EA defends itself against thousands of anti-gay letters

[Baron von Blitztank]

Why are people complaining about this?
IT'S AN OPTION! Playing Mass Effect 3 doesn't instantly turn your Shepard into a homosexual, it's something you work at to achieve because you want to. Also, I'm fairly sure that people complained about this aswell but, couldn't a femshep go lesbian if you wanted to in the previous two games? Double standards much?

 

[laggyteabag]

These games are rated a 18+ and a 16+, so they shouldnt be playing Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic anyway. If the parents have anything against LGBT content, then they shouldn't be purchasing theses games for their kids anyway. On another note, this is an ever growing world, an Homosexuality is now widely accepted, so any homophobes out there will have a hard future if they still refuse to accept it.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Yes - but there is not an option to disagree with the concept.

Perhaps it's because bigots are extinct in Mass Effect's future? There also isn't an option in Mass Effect 2 to tell Jacob to get his ass to the cotton field where he belongs.

Fact: A very large portion of America, as well as smaller portions of much of Europe and a vast majority of third world countries, disagree with you on this issue.

Argumentum ad populum. That's latin for "I don't give a fuck what the angry mob thinks."

Fact: Referring to one's opponent in a derogatory fashion does not resolve an issue, nor is it good logical form.

If one is debating for the point 'blacks shouldn't be able to marry whites', it's accurate to call them racist. If someone advocates against the rights of gays, it's equally accurate to call them homophobic.

it is wrong to legislate or make public decisions based on one side's answer this unsolved question.

We better take a time machine to the 1800s and consult slave masters on their opinion of freeing the slaves.

 

[TheFederation]

even though they're getting hate for it, there isn't that many gay relationships, there's only one guy you can do it with, even if you have nothing in common

 

[Sandjube]

I'm so sick of gay people getting a bum rap. People seem really anal about this issue, and as such they seem to talk out of their ass.

Wordplay aside, I actually want to get every bigot/racist/idiotic piece of shit that pretends to be a human, round them up, and ask them one by one why they care so goddamn much about...well, ANYTHING that doesn't affect them. And when it's about a GAME with OPTIONS, it's ridiculous, and I literally, (and I quite mean literally) can't comprehend it. My brain just will not let me think about it. Which is probably for the better, actually, because if I could understand I'd probably commit suicide.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Most of those letters are from Florida? Who knew.

As Tommy Vercetti would say: Dumb.Florida.Morons.

No disrespect to sane people of Florida.

I don't have a problem with gay romance option. I have a problem with how it was integrated in the game. But that's the least of ME3 problems.

I still think we should be able to choose character sexuality in character creator. It would make a lot more sense and it would put a lot of people at ease. In Dragon Age 2 Anders came on to Hawke for no apparent reason. If I had the option to choose Hawke's sexuality from the beginning that wouldn't have happened. Things like that can ruin your playthrough. You're perusing one romantic interest, and at the same time you're developing another one that you didn't want without realizing it. It's just bad game design.

I almost made the same mistake in ME3. Luckily I read about romance options before playing. The game doesn't even tell you that you're perusing a relationship with Cortez until it's too late. I blame the lack of sexual preference choice and I blame the dialogue wheel and Paragon interrupt because they never say what you're actually gonna say or do.

I do agree that a sexual preference option would make much more sense (for example it was a little weird whenever i accidentally flirted with Vega seeing as my Shep is a Lesbian)

But. As for Anders, i don't understand why people are bothered about him coming onto you even if YOU don't want him to because it's not about YOU...I think Anders had good characterisation in this respect because he can't help but "love/like/whatever" Hawke and you can still reject him so i don't see the problem.

If Anders was instead a woman called Anderlina, and she came onto you regardless of your romantic interests, would you be complaining? No because girls are "supposed" to come onto you then.

But i would say part of the problem lies with Bioware, they make it wayyy to easy to get locked into romantic engagements, sometimes it's hard to know if what you're going to say is going to be flirty or not which can be a problem.

 

[Leadfinger]

It seems to me like the spirit of inclusiveness should extend to those of us who think Don't Ask Don't Tell was good policy, and would like to be able to tell Steve Cortez so. You know, rather than being forced to commiserate with him or ignore him completely. But hey, inclusiveness only works one way, right? It doesn't count if you're on the wrong side.

Would you expect a modern game with dialogue options to give you the option to oppose giving women the right to vote?

I expect any game dealing with issues under debate to serve both sides equally. For example: If there is a question dealing with religion, I should be able to respond either as a religious person or as an atheist. If there is a question dealing with gay marriage, I should be able to respond either for or against.

Even if it's anachronistic? If you were playing a dude in pseudo-medieval wherever, would you expect a "you know, I think our government is running up too much debt. Spending is out of control, and needs to be reigned in. Here's a copy of Atlas Shrugged." dialogue option?

