The Jennifer Hepler discussion is taking a turn for the worse

[kingpocky]

It seems pretty oblivious to insist that a femshep/Liara romance is anything but homosexual.

Yes, I know that technically, Asari are monogendered aliens. But pretty much everything about them with the exception of skin color and hair (body shape, facial features, voices) is completely identical to human women.

Barring some odd xenophilic fetish, it's unreasonable that a human could find Asari sexually attractive, but not feel the same way about women of their own species.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Oh, it's that stupid cow that ruined Dragon Age 2.

If people want to play with a homosexual character that's fine. But there should be an option in character creator to choose sexual preference early on. In Dragon Age 2 (because of this dumb *****) Anders kept coming on to Hawke, and Hawke could become gay with just one wrong press of the button. That can pretty much ruin the immersion for everyone who considered Hawke to be heterosexual up to that point. And statistically, that's a big majority.

It also doesn't make sense for Shepard to be homosexual, considering that male Shepard had only female romance options in previous 2 games, and female Shepard only had male romance options. It is obvious that Bioware wanted Shepard to be heterosexual. And I clearly remember them saying that in an interview once. So it's completely understandable that some fans will react aggressively to this.

I made a thread about this...but short version

1. it was originally intended ot have the option of a gay relationship

What was originally intended and what ended up happening are different things. If it was intended, but didn't make it into the final game then clearly they had a reason not to put it in the game. So why now? Why ruin the writing so much for no reason? It adds nothing to the game and it takes away a lot by making the story ridiculous. Romance options should be toned down drastically in ME3, because it's about saving the fuckin' galaxy. And instead they're expanding on the least important part of the game. This dumb ***** likes Twilight books. That's who's writing for Bioware nowadays. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

1. ruin the writing since when?

2. removed because unfortunatly people cant get their heads arond the Idea of gay people (but aliens are fine)

2. its OPTIONAL

you dont have to romance anyone, period, role playing is about having options

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game. That is shit writing that doesn't add anything and makes the game ridiculous. It's a game set in distant future where you can fuck aliens. It's illogical to even discuss about sexual preference in ME universe. It would be like talking about KKK in Star Trek. But she doesn't understand that. How could she when her idea of good writer is Stephenie Meyer.

Like I said before, sexual preference should be an option in the character creator menu. Along with asexual which would be the best choice, since romance options in Mass Effect are terrible at best.

 

[kingpocky]

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game.

Source?

 

[Cheery Lunatic]

snip

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, what the fuck dude.
How the hell is your username Adam Jensen.
HOW DID NO ONE TAKE THAT USERNAME BEFORE YOU?

 

[drisky]

Oh, it's that stupid cow that ruined Dragon Age 2. And as if that wasn't enough she wants to ruin ME3 by adding a WHOLE FUCKIN' CHAPTER about homosexuality in a game about saving the galaxy from impending doom. It's not supposed to be an educational video game you dumb *****.

If people want to play with a homosexual character that's fine. But there should be an option in character creator to choose sexual preference early on. In Dragon Age 2 (because of this dumb *****) Anders kept coming on to Hawke, and Hawke could become gay with just one wrong press of the button. That can pretty much ruin the immersion for everyone who considered Hawke to be heterosexual up to that point. And statistically, that's a big majority.

It also doesn't make sense for Shepard to be homosexual, considering that male Shepard had only female romance options in previous 2 games, and female Shepard only had male romance options. It is obvious that Bioware wanted Shepard to be heterosexual. And I clearly remember them saying that in an interview once. So it's completely understandable that some fans will react aggressively to this.

I'm pretty sure the whole thing about spending a chapter on gay issues was a trolling moment. She was trying to piss of the people who said that it was going to ruin the game even though its just a small optional part. I don't think she be trying to prove people like that, it's childish, but its irrelevant to the game.

They did try to defend the fact that there weren't gay relationships in the past, trying to say it emulates a PG 13 sci-fi movie. But they changed their minds, they are aloud to do that.

I don't think it will end up being a big deal unless they go the "everyone is bisexual now" route of Dragon Age 2. Shepard should be an adjustable character but the crew members from previous games shouldn't just come out of now where with it, I think it would be harder to write anyway. Honestly I'd like to see an exclusively gay character, let straight people be the incompatible one for once.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

snip

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, what the fuck dude.
How the hell is your username Adam Jensen.
HOW DID NO ONE TAKE THAT USERNAME BEFORE YOU?

Because I'm the real Adam Jensen.

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game.

Source?

Dude, that's what this entire topic is about. Link is in the first post.

I'm pretty sure the whole thing about spending a chapter on gay issues was a trolling moment.

It sounds too stupid to be true, but after what she did with Anders in DA2 nothing would surprise me.

 

[Lunar Templar]

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'm not gay, and i never had a problem with it.

seirusly, this is,

ANOTHER

one of those cases of 'i don't like so it shouldn't exist'

it less needs to stop and more the gamer community needs to grow up and get over it, the only 'cancer' here is the people butthurt over nothing

 

[ZeroMachine]

snip

On a COMPLETELY unrelated note, what the fuck dude.
How the hell is your username Adam Jensen.
HOW DID NO ONE TAKE THAT USERNAME BEFORE YOU?

