Same gender romance discussion

[chuixupu]

The only problem I see with this is homophobes. Are they afraid of loosing a MAJORITY of their players because of it? But then again, the don't ask don't tell applies, I mean who's to know if the dude in your group is gay or not now and honestly who would care? You're in another universe. But this is just my view. I'm sure they're scared of loosing players, but I'm sure they'll gain them too.

 

They aren't scared of losing players over it, and they won't lose any significant number of players over it.

 

Don't ask don't tell, in a video game? What in the world are you even talking about?

[Tankboysix]

They aren't scared of losing players over it, and they won't lose any significant number of players over it.

 

Don't ask don't tell, in a video game? What in the world are you even talking about?

 

I have seen plenty of hate in games on gays, lol. And im not talking about your standard insult, I have seen guild members kicked because of it on other games like wow and such. Its obviously not used on the same sense as irl,

[chuixupu]

I have seen plenty of hate in games on gays, lol. And im not talking about your standard insult, I have seen guild members kicked because of it on other games like wow and such. Its obviously not used on the same sense as irl,

People get kicked from guilds for all kinds of dumb reasons. I'm pretty sure you can get in trouble in the game if you're caught harassing people for race, sexuality, etc..

 

On my server in WoW, it's actually known for being the LGBT friendly server. The way it started was some mod wrongly made the decision to tell a guild that was advertising as a LGBT guild that it was against the TOS. The community had a big protest over it and eventually were issued an apology, reinstated their stance in support of it, that guy got fired for being a *******, and that server from then on out had all the LGBT community roll there to this day. People who are outspoken bigots do not last there very long.

 

Anyway, neither Blizzard nor Bioware are afraid of gay people running off the homophobes, even if they don't make much content for them.

[Tatile]

Besides, most of the homophobes left when it was announced that Makeb would have SGR content and, no, there wouldn't be a filter for it (ever).

 

It's not a question of appeasing the bigots anymore, if it ever was (it may have been, with the "there are no gays in Star Wars" comment.)

 

Now it just seems lazy.

[chuixupu]

Nobody ever said "There are no gays in Star Wars". There used to be a filter on the word "gay" and "lesbian" in the forums, and when asked about it, a moderator said:

"As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.

Thread closed."

 

He very quickly issued an apology and that filter was lifted. I don't think that guy lasted much longer with the company, But it was just about some weird filter they had in the forum, it wasn't to do with the actual game content.

[Tatile]

Well, that myth got out of hand really badly o.O

[chuixupu]

Well, that myth got out of hand really badly o.O

 

Don't they always?

[fabiyun]

Nobody ever said "There are no gays in Star Wars". There used to be a filter on the word "gay" and "lesbian" in the forums, and when asked about it, a moderator said:

"As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.

Thread closed."

 

He very quickly issued an apology and that filter was lifted. I don't think that guy lasted much longer with the company, But it was just about some weird filter they had in the forum, it wasn't to do with the actual game content.

 

There was a video on youtube with the devs shortly after launch at some games con somewhere, I think it might have been Seattle (it's some time ago). When asked about SGRAs the dev laughed and said "there are no gays in Star Wars". The fit that followed saw the video removed from youtube and BioWare issueing a statement. This isn't some myth, I was furious when I saw it.

[Xilizhra]

This is... remarkably, annoyingly entrapping. I can level my Consular decently before getting any companions I might be inclined to romance had the system been designed competently, as only Nadia Grell would apply... but the Agent is right out, the Inquisitor doesn't last long before encountering Ashara, and the Trooper and Smuggler have less leeway, so it seems I'm doomed to incomplete playthroughs at some point or other, as is everyone like me... are there any non-companion actual romance arcs in this game? Could they plausibly last any time? Why does Austin seemingly have no objection to sabotaging peoples' stories?

[fabiyun]

This is... remarkably, annoyingly entrapping. I can level my Consular decently before getting any companions I might be inclined to romance had the system been designed competently, as only Nadia Grell would apply... but the Agent is right out, the Inquisitor doesn't last long before encountering Ashara, and the Trooper and Smuggler have less leeway, so it seems I'm doomed to incomplete playthroughs at some point or other, as is everyone like me... are there any non-companion actual romance arcs in this game? Could they plausibly last any time? Why does Austin seemingly have no objection to sabotaging peoples' stories?

 

I'm with Tatile here, I don't think they're going to be changing the current companion romances, you might as well just continue. There are flirts in the Macrobinocular and Seeker quests and the FP quest of CZ-198. Oricon is also likely to include more flirts.

