If I'm not mistaken, didn't EA/Bioware mostly flip the 'phobes the bird (in PR speak)?
Yes and no. There was a bit of trolling and nerd rage expressed over the prospect of same-sex relationships in SW: TOR and ME3.
However, the recent PR row is, as far as I can tell, EA doing damage control on being declared "the worst company in America" in an online poll. EA claims the voting was tainted by bigots and homophobes mad over LGB characters in Mass Effect in the like. When in actuality, most folks (like me) voted for EA because of their immoral business practices and generally poor customer service. And killing off Westwood, you bastards.
My objection is this: EA is not some light of the LGBT community. As far as I know, none of their higher-ups identify as LGBT. In fact, they've had problems in the past with LGBT issues in their games. (That is, EA chose to act poorly and in an insensitive manner.) And furthermore, EA is not actually doing anything to help the LGBT community besides throwing us a bone in Mass Effect 3*. Really, while people are being murdered across the world and basic LGBT rights are lagging in the US, the PR folks at EA come off as immense assholes to try and tag their nonexistent pain and suffering to a movement where people I know have lived, died, and bled.
(*I am no longer giving the the benefit of the doubt for the lesbian romance in Mass Effect 2. It was, sadly, probably a lowest-common-denominator kind of thing. Besides, I ship FemShep and Garrus. Also, I haven't played ME3 so take my words on it with a grain of salt.)
That is the stupidest fucking thing. Seriously, the whole thing, start to finish. The idea the EA is even in the running for "Worst Company in the World" just shows you how fucking #firstworldproblems that poll was to begin with. I mean, they're not even the worst company in their industry. And now for them to claim it was bigots stacking the deck, instead of just a bunch of myopic, entitled white people? Really, EA? Really?
(*I am no longer giving EA the benefit of the doubt for the lesbian romance in Mass Effect 2. It was, sadly, probably a lowest-common-denominator kind of thing. Besides, I ship FemShep and Garrus. Also, I haven't played ME3 so take my words on it with a grain of salt.)
Kelly Chambers giving a lap dance to any Shepard is not a lesbian romance.
That is the stupidest fucking thing. Seriously, the whole thing, start to finish. The idea the EA is even in the running for "Worst Company in the World" just shows you how fucking #firstworldproblems that poll was to begin with. I mean, they're not even the worst company in their industry. And now for them to claim it was bigots stacking the deck, instead of just a bunch of myopic, entitled white people? Really, EA? Really?
Stupidest fucking thing.
Oh, I completely agree. I knew there was no way any other company would win, so I thought I might as well kick EA while they were down. Not terribly mature of me, I admit. But yeah, it was silly and pointless.
Cortez was a really, really sweet character. If I had a Male!Shep I would've hooked up with him. I love that bit where you watch the ships come in with him.
Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
On the way home from doing an errand at my old college, some old lady was decrying gays and women who are pregnant and not married.. or something. She asked if there were any whoremongers in the crowd.
NocrenLt Futz, Back in ActionNorth CarolinaRegistered Userregular
edited April 2012
My maleShep was loyal to Ashley but I liked the friendship that developed between Shep and Cortez.
And I like how if you tell him that you prefer women it isn't completely over-the-top and ham-fisted.
Also, didn't know Trayner was a lesbian. Guess that means that it was handled pretty damn well in that they never throw it in your face. Only Cortez did that but that's because he's grieving over the loss of his husband which is understandable.
On the way home from doing an errand at my old college, some old lady was decrying gays and women who are pregnant and not married.. or something. She asked if there were any whoremongers in the crowd.
Magus`The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered Userregular
I was too far away and in kind of a hurry. I wasn't sure if it was a performance piece at first, but all the confused looks and camera phones out made me think it wasn't.
My maleShep was loyal to Ashley but I liked the friendship that developed between Shep and Cortez.
And I like how if you tell him that you prefer women it isn't completely over-the-top and ham-fisted.
Also, didn't know Trayner was a lesbian. Guess that means that it was handled pretty damn well in that they never throw it in your face. Only Cortez did that but that's because he's grieving over the loss of his husband which is understandable.
Traynor is a lesbian, yah. There's also a few side conversations on the Citadel, like a soldier trying to get her daughter sent to her wife's parents. Oh, and Male!Shep and Kaiden can hook up.
On the way home from doing an errand at my old college, some old lady was decrying gays and women who are pregnant and not married.. or something. She asked if there were any whoremongers in the crowd.
The proper response is "Why, you buyin'?"
Monger is like a vendor, right? So does "whoremonger" mean like, a pimp?
Nothing terribly surprising so far, but I just want to point out I haven't played ME3 yet, I have it, but my ME2 file was corrupted so I need to replay that first.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
The thing I like about Mass Effect is that it's just not an issue any more in that universe. At all. The only person who gives you shit for it is a single line from an ancient racist imperialist about how it's a waste of time.
