Dragon Age 2 Lead Writer Blasts Homophobic Fan

[ReservoirAngel]

God Bless you Bioware, standing up to idiots like this.

The homosexual romances are, like the straight ones, totally optional and if this guy is complaining about male NPCs occasionally flirting with him, he's either just straighter than any other guy in history, a homophobe, or just in deep denial about himself so he has to act out.

 

[Fleaman]

THERE SHOULD BE A "NO GAYS" OPTION SO I CAN PRETEND I LIVE IN A WORLD WITHOUT GAYS

Wow. Such a great point. Bastal is such a great orator, I murdered him and nailed his hands to the doors of the senate.

 

[LiquidGrape]

David Gaider, you're my hero.
Along with Sheryl Chee, Mary Kirby, Jennifer Hepler, Luke Kristjanson and Ferret Baudoin for giving me one of the most brilliantly written games I've had the pleasure to play.
And for being bold and progressive in the light of the much more conservative Mass Effect 2.

 

[William MacKay]

1: the only way to 100% the game is to romance all characters (that gets u special abilities and armour upgrades)
2: you can play as male and only romance the girls. so what if the character is bi?
3: guys, are you more likely to see guys get undressed or women? unless your Joey Tribbiani it'll be dudes. (in the locker rooms at gyms/school P.E.)
personally, a little harmless and subtly-homosexual flirting goes a long way.

 

[GloatingSwine]

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.

I wouldn't say that it's "lazy writing", but it's certainly bad writing. Sexuality should be a part of the character, not an optional bolt on. If the character as designed is straight, then that's their character. I play both male and female characters in RPGs, and if that means I limit my choices for a romance for that character, oh well, them's the breaks. He-shep will never consummate his bromance with Garrus, and y'know, we'll just have to deal with that.

 

[Dorian6]

BAM! that guy just got lawyered

 

[SnakeCL]

For me personally, it wasn't about the idea that homosexuality is blatant, and more about that fact that if you don't want to romance backstabber mcsluttypants (Isabela) or the somewhat dim and annoying lil 'sis elf (Merril) then sorry, there's nobody you can romance.

Morrigan and Leliana in DA:O had so many more interesting layers to their characters, as well as the ability to "break" Leliana from her new good-girl attitude if desired (I never did though). In DA2, I found myself thoroughly uninterested with the characters as a whole, even moreso when it came to romances.

 

[Gralian]

[ Being sexually attracted to someone has as much to do with the person themselves as it does what they do or don't have between their legs.

No, that's romantic attraction. This is why we have the term "biromantic". Of course personality does factor into sexual attraction, but if the individual doesn't have the right parts, then it doesn't matter what instruction manual you have - it ain't gonna work.

And picking "sexuality" isn't the same as that, which is why I said it. They already do it in the game as it is, depending on if you're male or female, all I was saying was it wouldn't necessarily hurt to have it at a per-character basis.

If you're suggesting picking which sexuality you want your character to be as on the character creation screen along with gender and appearance and the like, then i think this wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea. Why not check a box to make your character, straight, gay, or bi (or even "not bothered") at the very start? Hell, it might even lead to interesting and amusing dialogue between party characters regarding the PC's chosen sexuality.

People can throw a hissy fit about how this would "benefit" the game, but i think it should always be about options. The benefit comes from freedom of choice - choice about what the player wishes to divulge in or be exposed to without the need for forced censorship.

 

[4173]

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

This has been a "feature" of the Bioware male love interest from Baldur's Gate 2, where you could chase after a variety of womenfolk (as long as you had an elf fetish), whereas the only male romance option was the game's most insufferable pillock Anomen. Same with KotOR, most insufferable character in the party? Yep, he's the male romance option. Mass Effect? Did you seriously like Kaiden?

To be fair, Jaheria was only half elf.

 

[Iwata]

I am a straight male gamer.

My fiancé is a bisexual female gamer.

She's played the hell out of both Dragon Age games.

 

[LiquidGrape]

I wouldn't say that it's "lazy writing", but it's certainly bad writing. Sexuality should be a part of the character, not an optional bolt on. If the character as designed is straight, then that's their character.

How is a character "designed" to be straight, though?
I never got the feeling during the course of Dragon Age 2 that these characters had sexual orientations forced upon them as something external to their being. I saw four very three-dimensional characters.

