Seconded.

For all of the people who can't (or won't) wrap their head around the fact that this is an issue for some people: Imagine that it has been announced that starting sometime in the next year, you will be able to choose from a list of spaceships instead of having one picked for you based on your class. That's all the information that is given. What happens if you play a character past the point where they get a spaceship? You don't know. Do all classes get spaceship options? You don't know. When will this option be implemented? You don't know. Many people would choose not to play characters past the point where they get their spaceship, because they don't want to miss out on the option. That is exactly what is happening here. We know the feature is going to be added. But we don't know anything else, so it is difficult to play past a certain point on characters that we want to experience SGRAs with. (Yes, I have a bounty hunter in limbo waiting for any information on this.)

No. I've already lost enough of my character names, thank you. Several of them twice now. I'm sorry you didn't get the name you wanted, but: A. Neither did I, in many cases B. I should not be punished further just so you can have a specific name

I totally agree, and I think most of the people here asking about future story content feel the same way. That's the trick though; at the moment all of the future content discussion from the devs has been about ops, warzones, etc., and no mention of story. I don't expect new story content tomorrow, but I would like confirmation that they are still planning to create new story content, since that is a major part of the game for me.

Please don't misunderstand this post, because I really do appreciate your recent commitment to communication here on the forum, and I understand that there are things which you are unable to provide details on. But I, at least, am not asking for details. At this point, I'm not even asking for "sooner" or "later". You must know internally whether story content updates are in the planning or development stages. If you could simply state, yes or no, whether there are plans for future story content updates, it would be much appreciated.

I would also really appreciate a dev response on the state of future story content, especially as it relates to character romances/SGRAs. Thank you in advance!

This is a popular theme ("the toggle") and although it has been hashed to death here I am going to hash it some more. This is meant as a general response to everyone who wants a toggle. What people are saying, by wanting a toggle, is that same-gender romance is so awful, so icky, so destructive, that they need a way for it to be hidden. By requesting a toggle, they are explicitly stating that they believe that same-gender romance is a greater evil than: lying, stealing, betrayal of trust, slavery, torture, torture for pleasure, poisoning someone, poisoning many people at once, murder, mass murder, murder for hire, genocide, etc. All of these choices are in the game right now, with no way to avoid seeing them. That is why the toggle idea is offensive. There are three major fallacies brought up by the pro-toggle crowd I'd like to address. 1. Just toggle all romance Opposite-gender romance is already part of the game without a toggle. As others have said here, wanting to toggle all romance is just a way to ask for a toggle for SGRAs while maintaining a veneer of respectability. No one wanted a romance toggle prior to the SGRA debate. Asking for one now betrays the fact that you don't want SGRAs, and think that this is an acceptable way to say so. 2. You're putting your social issues into the game Asking for both types of romance to be dealt with in the exact same way is not pushing anyone's agenda. Opposite gender romance is in the game. Same gender romance would merely level the playing field. I would argue that asking for it to be hidden once it is implemented is the real example of forcing your social morality into the game. 3. It doesn't belong in Star Wars Not only are there previous examples of such relationships in Star Wars, it would not matter if there weren't. This game has every right to add to existing Star Wars canon, and has done so liberally, just as it's predecessors have done. One variant of this is the "no romance belongs in Star Wars", which is a ridiculous statement on it's own, and for which I refer you to #1. I doubt this will convince anyone to change sides. For what it is worth, I suggested at one point what was effectively a toggle, and while it was primarily for storyline reasons rather than "hide it from the phobics" reasons, the discussion here has shown me why that is not a good idea, and I no longer support any sort of toggle. TL;DR: Asking for a toggle is offensive. I have yet to see a rational reason why same-gender romance should be handled any differently than the currently implemented opposite-gender romance.

http://www.facebook.com/starwarstheoldrepublic http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150575636958860.394973.28984808859&type=1

NM, mods are quicker than I am. Sorry for feeding the troll.

