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7:28 PM on 04.30.2007, Chad Concelmo 33 comments

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Sometimes controversy pops up in the most unlikely of places -- even Middle-earth.

When approached by Salon with the issue of why same-sex marriage is not allowed in the recently released MMO Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, a designer from Turbine (the game’s developer) had this to say:

The rule that we tried to follow across the board was: if there's an example of it in the book, the door is open to explore it. Very rarely will you see an elf and a human hook up, but it does happen; the door is open. Dwarves don't intermarry with hobbits; that door is shut ... Did two male hobbits ever hook up in the shire and have little hobbit civil unions? No. The door is shut.

But aren’t people buying this game to be able to do whatever they want and expand their experiences beyond those found in the book? Who wants boundaries in their MMOs?

Of course, all real world topics cannot be addressed in the context of a video game. Things would end up a convoluted mess and more than a little preachy.

I would never want Middle-earth to be plagued with global warming, forcing all of your elves and orcs to have to recycle in order to maintain a healthy virtual environment. But at the same time, I do feel like designers have some moral responsibility to include some real life issues in their games, especially concerning MMOs, since players are more or less playing a fictionalized counterpart of themselves.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation is already a problem in online gaming. Words like “faggot” and “gay” are commonplace, even heard during something as harmless as a round of UNO on Xbox Live. Who knew playing a Draw Four made you a homosexual? Quick, someone warn Mattel!

The main issue here is not that Turbine avoided any effort to make its Lord of the Rings MMO more gay friendly (that would be silly) – it is that they made a blatant effort to make it less accessible by taken out the option of same-sex marriage.

Why was it taken out? Do the people at Turbine think it too wrong or disgusting to include? Maybe not, but then why not offer the option? At some point someone had to make the call that it wasn’t appropriate for the final product. Saying that it “wasn’t in the book” seems like the easy answer. Hell, anti-gay activists say a marriage between two people of the same sex is not it their “book” either and does that make them right?

Waving a big liberal flag about this issue doesn’t solve anything and, honestly, all parties involved may have had no intention of discriminating against anyone. Ironically, the producers at Turbine may have taken same-sex marriage out to avoid all of this hullabaloo in the first place. But the intentional exclusion of something like this raises some interesting questions that really should be addressed.

Video games are one of the most successful forms of entertainment, even grossing more than the film industry the last two years. With that many people playing (even living) these games, what kind of mass message does the industry send with a decision like this? Should we, as a generation of gamers, even waste our time worrying about it? If we want people to respect video games as more than mindless entertainment I think we do.

If two male hobbits want to get married in virtual Middle-earth, honestly, who are we to stop them? Heck, haven’t worldwide audiences and respected Oscar voters accepted it already?


Next page: More Gay friendly stories




Campbell's Avatar
Campbell at 04/30/2007 19:37
My IQ dropped at least 35 points after reading this garbage.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 04/30/2007 19:39


They're not gay. They're hobbits

Personally, I don't think anyone should be allowed to get married in an MMO, simply because it shows that you are a sad, sad person by doing so.
Dexter345's Avatar
Dexter345 at 04/30/2007 19:50
Mxyzptlk, that's what I was thinking. The Clerks II thing, not the other thing. Wait, actually, yeah, the other thing too.
Ignignokt01's Avatar
Ignignokt01 at 04/30/2007 19:51
If you get 'married' in an MMO,

you ARE gay.
AKK's Avatar
AKK at 04/30/2007 20:02
I think the fact that it was deliberately disallowed is a problem more than the fact that it can't happen.

If they hadn't at some point said "GAYS! LOL! FUCK THEM" (which they obviously did, it's not in the book? Bullshit, look at Sam and Frodo.) Then it wouldn't be an issue, the fact that they did say that at some point means that we should go to their headquarters and burn it the fuck down. Then they'll learn what it's like to be a flaming homo[sapien]

BUWAHAHAHAHA!

