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BioWare Launches "Gay Planet" For the Old Republic
DavidGilbert99 writes "Labelled as an 'oddly regressive move,' developers of Star Wars: the Old Republic have decided that all gay characters will be stuck on a single planet called Makeb. The move comes with the release of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel pack and the Makeb planet will be the only place in the game where players can select 'flirtatious' dialogue options with characters of the same gender. From the article: 'BioWare executive producer Jeff Hickman apologised for same sex relationships taking so long to be added to the game, referring to the company's most famous title Mass Effect, where homosexual relationships are available by default:
"First of all, I want to apologize that this is taking so long to get in the game," wrote Hickman in a blog post. "I realise that we promised SGR (same gender relationships) to you guys and that many of you believed that this would be with a companion character. Unfortunately, this will take a lot more work than we realised at the time and it (like some other pieces of content we talked about earlier in the year) has been delayed as we focused on the changes required to take the game Free-to-Play. '"
*Checks calendar to make sure it's not April 1st*
Well that takes care of 10% of their players. Now what about the robot female planet so the remaining 90% can feel accepted by their "I was born that way" mate preferences, too?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
sounds like the digital version of don't ask, don't tell.
...don't make RTFA, but where's Disney in all of this?
yellow stars, blue moons and now pink triangles!
I thought attachment was forbidden for a Jedi. It leads to jealousy, and last I heard the shadow of greed, that is.
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
... a heavily pixellated Geroge Wallace must be smiling in his recycle bin...
This is just about dialog options to NPCs, right?
Or is SW:TOR like one of those children's MMOs where you can only choose from a preset number of dialog options when engaging other players?
It was surprisingly hard to ascertain from the wikipedia page.
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Bugger me!
Expanding sexual diversity in new content is not regressive. They've made it clear that they want to make it a full option throughout the game, but you can't just snap your fingers and make that happen. Same-gender romance is "restricted" to one planet because only one planet is being added in the expansion.
I'm not sure what the agenda is of the submitter/poster/etc., but it certainly isn't equality if they're whining about a step towards that. Also, this is a video game for crying out loud. Chill the fuck out.
How about, instead of banning flirtatious dialog to a single planet, they remove it altogether if they intent to coddle their user base? If you're going to censor your players either go all or nothing. If you intend to take a stand at ignorant and bigoted viewpoints, then open it up game-wide and don't try to hide possibly objectionable content in the closet so to speak and, instead, put it out in the open. It's 2013 ffs and if people can't deal with other people being different, well, they can go fuck themselves.
Now, if this is because they don't want people harassing others with same-sex comments without actually being gay and are trying to limit that to a single planet then they should remove all suggestive comments entirely. If you're worried that a gay male character is going to offend a straight male character by telling him he looks sexy then don't have the comment available. The same can be said for a straight male making suggestive comments to a straight female; it can still be inappropriate and they don't have to be gay. If that's their issue; remove it entirely. (Well, I'd rather them ban players who can't behave like adults but that's another discussion I think.)
-SaNo
And in response, the Westboro Baptist Church has announced that all 12 of their members will take to the streets of Makeb to protest.
sudo make me a sandwich
What actually happened:
New content will include will include same-sex options. It just happens that the new content only includes one planet. Future new content will also include same-sex options.
I don't understand why the submitter is taking such an offensive stance with their post. There is no conspiracy against gays, especially when it comes to Bioware who are one of the pioneers of same-sex relationships in their games (dating back to Baldur's Gate).
What would you prefer, that this content wasn't added at all? No let me guess, you'd prefer they revamp the whole game. Nevermind that their team has been cut down to a fraction of their original size due to the commercial unsuccessfulness of the game. Instead lets invent a big issue out of their good-faith attempt to add same-sex content even with their dwindling resources that would arguably better be spent on content like warzones, flashpoints, and operations.
Queen of Makeb.
The G
Is this worse than the race of strippers with head-tails, or pretty much the same?
Seriously, you are calling Bioware regressive for not adding "enough" gay material? If you want to fork in the money for the development teams, I'm pretty sure they'd be happy to rewrite the entire game to allow for homosexual relationships with all companions (assuming the Jedi are okay with that, but they fight with glowing vibrators, so it's probably all good).
Otherwise, they are most likely busy working on content that the entire playerbase can enjoy, you know, the kind of development that generates income.
In summary, get off the high horse, and realize that a mole-hill is not a mountain. If you need further clarification: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molehill != http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain (not to be confused with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokeback_Mountain).
