Same gender relationships clarifications?

[EnufThree]

If they decide to only allow SGRA's by way of new companions the earliest I expect them is the first full expansion with a raise in the level cap so that the new companions can be written into the story. So a year maybe more at the least?

 

An entire year? If so, that is depressing.

 

Sigh... This should have been in the game since launch.

[_Miranda_]

If they do decide to include "same gender" romance options, I hope they include some kind of filter similar to the profanity filter to block that option for players who don't want it for their characters (I think another poster in this thread mentioned something similar).

 

Many, like myself, play this game as a fun escape from reality, and have more traditional views concerning morality and human relationships. I don't even bother with any of the already existing "flirt" options during interactions with npc's or companions. While others here should have the options they want, the rest of us should have the option of filtering out aspects that we consider to be controversial sociopolitical issues.

 

Personally, I just want to have fun escaping from reality a few hours a week, being a Jedi fighting for peace and justice, or a Republic Trooper defending the Republic from the Sith Empire, or whatever. I see enough sociopolitical controversy in real life, I don't want to deal with it in a game.

 

Would you like the Sith faction and all darkside options filtered from the game too? Or are torture and violence fine with you but PG rated love needs to be locked away from public view?

 

Such priorities some people have.

[jadynfortysix]

Can't wait for some homophobic, insecure person to pick the wrong chat option and start making out with their same-sex companions. I'd pay to watch that reaction on YouTube.

 

In all seriousness, I'm straight, and I want the same-sex options in the game. I have NO intention of making any of my characters gay (for the way I've chosen their personalities rather than an aversion to it... the only character I have that would lean that way is very asexual), but I think it's important for BioWare to remain progressive in that field in order to not alienate those who have come to love the company and their works for being open-minded.

[thegrognard]

I would prefer 2a because I actually feel like it would be less work for Bioware. The lines of dialogue are already there, and I honestly wouldn't be at all surprised if Bioware had plenty of lines that were recorded but never used floating around at the office. Think about how long it takes to tape a 30 minute show in a TV studio; I could totally see them having recorded twice as much dialogue as there actually is in the game. Plus I'm really holding out for the ability to romance Sgt. Dorne on my female Vanguard. Dat voice.

 

They probably didn't want controversy at launch (Remember the Faux News idiots crying about how ME was a "sex simulator?" Yeah, like that.) so that's why it wasn't a launch option. And it's not a priority right this second because there are more pressing issues, like making sure their paying customers can actually play the game. But I wouldn't be surprised to see SS romance quietly sneak its way into the game very soon.

 

Yeah I believe that too. Much easier work and just need to rework the dialog for the other sex so it should be fairly simple compared to only when bringing out new companions which will take a depressingly long period of time.

 

The second part (start of rant) I'd say thanks to them that's the reason why Bioware have been seemingly covereing up the characters in DA and ME more and more to stop anymore unwanted attention, but it alienates people like me who bought a 18 rated game and expect to see 18 rated stuff and not be treated like some 16 year old of a strict religious family by being denied viewing of any and all nudity. Not saying it should be full frontal or anything, but covering it up and blocking a majority of it out like that is basically letting them win and holding bioware back from streaching out the gaming industry, which unfortunatly Witcher 2 beat them too with as graphic as those scenes are, then again I've heard no complaints over it. Probably cause most people don't care after they realised how stupid that woman on fox news was. /rant

 

Sorry about that, just got to get some things off my chest, but yes I personally beleive 2a would lead to far less work for the devs as I'm sure they'd perfer to get that implimented and launched right away rarther than keep people complaining about it for the next several months when they could be focusing their energies on the next major updates and sorting out current game bugs/issues.

[UnderatedNoob]

Maybe Risha is strait.

[Eldartank]

Would you like the Sith faction and all darkside options filtered from the game too? Or are torture and violence fine with you but PG rated love needs to be locked away from public view?

 

Such priorities some people have.

