Same gender relationships clarifications?

[Evolvana]

 

Sorry you've already gotten what you want and been promised out of the game, but there are others who haven't.

 

No, I want extensions for the storylines, new romances, etc, yes, me too!

 

But opening 50 threads about same-sex romances won't help anything I guess. Bioware knows a lot of people want that, and I don't think they care about how many topics speak about it.

 

They said they would include same-sex romance. I'm not against full homosexual characters, if their personnality is well written. But you agree it would be strange to suddenly have "Gay add-on! 50 new gay romances!" ....

 

People are also expecting new hetero romances or at least the continuation of the romances of the storylines after the marriage for example.

[StSathar]

But we already talked about that in soooo many other topics and I'm really sick of seeing 100 topics asking for same sex romance... some people are really obsessed and constantly open new threads about that and cannot search properly in the old topics -_- and everyone is saying the same thing again and again.

 

 

And this is a big problem with the corner that Bioware is painting itself into.

 

 

I'm given to understand (I haven't the personal experience) that the heterosexual stories in the game thus far are nothing that's going to collapse the Romance literary market any time soon. If same-gender relations were in the game since the beginning, the bar would be much lower. They could have been average or even "Meh" and at worst there would have been some whining and flaming, but in the end Bioware could have devoted as much, or as little, effort to fleshing them out over time as they wanted.

 

But now, the longer this drags out, the higher the bar gets. Soon, anything that rolls out had better be a spectacle choreographed by Fosse, with a story to shame Whitman and action that'd make Wilde blush, or the backlash will be astounding.

 

Please, no one wants to keep bringing this up over and over. Please just put in the game what should have been there from the beginning.

[Lady_Alyria]

There already is a setting built into the game to keep you from flirting with NPCs you don't want to flirt with. Its called: Don't flirt with them.

 

It would be a huge insult to put this kind of safety lock over something like same gender romance in a game which routinely asks you to perform acts of violence, torture, sadism, terrorism, and even genocide without the slightest reservation and without any kind of values-based locking mechanism designed to prevent the player from accidentally experiencing it.

 

A lock like you describe essentially says "Yes, there's all kinds of horrible disgusting, and vile stuff in this game. But the worst, the stuff that we're willing to let you pre-emptively protect yourself from, is the idea that people with similar sex organs might kiss." It is not inclusive, nor is it a compromise. It is a slap in the face. And I don't think even the most homophobic people in the world can say with a straight face that torture, murder, and terrorism are even in the same league as romance between consenting adults.

 

Look, no one is asking that the NPCs to don popped-collar shirts and pre-frayed baseball caps and hound your characters with invitations to come over and listen to their new Jack Johnson CD and bro-out with them. You actually have to take the initiative to spark a romance with the NPCs in this game, so just don't do it if you don't want to.

 

For the record, I have yet to accidentally engage in an opposite-sex romance on any of my characters in the game and I know that all the people who don't want to engage in same gender romances in game are smart enough to be able to do the exact same as I did.

 

They don't want it at all. You don't want it optional. No one is completely happy but everyone is getting something they want. I think that's the definition of compromise. Honestly, with the way things are going BW will probably continue to put it off until no one is asking about it any more for fear of turning this into a political issue.

 

And yes, violence has always been more acceptable than sexuality in this country. My 13 year old brother could get a game where he runs people over, no problem, but if there were 3 seconds of ****, an adult would have to buy it. Giving people the ability to opt out of certain flirts means everyone gets more chat options that they can actually use.

 

I do understand your point, separate but equal is never equal. But I think in this situation the good fight will net you nothing at all in the end. So it's better to just leave people in their nice safe bubble and enjoy the game with settings you want.

[Backbones]

Honestly, with the way things are going BW will probably continue to put it off until no one is asking about it any more for fear of turning this into a political issue.

 

I hope that soon the approach Bioware has taken will be seen as taking a political stance in itself.

[Serkazong]

I'm really into robots, why can't I love my ship droid? Its not fair. I know what he really means by fluffing the cussions in my ship.

[Aryzyra]

"Romance" and "flirt" are inconsequential, with very little detail, in this game. There's no need to put extra acting in. Just provide the "flirt" option for both males and females. The responses, faces getting close, fade to black, etc don't even need to change.

 

Any morality concern is hilarious in this T&A festival of a game.

[Yuuj]

After the 'gay community's' complaining about Anders in DA:2 I don't blame Bioware from taking a step back from it.

[MoogleNut]

After the 'gay community's' complaining about Anders in DA:2 I don't blame Bioware from taking a step back from it.

 

It wasn't the 'gay community', it was a few straight-male gamers who blew the whole thing out of all proportion, completely ignoring the fact that Anders hit on Lady Hawke the same as Hairy Hawke - boils down to Anders being intensly needy and mis-reading a supportive comment in the wake of his recent emotional trauma - much like people do of both genders in real life.

 

Despite Anders' neediness, most other gay people I've discussed it with actually like the way it was implementeed in DA2, for the reasons stated in a previous post of mine.

 

Not getting into that again though.

