When I interviewed David Gaider for a series of Dragon Age II-related previews, he seemed a charming, soft spoken, and intelligent writer with a passion for role-playing games. Imagine my surprise, then, to see the bespectacled scribe destroy a proposed "No Homo" mode.
On the BioWare forums, Dragon Age fan Baltas accused the developers of short-changing the "Straight Male Gamer" by including four gender-neutral love options in the game. To clarify: each of Dragon Age II's romance options are omnivorous, flirting with both male and female Hawkes, something Baltas finds "awkward." He feels that the romance options in the game were primarily designed with gay and lesbian fans in mind and that "straight male gamers [were] a secondary concern."
(It's worth noting, though, that Sebastian Vael, the extra companion included in the "Exiled Prince" DLC is heterosexual.)
Baltas concedes that male Hawkes could have heterosexual encounters with both Isabella and Merrill, but complains that they "are what one would call "exotic" choices. They appeal to a subset of male gamers and while it is true you can't make a romance option everyone will love, with Isabella and Merrill it seems like they weren't even going for an option most males will like."
Ignoring the fact that Isabella is hardly "exotic" -- I'm pretty sure that white women with tans and huge breasts are pretty much de rigeur -- Baltas' real triumph is his lamenting the lack of a "No Homosexuality" option, which, apparently, "could have been easily implemented."
After laying some ground rules about trolling and flaming, lead writer David Gaider starts dropping truthbombs:
"The romances in the game are not for 'the straight male gamer'. They're for everyone. We have a lot of fans, many of whom are neither straight nor male, and they deserve no less attention. We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in DA:O ... and that's ignoring the idea that they don't have just as much right to play the kind of game they wish as anyone else. The "rights" of anyone with regards to a game are murky at best, but anyone who takes that stance must apply it equally to both the minority as well as the majority. The majority has no inherent "right" to get more options than anyone else.
"And if there is any doubt why such an opinion might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as "political correctness" if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They're so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don't see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what's everyone's fuss all about? That's the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want."
And Gaider's coup de grace: "And the person who says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is, if you ask me, the one who deserves it least. And that's my opinion, expressed as politely as possible."
Maybe I'm a sexual chameleon since I always roll female protagonists and end up banging guys, but it's never crossed my mind that BioWare games aren't straight enough.
But Gaider continues, citing development costs as another good reason to let Dragon Age II be all-inclusive:
"The truth is that making a romance available for both genders is far less costly than creating an entirely new one. Does it create some issues of implementation? Sure -- but anything you try on this front is going to have its issues, and inevitably you'll always leave someone out in the cold. In this case, are all straight males left out in the cold? Not at all. There are romances available for them just the same as anyone else. Not all straight males require that their content be exclusive..."
And finally, Gaider addresses -- albeit tangentially -- something that bothered me about Anders: he comes on way too strong at the beginning of the game.
"Would I do it again? I don't know. I doubt I would have Anders make the first move again -- at the time, I thought that requiring all romances to have Hawke initiate everything was the unrealistic part. Even if someone decides that this makes everyone "unrealistically" bisexual, however, or they can't handle the idea that the character might be bisexual if they were another PC ... I don't see that as a big concern, to be honest.
Romances are never one-size-fits-all, and even for those who don't mind the sexuality issue there's no guarantee they'll find a character they even want to romance. That's why romances are optional content. It's such a personal issue that we'll never be able to please everyone. The very best we can do is give everyone a little bit of choice, and that's what we tried here."
While I appreciate Gaider coming down to mix it up with the riff-raff -- and gay-baiting on a videogame forum certainly constitutes riff-raff -- can we stop and talk about the kind of sexual parallel universe Hawke lives in? If you roll a male Hawke, Anders is gay; if you're a female Hawke, he's straight.
Simple as that.
BioWare Negelcted Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer [BioWare Social Network via Phyrra]
Contest:
10:30 PM on 03.24.2011 | 
Seriously!? Let me just come right out and say this: even IF what this idiot forum poster is saying is true, and 'straight male gamers are a secondary concern' in DAII, then he should JUST FUCKING DEAL WITH IT like homosexual and heterosexual female gamers have been dealing with for YEARS.
Nearly every game that has had romance options, and definitely ALL of Bioware's titles up until DAII, has given homosexual gamers the fucking shaft and made heterosexual male gamers the primary concern. If DAII's writer decided to finally through homosexual (and hell, heterosexual female) gamers a bone and make them the primary concern FOR ONCE, he can just fucking deal with it LIKE WE HAVE.
It's a stupid debate to begin with, but yes, I did notice that all four possible romance options were bisexual and yes I did dwell on that thought long enough to concoct the aforementioned explanation.
To be fair, DA:O offered gay and lesbian options too, but yeah, I take your point and you're absolutely right.
