I also would like to see an answer to fabiyun's question. Many of us came into this game with the expectation that Bioware would continue to develop and publish SGR content. Since this was a very positive aspect of the Bioware name, the lack of information and outright stonewalling of this question has grown troubling to me and not a little bit problematic. 1. Will SGRA content be published? Yes or no. 2. If so, when is it scheduled for? Your company stated "this year" (2012) and it is perilously close to "next year" (2013). 3. Why was the content not included at the outset of the game when its inclusion would have been easier to implement? 4. Why is BioWare as a company so uncomfortable with this topic that you meet your customers (read here, folks who pay you) with a persistent wall of silence like this subject is either taboo or a trade secret? Question number four really eats at me and I will keep asking it until someone actually deigns to answer it. Non-specific answers and platitudes are no longer sufficient to mollify me. It is time for someone to seriously address these questions. ~JC

That has to be the first time I have ever had my job called "interesting." I think the first step is to gather all of videos, youtube feeds, quotes and such over the past year +. Quotes from community managers, developers, senior developers and management would be highly useful in this process. Throughout the process we should have a set of goals. Just to get the ball rolling I will suggest one below and ask for feedback from the thread participants as to what we want as the LGBT community within the game environment. 1. Clearer communication and direct feedback (non-negotiable) - No trade secrets need be revealed for this to be practical. What we need is a statement of if indeed they are developing SGRA content and an approximate time frame to release of said content. Specifics, not generalities from the company are very important here. A release number would be desirable. It is important when approaching these press sources to have a set of goals and a clear message as to what we see as potential solutions. We also should present reasonable soultions, nothing could be worse than to get attention and not at least have one or two workable solutions to suggest. I set the ball rolling and I am now subscribed to this thread... JC

It is difficult Tatile. In real life I am an academic who studies the history of sexuality, put into simpler terms without giving you my full taxonomy, I am an LGBT historian who works on questions in the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Perhaps the hardest thing to come to grips with is the fact that objectivity does not really exist. The best you can do as a scholar is to present the best argument you can while fairly presenting the other side's argument. I am all for embarassing the hell out of EA/Bioware on this matter and effectively they SHOULD be ashamed of backtracking on presenting a world where both opposite sex attraction and same sex attraction actually happen. I went, in a span of two years from being a loyal BW customer to not being interested in giving them any of my hard earned money until they actually have the guts to address this issue openly. I do not count outdated press releases as evidence of their good intentions, I expect to be given actual evidence that they are in an actual physical development stage and are on a real timeline. The excuse that they use is that to prematurely release such information might harm their competitive advantage; what competitive advantage? You only gain a competitive advantage when you do something the other company is not doing. Developing a strong relationship with the LGBT community would foster loyalty and bring more money into BW. It might even force the other powers that be in the industry to make moves to equalize sexual orientation portrayals in future games. I expect the community managers to read this thread and not dismiss it as a minoritarian thread. Just because the LGBT community is a minority does not mean it should not be respected and communicated with.

Err, um...you just brutalized my inner child...and he's a nineteen year old male prostitute on Nar Shadaa. Congratulations, this post is the clear winner. I laughed so hard I fell out of my chair. ~JC

There are two types of discrimination, active and passive. Active discrimination is what you see daily and notice. The anti-gay commentary of Dan Cathy (Chick-fil-a), the purveyors of "gay conversion therapy," and the anti-marriage groups such as NOM are higher profile precisely because they are vocal and active. Passive discrimination is simply taking no action and doing nothing (e.g. community managers regurgitating a thread that the higher ups are IGNORING or refusing to make any progress reports about). Both are bad and both are discriminatory. Talking about it makes us feel better, but it is ultimately meaningless. It allows the publisher and community managers to SAY they are open to discussion, covering their respective rear ends from the worst of community blowback. In effect it allows them to prolong the development curve without consequences they truly understand. The community has two options: 1. Quit the game, cancel subscriptions and not reward the company for its patent dishonesty about this matter (financial consequences). 2. Organize an active effort to publicize their broken promises through a combination of going to these developer summits and getting everyone to ask the same question until they realize they cannot push off answering the question in detail any longer and focused actions that expose the company to bad publicity (e.g. a major letter writing campaign to the main stream gaming press). (public embarassment) If this means so much to us, why are we allowing ourselves to be herded into an eternal "waiting area"? EA/BW has dropped the publicity ball so often I simply do not trust them to keep their half-baked promises. The bitter truth is they do not intend to add SGRAs at this late a date in game development, they are just playing out the string until the development curve renders this whole thread moot. Frankly, it's embarassing when the most cutting edge company in PC game development becomes timid after initially developing a great reputation of addressing LGBT issues. JC