Sorry, but if you had used your spellchecker, you would have known that desease is not a word.
lol there is no cure for my ignorance.
So when are they going to add a planet for rishrathra?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Same gender relationships are new content to TOR. New content goes in new places. Trying to back add it into existing content would be a nightmare. It's not that Markab is the 'gay'planet, it's that it's the first planet going forward that supports what they are calling SGR. And all future planets likely will as well.
There are two basic problems with trying to add SGR into existing content
First: Cost. TOR has been an epic financial failure. Trying to rehire a bunch of voice actors, add in appropriate points for them to have SGR dialogue etc. is a lot of work, and importantly:
Second: What do you do for characters that have already done the content you're changing? For good or ill, your character has made a series of choices throughout the game that set the state of that characters relationships (notably with companions). Building huge content branches where you can either change after the fact, or only effect new characters is certainly possible, but it's a lot of work for content a lot of players aren't going to see.
Besides that, as was said, BioWare didn't really understand just what it was getting itself into with an MMO, and discovering after the fact that this is going to take a lot longer than they thought necessarily means making some compromises. And the longer it goes on without SGR the harder it becomes to fix because there will be more players who've gone through the existing content because they've given up waiting on the developers.
I'm biased against EA, Bioware, and SWTOR. KotOR 2 is my favorite game ever (especially with TSLRCM), and I think SWTOR ruined the franchise beyond repair, like George did with the new trilogy. There's no going back, they already retconned like half the stuff form KotOR 2 and just labelled Kreia (a fantastic character with a lot of depth) a "crazy old woman." I doubt we'll ever get another KotOR game; this is probably the end, and for what? Yet another MMO moneygrab, and a buggy one at that. I think what EA did with this is absolutely shameful and I refuse to buy EA products now because of it.
That said, this summary is absolutely ridiculous. How is adding content that people requested (if only in a small chunk at first) "anti-gay?" The summary makes it sound like anyone who ever wanted same-sex options are forced to stay on one planet, which isn't the case at all; the content just hasn't been added to the other places yet. I don't know who wrote this summary, but they ought to be ashamed, too. There are plenty of bad things to say about SWTOR, EA, and Bioware that are actually true that nobody should need to make shit up.
Uranus
Okay... I'm sorry. Don't be mad. I cringed too when it crossed my mind.
Let's face it, most of us are scoffers. But moments before zero hour, it does not pay to take chances.
They were in a bind on this with no safe way to do this at all. Make something that is politically correct in some parts of the world and you'll deeply offend other people in other parts of the world with different values. Different cultures simply don't share the same set of values and when we try to impose are values on other cultures it creates a lot of resentment.
It's a balancing act and Bioware is well aware of this. They tried to strike a balance and they were going to be damned no matter what they did. I'm not saying I had a better idea (I don't) on how to do this, but give them credit for trying. There's a country song out right now that's become popular that could just as well be relevant about this as well, "Southern Comfort Zone".
all those guys playing female Jedi can chase Kira and have her talk dirty to them....
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
EA's been using its very very recent pro-LGBTQ stance to just thinly veil the fact that $300 million was spent on this atrocity of a tribute to the Titanic film.
The point of relationships is only companions can get intimate enough with your characters. The others are just flirts.
I think gay and lesbian players would want a RT with someone they are close too in the game. I do not liek the gay planet idea. It will discourage straight players from going there and it means homophobia for the rest of the galaxy. In real life gay and lesbian people exist everwhere and I think in the dialoge would be great if the user went into the advanced settings to enable. By default keep it straight.
That way it is non offensive and kid friendly and nice for those who want a female character but have no men hitting on them either :-)
http://saveie6.com/
Put the option in the menus. By default it is off. Turn it on and options appear.
Sounds like a solution rather than spending money with same sex content and acting.
http://saveie6.com/
Adding in extra story choices/dialog/voiceovers/animations to support new "flirts" is a big job. It has NOTHING to do with whether the "flirt" is homosexual or heterosexual (or robosexual!), the extra work is there with every "flirt" they add. Going back and making the old encounters support more "flirts" is a big job, one that they don't have the resources to do right now, especially as the original voice actors would have to be recalled.
Whoever labelled their commitment to adding homosexual flirtations to new encounters an 'oddly regressive move' is an idiot.
Well did you ever stop and think that when you tell others what to think or do that youre just being a facist jerk?