Fuckers...
Hamza CTZ Aziz's Avatar
Hamza CTZ Aziz at 04/30/2007 20:05
DJ Duffy: You're a lesbian?!?! OMFG, that is soooo hot. Seriously. K, I'm done, bai!
DJDuffy 's Avatar
DJDuffy at 04/30/2007 20:05
@ Ignignokt01

Wow, derogatory much?
MechaMonkey's Avatar
MechaMonkey at 04/30/2007 20:07
MMOM = Massively Multiplayer Online Marriage

Just marry everyone to everyone else, and nobody can complain. Until all 3,500,000 of your wives start nagging you about how late you're staying out, and how you never take any of them anywhere, or how you never buy them flowers, and how you're not paying enough attention to them... And then, "Are you millions of men you even listening? That's it, you're all sleeping on the couch tonight."

Ugh, nevermind. Online marriage FTL.
bleep's Avatar
bleep at 04/30/2007 20:15
Thats gay.....
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 04/30/2007 20:26
Ocelot's Avatar
Ocelot at 04/30/2007 21:13
Wow. Umm... Yeah. I don't play MMOs to do anything I want. You can't do anything you want. In any video game. In GTA you could screw a hooker then run her over in the car you screwed her in and get your money back. But I couldn't cut her head off and use it as a hood ornament, could I? Nope. And I would have. You want those unlimited options, you have to play a pnp d6 or d20 game. There are lots of them. And GM willing, you could be homosexual there. The only reason this is an issue is because homosexuality is currently controversial and until it is completely accepted, it will be allowed in a very few amount of games. African Americans have been waiting for their fair share in movies (and elsewhere) and they're still waiting. Women have been waiting for their fair share of video game characters worth playing and they're still waiting. Something tells me that homosexuality has a long way to go too.
B-Radicate's Avatar
B-Radicate at 04/30/2007 21:16
i agree with hipple wholeheartedly. why aren't blacks and chinese and latinos and muslims upset? they aren't present in the game. i don't see them complaining. i'm all for gay marriage, but i don't think not including it in a game is enough to get all uppity about it.
Magesx's Avatar
Magesx at 04/30/2007 21:20
No gay marriage in an online video game?

Suck it up. This isn't the real wold.
chronohart's Avatar
chronohart at 04/30/2007 22:01
There should be no problems with Turbine not including same-sex marriage in their game... that just so happens to be BASED off of a world that has NO MENTION of same-sex marriage. Honestly, I'm glad they are respecting Tolkien (the creator of Middle-Earth, in case you didn't know that) by sticking to the stories. I have nothing against homosexuals, but a game based around Middle-Earth should not include same-sex marriage. It was never a part of that world, so it shouldn't be a part of the game. And if you consider Frodo and Sam's relationship to be an act of homosexuality, you need to grow up and read the books.
bleep's Avatar
bleep at 04/30/2007 22:03
I think I agree with the makers of the game...
people aren't playing to be/do whatever they want...they are playing to experience what it would be like to live in that environment...and lets face it,
in the middle earth world homosexuals wouldn't have been "out in the open" if you know what Im sayin'
Colette Bennett's Avatar
Colette Bennett at 04/30/2007 22:30
The problem with this concept is that it's more difficult to go through all the red tape to make something like this work than it is to just follow the boundaries and not mention anything. You're always going to have people who will flip over anything they don't figure in as conventional. People are not open minded by nature, and that's just kind of the way it all goes.
On the other hand, I don't care if I see same sex partnerships in games, not because it doesn't matter to me, but because real life needs progress in this area a lot more than video games do.
subnet6's Avatar
subnet6 at 04/30/2007 23:39
@DJ Duffy,

