Sexuality in Mass Effect

[AC Medina]

Isn't it awesome when you can basically goad someone into such a report-worthy post?

I guess hate is like the proverbial cream: it always rises to the top.

edit: That was about EspirituExterminatus, by the way.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Meh. I don't much like cutscenes anyway (not true), and I'm not gay either.
Sorry, but homosexuals are still the minority.

You, sir, are not a very good person.

And you should probably think of something that is worth typing before you post a comment.

It is still going to be pointless and stupid, but at least you tried.

Okay, how about this:

Black people are also a minority of gamers, but RPGs typically let you select your race. I don't see any complaints about that one way or the other, but if a black person was to say "oh, I wish I could play a black guy in Fallout 4 because, you know, I am black and that would be nice" and you replied what you did that would qualify you for the racist idiot of the year award (RIOTY).

I mean, just imagine that: "I'm not black, either. I'm sorry but blacks are still a minority". You get the point.

So yeah, your homophobia seemed worthy of a post at the time. It also seemed obvious and not particularly well thought out, so I felt that merely stating it was enough to make my argument.

The fact that homophobes feel that their open statements of hate or disdain towards other human beings are both nothing to be ashamed of and somehow based on reason never ceases to amaze and depress me.

I didn't point at your comment and say "stupid" because of homophobia.
You just said I'm a bad person for saying homosexuals are a minority. They really are.
If this wasn't the Escapist, I'd just wrap this up with something monosyllabic.

 

[jodko]

So whats the problem here, bioware made a game where you cant play as a gay charecter yet can play as a lesbian?
Why should you be able to play a gay charecter?

 

[snow]

snip

Again, I'm not trying to push an agenda here. I'm just saying that the game allows for straight female, bi female, gay female, alien-sexin' female ... versus straight male. The romance options are a bit imbalanced, is my point.

I'll agree with that though, sorry if I came off a bit ranty. Developers have seemed to gone into a hole where they won't put anything in a game that doesn't feel safe. Perhaps that was the case with this game?

Though it is kind of stupid if that was their scenario.. For Valkyria Chronicles had characters all over the field in sexual preferences. Hell Jann ended up being one of my favorite characters because his responses to certain things was very funny.

Like

Spoiler

When you get the accuracy perk for him being near another male character on field he says something like "I could melt in those muscles!" In a song like tone.

I was really upset when he died early on in the game the first time you fight a Valkyrian... He was hilarious. I don't consider this a spoiler seeing as how the game followed Warsong rules where if a character dies in the game, they are gone for the rest of that game until you start over. He was in my control when he died... I didn't think that ***** was going to just full on charge 4 of my guys. o.0;

Heck they even put in gay characters that hated either straight characters or the other gender... To me that was really a step out of the fox hole developers dug themselves into.

 

[Daedalus1942]

I think it's more of a call back to the old Captain Kirk style of integrating with alien species.

I don't think Bioware are homophobes though, they just know that considering the controversy about the first one, that including the option to be an active homosexual male in that would lead to a total furore, such is the double standards of the knee-jerk crowd in the mainstream media.

Also, I could imagine a situation where they might even face legal action by backwards parents, concerned that their child is playing 'This sick filth' as they would most probably call it.

I think they're just erring on the side of caution, they don't want any more bad rep for the series.

Good point. What just pisses me off is how much of a row the churches had over Mass Effect, but yet they didn't give a fuck about dragon age (where you can literally walk into a brothel, choose the person you like and gender you want and have a "fun night" with them.

 

[Ocelano]

I think it's more of a call back to the old Captain Kirk style of integrating with alien species.

I don't think Bioware are homophobes though, they just know that considering the controversy about the first one, that including the option to be an active homosexual male in that would lead to a total furore, such is the double standards of the knee-jerk crowd in the mainstream media.

Also, I could imagine a situation where they might even face legal action by backwards parents, concerned that their child is playing 'This sick filth' as they would most probably call it.

I think they're just erring on the side of caution, they don't want any more bad rep for the series.

Or this...

If sex is worse than violence, and A LOT of parents(namely overbearing mothers who complain about videogames) hate gays, then gay sex in a videogame would be the trifecta that would send these women on a rampage.

Edit: Also, Michael Atkinson. Probably, he's a homophobe... Just saying, in case you want to start rumors.

You know the worst homphobes re mos often omosexual's who cant come to term's ith their own sexualit so seek to crush it in other's

Obviously Not meaning to extend upon said rumours

 

[Ocelano]

I didn't point at your comment and say "stupid" because of homophobia.
You just said I'm a bad person for saying homosexuals are a minority. They really are.
If this wasn't the Escapist, I'd just wrap this up with something monosyllabic.

No, I said you are a bad person for assuming that homosexuals being a minority somehow makes them less relevant.

Let me guess, you're fine with homosexuals "as long as they don't push it on you", right?

If push it on you means hitting on, then sure I start feeling awkward in those situation's the same way as I would if a girl I had no interest in tried to hit on me. If on the other hand you mean "push it on you" as being open about their sexuality then no I have no problem with that

 

[Hawgh]

Dragon Age taken into consideration, it is a little strange that Mass Effect 2 doesn't cater to the gay dudes in a relationshipwise manner. Still, in Dragon Age, it was an elf, and I would say it reasonable to consider asari the elf equivalent (long-lived, sorta mysterious). So perhaps there is a gay dude in Mass Effect, only, he's a member of an all-female species.

I've got another theory:

The body suits of the future are simply too fabulous, and homosexual men spontaneously combust, whenever they see them.

Addendum:
In related news, the fact that the Illusive man smokes just started to annoy me enormously, because it ruined a perfectly good(if somewhat insensitive) "no fags in Mass Effect" joke.