The funniest defense against contract law I've ever seen. They don't want an opinion, they shouldn't ask for money.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Who is forcing non heterosexuals into one area? Nobody. This article is EXTREMELY biased and is completely misrepresenting the truth. Nobody is being forced anywhere, they are simply developing same-sex dialog stories into the new planet that they are releasing. They didnt have same sex storylines on previous planets, but from this point on they are adding it to all new planets, starting with this first one. Why is this so hard for people to understand?
EA has been quietly repairing the issues at launch. Remember it is a new game unlike WOW.
EA did 2 merges and the remaining servers are now heavily populated. They cut them down by HUGe numbers and auto merged your old characters in new realms. In addition, SWTOR now has a flashpoint finder and social points for social gear if you play in groups. A MUCH NEEDED feature that I wish was there at lunch.
Try again. You can play for free to try it out. It is a much better game and I wish people would stop bashing it. In many ways it came with features not available in other MMOs. The companions and a pvp where you score points by tanking and healing are indeed unique even if it was not tuned at first. I tried GW2. I did not like it and it felt like WOW with more primptive options but prettier artsy graphics. But that is just my taste.
http://saveie6.com/
At least half the general chat messages I saw in WoW were people calling each other fags, so it stands to reason half of all MMO players are gay. Bioware is just trying to capture this market.
As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Go.
This is a bit long, but I don't see anyone else saying it, so I will. I power-played this game from launch to max level, and then for a few months after, until it was obvious my friends weren't going to keep at it- the TLDR version is that this isn't about shitting on gays at all, but instead money. Ok here's why:
If you play the main plot of TOR, you quickly find out that each of the four "base classes" on each "empire" or "republic" side (so eight base classes total) has their own plotline. Each plotline takes you through the same planets in the same order as the other base classes in your faction, with the exception that each faction has two starting planets- one for the Jedi/Sith, and the other for the tech heroes.
For instance: if you are a smuggler, you begin by pulling into the same planet that the Troopers start on, and your ship gets stolen. You then fall in with a kind of small time crime boss, and when he is assassinated his right-hand man becomes yours.
The smuggler can become a "scoundrel" or a "gunslinger"- the two "advanced classes". The "scoundrel" has a shotgun that has close ranged positional attacks, and a stealth belt, as well as some brawler type moves. You also gain some heals. The "gunslinger" has a belt that creates a portable force-field cover that can knock people back, and they use two weapons. The "scoundrel" is essentially a rogue with a healing spec, and the "gunslinger" is kind of a ranger or archer role. Which you pick has NO RELEVANCE on your plot, even though they play differently.
The "trooper" can become two types of thing as well (a character with a shield generator and the best armor who can tank or deal damage, or a character with a super advanced huge gun who can deal damage or use the gun to heal), as can the "Jedi Knight" (dual wield damage guy or single wield guy who can tank) and the "Jedi Consular" (force caster/healer or a stealthy two-bladed light saber guy). Both of these start on the planet with the Jedi Academy.
Meanwhile, on the Sith side, all of these choices are mirrored- the Imperial Agent can become an "Operative", who has the exact same powers as the "Scoundrel", or a "Sniper", who has the same powers as the "Gunslinger". But all the "Imperial" side plots are TOTALLY DIFFERENT than the Republic ones- there are EIGHT total paths you can follow in this game, based on all eight character types you can start the game with (Sith Inquisitor, Jedi Consular, Sith Warrior, Jedi Knight, Imperial Operative, Smuggler, Bounty Hunter, Trooper). As you play through, you get "companion characters"- you get one very early, and then others as you play through your plotline. You can have one with your character at most times, but you can't hang out with all of them at once unless you are on your ship. Each has a series of mini plotlines that you can play through.
Importantly, THESE ARE THE CHARACTERS YOU CAN BE ROMANTIC WITH. In your plotline, you meet some NPCs that are just mentioned once or twice, and that will attempt to seduce you, or you can attempt to seduce them. That's not what anyone who wanted same-sex relations in this game was hoping for, and that's what this planet seems to be offering. The companion characters are all individually voice acted by professional actors and have a ludicrous number of things they can say, ways they can respond, etc. It is seriously high production value.
As an example: My smuggler is female. The first guy you meet, Corso Riggs, is a possible "romantic companion" for a female smuggler. Your wookie companion is not, and neither are the female companions or the fish-head alien. If you accept Corso's advances, he will prove to you that he's both desired by others and totally into just you, a reasonably common romance novel thing, and you can even marry him. A male character has similar options with his two female companions- for instance, Akavi Spaar, a rough and tumble alien warrioress, can fall for your advances, as can Risha, a human woman.
