Dragon Age 2 Lead Writer Blasts Homophobic Fan

[Neferius]

I don't think that fact that all of Dragon Age 2's romance options are bisexual is BioWare's way of saying that sexuality is a choice;

Of course not, but in it's current state that's Exactly what the gameplay implies.

I think that BioWare wanted to give people the option of wooing whoever they wanted, rather than limiting that choice to just a handful of characters, as in the first game.

And therein lies the Problem! Apart from this being an unrealistic setting, by forcing this kind of ambiguity you leave little room for proper character development. Case-in-Point: Anders and Merril.
Both of these characters had running stories from previous titles, and certainly more care could have gone into giving those characters depth. Actually, that would apply to ALL party members.
Instead, development time was diverted to writing dialogue adequate to different sexual interests while still attempting establish a strong identity.
The end result? Rather shallow and disappointing for characters with such rich and compelling back-stories.

But let me put this another way. In the case of Mass Effect, another big selling Bioware/EA title, the character Miranda Lawson was originally intended to be Blonde and bisexual. But, she was later reimagined as a fiery Brunette with a British accent and a serious attitude(an oddly Familiar concept)
The question is Why? I'm sure that the majority male demographic would have had little to object against the color of her hair and her implied promiscuity, it would have even appealed to a much smaller female demographic with appropriate sexual preferences.
So then WHY, why would the Bioware devs sell themselves short like this?
The Answer... because it would have been too Clichéd :|
The same applies for Jack, who if you have the patience of exploring her dialogue options and listening through her life's story, she will at one point mention how she had no problem getting in bed with another woman and her boyfriend.
And if you get past her initial (rather hard to resist) relationship pitfall, you will discover a whole different side to her character.
However, if you happen to be playing as a Ms. Shepard, after completing her side-quest and furthering your relationship with her you apparently hit a ceiling whereupon she blatantly tells you to piss-off as she is in no mood for "playing around"
Bioware writers apparently thought her rather butch demeanor and tomboy visage was too stereotypical of real-life lesbians to not be counted as insulting.

But I digress...

I also don't think it's a marketing stunt, as BioWare could have just done what it did for Dragon Age Origins and still come out ahead of most developers.

Do keep in mind that this was a SEQUEL, and as such even Bioware needed that extra "edge" in marketing. And there is no better marketing than word-of-mouth. And what better way to get people talking about a game than starting unending forum controversies such as this one.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

[Trimmed for length]

Ok, I don't want to linger too much on this, as I don't think either of us is going to change our minds and I disagree with you on pretty much every point.

I don't think that the gameplay implies sexuality is a choice at all. I will agree that every character being bisexual isn't the most realistic situation in the world, but it seems an odd complaint when you're fighting dragons and the like. I also happened to really like Merill. I didn't like Anders as much, but only because I thought he was a jerk. As for the Mass Effect characters, I think you're making a lot of guesses there. Perhaps I'm wrong and you can point me in the direction of articles that prove your points, but it seems like you're coming to conclusions based on very little hard information. Incidentally, Miranda's accent is Australian, not British.

Lastly, I'm not sure why you think that BioWare and EA needed to resort to stunts to market Dragon Age 2, especially as Dragon Age Origins was one of the best selling BioWare games ever. Ask yourself what's more likely: that BioWare deliberately engineered a phony controversy over the inclusion of same sex relationships in order to generate discussion about the game with a view to shifting more copies, or that some homophobic fan got a bee in his bonnet about being hit on by a guy, and his screed just happened to get noticed by one of the game's writers. Marketing stunts do happen, but I'd be really surprised if this was one of them.

 

[Neferius]

Spoiler

Ok, I don't want to linger too much on this, as I don't think either of us is going to change our minds and I disagree with you on pretty much every point.

I don't think that the gameplay implies sexuality is a choice at all. I will agree that every character being bisexual isn't the most realistic situation in the world, but it seems an odd complaint when you're fighting dragons and the like. I also happened to really like Merill. I didn't like Anders as much, but only because I thought he was a jerk. As for the Mass Effect characters, I think you're making a lot of guesses there. Perhaps I'm wrong and you can point me in the direction of articles that prove your points, but it seems like you're coming to conclusions based on very little hard information. Incidentally, Miranda's accent is Australian, not British.

Lastly, I'm not sure why you think that BioWare and EA needed to resort to stunts to market Dragon Age 2, especially as Dragon Age Origins was one of the best selling BioWare games ever. Ask yourself what's more likely: that BioWare deliberately engineered a phony controversy over the inclusion of same sex relationships in order to generate discussion about the game with a view to shifting more copies, or that some homophobic fan got a bee in his bonnet about being hit on by a guy, and his screed just happened to get noticed by one of the game's writers. Marketing stunts do happen, but I'd be really surprised if this was one of them.

Fair-enough! You make a compelling argument Mr. Westbrook, so I shan't waste any more of your time.
The article in question ...incidentally, you were right about the accent. Still, the similarity was great enough for me to make that confusion.

Also, I realize how trivial complaining about DA2's romancing system is, especially when there are other more pressing faults such as the awkward camera controls and the game's overall fragmented plot.
It just seems to me like Bioware was rather quick to cover their asses with this one. And what better way to divert attention form their product's other faults than by forcing attention on a single point and staunchly defending it under the banner of Equality.

Perhaps that is just the conspiracy-theorist in me talking, and a Bioware dev responding to a random blogger's homophobic rant was just an honest attempt at good PR.

Either-way, it was a pleasure talking with you Mr. Westbrook, and I hope to be able to converse like this on other topics in the future.