The Jennifer Hepler discussion is taking a turn for the worse

[razer17]

I have intense dislike for her because she fucked around with the Mass Effect lore.

First krogans are the typical males-dominate everything species, then, suddenly, Hamburger Helper gets involved and suddenly female krogans live in separate colonies and shit. I mean, what the fuck? Why? Surely, me playing a female Shepard and the numerous kick ass female party members were enough, right?

Not for Helper. She wrote a book about gay magicians that work for the CIA (I wish I was kidding) and her DA romances stink of lonely nights with cheap wine and erotic novels. A little disgusting. Just a little.

Of course, spamming her twitter and calling her cancer isnt right. I think just telling her what a terrible writer she is is enough, and more than justified. Nothing more, nothing less.

She didn't work on Mass Effect, so, y'know.

OT: I couldn't care less. Gay, not gay, so what? The beauty of it is you can pursue any of the love interests, or none.

 

[Vigormortis]

Imagine George Lucas wrote Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, and then some other writer came along and outed Luke and Han in Return of the Jedi.

Or better yet, think of the Midichlorian counts from Lucas' prequel trilogy. You don't establish a mechanic in an ongoing series and then just wipe it without direction. This isn't about homophobia, its about poor writing.

If Shepard was straight but showing signs of curiosity or if the series was ABOUT Shepard's turn, this would make sense. But Mass Effect is about the struggle for survival against aliens. The use of homosexuality is merely a subplot to drum up controversy for a garbage writer who doesn't know how to continue a storyline to its third act.

As a homosexual, it is the mockery of your sexual preference as publicity tool that should offend you, and not a fanbase's loyalty towards established plot.

Technically, Lucas didn't write The Empire Strike Back. He wrote the original story but the script was penned by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan. (don't ask me why I know that. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan.)

Anyway, as for your point I see where you're coming from. If his sexuality played a central role in the plot, or even for something as simple as character development, I could understand it. But from what I'm hearing, it's almost nothing but either fan service (ironically) or promotional material in terms of being controversial.

Honestly, I can't say. I'm not a fan of the Mass Effect games, so I can't speak on how little or how much she's "messed with" the lore. Even so, harassing the woman and sending death threats is pathetic, ridiculous, and childish. Not to mention it paints a very bad image of the gaming community at large.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Sigh. OK FINE....

Spoiler

All of a sudden there's Krogan females - Probably the MOST RETARDED AND NEEDLESS RETCON EVER.

Getting a prothean teamate - If the Prothean's are alive why did ME2 even happen.

Seth Green has sex WITH A SPACESHIP - ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME

The ship BECOMES a hologram - ok HALO any other hollywood changes you're so sure we'll buy

And while not on the topic of "relationships", here's a big one...

Need to play MULTIPLAYER for the TRUE ENDING - This is the most thinly veiled excuse for drm camo I have ever seen in my life.

Now can you believe that I think the game is garbage? Jesus.

Okay going through those... I realise this is off-topic, but what the hell.

Spoiler

What is it about female Krogans that is a retcon? I genuinely don't see what change they made.

There were a few hundred Protheans in cryogenic sleep in Mass Effect 1; yes they were dead by a long shot because the facility ran out of juice before hand, but there's theoretically no reason why there couldn't be more that the Reapers didn't find.

The third point I can agree with.

The fourth point I don't see what you're getting at; there were always VI holograms, and EDI had one too in ME2, albeit a very simple one. What am I missing?

That last point is not true. I quote here from Manveer Heir:

An addition to this system is the Galaxy at War, which shows the player who controls which territories on the Galaxy Map and gives players an opportunity to enhance the total military strength of the galaxy by participating in optional things like Multiplayer, the iPhone app and the iPad game. You can get best possible outcome in the game by just playing single player if you want, as long as you are willing to do a lot of the side missions and content. However, maybe you only want to do a critical path run of the single player. Well, by playing multiplayer you also increase your galactic readiness rating can affect the final outcome. Using the iPhone Datapad app and the iPad Infiltrator game will also tie into Galaxy at War and update this final rating.

I am genuinely interested in clarification here more than arguing over points though.

 

[RatRace123]

This is just sickening. It's fine to not like someone's work, but to blame one person for whatever it is you feel the need to, and to attack her and call her a cancer?
Just... fucking no.

There are definitely legitimate reasons for being frustrated with Bioware and EA, but they don't lie on the shoulders of one writer, regardless of what people think of the quality of their writing.
But then again, gamers have sent out death threats just because they were unhappy with something (several times) so, hey insulting someone actually seems like a step in the right direction by comparison.

And, as a side note. I've never been huge on the romance, I've always just done it because it simply seems like something you need to do. And I don't see anything wrong with giving people more choices to define their character how they wish to. Though I will agree, trying to get laid while the Reapers are turning Earth into a cloud of dust does seem to hint at Shepard having messed up priorities.