I know Suaine already answered this, but I am going to again because I think it's important. First, thank you for asking, many people who don't understand our questions have been far less pleasant about it. This game is advertised as a story-based MMO. The companion interaction with your character is a focal point of these stories; so much so that the companions have a part driving the story forward. The game allows romances between your character and one of your companions - if the companion is the opposite gender from your character. So the fact is that we are part of a story driven game with a romance option that is available to some people, but not all. I guess a summary of why people are upset might be: - This is a highly story-based game - Romances are already part of that story - But not for those who prefer their own gender If opposite gender romances were not included in the game, I believe this would be much less of an issue. Certainly I would not expect a game to have only same-gender romance. However, with the inclusion of opposite gender romance, there is no rational reason why same-gender romances should not be included as well. This design choice, along with the fact that we have been continually ignored in the Q&A thread despite similar vague questions getting "yes we are working on it" answers, is what I would consider to be the root of much of the frustration here. I'm rambling, but again, here are some things people should understand if they aren't actively following this thread: - We don't want SGRAs because it's Star Wars, we want them because OGRAs are already in-game. - We don't want SGRAs for political reasons, we want them because OGRAs are already in-game. - We don't want this to the exclusion of other updates, just alongside them. - We don't want a hard deadline, we just want some confirmation that they are working on it. - [edited to add] If at all possible, we would like to know how they will be implemented. Because some of us are holding off on leveling characters because we don't want to miss out on potential story elements. And also because no one in any official capacity is talking to us Sorry to everyone here if it seems I am speaking for them, in the end all opinions in this post are mine alone. YMMV.

Is there any new information you can provide regarding the implementation of same-gender romance/flirting?

OK, now they are just being obtuse. They can't hide behind the "we cannot answer everything, especially on far-reaching content" line anymore. At least four of their answers this week boil down to "yes we are working on it, but we don't have an ETA yet". I should try to be optimistic and put another polite question in the Q&A forum, but I'm not sure I have it in me to be nice about it again this week. Seriously, how hard would it be to at least acknowledge us?

You win the bet! She is both a flirt option and fade-to-black option at the end of the bonus series... I, of course, would love to see Thana Vesh as a companion and romance option. Not just for an inquisitor either, but really any Empire faction character.

Would it be possible to provide any information regarding your plans to implement same-gender romances and flirts?

Long winded and possibly boring first draft condensed down to this: - I am not happy with the lack of response. It won't hurt to try again next week, of course, but they don't appear to be taking popularity of the question into account. Also would like to pass my thanks to Uluain as well.

Answers to just these kind of questions are a major goal of this thread. A lot of us here are holding off playing certain characters until we know one way or another how the storyline is going to be affected. And as to the actual answer to your question, no, so far no one knows anything about when or how SGRAs will be implemented. All we have is the September, 2011 statement that same-gender content "will be a post-launch feature".

For some companions this may be true; for many, I would argue, it isn't. I obviously haven't played every class up to 50, but none of the romance-able companions I have interacted with have said or done anything which would make me believe it isn't possible for them to be interested in their own gender. While I would prefer for the current romance-able companions to be options for SGRAs, I'd be OK if new ones were added instead, as long as they are part of the story in the same way as current OGRA companions, that is: met at similar character levels, same amount of background story and companion quests, etc. Another thing to keep in mind, is that if one chooses not to pursue any flirt options with a companion, that companion can be any orientation you desire. In your personal story (and I mean you as in anyone, not singling out you specifically), your companion can be just as straight (or otherwise) as you want. It won't affect the story of anyone else.

