BioWare has been under fire most of this week for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel, that will bring the planet Makeb and same gender romances into the game (among other things). We have some thoughts to share about the controversy. See what we have to say and then join the respectful conversation in the comments.

Perhaps you’re asking yourself why. In case you haven’t been paying attention to this week’s news about Star Wars: The Old Republic, there is a gigantic internet hissy fit going on about what some have crudely coined “pay to gay”. The term has been coined because of the decision SWTOR devs and/or EA made to make the planet Makeb one where players could interact with homosexual NPCs and content. Ostensibly rubbing salt into the wound is the fact that Makeb is the only place in the SWTOR universe where these types of interactions will be allowed for now. No other new companions or romance options will be added when “Rise of the Hutt Cartel”, SWTOR’s upcoming expansion, arrives later this year.

Read more of Suzie Ford's Star Wars: The Old Republic - Give BioWare a Break, Would Ya?

This is just a friendly reminder that this thread needs to stay repsectful and maintain an air of intelligent discussion of the topic. Please don't turn it into a flamefest. 

Thanks!

Give them a break? Why? I have been giving them a break for the last 4 games they have released. This is not inflammatory, just saying that you can only give someone so many chances and if they mess them all up, why bother?

They aren't listening to the players, which is a major problem for most MMOs these days.

Who cares about gay npc relationships? Make some real content, optimize your engine, and make PvP playable/fun.

Originally posted by Aeonblades

Give them a break? Why? I have been giving them a break for the last 4 games they have released. This is not inflammatory, just saying that you can only give someone so many chances and if they mess them all up, why bother?

They aren't listening to the players, which is a major problem for most MMOs these days.

Who cares about gay npc relationships? Make some real content, optimize your engine, and make PvP playable/fun.

Maybe they're not listening to you, but players has been asking for SGR since launch and they are also addressing the looks of the spymaster set as many people were complaining, they're also trying to encourage world pvp with 1.7 that people were asking, but as you can see people are even starting to complain about that too, to me it looks like they're listening to their players its just hard to please everybody, ironically most people bashing the game don't even play it.

It's a pleasant deviation from the "norm" in MMORPG's.  Romance exists one way or another in MMO's, even if it's just an NPC story.  WoW could have capitalized on the area, if for instance, Thrall had a gay lover.. but they played it safe and kept NPC relationships to opposite sex.  Same sex preferences may have been hinted at, with say, Blood Elves, but never explicitly stated as gay.

In video games, gay / lesbian encounters are not entirely new.  I believe it was back in one of the Ultimas .. somewhere between Ultima 4 and Ultima 6 (late 80's, early 90's), where there was a gypsy camp with prostitutes.  The player could choose either sex - opposite sex said something like "oh your cute, you'll enjoy this" .. same sex said something like "oh I don't mind, it's your money".  The end result was the same - the player got a disease lol .. but there wasn't a biased penalty for choosing one over the other.  That was the first same gender romance I encountered .. perhaps there was an earlier one.

It's really cheap advertising for EA though.  Their marketing team is doing wonders at keeping this game in the headlines, despite all the negativity surrounding their decisions, like the P2W Cartel Cash Shop, etc (buying end-game ship parts & soon buying NPC reputation with patch 1.7).

But perhaps some good will come from this, as other developers see that making their game different isn't such a bad thing.  It can actually work to your advantage.

Originally posted by TrunksZ

Originally posted by Aeonblades

Give them a break? Why? I have been giving them a break for the last 4 games they have released. This is not inflammatory, just saying that you can only give someone so many chances and if they mess them all up, why bother?

They aren't listening to the players, which is a major problem for most MMOs these days.

Who cares about gay npc relationships? Make some real content, optimize your engine, and make PvP playable/fun.

ironically most people bashing the game don't even play it.

Source?

To be honest, I left SW:TOR with my GF this week, but not because of the SGR debacle. Though I DO find it quite horrible that homo- and/or bisexuals should have to pay to find romance in a game like TOR. How hard would it be to add a few npcs to cantina, that you can chat up or even date?