I dont know why, but this really makes me want to play ME3.
EDIT: As great as that Rosie thing is, because seriously fuck those guys, I kind of feel bad for her daughter because personally I prefer to see my mother as asexual beings who lost her genitalia after she birthed my sister. For what its worth, I kind of feel the same way about my father.
My objection is this: EA is not some light of the LGBT community. As far as I know, none of their higher-ups identify as LGBT. In fact, they've had problems in the past with LGBT issues in their games. (That is, EA chose to act poorly and in an insensitive manner.) And furthermore, EA is not actually doing anything to help the LGBT community besides throwing us a bone in Mass Effect 3*. Really, while people are being murdered across the world and basic LGBT rights are lagging in the US, the PR folks at EA come off as immense assholes to try and tag their nonexistent pain and suffering to a movement where people I know have lived, died, and bled.
I'm curious, and I'm honestly not trying to troll, to flame bait, to whatever... I'm honestly curious. Does it really matter if someone within EA self-identifies as LGBT? Really? At all?
I get the "if they're honest about it they would have someone on their board/in leadership that is," but that's an attitude that I feel is a bit dangerous.
That is the stupidest fucking thing. Seriously, the whole thing, start to finish. The idea the EA is even in the running for "Worst Company in the World" just shows you how fucking #firstworldproblems that poll was to begin with. I mean, they're not even the worst company in their industry. And now for them to claim it was bigots stacking the deck, instead of just a bunch of myopic, entitled white people? Really, EA? Really?
Stupidest fucking thing.
Zynga is in a weird position, and I don't know that I would call them the worst company in the industry. They do terrible shit, but they are not in as visible a position as EA is where they can do real harm to the industry with their policies. I get the hate.
As for them running against companies like BoA, Comcast and the like, I'd argue that most of those companies already won, and should not have even really been running if only because they will win every year.
Also, hey, a barely-above-average consumer website runs a poll and people take it seriously? Eh...
However, the recent PR row is, as far as I can tell, EA doing damage control on being declared "the worst company in America" in an online poll.
Yeah, no. EA has made it pretty clear they don't give a shit about The Consumerist's commenters voting them "worst company in America":
"We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."
I mean, even *on the website* a lot of people were pretty appalled that a bank whose actions range from "illegal" to "stupid" on a good day got beat out by OMG TEH GAMES SUCK LOL.
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However, the recent PR row is, as far as I can tell, EA doing damage control on being declared "the worst company in America" in an online poll.
Yeah, no. EA has made it pretty clear they don't give a shit about The Consumerist's commenters voting them "worst company in America":
"We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."
I mean, even *on the website* a lot of people were pretty appalled that a bank whose actions range from "illegal" to "stupid" on a good day got beat out by OMG TEH GAMES SUCK LOL.
God, I can't believe they missed Goldman Sachs, which is basically a front for COBRA.
If I'm not mistaken, didn't EA/Bioware mostly flip the 'phobes the bird (in PR speak)?
There's a scene you can have in ME3 where a heterosexual male Shepard tries to proposition the Comm officer, who turns out to be a lesbian. They did a lot of good facial animation in the game, but the 'oh...OHHHHHH, my mistake' that comes across makes me laugh every time.
Better, it's no big deal. You're playing chess, discussion happens, you play more chess.
My objection is this: EA is not some light of the LGBT community. As far as I know, none of their higher-ups identify as LGBT. In fact, they've had problems in the past with LGBT issues in their games. (That is, EA chose to act poorly and in an insensitive manner.) And furthermore, EA is not actually doing anything to help the LGBT community besides throwing us a bone in Mass Effect 3*. Really, while people are being murdered across the world and basic LGBT rights are lagging in the US, the PR folks at EA come off as immense assholes to try and tag their nonexistent pain and suffering to a movement where people I know have lived, died, and bled.
I'm curious, and I'm honestly not trying to troll, to flame bait, to whatever... I'm honestly curious. Does it really matter if someone within EA self-identifies as LGBT? Really? At all?
If it does, then the way they've handeled homosexual characters up till now is even more hideously offensive. They only included them, prior to Mass Effect 3, if it was a straight male turn on and even then they were adamant about how the characters "weren't lesbians at all" and that ridiculous elf in Dragon Age would literally fuck anything; that was their out - he was omnisexual, not gay. They spent such a ridiculous amount of effort making sure they really never had a regular gay male characters it was a fucking joke.
I remember it being less about just a sex option and more of him genuinely wanting to be with your character after the games current crisis was over. But I could just be wanting to remember it fondly, it was the first same-sex romance option in a game I had seen and it impressed me that it was there.