[Tatile]

I'm with Tatile here, I don't think they're going to be changing the current companion romances, you might as well just continue. There are flirts in the Macrobinocular and Seeker quests and the FP quest of CZ-198. Oricon is also likely to include more flirts.

 

Mind that if you are Imperial, you are not allowed to be much of a lesbian (you can [Flirt] with women, but they're likely to brush you off) and as a member of the Republic you aren't really allowed to be a gay man (there are no gay male [Flirt]s in the entirety of Makeb outside of Lord Cytharat and the BBA week is over, wherein there is a single "that would be nice but we have work to do" [Flirt]).

 

That's just how much Bioware: Austin cares.

 

It's actually a little surprising, then, that tumblr's #swtaw has so much gay coupling in, but then it is fan work and not subject to Bioware: Austin's encompassing "homosexuals aren't allowed nice things" approach.

[Xilizhra]

Mind that if you are Imperial, you are not allowed to be much of a lesbian (you can [Flirt] with women, but they're likely to brush you off) and as a member of the Republic you aren't really allowed to be a gay man (there are no gay male [Flirt]s in the entirety of Makeb outside of Lord Cytharat and the BBA week is over, wherein there is a single "that would be nice but we have work to do" [Flirt]).

 

That's just how much Bioware: Austin cares.

 

It's actually a little surprising, then, that tumblr's #swtaw has so much gay coupling in, but then it is fan work and not subject to Bioware: Austin's encompassing "homosexuals aren't allowed nice things" approach.

Come to think of it, there's one thing that compensates if you play a lesbian Consular: your only female companion is your own Padawan, and boinking her strikes me as being a shade unethical anyway. So it's possible that you don't really lose that much of significance.

 

I'm with Tatile here, I don't think they're going to be changing the current companion romances, you might as well just continue. There are flirts in the Macrobinocular and Seeker quests and the FP quest of CZ-198. Oricon is also likely to include more flirts.

All right, but how many of these are just one-night stands? And didn't one of the developer quotes mention the companions?

[Tatile]

There are no one-night stands for SGR [Flirt]s (that I am aware of).

 

And Mr. Hickman commented on the development of SGRAs with companions in the State of the Game #2, but with the utter lack of any meaningful communication or acknowledgement beyond "we have put some this in the game yes", it was utterly meaningless. I asked... I think it was Ms. Green about how SGRAs with current companions might be introduced or how new companions might be introduced (who are SGRA options), after the announcement of Treek being Cartel Market and her response was "companions are addressed on a case by case basis".

 

Which, frankly, means that if there are any SGRA options with current or new companions in the works (which I find to be extremely unlikely for the former and rather unlikely for the latter), that we will have to pay through the nose for them. Most likely more than Treek costs at current because "romances are so hard to write".

[Xilizhra]

Maybe I'm just confused as to the nature of a "flirt" when used as a noun in TOR. What are these characters like, exactly?

[Tatile]

Maybe I'm just confused as to the nature of a "flirt" when used as a noun in TOR. What are these characters like, exactly?

 

[Flirt] is just that - the option to [Flirt] on the dialogue wheel. It's usually a one-off NPC, the likes of which are fairly common in the male versions of the storylines. Those are the base SGR's, though there is a step up, for recurring NPCs (the first that springs to mind is the Sith chap on Alderaan in the Inquisitor storyline) and vary from having [Flirt] options in multiple conversations to one-night stands (OGR only).

 

The term SGRA is mostly used in relation to companion romances, which are multi-quest, mulit-[Flirt] affairs ending in marriage.

[chuixupu]

There was a video on youtube with the devs shortly after launch at some games con somewhere, I think it might have been Seattle (it's some time ago). When asked about SGRAs the dev laughed and said "there are no gays in Star Wars". The fit that followed saw the video removed from youtube and BioWare issueing a statement. This isn't some myth, I was furious when I saw it.

 

Distasteful as that is, it was just a dev trying to be funny, probably referencing the whole forum post debacle. Prior to launch there were plenty of official statements saying that they had plans to add SGR in SWTOR from the start.

[stuffystuffs]

Maybe I'm just confused as to the nature of a "flirt" when used as a noun in TOR. What are these characters like, exactly?

 

Like Taitle said, it's basically a choice on the dialog wheel. There seem to be four types of romance content.

 

1) Choose [flirt] with a non-companion NPC but nothing happens (it's there for 'flavor' I guess). Most SGRs seem to be like this (Microbinocular mission flirts, BBA flirts).

 

2) Flirt with a non-companion NPC where something is implied to happen (fade to black). I know of one of these for SGRs (new Czerka flashpoint: can flirt/fade to black with female Czerka rep).

