Dragon Age 2 Lead Writer Blasts Homophobic Fan

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Canadish

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Jul 15, 2010
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The open sexuality is one of the few things I actually did like about the game. Thought it was pretty progressive of a AAA game to have it out there so openly.

My only beef with the homosexuality in the game came from that damned dialogue wheel.

Anders: I think you are attractive Hawke!

Hawke: -Fuck me Anders!
or
Hawke: -Fuck YOU Anders!

Wait? Wheres the option to nicely tell him I'm not interested....? FUCK
+15 Rivalry
 

Sonic Doctor

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Callate said:
Um, I haven't played Dragon Age 2, so I can't really make an totally conformed comment... Do the male characters persistantly hit on the male PC, or is it just like every other Bioware game I've played where if you show disinterest it never comes up again?
Well, you only get the gay flirting if you choose the dialogue option that puts the heart icon in the center of the dialogue circle.

The guy must not have been very bright if he didn't want the gay interaction and then chose the heart dialogue option when talking to a guy.
 

Seneschal

Blessed are the righteous
Jun 27, 2009
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Raiyan 1.0 said:
Good on Gaider, but I have to say I had a little trouble with the flirtiness of characters in Bioware's games...

I really hated how my FemShep would constantly get flirty with Jacob even during normal conversations. For God's sake girl, that whiner doesn't deserve you!
"Flirty"? With Jennifer Hale's (otherwise magnificent) "tough female military officer"-impression, she sounded like a horny cougar to me. I was literally feeling like I'm sexually harassing the poor guy in his workplace. "Mmmmm, how's it going, Jacob?" *winks, purrs, waggles tongue*

On-topic: In DA2, I never quite got flirted on. Fenris never even explicitly says that he goes both ways, you just get a flirt-choice or two for him. Anders states that he and Karl hooked up to escape oppression in the Circle, and then you're again the one that gets to make the first move. And if you're female, he's completely straight. Only Isabella flirts openly with everyone.
 

gellert1984

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Ilosia said:
gellert1984 said:
Mikeyfell said:
But this is probably a response to the Tali and Jack outrage from Mass Effect 2.
I understand the outrage about Jack, she outright states she's been in relationship's with women in the past, but isnt a romance option.
She's also psychologically damaged in an extremely bad way, note that these cases where really just people using her for their own ends. Jack's experiences have given her little opportunity to emotionally mature so it's not that suprising that she doesn't really have a grip on her own feelings.
However this doesn't stop MShep from having a relationship with her, either using her to get off or in a more mature form. It just strikes me as a little off, possibly my view is biased since I'm from south wales and as Torchwood has told the world we're all bisexual.
 

Terminal Blue

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cursedseishi said:
He makes several statements indicating clearly he's only into women in Awakening, if you ever paid attention (which I doubt you did). And if you have actually bothered to pay attention to DA 2, you'd have caught the retconning. Female Hawke? Karl was just a buddy. Male Hawke? Karl was his first butt-buddy.
Not. fucking. cool.

Seriously, piss off back to whatever rock you crawled out from under you slimy little homophobe.
 

kurupt87

Fuhuhzucking hellcocks I'm good
Mar 17, 2010
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MR T3D said:
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.
Yeah, that was the problem alot of people had with Zevran. You had to be a dickhead in order to not sleep with him.

Same with DA2 and Anders really, there are the "no thanks" options but they're all harsh and piss the other character off. I mean I'm not being funny here but for a homosexual person to expect some other person to also be homosexual is silly to the point of stupidity, especially with no hint beforehand. I'm not saying don't have that initial flirt to test the water but I'm also pretty sure most wouldn't be offended by a polite, "no thanks mate that's not my bag, thanks for the compliment though."

