SW:TOR - No Homosexuality

Ellie Gibson writes up on some forum rules on the offical TOR forums, funny, considering GL's strange lolita ideas.

BioWare has banned users of the Knights of the Old Republic forum from discussing the subject of homosexuality.
Some threads had been set up discussing the potential issues around gay relationships within the game. The threads have since been locked, and the words "homosexual", "lesbian" and "gay" are censored on the forum.
Even discussions of the ban are being locked. At the bottom of the thread "GLBT discrimination in forums?", community manager Sean Dahlberg wrote, "As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars. Thread closed."

More information.

Thanks for bringing this to the public. As the originator of the thread and gay gamer I find this deeply disappointing. Since I can not log into the forums anymore, I must assume I am banned from the forum.

I understand a company can make rules as they want, but when even the discussion of it is locked, even when it is brought in a civilized manner, is really a blow. The sad thing is, most people won't bother much. And as I am apparently banned, I cant discuss the matter with Bioware in any way. It is quite an uncivilized way to deal with customers, and SW would have deserved better.

A dark day for civil rights.


EDIT: It seems they have reopened the thread again, and the words gay and lesbian are allowed now. Still, it is sort of a disappointment for me. SWG was such a vivid and diverse community and my gay marriage was a really wonderful memory from SWG. I guess we can forget hoping for that now. I really had thought people who make such deeply ethical questioning games like Bioware would know better. But apparently not.

Even with the 180° turn I will keep a cautious eye on this now.

Texas game development.

Go ahead and put down Texans all you want (they always seem to shrug it off), but leave the gays alone. They could use a little bolstering (as do some Swedes, apparently).

This hasn't been a good day for Sean Dahlberg, I expect. I wonder who it was that called him, what they said, and how they said it.

To anyone interested in folliwing this, here is the thread over at the the old republics forum at Bioware.
http://www.swtor.com/community/showt…t=26291&page=6
(source: http://kotaku.com/5230325/there-are-…s-in-star-wars )

I don't who called Sean Dahlberg, but I bet it could be either Ray or Greg, at least it had to be someone very high up at the corporate latter at Bioware. (probably being very angry, I'd imagine). From the thread was closed to the thread about this topic was re-opened a day went by….

I don't know why the terms homosexual, lesbian or gay were filtered in the old republic forums; they are certainly not filtered in the other bioware forums. We have a very interesting discussion about romance in DA: Origins going where the terms gay and homosexual are used; Mass Effect and its forums are the same…

I don't see Bioware as a homophobic company; they did make Jade Empire, Mass Effect etc. etc. where you can have a homosexual relationsship…

People rather than being concerned about homophobia in Bioware(who cares, really) should be more concerned about actual gameplay and how KOTORs 2 ending was butchered by Bioware…

Originally Posted by nessosin
People rather than being concerned about homophobia in Bioware(who cares, really) should be more concerned about actual gameplay and how KOTORs 2 ending was butchered by Bioware…

I take it you're gay or bisexual, right?

Originally Posted by nessosin
People rather than being concerned about homophobia in Bioware(who cares, really) should be more concerned about actual gameplay and how KOTORs 2 ending was butchered by Bioware…

Who cares about bigotry as long as its fun, right?

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
I take it you're gay or bisexual, right?

As you probably suspect neither.

Originally Posted by Brother None"
Who cares about bigotry as long as its fun, right?

Sorry for not being political correct.

If their beliefs made them to lock those threads, ban users then its their decision. It is characteristical to very vocal homosexualist groups to make fuss about things like that. I suspect that youll write "But it is their right!", okey but it is also the Bioware right to do as it pleases them. Its a private forum. If I dont like someone I dont invite him to the party, do I? In todays world of political correctness you either stick to your principles and face heavy financial losses (oftenly people who "see" homosexualism as a problem will succumb to "public" uproar) or you abandon them. And I dont like it.

I dont have anything in particular against gays/lesbians/bi/trans but dont tell me its quite normal and natural. I dont want to interfere in their lives and I dont want them to interfere with my life. And really as long as nobody's killing anybody I dont care that someone called on some forum homosexualist a 'faggot'.

And it seems that to your hearts content Bioware reinstated "homosexualism" to TOR forums so no harm done I believe. Now lets concentrate on gameplay…

I've seen lesbian cows once … looong ago. I thought I couldn't trust my eyes, but they were there, trying to copulate …

So, lesbian cows are for real. And that means to me, that this is kind of natural.

By the way, have you read about the male (non-gay) population of the Greek island of Lesbos having something against being called "Lesbians" ?

Originally Posted by JemyM
Texas game development.

Right….because those sorts of things don't happen in other parts of the world.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I've seen lesbian cows once … looong ago. I thought I couldn't trust my eyes, but they were there, trying to copulate …

My tortoise laddies did that, too, despite having a tortoise lass for company. Ah, childhood memories .

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
By the way, have you read about the male (non-gay) population of the Greek island of Lesbos having something against being called "Lesbians" ?

Just for the record,the island has a second name "Mitilini" and people prefer to use this one for obvious reasons.

As for the lack of homosexuality in TOR:

Originally Posted by nessosin
People rather than being concerned about homophobia in Bioware(who cares, really) should be more concerned about actual gameplay and how KOTORs 2 ending was butchered by Bioware…

sorry about this rant:

For the nth time…

KOTOR2 was and is not made by Bioware…

It was and is made by Obsidian

And it was due to pressure from Lucas Arts that wanted the game out for Christmas - that KOTOR2's ending was rushed and unfinished.

/rant.

I don't normally make a habit of correcting people; however, I also think that Obsidian deserves credit for their work in rpg games…

As for the topic at hand, I don't care if people in SW:TOR are bi, tri or monosexual.
I just find it a little harsh to rule out words like lesbian or gay in a game's forum.

You misuderstood me aries .

By "butchering" by Bioware I meant that they treat Kotor2 as it never happened. Its like Kotor 1 and then TOL, nothing in between. And I am well aware that K2 was Obsidians mishap.

Originally Posted by nessosin
As you probably suspect neither.

Thanks for the clarification. That puts you in the "bigot jerk" bin, then — and my ignore list.

Bioware sure makes it hard for me to appreciate their subtle catering to minority groups approach. First hardcore gamers, now homosexuals?

What's next ? Games for Cuba ?

Well…. to be honest, the introduction of homosexual themes in Star Wars universe sounds wrong to me.
The atmosphere and the story are far from modern reality or futuristic approach to modern culture (like in Mass Effect).
Ok, we are talking about a futuristic science fiction saga, but the main theme is more related to ancient knights models, princesses to be saved and evil black monsters. There's a medieval flavor strongly inspired by knight epics and homosexuality could be really out of context.

IMO.

But it's wrong to close all homosexuality related topics on a forum. Better if they explained their game setting choices.

Sorry for my rusty English.

You do not want to go down that road. In "Knight Epics" for example, women are pretty much treated as children. Star Wars is our fantasy, the mythology of our time and it borrows a huge amount of themes from our world already. We do not bend our fantasy due to past intolerances.

In all things, the humans of the Star Wars universe are still humans. Only the setting is different. Like always in an alternate setting, if humans have different qualities than humans of our world, you need a special explanation to do so. Even if there's aliens and spaceships for example, humans cannot naturally levitate.

This also means that traditional human traits like near-sightedness, Asperger syndrome, homosexuality, left-handedness etc still apply. That they used to knew less when Knight tales was really popular (12th century?) is no excuse.