At first, I was up in arms about SGRA, but at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter to me. If they implement it, they do. If they don't they don't. It really won't affect my gameplay one way or the other. As stated many times, bigger fish to fry.

 

To a lot of people it is a really big deal that affects their gameplay - as a hardcore roleplayer, some of my characters (Specifically my Assassin and my Sage) are strictly homosexual and I would like their in-game story to reflect that.

 

To others the issue of equal representation is also a big deal. Wether you simply care about the political side or are part of the LGBT community, or as in my case, are involved with a member of the community (my girlfriend being a "T") it is hard to ignore the fact that a game where romance can be a big part of the experience somehow refuses to acknowledge the existence of alternate sexuality. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the merits, just saying that it's a lot more than just a nice option to have, to some people.

Edited July 17, 2012 by HellbirdIV

To a lot of people it is a really big deal that affects their gameplay - as a hardcore roleplayer, some of my characters (Specifically my Assassin and my Sage) are strictly homosexual and I would like their in-game story to reflect that.

.

 

Let me ask you a question though. Seriously, no flaming or anything, just straight up curiousity.

 

If you're assasin is gay, and there are no same sex gay companions on his/her ship, does that mean the in game story isn't reflecting their homosexuality?

If you're assasin is gay, and there are no same sex gay companions on his/her ship, does that mean the in game story isn't reflecting their homosexuality?

 

I think I've mentioned it before, but it would be nice to able to Flirt with people even if you're going to get let down. That reflects reality, sometimes people just don't want you. The fact is you aren't even allowed to hear Andronikus say "I don't do dudes" at the moment. Not to mention even if your crew doesn't have any gay people you could still run into them in the open world. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a single receptive gay guy or lesbian in the entirety of the galaxy that we can currently visit. You'd at the very lest expect to run into them on Nar Shadda, even if that is grossly cliche.

If you're assasin is gay, and there are no same sex gay companions on his/her ship, does that mean the in game story isn't reflecting their homosexuality?

 

As the other posted mentioned, the option to at least flirt with people of the same gender even if they'd turn you down would be a way to reflect their sexuality.

 

And don't try to tell me that I can't flirt with Temple on my Imp Agent because she's not into girls, she's so obviously infatuated with the Agent regardless of gender!

Edited July 17, 2012 by HellbirdIV

Let me ask you a question though. Seriously, no flaming or anything, just straight up curiousity.

 

If you're assasin is gay, and there are no same sex gay companions on his/her ship, does that mean the in game story isn't reflecting their homosexuality?

Technically, yes, it does mean that. While the companions themselves don't have to be gay to have the story reflect the PC's sexuality, the fact that the PC can't inform the companions of that sexuality means the game's not reflecting it.

 

Put another way, the game's dialogue system gives us all kinds of ways to reflect the kind of character we want to play. My Trooper is a diehard FOR THE REPUBLIC!! kind of guy, and there's dialogue for that. My Imperial Agent is a violent, authority-disrespecting kind of guy, and there's dialogue for that. My Jedi Consular is attracted to intellectual women... wait. There's no dialogue options for that.

 

As others have said, there's no way to even flirt with someone of the same sex currently, and that's part of why this is a big deal for some people: for a game that does so much to support you playing your characters the way you see them, it currently has no support at all for any sexuality other than "straight" or "asexual". And that's unfortunate, to say the least.

And don't try to tell me that I can't flirt with Temple on my Imp Agent because she's not into girls, she's so obviously infatuated with the Agent regardless of gender!

Funny, I was going to say the same thing about Kira and the Jedi Knight. Seriously, how many times can my JK hear Kira's suggestion that we retire and do something fun without saying "Screw saving the galaxy, get on the ship, we're finding a planet that's one giant beach."

 

And while I haven't played a Bounty Hunter much, I think Mako might be the same way. I've said it many times, but seriously - start a new BH and listen to what Mako says when you walk into the room. Regardless of gender, she might as well be saying "How you doin'?"

