Why would inclusivity cause offense to any rational person?
Because we live in the era of hate politics, where societies are being divided and conquered by populism’s of bigotry. Inclusivity counters that.
See, the problem is that none of these people are rational.
What I can’t get over is the idea of “You can do homosexuality in Mass Effect!?” when to have any romantic affair in the game you need to try and do it. If you’re against Homosexuality and you are a male Shepard and you have sex with Garrus, you had to fucking try to have sex with Garrus. You didn’t just press a button and butt fuck that sexy Turian. You spent hours seducing him.
but we were just very close platonic friends!! And I accidentally hit the buttsex button!
Then its halal.
To be honest, something like this can actually happen!
In Baldur’s Gate 3, I accidentally had very gay sex with an incubus by selecting a wrong option by mistake…
To be fair, that particular demon could change their sex at will, so maybe it’s not a great comparison.I mean, as long as you didn’t fuck Mizora.
That means that you are now gay for life. You will surely go to hell. Oh, actually I think you have already been ;)
something like this can actually happen
Heh, reminds me of some reactions when Cyberpunk 2077 players don’t realise that Ángel is a male Spanish name and accidentally hire a male doll at Clouds (or a female one if they pick Skye by elimination thinking that Ángel must be female; in any case, the opposite of what they were looking for).
Of course there’s no sex in that scene because V is working and has too many things in their head (both literally and metaphorically), only intimacy, but still, it can be a bit of a shock, apparently.
Party members are always throwing themselves at you in Baldur’s Gate 3.
In Lae’zel’s case, literally.
Romancing Shadowheart was really difficult. But very rewarding. Out of all the romance options, though, I had the most fun with Karlach’s romance plot. It was emotionally healing, especially if you’re playing as Wyll.
Romancing Shadowheart was difficult
Unless you played during launch… Month? Basically any friendship threshold above “hates your guts” (which is easy to achieve because she “Approves” of a lot of no-brainer “good default” options) had Shart wanting to bone you at the earliest possible romance opportunity. I think Gale similarly got patched to be less eager.
Yes, I too ship Wyllach!
Wyllach is OTP
Yeah, Gale went from homie to horny real fuckin quick.
I was playing as a halfling when I first came to the scene where Gale shoots his shot with the magic show, and as someone who’s normally the largest person in the room, it made me viscerally feel UNSAFE in ways I can’t experience in real life.
I guess you suffer from it still and are now gay.
/s
“I tripped and fell on my keyboard and mouse and while they were in there they accidentally progressed the dialogue trees that make you have gay sex.”
Minus the gay part, I would believe that if I heard it in the context of the first ME, it all takes three polite conversations
(or was it four? idr, does Liara’s mission count?)
The amount of people that got up in arms about KCD2 having a totally optional gay romance options, that gives you multiple, explicit options to abort (which doesn’t happen with some of the hetero flings…) but it was too much for them.
Worse there are ghouls arguing that Boltgun 2 is ‘woke’ since it has an optional female protagonist.
I certainly hope the pendulum starts swinging back soon, this is all getting out of hand.
Holy shit, there’s a boltgun 2? And you can play as a sororitas?? Sign me the fuck up, thank you for mentioning it.
Your daily reminder that Grindr servers break when the Republican National Convention is in town.
I’m pretty sure the only same sex romance options are Femshep and Liara, your admin assistant in ME2 (kinda), and then your admin assistant and shuttle driver in ME3. You can’t even romance Jack as Femshep.
I think Kaidan is also an option for MShep in ME3? Maybe I’m wrong, I just pick Tali every time.
The Femshep gay options SUCK. Far as I know they planned for more, but had to tone it down for the very first Mass Effect game already. Puritan ass fucking Americans are not better than the Saudis!
And Liara barely counts because her species doesn’t even have a biological sex. They all just appear female compared to humans and so that’s how they tend to identify when working with sexually dimorphic races.
I was always a bit disappointed that there was no option to romance Garrus as Male Shep. One would think that gender comes secondary to species in terms of sexual preferences, but apparently not.
