Jimquisition: Mass Effect 3 And The Case For A Gay Shepard

[Daystar Clarion]

I've got one problem with Bioware including gay romance options in ME3 that DOESN'T stem from homophobia: It's that they waited until ME3 to include them.

There's a rumour that this guy.

Didn't want his face associated with homosexuality.

Sounds like bollocks to me though, I mean, why would he suddenly change his mind?

 

[Sandytimeman]

snip

If it wouldn't make my boyfriend jealous, I'd tell you that I love you. (whispers: I love you)

 

[girzwald]

The only thing that bugs me about is that it makes the NPCs in mass effect, a series praised for it's writing, nothing more than wish fulfillment vessels to the player.

This is a tricky situation because video games are supposed to either be empowered or in control of their world. But, as an example, I actually didn't know you could sleep with Ashley in ME1 and I thought it was because of her religious convictions. This didn't bug me, it earned Bioware kudos from me for writing a good and believable character (I didn't sleep with anyone because Liara wasn't my type).

Now Jacob has had a relationship with Miranda, it's brought up early on in ME2. I never got any gay vibes of Jacob in ME2. But if the player wills it, he can make Jacob gay. If the player doesn't go down the gay route in ME3 Jacob will be heterosexual, if the player goes down the gay route in ME3 Jacob will be homosexual.

This might sound stupid but it bugs me that NPCs are not being written as characters with their own motives, beliefs, etc. and instead are around simply to adapt to what the player wants out of them. I think overall that makes a less compelling story, although a much more compelling power fantasy fulfillment simulator.

How many people do you know who would honestly switch their sexuality at the drop of the hat? or go both ways? I know bi-sexuals exist, but almost everyone in a Bioware game seems to be that way and I think the bi-sexual example is being used as a cover for what I view as poor character development.

I would prefer some more concrete sexuality. Some characters that are purely gay, purely homosexual and then some benders. I think it would ultimately lead to stronger characters as their motives are based on their wants instead of mine (as the player).

Bingo. Biowares whole "everybody's bi" just makes for poor storytelling. But bioware would never put in a story option that ended up with "woah woah woah, I'm flattered, but the idea of your dick and mine interacting makes me queasy". Cause as we all know, everyone in the future is bi, all inclusive and tolerant. Including all alien species. No, they'd get called homophobes and lose precious audience. Which is why they dance on this line. They are cowards. They want the "oh look at us, we're inclusive" label without having to commit. By being able to say, if you don't want it, you don't have to have it that way.

 

[geizr]

I have to agree 100% with Jim on this one that a large percentage of the game community needs to GROW UP, GET SOME PERSPECTIVE, AND GET OVER ITSELF!. I swear it feels like these particular gamers are some of the most ignorant, immature, backwards thinking, sorry-assed excuses for human beings in existence with their only redeeming quality, if you can call it that, being their general self-centered, self-absorbed conceit.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

The last video was too subtle for people?

I find that hard to believe.....if I hadn't looked at the comments from last week's video, and the shit storm that I totally missed, and I do enjoy a good shit storm. Didn't know that pedophilia equaled homosexuality, but then again I don't live in bizarro land, or the 50s.

Also, I'm not buying that whole argument of it being handled poorly seeing as the game comes out tomorrow, and unless you're a reviewer or from the future, I seriously doubt anyone knows that for a fact.

I salute you Jim!

 

[DonTsetsi]

I'm straight and I want gay relationships in my game! Well, I won't be seeing my male Shep doing it, but I will create a female Shepard somewhere down the line...
P.S. And it would be fun if some of my crew were gay, that way I would have to play both sexes in order to bed all the women. And besides, having a whole crew of bisexual people is statistically improbable.

 

[plainlake]

Did Jim just remember that he was trying to make a satire the last 10 sec. in this vid.?

 

[Flight]

I've got one problem with Bioware including gay romance options in ME3 that DOESN'T stem from homophobia: It's that they waited until ME3 to include them.

Very much agreed. I have the same problem with it - and frankly, I hope that if/when they do another series, they don't pull this nonsense.

 

[The White Hunter]

Gods save The Jim!

In both dragonages my character systematically fucked everyone for trophies and settled in with the gay elf.
Probably because it reflects my own life somewhat and roleplay is always influenced by experience, for me. So if/when I pick up ME3 you can bet your ass I'll have Shepeard bang every sentient thing that moves.

 

[Rad Party God]

Thank God for you Jim, Thank God for you.

Also, I can see you're enjoying Saints Row 3 and I'm not exactly talking about the game itself.

