In most games I can be a male and play a female character... but that is not gay, it is roleplaying (reverse is true, female being male)

As the "opposite" sex i can romance a male/female... but that is not gay, it is roleplaying

So as a guy, I can play a female toon, romance and bed a male character...but that is not gay, it is roleplaying

In star wars we see hands/arms being the most popular appendage being removed in "hate and self defence" but that is ok. at least it isn't gay. I can slaughter millions of "bad guys" from my characters point of view, but that is ok, it's not gay. I can torture my friends/companions and perform random acts of violence in front ot children, but that is ok... it's not gay

then again, if I come across a fake gay romance scene in a game, I may just have to revoke my wife and kids, run to be gay in a second because I cannot help myself, I mean if there is a gay option I HAVE to choose it, don't I? I have the ability to not watch/do things that offend me. I also have the ability to let others do as they wish. If they want to choose the gay option, let them. From a SWTOR standpoint unless they are sporting a title stating they are gay, I'm not going to have a clue they have chosen the gay path.

Originally posted by superniceguy

It is just making SWTOR and even Star Wars tacky.

If it was in the game from the start and all over, then it may have gotten away with it, but advertising it and making a big deal out of it, will make the game suffer.

They should just keep it in other mature games and save it for Mass Effect Online if they ever decide to do that.

They had lesbians in the first KOTOR back in 2004 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBb_Af0M6s and there are gay characters in the Star Wars extended universe, so it is a bit late to be claiming that homosexuality makes Star Wars tacky.

Also what is actually tacky is pretending that gay people don't exist. 

Originally posted by evilastro

Also what is actually tacky is pretending that gay people don't exist. 

Omg, you got a very good point here haha.

Originally posted by superniceguy

 

It is not just a game in a MMO where you have other people playing who have the potential to ruin the atmosphere. Even without this, there has been times where stupid arguments rage on in the chat window, that spoil the game, and make me want to log out. I do not participate in the arguments, but they are hard to ignore in case it is a game message or a message from a friend you want to read.

And once again, welcome to the world of MMOs. Last time I was in STO there was an argument between trek nerds over the JJ Abrams movie. It went back and forth and got real nasty. You know what I did? I switched to guild chat. Simple. 

The SGR will make arguments arise more easily, especially a game where kids will go, and I will be avoiding Makeb, not to avoid the gay content, but to avoid any possible abuse going on in the chat window. I have never heard of gay people abusing straight people for not being gay, but there is been plenty awful news of the opposite. I can do without witnessing that kind of drama in a game.

Oh please. Like as if that conversation won't be happening on the fleet. If contraversial statements bother you then either turn off general chat or stay away from MMOs. 

 

 

We've had to clean up a few things in the thread, but this one has proceeded in a mostly civil manner.

As long as things remain on the topic of the game and the reaction and don't get into the real world arguments we have seen before, we'll leave it here.

My take on the whole thing is that change doesn't happen overnight. Bioware evidently added it where they could and with the resources they had. To allow MMos to expand and evolve, criticism of what they did or how they did it should be done constructively.

To the people interested in this content, I say embrace it and consider it one of the steps forward to broadening MMOs. Engage devs on the next step forward. Shouting this down and expressing outrage does little more than 1) make devs gunshy about further content like this and 2) create an equally reactionary response from the rest of the gamers who, historically, have not been the most LGBT-friendly demographic in the world.

From the article linked in the OP:

"First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game," wrote Hickman in a blog post.  "I realise that we promised SGR (same gender relationships) to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realised at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play."

"As we have said in the past, allowing same gender romance is something we are very supportive of."

This indicates to me that the plan was neither to corral gay people on one planet nor to limit their gameplay choices to one planet. It indicates there's a commitment to this content. Some perspective is needed here. Plans drastically shifted and the gameplan changed for the team. They had to decide what was important and what could be dropped. Of all the features, fixes, backlog items and to dos on the list, SGR was important enough to make the cut.

To the people bothered by it, I would like to quote ObiClownobi:

"no one is forcing anything on anyone, just have faith in your ability to choose not to flirt with male NPCs."

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by superniceguy

It is just making SWTOR and even Star Wars tacky.

If it was in the game from the start and all over, then it may have gotten away with it, but advertising it and making a big deal out of it, will make the game suffer.

They should just keep it in other mature games and save it for Mass Effect Online if they ever decide to do that.

They had lesbians in the first KOTOR back in 2004 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBb_Af0M6s and there are gay characters in the Star Wars extended universe, so it is a bit late to be claiming that homosexuality makes Star Wars tacky.

Also what is actually tacky is pretending that gay people don't exist. 

That is not what I meant

What is tacky is that gay people only exist on Makeb, and is an afterthought

Also this is not what was originally planned for SGR, but due to their lower budgets and dev layoffs, now it is getting put in half heartedly. It was intended to be with companions, for not just Makeb, but now it is just going to be dialogue options with NPCs on Makeb.

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by evilastro

Originally posted by superniceguy

It is just making SWTOR and even Star Wars tacky.

If it was in the game from the start and all over, then it may have gotten away with it, but advertising it and making a big deal out of it, will make the game suffer.

They should just keep it in other mature games and save it for Mass Effect Online if they ever decide to do that.

They had lesbians in the first KOTOR back in 2004 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paBb_Af0M6s and there are gay characters in the Star Wars extended universe, so it is a bit late to be claiming that homosexuality makes Star Wars tacky.

Also what is actually tacky is pretending that gay people don't exist. 

That is not what I meant

What is tacky is that gay people only exist on Makeb, and is an afterthought

Also this is not what was originally planned for SGR, but due to their lower budgets and dev layoffs, now it is getting put in half heartedly.

Fair call, misinterpreted what you said.

I find it a bit sad that parents are outraged that their children will see a loving relationship between two same sex avatars, but they are fine with the same game containing torture and genocide.

Pretty much explains where we are at as a society and why we have so much violence in the world.  

My take on this is that when they added flirting to the game they should have just let every NPC in the game flirt with your character and vice versa regardless of sex.  Let the players decide who to have relationships with.

Given that they didn't do this and had promised to add SGR to the game, I understand why it was easier to do so with a new planet.  But it does look bad.  It's even worse that people that want SGR have to pay to access it.  They probably could have added some new NPCs to the old planet cantinas and such.

I think adding relationships to an MMO is a bad idea.  This is because there are possibly more people that have religious issues with same sex relationships than are looking to have them in a game.  So rather than discriminate, just don't offer them at all.  The same goes for player marriages in a game.  Let players conduct their own in game weddings but not using any built in tools from the developer.

Originally posted by superniceguy

 

They should just keep it in other mature games 

the game already has relationships.  same sex relationships dont make it any more or less marute than it already is.

Originally posted by superniceguy

That is not what I meant

What is tacky is that gay people only exist on Makeb, and is an afterthought

Also this is not what was originally planned for SGR, but due to their lower budgets and dev layoffs, now it is getting put in half heartedly. It was intended to be with companions, for not just Makeb, but now it is just going to be dialogue options with NPCs on Makeb.

Gay people dont only exist on Makeb, the only current gay companions happen to exist there.  Kira Carsen isnt gay.  Why should they make her gay after the fact?  Its just typical new expansion being in new zones and its ludicrous that anyone is making an issue of this.  But add some *extremely* irresponsible journalism by fox news and now its gotten out of hand.