It’s Saudi Arabia. They’re basically in the dark ages with the oil money to buy modern infrastructure. It’s an absolute monarchy, You get the death penalty for being any flavor of queer, It’s a surveillance state. They literally sent a kill squad into a foreign nation to (successfully) brutally murder a journalist. We don’t hear it much because of all the other constant noise in the digital world but they’re not good people. Everyone turns a blind eye because they have that sweet sweet oil and since like the 70s the US has been on it’s knees for them.
Don’t get me wrong here. It’s a very nice looking place but it’s built on some of the most terrible human rights abuses you can name.
They have almost open slavery. It’s not a good place. The fact that they were allowed to buy EA at all is a problem.
So kinda like what a lot of Republicans want for the US?
That’s were our presidents advisor lives so yes.
They are religious people. Why do you call them rational?
A bit of a sensationalized headline, considering BioWare was only asked to remove a flag which resembled an LGBT flag in the game. IMO that is a bit different from “removing inclusivity,” which does a lot of heavy lifting. I mean, ignoring that this happens all the time for games sold in the region of Arabia (and maybe also China, but I am not sure about that, though I do know marketing materials are often altered for the CN region to make certain race characters less prominent such as Disney’s Star Wars The Force Awakens making John Boyega less prominent in marketing materials, for example).
Personally, I don’t really see why there would even be any flags at all in a Mass Effect game in the first place. In the original 3 games it seemed that humanity as a whole had advanced beyond the need, desire, or use of flags as representative of people or their identities. I cannot recall any of the first 3 ME games having any, and BioWare made the romance options not care about the gender of the player character. NPCs in the games didn’t seem to care about it, really, so I don’t understand why the flag would have existed in the first place. For the same reason I would wonder why any current country flag would appear in the game either, I just don’t remember any flags at all. Perhaps I am misremembering and just forgot about one somewhere.
To that end, IMO including any flags at all would seem like a regression of human society compared to the first three ME games, unless the cancelled ME took place in a human timeline very close to our current year. It just seemed humanity had advanced beyond the use of flags entirely, which I would imagine most space-faring civilizations would. I am not praising EA here, I am just confused as to why the situation happened in the first place, considering the established lore of the series.
It’s a galaxy filled with warfare and warring factions and you think there can’t possibly be any flags or insignia?
Well that isnt what I said. I said to me it would feel out of place because I dont remember there being flags in the other games like that. So it confused me why this situation would happen in the first place, that’s all.
Perhaps I am unable to use the correct words to adequately describe my thoughts, which is way they end up being misinterpreted. It wouldn’t be the first time. My apologies for this.
No alcohol. No exposed ankles. No gays.
natural allies of western civilization somehow
Is it ok to dismember journalists while they’re still alive though?
Hilariously, one of the parts of Mass Effect that hasn’t aged super well is a running joke across all three games where you (a decorated military figure) can punch out a news reporter for trying to make you look bad on the news. To the point where if you do it in 1 and 2, she dodges in 3 but you can react to a prompt to headbutt her and walk away with her slumped against a wall.
The paragon options for dealing with her include responding to her goading question about military losses caused by your decision by being a good brave little soldier and listing the names of the ships lost in the action.
Ok sure, but beating the reporter is the bad option in those scenes, just to be clear.
Only if you keep the dismembered ankles covered up.
No smoking, no swearing and no ALIEN SEX!
Could they use AI to reverse engineer all of the EA games like they did with the Adobe apps? I mean, if there are any companies who deserve it, companies doing things like this absolutely do.
what are you even asking? what would such “reverse engineered EA games” look like?
You are aware that people have been using AI to resurrect old games for current modern platforms, right?
That regardless of what all of the people who downvoted me and upvoted you happen to think, I did not in fact just pull this idea out of my ass, and that people have been doing this?
but they already work, I don’t see the point.
Reminds me of the Wukong scandal where the devs forbade sponsored influencers to talk about feminism among other “too political” subjects.
This really puts me off purchasing a game from people capable of that kind of censorship.
This really puts me off purchasing a game from people capable of that kind of censorship.
A reminder that if you buy any game developed or published by EA, you’re funding this kind of hate.
That had nothing to do with inclusivity: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/28/black-myth-wukong-game-controversy-china-streamers
At this point I’m genuinely concerned you might be functionally illiterate. The comment you replied to doesn’t mention inclusivity at all, the story we’re commenting on reminded them of the wukong story.
