63 respuestas en este tema

[tch2296]

I always feel obligated to go with a male Shep because as a heterosexual male, I like going after romantic options that match up with my own sexual tastes. I've always been the type to try and identify as much as possible with my character in RPG's, so I guess I just feel like my romantic interests should parallel my real-life ones as much as possible.

 

Maybe one day I'll create a femshep and get a steamy lesbian romance goin' down, I've got no problem with that, but again it's harder for me to identify with a female character, being a male and all.

 

Anyone else feel this way?

[GreyLycanTrope]

Personally no, but I go for the opposite approach of trying to create a character that I'm somewhat detached from instead of making one that is necessarily a reflection of me. One reason I tend to play the opposite gender more often in fact is that it helps me detach and lets me focus on RPing the character more, trying to figure out what someone with a different personality from myself might do in a particular situation.

 

So my advice is to not try and identify so much with your femshep but try and see things from different perspective, might help if you can manage it.

[DrBlingzle]

When I first started playing rpgs, yes this was my approach. Now however, while my first playthrough is usually a reflection of me, I try out as many different possibilities in the CC. I'd certainly recommend it, it's interesting seing how you might be treated differently and afterall games are a way for you to experience things differently. Personally I've never felt less ditached from my character no matter what gender, sexuality, skin colour or whatever they have phsyically.

[Tommy6860]

I always feel obligated to go with a male Shep because as a heterosexual male, I like going after romantic options that match up with my own sexual tastes. I've always been the type to try and identify as much as possible with my character in RPG's, so I guess I just feel like my romantic interests should parallel my real-life ones as much as possible.

 

Maybe one day I'll create a femshep and get a steamy lesbian romance goin' down, I've got no problem with that, but again it's harder for me to identify with a female character, being a male and all.

 

Anyone else feel this way?

 

No, I do not. I always play a female character. So, being able to role play out of my element is awesome. I mostly only do this in RPGs. It's also interesting to explore the writing and dialogue of the games playing out of my real life gender through multiple completions of the games.

[BHRamsay]

The thing is, most in the Mass Effect universe don't treat Femshep much differently, except for Harkin who thought she was a stripper. ( in fact a lot of people seem to think Femshep is a stripper)

Which begs the question. How bad ass are strippers that Femshep is so often mistaken for one?

[I Tsunayoshi I]

The thing is, most in the Mass Effect universe don't treat Femshep much differently, except for Harkin who thought she was a stripper. ( in fact a lot of people seem to think Femshep is a stripper)

Which begs the question. How bad ass are strippers that Femshep is so often mistaken for one?

Not sure. I know Harkin almost got shot for that **** though.

[damienmondragon]

I always feel obligated to go with a male Shep because as a heterosexual male, I like going after romantic options that match up with my own sexual tastes. I've always been the type to try and identify as much as possible with my character in RPG's, so I guess I just feel like my romantic interests should parallel my real-life ones as much as possible.

 

Maybe one day I'll create a femshep and get a steamy lesbian romance goin' down, I've got no problem with that, but again it's harder for me to identify with a female character, being a male and all.

 

Anyone else feel this way?

 

I am a 58 year old black man, I like having my avatar be as much like me as possible, and too bad a full beard and steel grey hair aren't more of an option. I have always liked having to freedom to create an avatar that resembles me, trying to do what I would try to do in a given situation, in every way possible. Pretending to be someone else does not help me feel immersed.

 

When I tried to check the progress of ME-4 I can across the following about a ME-4 developer calling for an end to negative stereotyping in video gaming and craft game mechanics to tackle diversity and inclusiveness more so that players have to deal with issues of social injustice.

 

'The Mass Effect veteran went on to discuss how gaming consistently fails to tackle issues like “misogyny, sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia and other types of social injustice.”'

"We should use the ability of our medium to show players the issues first hand, or give them a unique understanding of the issues and complexities by crafting game mechanics along with narrative components that result in dynamics of play that create meaning for the player in ways that other media isn’t capable of.”

http://www.gamerhead...e-stereotyping/

 

The writers and developers of Mass Effect are as creative and talented a crew as you will find in the industry, but I can't help recalling my first run through of ME-3 being friendly and sympathetic to the grieving shuttle pilot Cortez and not having enough paragon points to use the option to save the Geth because I turned him down when he hit on me in the Citadel bar, in favor of having Liara my love interest in the game.

