Do Gays Not Exist in Bioware's Star Wars?

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Do Gays Not Exist in Bioware's Star Wars?



Controversy flared on Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic forums after the words "homosexual," "gay," and "lesbian" were auto-censored, and a moderator insisted that those terms did "not exist in Star Wars."

Hoo boy, here we go again.

The story as we understand it, thus far: Players on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic community forums [http://www.swtor.com/community/index.php?s=db0c95d4db07fc1b8cde8cc2ddec281e] began to discuss how Bioware's upcoming Star Wars MMO - and its playerbase - would handle same-sex relationships. As more and more threads started popping up about the issue, the discussion grew more heated. Eventually, forum moderators began locking the discussions.

Naturally, telling people that they can't talk about something only encourages them to talk about it more. Before long, the forums were auto-censoring the terms "homosexual," "gay," and "lesbian," as they would for regular profanity. Community manager Sean Dahlberg attempted to decisively quash the controversy by posting in one of the threads [http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=26291&page=6] in question protesting Bioware's apparent discrimination against the GLBT community:

[blockquote]As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.

Thread closed.[/blockquote]

The story, of course, doesn't end there. After a few hours' worth of "scheduled maintenance" downtime, Nyanya [http://www.vg247.com/2009/04/28/bioware-unbans-gay-terms-on-the-old-republic-site/]!)

So, controversy over, right? The whole thing seems kind of silly of Bioware to do - after all, recent Bioware games have specifically enabled characters to pursue same-sex romances, like Jade Empire or Mass Effect. Hell, even the first Knights of the Old Republic had Juhani - who, if the game is to be believed, had a female lover. So for Bioware to suddenly do a 180 on the matter seems rather odd.

Of course, one might also argue that Dahlberg's comment was more forward-thinking in nature, and that he wasn't saying that people with same-sex relationships didn't exist in the world of Star Wars... but that a more advanced society wouldn't see any difference between a homosexual relationship and a heterosexual one. Hence, the terms "gay" and "lesbian" wouldn't exist in Star Wars.*

Either way, Bioware handled the entire thing rather poorly, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the issue rear its head again down the line. This isn't the sort of matter that just dies down quietly, after all.

*So yes, fangirls, you can still write your Obi-Wan/Anakin slash fanfiction. You just can't refer to them as "gay" in it anymore.

(VG247 [http://kotaku.com/5230325/there-are-no-gays-in-star-wars])

(Image from Penny Arcade [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/2/1/two-bodies-in-space/])

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Svenparty

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Jan 13, 2009
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It's because Jedi Knights believe spraying their Midiclorian juice all over each other is just the "Ways of the force". Just like Hobbits think that spraying their magic is for the Empire/Shire etc

This reminds Me of http://migrant-isitjustme.blogspot.com/2008/11/george-lucas-there-is-no-underwear-in.html

That Dude With A Face said:
I love star wars more than ever now! No gays!
Ba dum dum not funny!
 

cainx10a

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May 17, 2008
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I knew it, The Emperor was gay!

But to be honest, I never once even thought about the sexuality of the inhabitants of Star Wars, I mean, interracial relationships were working just fine, why should same-sex interracial relationship not work?
 

rossatdi

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Aug 27, 2008
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Avoiding obvious vaguely homophobic remark about the prequels.....

Episode VII said:
A long time ago,
In a universe far away,
Where the Republicans won.
 

PedroSteckecilo

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Feb 7, 2008
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Considering Bioware's previous track record... I'm betting that if they have a relationship system or something in their KOTOR game, homosexuality will be allowed.
 

painfull2006

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Jul 2, 2008
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Im not homophobic but I do not believe any type of homosexual content belongs in video games

Its an MMO and if i recall they said in the star wars universe, so its not like they have decided this, its just the way it is
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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painfull2006 said:
Im not homophobic but I do not believe any type of homosexual content belongs in video games

Its an MMO and if i recall they said in the star wars universe, so its not like they have decided this, its just the way it is
Why not? Especially in a MMO where players create their own characters, even.

Tenmar said:
This is where things get out of hand. When you have people who want to bring the issue of homosexuality in video games because they want the issue of homosexuality to be known.

What ever happend to just sitting down and enjoying a game?

People who complain about how their sexual preference is not present in a video game they play need to realize that is one of the last things in the company or the designers mind and this applies to homosexuality and heterosexuality. If there is a love interest the focus is on the romance and not the SEX.

There are so many more important issues for the homosexual awareness community need to focus on and video games isn't one of them. If they want games that focus on homosexuality and not on gameplay then make their own god damn game. Don't be surprised if it does not sell well because the key element of gameplay was sacrificed to support the awareness of homosexuality.

It's here and it is going to stay but there is no need to push your views on others. That is something I don't tolerate.
Whoa, here. Where are you getting sacrificing gameplay to focus on homosexuality? Three of Bioware's recent titles - KotOR, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect - at least had some form of a same-sex relationship if the player chose to pursue that. Did that affect the gameplay at all?

Also, from how I understand it, outrage was over what people saw as Bioware banning any discussion about GLBT issues in SW ToR on the forums, not about a perceived reluctance to address the issue in the game itself.
 

cainx10a

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painfull2006 said:
Im not homophobic but I do not believe any type of homosexual content belongs in video games

Its an MMO and if i recall they said in the star wars universe, so its not like they have decided this, its just the way it is
WRONG. It's an mmo RPG, which means, if male character Iwhuppssithbuttocks wants to roleplay as a gay character in a relationship with male character iwhuupsewokfurrybuttocks, they can do it just fine.

Even having NPCs, or quest-givers who are homosexuals and could potentially even have a quest based on, you know, doing certain things to attract that member of the same sex, same sex-different race :p would be just fine. It's not like we are being bombarded with homo-friendly quests, not like we are getting bombarded with hetero-friendly quests either as far as I recall.

But it certainly has to do with the fact that the relationship the player had with party members were always hetero-friendly. It's not that bad if my male PC would prefer Carth over Bastilla, even if keeping Bastilla in slave vestments and a slave chain was much more satisfying for my tastes.

OK DAMN YOU, am reinstalling KoToR atm =D
 

whyarecarrots

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Nov 19, 2008
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A response I posted about this on another forum, slightly edited:

'I think we need to remember that this is the internet, and that the forums for that game will no doubt be quite large because this game has a lot of hype around it: do any of you really expect these discussions to go smoothly at all times with none of the homophobic bigotry so typical of the internet? Not all forums are mature: hell, even the Escapist can be bad enough and this is one of the more mature forums out there. Maybe the mods just realised that it was more trouble than it was worth thoroughly moderating these threads, and instead are taking the blanket ban approach to prevent any homophobic comments.

Excessive, maybe, and I'm not agreeing that that would be the best way to deal with the problem, but I'm just trying to show a different perspective here to simply saying that the forums mods just don't like homosexuality.'
 

T-Blade

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Jun 12, 2008
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Hm, the words might not exist in star wars because there is no prejudice about such trivial things?
 

cainx10a

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MaxTheReaper said:
That Dude With A Face said:
I love star wars more than ever now! No gays!

Good for Bioware for sticking to their guns...unlike Microsoft....who apologized to them.
I want to laugh, but it just wasn't funny.
Of course, I only want to laugh because if you were serious, I'd have to insult you, and frankly I'm too tired for that.
I would be glad to attempt to do it for you miiiilord.

The Dude With An Ugly Face, go uninstall life. Vamooosh!