Same Sex Relationships (Finally) Coming to The Old Republic

[SinisterGehe]

Oh! FOX news will have a field day with this one, specially since the Lucas arts sellout to Disney.
There will be so many "Games introduce gay sexual content for kids to explore!!!" and how it will destroy the moral fiber of america (I barely got trough the 'moral fiber of America' part 'straight')

This just in: Video game haters and FOX news got something new to chew on and to hate gaming with! /shock horror

 

[verdant monkai]

Personally I wouldn't even consider an mmorpg where I cant rub beards with a fellow hairy male npc, then bind ourselves in wedlock to display our love to the server.

Jokes aside any new option added to this sort of game is a good option, shame I wont be playing it.

 

[Something Amyss]

Not against this by any means, but if Bioware starts bragging about introducing gay couples to Star Wars I will personally throw a copy of Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice at them.

Don't worry, most people understand Bioware hasn't had an original thought in their career and are fine with that.

I'll celebrate the day when developers include it without waiting for a pat on the back from their fans.

And fans don't offer one so readily.

 

[nodlimax]

It won't save the game - it's that simple.

They need to add new gameplay features. Otherwise the players won't be back. And of course they have to work on their reputation again. At this point there pretty much isn't anything they can do to win me back as a customer....

 

[Tumedus]

I am happy for those that have wanted this since launch that they are finally getting it in there, but if its not a companion its not really a "romance". For anyone who has played, the NPC relationships consist of 2 or 3 flirts in 1 or 2 dialogs followed by a fade to black and perhaps an e-mail a couple hours later.

 

[jezcentral]

A quick note to those who think it is just a matter of including same-sex relationships by not including a gender-check, you also need to re-dub some of the VO work. For every "You are a handsome man"/"We must go through a friendship ceremony so you can be my soul sister", you need a separate line to be recorded. Not saying it is a HUGE job that couldn't have been done in the first place, but once left undone, is hard to rectify (got to get all the VO actors and actresses back in the studio).

And anyway, I like this game and find it a great way to spend time with my friends online.

 

[TheBelgianGuy]

I still am disappointed they made this instead of KotoR3. THAT would be an amazing game. I so loved KotoR 1+2 (despite obvious flaws in the games).

For a story-centered mmorpg, the story surely was spread thin and pretty bland. The only thing I really liked was the spaceship battles, oddly enough.

 

[Falterfire]

I was all set to explain why the whole 'it doesn't require more work to include gays' thing but then everybody else beat me to it. Ah well, dead horse beating is fun!
As a programmer: No, based on pure lines of code work, gay vs no gay is absolutely no effort. However, if you want it to look like anybody actually cared about it, it takes more than just removing the gender check on the player character. Presumably you want marriage that is more meaningful than just your character asking the companion 'wanna get married?' and then they respond 'sure' and that's it.

Of course, if all you WANT is absolutely identical dialog and such, then yeah, it's a trivial change. If you actually care though, you should be glad they haven't taken this route since it's boring and lazy.

 

[Xan Krieger]

OT: Wasn't there an incident that ended up declaring there are no gays in Star Wars? What's the point of making same-sex relationships possible when there are 0 gay characters to have said relationships?

The controversy was over a quip from one of the dev team on how the idea of being gay doesn't exist in the SW universe because everyone pretty much fucks anything with a pulse.

OT: Too little too late? I mean the game was okay despite being a decent single player experience wrapped in a half-baked MMO, but is this their best saving throw after their draconian F2P scheme has sealed the game's ultimate fate?

Well that's....interesting. No gays, no straights, well I guess that's one less problem Star Wars has compared to our world. Their big problem though? Illegal aliens which are actually aliens (the worst kind of illegal aliens, they don't jump the fence, they hyperdrive past it)

 

[ViciousTide]

Disney needs to dust off the 99% complete Battlefront III and release it now, before the new consoles!

 

[Fasckira]

"Finally" coming to TOR? Was it a big issue then? Not trying to get anyone's backs up if so, just wasn't aware that this had become some sticking point. Dont get me wrong, its great that the option is being made available for those who want it.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I can not see the point, its just pandering really. Im a single, straight guy and i have zero interest in relationships in games. Its just not important. So all this gay relationship stuff is pandering to get more gay people to get the game. Cos gay people (like straight people) wont give a shit about this game cos of the relationship additions. A gay gamer isnt going to buy a game just because they can date same sex in it. Thus, its insulting.

 

[josemlopes]

from a programming standpoint it is easier to include same sex relationships in a game than to exclude them
so try and keep in mind every game which has a marriage/sex option that excludes same sex pairings is actually intentionally anti-gay

I wouldnt say that, just because you they didnt include gay marriage and sex doesnt mean that they are anti-gay. 10 years ago games with gay sex would be bashed by the media, shit, even just hetero sex was enough (Hot Coffe and Mass Effect 1 shitstorm for example). Most of the time it just means that they are trying to avoid PR problems not becoming the hot topic of the week, like this
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108826-Gay-Gamers-Want-Dragon-Age-2-Writer-Fired

Nowadays its more open but these things evolve slowly so just because a developer chooses to not include something like this it may only mean that he will opt to go the safe path and avoid any kind of additional PR issues. Its a sensitive issue that some may not be prepared to tackle so they prefer to stay away from it.

 

[StashAugustine]

It kinda strikes me as tacky in a DA2 sense. Are they just gonna have all the romance options suddenly declare themselves bi? What about characters that were previously established as strongly hetero? Will they react to other same-sex characters? Is there going to be any difference in the romance aside from gender?

 

[Kyrinn]

"Finally" coming to TOR? Was it a big issue then? Not trying to get anyone's backs up if so, just wasn't aware that this had become some sticking point. Dont get me wrong, its great that the option is being made available for those who want it.

It came up often enough to merit a stickied thread in the TOR forums.

OT: Too little too late IMO. This should hve been in the original release. In fact, this entire game should have just been a single player RPG with warzones and other multiplayer content added in later for fun. Don't even get me started on their Free-to-Play-but-just-barely policy.

 

[Ranorak]

I'm sure all 50 people still playing this are thrilled!

On a more serious note, good for them for showing the option, but so far Bioware's romance always felt a bit empty.
Combine this with the already near-vacuum that is SW:TOR and we have ourselves a black hole (get it?...)

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Cos gay people only play games with same sex relationships. If i was gay i would be insulted. They play games like everyone, for story or for fun. They would play Halo 5 without the need to see Master Chief screw another member of the army. Its like saying a game has to be pink just to make girls love it.

 

[shintakie10]

I'm not the biggest fan of SWTOR out there and I have quite a few problems with it, but I'm actually inclined to believe this isn't some sort of last ditch effort to get people to come back to ToR.

This most definitely was a feature that was promised before launch. Straight up we will have this in eventually promised and they didn't deliver on it. Now that they're not in a massive state of upheaval they were in previously, I can see how comin back to somethin that was in fact highly requested is a bad thing.