ME3 Homosexuality Chapter (meant to be Ironic?)

[Altanese]

I hope every single character is bisexual if not gay and that going for a straight romance is a minority option.

While we're at it, I don't think that making ME3 half third-person shooter, half dating sim is an entirely bad idea.

But really I can't see a problem with any of this. ME2 had exactly zero homosexual relationships. ME1 had one, but they retconned it to make it perfectly clear that the blue alien chick is technically not female, so your relationship is technically not lesbian in nature if you chose it.

So what do I see for ME3? Why, the exact same thing I've seen over the course of two decades. Homosexuality in sci-fi is an iffy subject that is best treated like it doesn't belong if it's even addressed at all, whereas fantasy is allowed to be as gay as a New York bathhouse after a pride parade. From Star Trek's reluctance to address any homosexual relationships and relegating them to the evil Mirror Universe and Xena: Warrior Princess's thinly veiled lesbian romance between the two main characters, up through to Dragon Age being filled to the brim with the gay romances while Mass Effect is lucky to get the one- which is all the more interesting when you consider that they are from the same damn studio.

Why, yes, I have argued about homosexuality in video games and, more generally, modern culture. Why do you ask?

 

[veloper]

I hope every single character is bisexual if not gay and that going for a straight romance is a minority option.

While we're at it, I don't think that making ME3 half third-person shooter, half dating sim is an entirely bad idea.

Yeah let's pay for only half a game!
To you I recommend renting some adult movies. The actors don't look like they're made of plastic, you get uncensored sex scenes and they don't cost $50.

 

[Altanese]

Yeah let's pay for only half a game!
To you I recommend renting some adult movies. The actors don't look like they're made of plastic, you get uncensored sex scenes and they don't cost $50.

So you see a half-hearted attempted at sarcasm and your first reaction is to be a dick?

For the record, however, you'd be paying for a whole game, just a fundamentally different game that was probably made in Japan.

 

[Susurrus]

Obvious trolling by Helper is obvious?

How come you guys ALL missed it?

 

[veloper]

Yeah let's pay for only half a game!
To you I recommend renting some adult movies. The actors don't look like they're made of plastic, you get uncensored sex scenes and they don't cost $50.

So you see a half-hearted attempted at sarcasm and your first reaction is to be a dick?

For the record, however, you'd be paying for a whole game, just a fundamentally different game that was probably made in Japan.

Alright I shouldn't have been so mean.
I should have said downloading instead of renting.

 

[Altanese]

Alright I shouldn't have been so mean.
I should have said downloading instead of renting.

Well that's better but still not to the point.

 

[Spencer Petersen]

Bioware romances have been so shallow and juvenile that adding homosexual options would just make the stupidity more available to all who haven't had enough googly-eyes, cliched lines and Edward-Bella style romance. Here's the average Bioware romance for you now:

NPC: *Insert vague flirtatious comment*
Shepard: I like you
NPC: OK
-Insert Plot mission
NPC: I like you too
Shepard: I like you a lot
NPC: I don't know, what will people think? Let me decide
-Insert Another Plot Mission:
NPC: I thought about it, I like you a lot, but I'm having trouble deciding
Shepard: *Insert paragon/renegade choice*
NPC: OK Shepard, you have convinced me
-Begin G-rated sex scene with cut to black camera, underwear hugging or fully clothed dry-humping, all set to cheesy music
NPC: Shepard, you rock, I like you
Shepard: I like you even more
Then never speak about it for the rest of the game

 

[thegrimfandango]

Actually, she's not even doing that, because it isn't her. It's a photoshop image, and it is trolling quite successfully.

Ha! I didn't see that (was running out the door on my way to work to be fair),but that's pretty funny. Successful indeed.

 

[Sabazios]

Bi - o - ware.

The clue has been in the name all this time.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

The great ending is a facial, and shepherd being at one with himself.

All those alien chicks, it was deflection and an escape from his true self.

 

[Fanboy]

Actually, she's not even doing that, because it isn't her. It's a photoshop image, and it is trolling quite successfully.

Ha! I didn't see that (was running out the door on my way to work to be fair),but that's pretty funny. Successful indeed.

It's perfectly understandable, not everyone googles these things to authenticate them like the big skeptical nerd I am. At least you saw the fact that it was too ridiculous to be true, which is indeed lost on most people here.

Jennifer Brandes Hepler does not even work on the Mass Effect team. The person who created the image could have at least picked somebody from Bioware who does.

 

[EvilPicnic]

I'm so enraged by this! It's just a distraction from the real issue: When can we have FemShep get it on with MaleShep? Grr...!?!

 

[seditary]

I had a good laugh, you people are too much.

 

[BlastedTheWorm]

Wasn't this post photoshopped anyway?

Besides, as is said, if it's legit, the tongue-in-cheekness...besides, Hepler isn't part of the Mass Effect team. She's nothing to do with it.

EDIT: S'already been said.

 

[Johnny-Natrium]

Lolwat that Bioware post actually sounds almost offensively sarcastic to me. Anyway it did make me laugh. If he's actually serious, it's quite ridiculous. "Even if you don't, you won't be left out" LOL
Anyway I'm in a M*M relationship myself so I sort of ought to be the audience they're doing this for, but even though I really wouldn't mind if they did all that, I really don't give a damn either way. I'm not playing ME3 for its special gay-gamer support, I absolutely loved ME2, and there was none of that there.. I agree, worry about more important things than this.

 

[Zhukov]

Isn't the galaxy facing imminent destruction? The romance part of a game like this should be shoved to the side, not spotlighted. There are bigger things going on right now. The main reason my Shepard didn't date in the first game.

Actually, funny thing. Not really.

It's not unusual for people to react to impending disaster by getting it on. There's historical examples and everything. Like when Berlin was about to fall to the Russians at the tail end of WWII. Many of the men of that city were about to be killed in a futile defence against a superior enemy. And they knew it. Many of the women were going to be raped by victorious Russian troops. And they knew it too. Yet there are numerous accounts of those some people reacting to the situation by... well, to put it bluntly, by fucking like rabbits in spring.

Come to think of it, judging by some of the dialogue that occurs at the end of Lair of the Shadow Broker if Shepard and Liara are an item, Bioware might (and do please note the heavy emphasis on "might") play this angle, at least in some cases.

And I think that could work well. People trying to find some measure of comfort and/or intimacy right before the entire galaxy goes completely fubar? I could totally buy that.

 

[Pearwood]

Huh didn't know Bioware trolled their fanbase this nicely. Just a pity all their male characters are too bland for me

 

[elvor0]

I'll be quite interested in seeing this actually, if it's handled well it'll be a good step on the way to tackling the issue of gay in video games, (that sounds far worse than I intended ><) if they manage to pull it off in a way that makes go "okay so he's gotten to grips with that", and it stays as just part of his personality, it'll also show the damn media that video games are quite capable of tackling proper issues and the human condition. Not that we needed that anyway, we've shown the medium is capable of all sorts of issues, they never seem to care, but this may get attention because it's gay.

Saying that though, it is a huge retcon, I understand that you can be closeted for years, but Shepard should be at an age where he's already figured out his sexuality, however they could always say that he's managed to suppress it for so long that it's become buried and the near death experience bought it to surface, if he struggles with it, doesn't understand what he's going through and it is written well, I think we can forgive the retcon.