[StSathar]

Despite Anders' neediness, most other gay people I've discussed it with actually like the way it was implementeed in DA2, for the reasons stated in a previous post of mine.

 

I skipped DA:2, though more because the gameplay sounded uninteresting. Maybe I'll give it a shot based on the literary merits. ME:2 on the other hand I passed over more because of the sour taste that all of the companion-controversy left. I'm thinking of letting ME:3 try to make it up to me, but this is what I hate about "Meta-gaming" -- I shouldn't have to troll the Internet for months to find out that a) a game will or definitely will not allow me to explore a given experience and b) if I don't do exactly these steps in this order I'll miss it and never know it was an option.

 

Oh, and I apologize, but I cant help myself...

 

I'm really into robots, why can't I love my ship droid? Its not fair. I know what he really means by fluffing the cussions in my ship.

 

Earth women who experience sexual ecstasy with mechanical assistance always tend to feel guilty!

[Wittand]

Must I remind not to reply to obvious flame bait ?

 

Also let me remind you no discussion of real world politics or religion.

 

This thread is to discus same sex romances in game and not real life social and political problems. Discussing those topics will only result in the thread being locked.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Wittand

[Baytree]

Firstly, there is no legitimate reason in this day and age why games should not have s/s content. Sadly BW is one of the few, if not the only, companies that provides it.

 

Secondly, a fair number of people who enjoy s/s content are straight. Obviously s/s content is a huge concern for the gay community but they are FAR from being the only ones who want this content. So, this is not a minority group asking for this.

 

Actually, you could say that s/s content isn't included in most games BECAUSE of a minority of homophobic, straight/closeted, insecure, male gamers.

[Backbones]

Illogical from a business standpoint I guess is why so many people expect this to be included based on past performance.

 

"Equal to everyone else" = should expect no representation is pretty ****ed up.

[thegrognard]

Must I remind not to reply to obvious flame bait ?

 

Also let me remind you no discussion of real world politics or religion.

 

This thread is to discus same sex romances in game and not real life social and political problems. Discussing those topics will only result in the thread being locked.

 

i second, back to topic.

 

I personally hope BW ignore the flame wars that sometimes ignite in these threads and understand that we're just hopeful to hear more info on the SGRA release and info on it's implimentation. I hope some of the very good ideas here has given bioware's development team some great ideas.

 

this is a lame idea of mine, but here is goes. There could always be a planet that celebrates a festavel of love to take the companion you have a romantic connection to on a "date" so to speak. I know this idea sounds very cartoony and doesn't fit in the world of star wars for as much knowledge I have of the star wars, but that could be a interesting place to host events for say valentine's day in febuary.

[Sireene]

Hey everyone!

 

We've recently had to remove several posts from this thread due to the discussion drifting into off-topic issues surrounding the real-life issues of this subject matter.

 

We respectfully ask that when replying to threads regarding Same Gender Romances in Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ to please refrain from making comments containing real-life issues or opinions on the subject matter as it is inappropriate for the forums.

 

Additionally, please keep all replies and posts constructive and respectful of others, even if there are differences in opinion. Should you feel that another user is violating our Rules of Conduct, please Flag their post rather than replying to it. And finally, please be aware of our Ignore function.

 

Thanks!

[Bakhtin]

They don't want it at all. You don't want it optional.

 

I'm saying it already would be optional.

[Wittand]

@thegrognard

i somehow like the idea.

There are plenty cantinas that could be used for such events and with the phasing system that SW:ToR already has creating a private zone for an intimate moment would be rather easy. the biggest problem here is that you either need many, many voice actors to record new lines or have to try to make the scenes silent without dialog and just romantic music playing in the background (though in that case the same scene can of course work for all classes and all companions).

Edited January 26, 2012 by Wittand

[jackofrost]

Given that Landara's posts (and response to said posts) have been removed, I can say what I originally came to say which was...

 

They should definitely add this feature in soon. Maybe the infamous "March" update?

 

My first character was a female BH, and I did the full companion story with Mako... and somehow pushed her and Torian "together." Not what I wanted

 

But since then, I've stopped doing companion quests except on my 1 male alt, since I'm kind of in limbo waiting for Bioware to announce whats going to happen and when.

 

The only definitive thing from Bioware on this subject that I can remember is that it would be added post launch...

[DarkPara]

Not feeding the troll, just saying : TOR claims to be a "roleplaying" game, which is different to games having a defined character has a hero (like any other scenarised game, and also like pretty much any other storytelling medium : book, film, comic, etc.) : the purpose of roleplaying is that the character impersonated by the player is not determined by the scenario, but only by the gamer ; he shall be virtually able to be anyone and do anything - good or bad, moral or immoral, selfish or altruist, etc. - anything.

 

As for players complaining about seeing ssr options pop into their conversation, well, a toggling box option in the game preferences would be in my opinion a rather lame option ; on the contrary, we should have flirty dialog option on anyone, companions and NPC (well almost anyone, I understand droids and non-humanoid species would be difficult and awkward to seduce), and not only those who actually are romancables !