He literally posted this as a reply to a story about inclusivity by EA. It reminds him, and I posted an article to clear up that Wukong had nothing to do with inclusivity issue. If he posted an off-topic reply, then my explanation is needed, so others understand what is happening.
But, I WANT offense. I WANT those people uncomfortable. So let’s do more not less, kthx.
Man EA is a given to boycott. No peer-pressure or 10/10 reviews is going to change that for me. Since the days of the endless yearly sports games in the 90s it was clear they’re c🤘nts
Don’t forget the “we don’t want to pay sega a licensing fee despite selling games at the same price so we’re making our own genesis cartridges” as well.
We live in a world where people with money can buy and do anything as they want without having to deal with any consequences… shouldn’t we do something about it? And I mean 10 years ago at least
Sure.
Stop seeing their money as valuable, and convince others to do the same.
Don’t accept money for anything outside of work. Only accept things of value. And when possible, don’t offer money for things. Offer things of value, or work, or trades.
Because the money’s not actually valuable. They’re intentionally devaluing it so that they can be the only ones with enough left to have anything considered wealth.
If the population devalues the currency, that creates all kinds of problems.
Its insane. Billionaires are ruining absolutely everything and monopolizing everything and turning everything into a propaganda arm for fascism which obviously is exactly what they want (to increase the power and wealth gap between themselves and everyone else). This is why people should be aggressively against censorship because the only way to defeat them is by allowing as many outside voices in as many possible areas as possible without giving the billionaires abilities and tools to silence them.
That is the gayest shit I heard men who are homophobic do. ITS A SPECIES OF FEMALE ONLY BEINGS , THAT HAPPEN TO LOOK LIKE SEXY BLUE WOMEN. THEY NEED TO FIND MATES FOR GENETIC CONTRIBUTIONS. In the words of zap branagan “what are ya queer or something?”
the curtain drops on the entire strategy for why so much money is being invested in US media, games, news and sports by outsiders
The inclusion of marginalized groups of people has never been the problem in games. It’s the preachy, political language that often comes with it. Mass Effect 3 featured a gay character, but there was no accompanying political language following him around. He was just a character who happened to be gay, and no one gave a shit.
It’s the preachy, political language that often comes with it.
I personally would love to hear your examples of this.
Please… Go on…
Against my better judgment, since you seem to be trying to set me up for your judgment, I’ll cite the recent Dragon Age RPG—The veilguard. There’s a trans character in that who is insufferably preachy.
If you eat to tell me that character is completely fine and anyone who complains is just being bigoted, just know I think you’re the one who’s nuts.
Was the character preachy because she was trans? Or was she just a preachy character and she was written that way who happened to be trans.
I know a lot of trans folk. I’m married to one and one of my girlfriends is. I certainly know trans people who are just assholes in real life because that’s who they are as people. They just also happen to be trans.
Most well adjusted people can completely separate the two. Clearly you cannot as one “preachy character” in one game caused you to have an opinion such as “It’s the preachy, political language that often comes with it.”.
Games cannot have marginalized characters in them for you because one poorly written character who happened to be trans caused you to assume all marginalized characters as “preachy”.
Yeah, see, I knew you weeee setting this up.
I know a lot of trans people too, plenty of whom I have good relationships with. You assume I can’t tell the difference between a trans person simply being themselves versus a trans person preaching political talking points on trans issues because you’re bigoted. I know the difference and have plenty of tolerance for trans people. There’s a difference between being trans and shoving political opinions down people’s throats every chance you get, and the fact that you can’t tell the difference is the real problem.
The fact you use the phrase “have plenty of tolerance for trans people” says you don’t respect trans people. You just tolerate their existence.
I would hate for them to see who I would assume is a friend of their to say “I tolerate their existence”.
You’re genuinely a horrible person. And no one is “shoving political opinions” down your throat. Trans people exist and have the right to exist. If their existence is political, you’re a fucking asshole.
There are plenty of examples of immature and brash teenagers struggling with parental expectations in video games. An easy example is Atreus in God of War. He is a little punk for the most part and Kratos interacts with him with barely suppressed exasperation. That game is widely loved.
Taash is nonbinary so their coming of age story will naturally have elements about their gender identity. There is really only one conversation where that identity is one of the main topics. Other personal conversations are about their complicated relationship with their mother, trying to fit in especially after being raised in a different culture, and dragons. Standard topics for a young adult learning to navigate the world.
