Dragon Age Writer: Same-Sex Romance is Here to Stay

[Gennadios]

So why oh why cant Bioware do this in Mass Effect. Fantasy setting sure you can have same sex relationships but you SciFi setting game, no you can have it D: Why bioware, why doesn't Mass Effect get no same sex love but you can throw aliens at us to love?

seriously. i was all ready to sex up Kaidan Alenko, and was really bummed out when I realized I couldn't. ahh, kaidan...

I was actually kind of peeved about Kaidan. In my ME1 (Male) playthrough I opted to have him survive (He's a single child with no real family, Ash had 2 sisters, purely logical conclusion.)

Either way, meeting him lead to the most uncomfortable, emotional, pseudo romantic dialogue I've ever gone through. It felt like he thought that he slept with the PC or something. Obviously the interaction was written with the assumption that BroShep would save Ash and FemShep would save Kaiden, but the male on male speech was just... uncomfortable. He clearly would have taken it from BroShep, so why it wasn't written into the original is beyond me.

 

[spectrenihlus]

I find the actively pursued part funny. Of all the romances in the game Zevran is the easiest to do the deed with you don't have to actively pursue anything with him just talk,once.

 

[Bebus]

I liked the same sex relationships in DA:O; they were tastefully handled, especially Leliana's (considering her backstory)

But it should not be forced. They should be there because they are right, not because Bioware now has to tick the 'same sex relationship' box. I felt they did this in ME2 with the alien relationships. They felt artificially inserted, and I did not like how they progressed.

So if it makes sense, go ahead. But don't do it because some perverts who decided a game would be a suitable place to get their lesbian porn fix shouted loudly!!

 

[Harbinger_]

And as long as its only an option and not mandatory for a same sex relationship to occur via the player in the game I'll keep buying your games Bioware.

 

[jamesworkshop]

So why oh why cant Bioware do this in Mass Effect. Fantasy setting sure you can have same sex relationships but you SciFi setting game, no you can have it D: Why bioware, why doesn't Mass Effect get no same sex love but you can throw aliens at us to love?

No one is forcing them not to they just decided not to do so, besides nothing stops you from roleplay a Homosexual character their simply wasn't any other charactyers for them to sleep with notice how in DA:O the only two party members were bi-sexual none were exclusivly same sex orientated, so for ME series they have not had any characters to make swing both ways.

Both Kaidan and Ashley were going to be options for same sex relationships but Bioware pulled the plug on it all. The conversations still exist within the game, you just cant do them without a save editor on the PC version.

Exactly not in the game.

I don't see why people obssess over about one of the only bioware games ever to not have homosexual relationships.

Bioware isn't a social activist with a point to prove if they feel that being gay or whatever is consistant with the creative force behind a character then they do what they feel best.

Choice, imagine that

 

[Buchichu]

YAY Bioware! They also slipped in some nice group sex in DA:O if you fancy that sort of thing.

 

[Athinira]

So why oh why cant Bioware do this in Mass Effect. Fantasy setting sure you can have same sex relationships but you SciFi setting game, no you can have it D: Why bioware, why doesn't Mass Effect get no same sex love but you can throw aliens at us to love?

Likely because the characters in Mass Effects have much more polish than characters in their other games. Mass Effect characters are often based on a much stronger fundemental integrity, and so is Shephard, and the more ways you give players to ruin that integrity.

Note that I'm not saying that being gay means you lack "Integrity". I'm talking about the fact that Shephard as gay isn't how the developers imagined the character. Even though the devs give you alot of customization options with Shephard, they still also made the character rock-solid in several ways, even enough so the male/female version of Shephard is very similar.

Now that ME has run for two games already, it's probably too late to change Shephard to be gay. It would ruin everything that has already been established in the character.

They can do S/S romances in another game series, another time.

 

[Jonluw]

"So long as romances of any kind are optional and need to be actively pursued by the player in order to be experienced, [complainers] simply don't have a leg to stand on,"

I wouldn't say they have a leg to stand on even if it wasn't optional, but sure.

 

[Cooperblack]

I always hate when these kind of topics turn into "why can't i have a same-sex relationship in Mass Effect when i can in other Bioware games".

Bioware is NOT required to follow anybody's taste other than their own when it comes to relationships, Complaining that there is no same sex relationship is an attempt to control what Bioware should do with their romances in games.

Just the same as those boneheads who complain about the gay relationships in other Bioware games is trying to control what Bioware should or shouldn't do.

 

[Falseprophet]

I find the actively pursued part funny. Of all the romances in the game Zevran is the easiest to do the deed with you don't have to actively pursue anything with him just talk,once.