Seriousy!? Let me just come out and say this: you mad bro.
Again, not criticizing what's there, but hold the shock and surprise bit please. Or as the internets would say....I see what you did there.
Then again, I play female characters in RPGs, so Dragon Age games have really hooked me up with a plethora of palatable options.
Also insane: One of the first/most popular mods? Lightening Isabela's skin color because it was extremely urgent that a sex interest be blond hair, white skin, and blue eyes. Thanks gaming world.
If it's possible to pursue any kind of relationship I want it to be hidden from me. Kind of like Samara in ME:2.
On-topic, homophobes can go fuck themselves.
So, I dunno, everyone I hear keeps saying there's this "unrealistic" level of bisexuality in all these characters but by whose standards? By your 21st century English speaking standards? Who is to say that's the same in this complete fantasy world? Break your standard, enter a different time and place where things are different, if it makes you uncomfortable well sucks to be you. Buck up buddy. You're not in Kansas anymore.
And fucking good on David Gaider. That fucker was spot on. I get everyone's new hobby is whining about Dragon Age II (if it's anything like the first one I don't blame you) but this shit is stupid. You're fighting fucking dragons with magic. Don't tell me what the "realistic" sexual characteristics are in this fantasy land.
Rather than complaining about romances swinging both ways, why not complain about the actual writing? If the Electric Hydra podcast episode that covered DAII is true, and by God I can't see why it wouldn't be, the issue is that the writing was so shoddy that you couldn't even be nice to another male character (while playing as a male) without them coming on to you...or you onto them.
That's just stupid. Forget the homo erotic elements. That's not important. If that's what you want than fine, but they shouldn't appear just because you were nice/supportive of a guy. I mean, you can support another person without wanting to sex them up.
Now that is something to argue. From reading reviews and comments. It seems that DAII tried to do too much or too little with the dialog this time around.
"You're fighting fucking dragons with magic. Don't tell me what the "realistic" sexual characteristics are in this fantasy land."
Spot on.
To be fair, everyone's complained about that too. They're just not getting frontpage'd.
To be double fair, Bioware has responded to them too. Bioware has actually been surprisingly vocal to their critics. Especially in the face of a launch that would inevitably be commercially successful regardless.
This is absolutely not a statement on homosexuality, but what you wrote (or repeated from a class) is flatly false. I mean, flag-waving, fireworks blowing, horn honkingly false. Hell, the whole 'going Greek' bit was a risible theme in many Roman-era plays.
While social anthropology is not my discipline, and I'm not especially versed in post-Dark Ages Middle East or sub-Saharan African societies, my department often schedules/holds classes on historical gender-social issues. To say that there was no social stigma attached to, or distinction of, (male) homosexuality until the 20th century is simply bizarre. If a professor told you that at the college level, and there's no more context here, that's terrible on their part.
Male and female romantic options in Fantasy and Sci-Fi-themed games are just plain dull. Bring on the robots, hermaphrodites and beast-people already!
I'm not saying there absolutely was no stigma ever. I DEFINITELY do not want to give the impression that I'm making a blanket statement. I'm not stupid. I know where the term "flaming f*ggot" comes from. But such cultures did exist. That's my point. What we know and consider a standard now is not how it has always been everywhere.
And yeah, one of his contextual examples was Greek society.
I think it's a refreshing change to see Bioware give people who enjoy playing gay characters a chance to do so, as its not like they get to often. It would just be nice not to be penalized, albeit what turned out to be an insignificant amount over the course of the game, for turning down Anders' advance, since as far as I could tell, it was unavoidable. It's also kind of a strange retcon to make Anders bi, since I've played Awakening 3 times through and he's only ever alluded to interest in settling down with gals, but there are so much bigger things to complain about in Dragon Age 2 than that.
I know that I would like to see more relationships closer to my reality in games, but I would honestly prefer that the writers just write what they can be convincing about. It's not like I've never seen either option.
Good for BioWare calling this troll out.
Never crossed my mind a straight male gamer would be opposed to lesbian scenes. Guess he didn't like Black Swan either.
now if they could just make the game fun and not a chore. they could have also introduced some kind of in game tutorials, i cannot figure out how to make it a more turn based affair.
hey, there's an idea! a turn based rpg for this generation that also allows choice. i hate that jrpg devs think turn based is dead, its time a wrpg dev owns that gold. fallout is the dam closest, and that's not nearly a shame, considering the top down fallouts were turn based.
Deliberate trolling doesn't belong here. Go back to 4chan, mate.
How revolutionary would it be if Elder Scrolls 5 had same-sex relationships regardless of what race the player character is?
That's the real story here as all things Dragon Age II scream 'rush-job'. The game is smaller in both scope and scale, it's riddled with bugs, and is absolutely built around fleecing gamers with DLC.