Can you give us any information on how same-gender flirts and romances will be implemented, and when? Thank you

Technically this thread is about how we hope these features will be implemented, but I was thinking it might be interesting to turn the question around. Given that we have at least an assurance that the feature will become available someday, what is the -worst- way they could implement it? That is, what do we hope they won't do when adding this content? For me, poor design decisions for SGRAs would be: - Not providing SGRA options for current companions - Requiring level 50 before meeting SGRA companions - Only adding one SGRA companion (or even just one of either gender) for each faction - Requiring a purchase of an expansion - Requiring an opt-in ("toggle") for the content

Well, here is the information we have at the moment regarding SGRAs: - No response on any of these threads (other than the roughly five month old copy-paste) - No response in the 2/10 developer Q&A to the several related questions asked - The fact that the questions that were answered in the developer Q&A were basically an advertisement for update 1.2 - The lack of new companion conversation options seen in the datamined information from the current client assets I am personally going to assume that SGRAs are not coming in the 1.2 update. Given that they appear happy to discuss upcoming features once they have started working on them (guild updates, dual spec, etc.), I also come to the conclusion that they haven't figured out exactly the same thing that we are discussing in this thread - how will they be implemented. If they aren't even far enough along to decide on method of implementation, then they haven't started any work on content creation for them. Which means I am going to figure on waiting at least six months (update 1.4?) or longer to see this realized. People who don't play games for the story won't care, I guess, but I think it's kind of sad. I'm still hoping for a surprise 2/14 announcement, but I just don't really see it coming. Anyhow, that came off as a touch pessimistic, so I'll end with a (late) happy FemShepFriday! Gonna go upgrade my ME3 pre-order to the collector's edition tomorrow...

At some level, any content that is put in the game is only going to affect certain people. There will be people who never play one faction or the other; people who never PVP; people who don't go through the OGRAs. For me, it doesn't really matter if there is content which will affect a higher percentage of people. They included OGRAs, they should darn well be able to include SGRAs too. I have plenty of conspiracy theories about why SGRAs aren't in the game (hint: It's not due to "the constraints of a fully-voiced MMO") but what I am really here to point out is this: I got an email from "The Old Republic Community" today requesting my feedback/opinion on the game. I think this would be a good avenue for us here to voice our desire for at least some information on SGRA content. I don't imagine this is some secret thing, so in case you didn't see it:

Oh yeah, I didn't know this until recently either: you can summon the ship droid as a companion and he (apparently, guild mate uses him I haven't myself) acts as a passable healer. I had no idea you could do anything with him other than crafting and crew missions. Note that the comments about gearing T7 aren't related to the ship's droid; T7 is a specific Jedi Knight companion, separate from their ship's droid. Oh, and as far as I know, the consumable/one hour cooldown fleet passes are only sold by the Security Key vendor, so you have to have a security key associated with your account to be able to buy them.

That the mouse is not the only control in space combat. Got to level 40 - where the missions just totally destroyed me - before I read in a forum post that WASD moves your ship semi-independently of the mouse...

Although I am warming up to Ashara as I progress, I really, really would like to see Thana Vesh either as a Sith Inquisitor or general Imperial faction companion/romance. As others have stated, this could be unlocked with the Taris bonus quests; for those who made decisions which might make companionship problematic, cybernetics are a wonderful fix. Of course, if you let it get that far, you probably didn't like her and don't want her as a companion anyway...

Hello Sireene, I believe I speak for most of us when I say that I appreciate the response and am very glad that this issue is visible to the developers. What I believe many of us are hoping for with this thread, though, is additional clarification beyond that already provided by Mr. Reid. Specifically, I know I have the following questions: 1. Will these new companion storylines take effect for lower level characters or only for characters who have completed their class stories? 2. Given this part of the official statement: I read that as indicating that existing companions will not be SGRA options. Is this a correct interpretation? 3. With all due respect, a post-launch feature could mean two months or two years. I understand that you are not able to post speculation, so I won't ask for a general timeframe (although I would love one if possible), but - is there any chance that you could tell us if this addition is planned for the March content update? I'm sure you have seen that this is an issue which is affecting some peoples gameplay, as I and some others have stopped playing certain characters until we receive some official clarification on how these features will work. Again, thank you very much for your interest in this thread and the issue, and for your response.