lack of male homosexuality is basically "Well, Shepard's not gay."

I feel like it was a flimsy but acceptable argument back in Mass Effect 1 - the lesbian relationship with Liara wasn't technically 'lesbian' because Asari are genderless (which is also a pretty flimsy but acceptable statement, what with how they look exactly like human females) and their form of sex was more about a mental act than a physical act.

And then for some reason they thought it would be a great idea to put in Yeoman Kelly Chambers and make her a legitimate, woman-on-woman lesbian romance option, completely shooting that defense in the foot.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

They gave a good reason for there not being homosexual options in ME2. Dragon Age allows alot more freedom in how you want to create the story of your character, from origin stories to the end game result and even their sexuality. In Mass Effect you really create a character so much as tweak the basic Shepard story into your own unique version. The plot doesn't really change as much as in Dragon Age no matter how you play. So they're not quite the same when it comes to how much you can customize your story.

Of course though well all know this is just a clever excuse to hid the real reason why they didn't put in the homosexual option: because it might hurt ME2's publicity. After FOX started screaming their head off about a "sex scene" in ME1 Bioware (or more likely EA) got scared of having the same thing happen again for ME2 so they made sure you couldn't even have the option to have a homosexual relationship (unless you count the "relationship" with Kelly). I mean it would have been easy to incorperate the possibility of a homosexual relationship into the ME2. Jack apparently already had a lesbian relationship and Samara could have been one for obvious reasons (or even allowing her to be a relationship at all). Some of the male characters could have been tweaked to become bi- or homosexual such as Mordin being gay or Jacob being bi. Either option could have been worked in without seriously disrupting the story. And as for them trying to keep ME2 like a "PG-13 action movie": BS. PG-13 action movies have kissing scenes at the most. They do not include dry humping or heavy insinuation of sex (hetero or homo). Yes they gave some good reasons but in the end they were just convenient excuses to hide the real reason. Shame on you Bioware for getting scared of FOX and lying to your fans. Unless it was EA's fault which I think it might be. In that case all is forgiven Bioware, I know there wasn't really anything you could do with EA at the helm.

 

[cobrausn]

It's their game. If the lead writer envisions Shephard as straight, then straight he/she can be. If you want a gay character so bad, go make a game with a gay character in it.

It doesn't mean they hate gays, for fuck's sake. They go through the effort of producing a story and people whine because the story isn't how they wanted it; it seems pretty childish to me.

I guess you can't make everyone happy.

Your sexual preference doesn't have any effect on the main story it's a side story you can choose to sleep with the whole other gender of your crew or no one at all and if you play as a renegade both ways you'd have the same ending. So saying it's a story arc is a weak excuse.

If it's that shepard is straight is the canon story it's still illrelivant as an excuse to say they didn't want to program it in since you'd have to do whatever they want till they say take over since they could code the the option and just say it isn't canon. Now if they say there wasn't time to code it properly then there'd be nothing to argue or that it never came up in debate in development would work too but how they ansewered bares a shadow of doubt.

Yeah, but perhaps they didn't envision any of your crew as gay; asari are moot because it has no meaning to them. So they now have to make one of their characters gay to satisfy people?

Once again; their story, their characters, their rules. You may envision Shephard as gay all you want - but, like in real life, if his interest is not gay, nothing will likely happen.

 

[DeleteThisPlease]

I'm sorry Bioware, but this excuse is very poor. D-, please see me after class.

For real, is Bioware seriously being all 'DO NOT WANT' for the FemShep/FemChar relationships? They already did this once with KotOR, we don't need them to do it again! GIVE US A FREAKING PATCH!

Edit: Acually, that's not a bad idea. A 'repair' patch that add the content that they got rid of, maybe for like, five bucks. Maybe you don't buy it, maybe you do. (I know I would...)

 

[Galad]

It *would* feel awkward to portray him as one of those though. And the Asari/femShepard relationship is not homosexual despite some people's wishful thinking.

Oh yes it is.
By all reasonable logic, asari are female.

