Dragon Age 2 Lead Writer Blasts Homophobic Fan

[Ewyx]

However, it would be nice if the characters in the game were either bi straight or gay. Everyone being bisexual is just lazy writing more than anything else.

I disagree. A lot of fans complained in Dragon Age that they had to play a certain gender to romance Morrigan or Alistair.

By making everyone available, regardless of Hawke's gender, you don't have fans who want to try a romance between their character and companion X being pigeon-holed into playing a certain gender.

For example, I play female characters. I don't like playing RPGs as male characters. Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference. But to romance Morrigan, I'll have to do a playthrough with a male character. But I have no issues pursuing who I want in DA2.

It's a roleplaying game, your choices should have consequences, however everyone forgot that lately. What's so bad about not being able to do everything in one run? Seriously, I think that little choices like that give games much needed replay value, which is not very common lately.

 

[Fappy]

What's he complaining about?

Gay gamers get emo JRPG douchebag Fenris and whiney, insufferable Anders - straight dudes get cute, nerdy Merril and slutty Isabella with her ridiculous tits.

Seems like the straight males/lesbian females got the better deal here.

You could hate Fenris for his ridiculous anti-mage stance, but he has a fantastic voice (Gideon Emery).

Whenever he speaks I think about fighting Russian space robots.

To be quite honest I think everyone but women got screwed over in the appeal department. All the girls I know who have played DA2 loved the characters they romanced (usually Anders or Fenris) where most guys who played the game (that I know), myself included, felt the female romance options were either boring/shallow (Isabella) or cliched (Merrill = Liara/Liana/Mission/etc.). I'm not saying any one group got special treatment, I just feel like the developers either did a better job writing the male romancable characters, or (and this is quite ironic) they just had a better sense of how to tickle the female gamer's fancy.

For the record my first playthrough was a female Hawke and Merrill, which actually had a great arch to it... unfortunately Merrill is just fucking boring

Wow. We have literally the opposite opinion on this matter.

Merill is fucking hardcore. She isn't at all like Liara or Leliana (most people compare her to Tali, but I'm not entirely sure why), and most of her dialogue is either charming, funny or heartbreaking. Her companion subplot was also the most interesting.

I should be a little more clear. I thought her backstory, her character arc and her humor was interesting. I wasn't saying she was a bad character, she's just offers a boring romance.

There was only one point in the romance where I felt there was actual ROMANCE and that was when I told her I was keeping the heirloom and she screamed at me, "I never want to see you again!" Followed by the whole apology scene afterwords, I felt they had a really great thing going. Unfortunately that is the only real romantic moment I can even recall. Though, this could just be an example of how thin the romances in the game really are as I haven't actually romanced any of the male characters yet and am just basing my opinions on those of insane fangirls.

I plan on romancing Andres with my mage so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Scrythe]

Am I the only one here who sees how disturbing it is that they're arguing about romancing fictional pixels people, or did I just pick the wrong hobby?

Now, I know I've been rather harsh with Bioware over the years, but you have to give them credit for turning dating sims into something non-creepy people actually want to play, but this is ridiculous.

That employee should have pointed that gamer to the fanfiction community and said, "Good luck, you're going to need it."

 

[Shycte]

Is it just me that never noticed anyone hitting on me in DA2?

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Can we blast the writer for poor writing now? *rolls eyes*

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[]

You could hate Fenris for his ridiculous anti-mage stance, but he has a fantastic voice (Gideon Emery).

That he does... unfortunately it seems weird to me coming out of that ridiculous character model!

 

[dagens24]

As a mostly straight male I?m pound of bioware's Writers.

Freudian slip.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Did anyone imagine the OP as this guy?

 

[mireko]

However, it would be nice if the characters in the game were either bi straight or gay. Everyone being bisexual is just lazy writing more than anything else.

I disagree. A lot of fans complained in Dragon Age that they had to play a certain gender to romance Morrigan or Alistair.

By making everyone available, regardless of Hawke's gender, you don't have fans who want to try a romance between their character and companion X being pigeon-holed into playing a certain gender.

For example, I play female characters. I don't like playing RPGs as male characters. Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference. But to romance Morrigan, I'll have to do a playthrough with a male character. But I have no issues pursuing who I want in DA2.

If you're playing on a PC, there's usually an option for that:

http://dragonagemodding.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/mod-release-free-love/



It makes two lines in the game sound weird (I can only remember two, anyway), but it works flawlessly otherwise. I guess BioWare was careful to not inject too many gender-specific words into the script.

 

[Redem]

I wouldn't overplay the homophobic reaction of some (I don't think its that big, but sometime it feel like a bit of an undertone, in some and even there its minor) some people seem to react rather weirdly to it.