 

3) Small romantic storylines with non-companion NPCs that you talk to a few times but nothing serious happens. The Makeb SGRs fall into this category.

 

4) Romance storylines with companion NPCs that are the only serious relationships depicted in swtor....only heterosexual PCs have this privilege.

[Xilizhra]

[Flirt] is just that - the option to [Flirt] on the dialogue wheel. It's usually a one-off NPC, the likes of which are fairly common in the male versions of the storylines. Those are the base SGR's, though there is a step up, for recurring NPCs (the first that springs to mind is the Sith chap on Alderaan in the Inquisitor storyline) and vary from having [Flirt] options in multiple conversations to one-night stands (OGR only).

 

The term SGRA is mostly used in relation to companion romances, which are multi-quest, mulit-[Flirt] affairs ending in marriage.

And the only thing we can consider being acceptable, of course. Disappointing.

 

One thing's for sure, sitting around and being sad about it should probably be our last priority. I think, if possible, we need to do something more active to put pressure on Austin.

[Palar]

And the only thing we can consider being acceptable, of course. Disappointing.

 

One thing's for sure, sitting around and being sad about it should probably be our last priority. I think, if possible, we need to do something more active to put pressure on Austin.

 

It's been tried - and with how well the "so, how about those 'post-launch' SGR companion arcs?"/"trust us, guys, it's totes coming with Makeb" exchange turned out, any external 'sources of pressure' who may have cared gave up and found a better use of their time.

[Tatile]

I am tired in the face of an apathetic giant which thinks that ignoring questions is the best way to provide answers.

 

Trust me, we tried. We tried so many things ans so often and all it resulted in is, well, nothing.

 

Bioware: Austin has successfully managed to bear enthusiasm, anger and hope down with their own monstrous apathy, and I can see it happening to other parts of the game.

 

And I am so god damn sick of putting in effort and getting absolute non-answers from CSRs who are just laughing behind their desks. If I weren't so invested in my characters... :/

[Palar]

The worst part is, their apathy isn't even contagious... I'd love to be able to give up, but my brain has a very odd threshold for being stubborn.

[Tatile]

The worst part is, their apathy isn't even contagious... I'd love to be able to give up, but my brain has a very odd threshold for being stubborn.

 

I don't know if I can still be bothered, I want to, I want to have the same old fight, but god...

 

"You tried your hardest and we didn't give a **** about that, so why are you still trying? Look, even if we did make it, we'd put it on the Cartel Market anyway, so why don't you just give up and **** off." - that's what all their answers seem to be. All the time. That.

[Xilizhra]

And I am so gosh darn sick of putting in effort and getting absolute non-answers from CSRs who are just laughing behind their desks. If I weren't so invested in my characters... :/

Who are your characters? Whom were you hoping to pair them with?

 

I've also heard a rumor that TOR is going to both stop charging any subscription fees and stop generating content altogether relatively soon.

[Tatile]

Rochester is my main and an Agent, I would have liked him with Vector. Likewise I have an Agent stuck at level 12, for the "just in case" which I now highly doubt is ever going to happen. Like at all.

 

My Trooper, Zdinne, would have enjoyed Elara's company.

 

And my Warrior is pansexual polyamorous and would probably go after everyone, but Bioware seems to think women are delicate flowers who can't handle the idea of flirting with lots of men (or that we shouldn't flirt with lots of men ) and so she's restricted from being a total power-obsessed scary-Flirt Sith.

 

And then there are the romances that I felt were hypocritical (Corso) or have ended in boredom (Andronikus, Torian) due to a lack of updates.

 

I headcanon them a lot, but none of those stories particularly take place within the class stories (for example, Rochester is actually an Imperial Officer upon a naval ship that specialises in being a glorified ferry and freighter, and is married to the sweetest Sith Lord (who used to be a Jedi) - he has some Cipher/II Agent training, but ultimately never became one because reasons.)

 

The rumour about Bioware: Austin stopping content is just that - 2.4 has new PvP stuff coming and at that point (or in 2.5) we should be seeing a new Operation. However, it does seem to be fact that they have given up entirely on class stories and their companions, which is quite possibly the most shameful thing about this game (after the heterocentrism/homophobia, cissexism and general sexism it has displayed).

[Xilizhra]

Wait, they did ordinary sexism too? I must not have seen it yet.

 

I'd sort of like to set my Inquisitor up with Ashara... I'm also tempted in headcanon terms to set up my inquisitor with my consular, though the fact that they're related (albeit separated for a long time because of the inqusitor's enslavement) might make that difficult for some. I did sort of want to make my inquisitor into a Sith pureblood instead of a Twi'lek for this, but I don't know if I can be bothered to play Korriban again.