 

[SnakeCL]

I for one am offended that I could not romance Varric. And it's not because of my deep hidden homosexual desires...

No. It's because he was the only three dimensional character. IN THE WHOLE BLOODY GROUP

Totally agree. Varric was the best thing to come out of Dragon Age 2, imho.

 

[theriddlen]

Homophobic? If one is straight, he doesn't want to see people of same gender hitting on him. Why is that a problem for anyone?

You people are heterophobic. We, straight people, are flamed just because we don't enjoy seeing things like that. And don't get me wrong (i know you will, you always do, you are blinded by your own hatred, the same argument you always use is your own trait), i don't have anything against gay people, i don't fight with them, i understand that they are the way they are, but please stop rubbing homosexuality in my eyes why don't you? Is it too much to ask for? You can add it in games, but please, when i try to make friends with Zevran in DA:O to get his specialization he shouldn't suddenly ask me if i want to do it with him, why can't the player be the one to initiate (or not) romance?

Also, i didn't read-through his (author of thread in BW social network) whole post, but from what I've read it didn't seem like a homophobic rage.

 

[Aris Khandr]

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.

Oh hell no. You guys got Tali to yourselves already, you are NOT taking Merrill too.

 

[hurfdurp]

There must be a way to turn off that straight romance junk in all my other games.

 

[Snotnarok]

There is an option for no homosexuality in Dragon Age 2, infact there's 2 of them, you can

1- Not play the game and avoid the homosexual encounters all together

or

2- Just say no to the person in game and go on to who you want.

Whew! Man that sure is HARD to do.

 

[LiquidGrape]

You people are heterophobic. We, straight people, are flamed just because we don't enjoy seeing things like that. And don't get me wrong (i know you will, you always do, you are blinded by your own hatred, the same argument you always use is your own trait), i don't have anything against gay people, i don't fight with them, i understand that they are the way they are, but please stop rubbing homosexuality in my eyes why don't you? Is it too much to ask for? You can add it in games, but please, when i try to make friends with Zevran in DA:O to get his specialization he shouldn't suddenly ask me if i want to do it with him, why can't the player be the one to initiate (or not) romance?

The player shouldn't be allowed to decide on how characters should and shouldn't behave. That, if anything, is unrealistic. Not to mention damaging to the characterisation.
If you're not interested in Zevran, shoot him down. Problem solved. If you have an innate discomfort of that scenario, the issue is yours. People of all orientations deal with that kind of situation on a daily basis; people presuming on the traits and qualities of those around them, the heteronormative being the obvious example of this.
And I wish you wouldn't make sweeping statements about heterosexuals and our attitudes to this.

 

[aether-x3]

Ah, This is why I love Gaider. It really is silly to be offended by a pixelated Male hits on you, now seriously. >:

[small]I for one sure was glad that Romance options were all Bi cause It actually gave me a reason to enjoy playing as a Male character, whereas I always used a female in DA:O cause that was the only way that I could get with Alistair as sad as that may sound.

Plus it means I can romance Anders no matter what Gender my Hawke is >__>

I am however disappointed that Varric was not a Romance option, I mean look at that nice chest hair ): [/small]

 

[teh_gunslinger]

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

I'm probably gonna be repeating a lot of people here, but what I will take away from this thread is the utter bafflement that I found Tim Buckley funny. It's surreal.

That being done with, I'm ok with the romance options in DA2. I'd prefer if they weren't there at all, as I think Bioware games are turning into dating sims these days and it's so obvious when a flirt commences.

I remember spending ages and ages in BG2 talking to Aeris and slowly building a friendship and later a love only to have it blow up in my face. Now that is how it's done.
I blame voice acting. There isn't time to do the deep stuff any more.

Though I, as a straight dude, don't think I can do a play and hook up with Anders and Fenris, due to them being insufferable brooding machines, I love Zevran and his outrageous flirting. I may be weird, but it seems I like my fake, male relationships flaming and hilarious.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I did feel they were trying to push Anders as the canon romance for this one which if you think about it is cool becuase they were like 'we want our Hawke to be gay or a woman.' I give them kudos for that.

I think this guy may have felt left out becuase he had either Merill or Isabela whom you see leaving Anders clinic after getting an embarassing rash fixed /shudder.

Good show Mr Gaider but I will never forgive you for not letting us have Varric as a LI :< that's just mean.