Comments on: Mass Effect 3 Unlocks Gayness https://nickm.com/post/2011/10/mass-effect-3-unlocks-gayness/ Nick Montfort Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:09:47 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: Blog Update 1 « Ashlyn's Blog https://nickm.com/post/2011/10/mass-effect-3-unlocks-gayness/comment-page-1/#comment-11491 Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:09:47 +0000 http://nickm.com/post/?p=1945#comment-11491 […] one of the more interesting posts on the blog was about Identity through sexuality in games. The article we read by Consalvo, “Hot Dates and Fairytale Romances” addressed […]

]]> By: Nelson Minar https://nickm.com/post/2011/10/mass-effect-3-unlocks-gayness/comment-page-1/#comment-11483 Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:35:14 +0000 http://nickm.com/post/?p=1945#comment-11483 I prefer to think Shepard has just been on a journey of personal discovery. He’s always had those feelings but was confused and ashamed by them. Until now.

If you want to talk weird sexual politics, the Shepard / Tali option is pretty creepy. In the first game she’s basically a teenager and you play a paternal role. Then in the second game you seduce your former ward and convince her to risk death from infection in order to get it on with you. It felt really coercive.

]]> By: Nick Montfort https://nickm.com/post/2011/10/mass-effect-3-unlocks-gayness/comment-page-1/#comment-11479 Sun, 09 Oct 2011 03:09:52 +0000 http://nickm.com/post/?p=1945#comment-11479 Thanks for the links, Chris, which are great ones. In this case, when I wrote “… if Mass Effect 3 is the first game …” I meant the first game in the Mass Effect series, not the first game evar.

]]> By: Chris https://nickm.com/post/2011/10/mass-effect-3-unlocks-gayness/comment-page-1/#comment-11478 Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:55:28 +0000 http://nickm.com/post/?p=1945#comment-11478

Which means that if Mass Effect 3 is the first game to support homosexuality

By no means. :) Dragon Age 2 has a gay romance option (if you build up enough “romance points” with someone of the same gender in your party).

Even better, though — lots of people whined about how “the Straight Male gamer” demographic is “neglected” by this choice, resulting in a powerful reply from BioWare that includes the word “privilege”, which is a level of discourse that I was never expecting to see from a games company. Here’s the original post and BioWare reply:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/304/index/6661775&lf=8

And an Ars Technica article about the whole thing:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/dragon-age-2s-gay-character-offends-just-about-everyone.ars

  • Chris.
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