 

I also turned away Ashley and Miranda, but I don't remember them earning me renegade points, and though they are game characters I actually felt like I had hurt a friend who loved me. The developers who created them seem to have too much skill and talent to put something like this petty political correctness in a game unless pressured to go along to get along.

 

Are we looking at having waited years and spending who knows how much cash on ME-4, and getting a special penalty because we pick as love interest the friend we are most attracted to, as opposed to a politically correct sexual minority option? What might players be pressured to advocate for the benefits of paragon points? Will we be able to choose more traditional missions of equal value and enjoyability? 

 

I would really like to retain the ability to choose and put together my own avatar and not have game mechanics driven by diversity activists with a Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan attitude of go along to get along, or else. Such activists tend to generate compliance at the cost of more resentment than acceptance of their cause.

[Pirate Queen Isabela]

I definitely see a difference between playing male!shep and Shepard (I always am always gonna see female Shepard as  canon, no matter how much Bioware shoves her to the side. ) The stripper comments is the most noticeable.

 

I play both Sheps, my main male Shep romances Cortez and my main Shepard is in a poly relationship with Garrus and Tali.

 

I have to draw a disconnection from me and the character I'm roleplaying, tbh. If my Shep sided with the Geth, that doesn't portray my point of view. I don't RP my character to be like me, especially in a game like ME. 

[tch2296]

I am a 58 year old black man, I like having my avatar be as much like me as possible, and too bad a full beard and steel grey hair aren't more of an option. I have always liked having to freedom to create an avatar that resembles me, trying to do what I would try to do in a given situation, in every way possible. Pretending to be someone else does not help me feel immersed.

 

When I tried to check the progress of this game I can across the following about a ME-4 developer calling for an end to negative stereotyping in video gaming and craft game mechanics to tackle diversity and inclusiveness more so that player have to deal with

issues of social injustice.

 

'The Mass Effect veteran went on to discuss how gaming consistently fails to tackle issues like “misogyny, sexism, racism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia and other types of social injustice.”'

"We should use the ability of our medium to show players the issues first hand, or give them a unique understanding of the issues and complexities by crafting game mechanics along with narrative components that result in dynamics of play that create meaning for the player in ways that other media isn’t capable of.”

http://www.gamerhead...e-stereotyping/

 

The writers and developers of Mass Effect are as creative and talented a crew as you will find in the industry, but I can't help recalling my first run through of ME-3 being friendly and sympathetic to the grieving shuttle pilot and not having enough paragon points to use the option to save the Geth because I turned him down when he hit on me in the Citadel bar, in favor of having Liara my love interest in the game.

 

I also turned away Ashley and Miranda, but I don't remember them earning me renegade points, and though they are game characters I actually felt like I had hurt a friend who loved me. The developers who created them seem to have too much skill and talent to put something like this petty political correctness in a game unless pressured to go along to get along.

 

Are we looking at having waited years and spending who knows how much cash on ME-4, and getting special punished because we pick as love interest the friend we are most attracted to, as opposed to a politically correct sexual minority option? What might players be pressured to advocate for the benefits of paragon points? Will we be able to choose more traditional missions of equal value and enjoyability? 

 

I would really like to retain the ability to choose and put together my own avatar and not have game mechanics driven by diversity activists with a Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan attitude of go along to get along, or else. Such activists tend to generate compliance at the cost of more resentment than acceptance of their cause.

 

Nice post. In terms of getting fully immersed it also helps me to create an avatar I can relate with. Try to make mine look as much like me as possible and make decisions I would make.

[KaiserShep]

The thing is, most in the Mass Effect universe don't treat Femshep much differently, except for Harkin who thought she was a stripper. ( in fact a lot of people seem to think Femshep is a stripper)

Which begs the question. How bad ass are strippers that Femshep is so often mistaken for one?

 

I don't recall Harkin actually using the word stripper, but it's kind of hard to tell what he thought. He might have figured that she was a soldier, but just didn't care, because he's a pr*ck. The batarian didn't really Shepard for a stripper, but rather was just insulting. It is kind of weird though, because when you actually do get to the boulevard to find Archangel, you see number of female engineers among the enemies you fight.

[damienmondragon]

Nice post. In terms of getting fully immersed it also helps me to create an avatar I can relate with. Try to make mine look as much like me as possible and make decisions I would make.