Implicit in this answer is the assumption that the debate will/should be resolved in your favor - a problematic assumption at best. There is room to argue that in past/fantasy settings certain options are not reasonable to present, but as far as future settings are concerned, implicitly deciding hot-button topics one way or another is a good way to piss off a sizeable chunk of your fanbase.

It seems to me like the spirit of inclusiveness should extend to those of us who think Don't Ask Don't Tell was good policy, and would like to be able to tell Steve Cortez so. You know, rather than being forced to commiserate with him or ignore him completely. But hey, inclusiveness only works one way, right? It doesn't count if you're on the wrong side.

Would you expect a modern game with dialogue options to give you the option to oppose giving women the right to vote?

I expect any game dealing with issues under debate to serve both sides equally. For example: If there is a question dealing with religion, I should be able to respond either as a religious person or as an atheist. If there is a question dealing with gay marriage, I should be able to respond either for or against.

Isn't there an option to not have gay sex in the game? I am confused.

Yes - but there is not an option to disagree with the concept.

Just because an issue is under debate doesn't mean that both sides deserve an equal hearing. Inclusiveness doesn't mean we must accept bigotry and illogic.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Translation: "Too many people in this forum disagree with me, so I'm going to leave before you can poke holes in my tightly held beliefs. Nomatter what evidence you provide, or how sensible your argument is, I will never admit that anyone else's opinion is reasonable or valid. But I have to make sure that I tell you the reason is that I just don't feel like talking about this anymore. If I just stop responding, you might think it's because you've silenced me with your logic. Goodbye *sticks fingers in ears* LALALALALALALA"

It's the classic "Take my ball and go home" defense. People usually grow out of it when they outgrow their shortpants, but some people think that using big words will substitute actual talking points when it comes to discussion and debate and they sort of "revert" to the only arrow left in their childish quiver.

Sorry to bug ya but I got a question. I'll trade you an answer. That chat about Isabella. She only tries to have sex with you (male or female) if you first hit on her, and you have to do it early too. Other wise she just makes inappropriate (but funny) comments like normal.

Anyway, my question. What exactly are shortpants? Oh and this one other thing, ugh how do you spell it, penifores I think.

Oh, and yes, on topic. If someone must hate simply to hate why not just at least own it instead of trying to hide behind bull? I mean if you hate something enough to hate it when it is not even being "real", then why not just say so? Why hide....in the closet?

 

[Necron_warrior]

I'm so sick of gay people getting a bum rap. People seem really anal about this issue, and as such they seem to talk out of their ass.

Wordplay aside, I actually want to get every bigot/racist/idiotic piece of shit that pretends to be a human, round them up, and ask them one by one why they care so goddamn much about...well, ANYTHING that doesn't affect them. And when it's about a GAME with OPTIONS, it's ridiculous, and I literally, (and I quite mean literally) can't comprehend it. My brain just will not let me think about it. Which is probably for the better, actually, because if I could understand I'd probably commit suicide.

Yeah, those people are far to oral with their ideas, It should be kept tongue-in-cheek instead of shoving it down our throats.

Other-ended wordplay aside, D) the homophobic stuff just seems to be getting...old for me. The fact is that I keep hearing all of the anti-gay things etc. from across the pond (uk here) and It seems to be stopping some developers as they reply to this.

*sigh* I wish more game companies were Europe based (i.e. Main HQ in Europe). So these things wouldn't gain such momentum.

 

[wooty]

EA, just ignore these fools in the same way theyre obviously ignoring social progress, just publish whatever the hell you want to publish.

No matter what you do, say, release, listen to, eat or wear these days, theres always going to be some oversensitive moron out there who will get offended.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

I'm so sick of gay people getting a bum rap. People seem really anal about this issue, and as such they seem to talk out of their ass.

Wordplay aside, I actually want to get every bigot/racist/idiotic piece of shit that pretends to be a human, round them up, and ask them one by one why they care so goddamn much about...well, ANYTHING that doesn't affect them. And when it's about a GAME with OPTIONS, it's ridiculous, and I literally, (and I quite mean literally) can't comprehend it. My brain just will not let me think about it. Which is probably for the better, actually, because if I could understand I'd probably commit suicide.

Hate is hate.

It needs no logic, and no reason. Hate just likes to have an excuse. Even if it is circular logic, if you have any reason good or bad, it just means you have to think about why less, and in the end its not about anything but someone being different from you, or just not being you.

Any other details are just excuses for it to exist.
If you think that doesn't make sense, that's because its not suppose too, sadly.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Sorry to bug ya but I got a question. I'll trade you an answer. That chat about Isabella. She only tries to have sex with you (male or female) if you first hit on her, and you have to do it early too. Other wise she just makes inappropriate (but funny) comments like normal.

Anyway, my question. What exactly are shortpants? Oh and this one other thing, ugh how do you spell it, penifores I think.