That romance would probably be deeper than what they'll offer now, and certainly more accessible.

Regardless, it's important not to confuse Bioware with Bioware. This is a studio with the Bioware 'brand name', yes, but it's not the same studio that made Mass Effect or Dragon Age. That's a very important thing to remember. We have no idea what this studio actually stands for - or their stance on SGR.

Ragardless, to me, this point is just another reason to cancel. I do not wish to support their current way of dealing with the Cartel Market, or with Makeb not adding to the games strong point (story, more specifically class stories), or that we still haven't seen Ilum. Or Cathar. Or a lot of other things they promised and that has been datamined or seemingly complete for a long while but is being held back instead of released.

I love SW:TOR. I do. I think the game, especially when played as a co-op RPG, is awesome. I really loved my characters and their story. I never cared for endgame content, that is true, but I loved leveling my characters - and I still love the game.

Despite that I'm done defending. You say give them a break?

I say let loose the dogs of war, and fire every battery we have.

Originally posted by TrunksZ

Originally posted by Aeonblades

Give them a break? Why? I have been giving them a break for the last 4 games they have released. This is not inflammatory, just saying that you can only give someone so many chances and if they mess them all up, why bother?

They aren't listening to the players, which is a major problem for most MMOs these days.

Who cares about gay npc relationships? Make some real content, optimize your engine, and make PvP playable/fun.

Maybe they're not listening to you, but players has been asking for SGR since launch and they are also addressing the looks of the spymaster set as many people were complaining, they're also trying to encourage world pvp with 1.7 that people were asking, but as you can see people are even starting to complain about that too, to me it looks like they're listening to their players its just hard to please everybody, ironically most people bashing the game don't even play it.

Where? I don't know anyone that asked for that personally. I do play this game, well, I was able to play it until the last patch and the broke something again. World PvP? Meh. Would rather have functional and fun battlegrounds. I'm not saying just listen to me, but do you know anyone who is happy with the HE? Maybe a clue in is the fact the population is still declining (at least on my server) Something is not right, and SGR is not a fix, it's a "Hey this is an inflammatory and controversial feature, by gods grace we might get some publicity again!"

Originally posted by Kaynos1972
What does sexual orientation has to do with a game anyway ?  Can you keep that kind of stuff outside of gaming.

In a game that is very story driven and includes relationship story quest lines, I think it was stupid of them not to include SGR.

Can't wait for them to implement Shemales so I can get my 'romantic' fix.

I think the real problem here is that society as a whole can't stand a fence sitter.  We want someone to be firmly on one side of a subject so that we can either identify with them or demonize them.   

When the issue is one of social equality it becomes increasingly poignant to know what side of the fence someone stands on because people often will not stand with someone with powerful and opposite beliefs.

I think that people put the pressure on Bioware to add it when they obviously didn't want to put it in their game. Star Wars has always been a somewhat family friendly IP, and now people want to change it into something that it has never been. Bioware should have just told people no in the beginning and left it at that. Now they are under pressure to add stuff that has no business being in a video game.

*Just my opinion*

What 99% of all reports on the internet and 99.9% of the armchair forum posters in the world seem to have missed is the sentence that comes right after what Hickman stated above:

Secondly, I want to reveal today that we are adding SGR with some NPCs on Makeb and do intend on pursuing more SGR options in the future. More details to come!

I never missed that, but all the things people have said over the years, that in the end do not happen or change, stuff "in the future" can not be taken seriously

The SGR is more like "Damned if you do and don't". They are adding it as they mentioned it before launch, but not in the manner they initially proposed.

The design of SGR was meant to be with your companions, but that ended up being too difficult for them, and now are just NPCs on Makeb.

@BigSmiff:

While I totally see what you're saying, BioWare has a long history with being progressive advocates of SGRs from the days of Dragon Age and Mass Effect even though these are not the same folks who created those games. If you ask me, they are remaining true to their corporate ideal in this case.