 

Apparently you didn't see my post to "ProfessorCaprion" just two posts after my original post. I did concede that my original post was probably a knee herk reacion to this topic. But it seems that in your haste to jump on me for my original post, you didn't even notice that second post. And I thought my original post was a bit of a knee jerk reaction.....

Edited January 21, 2012 by Eldartank
spelling correction

[Eldartank]

Wow! Thank you for the really reasonable reply, actually. I'm sorry for the snark, in that case.

 

In a nicer way, I'm basically saying that including more things that more people would enjoy is a good thing for the game, even if not everyone enjoys them. I don't like PVP, you don't like same-sex relationships, others probably hate crafting. As long as nothing is forced (and seeing how things were done in Dragon Age, I don't think it will be) I'm all for adding the stuff!

 

I'm certainly okay with that. And the way things are in the game now, it doesn't really look like anything will ever be forced on players.

 

[AckbarsHomegirl]

2a, because Kira -does- lead to awesome chemistry, and because Jaesa is rather awesome as well.

 

Then again, I've had a total crush on Rachel Leigh Cook since highschool.

[gekko_s]

Unfair as it may seem, I'd gladly pay thrice the normal cost of the game to experience non-immersion breaking same gender romance in a game like this, simply because I know I'm in a minority for wanting this. Non-mod romancable Allistair in Dragon Age = priceless.

[EvanSnowWolf]

These are the threads that never eeeeeend... yes they go on and on my freiiiiiend...

[Arodin]

The only problem I have with the eventual inclusion of same-gender relationships is that there is a lot (a LOT a lot) of things that a larger majority of players want to see in the game. I wouldn't like for them to spend too much time developing content that is specifically for a smaller minority of players. I understand it's very important to those players, but the developers and writers' time is limited, and I would rather they focus on stuff that everyone, or at least the majority of players, will enjoy.

 

If they happen to find themselves with extra time to work on something, then sure why not. But that seems unlikely. I'm afraid that it would come down to Bioware wanting to, say, add a new Flashpoint, but instead the writers and developers are busy working on same-sex romances, so we miss out on that content, or at least it gets delayed.

[Brorim]

I can honestly say that I would not be surprised to see this one closed as well. They've not left a single SGRA thread open since the forum wipe @ launch. I'm also not surprised to see a larger thread closed and redirected to a smaller one. This is also pretty common around here.

 

Because all of the threads ends up in homophobic rants..

 

They promised it would be in and I believe them so should you

 

This is not even a feature I want but I can relate to the issue ..

[Isharel]

 

2 - Those that happen to pick the "wrong" gender at creation are currently missing out with regards to there story arc, In my example Female sentinel missing out with Kira. There are 2 ways I see to fix this.

 

 

How does one pick the "wrong" gender at creation? Expand upon this to me. As it seems rather.. well, yeah.

[ProfessorCaprion]

How does one pick the "wrong" gender at creation? Expand upon this to me. As it seems rather.. well, yeah.

 

I can actually explain this one pretty easily. I made my Consular a female because I liked the particular look of the Miraluka female for how I envisioned that character to be played out. Being a story-loving sort, I didn't look into anything about what the future of my Consular would hold... including companions. How was I to know about the adorableness that is Nadia?

 

The same could be said for the male Consular who didn't know about the dashing Iresso, or any other class with any other companion that has dialogue options disabled simply because of the gender choices made at creation.

 

To go back to "what we expect of a BioWare game," I knew I wouldn't have to worry about this in, say, Dragon Age 2. I played a female Hawke, and I still got Merrill. All was well.

 

I personally see nothing game-breaking in making the "everyone is a little bi" approach; so long as they don't have any companion flinging themselves upon you without you actively pursuing romantic interests... regardless of gender combinations. I don't want Nadia going full-bore makeout mode on me any more than I'd want Tharan doing the same.

 

I would really prefer if they made it harder to get into romances with the companions, if only so that one won't be triggered by accident.

[Punkre]

Its not that they are supposed to be "Bi", but that they are supposed to be neutral till you push them towards a certain interest.

