The Jennifer Hepler discussion is taking a turn for the worse

[Phaerim]

I stumbled across this information, while joyfully reading about the GW2 RvR that I am looking forward too. But sadly, my day got a hell of a lot more depressing.

Here is a link:

http://kotaku.com/5886674/bioware-writer-describes-her-gaming-tastes-angry-gamers-call-her-a-cancer

Allright, so besides people calling her a cancer, I kept browsing, and apparantly people are also very annoyed at her writing a homosexual plotline for the male Sheperd. Because of this she is a cancer on the gaming community.

I am gay, and this digital throwing of feces has to stop. Now.

I do not feel any need for Shepard to have any sexual relations in the way it has been interpreted in the Mass Effect games - because relationships, while a part of a character, is not the most defining thing about them. Would Zaeed, Tali or Jacob act any different than they already did because of their sexuality? No, because BioWare spends lots and lots of writing on telling the story of the characters, describing defining moments in their lives, what motivates them, and what made them who they are. The stories of the companions are almost always completely unrelated to sex, and are more focused on personal religious, ethical and/or political ideas, than what makes their genitals move. Sexuality IS important, but it is NOT the deciding factor in shaping these characters - BioWare have never made it so.

While I must admit the relationship with Liara passed on through ME1, ME2 and Shadow Broker DLC, is the best shot at an romance I have seen in a game yet, simply because it actually was a relationship depicted across two games, many other romances simply feels like being put in the game for fan service, or for the sheer sake of option. Be it straight or homo relationships.

While I as a gay man appreciate the fact, that video games wants to explore homosexuality in the storylines, I find it a bit weird, that it is going to happen while Reapers are eating the people of the earth. I would actually think the "gay option" would have had a lot more integrity in Mass Effect 1 or 2, where the series wasn't so close to climax, and the "deadline" for the Reaper invasion was less imminent. I do not know the detailed storyline for Mass Effect 3, but it seems a bit less relevant to rub spacesuits against each other, when your homeplanet is burning to a crisp.

My whole point is, that I do think that RPG's should embrace sexuality, but the setting for it should just be right. Sexuality IS important for any human (or Alien??) being, but I honestly think it deserves integrity, rather than simple presence just for the sake of presence.

The consequence of "forcing" it upon an already developed character like the Male Sheperd, that hasn't hinted at being homosexual at all during the series, is also damaging towards the label "homoseuxal", as it intrudes on the subjective perception of a loved character for many. The result is a lot of slander and hate speech towards homosexuality, simply because it ruins the character for many - and I understand the reluctance in people, when something cherished is changed. But it also irritates me enourmously to read line after line of "butt XXX" jokes, and all other kinds of prejudistic crap, this reactions creates.

Male Sheperd will have homosexual options in ME3. The game is too close to release now to remove it, and hopefully a well written story and a fun game will overshadow these parts of the game. But we as a gaming community could teach the developers, that if we want romances they should have integrity and meaning - not just be "around".

Sexuality, be it homo or hetero, deserves respect, and I don't feel like its being treated like that, when the world is about to blow up around you. Then it just becomes nuisance that ruins immersion.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The consequence of "forcing" it upon an already developed character like the Male Sheperd, that hasn't hinted at being homosexual at all during the series, is also damaging towards the label "homoseuxal", as it intrudes on the subjective perception of a loved character for many. The result is a lot of slander and hate speech towards homosexuality, simply because it ruins the character for many - and I understand the reluctance in people, when something cherished is changed. But it also irritates me enourmously to read line after line of "butt XXX" jokes, and all other kinds of prejudistic crap, this reactions creates.

Male Sheperd will have homosexual options in ME3. The game is too close to release now to remove it, and hopefully a well written story and a fun game will overshadow these parts of the game. But we as a gaming community could teach the developers, that if we want romances they should have integrity and meaning - not just be "around".

Sexuality, be it homo or hetero, deserves respect, and I don't feel like its being treated like that, when the world is about to blow up around you. Then it just becomes nuisance that ruins immersion.

Suddenly changing the continuity by altering an established characters sexuality...yeah, I can see a problem with that, though it could be handled reasonably well.

I don't see any problem in having sexuality being an issue in a game where the world is at stake. Historically...I don't think everyone stopped having sex during WW2. And in fiction, the hero almost always gets a love interest, no matter how many people the aliens eat in the meantime.

Now, if they spent all their time worrying about their sex lives instead of the aliens/whatever, that might be annoying (though not necessarily unrealistic). Might be nice to see a romance fall apart once the aliens are defeated and they have time to consider their futures.

 

[wooty]

Well, there is an awful lot of homophobia circulating the gaming community, just one team death camp match on XBL can confirm this. But getting angry over it is silly, if you dont want to have a gay Sheperd.......then dont choose the gay options.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Suddenly changing the continuity by altering an established characters sexuality...yeah, I can see a problem with that, though it could be handled reasonably well.