Because I'm the real Adam Jensen.

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game.

Source?

Dude, that's what this entire topic is about. All the links are in the first post.

Then this entire topic is inaccurate. I spoke to Hepler about a year back when all this hate for her slowly started. The post in question about the chapter where you're forced to deal with another character coming out of the closet was never actually posted. It was an edited picture.

Not only did she not post it, she COULDN'T have posted it as she had been home for three months taking care of her new born child.

Then of course there's the fact that she has nothing to do with the Mass Effect series at all.

She works almost exclusively with the Dragon Age franchise.

 

[kingpocky]

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game.

Source?

Dude, that's what this entire topic is about. All the links are in the first post.

I'm looking at the first post and the link. I can't find where it says that players will be educated about homosexuality regardless of their choices. If that's true, I'd agree with you that it's a terrible idea, but it seems like we're reading different things here.

 

[renegade7]

I think Extra Creditz had an excellent episode about homosexuality in games a while back.

My main concern is that it's being shoehorned in as a fan service or just to create another option. I think that the relationship thing was a nice little sidestory in ME1 but grew to be a bit too much of a focus in ME2, and really it shouldn't be a central plot element. It was an interesting way to define Shepherd as the player saw him but it's gotten way too big.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

They're going to have a whole chapter dedicated to educating gamers about homosexuality regardless of your romance choice in the game.

Source?

Dude, that's what this entire topic is about. All the links are in the first post.

I'm looking at the first post and the link. I can't find where it says that players will be educated about homosexuality regardless of their choices. If that's true, I'd agree with you that it's a terrible idea, but it seems like we're reading different things here.

It was a link on kotaku that leads to reddit that leads to a picture where she's saying stupid things. But as it turns out it was an edited picture. Apparent she didn't say those things. She's still an idiot though, for what she did in DA2 with EVERY romance option.

 

[drisky]

I'm pretty sure the whole thing about spending a chapter on gay issues was a trolling moment.

It sounds too stupid to be true, but after what she did with Anders in DA2 nothing would surprise me.

People with more decision making power than her have stated the gender equality issues would not be put in there games unless it was a major theme of the world, and the Mass Effect universe would be no place for it, at least as far as the way Shepard is treated. I'm assuming that extends to all kinds of inequality other than fictional aliens. If the squad members aren't going to judge Shepard based on gender they won't do it for orientation. And with all the interspecies sex going on, someone would have complained about the non-"biological imperative" sex, most you get is Mordin's passive judgements, not a system break down of the team.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Before I write this rather sarcastic post I should clarify I don't care about her writing and I'm not particularly bothered about Ander's character one way or the other, although I can understand people being pissed if they felt an established NPC was changed. Oh, and I will add that I don't give a rat's arse if a writer has bad gameplay ideas or not, for the same reason I don't care if the gameplay designers can't write a decent story. We give different people different jobs for a reason, you lot. That aside:

What the hell is with the people saying Shepard can't possibly be gay? It's entirely possible for FemShep to be a lesbian, so if the characters are basically mirrors of each other can't the same be true of MaleShep?

No don't give me that "Asari are genderless" crap, it's painfully obvious that they aren't. Mono-gendered, yes, but it's not the same. Maybe Bioware should introduce an alien race with a single gender all of whom have a long, penis-like (but not actually a penis, 'cause they're aliens!) member, from which male Shepard is able... Nay, forced to extract 'genetic samples' from using his mouth. Oh, and he likes it too. In fact, he has to keep on trying because he keeps 'accidentally' swallowing the genetic sample. Now you might say that makes him gay, but it doesn't because they're not really male, they're aliens. Totally different.

Or maybe I should just create my own male Shepard who goes through the first two games ignoring every romance option. Why? Because they're all female and he's gay. There may not be anyone for him to actually sleep with, but he's still gay. And there's nothing anyone can do about it...

Okay, okay, I'm being facetious. But... Gah! By what possible logic can you assume MaleShep is universally straight?!? Because he might have had sex with a woman?

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.

In Dragon Age: Origins, if you reject Zevran while playing a male character he will try to kill you.

Okay, to explain in better detail he will go back to the side of his assassin masters if your approval rating isn't high enough with him. If you reject his attempts to get with you (even if you're already in a relationship and he says he understands) he gets a pretty hefty disapproval that is very hard to push back up to the required levels for him to stick with you. So okay, he wouldn't literally try to kill you for rejecting him but the odds were high. Apparently though he doesn't count because he's an Elf so it isn't really gay anyway...

I realise that it isn't completely pertinent to the subject at hand but I find it interesting how it gets glossed over every time. Oh, and the fact that Anders get's called 'sexually agressive' in a game with Isabela as a party member seems to flag up a double standard.

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...

 

[WolfThomas]

I was always annoyed gay and lesbian (like actually Human female on human female, not alien) relationships were absent in the games. Not because I'd necessarily pick them, but because it's the future and I figure people would have gotten over this issue by then.

 

[DiMono]

Welcome to America, the land of the free-as-long-as-you-believe-what-I-believe.