"Dude, If they ask, you don't have to tell."
Words fail me, sometimes.
This is not one of those times. Kotaku posted the story first - Bioware is locking all threads asking how gay relationships will be handled in game, and censoring the words "gay," "lesbian," and "homosexual."
No word on whether we're allowed to say "transgender."
Every MMORPG will eventually include people roleplaying (that's what the RP stands for, after all) relationships. Some of those relationships are romantic, full of sweet talk, and usually involve a healer and a tank duo. Some of those relationships are extremely heavy on the storytelling, and the two people involved come up with elaborate backstories, plotlines, and character development. Some of those relationships are just an excuse for a little one handed typing.
Whatever the relationship is, in an MMO, you're going to find people who want to announce their status to the rest of the game world. It's just the way it is. Star Wars probably carries the additional baggage of the Star Wars Galaxies players. (SWG launched as the kind of game where you spent more time dancing in the cantina than you did blowing stuff up, and as a result, the playerbase is a little more into relationships and roleplay than your usual science fiction crowd.) In other words, as you stumble towards launch, people want to know if they can get married, take on another character's last name, have ceremonies, and so on.
Inevitably the subject of same sex marriage pops up.
Some studios embrace it. Others reject it. Others duck the whole issue, gratefully citing their stringent license requirements to avoid any kind of official marriage anything in the game.
Star Wars: The Old Republic can't claim that their license does not allow marriage, because it does. Instead, they're trying to hide behind the thin shrub of how the terminology doesn't exist in the game.
Yeah, well, locking threads over terminology doesn't answer the question of whether or not an official in-game marriage system will allow two same-gender characters to have a purely symbolic relationship.
In case you're wondering, I think that banning any kind of virtual relationship between avatars makes you look like a reactionary monkey. I also think that most in game relationships are between people who are male in the physical world. Finally, I think that if the Jedi council were real, they would think this entire discussion is for mental midgets without any awareness or comprehension of the serious issues endangering the citizens of the galaxy.
Edited @ 5:45 - Looks like the CM has been instructed to handle it at least in part by removing the perfectly decent words for same sex relationships from the cuss filter.
Comments
I actually know someone working on the game in question, and when I asked them about this they mentioned that Lucas Arts said that no plot line should be expressly gay-oriented, but that if a character acted in a homosexual manner, it was ok as long as it was a player-based decision process. But then again, that was a while ago, so its possible that they've all changed their minds.
<i>...I think that if the Jedi council were real, they would think this entire discussion is for mental midgets without any awareness or comprehension of the serious issues endangering the citizens of the galaxy.</i>
'Sfine, s'long as it's not mental midget on mental midget.
That's off-limits.
Unless they're heterosexual.
Great headline! ;)
Love,
Sarah
www.examiner.com/x-1916-Sex--Relationships-Examiner
The only thing I can think is it has to be LucasArts because didn't Bioware have same-sex relationships in Mass Effect... so while Bioware is the acting party, their hands may indeed be ridiculously tied. I read a Wired where they interviewed the continuity db engineer who said that George Lucas could break canon however and whenever he wanted... or set it. I wonder what Lucas' feelings are on GLBT.
So... if there is no homosexuality in Star Wars, I wonder what Juhani's attraction to my female avatar in KotOR was called.
Guess it's just someone going overboard with LucasArts' wishes to not do that again. But clamping down on your community like Sean Dahlgren did in his forum post is sure to backfire in some way.
What is love?
[baby don't hurt me]
[don't hurt me]
[no more]
If they're going to have 'marriage' in the game, then... that's just going to be difficult for them. As long as they make a consistent choice I don't see a problem - it's their (and Lucas') game.
Slow news day. Who cares.
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