There like only one choice that really seem to be driving people with Anders and well you can easily dismiss him after. Which just baffle me.

You know Dragon age 2 actually has the most oblivious romance system (you litterally just need to press a heart shape button) in any rpg ever and people seem to act like it was really hard not to have anyone show any interest toward you, I think some might have a compulsion toward romancing them without being aware of it.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

However, it would be nice if the characters in the game were either bi straight or gay. Everyone being bisexual is just lazy writing more than anything else.

I disagree. A lot of fans complained in Dragon Age that they had to play a certain gender to romance Morrigan or Alistair.

By making everyone available, regardless of Hawke's gender, you don't have fans who want to try a romance between their character and companion X being pigeon-holed into playing a certain gender.

For example, I play female characters. I don't like playing RPGs as male characters. Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference. But to romance Morrigan, I'll have to do a playthrough with a male character. But I have no issues pursuing who I want in DA2.

It's a roleplaying game, your choices should have consequences, however everyone forgot that lately. What's so bad about not being able to do everything in one run? Seriously, I think that little choices like that give games much needed replay value, which is not very common lately.

I have no issues doing multiple playthroughs to experience parts of the game, or making choices with consequence. Being pigeon-holed into creating a male character when I don't care for playing them is annoying though.

There was also frustration expressed by the community that if they wanted their character to be homosexual, they were stuck with only one possible romance option.

RPGs are also about being able to create your own story. This gives you the chance to do that.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I think the male characters hit on you a little too quickly, though. But hey, if Anders happens to be a slut, what are you gonna do?
It's as simple as shutting him down, though. The only people who'd complain about this are the ones who have to please everybody at all times. And in that case, I'd hate to see what would happen if an actual gay guy hit on them.

Anders hits on girls that fast, too. He went from zero to OMGILUFFYOUUUUUU in about two conversations with me.

Also, David Gaider is my hero.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

However, it would be nice if the characters in the game were either bi straight or gay. Everyone being bisexual is just lazy writing more than anything else.

I disagree. A lot of fans complained in Dragon Age that they had to play a certain gender to romance Morrigan or Alistair.

By making everyone available, regardless of Hawke's gender, you don't have fans who want to try a romance between their character and companion X being pigeon-holed into playing a certain gender.

For example, I play female characters. I don't like playing RPGs as male characters. Nothing wrong with them, just a personal preference. But to romance Morrigan, I'll have to do a playthrough with a male character. But I have no issues pursuing who I want in DA2.

If you're playing on a PC, there's usually an option for that:

http://dragonagemodding.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/mod-release-free-love/



It makes two lines in the game sound weird (I can only remember two, anyway), but it works flawlessly otherwise. I guess BioWare was careful to not inject too many gender-specific words into the script.

Yes, mods are an option. But it requires you to play on the PC (I do myself, but not everyone does) and now you don't have to get a mod that will take care of it.

 

[Pilkingtube]

Is it just me that never noticed anyone hitting on me in DA2?

If you avoid the dialogue options with the GIANT FUCKING HEART IN THE MIDDLE then you generally should be able to avoid unwanted advances, even then, if one of them does come onto you for the first time you can usually just get away with it if you politely say no, it's no big issue really, some people just aren't very comfortable with not having everything go their way.

 

[snfonseka]

They should have introduced some characters as straight, some as bi and some as gay. It is more realistic than turning all the romance-companions into bi characters. They should have approached this sexuality issue in more creative manner, where the sexuality is part of the personality. For example, Merrill is straight and Isabela is bi.

 

[qbanknight]

Good for Bioware for sticking up for the minority. I'm glad the theme of homosexuality isn't hyper-sexualized either to make it ridiculous (okay the lesbian scenes in Mass Effect 1 and Jade Empire were a little pandering though)

 

[Taynas]

My very straight husband plays women a lot so I think assuming that all men play men and want to romance women in games is another of that guys mistakes... of which there were plenty. Gaider's response was much more polite then I think I could have managed and I'm normally constructed of pure politeness.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I've got about as much sexual interest in the male body as I do a grape fruit,

You're not attracted to Grapefruit?


I approve of the Bi romances but they should have different dialog depending on Hawke's orientation.

Merrill didn't mention that Hawke was a woman once (so far anyway)

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

someone get that webcomic where the male Hawke is talking to the elf-guy, and says to himself "Okay, just let him down easy, don't want any rivalry points here" and then the next frame they're in bed, with him puzzled as to why.

asked and answered http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20110314

Wow. Buckley actually managed to make a funny comic. What is this world turning into?

OT: I guess a "no gay" option wouldn't be gigglesquee enough for the nomming of heads. Bioware's games should be classified as adventure games, not RPGs since they have practically nothing to do with that genre.