It's harsh of me to expect that acceptance of decline by homosexuals, it's never nice to be declined however diplomatically it's put, but you'd imagine familiarity with the experience breeds indifference; and it is the reality of the situation. We base the games society on what we know of real life except where we are told it's different; we haven't been told (even in an inconspicuous codex entry) that Thedas is equally split between heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals (despite, I think, this being what the writers are implying) so we shouldn't expect it to be.

Maybe they're too worried about the impact that would have on sales? Which, if true, is depressing (more so because they're most probably right to be worried rather than not ballsy enough to just announce it).

You can't even choose the sarcy response as a yes/no, it's always non commital (and the character continues to flirt). In point of fact the funny response is the most cuntish available to you, as you don't say yes or no you just string them along. So, you're left feeling like a dickhead when you're expecting the funny button to be funny. There should be a yes, a no, a cheeky yes and a cheeky no. If you're really wanting the full spectrum you also go rude yes/no and I'm-not-worthy yes/no.

You could argue all those options wouldn't fit with a pre-written character like Hawke, but; s/he's apparently undetermined enough to go for one of four wildly different characters whilst promoting rivalry or friendship with not only them but a few others too (not to mention the whole mage/neutral/templar thing). So, that argument doesn't hold much water with me. Interaction with characters is also one of the only avaliable ways to influence the story, so needlessly curtailing it is frustrating.

Sticking to monogamous relationships was a predictable, and predictably dull, choice. The only character that probably wouldn't be up for something more interesting would be Anders, the others wouldn't have anything against it.

What? This is a fantasy game people. Key word fantasy, you may or may not have heard of the phrase sexual fantasy. Bringing hero fantasy and poon tang fantasy together (like they're not normally linked in our own heads) only makes sense.

It just aint PG which is, as we all know, the only audience games have.
 

Char-Nobyl

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cursedseishi said:
Anders, even unprovoked, will push you into a conversation where you get 3 choices.
1) Flirt with him.
2) Flirt with him.
3) Tell him to go f*** himself.
That totally isn't pushy... and that was with me avoiding every heart dialogue, so no, he wasn't provoked either.
Uh-huh. That would hold water if it resulted in romance...which it doesn't. As long as you haven't been flirting with him prior to that, both romance options just result in Hawke being kind/understanding.

cursedseishi said:
Besides, it isn't as simple as characters being bi or anything, they retcon the characters so they suddenly are one way or another. Anders wasn't gay or even bi in Awakenings, but they tossed out his original writer for DA 2, which is more than easy to see since he isn't damn near as appealing as he was to have in the party as he was in Awakenings.
That's because Awakening left all manner of plot holes that had to be ignored for the DA story to continue. The plot was basically the Warden ending all Blights forever, which doesn't bode well for future plots. They generally allude to things Awakening, but never actually talk about the main plot of it.

cursedseishi said:
There was nothing wrong with the idea of suggesting a "no homosexuality" option.
Sure there is. In case you haven't noticed, Bioware's "thing" is making really good characters. When they're coming up with them, they don't slap on random traits. "Turning off" certain aspects of those characters is spitting in the faces of the writers.

Not to mention having an option that purges anything tainted by "the gay" is like giving players a "No darkies" option to pander to the Klan demographic.

cursedseishi said:
Hell, if they were going to go this route, then let us pick Hawke's sexuality during character creation, and then they can retcon the hell out of all the characters they like when I select options that would alter those characters.
Okay, let's run with that idea: Hawke's character traits are all pre-determined at the start of the game. You pick Kind, Sardonic, or Brutal for his overall personality at the character creation screen, and then all the dialogue is pre-scripted based on your decision.

Oh, wait. Or you can follow the illustrations that Bioware provided to keep your personality consistent, and make choices as you go. You know, so you actually have control over his actions as opposed to pointing him in a general direction before the game starts and lighting the fuse on his rocket skates.

Zachary Amaranth said:
Keep in mind that to the average straight male gamer, gays existing=TEH GHEYZ R RUBBING IT IN R FACEZ! PANIX!
Erm...what? Somehow I don't think you're in any place to make that large a generalization, especially since "All straight males think gays should be locked in their closets" is just as hilariously ignorant a comment as what you asserted.