 

A certain class companion is a good example of what I am talking about:

 

Jaesa is a prime example of this, she is not really a grey character, she is either a dark or a light character depending on your actions.

 

 

And as said before for all the homophobes: "no character is going to hit on you unless you choose the dialogue options marked as [Flirt]" Which is currently how the OGRA's currently work. And if you don't even want to see ANY even possible [flirt] options with OGRA, well too bad and grow up.

 

I believe it was stated that they want to only make the new companions and characters SGRA acceptable as the problem with making past characters acceptable to romance options would be too much work to add in. Plus many would feel like they might be forced into rerolling just to obtain such options as they have already gone through the majority of the conversations in game.

[Backbones]

I am a table-top roleplaying nerd at times and usually, when it comes to romance, the approach I take as a GM is usually "the NPCs are into characters who are into them," unless there's some demanding reason they shouldn't be.

 

I don't see why that shouldn't apply here.

[TheLittleTpot]

I'm going to have to go with the 2a option here, pretty much for the same reason as most people here have brought up, as well as considering the fact that the writers have been working on this since 2006. Since this is BioWare we're talking about, I can with fair certanity say that they must have a good chunk of unused same-sex dialogue options just lying around. And as far as I know, VA's (or actors in general) tend to have enough time on their hands to pick up simple jobs such as adding a little alternative dialogue, at least compared to regular day-to-day workers.

 

Hell, most of the same sex dialogue could be done by switching "Her" with "him" and "guy" with "girl" and vice versa. Granted, there is plenty to explore with the psychology of same-sex romance that would take a bit longer to impliment but hey, how much of that did we see in, say, Dragon Age 2?

[StSathar]

I believe it was stated that they want to only make the new companions and characters SGRA acceptable as the problem with making past characters acceptable to romance options would be too much work to add in. Plus many would feel like they might be forced into rerolling just to obtain such options as they have already gone through the majority of the conversations in game.

 

 

Careful. The community has been moving towards that consensus, but still pretty sure that Bioware has said nothing official, the closest hint we get is by dwelling on the remark "including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options." Pretty much the only thing promised was that we'd see this content "Post-launch," which we've been in for about a month now...

[Aebrynis]

2a would definitely be my option pick.

 

I appreciate a good tank, so Khem Vhal is allowing me to avoid this issue thus far on my SI, and hopefully delay any romance issues. Same with Bowdarr on my Smuggler.

 

There -IS- a simple all-or-nothing fix they could take vis-a-vis the companions, even if it only works for freshly-created characters - either that or have it as a toggle in the Options menu:

 

* Choose Faction (check)

* Choose Class (check)

* Choose Race (check)

* Choose Gender (check)

-create character appearance- (check)

 

AND...final step (just an idea):

* Companions see/interact with character as (pick one) Male/Female (pick one).

 

Not sure how this would be phrased, but while the rest of the galaxy interacts with you normally (male NPCs still flirt with your Smugglerette), Corso would not. And when the time came to romance Risha, it would be possible. The only real discontinuity I can see is certain lines of dialogue made for 'straight' interaction might be a little jarring on the senses.

 

Just a thought. One that does not, to me, seem that it would take much effort or time to throw in.

[StSathar]

2a would definitely be my option pick.

 

I appreciate a good tank, so Khem Vhal is allowing me to avoid this issue thus far on my SI, and hopefully delay any romance issues. Same with Bowdarr on my Smuggler.

 

Speak for yourself, the big lug (Khem) is really starting to grow on my assassin, I like having him around and wouldn't mind getting to know him better.

 

Meanwhile, Bowdarr does have a certain yiff quality to him. Especially as I feel more and more hurt from Corso basically ignoring me for the last fifteen levels.

 

Normally Rishathra isn't really my thing, but fwiw Bioware has gone out of their way to set precedent.

 

 

edit: couldn't abbreviate "for what it's worth" right. Fail.