 

[Angerwing]

I think it's more of a call back to the old Captain Kirk style of integrating with alien species.

I don't think Bioware are homophobes though, they just know that considering the controversy about the first one, that including the option to be an active homosexual male in that would lead to a total furore, such is the double standards of the knee-jerk crowd in the mainstream media.

Also, I could imagine a situation where they might even face legal action by backwards parents, concerned that their child is playing 'This sick filth' as they would most probably call it.

I think they're just erring on the side of caution, they don't want any more bad rep for the series.

Or this...

If sex is worse than violence, and A LOT of parents(namely overbearing mothers who complain about videogames) hate gays, then gay sex in a videogame would be the trifecta that would send these women on a rampage.

Edit: Also, Michael Atkinson. Probably, he's a homophobe... Just saying, in case you want to start rumors.

You know the worst homphobes re mos often omosexual's who cant come to term's ith their own sexualit so seek to crush it in other's

Obviously Not meaning to extend upon said rumours

That's not actually true. That's pretty much a big 'fuck you' from the gay community to homophobes, who now fear that any anti-gay sentiments may make them look gay. Quite clever really.

As someone who's been good friends with a gay guy for over 9 years, I don't really see the necessity of putting a gay guy in the game. Imagine if they made a game with only a lesbian partnership available. Are they discriminating against male gays AND straights? No, they're just making a game with a lesbian relationship.

So when Bioware makes a game where you can choose relationships, and actually puts a lesbian relationship or two in, it should be a good thing right? Apparently not, because it's DISCRIMINATION!

As someone already mentioned, how do you know that Shepherd isn't gay or bi? Maybe the other male characters just aren't gay. That would support statistics, right?

One of the problems with gay main characters, is that it invariably turns into a gimmick. You either don't make a point of it, in which case people are left wondering why they're gay, when it adds nothing to the storyline, or it DOES make a point of it, and it turns into a bad game because it constantly points out that "Hey! The protagonist is gay!". Holy run on sentences Batman!

 

[RyVal]

It is classic double standards, to be honest. Lesbian sex is hot but gay sex is icky.

But if a gay person reveal himself to you you'd hate him. But you're not homophobic. Seriously, kid, how you manage to make it through the day without your head exploding is beyond me.

Ya know. It is people like you that make people actually hate gays. Your whole "oh you do not tolerate us 100% so you are a homophobic bigot" stupidity.

As if that was such an outrageous demand.

I do not hate gay people at all. As long as they do not force it in my face all day.

So as long as homosexuals do not try and force you to tolerate them - not even accept, just tolerate - you are fine with them. The moment they, y'know, try and ask for the same consideration as a majority of the population, they cross the line. Right.

But why was there no gay male option in the first game?

This is the game that got called the rape simulator just for having a single ass shot.

By Fox News - which promptly had to eat humble pie once even their author avatar admitted it was a total farce. It was hardly a mind-blowing controversy.

Seriously. You people need to stop whining. I almost wish Bioware would release a patch for DA:O making Zevran straight since you people are going to be using the "But DA:O had a gay character so why don't the rest of your games?" for years to come.

It is pretty reasonable to point out the double standards present in having lesbian options available but not even a single gay one.

Take what you are given and be thankful for it. Not every story needs a gay option.

You act as if the video game market is inundated with homosexuality.

Aside from BioWare, can you care to name a few mainstream titles that even featured homosexuals as secondary characters, nevermind protagonists?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Are lesbians not a minority? Why can you create a gay FemShep but not a gay ManShep?

I think it's because the large majority of gamers are hetrosexual males who don't mind girl on girl action, but are appalled by guy on guy action.

And I'm sure it's for this reason that Bioware didn't include a male gay Shepard. Wich is a little strange since from what I heard you could go all out gay in Dragon Age - also a Bioware game.

 

[RyVal]

Are lesbians not a minority? Why can you create a gay FemShep but not a gay ManShep?

I think it's because the large majority of gamers are hetrosexual males who don't mind girl on girl action, but are appalled by guy on guy action.

And I'm sure it's for this reason that Bioware didn't include a male gay Shepard. Wich is a little strange since from what I heard you could go all out gay in Dragon Age - also a Bioware game.

Although it was with Zevran, so I doubt many people could tell the difference.

 

[LiquidGrape]

Plus gay sex is just sick.

"And the award for most nauseating comment of the day goes to..."

 

[silasbufu]

Just write a letter a complaint to them and stop creating these threads because they never end up civilised and it's just talking and solving nothing.

 

[RyVal]

I guess I'll have to repeat for the 100th time... If the people who wrote the script didn't want a homosexual character in their story, then tough cookies. Want a storyline with a gay character so badly? Write one yourself...

Now, take this post, and replace the words "homosexual" and "gay" with any other minority.

Not trying to be rude to the gay community in any way, but ever since the push to make homosexuals more acceptable by putting gay characters in tv shows and movies... They just feel... Out of place. Some shows and stories that I have seen, didn't even need a reason to expose the sexuality of a certain character, but since they did so anyway, that character felt out of place with the rest of the story just because the writers didn't want to be called homophobes..

How is sexuality "out of place"? It's just - you know - there. If it was set in a period where homosexuality was immensely taboo, I'd argue that it would be "out of place" if it was tolerated, but would not be out of place for existing.

I'm not homophobic.. I have gay and lesbian friends whom' I hang out with almost on a daily basis.

Too easy to make a joke out of this.

 

[RyVal]

Plus gay sex is just sick.

"And the award for most nauseating comment of the day goes to..."

Called it:

It is classic double standards, to be honest. Lesbian sex is hot but gay sex is icky.