I'm being overly harsh on it, to be honest. It was a full romance and not just sex, but you do need to tell both women to go to hell before it is accessible.
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KalTorakOne way or another, they all end up inthe Undercity.Registered Userregular
What positive homosexual relationships/characters in video games are we comparing all these Bioware atrocities to?
And if Bioware was creating offensive homosexual characters and relationships in Dragon Age and ME1 and 2, why is it only after ME3 (where they do a better job) that the outrage comes up?
If it does, then the way they've handeled homosexual characters up till now is even more hideously offensive. They only included them, prior to Mass Effect 3, if it was a straight male turn on and even then they were adamant about how the characters "weren't lesbians at all" and that ridiculous elf in Dragon Age would literally fuck anything; that was their out - he was omnisexual, not gay. They spent such a ridiculous amount of effort making sure they really never had a regular gay male characters it was a fucking joke.
DA:O had two male and two female romance option characters, two bisexual (each of whose narrative leaned them toward their own gender, frankly, but could be played as an opposite-sex romance) and two straight characters. DA2 had, again, two male and two female romance options, all of whom were bisexual (though one of them, as in DA:O, pretty clearly leans gay), and one straight male romance option in the DLC. It's pretty clear from some of the narratives that the romance-option characters have had same-sex romances (i.e., Fenris) even if you play an opposite-sex romance. There are NPCs who are bi, lesbian or gay. There was also a very well-publicized incident in the Bioware forums where some pantload whined about teh gay and David Gaider told him that DA was intended for groups other than straight guys so he could kindly jump in a lake.
Yes, there's room for improvement and yes, it would be great if DA3 has dedicated lesbian and gay romance options too, but their approach has been very LGBT-positive.
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If it does, then the way they've handeled homosexual characters up till now is even more hideously offensive. They only included them, prior to Mass Effect 3, if it was a straight male turn on and even then they were adamant about how the characters "weren't lesbians at all" and that ridiculous elf in Dragon Age would literally fuck anything; that was their out - he was omnisexual, not gay. They spent such a ridiculous amount of effort making sure they really never had a regular gay male characters it was a fucking joke.
DA:O had two male and two female romance option characters, two bisexual (each of whose narrative leaned them toward their own gender, frankly, but could be played as an opposite-sex romance) and two straight characters. DA2 had, again, two male and two female romance options, all of whom were bisexual (though one of them, as in DA:O, pretty clearly leans gay), and one straight male romance option in the DLC. It's pretty clear from some of the narratives that the romance-option characters have had same-sex romances (i.e., Fenris) even if you play an opposite-sex romance. There are NPCs who are bi, lesbian or gay. There was also a very well-publicized incident in the Bioware forums where some pantload whined about teh gay and David Gaider told him that DA was intended for groups other than straight guys so he could kindly jump in a lake.
Yes, there's room for improvement and yes, it would be great if DA3 has dedicated lesbian and gay romance options too, but their approach has been very LGBT-positive.
Very positive in comparison to what?
I'll admit what they're doing is very forward and good but it's still a small step that trips most of the way. And the guy is DA was NOT bisexual, like I said. He says outright he'll do anything as long as it feels good.
What positive homosexual relationships/characters in video games are we comparing all these Bioware atrocities to?
And if Bioware was creating offensive homosexual characters and relationships in Dragon Age and ME1 and 2, why is it only after ME3 (where they do a better job) that the outrage comes up?
I don't think I've seen many people saying that the relationships are offensive for how bad they are (though to be clear/fair, romances in most video games are generally pretty terrible, but I'd say Bioware does some of the better ones overall), but there were some homophobes who gave them shit over possible gay romances in Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3.
Of course, 'lesbian' romance has been available since ME1 (technically; it's with an alien race that are all effectively female) and aside from a brief uninformed outcry from Fox News over sexual content in general (and massively ignorant shenanigans that were later walked back, I believe), nobody really gave a shit.
As with many things gay, there never seems to be much of an outcry until it's two dudes.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
What positive homosexual relationships/characters in video games are we comparing all these Bioware atrocities to?
And if Bioware was creating offensive homosexual characters and relationships in Dragon Age and ME1 and 2, why is it only after ME3 (where they do a better job) that the outrage comes up?
Because this is the first time you've noticed it, I would guess. I've been bitching about it since ME1 but every time I've seen it brought up it usually gets shouted down in seconds.
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Stupidest fucking thing.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Kelly Chambers giving a lap dance to any Shepard is not a lesbian romance.
Oh, I completely agree. I knew there was no way any other company would win, so I thought I might as well kick EA while they were down. Not terribly mature of me, I admit. But yeah, it was silly and pointless.