 

[Redd the Sock]

Sadly Jim, sarcasm needs to be spelled out on the internet as for every person saying something tougne and cheek, someone else said it seriously.

You missed the "think of the children playing this game" excuse I've seen recently. You know, the children playing a M rated game full of violence that can't be sold to someone under 17. Funny how we're not afraid of all the shooting kid may be exposed to.

The rest: duh. There is no canon Sheppard. In fact Bioware's gone to great lengths to avoid creating one in the books and comics in it's limited expanded universe. It's 200 years in the future so any of our current perceptions of gay people, their choices and actions are probably not culturaly in line (just imagine judging gay people with the perceptionsof 30 years ago). And aside from it being a choice, unless Garrius throws you down, I think you've always had a final choice to make before sex happened in all these bioware games, so you can bail at the last minute.

The only reasonalbe rationalle is that these are fanservicey relationships meant to titilate and fully make sheppard feel like an avatar, not real characters with lives of their own. Heck, they just stand around in their private cornor of the normandy until you talk to them making them very inorganic as characters, but rather props for your enjoyment. but that's a problem that extends to the straight relationships as well, so it's invalid.

 

[The White Hunter]

I've got one problem with Bioware including gay romance options in ME3 that DOESN'T stem from homophobia: It's that they waited until ME3 to include them.

Very much agreed. I have the same problem with it - and frankly, I hope that if/when they do another series, they don't pull this nonsense.

This.

I never understood why the option wasn't there in Mass Effect, especially since it was in Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, I'm glad to have the options open, the more choice in character the development the better it is for role-playing.

Role-playing in my RPG? Do want.

 

[targren]

You just told the whining little maggots to "grow up" while holding a 5-foot long dildo-on-a-stick.

I think you have just surpassed the Darth-Vader-riding-T-Rex level of awesome, you big, beautiful, British bastard.

 

[Something Amyss]

"But their beauty and their style went kind of smooth after a while
Take me to them dirty ladies every time" -Fat Bottomed Girls


Every time, Freddie Mercury can't be gay and that proves it

Errr...Freddie didn't write that one, though. It was written by ostensibly straight guitarist Brian May Yeah, that proves it. The lyrics don't lie!

 

[girzwald]

Homosexuality exists in over 450 animal species. Homophobia exists in only one. Which one seems more unnatural now?

People need to grow up.

You're right. We need to behave more like animals. They are so pure and virtuous.

Should we also pick up forcibly copulating with females? Cause animals do that too. Oh, and how about fighting with and possibly killing rival males, over that female we will forcibly copulate with. How about then killing the babies of that rival male that we just killed that were born of that forcibly copulated female that we will now forcibly copulate with. Oh, and speaking of babies. How about we just let parents abandon or kill their babies because they no longer feel like having them because they are a burden. Animals do that too.

I could go on about all the virtuous behaviors that are COMPLETELY NATURAL in animals. But I think I made my point.

 

[WoahDan]

Eh, I still have a problem with the gay parts of ME3. Not because I dislike gay people or even the gay options themselves, I just dislike them because the fan base has been so annoying in its insistence for them that my inner troll has been awoken and now all I want is to see their dreams broken before me so that I can partake of the delicious nectar of their tears.

Plus I don't like that having gay options means that the team members are all going to be Shepard-sexual, just seems like lazy writing and I expect better from Bioware.

 

[esperandote]

I'm not a pedophile or a homophobic but let just say that you woke up one day and everyone is gay and it is illegal to have sex with the only people you're genetically attracted to, would that make you a bad person?

Pedophiles had it and still have it worse that homosexuals because there's no chance their preference is going to be accepted any time. Remember, pedophiles that don't act on their desires haven't hurt anyone. They can't help it, they were born that way.

On topic, i dont care about Sheppard being gay or no. At first, i was goin to say that it was lazy writing but then i thought that it is more work to write for two situations instead of one.

 

[Something Amyss]

Heterosexuality makes babies. Homosexuality doesn't.

Frankly it IS, from an evolutionary point of view, wrong. Thats not wrong in a moral sense, but wrong in a continuation of the species sense.

From an evolutionary point of view? No, it's not wrong. In fact, homosexuality tends to be more prevalent in times of famine and war (stress alters natal development), and makes a lot of sense from an evolutionary standpoint: It keeps species, theoretically, from overpopulation.

I can fully understand why some consider it a mental illness, arguably an inherited or developed one.

I take your point about "so what?" but the problem here is, "evolutionarily wrong" doesn't translate to mental illness in any sense. Nothing you just said supports why it could be considered a mental illness.

Care to try again?