You're just denying him his male urges, BioWare. Look at his sad face.
Mass Effect 2 was pretty fabulous, but for some players that wanted true romantic choice, the decision to rule out homosexual intergalactic relationships was a bit irritating. So 1Up's Tracey John asked Casey Hudson, project lead at BioWare, and CEO Ray Muzyka about the omission.
Hudson said that it was all about the extra work that would have been required to make such gay scenes unique. "Everything new that we add still requires extra content. Some people might argue in a case like that you could just have the same kinds of scenes that just work with different characters. But we wouldn’t really want to have it that way.
"You’d want to take a proper approach to designing those scenes, otherwise you’d see the same scene. So we kind of pulled back and looked at where we had to draw the line in terms of how much content we make," Hudson added. OK, so it's more of a 'we have to do it justice' kind of thing, right? "We still view [Mass Effect 2] as... if you’re picturing a PG-13 action movie. That’s how we’re trying to design it. So that’s why the love interest is relatively light."
Oh. Never mind. Well, what does Dr. Muzyka say about the whole situation? After all, Dragon Age: Origins allowed same-sex relationships.
"Sometimes, in some of our games, we are going to have a defined character with a more defined view. Almost like a third-person narrative -- where Mass Effect is more in that vein, Dragon Age isn’t in that vein; you could see the differences between the two," Muzyka said.
"It’s just part of the design and the choices made for each game. It doesn’t mean that we’ve in anyway changed our philosophy toward enabling choice. We love giving players choice, and we are going to continue to enable that for future games."
So essentially, you can't have gay relationships in Mass Effect 2 because the canon and the cultural 'system' that BioWare has written really quite frowns upon it. Man, the future is kind of closed minded, isn't it? Of course, Muzyka could have meant something else entirely - your guess is as good as ours, really. Care to take a punt in the comments box below?
Did that answer your question as to why homosexuality doesn't exist in Mass Effect 2, then? Yeah, didn't think so. It was worth a shot though.
Hudson said that it was all about the extra work that would have been required to make such gay scenes unique. "Everything new that we add still requires extra content. Some people might argue in a case like that you could just have the same kinds of scenes that just work with different characters. But we wouldn’t really want to have it that way.
"You’d want to take a proper approach to designing those scenes, otherwise you’d see the same scene. So we kind of pulled back and looked at where we had to draw the line in terms of how much content we make," Hudson added. OK, so it's more of a 'we have to do it justice' kind of thing, right? "We still view [Mass Effect 2] as... if you’re picturing a PG-13 action movie. That’s how we’re trying to design it. So that’s why the love interest is relatively light."
Oh. Never mind. Well, what does Dr. Muzyka say about the whole situation? After all, Dragon Age: Origins allowed same-sex relationships.
"Sometimes, in some of our games, we are going to have a defined character with a more defined view. Almost like a third-person narrative -- where Mass Effect is more in that vein, Dragon Age isn’t in that vein; you could see the differences between the two," Muzyka said.
"It’s just part of the design and the choices made for each game. It doesn’t mean that we’ve in anyway changed our philosophy toward enabling choice. We love giving players choice, and we are going to continue to enable that for future games."
So essentially, you can't have gay relationships in Mass Effect 2 because the canon and the cultural 'system' that BioWare has written really quite frowns upon it. Man, the future is kind of closed minded, isn't it? Of course, Muzyka could have meant something else entirely - your guess is as good as ours, really. Care to take a punt in the comments box below?
Did that answer your question as to why homosexuality doesn't exist in Mass Effect 2, then? Yeah, didn't think so. It was worth a shot though.
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Comments
alexh2o 6 Apr 2010 15:37
1/2
Perhaps.. just maybe.. Jacob, Thane, Garrus, Grunt and Mordin are all straight and didnt want a same sex relationship? (The same going for the female characters)
I guess they should have the option but seriously Id much rather they concentrated on core gameplay mechanics than an arbitrary, linear relationship that seems to be included just to appeal to 14yo boys.
The relationships should be complicated and include factors such as frequency of communication and game inclusion progress, along with variation in aspects of attractiveness. For example, a character may be put off by constant 'nagging' or turned on by a 'bad boy' attitude. Include the spontaneous [LT]/[RT] events to 'make your move' and see if it works.
As it stands, spamming the Paragon answers whilst they tell you about their 'troubled past' until they finally let you dry hump them in full armour isnt my definition of a relationship, and as such the whole same sex thing is again just arbitrary.
I guess they should have the option but seriously Id much rather they concentrated on core gameplay mechanics than an arbitrary, linear relationship that seems to be included just to appeal to 14yo boys.
The relationships should be complicated and include factors such as frequency of communication and game inclusion progress, along with variation in aspects of attractiveness. For example, a character may be put off by constant 'nagging' or turned on by a 'bad boy' attitude. Include the spontaneous [LT]/[RT] events to 'make your move' and see if it works.
As it stands, spamming the Paragon answers whilst they tell you about their 'troubled past' until they finally let you dry hump them in full armour isnt my definition of a relationship, and as such the whole same sex thing is again just arbitrary.
Brenden 8 Apr 2010 00:01
2/2
I personally think that Same Sex relationships in Mass Effect 2 would have been fair. You know not only Straight people, or heterosexuals are going to play this right? I think that a relationship between Shephard( male ) and ( for example ) Garrus might have been odd because...Well yhou never really would have known" Oh wow Garrus WAS gay " Well yeah I can See how that would be hard to be put in a game. But if would have the same dialogue but, just change just alittle bit. Like Female Shephard and Garrus, instead of Garrus Commenting on Shephards hair, he could comment on How he is dressed, or How he looks in a way.