Dragon Age 2 Lead Writer Blasts Homophobic Fan

[zHellas]

- Are we assuming that everyone who plays a video game plays as the exact same person they are in real life? I'm a heterosexual man IRL, and I played DA2 as a female Hawke that romanced Isabella. For my next playthrough, I will probably pick a different Hawke that romances someone else. I see no reason why I should be stuck playing a whose sexual preferences correspond to my real-life self. Who knows, I might play a male Hawke that romances Anders and Fenris. Shock and awe!

Currently I'm playing as a Nice Male Mage trying to get Merril(he was originally a Rogue, but I wanted Merill as a friend rather than rival, and some other reason that I forgot), and a Smartass Female Warrior who wants Anders.

Then I'll play as Smartass Male Warrior wanting Fenris, and Mean Female Rogue with Isabella.

 

[Loonerinoes]

I still remember on my playthrough with a male Hawke I noticed they'd made Anders bi (or with relative sexuality as the wiki points out) and when I came across this in act 1 I was at that moment like "Ah...okay, cool I guess." And I was sorta teetering on wether or not I'd go that way, but...being completely in the dark as to who was romancable and not, I figured 'let it wait a bit - other fish in the sea.'

It turned out absolutely hilarious that I chose to pull all the stops with Aveline, but in the back of my mind I was half-expecting that this was a 'dummy romance' and yep heheh...sure enough it was. But hey...just after that I complete Anders' companion quest in the 2nd act, choose the middle teasing response and get surprised. So by that time I'm thinking "Ah what the hell, let's give this a go and see where it leads."

Turns out I didn't feel nearly as awkward as I thought I would and, even more importantly, it led to the finale being twice as hard for me to go through than it would've been otherwise. If I hadn't romanced Anders I would've probably just told him to scram or even have killed him...but like this I couldn't, in good conscience, do either of those. That romance actually affected my decision at that end in a way I really did not see coming.

And even now, because of all this, I have a very hard time imagining my 'personal canon' DA2 story as anything other than inclusive of a gay romance with Anders. And if it managed to achieve *that* kind of effect on me, then all I can say is - thank the Maker Bioware chose to do it the way they did. Because if they hadn't, it'd still be memorable...but not half as much.

 

[Hawgh]

Enchantment?

Enchantment!

Also: Burn.

 

[Craorach]

I realised a moment ago after posting that Anders makes absolute sense in his reactions to being turned down. The fact is, he is a disturbed borderline psychotic individual who see's anything other than the world being exactly how he wants it as "Injustice". I'm suprised, after seeing his later actions, that his response to being turned down by Hawke of either gender isn't to keep said Hawke in a locked room and beat them to they love him.

 

[JediMB]

Isabela seems like a girl!Zevran and Merrill seems impossible to please unless you say blood magic is a ok, even though I spend the entire game trying to kill blood mages.

Not going into how Isabela isn't girl!Zevran, but Merrill...

"Anders... There's no such thing as a good spirit. There never was. All spirits are dangerous. I understood that. I'm sorry that you didn't."

She's not asking you to like Blood Magic, but she won't like you if you judge her for using it. It's not something she's proud of, but it was necessary for her to reach her goals. Blood Magic in itself isn't by any means more "evil" than other schools of magic, but the problem is that knowledge of it can usually only be gained from demons, and demons are dangerous.

 

[D Moness]

Like other people have said, the two characters in place for straight males to have as a love interest were silly beyond belief... while I love Merill to bits, I can understand why people don't, and the other option is an overthetop, promiscuous, pirate wench who is seen in one scene asking the main healer for a cure for STDs. Add to this that the homosexual male love interests not only hit on the main character incredibly badly but take a massive reputation hit if you turn them down and I can definately see where some players are coming from.

Yeah as a straight female you have an emo elf that thinks of killing his master and spew his venom about mages every second he can(fun since my party has 2 mages in it). Anders who is "slightly" warped due to the merge of justice in his mind. Every bit of compassion i had for him flew out of the window after what he dared to do in the end. The only slightly normal one is Sebastian (the only straight, romanceble teammember in the game) but he won't have sex with you due to his vow of chastity).

So except for the dlc character all the people you can romance in the game are silly beyond belief.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

he got the reaction he deserved. He was being a biggot

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

As a straight, male gamer, I can safely say that I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to feel proud that male characters flirt with my own. My dude's got so much game, guys cant help but on hit on him too.

That's how I played my male mage, with a bit of ego.

 

[Frotality]

why did this idiotic homophobic post merit an article? it seems so strange that of all the inane comments posted on internet forums, this one gets special mention.

 

[lockeslylcrit]

As a straight, male gamer, I can safely say that I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to feel proud that male characters flirt with my own. My dude's got so much game, guys cant help but on hit on him too.

That's how I played my male mage, with a bit of ego.

That's the beauty of roleplaying.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

If only they would take this attitude to Mass Effect.

*sigh*

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

As a straight, male gamer, I can safely say that I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to feel proud that male characters flirt with my own. My dude's got so much game, guys cant help but on hit on him too.