Admittedly I haven't played Mass Effect, but I doubt Sheperd ever announces "I am strictly heterosexual." How would a male romance option ruin the continuity?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Suddenly changing the continuity by altering an established characters sexuality...yeah, I can see a problem with that, though it could be handled reasonably well.

Admittedly I haven't played Mass Effect, but I doubt Sheperd ever announces "I am strictly heterosexual." How would a male romance option ruin the continuity?

Also not played ME, so I can't say for sure, but he might have been established as being heterosexual, or at least implied. TBH, though, not mentioning sexuality implies the "default" of heterosexuality, really...an established character whose sexuality has never been an issue turning out to be straight is not going to cause any sort of fuss.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

With her attitude, I do think she is potentially damaging to Bioware and Industry. Skip the gameplay? Go make movies! Write a book! Don't play games if the only thing you like is the story. A game should be story through gameplay, not just cutscenes. I have never liked how Bioware treat relationships. In all honesty, I can't think of any games that did them well.

 

[Dogstile]

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.

This, so much this. They're going overboard and her responses are about as childish as theirs are so who cares. She's a terrible writer and since she's gotten involved I haven't really enjoyed a Bioware story.

 

[Thraxen]

I thought people didn't like her because she's kind of a bad writer who doesn't understand, like or play games as opposed to simply hating her for the content of her work.

 

[Stemer]

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.

This, This, This a thousand times this. She is not doing it because she is standing up for the gay community, She is writing this tripe because she is a Yaoi fangirl.

In my mind there is little difference between her and the creators of dead or alive extreme volleyball.

 

[Thraxen]

I didn't think there was that much info about Krogan females in the first game, except for that little bit of flavour text on one of the planets that talked about that female warchief.

 

[Phasmal]

In my mind there is little difference between her and the creators of dead or alive extreme volleyball.

Except nobody's abusing those guys because it happens to be what the majority of the gaming community enjoys.
But shit, we cant have stuff written for other people who might enjoy it.

Honestly, no matter how bad a writer she is, she doesn't deserve the kind of shit she is getting and the whole community is just making itself look bad.
Sometimes this community likes to paint itself as accepting, then shit like this goes down and I just have to laugh.

And whats with all the bitching about a gay male sheperd?

My Sheperd has been straight all along but am I supposed to be offended because I know SOMEWHERE on the game is a parallel Shep who is a lesbian?

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'm really torn on this, so I'll break my post into two parts.

It's a good idea...

Everyone whining about how Shepherd is definitely 100% hetero and this is changing his character clearly doesn't understand how sexuality works. Practically everyone starts out as definitely confirmed 100% heterosexual. Many of us were not even raised with the awareness that there was any alternative.

I know it's comforting to believe that people have an intuitive spider sense which tells them their sexuality, but it's not true. All it takes for your sexuality to change is for you to meet someone of the "wrong" gender and be attracted to them. If you're seriously going to make the argument that that couldn't possibly happen to Shepherd because he hasn't been obviously portrayed as gay so far, then seriously.. what the fuck.

...but Bioware (or Hepler) isn't right for this material.

Don't get me wrong, I like Bioware and I appreciate that there's at least one large gaming company who genuinely care about writing. But Bioware's grasp on human emotion seems to be gathered from watching the cast of Thunderbirds perform scenes from Buffy the Vampire slayer.

If Shepherd is going to come out, then the experience needs to be recognizable to anyone who has come out, because it sure as hell isn't going to be popular with anyone who hasn't. It's not something you can just wisecrack through or wave away with magic sparkle dust because your characters are all written to be super cool wish-fulfilment figures so obviously discovering that they had same sex feelings would be totally fine for them.

And yet, no amount of Shepherd standing around frowning slightly and looking stoic is going to convey the impression that he's confused or worried about acceptance or unsure how to react. Thus, it will either look contrived or jarring.

Don't get me wrong, a character needs to come out during a video game at some point without it being massively foreshadowed. It's one of those social landmarks which needs to be crossed, it's just going to take more understanding of how people genuinely work than I think Bioware can muster.

Also, Hepler in particular is wrong to write this. Don't get me wrong, she wrote the dwarves in Dragon Age: Origins and that was awesome, but she's a predominantly straight woman who, when she's been allowed near a romance subplot, clearly writes for straight women. I have no faith in her ability to pull this off whatsoever.

 

[Teh Jammah]

Ah, the 'sudden change' to making Shepard gay/bi. We'll ignore the fact that ME1 originally had the option to pull Kaidan as a dude and Ashley as a chick, and was pulled out at the last minute (so last minute in fact that the dialogue was actually recorded for it and is), probably out of fear at too much controversy.