Except that lots of LGBT players have voiced sentiment (in this thread and others) along the lines of "I hate having to deal with hetero flirts, why can't I have an experience that I can tailor how I want ?", and that's acceptible while those who say they don't want s/s flirts for the same reasons are skewered and called hateful or bigoted. If it's okay for someone to want only s/s flirts, why isn't it okay for someone to only want o/s flirts ?

But it doesn't really help the ladies who aren't bi. Then we have just a few male flirts and a ton of useless prompts available. I think if they ever do implement s/s flirts, gay men will be very disappointed at the lack of options.

At the same time, without knowing exactly how the TOR dialogue mechanism works behind the scenes, all we can do is speculate as to the relative difficulty of allowing for orientation. Having a character that's heterosexual is the default as-is, so unless they're revamping the mechanics entirely, it shouldn't be difficult to opt for opposite gender flirts. I would think the more difficult proposition is opting exclusively for same-gender content, due to the pronoun issues and such. Again, without being on the BW dev team, all of this is speculation anyhow.

As far as personality is concerned, I would argue that there is a great deal of fluidity. If you subscribe to role theory, a person's behavior is very context-specific. You wouldn't behave the same way around your best friend as you would your grandmother, for example. We adapt our behaviors very much to suit our environment - what is appropriate at a frat party isn't so appropriate at Sunday dinner. While some traits are fairly stable, there's a great deal of flux as one develops. Where morality comes into play, there's also a fair bit of ambiguity. If you've tried to play through entirely light or dark side, it's a real challenge not to gain at least a few points from the opposing faction, because some decisions fall well into the grey area. Good people sometimes do bad things, and bad people can do good as well. Principles are one thing, actions are another. I agree with you that the way one defines their sexuality can change through their lifetime. People can change or experiment. For the most part, however, by the time they're well into adulthood, people have a fairly set preference (be it hetero, bi, or homosexual). I don't know too many people who (aside from kidding around) would say "You know, I'm really not into guys, but I'll make an exception in this case." People tend to find out what they like and go with that. I don't think that implementing some means of gender preference would be hard at all. The game already does that based on the opposite gender of the player's character. So instead of automatically assigning your romance options based on your gender, it would instead ask you. I'm not a developer, but if they were working on implementing this new content, it doesn't seem like it would delay the release of that to allow a player choice.

It depends on who you ask. For myself, it's not a matter of finding SGR offensive, I'm just not into ladies. I'd rather be able to skip the girl prompts by clicking once than to just not use it every time it comes up. In that respect, I think it's like making any other character setting (race, gender, appearance) that we should be able to customize, since sexuality is less fluid than morality or personality. And it still lets those who want to experience all of the prompts do so. It seems like the best compromise, to be honest.

The heart of the matter seems to be that anti-toggle/selection folks are upset because they feel that having a method to select orientation will mainly be used to filter SGR options, that it's trying to pretend homosexuality doesn't exist. The pro-toggle/selection crowd wants some kind of method by which they can customize their prompts, for various reasons that run the gamut (some are uncomfortable with the idea of being hit on by same-sex NPCs, some just don't plan on utilizing the SGR options and would rather not be prompted for it). I don't think it's okay to throw around words like "bigoted" just because a person doesn't want to explore SGR content. Everyone's entitled to their own sexual preferences, and those often extend to the character they're playing. But often it seems like some users aren't just advocating for the SGR content they want, but want it implemented in a way that maximizes exposure, even at the cost of making some players uncomfortable. They can say "Well, too bad, that's their problem", but in reality an MMO is about making the game enjoyable for the entire player base. And if that means letting people choose which options they're shown, then so be it. How one player chooses to customize his gameplay experience doesn't affect me, you, or the next guy.

Here's how I see it: I like guys. I don't have any interest in romancing women. Grouping with male players, it seems there are dozens of flirt options for female NPCs. I'd much rather be able to say at character creation "Preference: Male" than to spend 50 levels ignoring all the lady Flirt prompts. I support including some means to indicate which gender your character is interested in order to customize the prompts, toggle or otherwise.

Near-Human ? Sure. Bring on the Twi'leks, Zabraks, Chiss (or if we're talking outside of existing playable races, maybe a Zeltron or Falleen). Humanoid ? Ehh... maybe not so much. I wouldn't get hot and bothered checking out a Wookiee or an Ithorian. Not that it matters much, we ladies don't even get a shot at Gault, so I doubt they'd heap in the non-pretty races as romance options.

Agreed. Since the toggle discussion thread has been redirected to the SGR clarification thread, it would seem that the question of how best to implement these options while keeping a player's gender preferences in mind would certainly be on-topic.

That's what they want you to think. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a little Tusken.

I think it's valid to want to choose your orientation, via toggle or character creation, to better suit your tastes. For example, I never realized just how many flirt options there are for female NPCs until I started grouping with my husband. My female IA got a grand total of two prompts by level 40, his male SW was in the dozens. I'd rather be able to say "Preference: Male" once than have to ignore all the lady flirts for 50 levels. Had to quote because you may be the only other person I know that's into Ever17. I love that game.

Most of the people here aren't saying that they want to "toggle off all gay content". We want to toggle off flirt prompts for one sex or the other when it comes to our characters. There's a difference between having a gay NPC and being presented with multiple Flirt prompts for the gender you're not into. Yes, you can ignore the options you don't care to use, but many of us would prefer if we could customize which gender our character is into.

I'd be good with more Near-Human options, provided they weren't of the animal persuasion. Twi'lek, Chiss, Rattataki, Zabrak = yes, please. Cathar = no bueno.

Ew, no. Even if one could get past the terrible personality, he's a furry. I don't look at a cat and go "Mmm, mmm. Gotta get me some of that." Couldn't they have given female troopers a human option ?

I understand what you mean, though I still think that attitude and morality are more flexible than sexuality. I might tell someone snarky to get spaced, while being on my best behavior for the governor. I might choose to show mercy to a hired gun begging for his life while not showing compassion to my helpless and disarmed enemy. But because I'm interested only in guys, I'm not as likely to jump into bed with someone of my own gender, regardless of the circumstances. The other choices just seem more situational than orientation, which is pretty consistent.