That's how I played my male mage, with a bit of ego.

That's the beauty of roleplaying.

Pretty much, Erebus Hawke had no intention of letting Anders touch him but he isn't above being flirted with. Enoch Hawke was like, Wut? No... Lilith Hawke managed to miss the right time to romance Fenris as she was contemplating Anders and thus ended up with nothing. She was not pleased with this.

 

[Craorach]

Like other people have said, the two characters in place for straight males to have as a love interest were silly beyond belief... while I love Merill to bits, I can understand why people don't, and the other option is an overthetop, promiscuous, pirate wench who is seen in one scene asking the main healer for a cure for STDs. Add to this that the homosexual male love interests not only hit on the main character incredibly badly but take a massive reputation hit if you turn them down and I can definately see where some players are coming from.

Yeah as a straight female you have an emo elf that thinks of killing his master and spew his venom about mages every second he can(fun since my party has 2 mages in it). Anders who is "slightly" warped due to the merge of justice in his mind. Every bit of compassion i had for him flew out of the window after what he dared to do in the end. The only slightly normal one is Sebastian (the only straight, romanceble teammember in the game) but he won't have sex with you due to his vow of chastity).

So except for the dlc character all the people you can romance in the game are silly beyond belief.

I haven't done a straight female playthrough so I wasn't sure what the female options were.. however, I can see that.

I definately think the romances options in this game are the worst I've seen in any which included it. It makes me feel like the only experience we are expected to want is the eqivilant of a one night stand in a bar.. characters can't slowly get to know each other through the course of the entire game and fall in love.. they have to flirt like mad things and then jump into bed at the end.

why did this idiotic homophobic post merit an article? it seems so strange that of all the inane comments posted on internet forums, this one gets special mention.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day... this post is just one of many addressing people's disatisfication with the romance archs, even if it is one of the more obonoxious ones, and it was responded to by Bioware.

 

[Aerius]

If gay guys can tolerate being hit on by Isabella CONSTANTLY, then I'm sure straight guys who aren't just homophobes can tolerate one advance by Anders.

 

[LastDarkness]

I dont see the problem here, David Gaider is correct in this issue though.

I didnt have any problems or negative feelings about the game and im a straight male gamer.

 

[Caligulove]

Actually, you know what- yea I absolutely agree that there is a CLEAR neglect for ANYTHING that straight, male gamers like to see. Nah, nah he's totally right, I'm just so surprised I didn't see it before. I mean, I hope I don't sound like I'm being arrogant when I say that there were no women present at all in this game, at any point- they were all replaced with weird Sodomites (Gamorrhans, too if I recall) that were always trying to sex me up. I think it's fair to say that every single person employed by BioWare is a Homosexual interested in BDSM (you know, just 'cos)

 

[CleverCover]

Isabela seems like a girl!Zevran and Merrill seems impossible to please unless you say blood magic is a ok, even though I spend the entire game trying to kill blood mages.

Not going into how Isabela isn't girl!Zevran, but Merrill...

"Anders... There's no such thing as a good spirit. There never was. All spirits are dangerous. I understood that. I'm sorry that you didn't."

She's not asking you to like Blood Magic, but she won't like you if you judge her for using it. It's not something she's proud of, but it was necessary for her to reach her goals. Blood Magic in itself isn't by any means more "evil" than other schools of magic, but the problem is that knowledge of it can usually only be gained from demons, and demons are dangerous.

I know, but I can't see how she's willing to use it even after practically every blood magic user we fight seems to lose themselves and everyone they love to the demon. Even Anders is a bit iffy because he has moments where he can't control himself and his reactions. Or even use the mirror after seeing what happened to her two bestest friends in DA:O. I really don't think she knows what she's really doing with it.

And I don't know about the all spirits are dangerous thing. She's never met Grandmother Wynne and have her ass saved by the spirit that resides within her. Or actually met Justice. Justice was cool peoples.

Isabela is awesome, once you figure out when and where to use her, and is pretty easy to get along with, funny and very "open" about what she likes. But not much for commitment unless you stick and prove you're there to stick around. That's how she seemed to come off as I watched my brother romance her. Which is how I saw Zevran. A playboy(girl) with deep issues.

 

[D Moness]

I definately think the romances options in this game are the worst I've seen in any which included it. It makes me feel like the only experience we are expected to want is the eqivilant of a one night stand in a bar.. characters can't slowly get to know each other through the course of the entire game and fall in love.. they have to flirt like mad things and then jump into bed at the end.

I think it gives the team members more character. They all have their faults but hey all also have their merits. If you can see beyond their faults and see their good side it means you are interested in that character be it male/female, gay/straight.

edit: In my opinion they could have made Merrill appear a bit older. If you romance her end in act 3 she does moves in with you it still feels weird(and yes due to the timeline she is 6(about) years older then the first moment you meet her it still feels weird trying to romance her).

 

[FullMetalZ]

Kudos to Gaider. This is obviously an entitled kid who doesn't understand the idea of just saying, "No."