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

Sandytimeman

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Jan 14, 2011
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Lord_Gremlin said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_displaying_homosexual_behavior

I think we should be looking at this the other way, perhaps homophobia is the mental disorder. I mean we consider irrational fears or phobias to be a type of anxiety disorder.

Jim Sterling said:
Jimothy Sterling said:
snip, not sure if this is an alternative Jim account or not
Also to Jim, I know this will probably be lost in the sea of comments on this thread. But, thank you. I am a homosexual man, and I live in constant fear of the bigotry and hate that gets spewed everyday across the internet, the tv, the news, from the very mouths of my family and co-workers.

Not too far from where I grew up a homosexual man, was beaten to an inch of his life driven out to a field and tied to a bard wire fence where he died of exposure. The men who did it were regular American christian citizens. This is the kind of behavior I fear in my own community and its small things like being able to play a game where I'm not treated the same way that gives me a small feelings of normality.
 

jessegeek

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Oct 31, 2011
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Seriously, seriously, thank God for Jim. I love his show anyway, but this video was perfection formed from a shitstorm of ignorance. It only makes sense in a game that let's you bang an alien that it should let a dude bang a dude or an (Earth-biology definition) chick bang an (Earth-biology definition) chick. Tbh, not being het should be an option in all free-choice RPGs with romance elements, as that's what the free choice is about and that's what some players want.

But anyway, I absolutely adored this vid, it made me so happy to see this being put across. Thanks, Jim.
 

sindremaster

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Apr 6, 2010
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Tanakh said:
And you can play Mass Effect 1 thinking Shepard is indded Zerg opperative planted by Kerrigan in order to prove this weak alien races before the invasion, that doesn't make it cannon. In the cannon of the previous ME Shepard was a male/female baddass human operative that kicked reapers asses and did straight/lesbian stuff in his freetime, now it's straight/lesbian/gay, thats a addition retcon.

Sure, you can argument that he was always gay, but we had no hints to that, ever, so now he being gay is retcon as much as if he suddenly tunrs a zerg opperative or that a new Starwars writer makes Chewbacca vegan. Not that there's something inherently bad about that, and sure, you retcon is not terrible in a proyect that involved hundreds of creatives over 6-7 years, still it's not something I like and yeah, i want PERFECT writing and hindsight!!!
But if I made a gay Shepard in ME1 he wouldn't do the "straight stuff", there is an option to not romance anyone. Which is something a lot of people seem to be forgetting.

It's like in real life, if someone who is gay is surrounded by people who are straight, he won't have sex with them. If he later finds someone gay to be in a relationship with that isn't a retcon.

Shepard wasn't straight before there just wasn't any other gay people around.
 

Simonoly

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Oct 17, 2011
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MegaSuperUberMe said:
Well, I am bi and i have a problem with Shepard wanting space dick all of a sudden, without any indication that he wanted space dick before. Don't get me wrong, i DON'T have a problem with him wanting to ride Krogans all night long, I have a problem with how it is presented. I want a little coming out sub plot, where people you know react differently, some accept you and some don't. You are a hero, a role model and known thru all the fking galaxy and i would really like to see this aspect explored. Plus, what about Shepard him/her self? Coming out was one of the hardest things i ever done, it had such an emotional impact on me and everybody around me! This magic cock magnetism with Shepard is just insulting to me
Hmm interesting point. But I kind of like the fact that in video games, whenever I indulge in some man-on-man or woman-on-woman action none of the characters in the game question it. Like they literally do not care about sexuality, because it's just not important in the universe of which the game is set - an ideal reality I suppose. For example, I always liked it in Fable 3 when you get married and all the NPCs do is say how happy they are irrespective of the gender of your chosen spouse. I might make my Shepard go gay, I might not. But I would only want my crew mates to react in a way which was character based, not sexuality based (i.e. Kaiden: "So Shepard, I hear you've ditched Liara for Garrus? Why?! Liara and you were a good match and Garrus is a monotonous turd"). If anything, I would be more interested to see objections to multi-species sex in Mass Effect if they were to ever go down that route.
 

Toilet

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My only problem is that the gay Shepard is handled so ham handedly. If you want to know how to write a good gay character in a game look at Nathan Drake, Kanji from Persona 4 and Arcade Gannon from Fallout: New Vegas.

Also I laughed hard at Jims rant on Paedophilia =/= Homosexuality.

But to be honest my gripes with Mass Effect 3 come from the blatant ripping off of the endings of Deus Ex and pulling it off really poorly (Oh yeah, spoilers).
 

killercyclist

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Feb 12, 2011
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good on you jim! nothing wrong with being gay, nor is there any reason to take issue with "gay" options in mass effect 3. be who you are and fuck the rest!
 

subtlefuge

Lord Cromulent
May 21, 2010
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I stopped caring about the arguments when 'canonical Shepard' was used. Seriously. The fuck.

The idea that a game that can progress in any hundreds of way has only one right character sexual orientation is absurd.
 