To quote someone brighter than myself:
"They give birth, they suckle young. Just because their race does not have males does not mean asari are any less female. Asari can play a semblance of a male role in reproduction, but they contribute no genetic material in the process, and apparently possess no analog to male human genitalia."

Imagine for a moment, that the Asari are actually all male, yet it's hardcoded in their genes they have the looks and signs of human females on the outlook. It's not impossible considering it's a fictional universe we're speaking of. That's why I'd only take this as a reason to say they are female if it's info from the codex, or at least deducted from there.

 

[LiquidGrape]

It *would* feel awkward to portray him as one of those though. And the Asari/femShepard relationship is not homosexual despite some people's wishful thinking.

Oh yes it is.
By all reasonable logic, asari are female.

To quote someone brighter than myself:
"They give birth, they suckle young. Just because their race does not have males does not mean asari are any less female. Asari can play a semblance of a male role in reproduction, but they contribute no genetic material in the process, and apparently possess no analog to male human genitalia."

Imagine for a moment, that the Asari are actually all male, yet it's hardcoded in their genes they have the looks and signs of human females on the outlook. It's not impossible considering it's a fictional universe we're speaking of. That's why I'd only take this as a reason to say they are female if it's info from the codex, or at least deducted from there.

But that doesn't make any sense, considering the biological functions they display.
And even besides that, their social hierarchy is matriarchal. There isn't any reasonable doubt present to be ambiguous about their genetic and sociological sex.

Bioware's hypocrisy is rather painfully evident, I'd say. And it doesn't reflect well upon them at all.

 

[MercenaryCanary]

It makes sense to me.
No, honestly, think about it!
I played as the female Shepard, and I always went with Liara, mainly because Kaidan was a bit of a dick in my opinion.
So when I carried over my save, and found out I couldn't be with Liara, I was a bit sad about it, but then quickly moved on. I went with Garrus.
And then I realized that, character-wise, it makes sense. If you haven't noticed, female Shepard always seems to be bold and commanding, whilst the person in the relationship with her is essentially being led by her.
This happens with Thane, Garrus, and it happened in the first game with Liara. I'm not sure about Jacob though. But it just seems that the good relationships for female Shepard mainly have her being a kind, yet powerful force of will towards her partner.

Also, technically Liara isn't a female.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Treblaine]

Lol a gay shephard whats he gonna do throw rainbows at sovereign or run in the corner and hide when big blasts happen everywhere...
I can understand how it wouldnt " fit " the characters image

You... have no idea what homosexuals are, do you?

Let me guess, 13, 14 years old? And probably American, then you'd have an excuse, but if you are in your 20's and still think that then frankly you should be ashamed of your ignorance.

If the only gays you know of are the ones you have seen depicted on TV or seen at a distance then you know LESS than nothing.

OK, take Ian McKellen, you know the guy who plays Gandalf, badass wizard, did all that "You SHall not PASS!!" thing oh and also played the villain in X-men, Magneto. Well he's gay. Very gay.

Oh yeah, and historically speaking the defenders of the Battle of Thermopylae, as depicted in 300, were in fact all really rally gay. Or at the very least they liked to bum each other which is pretty gay.

 

[Actual]

"For all the family" ?

Are you kidding me? You can technically exterminate an entire race of beings (those spider things), force someone to commit suicide and punch female reporters in the face. And get a lap dance (albeit not a very good one).

Anyway, how is a gay relationship any different to a straight one in terms of family friendliness?

Like you say, they rated it a lot harsher than they should have, there was nothing in there worse than an Indiana Jones film.

The world at large just isn't ready to explain to their little kiddies about the birds and the birds. Maybe when our generation of gamers grows up and has kids we'll be able to sit down to play these games to them and explain why Shepherd is doing what we all wish he was doing to his good buddy Jacob, but even then I think I'd rather my boys learned this from the internet, it's got a wealth more experience than me.

...but anyway, for now parents won't buy this for their kids. And a lot of adult gamers wont be comfortable with it either, sad but true, and I'm not going to fault Bioware for being realistic. Especially when it was unnecessary to the game, and they've made the first steps in their lesser known IP Dragon Age to bringing this issue into an acceptable light.