Don't get me wrong, I think lezbians totally rock but my taste is more toward mechs. I would marry a super hot mecha in a heart beat. can we have those in LOTR too please?
MechaMonkey's Avatar
MechaMonkey at 05/01/2007 00:01
Easy there, subnet. I'm taken.
Chad Concelmo's Avatar
Chad Concelmo at 05/01/2007 00:15
I actually agree with, well, all of you. It would be strange to just wedge something in like this just for the sake of pleasing a certain group of people (especially in a game like Lord of the Rings), but I also find it strange that it even became a point of contention at all -- maybe that is part of the problem. Interesting topic of conversation, though, and good points made my all -- thanks, guys. :)
Detry's Avatar
Detry at 05/01/2007 00:28
My Kender will hump ur leg.
wardrox's Avatar
wardrox at 05/01/2007 03:37
Hang on, I have read what everybody is saying about how it's "not in the book" but could it not also be said "it's not not in the book?", as in at no point does Tolkien say "lolfag"?

IMHO, if your going to allow people to categorize themselfs as straight, you should probably accept you have just included sexuality into your game. At the time the books were written, being gay probably wasn't an issue, but the world has moved on a wee bit since then. Saying this, people do have a choice in the game they play. There are plenty of MMOs out there which allow same-sex marriages, or don't bother having them at all, this just seems like a very poor decision on the part of the game developers.
broham's Avatar
broham at 05/01/2007 07:56
OK, I play WoW pretty casually. I didn't know you COULD get married in the fucking game. I mean, is it an official ceremony? Do you get a tax break? Do you only have sex once a month?

For anyone that knows, how does this marriage thing work in these games? I mean, is it just "Hi, want to get married lolz." "Sure." Ok, we're married.
twentythoughts's Avatar
twentythoughts at 05/01/2007 08:39
I look forward to seeing the first video of naked-patched hobbits running around the town while having cybersex via the chat channel.
brad drac's Avatar
brad drac at 05/01/2007 08:44
-> wardrox: Actually being gay back then was an issue.

Firstly the "only if it happens in the book" argument is pretty bogus. Marriages between elves and humans happened twice in the entire history of the planet. It doesn't just happen. If the allow them in game, we all(who know the RPing community) know 75% of the marriages are probably going to be elf-human, thereby shattering any degree of authenticity they may have wished to accrue.

That said, everyone here has already made a damn fine point, there's no reason why a company should have to put same sex marriage into their game. There really shouldn't be that big a fuss about it. I do look forward to when a company does actually have the gumption to allow gayness in their games. Or black people in the lead role who aren't gangsters.
RICHARD BLOCKER's Avatar
RICHARD BLOCKER at 05/01/2007 08:57
There is a perfectly reasonable explaination why there's no same-sex marriage in this game. Butt Golems. They would be spawning out of hobbit butts all over the virtual world. Surely noone wants that.
Rosseh's Avatar
Rosseh at 05/01/2007 10:07
If you have a problem make you're own god damn game fucking whiners. They're only doing it for the sake of an arguement.
Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 05/01/2007 11:47
Just to correct one of Kokomo's statements. the video game industry hasn't grossed more than the film industry in the last couple of years. It has grossed more than the film industry every year since the 80s. (minus the video game crash from 1983-1985, but if you count oversea sales the Famicon was selling the crazy in Japan during that period but whatever)
dv8withn8's Avatar
dv8withn8 at 05/01/2007 12:42
"Who wants boundaries in their MMOs?"

I do. You play a game like LOTRO to be a part of the Middle Earth "fantasy".So I'd want it to reflect the books as much as possible.

You can break it down to the debate of games as art. We're playing around in the developer's work of art and if gay marriage isn't part of their vision then it's their right to say so.

Personally, I don't think there should be marriage in MMO's at all. It's a game, not a life simulator. So go kill an orc and quit using a game to make up for your lack of real-world companionship.
Namelessted's Avatar
Namelessted at 05/01/2007 17:21
while an MMO isn't a life simulator, there is a huge social aspect to MMOs. no MMOs become popular just because of gameplay, the biggest drive of any MMO is teh members and teh social environment within the game. so marriage is an issue that would be brought up. does it matter if gay marriage is in LOTRO? No. why? because nobody is going to be playing teh game in 2 years anyways.
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