Yeah, but that's ingrained into his character. His whole life (if you believe his backstory), he's been a slave, and while a slave, he basically had three roles: victim, whore or killer. When one defense mechanism doesn't work, he switches to the other. So from the way he's introduced, he knows he can't kill the Warden. And obviously, if the Warden keeps him around and doesn't run him off or kill him, he's not a victim. So the only other way he knows how to behave is as a whore. At least until you build up his trust enough that he can see you as a friend, or if you pursue it, a committed lover.

But in Dragon Age, you can shoot down Zevran or Leiliana the first time they proposition you and it won't come up again. I don't see why in an M-rated game, why just being propositioned by a same-sex partner would be a problem, if your character can just say "I don't swing that way" and be done with it.

A more ideal solution would to just include a radio button in the character creation process: a) I only want opposite-sex encounters, b) I only want same-sex encounters, c) send them both my way, or d) I'm here for bloodshed and booty, not hearts and flowers. Then maybe NPC romantic options don't need to be fixed--e.g. if you played a male PC and wanted to romance Alistair, the radio-button choice would make that an option. I suspect there's other factors at play--prime among them the additional amount of dialogue that would need to be written, acted and recorded--but a gamer can dream.

 

[Senaro]

So why oh why cant Bioware do this in Mass Effect. Fantasy setting sure you can have same sex relationships but you SciFi setting game, no you can have it D: Why bioware, why doesn't Mass Effect get no same sex love but you can throw aliens at us to love?

There was one same-sex relationship in Mass Effect, even though the partner is from a mono-gendered species. Also, it's not like Bioware needs to make sure there are gay dudes in every game they make. I won't fault Mass Effect 1 or 2 for not having gay male relationship options, and if it happens in 3, it happens and I trust they'll do it right.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I find it both amusing and telling that the majority of complaints against same-sex relationships (almost excusively, against male-and-male) come from male gamers who say "I'm not comfortable with that subject so I don't want to see it ever". Which, to me, translates to "I'm not comfortable with thinking about male homosexuality, but rather than examine why I'm uncomfortable with it I just want games to never ever have any instance or even reference to it".

To the best of my knowledge, none of these games are forcing any male character to commit to, or even explore, a homosexual relationship. So it seems to me that many of these arguments are just an extension of "ewwwww, that's gross". But then again, this is the same demographic who berated a female Mod maker [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.96480-Homophobia-Mods-And-One-Step-Too-Far?page=1] because she was releasing male-specific nude Mods for Oblivion and Morrowind, with the argument that it was "gay". Kids... can't live with 'em, pass the beer nuts*.

[small]* Cookie if you get the TV reference.[/small]

 

[BabyRaptor]

Thank you, Bioware. Sincerely.

 

[Senaro]

I find the actively pursued part funny. Of all the romances in the game Zevran is the easiest to do the deed with you don't have to actively pursue anything with him just talk,once.

Yeah, but that's ingrained into his character. His whole life (if you believe his backstory), he's been a slave, and while a slave, he basically had three roles: victim, whore or killer. When one defense mechanism doesn't work, he switches to the other. So from the way he's introduced, he knows he can't kill the Warden. And obviously, if the Warden keeps him around and doesn't run him off or kill him, he's not a victim. So the only other way he knows how to behave is as a whore. At least until you build up his trust enough that he can see you as a friend, or if you pursue it, a committed lover.

That is an extremely compelling insight into Zev's personality that I never considered.

 

[subject_87]

Sounds like an important step in the right direction for games, but for God's sake stand up to the inevitable manufactured 'controversy' from self-appointed guardians of 'family values'.

Also, I predict that this thread will get at least one person banned/suspended/put on probation for trolling/general asshattery.

 

[Falseprophet]

That is an extremely compelling insight into Zev's personality that I never considered.

Thanks, though part of that I got from an early DA:O interview with David Gaider when he was responding to some gay fans' concerns that Zevran was a stereotypical manwhore. I appreciated that BioWare writers thought that much about NPC motivation. (OT: Hell, Loghain's practically a tragic hero based on his background.)

 

[jamesworkshop]

Sounds like an important step in the right direction for games, but for God's sake stand up to the inevitable manufactured 'controversy' from self-appointed guardians of 'family values'.

But that never happened to DA:O, so far it happened only with the hetro sex scene from ME1

 

[RollForInitiative]

Only Bioware games I've really played are Neverwinter Nights 2 and DA:O. For defending something like this, I applaud them; there needs to be more acceptance of LGBT in the world and this may be a very small thing that helps.

Neverwinter Nights 2 was developed by Obsidian Entertainment, not us. ^_^