You refuse to see the point. You are making this argument from "this is the way it ought to be" and that scans fine for those of us who raid regularly. The "normal" or "story" mode is to entice the more casual player to participate in Ops. Having solid, across the board participation in Ops makes it easier to walk in and make an argument for more Ops at the high end...and more nightmare mode stuff. Hard core raiders (read here, us) are outnumbered 9/1. That means the casual players will get what they want by dint of sheer numbers. As for the rest of your post...people play MMO's for any number of reasons. E.g. 1. To escape their wretched, everyday lives. 2. To be a different person than yourself. 3. To play (at whatever level of difficulty) with friends. A challenge is not necessarily the primary concern of the casual MMO player, and in fact, I suspect that "challenge" is way down on the list of reasons for casual players. That is why being a developer of an MMO is a thankless and unforgiving job at times, having to strike the balance between disparate groups of human beings, all that play for different reasons. As for me? Bring it on, I want to learn hard fights and my role in them. Yes, challenge is one of my primary gaming reasons for raiding. But you act as if this is the way it should be for everyone...and that just isn't reasonable. JC

Be careful, those ship droids are secretly plotting to take over the Galaxy, and they will do so...just as soon as those pesky Alderaan Nectar sprayers are working properly...and the ship's windows are cleaned...and the cabin is repainted... and when they get their new courage modules installed! Nice April Fools jokes. Now get back to fixing SOA.

It is difficult to express, even as an academic, how it feels to suspect that the Same Gender Romances are/were treated as an afterthought rather than as an integral part of the universe. This is my sole concern. When the Development team decided (for whatever reasons) to delay implementation of SGRA until after launch at an unspecified time, they took the very good press they had developed over the years on this very topic and laid bare the simple fact that they did not feel it was not important enough to develop in tandem with the main story. That is problematic. I now have 8 characters, all of the them have progressed at least to the midgame and changing my personal storyline to accomodate the new "reality" of SGRA will cost me character slots. Yes, I will erase certain characters and recreate them, it is just that important to me. But, I have spent a lifetime feeling like my relationships are reviled or a complete afterthought. If BioWare wanted to make me feel good and make me a satisfied customer, they should have not made the implementation piecemeal and later than the "normal" heterosexual relationships. This whole thing has been poorly handled, and trotting out the co-founder for an interview about ME3 is not going to satisfy me. I feel like I am being penalized for wanting to feel like I am equal and valued as a customer. If BioWare does not see the implicit insult in "adding" SGRA later after having the mechanic in place in other games for years, then they have misread the gay component of their audience. No amount of stating unspecified difficulties will change that. Bluntly put, why must I erase character slots and start over to enjoy something that should have been there from the beginning. JC

Instead of just opening the game up to everyone at once and having the servers slammed, tons of overflood issues and the technical problems that go with it, they decided it would make more sense to stagger the entry. The new zones will be less overcrowded on official launch day. They also decided it would be based on the date of pre-order, why? Well, because it makes sense to reward those who ordered earliest with first crack and then move down the line with later dates. Smart, in my opinion. It develops loyalty by rewarding customer loyalty. Finally, those who are saying November and December pre-order folks are in today's pre-launch are full of it. I pre-ordered 11/11/11 and I do not expect to get in for at least four days (that means I get 3 early access days). I am the one who waited to pre-order in November, my responsibility. I am owed nothing but an excellent game that is in excellent shape at launch. Everything else is gravy.