BioWare - LBGT Approach Benefitting All Gamers

GamerHeadlines has written an editorial about how Bioware's approach to LBGT issues
benefits all gamers. A quote:

However, regarding a role-playing game, gamers should rejoice that Bioware is embracing a universal approach to their games that strives to meet the needs of the entirety of the gaming population (LGBT or otherwise). Many will ask why, but the answer is quite obvious. The RPG genre of video games is, ideally, about the freedom of choice. While many comparable RPG's give players the option of choosing gender, race, abilities, statistics, and attributes, very few give the ability to specifically choose their player character's sexual orientation, and if they do, it is often ambiguous in nature. Not every gamer is going to opt into that opportunity, but the fact that it is available exemplifies a mature step forward in terms of the sociocultural dynamics and gameplay systems of video games as a whole. It shows that Bioware is truly committed to allowing players to create a character that conforms exactly to who and what they want their character to be.

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More information.

The freedom to choose one's gameplay experience is what defines a brilliant RPG, I think. The more nuanced and complex one's ability to choose, the deeper one's immersive experience becomes.

Excellent editorial.

What's LBGT?

Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Gay, Tran-sexual. I think.

Complete load of tripe.. As someone said earlier, "only when the one legged, ginger, dwarf, cross dressing deaf girl with autism is represented, will gaming take a huge step forward."

If its ever 'developed' like mass effect again where every time you turn around someone is hitting on you, its pathetic and completely unnecessary.

Wisdom said:

Complete load of tripe.. As someone said earlier, "only when the one legged, ginger, dwarf, cross dressing deaf girl with autism is represented, will gaming take a huge step forward."

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There's always one isn't there.
And for good measure he's calling himself 'Wisdom'.

Madjack said:

There's always one isn't there.
And for good measure he's calling himself 'Wisdom'.

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Wait, are you judging me? Sorry I don't fit into the perfect box you expected me to. You can see the irony right? Straight to the personal attacks because you dont like my opinion seems kind of opposite to the rest of the ideals you are trying to promote. Maybe grant me some of the overflowing grace you expect everyone else to have?

In all honesty, think of the greatest RPG experiences you've ever had. Would it really have been that much better if there was a single line on a bio character page that said. . Oh. . He likes girls. Would it have made it that much better? Really?

Wisdom said:

Complete load of tripe.. As someone said earlier, "only when the one legged, ginger, dwarf, cross dressing deaf girl with autism is represented, will gaming take a huge step forward."

If its ever 'developed' like mass effect again where every time you turn around someone is hitting on you, its pathetic and completely unnecessary.

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I don't get your problem.
Are you saying you should not be able to choose your sexual orientation in a game?
In most games, it would not really matter, sure. But neither does your hair color and still it is a vital part of the customization to many.

I also fail to see the problem in representing all parts of a society (except budget, maybe). And in most sci-fi societies (NOT all!), a more liberal approach to sexuality would probably be present and should thus be reflected in a game. Of course, when suddenly every 2nd NPC you meet is gay, something probably went wrong.

I agree that a too strong focus on that aspect of a character, no matter in which sexual direction, can make a game rather ridiculous. It obviously has to be done with caution. And while there was a bit too much romance material going on in Mass Effect, I don't think that part of the game was ridiculous.

Still, your "you preach tolerance yet do not tolerate my opinion" sounds very much like the typical homophobic BS you see on so many platforms. There is exactly one thing a tolerant society should not tolerate: Intolerance.
And your comments sure make you look like a pretty intolerant person (considering sexuality).

Now if only Bioware stopped writing characters devoid of agency whose sole existence is to appease the player's ego. Ring me up when a Bioware game has a character that can exist on its own whether sexy, ugly, slutty, stoic, friendly or hostile or whatever, without reverence to the player ie. a character you can't meta-game to like or fuck you.

Sugarcoating fantasy wish fulfillment and lack of agency as diversity is an insult to the real people.

Oh but, at least their LGBT approach is also equally shallow.

You can put away the torches and pitchforks. Every time someone looks at the current sacred cow of sexuality it seems like anyone with an agenda jumps on board.