And while I haven't played a Bounty Hunter much, I think Mako might be the same way. I've said it many times, but seriously - start a new BH and listen to what Mako says when you walk into the room. Regardless of gender, she might as well be saying "How you doin'?"

 

I actually cited Mako first, before remembering that Temple is far more suggestive and editing my post.

I actually cited Mako first, before remembering that Temple is far more suggestive and editing my post.

Heh. Good to know she seems to have a fascination with the BH either way, though.

 

I haven't gotten far enough with my IA to meet Temple, but my IA recently had the first "romance" dialogue with Kaliyo. Okay, it's not a romance at all, but still. Considering Kaliyo's attitude seemed to be "I'm in the mood, you're here, let's get it on like wild mynocks", it makes it seem like she might not be choosy when it came to her partner's gender. She just seems like a "[bleep!] the one you're with" kind of person.

Having read the answers to my questions, here's another.

 

The general theme seems to be, I should be able to reveal my sexuality to my companions. But, in all seriousness, there's like 10 conversations per companion and most of them involve the companion telling you things about himself/herself. While its true that I can't tell Corso I dig the way his armor bulges, I also can't offer him a joint, tell him I prefer basketball to baseball, find out if he prefers kung fu movies to romantic comedies and so on and so forth.

 

The companion conversations are really there, for the most part, to drive the story. The real role playing is what you do when you interact with other players.

 

Still, not that I oppose same gender companions. I'm just against the reworking of old companions or the "paint the world bi" solution of dragon age 2.

Still, not that I oppose same gender companions. I'm just against the reworking of old companions or the "paint the world bi" solution of dragon age 2.

 

Given that Erickson said he already knew which companions were going to be SGRAs, it's safe to say some of the original ones will be involved.

The general theme seems to be, I should be able to reveal my sexuality to my companions. But, in all seriousness, there's like 10 conversations per companion and most of them involve the companion telling you things about himself/herself. While its true that I can't tell Corso I dig the way his armor bulges, I also can't offer him a joint, tell him I prefer basketball to baseball, find out if he prefers kung fu movies to romantic comedies and so on and so forth.

 

The companion conversations are really there, for the most part, to drive the story. The real role playing is what you do when you interact with other players.

Thing is, what you're talking about isn't really what people here are asking for. At the heart of it, what we're asking for is equality - to be able to represent our characters' sexuality as we want to, and to not be forced into playing our characters as either straight or asexual. You can talk about RPing all you want, but as of right now, the actual game doesn't recognize homosexuality as being an option. Being able to play a character the way you see them is a huge part of a role-playing game, and having only one side represented in this game is more than a little unfair.

 

Still, not that I oppose same gender companions. I'm just against the reworking of old companions or the "paint the world bi" solution of dragon age 2.

Bear in mind, though, that this is a galaxy where there are tons of sentient humanoid species, and inter-species relationships don't seem to be anything unusual. Sexuality is bound to be more fluid. Someone could be attracted to only the opposite gender of their own species, but find both males and females of another species attractive, and so on. Options, man.

Still, not that I oppose same gender companions. I'm just against the reworking of old companions or the "paint the world bi" solution of dragon age 2.

 

World "bi" ? What game did you get ? I want a copy of it.

 

In DA2, only Isabela was bi. The others were not. They were "hawkesexual", like some say . Sebastian, not even. Aveline was unrequited love for two of Hawkies

Every playthrough, every game is a different and seperate reality. To say Fenris was "bi", you need metagame knowledge. You need to read the forums, watch YT vids or you make another playthrough (another reality) with a male character and pursuit his romance.

 

I hope they keep this approach for DA3

Given that Erickson said he already knew which companions were going to be SGRAs, it's safe to say some of the original ones will be involved.

 

I hate to be the pin in the balloon... But he said they knew which companions, not that they knew which existing companions... As I said before, it could just mean they have companions we haven't seen in the game yet in mind. Companions that didn't make launch, and that we might see later this year. If writing really has such a LOOOOONG lead time, then so do new characters.

