PedroSteckecilo said:
And here I was worried that Bioware was caving under the pressure of being part of a big studio who might want to avoid "real controversy" in their best selling games. I'm glad that Bioware has proven me wrong on that count, very glad indeed.
Keep on with the Socially Progressive Gaming guys!
Indeed, its great to see games catching-up with (and possibly furthering!) social movements.
We need to see more of this progression. <3's out to Bioware-
But what's up with the difference between Dragon Age and Mass Effect? Why weren't there a(ny) same-sex relationship(s) in ME2 when there was (albeit only one) in ME1?
In the article posted here (on the Escapist) BioWare Explains Why There's No Homosexuality in Mass Effect 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99710-BioWare-Explains-Why-Theres-No-Homosexuality-in-Mass-Effect-2], Ray Muzyka and Casey Hudson of Bioware commented on why this had been removed. Hudson explained, "We still view [Mass Effect] as... if you're picturing a PG-13 action movie," he said. "That's how we're trying to design it. So that's why the love interest is relatively light." However, this strikes me as odd. Was this the original vision for the Mass Effect series or was it shaped by its popularity, especially after the fiasco in which one branch of Fox News slandered it as a "porn simulator".
Muzyka further identified this action as a way of designing the story, explaining, "Sometimes, in some of our games, we are going to have a defined character with a more defined view. Almost like a third-person narrative -- where Mass Effect is more in that vein, Dragon Age isn't in that vein ... For some other franchises we've had more defined characters and sort of approaches to things, and they've had a more defined personality and a more defined approach to the way they've proceed through the game and the world."
The way Muzyka talks about who defines the character, it appears that, at least for Mass Effect, Bioware does not want Shepard as a homosexual character while in Dragon Age, a homosexual character may result via the choice of the player,
not Bioware.
It seems that with Mass Effect, Bioware put too many eggs in one basket. When they came under fire for the (brief) sexual content in ME1, they may have brought too much negative attention onto the series, and feared to face a second controversy that might use the first controversy as a quasi-precedent for the pressuring of Bioware.
While I'm happy to see Bioware keep Dragon Age as a socially liberal series, I'm curious about how they will handle matters of homosexual protagonists under pressure on their current and future games. Luckily, outright journalistic and activist antagonism against homosexuality is regarded as an extremist act in the United States (i.e. The Westboro Baptist Church), so they have only to fear a focused, but small protest.
However, (and I realize while this may nullify my concerns, it is still important that the matter be discussed!) as the crew from the Extra Credits weekly show has discussed, not all games need to explore issues of homosexuality or other social matters. But it still concerns me that Mass Effect took effort to change its image, possibly out of fear.
Maybe Mass Effect is telling of enough social issues already, however. The matters of xenophobia versus compassion across species despite past conflict does make an important analogy to present (and tightly-knit) issues of racism and xenophobia. Maybe homosexuality would be better served in another game where it could receive its own attention and discussion.
(In an uncertain world, let a strong thesis be your guide.)
So go Bioware, for including same sex relationships.