BioWare wasn't exercising some well-intentioned notion of fairness in sexual preferences...they just made everybody bisexual because it was easier, faster, and cheaper to do so.
Soon to be announced: "Straight Male Gamer DLC" It's laughable until you realize that not only could they do just that but that that douchebag on their forums would cough-up $10 for it and he wouldn't be alone in doing so.
But then again everything falls neatly around this Hawke guy/gal so I guess that's that.
"You're fighting fucking dragons with magic. Don't tell me what the "realistic" sexual characteristics are in this fantasy land."
Best thing I have read all day. Thanks!
As a Bioware example Kaiden in Mass Effect 1 was straight because he was a straight male. This was a portion of his character that remained consistent through every run throughout. He didn't get sprinkled with magic dust and become gay if you decided to hit on him. If he had have been gay that would have been fine too OR if he was bisexual this would be fine also but if he's straight one game and gay in another...that just doesn't work with me. Personally I like to try different approaches against the same characters not have the game meld them to my desires.
Then again, when I played the game? I felt the same way. Every character is bisexual. You're practically forced into a romance with Anders. As a straight male gamer, I did feel left out. My only real options were a mentally retarded girl and a walking STD farm who doesn't actually give a shit about my character--she'll bang anything, as evidenced by her hitting on Zevran even after you've begun a relationship with her.
I could argue real anthropological reasons why homosexuality wouldn't be common then, but there's no point. I didn't mind it in DAO: You had Branka and Hespith, Wade and whatshisname, Leliana, and Zevran. You had plenty of straight relationships, and the proportions were fairly realistic. In DA2, it felt like nearly every relationship shown in the game was, in fact, gay.
I did feel somewhat left out. One frustration I had about the game was "after a wonderful beginning that everyone could enjoy, the sequel doesn't really feel like it's interested in catering to straight male gamers any more."
I am a straight male gamer. As a result, I did not engage in the "gay" relations that were available. But the fact that they were available disadvantages me how? In what way? How is optional gay romances a "neglect" of straight gamers? Straight romances are also available. Having more choice is not "neglect". I don't understand how these people think - it's like when White people claimed they were being "disadvantaged" or "repressed" when Blacks were given more rights in the 60's and 70's.
I am not gay. I don't care if other people are. How does their orientation, their activities, affect you? It doesn't. You just want the right to hate those who are different, demand that they hide themselves, and you whinge and cry when you can't.
Well, I am content in the knowledge that people like you are on the losing side of history. Like with the racists who (laughably) claimed that whites were somehow being "oppressed" if blacks were given equal rights (and some still adamantly maintain that argument even today), you're going to get whackjobs who will claim that if you give gays equal rights, somehow that hurts them. Somehow. They never say how it hurts them, they just say it does.
You don't have a right to marginalize others because you might feel "uncomfortable" around them.
And really, gays make you feel "uncomfortable"? What are you, 10? GROW UP! Grow a fucking spine you cowards. You call yourselves men, but all I see are a bunch of pansies who are afraid of the "horrible" prospect of being approached by a gay person. You know what? I was approached by a gay person who did ask me out! I wasn't horrified, dumbstruck or petrified. I simply said "No thanks, I'm not gay" and went on with my life! You see, I'm a mature person, a "Big Boy" if you will. Evidently it seems that many of you aren't - still clinging to the old school-boy hysteria of "the gays" being in your midst, as if they have some sort of mystical gay beam that can make you not straight. Get over yourselves. Gays have been killed, beaten up, discriminated against for so very, very long. When that was happening, the straight population (including myself) shamefully said NOTHING. And they did NOTHING. For so long. Now that gays finally have proper rights, NOW you're complaining and whinging? You just hate them. Come on, fess up. Stop being a coward and say what really lurks in your heart: hate for those who are different from you.
You're no better than racists. You just direct your hate at something other than skin colour. It doesn't make it any better.
DA2 was a poorly written game littered with shortcuts.
The internet applauds you this day, sir, for Cutting Through the Bullshit and telling It exactly what It is.
Shits just selfish to always expect them to do so.
I still don't understand how you feel "left out". Heterosexual males still got two romance options. Sure, how appealing they are to you will always be subjective from person to person... but how do you think gay and lesbian gamers felt in DA:O? We got one option. I didn't like Zevran at all, and preferred Alistair immensely. But did that matter? No. Because the fact that we got SOMETHING was enough for the gay community to appreciate the scraps given to us. Even being on the lesser end of the spectrum, we didn't complain about being left out.
Which is why I don't understand the complaint of being left out... Now that we're shockingly on equal grounds here, you're getting the shaft? Why are you now the 'lesser' when the options and representation is now EQUAL as opposed to one being under-represented?
Better point: The love scenes in BioWare games are embarrassing to even witness let alone play through and you people should by trying to actively avoid them at all costs.