 

So while I wouldn't completely rule out old companions becoming PC-sexual (I won't use the term bi for them at the moment), I also wouldn't be surprised if we're faced with a whole bunch of new romancable companions (with the current ones remaining as they are).

World "bi" ? What game did you get ? I want a copy of it.

 

In DA2, only Isabela was bi. The others were not.

 

Respectfully, I disagree. I'd have agreed if you'd said that only Isabela was really, really open about it. Anders comes in second on that score (as long as you don't count Zevran). As for the others, we don't know if they were 'Hawkesexual' or just not as blatant about their tastes as Isabela was.

 

They were "hawkesexual", like some say . Sebastian, not even. Aveline was unrequited love for two of Hawkies

Every playthrough, every game is a different and seperate reality. To say Fenris was "bi", you need metagame knowledge. You need to read the forums, watch YT vids or you make another playthrough (another reality) with a male character and pursuit his romance.

 

I hope they keep this approach for DA3

 

In addition to this, here's a pet peeve of mine:

 

What if same sex relationships just aren't that big a deal in Thedas? People are so damn intent on applying the rules from our experiences in our parts of our world to a place that doesn't even exist. But the simple matter may be that the generalised stance on same sex relationships found in, say, America or England or Australia or Bangladesh or whatever just might not apply in these worlds.

 

Personally I find it a bit nonsensical for people to say that the situation of sexuality in Thedas or Star Wars is being portrayed as 'unrealistic' and then go off and fight a dragon or wave around giant glowing sticks of plasma.

 

On the note of Thedas, there's a page on the Dragon Age Wiki about sexuality and marriage that covers this point. Now, I don't know the official word on the matter, I don't know how verified, true and correct those details are, but if they are accurate then same sex relationships in Thedas aren't seen as being immoral, weird or freaky. Odd in some places, sure, but it's far less acceptable to start bonking someone of a different race than someone with the same genitals.

 

And if that's the case, if in Ferelden (in the case of DAO) and the Free Marches (for DA2) the writers have decided that same sex relationships aren't weird, and can be at least mostly normal, then it's not unrealistic and it doesn't break immersion. End of story. It is immersion. 'I don't like it' doesn't mean the same thing as 'this breaks immersion'. It would be unrealistic to have anything but the system they provided in DA2 if that is the case.

 

This thread isn't about Thedas, of course, but about Star Wars. Nonetheless I claim the same situation proves true. Sexuality and the attitudes thereof have never been explicitly stated to be one way or another by George Lucas. Even if they had SWTOR is game-canon, not movie-canon. In the novel-canon we've already seen at least one instance of an outright gay couple. In some of the previous Star Wars games there's been same sex content at the very least heavily implied.

 

It annoys me when people use the word 'unrealistic' to mean 'distasteful to me' because as far as I can tell that is in fact what it comes down to when you're referring to a fictional world. People in this very thread have stated that LGBT content could only be realistic if it's to the same proportions as LGBT people in our world. Why? I find that illogical. There's a far higher percentage of Rodians in Star Wars than in our world.

 

It's up to the writers to decide what's 'realistic' for their setting, and up to the players to decide if that's their cup of tea. Not the other way around.

The general theme seems to be, I should be able to reveal my sexuality to my companions. But, in all seriousness, there's like 10 conversations per companion and most of them involve the companion telling you things about himself/herself.

 

It's more like the freedom to express your sexuality...something that's already possible if you roleplay a heterosexual character.

 

There's a difference between telling everyone on your ship about your sex life ("Hey look everybody! I'm gay!!!!") and flirting with a particular companion ("Hey Ensign Temple, how you doin?")

 

No one wants the former but the latter would be desirable to lots of people around these parts.

Edited July 18, 2012 by stuffystuffs

Still say that all romances should be cut out all together. That way, people who care won't be mad, and people who play games for the game sake still won't care. lol Edited July 18, 2012 by cool-dude

To a lot of people it is a really big deal that affects their gameplay - as a hardcore roleplayer, some of my characters (Specifically my Assassin and my Sage) are strictly homosexual and I would like their in-game story to reflect that.

