Johnny Novgorod said:
Aaron Sylvester said:
I think that's fair enough. Nintendo is the developer and if they don't want same-sex relationships in their game then that is their decision.
No news there, of course everybody is free to be as discriminatory as they want. Is it
good though?
Artists should be able to create what they want without being criticized for not catering to everyone's wishes and wants. We live in an era of over-reactions where people can get offended by a glass of water.
A game that doesn't have same-sex relationships available isn't necessarily homophobic, a game that has a male protagonist instead of a female one isn't necessarily sexist, a game that has the African-american character die first isn't necessarily racist, a game that has females flouting around wearing skimpy clothes isn't necessarily misogynist.
If Nintendo have gone out of their way saying "NO, HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS ARE WRONG" then people would have a reason to get offended, but all I'm seeing here is over-reactions and assumptions. Here's a prime example:
Lieju said:
"We're not trying to provide social commentary", except, you know, that you are.
Such as that homosexual relationships have no place in a 'whimsical quirky world'. Only straight people allowed there.
...sigh.
Ultimately we are talking about videogame with fictional characters, so when people start saying "why don't those fictional videogame characters behave the way I want them to?", I find it a little hard to take them seriously.
If people want to criticize and make a fuss over something like this then they can go right ahead. But if I was in Nintendo's shoes (or really any developer) I would never bend over backwards trying to make everyone happy. I would create what I intend to create and people can judge the final product how they see fit.