BioWare Explains Why There's No Homosexuality in Mass Effect 2

[manaman]

I think Casey Hudson's answer sounds a lot more reasonable. Video Games, especially in the current generation, have always borrowed heavily from movies, so building a game like "a PG-13 movie" sounds a lot more understandable to me.
[small](it also explains why there's no actual nudity in these games)[/small]

I find Muzyka's answer a little bit puzzling. The Mass Effect series has always had this "build-your-own-adventure" vibe; in theory, Shepard should be the players' concept, not the game designers'.

Not this game. It is completely linear. You only get to choose which of three missions you do first. Then when are done with the set you get one handed to you that sets up three more.

 

[Danpascooch]

You can blame them for not having gay relationships in the game, but you can't blame them for dodging the question after they made the choice, I mean, is there any politically correct answer they could give?

 

[Sentox6]

I mean, seriously, have you seen Miranda's ass?

I know.

It's interesting that Bioware's other two internal IPs (Jade Empire and Dragon Age) both had homosexual options. KotOR on the other hand, had a half broken "lesbian" option with Juhani, but given it's the Star Wars license, I didn't expect much more than that. Mass Effect, therefore, has really surprised me in this regard. If anything, they've retreated even further after the first game too, especially with the ridiculous excuses contradicting their own canon about Liara not being female (and therefore no F/F relationships are in the game).

I wonder if they're not just playing it safe, trying to avoid any controversy in a target market that perhaps has a partly less mature demographic than, say, Dragon Age. But I'm just guessing now.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Between the two of them, I find Hudson's answer more believable. Even if the developers had a sorta "canon" image for Shepard, there's nothing wrong with letting the Player play their own version of Shapard. After all, is that not why it's called a "Role Playing" game.
I wonder if EA didn't have something to do with it...

 

[Susan Arendt]

I think Casey Hudson's answer sounds a lot more reasonable. Video Games, especially in the current generation, have always borrowed heavily from movies, so building a game like "a PG-13 movie" sounds a lot more understandable to me.
[small](it also explains why there's no actual nudity in these games)[/small]

I find Muzyka's answer a little bit puzzling. The Mass Effect series has always had this "build-your-own-adventure" vibe; in theory, Shepard should be the players' concept, not the game designers'.

I tend to agree with this. The culmination of the romance in part 1 was far more...well, physical, than in part 2. Honestly, I can live with fading to black instead of watching characters knock boots in the uncanny valley. But I'd still rather have the option to bed the ladies should I want to.

I mean, seriously, have you seen Miranda's ass?

In some scenes, if you have her wearing the default outfit there's very clear camel toe as well. Oh Miranda, you silly sassy sensuous seducer.

All kidding aside, BioWare's female characters are usually more interesting than their male characters (in my opinion, anyway) and therefore ones I'm more interested in growing close to. I mean, Mordin is amusing and Grunt is cool, but Jacob is meh at best. Thane and Garrus...ok, I'll definitely give you those two.

(Not that I was kidding about the perfection that is Miranda's backside.)

 

[TitsMcGee1804]

its just a load of PC-mongers moaning because they want equality, makes my blood boil

i reckon these idiots would struggle to actually find a gay man who actually gives a rats ass

they took away the sexual preference choice of a load of 1's and 0's, OMG BURN THEM AT THE STAKE!

 

[Chaos Marine]

Or if you cut out the BS, they didn't want to alienate the huge, homophobic demographic that makes up about 95% of the 360 audience.

 

[lacktheknack]

Bioware should simply say that the characters you can have sex with are not gay. Hence no gay relationships.

That could work, except for females and Asari...

But really, it shouldn't bother people. It's not programmed in, so don't try to make them change it.

 

[DTWolfwood]

wait so if your shepard is female u get to do the guys? if thats true i need to replay the game!! >.<

 

[CrashBang]

I don't buy it. My flatmates gay and also a massive fan of Mass Effect and he was pretty pissed that neither game allowed for a gay Shepard. I can't help but wonder what they're implying with the whole 'being gay not fitting the character' angle. Are they implying that he would need to be camp? Bullshit

 

[T-Bone24]

But what about FemShep and Kelly Chambers? They can get into a homosexual relationship.

 

[Deleric]

The gay thing does bring on more hurtful connotations than helpful. Once you have it in there, it can't just be "that thing". People will talk about it, and that'll probably damage what the game is trying to pull off overall.

 

[The Austin]

The excuse they gave was actually why I liked Dragon Age more that Mass Effect.

The character in Dragon Age wasn't defined, he felt more personal, and Shepard was..... Well, already defined. I don't think that Bioware had a gay Shepard in mind when they created the character, unlike in Dragon Age, where the character was a blank slate for you to create.

 

[cobrausn]

It's their game. If the lead writer envisions Shephard as straight, then straight he/she can be. If you want a gay character so bad, go make a game with a gay character in it.

It doesn't mean they hate gays, for fuck's sake. They go through the effort of producing a story and people whine because the story isn't how they wanted it; it seems pretty childish to me.

I guess you can't make everyone happy.

 

[Zmann966]

Straight people will obviously play straight characters, I know many people who would have enjoyed the addition of gay relationships, (what guy doesn't like girl on girl and I know quite a few females who enjoy the opposite)
I seem to remember Liara being a girl AND an allowable romance for Fem-Shepard.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

There seems to some subtext there that no one is saying, namely that the inclusion of actual homosexual relationships might hurt sales, but that is a very different issue and one that will take more than one science-fiction videogame to tackle.
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If no-one is saying it, then how do you prove its existence? That's supposition.