TLDR: if you complain about Taash but don’t complain about other stories with teenage angst or think those other characters are well written but not this one you can’t relate to, it’s because you’re bigoted.
I know plenty of trans people and their coming of age stories. Most don’t behave the way Taash does in the game. They’re a political mouthpiece, not a representative of trans people. If anything, you’re the one alleging all trans people have this narrative, in this specific voice, with this specific rhetoric. Your comment honestly seems performative.
Do you believe that character spends their entire time in the game proselytizing about their sex or are you saying this just because they have one in-depth conversation about it where they state their opinions?
There was a lot more wrong with the writing than one poorly managed character. Nobody cared about cortez because the mass effect trilogy is a certified banger. It’s just too bad that by the time dragon age came along bioware didn’t have the chops to produce a proper compelling narrative any longer. The tumultuous development didn’t help things. The writing is just the most obvious thing to point at.
I want to preface this with I fully support LGBTQ+ rights, I think they’re human rights, and I’d rather see preachy inclusion than no inclusion or attacks on LGBTQ+ people.
That said, I can’t think of an example in games but if you’re familiar with Doctor Who then Rose Noble (Donna Nobles’ daughter) from the 60th anniversary specials is I think an example I see often held up as preachy inclusion instead of just inclusion; especially since it comes after what I think is a better handling of it in the same show.
Explanation for those who haven't seen, spoilered for those catching up on show still
In the episode (The Star Beast), Donna’s daughter is trans, portrayed by a trans actress (side note, I need to watch Cassie Workman Is Witchy AF, I hear the trans representation in there is fantastic and that it’s a good show).
Towards the end of the episode the show takes like ten minutes to stop and preach that she’s trans and it’s good. One of the actual lines (talking to the Doctor) is
“DONNA: And you know nothing. It’s a shame you’re not a woman any more, cos she’d have understood.
ROSE: We’ve got all that power, but there is a way to get rid of it. Something a male-presenting Time Lord will never understand.”They make a big deal about them being nonbinary and woman and the last ten minutes of the episode feel like a sermon about how we should be more open and it’s okay to be trans.
In the context of the episode it killed momentum, wasn’t really telegraphed ahead of time, and just kind of felt like the writer wanted to preach about trans inclusion.
This in a show where, as referenced, the doctor has been both a man and then a woman already and handles that transition in a less preachy manner. With Jodie Whittaker as the doctor they still talked about (in episode dialogues) how she was going to handle things differently than her male predecessors. The male to female transition was part of the show without just preaching about the gender change. The transition was the story without having to stop and flag itself as a good thing we needed to accept and understand.
The whole series had a gay character in my playthrough
I remember outrage when people found out Jack wasn’t gay.
Why the fuck would any rational person buy a game from EA. That company hasn’t produced a decent game in almost a decade.
Hey Titanfall 2 was really good! Wait it’s been exactly 10 years? Fuck.
Jokes aside, the Jedi games were pretty good imo. Can’t say the same about anything else though to be honest.
It Takes Two was pretty amazing, and they published that (though Hazelight Studios developed it).
Turns out this was not actually true according to reports from today.
Then would you like to share your notes with the class?
Oh that’s wonderful. Saying “the flags weren’t in the game to begin with”.
Why weren’t the flags in a game years in development to begin with? I wonder what executive decisions were made in board meetings that prevented the graphics artists from implementing them in the build?
Hmmm… Just a mystery. Must be completely fake news. Those damn trans queers and their fabrication
I don’t know anything about Mass Effect myself, is it normal that the flags are in the series in general?
Toning down inclusivity offfends me.
Do you have a shitload of money? Then they don’t care.
I want more optional homosexual romance in my games, not less!
If these people think Homosexuality is a choice, then let people choose to have a straight relationship or a gay relationship. If they’re so hellbent on sexuality being a choice, they’ll just intentionally avoid all the homosexual romance options throughout the game, right…?
Right…?
Sure but they only care about not offending the right people.
Called it (not that it took a crystal ball or anything.) the day the EA+PIF news came out. I had just wrapped up playing the ME series and Dragonage games, said it out loud to my spouse. Saudi Arabia sucks camel balls and chops up reporters.