FedericoV

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Apr 17, 2011
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I have no problem with same sex romance in Bioware games. I applaude Bioware for them and for the inclusivity of their games on any level (like female PCs and female oriented marketing).

I admit to have some problem withe the whole concept of the necessity of romance in Bioware games, to the point where a significant part of their fanbase play Bioware's games ONLY for the romances. To the point where a Bioware game without romances is considered substandard no matter what. For example, in DA2 case it would have been better to invest on other more substantial matters, considering the result (for exampe, more varied environments). But I'm talking of all romances, not just same-sex ones.

But at the end of the day romances are optional content and there is no one forcing me to play them. So, I simply share MC Avelone position on the issue: CRPG could even be done without romances. For many folks on Bio boards that's blasphemy.

Having said all of that, I have one minor issue about same sex romance. Maybe I'm just homophobic as Sterling like to point out but I do not like the fact that in the race to cut corners, Bioware is turning every romancable NPC in to some sort of bi-sexual. I mean, you can have a bi-sexual in the romance cast. You can have a couple of bi-sexual. But not all charachters being bisexual so they are sure to please everyone while cutting corners.

It just does not make a lot of sense in my view and it has shown a lot of problem in a game like DA2. I would prefer each NPC having his own personality and sexuality. Each charachter should look like a real person and not just like a sex-doll in the hand of the player (being straight or gay).
 

Flight

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Mar 13, 2010
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As always, love the video. Considering that Bioware was supposed to have gay romances in Mass Effect to begin with, I'm glad they finally stepped up to the bloody plate in ME3. I wish they'd done it in the first place.
 

drisky

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Mar 16, 2009
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Zachary Amaranth said:
I'm expecting the same excuses to come up anyway. And especially the people who blew through several of them, changing their story to conveniently dodge the real issue.

Also, Freddie Mercury is a great example. He slept with a lot of girls in his life but was gay. I guess him sleeping with men doesn't mesh with the canon Freddie, but whatever.
"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 :p
 

sindremaster

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Apr 6, 2010
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Hixy said:
2. If you choose to play paragon those dialogue options lead to romantic relationships, so I play that way meaning every crew mate on the ship is going to try and bed me?? I am not cool with that it will seem really stupid and unbelievable.
If you read the options instead of just chosing the upper right corner you won't have this problem, it's usually fairly obvious which choice leads to a romance.
 

jessegeek

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Oct 31, 2011
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Callate said:
It appears that human bisexuality, at least among men, isn't all that common.
Right, like how it isn't all that common for one person to stand up against the Geth army to defend the galaxy. You're right, those things are so super-rare, I don't know why they even put them in games: it just breaks immersion for me completely.
 

I Max95

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Mar 23, 2009
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Tanakh said:
sindremaster said:
How can gay Shepard be retconning when you create your own Shepard? If I went and played Mass Effect 1 right now I could make a gay Shepard if I wanted.
And you can play Mass Effect 1 thinking Shepard is indded Zerg opperative planted by Kerrigan in order to prove this weak alien races before the invasion, that doesn't make it cannon. In the cannon of the previous ME Shepard was a male/female baddass human operative that kicked reapers asses and did straight/lesbian stuff in his freetime, now it's straight/lesbian/gay, thats a addition retcon.

Sure, you can argument that he was always gay, but we had no hints to that, ever , so now he being gay is retcon as much as if he suddenly tunrs a zerg opperative or that a new Starwars writer makes Chewbacca vegan. Not that there's something inherently bad about that, and sure, you retcon is not terrible in a proyect that involved hundreds of creatives over 6-7 years, still it's not something I like and yeah, i want PERFECT writing and hindsight!!!
firstly, there is NO CANON SHEPARD your Shepard is only canon in YOUR game, it doesnt matter what other Shepards do your shepard does whatever you want him to do. it isnt a retcon if the character's entire existance and choices depend on player choice. if the player chooses for Shepard to be gay, then Shepard IS gay, it isnt a retcon, if you say that he/she isnt, then you know what, you are also correct, with YOUR Shepard

secondly, refering to the bold, you are implying that a gay person always appears to be gay, like he/she can't help but show it, that isn't true, i've met plenty of straight people whom i thought were gay, and gay people whom i thought were straight, all through school people made fun of me for being gay, problem is, i'm perfecly straight, you can't guess anything about sexuality by "hints" or any kind of tendecies they previously exhibited

good god! did you even watch the video this thread is about?!
i'm basically repeating what Jim already said
watch it again, see if you understand then
 

lead sharp

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Nov 15, 2009
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Jim I salute you, with my cock!

Man, I've had a bad few days but that video made my whole week.

...
 

eva243

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Jan 29, 2009
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I was so waiting for him to stick that in his mouth LOL XD

Funnier than that I think some people are fearful of playing the game through making their choices as they would and then going to bed with the same sex character as if this game defines them or sheds some form of light on the idea that they might be gay. Which is honestly pretty laughable given the idea that all games are pure fantasy and anyone put into a real video game situation would act very differently then the way they play it.