I have looked forward to the experience I had in previous Mass Effect games, I have waited many, many months and am willing to pay what I expect to be top dollar for the opportunity. Call me selfish but I am not looking forward to having ME-4 and eventually all of gaming co-opted by power hungry activist’s ham handedly pushing social agendas with penalties for not going along to get along, closing off options that do not push their agendas.

No matter how well intended their drive for "social justice", I wonder how they would have those of more traditional values depicted.

I do not know how many reading this; have shared the time period I was born into. There was institutionalized racism; it was about a lot more than sitting in the back of buses or using water fountains. It was about being seen as so inferior that having co-worker seen as your equal, much less your subordinate was like being an adult working with a precocious teen genius with skills and talent equal or superior to theirs, and having other adults see them as a child's equal or subordinate.

This meant no matter how much you could contribute to your company you were not going to get the promotions and pay to live in the better safer communities with the better emergency response, or schools, even if they would accept you. You and yours were not going to the better hospitals or doctors for the better medical, dental, optometric or pediatric services; neither could you hire the better attorneys, or get the better loan rates.

I do not know how many of you lived when blacks were mostly rural and southern and we had work ethics much closer to today's Amish. I know rural blacks who did not get electricity to pump running water until the mid 70s, running power lines to distant small farms far apart is expensive for the returns.

 My parent's generation and most of my cousins learned working hard, responsibility, reliability and discipline early, crops and live stock depend on people for what they need, when they need it, how they need it, or their harvest value spirals to near zero fast, and stopping that spiral can get very hard and expensive fast. Farm kids regardless of race have to be hard working, productive, responsible, and reliable.

Find it hard to picture the typical black kid being seen like that, most everybody in town seeing them as a kid hireable to do jobs around their home, as was the typical small town or farm kid? In my time if you lived in the country side regardless of race it was not unusual for rural boys 14 to 16 years old to be expected to be responsible enough to be trusted with their first .22 rifle or small-bore shotgun to hunt small game with.  There are still a lot of black kids being raised like that but they tend to stay out of trouble and not be news worthy, despite resisting the still very powerful temptations that lead people astray.

My friends and I were going out hunting and plinking at 16. This is how life had been for generations if you could afford or inherit a firearm young. In a lot of the country it still is common for farm kids of all ages to be raised to be extraordinarily responsible, hardworking, productive and independent for their age.

We were people of traditional values; we were raised to believe in an all seeing, all powerful, all knowing, and strict but caring, loving God. None of us were perfect, many far from. I have earned my share of regrets that I went along with the easier more tempting secular way of life; I regret I did not speak out louder and earlier when we all saw the problems with much that was then 

'hip' and new.

I have my memories of friends, neighbors and family who probably would not have died so young if we had been as responsible as we had been raised to be, if we had the courage not to go along with things we knew were unnecessary and wrong. I have my memories of their next of kin who need not have suffered their loss.

 But if you did not see it, you probably find it hard to picture a time when in the early 1950s as our out of wedlock birth rate headed from 17% to 20% (today it is about 70%)our community leaders were alarmed enough to approach allies in  congress about an investigation and help in solving the problem. This lead to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s; Moynihan Report "The ****** Family: The Case for National Action,” on the growing problems of the black nuclear family. http://www.npr.org/b...fty-years-later

These black community leaders were in many cases clergy, with such influence that in time they would lead many of their most faithful congregants and other highly motivated civil rights activists to practice non-violent civil disobedience against a Ku Klux Klan with a long and well earned reputation tor terrorizing, kidnapping, too often killing their opposition and getting away with it.

 They would pioneer and settle the path for all minority groups to follow, including those who would co-opt everything they could and then condemn the faith, morality and values that brought out the best in us, as well as our attempts to return to that which made us our best.

Back then these community leaders were fighting to preserve traditional marriage and family against the competing ideas that common law marriage and no marriage at all were near equally acceptable. Look at all the celebrities who helped mainstream those ideas since.  The present governor of NY State lives with his lady friend.

The experience of not just the black community is that this experiment (since long before same sex marriage joined the mix) has been a disaster leading to the disintegration of traditional nuclear families; increased crime, violence, poverty, and abortions (abortion is not just the largest cause of death in the black community each year, but more deaths than all other causes combined.) http://www.toomanyab...umberonekiller/ How many of these women just refuse to raise their baby alone?