So everyone was expecti
How exactly does a gay planet keep up its reproductive life cycle?
Do they adopt from Asian planets?
where all men have come bfore...
Macduff:
Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripped.
Macbeth:
Noooooo
ooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooo
ooooooo!
You shouldn't rage about things you don't understand.
No one is being put into a walled garden. The new planet added in the expansion is not "gay-only".
A new expansion is being released. It contains same-gender flirt options. That is all. The article is biased and the title is worse. Your reaction just puts you in the same room as Fox News. Research before you insult.
Would have been much easier to allow everywhere and let the individual players block incomming "flirtatious" dialogue for their own character(s). That way you could block or allow all such dialogue if you wanted, or just for your specific "female protocol droid" preference.
...turn on the gaydar jammer, would you?
--- Void where prohibited. Your mileage may vary. ---
The flirt options apply ONLY to quest givers NOT to your companions, your companions are STILL restricted to hetero only relationships, the handful that even are romancable.
Quest givers are typically only encountered once or twice so the "flirt" option is just an extra choice like taking a "joking, serious, brutal" response most of which don't matter really because it is an MMORPG so you take the quest anyway. This is NOT the romance options as some remember them with your party members developing relationships.
And the game supported an if(male) then flirt else talk construct already ALL they had to do is right at the start is flirt(gender) and instead of writing a neutral same gender line, write a flirt same gender line. That doesn't take a lot of coding. They purposely left it out because they feared the reaction of Americans and probably the French.
Now the game is out of the headlines, adding it can't ruin the game (commercially) anymore then the game was already ruined. Note that initially they never gave a deadline for adding it.
The quest giver flirt is NOT deep well written dialogue, this isn't about exploring gender relationships in a galaxy far far away, it is the lightest most boorish flirting that in the real world will just be met with derision.
And again supporting gender specific chat is TRIVIAL, they already did it for races and professions. The flirt options are so rare anyway, it would barely have added to the work load for the voice artists. And as said, the writers instead of writing a same sex flirt line had to write a same sex neutral line, so where is the difference?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The problem is, there's lots of games to play out there. You get one chance at getting it right when you have that sort of competition. TOR did pretty much copy WoW, but what they failed to do was to actually use that to their advantage. It was like they stopped playing WoW in the first year and copied that, instead of learning all of the lessons that Blizzard learned for them.
When I played TOR, I had fun and the companions were useful and the dialogue was cool, but honestly, it was missing most of the stuff that I expected a modern MMO to have. Of course the final straw was when the player numbers contracted and suddenly there was no one around to do anything. Sure, they figured it out eventually, but then it was too late. I wasn't going to keep paying a monthly fee to play with the same small and shrinking group of people, on the same battlegrounds or whatever.
I told them in my "exit interview" email that I might come back for F2P, but I'd probably only really consider it if my friends returned. As it is, they have moved on, and I've decided that I really don't find MMO's worth the effort anyway, because in the end, your years of grinding end up becoming sort of pointless. I don't really feel that there's any way to really leave a mark on any of these worlds, which is about the only reason I would have to pursue them independently, as opposed to just playing a single player game.
MMO makers *cannot* do what you can do with single player games. If you buy a single player game, you can put it down and wait for a patch. In an MMO, especially one with a monthly fee like TOR used to have, the game needs to be ready *now*, or you start questioning why you maintain your subscription.
Now if you want to get to the point of the article, I think one of the nice things about TOR, which was the voice actors and dialogue, was actually a detriment in this case. You're not going to be able to just add in new romance options without redoing voice overs, and that's expensive. And that goes for everything in the game. If you make a new area or quest line, you either need a similar level of production values/voice acting/writing, or you're going to feel like the game has gotten cheaper.
TOR was not a bad game, it just wasn't good enough to make me overlook its flaws. I will say, however, that in the end, I doubt the romance options were anything approaching its real issues as a game.
Gattaca.
There's no base starting with I. Only A, T, C and G (and U if you add RNA; however the makers of the movie obviously didn't consider that).
However when choosing the name, they ignored the rule that bases come in groups of three. So a better name would have been "Gataca", with only one "t".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
This planet sounds like it will be separate but equally gay.