 

To others the issue of equal representation is also a big deal. Wether you simply care about the political side or are part of the LGBT community, or as in my case, are involved with a member of the community (my girlfriend being a "T") it is hard to ignore the fact that a game where romance can be a big part of the experience somehow refuses to acknowledge the existence of alternate sexuality. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the merits, just saying that it's a lot more than just a nice option to have, to some people.

 

I understand that this is a big issue for "Your Game Play", however, as I said in my previous post, is it a deal breaker for a significant number of gamers that will cause a threatening revenue loss in the overall scheme of things? You may say yes, but from a marketing standpoint, I would venture to say no. I know you would like to believe that you leaving the game over this will cause someone high up in BW management to lose sleep, but unless you have over 100 accounts (which I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you don't) chance are, it won't.

 

As much as we would like to believe that it's about making everyone happy, and equal representation, and all the other political sound bites, bottom line, it's about the money. BW doesn't make this game to cater to certain demographics. It's like an Oriental saying, "Why isn't there more Asian NPC's". BW made this game to make money. And, they are going to make the fixes and changes the produce the most profit.

Still say that all romances should be cut out all together.

 

I would venture to agree if this is going to cause such controversy.

I would venture to agree if this is going to cause such controversy.

 

Which particular controversy? There's heat on both sides of the SGRA fence, agreed, but SGRA options will be a part of the game. Bioware have stated that. When it happens exactly the same thing is going to occur whenever any patch comes out: the players will reassess to see if this is still the game they want to play.

 

The 'controversy' arises when people start jumping up and down about the way things 'should' or 'should not' be.

 

In the end the company must keep making money to continue the game. I absolutely agree. Companies eat money; without it they starve and die. But is this change going to cause such a huge kerfuffle that people are going to start leaving in droves purely because they suddenly have the option to flirt with people of the same gender?

 

I sure hope not. It doesn't speak well for people's relative maturity levels if they're going to quit because something they won't utilise is put into the game. It'll be there for those of us that want it and it won't be compulsory for those who don't want it. Nobody has to quit and everyone other than the die-hard extremists on both sides are happy (because nothing really pleases an extremist anyway).

 

Is there a controversy? That's down to opinion of what classifies as a 'controversy', perhaps. If the arguments in this thread are what you're going on then you'd better pop over to the PvP threads and demand that be removed, because people argue about that all the time too.

 

But there certainly doesn't need to be a controversy. Particularly over an element of the game that's been confirmed as coming. It's wait-and-see time.

I sure hope not. It doesn't speak well for people's relative maturity levels if they're going to quit because something they won't utilise is put into the game. It'll be there for those of us that want it and it won't be compulsory for those who don't want it. Nobody has to quit and everyone other than the die-hard extremists on both sides are happy (because nothing really pleases an extremist anyway).

 

It's the Oreo cookie fiasco, merely in game form. I personally think the number of people who are likely to leave the game over this is going to be quite small; there are bound to be more people who want to experience an SGR with their characters, even if it is "ooh look, lesbians" (I'll come out of my extremely shallow closet and say I'm really starting from an "ooh look, hot gays" position, bolstered by feeling a bit of a guilty Ally).

 

I'm sure Kaft went "ooh, look at our facebook page!" when their so-called controversy started, but a number of people also stated their support and that they would simply buy oreo cookies out of spite for the homophobes. Any media attention generated by Bioware's introduction of SGR's could possibly yield the same result: people buying the game to spite nay-sayers and, hopefully, finding that they like it in general and not merely for the "ooh look, lesbians/hot gays" and continuing to play.

 

But, as you said, this thread is to discuss the capacity in which SGR's will be implemented and not whether they should be.

 

One will always find controversy in everything. If you think there isn't any, you're not looking hard enough.