Not that that is all that much better, but it really reflects way worse on the people voting in it than it does on EA.
"Go home and do the dishes"
"I'm gonna go home and f**k my wife!"
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
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And I like how if you tell him that you prefer women it isn't completely over-the-top and ham-fisted.
Also, didn't know Trayner was a lesbian. Guess that means that it was handled pretty damn well in that they never throw it in your face. Only Cortez did that but that's because he's grieving over the loss of his husband which is understandable.
The proper response is "Why, you buyin'?"
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Traynor is a lesbian, yah. There's also a few side conversations on the Citadel, like a soldier trying to get her daughter sent to her wife's parents. Oh, and Male!Shep and Kaiden can hook up.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Monger is like a vendor, right? So does "whoremonger" mean like, a pimp?
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
To be fair, that guy is such an asshole.
And the game is still well written enough for you to empathize with him.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
I dont know why, but this really makes me want to play ME3.
EDIT: As great as that Rosie thing is, because seriously fuck those guys, I kind of feel bad for her daughter because personally I prefer to see my mother as asexual beings who lost her genitalia after she birthed my sister. For what its worth, I kind of feel the same way about my father.
I'm curious, and I'm honestly not trying to troll, to flame bait, to whatever... I'm honestly curious. Does it really matter if someone within EA self-identifies as LGBT? Really? At all?
I get the "if they're honest about it they would have someone on their board/in leadership that is," but that's an attitude that I feel is a bit dangerous.
Zynga is in a weird position, and I don't know that I would call them the worst company in the industry. They do terrible shit, but they are not in as visible a position as EA is where they can do real harm to the industry with their policies. I get the hate.
As for them running against companies like BoA, Comcast and the like, I'd argue that most of those companies already won, and should not have even really been running if only because they will win every year.
Also, hey, a barely-above-average consumer website runs a poll and people take it seriously? Eh...
Yeah, no. EA has made it pretty clear they don't give a shit about The Consumerist's commenters voting them "worst company in America":
"We're sure that British Petroleum, AIG, Philip Morris, and Halliburton are all relieved they weren't nominated this year. We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."
I mean, even *on the website* a lot of people were pretty appalled that a bank whose actions range from "illegal" to "stupid" on a good day got beat out by OMG TEH GAMES SUCK LOL.
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*twitch*
If it does, then the way they've handeled homosexual characters up till now is even more hideously offensive. They only included them, prior to Mass Effect 3, if it was a straight male turn on and even then they were adamant about how the characters "weren't lesbians at all" and that ridiculous elf in Dragon Age would literally fuck anything; that was their out - he was omnisexual, not gay. They spent such a ridiculous amount of effort making sure they really never had a regular gay male characters it was a fucking joke.
He'll sleep with you, but only if you've torpedoed your other options.
Sort of a pity fuck.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
And if Bioware was creating offensive homosexual characters and relationships in Dragon Age and ME1 and 2, why is it only after ME3 (where they do a better job) that the outrage comes up?
DA:O had two male and two female romance option characters, two bisexual (each of whose narrative leaned them toward their own gender, frankly, but could be played as an opposite-sex romance) and two straight characters. DA2 had, again, two male and two female romance options, all of whom were bisexual (though one of them, as in DA:O, pretty clearly leans gay), and one straight male romance option in the DLC. It's pretty clear from some of the narratives that the romance-option characters have had same-sex romances (i.e., Fenris) even if you play an opposite-sex romance. There are NPCs who are bi, lesbian or gay. There was also a very well-publicized incident in the Bioware forums where some pantload whined about teh gay and David Gaider told him that DA was intended for groups other than straight guys so he could kindly jump in a lake.
Yes, there's room for improvement and yes, it would be great if DA3 has dedicated lesbian and gay romance options too, but their approach has been very LGBT-positive.
obsolete signature form
replaced by JPEGs.
Very positive in comparison to what?
I'll admit what they're doing is very forward and good but it's still a small step that trips most of the way. And the guy is DA was NOT bisexual, like I said. He says outright he'll do anything as long as it feels good.
I don't think I've seen many people saying that the relationships are offensive for how bad they are (though to be clear/fair, romances in most video games are generally pretty terrible, but I'd say Bioware does some of the better ones overall), but there were some homophobes who gave them shit over possible gay romances in Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3.
Of course, 'lesbian' romance has been available since ME1 (technically; it's with an alien race that are all effectively female) and aside from a brief uninformed outcry from Fox News over sexual content in general (and massively ignorant shenanigans that were later walked back, I believe), nobody really gave a shit.
As with many things gay, there never seems to be much of an outcry until it's two dudes.
Because this is the first time you've noticed it, I would guess. I've been bitching about it since ME1 but every time I've seen it brought up it usually gets shouted down in seconds.