I actually play GW1. I like being able to play an entire team in PvE :). Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4EgedY22s
The PvP was more interesting too[1]. Was... It's kinda dead now due to there being a lack of players, in GW1 there is no way to queue for PvP while doing other more interesting stuff in game instead of just standing around waiting for enough people to stand around... To be fair it's not so easy to allow queuing for PvP while doing something else - because a build that works in PvP might not work well in PvE (but that's where the other 7 heroes in your team come in I guess ;) ).
I've seen a fair bit of GW2, I don't think I'd like it that much. I agree with you that it feels more WoW like. To me GW2, WoW and SW:ToR are more similar to each other than to GW1. Will be a shame when they pull the plug on GW1.
[1] Guild vs Guild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWE-eV3k-1E&list=PL51018CD195E42988 ;) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqCv_p_76kg
Fort Aspenwood (PvP+PvE kinda): (Kurzick/defense) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO4fiH3VvVE
(Luxon/offense) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzW8v8DxUrs
Jade Quarry - where suicide bombing can actually work sometimes
Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Slow down there. I would strongly suggest you take a look at one of your sibling replies (http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3381197&cid=42582279). In a fully voiced game, which I am to understand SW:TOR is, this is a non-trivial thing to do. If the original voice talent is gone, that's an issue
I remember when SWTOR came out much was made that it was a fully-voiced game, which just sounded a bit more like an annoyance to me. But the above situation sounds like one of the truly great weaknesses of a fully-voiced game -- it seems like a pretty big limitation. You can't change the game over time (something which is pretty important for an MMO) due the additional cost of recording new dialogue. That works for single-player games, or just games that are complete on launch.
I wouldn't blame any devs for saying F*** IT, we just won't do it at all.
Or you could do it from the beginning! We all know what the original decision was, and I suspect the original poster's anger comes from the decision the devs made -- which is better to annoy? non-heterosexuals, or bigots who would be truly offended that these options even exist? The anger comes because the decision was: they'd rather placate the bigots, at least on launch.
Then again, I wouldn't be really offended due to the ridiculous nature of Star Wars's "planet of hats" syndrome anyway (and it goes double for Star Trek). This sort of thing fits well into the trope that they already established.
The complete and total failure of SWTOR will continue to be ignored by an industry that is stuck on the PC, hates PC gamers but can't optimize their games to run on decade old hardware. MMORPG's of old were MASSIVE games designed to make games from the Elder Scroll series seem claustrophobic. And, if you want to be nasty, just as empty and pointless. Star Wars Galaxies had HUGE planets with some sparse content strewn around (it actually had quest chains (outside the themeparks) but most were very obscure and rarely done, talked to lots of players that didn't even know about them).
Recently MMO's have changed such as that every meter of terrain will have been trodden on by everyone else on your server. In older games, you might actually find spots nobody had ever visited. of course that was partly because it had far fewer gamers but still. MMORPG's have tried to appeal to the Xbox crowd and failed to satisfy either their old core audience OR the new xbox kiddies.
SWTOR is a prime example of this and BIG piece of proof of this is that they did NOT include same gender romance options from the start. Everyone who talks about how costly or hard it is to fit it afterwards forgets that it would have cost NOTHING more to add it right form the start. Voice artists and writers are payed by the line so instead of a same-gender neutral line, they would have been payed for a same-gender flirt line. Neither is this complex writing this is flirting with QUEST GIVERS, NOT party members/companions.
The game instead gave an extremely bland experience, in gaming and story, geared towards young kids in the hope of not upsetting anyone and getting massive sales. It failed. In trying to appease everyone, it managed to please nobody. Oh the game has heavy loads on its servers, both of them. Mostly free players finishing their personal stories while all the time Bioware keeps tweaking the F2P exprience to try to squeeze the last dollars out of the game. Only 1 quickbar, 2 quickbars, now 4 quickbars. 2 playable characters, all existing characters playable (max 2 creatable over all servers) and now only 6 out of 8 per server playeble/creatable for preferred status players. GIVE IT UP ALREADY!
The game was simply for 6 years of development piss poor in every way.
In SWTOR you are a hero, liberation/occupying a planet. Except NOTHING CHANGES. Ever. This is something most MMORPG's have to deal with, that the army you defeated as you hand in your quest is still standing there respawning often in sight. SWTOR however does it worse then most, the place is incredibly crowded AND you are supposed to be Jedi. At one point when you would make Vader your whipping boy, you are fighting union workers. COME ON!