I understand that this is a big issue for "Your Game Play", however, as I said in my previous post, is it a deal breaker for a significant number of gamers that will cause a threatening revenue loss in the overall scheme of things? You may say yes, but from a marketing standpoint, I would venture to say no. I know you would like to believe that you leaving the game over this will cause someone high up in BW management to lose sleep, but unless you have over 100 accounts (which I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you don't) chance are, it won't.

 

Who said anything about leaving the game? That wasn't a point I even lightly touched upon. As far as I'm concerned it's just a case of courtesy and respect for a large portion of the fanbase. The marketing side of it is irrelevant because same-sex romances shouldn't be a marketing ploy, it should be giving players more freedom in playing the stories they want to play.

I understand that this is a big issue for "Your Game Play", however, as I said in my previous post, is it a deal breaker for a significant number of gamers that will cause a threatening revenue loss in the overall scheme of things? You may say yes, but from a marketing standpoint, I would venture to say no. I know you would like to believe that you leaving the game over this will cause someone high up in BW management to lose sleep, but unless you have over 100 accounts (which I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you don't) chance are, it won't.

 

As much as we would like to believe that it's about making everyone happy, and equal representation, and all the other political sound bites, bottom line, it's about the money. BW doesn't make this game to cater to certain demographics. It's like an Oriental saying, "Why isn't there more Asian NPC's". BW made this game to make money. And, they are going to make the fixes and changes the produce the most profit.

 

This entire argument hinges on the assumption that not many people want SGRAs, when exactly the opposite is true, BioWare have stated themselves they know this isn't some small demographic and they'd have to be poorly directed indeed not to build on their huge LGBT fanbase.

 

Annoying the intolerant, and even having some of them leave, is negligible in comparison to the amount of subscribers they could gain from releasing such content.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Rayla_Felana

This entire argument hinges on the assumption that not many people want SGRAs, when exactly the opposite is true, BioWare have stated themselves they know this isn't some small demographic and they'd have to be poorly directed indeed not to build on their huge LGBT fanbase.

 

Annoying the intolerant, and even having some of them leave, is negligible in comparison to the amount of subscribers they could gain from releasing such content.

 

That is pretty ridiculous! More paying customers would leave the game then it would gain from adding such a feature. The "huge fanbase" that you claim is more likely just wishful thinking. There is only a small minority that would use such a feature and adding it would be a huge waste of time and resources. Bioware says (like many game companies) that it will be added in the future. We'll see if that is accurate or not and I'm sure if it is that the exodus of paying customers that it brings may make them regret such a decision, if the feature ever even makes it in game.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Stugotz

I'm sorry, but if Bioware are saying that they have a large LGBT fanbase, surely they know they have a large LGBT fanbase and would want to cater to that? I'm guessing you're one of the lot who don't want to come within 50 foot of anything LGBT?

That is pretty ridiculous! More paying customers would leave the game then it would gain from adding such a feature. The "huge fanbase" that you claim is more likely just wishful thinking. There is only a small minority that would use such a feature and adding it would be a huge waste of time and resources. Bioware says (like many game companies) that it will be added in the future. We'll see if that is accurate or not and I'm sure if it is that the exodus of paying customers that it brings may make them regret such a decision, if the feature ever even makes it in game.

 

I highly doubt Bioware is going to suddenly lose a huge chunk of players just from adding SGRAs in their game given all their other recent games ALSO have both straight and gay relationships and STILL sell huge numbers. As Rayla said, Bioware has admitted that they realize it's not a small group that wants this added, insisting otherwise won't change that fact.

That is pretty ridiculous! More paying customers would leave the game then it would gain from adding such a feature. The "huge fanbase" that you claim is more likely just wishful thinking. There is only a small minority that would use such a feature and adding it would be a huge waste of time and resources. Bioware says (like many game companies) that it will be added in the future. We'll see if that is accurate or not and I'm sure if it is that the exodus of paying customers that it brings may make them regret such a decision, if the feature ever even makes it in game.

 

Haven't been following BioWare games for very long, have you?