Oh, and yes, on topic. If someone must hate simply to hate why not just at least own it instead of trying to hide behind bull? I mean if you hate something enough to hate it when it is not even being "real", then why not just say so? Why hide....in the closet?

You're not bugging anyone, least of all me. In all honesty, I liked Isabella. She came off as being playfully flirtatious if you didn't outright pursue her. Sure she was probably over-sexualized, but it's kind of what they were going for with the character. She was crass, brutally honest, sexual, and really seemed to almost resent being stuck with Hawke's group at first but warmed up to everyone over the years. Even though I was pursuing a relationship with Marril at the time, her being flirtatious eventually just became part of her character and not really her trying to get in your pants.

The phrase "when you were in shortpants" just means when someone was young. In the context I was using it, I was saying that people usually grow out of childish behavior like that when they realize they won't get attention by screaming.

 

[Avalanche91]

You want to complain about EA? Fine, I'm all for it. So what's the plan?

You want to complain about the shady dlc pratices?
The mass effect 3 ending?
The shameles milking of sport franchises?
The overpriced Origin games?
The spyware that comes with Origin?

No? You want to complain about same-sex relations in popular media?......

I feel a bit at a loss here. I feel like I should defend a company I hope never to buy a game from again.
But people really take issue with this? They do realize that same-sex relations are a real thing, and that mass effect 3 and dragon age 2 are rated M, so it won't corrupt the children.

It makes about as much sense as [captcha]smart casual

 

[JediMB]

So at pretty much the same time when EA gets an award for being an awful company this story has emerged:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-04-04-ea-defends-itself-against-thousands-of-anti-gay-letters

In a nutshell, EA has received lots of letters of complaint over the option for players to have their in-game avatars pursue same sex relation in some games (Mass Effect 3, etc).

Its something of a barometer of behavior in the modern world, you know you're a world class douche when you're doing something which makes EA look like the good guys.

And this is why the public doesn't get to chose the direction of a game. For good or for worse.

Well, actually...

A great deal of the same-sex relationships we got in ME3 are a result of "the public" asking for those options to be implemented. (See the "Fight For The Love" group on the BioWare Social Network.)

What we're dealing with now is an opposing faction... of bigots.

 

[Vrach]

Yes - but there is not an option to disagree with the concept.

First off, there is, in Mass Effect 1, when Liara tells you she wants to be with you, you can respond with "you wanna be with me? even though you're a woman?"

Second, not everything that's disagreed upon is a valid discussion. Discussing religion - sure. You can claim faith, another will claim different faith, another will claim realism and so on. Discussing whether it's ok for a person to be attracted to one sex or another is just no discussion. It's just being a bigot. I understand some people are uncomfortable with the concept - hell, I still am (though it's going away with time), thanks to growing up in a surroundings of bigots and religious bullshit being used as a shield against a fact, but that does not give you a right to disagree with the concept, much like you do not have a right to think all black people should be your slaves and working your farms.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Sorry to bug ya but I got a question. I'll trade you an answer. That chat about Isabella. She only tries to have sex with you (male or female) if you first hit on her, and you have to do it early too. Other wise she just makes inappropriate (but funny) comments like normal.

Anyway, my question. What exactly are shortpants? Oh and this one other thing, ugh how do you spell it, penifores I think.

Oh, and yes, on topic. If someone must hate simply to hate why not just at least own it instead of trying to hide behind bull? I mean if you hate something enough to hate it when it is not even being "real", then why not just say so? Why hide....in the closet?

You're not bugging anyone, least of all me. In all honesty, I liked Isabella. She came off as being playfully flirtatious if you didn't outright pursue her. Sure she was probably over-sexualized, but it's kind of what they were going for with the character. She was crass, brutally honest, sexual, and really seemed to almost resent being stuck with Hawke's group at first but warmed up to everyone over the years. Even though I was pursuing a relationship with Marril at the time, her being flirtatious eventually just became part of her character and not really her trying to get in your pants.

The phrase "when you were in shortpants" just means when someone was young. In the context I was using it, I was saying that people usually grow out of childish behavior like that when they realize they won't get attention by screaming.

Oh. My bad. I ment the term shortpants itself. I got what you were talking about. You were very clear.

Anyway, I too enjoyed Isabella. She was nothing if not honest.....well except when she lied obviously. I hated what Anders became. I understand why he changed the way he did and how it fits his story and all, but I still kinda hate the person he turned into. As for him going both ways, I just didn't see it coming. They kinda went out of their way to make him seem ONLY into women last time I was just surprised is all. No big deal though compared to his new personality.

Loved Merrill and Varric completely though. And my brother/sister, well their my family. Need I explain more?

 

[minimacker]

I didn't want to sleep with the guy in ME3.

I got renegade points.

 

[The White Hunter]

In a nutshell, EA has received lots of letters of complaint over the option for players to have their in-game avatars pursue same sex relation in some games (Mass Effect 3, etc).

If I were in charge I'd just have had the mailbox feed directly into the furnace...