Lotro already went nuts with high level bunnies kicking your ass when you have defeated Nazgul and Elder Dragons as a full elf (read the book, a full elf is NOT a whimpy sickly character but can take on SEVERAL nazgu
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Sounds like a closet case if I have ever heard one. One day, Anonymous Coward, you will be free to express who you really are without the self loathing and shame.
Who is forcing non heterosexuals into one area? Nobody. This article is EXTREMELY biased and is completely misrepresenting the truth. Nobody is being forced anywhere, they are simply developing same-sex dialog stories into the new planet that they are releasing. They didnt have same sex storylines on previous planets, but from this point on they are adding it to all new planets, starting with this first one.
Why is this so hard for people to understand?
Makes complete sense. They are so committed to story integrity that you have to wade through 50 levels of hetero content (guys, there are a LOT of flirting dialogue options in this fscking game, even for Jedi) before you're allowed to be gay. Over there. Where good, wholesome, Christian Sith and bounty hunters can't see you doing your filthy business.
If they were actually committed from the beginning, they would have the dialogue written for all the content already. They'd have put the hooks in the code to drop in voice content when they could afford it. They could have prepared, and instead they made excuses, and delayed, and dragged their feet. I don't know why, but I don't actually care why either. They tried to boost sales by hocking to the gay crowd and then dumped us after release. Fuck 'em, I'm out.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
Sorry, but if you had used your spellchecker, you would have known that desease is not a word.
lol there is no cure for my ignorance.
That is apparent.
"All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
I'm still mad that they changed the stats and game mechanics away from d20!
I'm still refusing it to play it for that reason alone. That's what made Knights of the Old Republic cool.
Named Makeb, the planet will be launched as part of the new Rise of the Hutt Cartel pack and will be the only place in the game where players can select "flirtatious" dialogue options with characters of the same gender.
Go to Makeb, bekaM gay.*
*There's a campaign slogan for Makeb tourist board in there somewhere.
Maybe a transparent postcard with Makeb printed on one side, read as bekaM from the other...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
That whole homo-semi-erotic topic in SWOR is blown out of proportion by a small bunch of loud idiots.
What really happens is that (1) those idiots have been crying about Bioware not providing homo romances with companions since the day the beta started. Then, (2) Bioware is so kind as to look into it, and puts it on their todo list. Later, (3) the whole game has its business model revamped, which makes for a huge reprioritisation of future plans; this means that low-priority add-ons like 8 all-new written, voiced, posed companion stories go to the backburner.
Now, they are finally going to release a new planet and offer a few [flirt] options in the conversations. The original minority of smacktards feels emo and nobody listens to them and waaaaaah!, and the anti-gay idiots crawl out of their holes and make it out to be the new holocaust or something.
Some people need to be kicked off the internet. Seriously.
Fight hunger. Filet a politician and send him to a 3rd world country of your choice.
There actually is. It is called inosine, commonly abbreviated with I and present in tRNAs. Makes wobble pairs with A, U and C. Allows for the translation of 61 non-stop codons with 45 or less tRNAs.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
You joke but there's a gay character of Jabba's species in the Star Wars universe...but he's like the gay equivalent of a blackface character. >_>
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Forcing anyone who isn't hetrosexual into one area is
They're not doing that. Do you play the game? Do you play the vast majority of games that have no gay characters at all, much less gay romances? This applies to your second point as well. Adding something is a step up from nothing. At the risk of acknowledging your absurd point about segregation, I'd like to point out that segregation was still better than slavery was. Try to claim that slavery wasn't worse, I dare you.
They could disable the gender restrictions with a patch to the game engine, for example.
No, they can't. All relationships are nuanced with specific dialog written for specific characters, and ALL dialog in the game is voiced. All of it. You'd be equally outraged if they had your male character saying the female character's lines out of context in a female's voice to a male companion. Instead they are working towards including fully unique and voiced romances starting with new content. Again, they cannot snap their fingers and all of the old content will magically be revised. It will take time and a lot of effort.
You obviously know nothing of the game or this patch. Next time read more than the article summary.
Learned something new today, thank you.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Once in a year, the biochemistry geeks get their 5 seconds in the spotlight ;)
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
The majority of players did not seek out a Star Wars action/MMO game looking for a Dating Sim. It's a commercial product. It's not custom software.
"The software industry was the first to get away with shipping product known to be defective" ;)
You've clearly never built a house...