 

[Dandark]

Homosexual relationships are fine and all, but why can't my Shep be polyamorous? Why am I stuck with only one romance per playthrough? Why can't I get with both Tali and Garrus, with a bit of Kelly on the side? Like Garrus and the flexible shipmate, why can't it be just for the sake of being with someone? Why does every relationship have to be pretty sparkle roses and love? Why can't my very prickish, flirty Shep go from room to room until he/she can't walk anymore? Hell, in the first game, you can choose "Why not both?" if you end up going down the romance path for Liara and Ashley/Kaidan. It's Ashley's/Kaidan's preference that says no. Liara was okay with the idea. Why can't others be good with an open relationship?

Yeah this, It's kinda annoying that they only do really serious relationships, why not more like that thing with the Asari adviser in the first game(Can't remember her name).
I think it would be great if they started exploring casual polyamorous relationships, noting crazy but just an option that isn't all old values.

 

[jezcentral]

I don't understand how people like the OP can feel that "options" are being "forced" on them.

Because they were forced on them before, by the same writer. They have every right to be skeptical. Again, we go back to the Anders romance. If you reject him, as either gender, he becomes pissy and you lose friendship points. So if you're a male Hawke, he'll become bitchy with you if you don't take his romance path.

So, instead of you pursuing a romance with him on your own interests, the character presses himself on you, and if you refuse, you are punished for it.

I keep having a bad feeling that it will arise in Mass Effect 3 with James Vega, who will suddenly come out of the closet to reveal his true sexuality that he kept repressed. And all I can see is that they would include such a thing to criticize the US Army's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy from a few years back.

I think you've misunderstood me, Soviet Heavy. I was asking how someone could feel that extra (i.e. more than you had previously) choices that don't have to be taken, can be described as being imposed onto someone.

I understand you didn't like how Anders reacted to your choices, but that's nothing to do with the issue of having greater choice.

 

[Terminal Blue]

Yes, in real life if people feel that they've been strung along and then rejected they get upset and things get awkward. Deal with it. It's not like you can't fix up your friendship with Anders later anyway...

This. God yes, this..

There's a couple issues about the whole Anders thing, and they've both been really annoying me so to get it all out in the open.

1) People seem to have gotten so used to the idea that romance subplots in games should be entirely initiated and lead by the player. That's not how real life works unless (and I have a feeling this is the problem) you're an extremely conservative straight man with a view of relationships trapped several decades in the past.

The,whole thing of towing around a harem of characters who are attracted to but will never act on it because they're waiting for you to make the first move belongs in a 70s sexploitation film, not in 21st century writing. Frankly, It bothers me that people seem more upset that Anders comes onto them at all than that he comes on to them 5 minutes after stabbing his ex boyfriend in the stomach, which actually was bad writing.

2) Secondly, that people honestly seem to believe that "sorry, I'm not gay" should instantly and perfectly absolve you of any responsibility or consequence for rejecting someone without exposing you to any awkwardness or ill feeling.

I challenge you to do the following, next time you get rejected by someone you're actually attracted to (don't set out to do it, just wait until it happens) try to react as well as Anders does. You must then go on to be exceptionally close friends with that person and spend a great deal of time with them for years without feeling any bitterness or ever allowing your feelings to negatively affect your relationship with them.

Now, consider that what you're basically saying is that anyone hitting on someone of the same sex, regardless of emotional maturity or experience, should be able to do that automatically because they never had a chance to begin with. I'm sorry to tell you this, but you probably never had a chance with anyone who has ever rejected you. It's not that you performed the wrong sequence of actions which will cause someone to open their legs, they just weren't attracted to you. It's a part of life, it hurts, and most of us get over it, but expecting it not to have any effect on anything is just.. incredible.

It's a simple choice, either we accept that romance elements in games will always show a fantasy of what relationships and sex will be like, or we call for more realism. However, claiming that the existence of optional gay romances in games is unrealistic or immersion breaking for you while operating on and accepting these ridiculous assumptions about human interaction is just wanting to have the cake and eat it (or in this case, to have the fantasies but have them only cater to you).

 

[Thoric485]

This entire shitstorm is the direct result of BioWare and review sites' behavior.

They gave DA2 and SW:TOR way higher scores than they deserved and hyped them all the way through, ignoring all sorts of negative feedback.

And though BioWare's forums are frequented by the developers themselves, they act dumb when confronted with any type of criticism.

PR is simply so bad that people feel the only way to reach this company and be heard is to publicly berate its employees through channels EA does not control.

I'll laugh my ass off when a few months pass, EA sacks BioWare's PR department and forces Hepler to resign and Muzyka stands there with his thumb in his mouth unable to do jack shit.