Vargras Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Taken from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116660-Anti-Gay-Email-Campaign-Floods-Electronic-Arts Electronic Arts has received "several thousands" emails and letters protesting same-sex relationships in its games. In March, the Florida Family Association launched an email campaign against BioWare and Electronic Arts to protest the inclusion of same-sex relationships in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Family Research Council made similar noises in January, when FRC President Tony Perkins said "the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists" and called on his audience to speak out against them. It appears that followers of these "family values" groups have heard and obeyed, as Electronic Arts confirmed that it has received "several thousand" letters complaining about the presence of same-sex relationships in games like The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3, and threatening to boycott its games if they're not removed. Not that it really matters, as Vice President of Corporate Communications Jeff Brown said the company has no plans to change or censor anything. "Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content," Brown told GamesIndustry. "This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment." Brown also dismissed the suggestion that EA was somehow pressured into including LGBT characters in its games, although he acknowledged that a number of forum posts criticizing the company's stance have been deleted for violating its content rules. "We have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums," he added. "In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don't tolerate hate speech on our forums." Same-sex relationships aren't actually available yet in Star Wars: The Old Republic but BioWare and EA have said the option will be added at some point in the future. Say what you will about EA or how 'evil' they may be, but I gotta give 'em props for sticking with all this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 This is pretty much a non-story. Activist groups do this stuff all the time. The only very minor note is that the ESRB does not mention anything about homosexuality. http://www.esrb.org/ratings/synopsis.jsp?Certificate=31961&searchkeyword=mass%20effect Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vargras Posted April 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 This is pretty much a non-story. Activist groups do this stuff all the time. The only very minor note is that the ESRB does not mention anything about homosexuality. http://www.esrb.org/...d=mass%20effect It shouldn't be an issue anyways. TOR is rated Teen, from what I remember, and the Mass Effect series has always been Mature. As it was mentioned within the article itself, it's not about protecting the children, because the ESRB ratings already do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Well, I was just responding to his quote "Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content,". Well if you're offended by homosexuality you don't know that it's in the game simply by the ESRB descriptors. That's all I was saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vargras Posted April 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Well, I was just responding to his quote "Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content,". Well if you're offended by homosexuality you don't know that it's in the game simply by the ESRB descriptors. That's all I was saying. Ah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Do members of the FFA even buy these games in the first place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 Some of those on how dumb the representations are in their games? As Yante says, it's expected, albeit it a sad reality. Best to be done is to ignore the hate groups and move on. Politics are things they should be staying out of (especially as I'm still not keen on game developers representing LGBT groups) http://forum.pressxo...?showtopic=1535 - the old thread on this btw. Kinda handy to have these letters from anti-LGBT groups waiting in the wings the day after they get called the worst company in america. My I wonder if those people that voted on them are part of this anti-LGBT crowd... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 I'm sure the anti-gay people contributed to the Consumerist thing. And if I understand your position correctly, dean, it's not so much that you're opposed to the idea of gay characters in games, it's that you're opposed to them being done badly, and just think it's probable than any gay character will be done badly, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber Rat Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 (edited) Kinda handy to have these letters from anti-LGBT groups waiting in the wings the day after they get called the worst company in america. My first thoughts as well... Edited April 5, 2012 by Cyber Rat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 5, 2012 Report Share Posted April 5, 2012 I'm sure the anti-gay people contributed to the Consumerist thing. And if I understand your position correctly, dean, it's not so much that you're opposed to the idea of gay characters in games, it's that you're opposed to them being done badly, and just think it's probable than any gay character will be done badly, right? I was being sarcastic with the second part. The consumerist poll was pretty much bombed by 4chan's /v/ n Reddit's /r/gaming with a few odds n sods here n there. I'm not opposed to the idea. I just feel that games downright suck with characters, and pretty much any time a some form of minority pops up it gets stereotyped to hell n back. Thus I'd prefer to wait until "normal" folks are done fine n dandy before moving onto others. We have already discussed this on the other thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 I thought Cortez was done alright. I mean I didn't romance him but if he hadn't said he was gay I wouldn't have picked up on any "gay" habits. He was just a guy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 Yeah, I didn't see anything wrong with him. Although some of his dialogue seemed 'over-friendly', much like Liara's. p.s. STEEEEEVE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 Do members of the FFA even buy these games in the first place? At first I was going to say "Of course they do" but then I double checked and it was not the Future Farmers of