Did you read the article? Or did you just read my comment and jump to the assumed anti-intolerance speech?

Read the article. Then read my comments. I'm saying that it isnt a big leap forward for games. It's as unrelated as "Extra content for DS console actually a benefit for PC players". I'm saying that unless you are the specific person that chooses to play the LGBT option, it is of no benefit to anyone else, AS the article claims. Do you really think this was an attack on what anyone does in the bedroom? Read the article.

Wisdom said:

I'm saying that it isnt a big leap forward for games. It's as unrelated as "Extra content for DS console actually a benefit for PC players". I'm saying that unless you are the specific person that chooses to play the LGBT option, it is of no benefit to anyone else, AS the article claims.

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Well, if that is what you wanted to say, then you certainly failed to get your point across. Even after reading your explanation I fail to see this message in your initial comment.

Anyway, you are wrong.
By your logic, we could rid any non-linear game with choices of any kind of said choices, and the result would not influence the game.
Additional options and choices do naturally benefit all players. Because even the decision not to tackle certain paths is an active decision made by the player. And the simple fact that you can make other decisions increases not only replayability but the feeling that you do indeed play a role and are breathing some kind of life into your character. If these options were not there, you would not make any decisions and you would not get any kind of feedback by the game. And that feeling of actually playing the role of your character would be reduced.
Sure you can run around in Diablo LARPing your barbarian to be a man-loving slaughter-machine, but the game will never give you any kind of feedback.

And this is exactly what the article tells:

You don’t have to seek out a same-sex relationship if you choose not to, but those who do, can.

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You don't have to… but you can. And this always makes a game better, if the choices are presented in a natural way. No matter what topics these choices actually cover.

I can certainly understand the fear that too much focus on political correctness and catering to every minority can introduce a certain artificiality that actually hurts the game. But as much as I think Mass Effect is a terrible RPG (as there is also a game mechanic side to this, where ME fails horribly), the personal choices were handled rather well.

But is it a big leap? Well, for gaming itself, I would say yes. Until some years ago, these topics were pretty much unheard of in games. Maybe this was never much of an issue to you, which is fine, but it was to many people and it is great to see that society changing is also visible in games.

Will the game itself feel like it is that much better? Probably not, most people won't notice.

Wisdom said:

Do you really think this was an attack on what anyone does in the bedroom?

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I was not sure. I was just telling how it most certainly seemed to be.

Wisdom said:

Complete load of tripe.. As someone said earlier, "only when the one legged, ginger, dwarf, cross dressing deaf girl with autism is represented, will gaming take a huge step forward."

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Madjack said:

There's always one isn't there.

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I think both is true (if I understood both quotes correctly) :

After sexuaL orientation, there must come more. It's nothing but an natural step towards more diversity to me.

But on the other hand - I think it's nearly impossible to implement everything. There will alwys be someone feeling left out - but in my opinion that's necessary at one point, because you just can't have a racing cart which is also able to be a family-friendly towns car, with unlimited cargo space but still able to reach Formula One speed … Or, to use a German saying, there just won't be an "eierlegende Wollmilchsau" ("oviparous Wool-milk-sow", literally translated).

By the way, "SIM's Medieval" did implement different personalities to some extend ...

Conversations like this remind me of just how much fun text games used to be. You really can overcomplicate a game, and we are talking Biofail, maybe they can work on making a decent game first. They've been wacking nothing but strikes for the past 5+ yrs now.

One look at biowares forums will tell you pandering to the chronically offended LGBT SJW is not a good thing.

But is it a big leap? Well, for gaming itself, I would say yes. Until some years ago, these topics were pretty much unheard of in games. Maybe this was never much of an issue to you, which is fine, but it was to many people and it is great to see that society changing is also visible in games.

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This is a very good point and a completely separate issue. While I don't agree that gaming should be a platform for getting out a certain message, I can see where people are coming from when they want it as such.

On other forums, there is a huge dividing opinion on the topic of "Rape". Whether as an implied construct, a social setting for an in game culture, or an occurrence that shapes the plot.
There are real life victims on BOTH sides of the issues demanding completely opposite things. Some want it completely taken out, abolished, never to be written about again. Other real life victims want it INCLUDED, put in the game, brought into the public arena.