Zachary Amaranth said:
I wouldn't be surprised, particularly, if people were seeing "flirting" in the same way they see "rubbing it in our faces."
What part of "this was written by one guy" wasn't clear? He didn't get people to sign a petition, or cite anyone's opinion but his own. Where do you get off assuming that he somehow represents a majority?
 

Harry Mason

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I am a straight man who relishes in a chances to play gay characters in games. Role Playing games should be about playing a roll. Isn't it more fun when it's something you're not?

Way to back up your, frankly, progressive assertions, Gaider. Mad props.
 

BoogieManFL

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NAHTZEE said:
i actually had the same problem!
male characters were ALWAYS hitting on me, even though i was hitting on a **chock** that looked hot.
Very close to a freudian slip there perhaps... ?

:)
 

JediMB

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Seneschal said:
On-topic: In DA2, I never quite got flirted on. Fenris never even explicitly says that he goes both ways, you just get a flirt-choice or two for him. Anders states that he and Karl hooked up to escape oppression in the Circle, and then you're again the one that gets to make the first move. And if you're female, he's completely straight. Only Isabella flirts openly with everyone.
I think Anders flirts with you if you're nice enough to him, or something, since he started after talking about how much Hawke reminded him of the Warden.
 

castlewise

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Jul 18, 2010
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I couldn't make it past:

Sure, there are a substantial amount of women who play video games, but they're usually gamers who play games like The Sims, rather than games like Dragon Age
 

mireko

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Sep 23, 2010
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Jaded Scribe said:
Actually, I didn't mind. A lot of his strength comes from his lyrium implants, and elves have a naturally thinner build anyways. I didn't see a major issue. And as a warrior, he could only be 2-hander or weapon & shield, the latter of which would have felt odd.
It's justified in-universe, sure. But when you add all those elements together along with his tendency to brood, he starts looking uncomfortably like a JRPG archetype.

Now, I like JRPGs, but that feels a little weird in this setting. At least to me. Your mileage may vary.

Callate said:
Um, I haven't played Dragon Age 2, so I can't really make an totally conformed comment... Do the male characters persistantly hit on the male PC, or is it just like every other Bioware game I've played where if you show disinterest it never comes up again?

I have said, and I still believe, that having every major character in a game be bisexual just to make the greatest number of romantic/sexual options available trivializes the issue and jeopardizes the process of making credible characters who ring true to writers and players alike. But I certainly don't object to having major characters who fall all over the spectrum.

Tangential question- has Bioware ever created a major (non-player controlled) female character who was just a lesbian?
It's pretty much the same as in other BioWare titles. The way the game is laid out means that there are two same-sex romance options no matter what gender Hawke is, so it's not like the game is flooded with bisexuals either.

BioWare's style is usually two straight partners (one for each gender) and two bisexual partners (one for each, again). I can sort of understand why they would want to avoid the homophobic internet rage from introducing characters that can only enter a same-sex relationship, but it would probably be more believable if they had some completely gay characters.

Still, their games are a step in the right direction, since I'm having a hard time coming up with any other games with modular player gender as well as same-sex options for both.

As for the tangential question, none that I remember. They're very under-represented in video games in general, for some reason.
 

Jennacide

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More power to Gaider for saying something. And it's pretty clear the guy he was responding to is speaking from a place of ignorance, when he states "lesser groups" like WOMEN. Even while it's proven each year we now account for about 45% of the gaming market. Extra amusing that more of my girlfriends play DAO and DA2 than the guys I know.

Also, is it weird that much like Susan admitted in the Females discussion at PAX, I always end up going for the lesbian option? <_< Liara, Leliana, and Merrill are all too cute. =x
 

Oro44

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It always gave me the option to flirt with my party members, but not once in the game did they really flirt with me. Except Isabella, but that goes without saying at this point.