Edited January 24, 2012 by StSathar

[PTElder]

The only problem I have with the eventual inclusion of same-gender relationships is that there is a lot (a LOT a lot) of things that a larger majority of players want to see in the game. I wouldn't like for them to spend too much time developing content that is specifically for a smaller minority of players. I understand it's very important to those players, but the developers and writers' time is limited, and I would rather they focus on stuff that everyone, or at least the majority of players, will enjoy.

 

If they happen to find themselves with extra time to work on something, then sure why not. But that seems unlikely. I'm afraid that it would come down to Bioware wanting to, say, add a new Flashpoint, but instead the writers and developers are busy working on same-sex romances, so we miss out on that content, or at least it gets delayed.

 

 

I don't think anybody here is really asking BioWare to develop content "specifically" for a minority of players. I mean, I know I'm certainly not asking for a special companion mission where I show Qyzen-Fess a new method of scoring points on Fire Island.

 

In a BioWare RPG title released in 2011, exclusion of same-sex romance options is a bug.

 

If this had come out of any other company, most people interested in same-gender romancin' would have just quietly taken their seat at the back of the bus. People expect more from BioWare though. It's what happens when you raise the bar.

[Aebrynis]

Speak for yourself, the big lug (Khem) is really starting to grow on my assassin, I like having him around and wouldn't mind getting to know him better.

 

Meanwhile, Bowdarr does have a certain yiff quality to him. Especially as I feel more and more hurt from Corso basically ignoring me for the last fifteen levels.

 

Normally Rishathra isn't really my thing, but fwit Bioware has gone out of their way to set precedent.

 

Niven words FTW!

 

Regardless of when the promised options get put in, I really don't see BioWare putting in an option to play snugglebunnies with wookies and jawas (though I have to admit, the idea is immensely amusing, especially the latter).

 

Don't misunderstand, it wouldn't particularly interest or bother me one way or the other if they did (I simply wouldn't use it), but that would likely take more programming work than they're willing to put in (IMHO).

[EnufThree]

The only problem I have with the eventual inclusion of same-gender relationships is that there is a lot (a LOT a lot) of things that a larger majority of players want to see in the game. I wouldn't like for them to spend too much time developing content that is specifically for a smaller minority of players. I understand it's very important to those players, but the developers and writers' time is limited, and I would rather they focus on stuff that everyone, or at least the majority of players, will enjoy.

 

If they happen to find themselves with extra time to work on something, then sure why not. But that seems unlikely. I'm afraid that it would come down to Bioware wanting to, say, add a new Flashpoint, but instead the writers and developers are busy working on same-sex romances, so we miss out on that content, or at least it gets delayed.

 

Well here's the deal. The time was spent on putting this feature in for one group of players. I think they can spare some time early on in the game's life to balance it out. Especially since it's a Bioware game and they have a pretty large following of gay gamers.

 

And yes, there are a lot more homosexual gamers than most tend to realize. The fact that it wasn't included at launch was kind of a slap in the face to that portion of the fan base that Bioware had already shown acceptance to. It's like "You can romance another man or woman in Dragon Age... But in space.... Gays shall not exist!"

 

The game is still a newborn baby. They should develop the SGRAs NOW... While people are still newbies to the game, rather than wait a year or so. Cause by then, people are gonna want expansions and other new content.

[OldVengeance]

Strictly from a designing point of view, Doesn't 2a seem a little impractical? And wouldn't all players have to redo the conversations anyway?

 

Although honestly my only main concern is about Kaliyo. I don't care if they make her open to same sex relationships or not. I just don't want to miss out if they do.

Edited January 21, 2012 by OldVengeance

[Jydradi]

Like a few other aspects of the game (I'm lookin' at YOU legacy), I just want an answer as to what the design philosophy is intended at this time so I can actually play the rest of the game instead of sitting on my hands.

 

To clarify: I have a real issue with re-rolling the same class. I don't want to do it (though I will, if I must) if I don't have to. I want to know if we'll have to make new characters to be able to peruse a same gender romance or what.