Tag Archives: gamers

BioWare – Dragon Age Writer Quits Over Death Threats About Gay Characters

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The “geek-averse” has come a long way when it comes to LGBT inclusion and tolerance.  Comic-Con (despite Ender’s Game) is a much more LGBT friendly Con and this year saw the beginnings of the first gay gamer’s conference GaymerX.  But there are still some GFB’s  out there (greasy fan boys) who are resistant to LGBT nclusion and sit in their parents basement with their heads up their asses holding a  joystick in one hand and bigotry in the other.

Case in point the cyber attack of Jennifer Hepler.

Jennifer Hepler A senior game writer at the video game development company BioWare has quit her position after  being targeted by angry fans of Dragon Age and receiving death threats on Twitter and the BioWare’s forums.

The attacks blamed Hepler for what were to be perceived as unpopular changes to the game  for its sequel, including the addition of female and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) characters in the game’s roster of player avatars.  So vicious were the attacks and threats Helper said that she was shown a sample of the forum posts by Electronic Arts (EA), the company that owns BioWare. “It included graphic threats to kill my children on their way out of school to show them that they should have been aborted at birth rather than have to have me as a mother.”

These gamers give “geek”a bad name and need to get a slap upside the head, a good scrubbing down with lye and a wire haired brush, and tied to a chair and forced to watch Priscilla Queen of the Desert on a constant loop for a week.  Maybe then they’ll think twice before threatening children over their own internal bigotry and they will learn some tolerance. to others..

It’s just a freaking game.

Will Marriage Equality Be Seen In Our Video Games?

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If like me, and you enjoy role playing games (RPG) like Skyrim, Mass Effect 3, and others that provide a rich full life experience into expansive worlds, then you want those games that allow you to create your own character, you often want that character to reflect you. Having the options to customize the experiences by customize the character’s attributes like height, eye color, are natural. Shouldn’t sexual orientation be a factor as well? I mean if a marriage option is included in the main story arc or the result of a side quest or just to make the experience richer, there should be a way to do so.

Now some games have made progress in this. Both Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 allow you to do this and there are rumors that the new Dragon Age game will also share this feature. And despite this refreshing evolution, there are still some game manufacturers and creators that feel that marriage equality is still “too controversial”.

And unfortunately, one of my favorite game franchises still feels marriage equality is controversial. Final Fantasy by Square Enix, a game franchise that expands decades long that has provided thousands of hours of rich full characters and story plots will soon be releasing the next chapter in their gaming experience. “Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.” recently had a Q and A  in which they frankly said that in their new game that will now have a marriage feautre will only have opposite sex “traditional” marriage:

As for same-sex marriage, this is an extremely controversial topic that has been under discussion in the MMO world for the past few years. First we would like to start out with opposite-sex marriage, and then consider the feedback from our players in order to make a careful decision. I can’t say whether or not it will be possible at this point in time. I’d like to keep dialog open with our players as we deliberate the matter.

Of course my question is, why not just include same sex marriage in the game to begin with? It isn’t a requirement of the game and just something you can do if you choose to do so. So why not just already have that available for the LGBT gamers like me that regularly buy these games along with their overly priced downloadable content (DLC). What about our experience?

If the option exists t\for a character to marry, then that should reflect all gamers not just the majority demographic. At best this is lazy and shoddy of them to leave it out and at worst showing a prejudice bias towards LGBT gamers. And to those hecklers in the gaming world saying we’re asking for too much, you’re wrong. All we want is to have the same experience in our characters as you and this takes nothing from you. Square Enix, your bias is showing.