The end result of either debate is the same. Does it make the actual game better?

The article claims to have a benefit for all players. If budget of the game is X. The "features" of Romance subplots, LGBT, Rape, DS Console design.. whatever... is going to be X minus "features". If the "features" don't ADD to the game then I think its ridiculous to include them. I would have this argument over ANY feature being discussed, social sacred cow or not.

The article of "more choice = better for all" is a silly argument. It takes 10 seconds to get Joxer boiling when some company puts "more platforms = better for all" on their kickstarter design page. Rightly so. It doesn't benefit everyone that all that "choice" is there if its not being used. In most cases its a hindrance to all because something was cut in the budget to allow for it.

My personal problem is that the current trend is
to call in gaming anything "mature" or "adult" that has

- violence
- dark colours
- dark themes
- even more violence
- even more dark themes

in them. This trend is to me as if I was telling someone that to grow up, someone had to watch an horror movie. Something like that.

The approach by Bioware changes the overall direction imho a tiny bit by adding just another flavour to it.

Where "mature themes" in gaming formerly had only 3 or 4 flavours, Bioware is adding a 4th or a 5th.

Now, you know how it goes with ice cream : People might want some more flavours at one point. And they most certainly won't like to have only sour, sharp or spicey flavours - they'd want chocolade, nuts, strawberry and banana flavours as well.
And to go on, people won't like - I'm sure - to have only black or grey coloured ice cream - they'd want green, red and orange, too ! - Not to mention yellow and blue.

TheSHEEEP said:

I don't get your problem.
Are you saying you should not be able to choose your sexual orientation in a game?
In most games, it would not really matter, sure. But neither does your hair color and still it is a vital part of the customization to many.

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Exactly. Wait... scratch the 'many' part. It's an assumption, and one I don't think is true for the Watch or Codex crowd - and that's the kind of people we should focus on. I don't care if a lot of 12 year old kids enjoy games with dumbed down mechanics that sport a great assortment of hairstyles.

Oh... and no one would call the inclusion of hairstyles a great benefit to many.

Again Bioware with suckup to LGBT audience and again a thread that could probably go many pages over it.

EA = scam business models

Once that's fixed/sorted out, once the audience doesn't feel disrespect from EA, then I can talk about LGBT approach in EA games. NOT BEFORE.
Stop putting masks on your ugly face EA.

Sacred_Path said:

the Watch or Codex crowd - and that's the kind of people we should focus on

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Why?

A very specific, personal point of view on the part of the creator is usually healthy for art. As one example, the sexuality of many straight male painters (Gaugin, Rubens … too many to list) has been the driving engine of what makes their work great, and what makes it their own.

But a very specific point of view or demographic on the part of the target audience makes for weak, shallow, pandering art.

Gaugin's magnificent nudes could only have been painted by a man who desired women. But if they spoke only to men who desire women, well … that would mean they weren't very good.

The fact that vidyagames have until now usually been targeted very specifically — not only at the tastes of straight men, but at a particular nerdy subset of the straight male demographic — is often spoken of as a marketing problem, or sometimes as a social justice problem. More seriously, it's also an artistic limitation.

Now, Bioware's silly romances of course have their own self-evident artistic limitations. But narrowing their focus to the established tastes of their previous games' fanbase is not going to move the genre forward.

Why do you have to choose between diversity and a great game? Is it either or?

And it's kinda looking like most games have realized that straight, bisexual, gay males and females do not perceive the world the same way. It's not just about who you have sex with. The usual plot for most games involved a team of allies who were "bros" and a one or two females in the game who were heavily sexualized. Sometimes with a damsel in distress type of thing. It's great to finally have female characters as allies who aren't sexualized and can be one of the "bros". To finally not always have the damsel in distress plot. And to finally not have your character assumed to be straight by default. And to have main characters (not just the villain) in the story who are gay/lesbian/bisexual. It's better games for everyone, farthest thing from a gimmick.