ElitePinecone wrote...
Blacklash93 wrote...
I'm not bothered if Cortez is the only S/S option for males. He seems like a good character, even if he pales in comparison to Vega. Him being exclusive would be a huge plus.
It's not being fine with crumbs, but rather being fine with being given what you're commercially worth. I know I'm a minority and I won't get as much the majority gets and that's just something I have to make peace with. That doesn't mean I'm not going to fight tooth and nail when I want opportunities that will increase my enjoyment of a piece of entertainment, though.
But really, I'd say an entire romance dedicated to M/M or F/F is a pretty big deal and gesture by Bioware.
This.
I understand that people would be disappointed if Cortez were the only option. I'm sympathetic to the idea that m/m options, in a perfect world, should be at least as numerous as f/f - and that ideally, players should have some sort of choice.
But for two years (three?) this thread and its predecessors suggested to Bioware that having more s/s options in Bioware games would be a good thing, a sensible thing and probably even a fairer thing. We pointed out that there was a market for s/s content, that their explanations for its absence were pretty farcical, and that a not-insignificant section of their fanbase would be more engaged with the universe if it featured greater diversity.
They did this, in ME3. They didn't need to. They didn't have to. It almost certainly would've been easier, cheaper and simpler not to. By all accounts, s/s romances weren't even on the cards up until about eight months ago.
But they did it. Yes, it might not be as much as you'd hoped - and it might not even be with characters that you'd hoped it would be with.
But remember: Bioware are under no obligation to provide anything to anybody. S/s romances provoke a storm of conrtroversy in any media, particularly videogames. This studio is literally one of the only ones - the only ones - to create s/s content that is unique, fleshed-out, story-appropriate and relatively inclusive. Every time they do, a legion of privileged and entitled people scream that there's too much s/s content in the game, or that it's too obvious, explicit or in the player's face. A studio wishing to avoid controversy may just cut s/s content altogether, and save themselves the trouble.
I'm not going to say 'don't be disappointed'. But being angry with Bioware for not going far enough, when they had no obligation to do anything to begin with, seems a little unfair.
Plus it looks a little odd when the same people who were celebrating and lauding Bioware's inclusion of s/s romances a few months ago are now upset because it isn't the type or amount they wanted.
Maybe we're not entitled to a romance, but neither is Bioware automatically entitled to praise. They might have been, if they hadn't announced a M/M romance rather than just let players discover it and go "Oh, look at that!" Or if they would have said in the announcement that the M/M option is only a crew member, not a squadmate. (As opposed to fostering expectations.) Of course Mr. Hudson tweeted on the very same day right before the S/S announcement:
But in the S/S buzz this might have gone somewhat less noticed. Apart from Kelly all LI were squad members up until then. To be fair the name of a new male character was already known. And Bioware insists on not talking about LI. Naturally some people thought "It must be the new guy then." Others hoped it might be Kaidan. People got their hopes up and crushing hope obviously leads to disappointment and frustration, especially with everything gay, because it's so rare.
I was done with Mass Effect. When they announced ME3 I didn't care. Only when I read about M/M romance I got interested. I actually became one of those fans, waiting half a day in a way too loud, sticky convention hall just to play the demo for 10 or 15 minutes. If I would have known it was only a crew member, maybe I wouldn't have bothered. It's never happened before that a character outside the squad had as much interactions and was just as well developed as an actual squad member. Crew members don't fight alongside you, which also means they have much less opportunity to comment on what Shepard does. This time they might do it a lot better than Kelly in ME2, but that's still basically how it goes. It just looks like it wouldn't be equal to the other romances.
So I wouldn't mind so much if the single M/M option turned out to be a squad member. Only one option is fine as long as it's a good one. But having only one choice and for him to be a crew member seems like the worst of all possiblities. I'm still glad they're including us, but I won't praise Bioware just for that, not without seeing how they did it. I reserve my judgement until I know more.
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