America sending the emails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 I dont think games are sexualized enough. Theres no nudity in Mass Effect, but there sure is in PG-13 movies. Its funny that the M rating in games is pretty much the most adult stuff(AO doesnt count since almost no games exist with that rating) you can get, but there is hardly ever any simulated sex. We get titties and asses thanks to God Of War, LA Noire, and Heavy Rain, but no one ever fucks in a game. You dont have to show insertion, but you cant even get two naked heterosexual people to grind on each other like a cheap softcore porn. If theres sex, its off screen or the scene fades to black before it goes down. Anyways, I cant wait for the future. Every game will have scissoring and man/man 69ing. Its gonna be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 The way relationships and sex are handled in games is pretty terrible as well, not even talking about the sexuality aspect. Everything is just so awkward and badly written. I'm including ME games in this. It's an improvement over stuff like SNES era FF games where two characters barely talk to each other but somehow fall in love but there's still a lot of work to be done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 i.e answering certain questions in a certain way, ending up on a date with Barret. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Naughty Naughty. I have to say I'm rather fond of Afghanistan and Jamaica's words of encouragement. Another reason I'm against LGBT in games. Your sexual orientation becomes a marketing bullet point and/or a PR stunt. (Which given just how godawfully shit-tastic, moronic and lacking in taste and decency the EA marketing dept is, that get's amplified a trillion fold) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Well, I was just responding to his quote "Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content,". Well if you're offended by homosexuality you don't know that it's in the game simply by the ESRB descriptors. That's all I was saying. It's impossible to cover every single thing that people might get offended by. It also doesn't mention that there might be mixed raced relationships but plenty of people would find that offensive. What it does say is: "Players can also initiate brief romantic encounters between characters: dialogue choices are made, leading to kissing and caressing on a bed—sexual activity is implied." It doesn't explicitly state that they are heterosexual encounters. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Another reason I'm against LGBT in games. Your sexual orientation becomes a marketing bullet point and/or a PR stunt.(Which given just how godawfully shit-tastic, moronic and lacking in taste and decency the EA marketing dept is, that get's amplified a trillion fold) So be opposed to shitty marketing/exploitation, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is like saying blaxploitation films are bad, so we just shouldn't have films staring black actors. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope V2 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Well, I was just responding to his quote "Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content,". Well if you're offended by homosexuality you don't know that it's in the game simply by the ESRB descriptors. That's all I was saying. It's impossible to cover every single thing that people might get offended by. It also doesn't mention that there might be mixed raced relationships but plenty of people would find that offensive. What it does say is: "Players can also initiate brief romantic encounters between characters: dialogue choices are made, leading to kissing and caressing on a bed—sexual activity is implied." It doesn't explicitly state that they are heterosexual encounters. Yeah, this is true. The ESRB does have quite a lengthy write up on the content. I'm not saying that it should or shouldn't be responsible to put it in there. I was only pointing out that EA's official statement wasn't entirely true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 I don't think games should go into detail as to whats in them. Music has "explicit lyrics" and Rated R movies tend to have "sexual themes" and "graphic violence." That's the basics of what most people in our culture get offended by. Going into why its offensive would just be...creepy. And it would be involuntarily picking a side. Its judgmental. Sex should be sex. There shouldn't be a separate "sex" and "gay sex." Theyre both the same thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 To a degree. Only breeders can have kid-making sex though. But yes "this game/movie/whatever has a bit of nookie in it" these days is probably going to imply it might not all be heterosexual. However ME doesn't have any sex in it at all, only the suggestion of sex. I think you'll find they actually lie down on bed, fade to black, then reach under the bed and pull out a scrabble board. It's maybe worth mentioning, as I already have on Twitter, that ME3 isn't EA's first game with homosexual couples in it. Sims 3, a kids game, is. And afaik that hasn't sparked any outrage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strangelove Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Yeah. ME has some seriously PG/tv sitcom sex. Its kind of a letdown. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 I can't wait for the apocalyptic levels of bigotry that I am fully expecting should EA allow same sex Sim couples to have kids. I think the sexual content in DA:O was far more explicit, even that was pretty tame. I think ME3 has flared up perhaps because the game is already somewhat controversial and has popped up on the radars of people who otherwise wouldn't have known there was something going on for them to get offended by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Is breeders a derogatory term? (honest question) I can't wait for the apocalyptic levels of bigotry that I am fully expecting should EA allow same sex Sim couples to have kids. I think the sexual content in DA:O was far more explicit, even that was pretty tame. I think ME3 has flared up perhaps because the game is already somewhat controversial and has popped up on the radars of people who otherwise wouldn't have known there was something going on for them to get offended by. The sexual content in ME1 was far more explicit than that in ME2 or 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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