Let me explain : as for now, and it's the case in any Bioware game, dialogue lines with the the [flirt] option only appear when speaking to someone that is romancable. That is highly unrealistic, people never know in advance if their flirt will be successful, not until they tried !

 

Pragmatically, I know very well it would be a huge work to implement this on NPCs (although it would be cool, for some classes as IA, bounty hunter, smuggler for instance, to use seduction in a secondary quest, even if it don't change the task nor the gain of the quest, just the dialog). But it will be much easier to do for companions : we just need to add a "refusal" voiced line to most companions.

 

I think that would even make a situation where "every romancables are bi" less artificial (even if I for one would prefer each companion to have his/her specific orientation).

 

Hope I explained what I meant clearly - please forgive me if it's not the case, English is not my mothertongue...

Edited January 26, 2012 by DarkPara

[Sireene]

Hey everybody!

 

Since this thread has become more active recently, we wanted to remind everyone about our previous statement regarding this topic:

 

Official statement follows:

 

Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in

Star Wars:

The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

 

Thanks!

[jackofrost]

 

As for players complaining about seeing ssr options pop into their conversation, well, a toggling box option in the game preferences would be in my opinion a rather lame option ; on the contrary, we should have flirty dialog option on anyone, companions and NPC (well almost anyone, I understand droids and non-humanoid species would be difficult and awkward to seduce), and not only those who actually are romancables !

Let me explain : as for now, and it's the case in any Bioware game, dialogue lines with the the [flirt] option only appear when speaking to someone that is romancable. That is highly unrealistic, people never know in advance if their flirt will be successful, not until they tried !

 

Pragmatically, I know very well it would be a huge work to implement this on NPCs (although it would be cool, for some classes as IA, bounty hunter, smuggler for instance, to use seduction in a secondary quest, even if it don't change the task nor the gain of the quest, just the dialog). But it will be much easier to do for companions : we just need to add a "refusal" voiced line to most companions.

 

I think that would even make a situation where "every romancables are bi" less artificial (even if I for one would prefer each companion to have his/her specific orientation).

 

Hope I explained what I meant clearly - please forgive me if it's not the case, English is not my mothertongue...

 

I actually second this, to some extent... although it would probably take a lot of work on Bioware's part.

 

Everyone knows Blizz was just made to be romancable. Or to poke fun at Blizzard.

 

You could even have hints in previous stages of each conversation that would "clue" your character into knowing if the npc was receptive... and if not receptive, and you chose to flirt anyways further into the conversation, you could get a smack or some other clear rebuff.

[Innocentone]

When I read

 

 

"Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in Star Wars: The Old Republic will be a post-launch feature. Because The Old Republic is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the(addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options). ""

 

 

So, we have to wait for expansions to romance new companion characters? This also sounds like our current ones won't ever get the options added to them. Now i've feel like I have wasted so much time in gathering companion gifts . Thanks for waisting my time devs .

[elexier]

The easiest solution I see from everything I have read is I believe.......

 

A toggle option upon character CREATION.

 

How it works is SIMPLE.

 

 

Make char, select class race ect ect, The select weather or not THAT CHARACTER is Bi/gay straight or completely inert.

 

Then simply turn EVERY ROMANCABLE COMPANION Bi.

 

All the Dialog is there, I don't actually think ANYTHING needs changing accept a few triggers.

 

All it would mean is once the patch is out, EVERYONE with a character above say level 20 gets to be re customized for free so they can select the Bi/gay straight or other options. (Note I said CUSTOMIZATION not class.

 

And then simply reset EVERYONE'S romancable companion quests. Ok this Might seem a little weird to do maybe 1-2 hours worth of companion quests but, You don't have to do them all at the same time.

 

Then all that would be needed is for the game to do a quick check to see what you preferance is, if its gay, have same sex only to flirt, if its bi allow all to flirt, if straight only opposite sex, and if "Inert" no flirts.

 

Pretty simple concept I think.

I Feel this is the only fair way to put it in

[DarkPara]

Thanks Bioware for reposting this statement, some users on this forum might have been ignorant of it ; anyway, this topic itself wasn't ignorant of it.

 

Back to original post : game is on since a little more than a month, we ARE post launch. The whole reason of this topic is to discuss how long it will take to implement, and since the time involved depends on the complexity of the implementation itself, to discuss also how it should be implemented.

 

We are not just asking hungrily, nor whining, Bioware ; we try to think alongside you, in order to ease your devs work !

[DarthEpitaph]

Hey everybody!

 

Since this thread has become more active recently, we wanted to remind everyone about our previous statement regarding this topic:

 

Thanks!

 

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:

 

including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options.

 

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.

[cool-dude]

The romances in this game are so insignificant, I don't see why It would matter so much to the point of upsetting people; plus it's only a game. The attitudes and maturity level I have seen from players, demonstrates that Bioware should of left romance out of the equation, especially if a small insignificant thing, was going to hurt profits. It is really a question of why you want to play the game. I play because I'm a fan of the series, and SW in general. I can see how a romance option may give the story a little more feeling, but it's nothing to get pissed off over.

 

Just thought I would give my opinion about the general topic.

Edited January 26, 2012 by cool-dude