It took decades, generations for same sex marriage equality to even become part of the struggle in the 1990s, but when it did; advocating the supremacy of traditional marriage and nuclear family over all other options became a hate crime equivalent to opposing interracial marriage.

Does it harm or assist our efforts to advocate that marriage should be between one man and one woman for life; if people try to destroy your job, career or business for advocating traditional marriage and nuclear family is not just one option amongst a growing number of equals, but the undisputed best?

 This is not theory or prediction, this is the experience of my people, and most of you are aware of this to some degree. Those willing to accept this as acceptable collateral damage, maybe some fluke that will only effect our community, are ignoring their own out of wedlock birth rates rise to about 30% or 40%.

How will those demanding more social justice demand that those advocating traditional values be depicted?  Will the kind of points I’ve made above be allowed, and be allowed to be told honestly? How often have you heard these points in other media?

Will the game industry be enlisted to vilify and marginalize those struggling to restore the values and morality that brought out the best in enough of this county’s least powerful and least influential citizens to help pioneer modern civil rights activism?

Look at what happens to those who dare state their religious faith that marriage is between one man and one woman for life, and tell me about tolerance and diversity, tell me you haven’t known the answer to these questions for years.

[zestalyn]

I prefer RPG's specifically because it allows me to play with actions reflecting my personality, etc, for the immersive experience. And that applies to gender,as well. There aren't that many games outside of RPG's you can play as a woman. For me, playing as a female is really important. Not just because I am one, but male spotlight is so common, and seeing a female character become strong and influential is rare and empowering  

[themikefest]

The thing is, most in the Mass Effect universe don't treat Femshep much differently, except for Harkin who thought she was a stripper. ( in fact a lot of people seem to think Femshep is a stripper)

Which begs the question. How bad ass are strippers that Femshep is so often mistaken for one?

Harkin never called her a stripper. He calls her princess. The Batarian in ME2, when doing Garrus recruitment mission, is the one assumes that  femshep is a stripper.

[Farangbaa]

I prefer RPG's specifically because it allows me to play with actions reflecting my personality, etc, for the immersive experience. And that applies to gender,as well. There aren't that many games outside of RPG's you can play as a woman. For me, playing as a female is really important. Not just because I am one, but male spotlight is so common, and seeing a female character become strong and influential is rare and empowering

 

I advise you to play this, if you can get your hands on it:

 

[BHRamsay]

Harkin never called her a stripper. He calls her princess. The Batarian in ME2, when doing Garrus recruitment mission, is the one assumes that  femshep is a stripper.

I see the source of the confusion, when someone refers to my marine uniform as a "soldier get-up" and asks me to sit my "sweet little ass" next to him, then registered surprise at the reason for my talking to him in the first place, I assumed it was OK to infer that he'd mistaken me for one of the dancers in the strip club in which the conversation is occuring.

[themikefest]

I see the source of the confusion, when someone refers to my marine uniform as a "soldier get-up" and asks me to sit my "sweet little ass" next to him, then registered surprise at the reason for my talking to him in the first place, I assumed it was OK to infer that he'd mistaken me for one of the dancers in the strip club in which the conversation is occuring.

I won't argue that. I did pi** me off that he said it like that. Him calling me princess was really what upset me more since he's nothing but garbage. If there was an option to punch him, shoot him dead or in the privates, I would've done it every time.

[SporkFu]

Harkin's not worth a bullet, or worth your gun overheating even a fraction of a degree. He's worth a boot, though. A boot to the groin works. It's too bad Garrus couldn't have been there, then he could have head-butted him. Would have made the headbutt in ME2 even better. "Dammit Garrus, you broke my nose... again!" 

[Abelas Forever!]

I am a woman and I like to play as a woman because there isn't so many games that I can do that. Those characters are not me but I identify myself with them. I also choose male characters as my LIs in games because I like men in real life. I have thought that I should choose male Shepard but then I always end up choosing female Shepard. Well there are still many games where I don't have a choice so I'll continue to play as female Shepard.

[damienmondragon]

Many if not most gamers here seem to enjoy having the option to choose their avatar, how hard would it be to allow the choice of all races including the major alien races? Act according to your personal preferences or orientations and not be funneled through someone else's agenda and penalized for not being Politically Correct enough?

 

My first play through I treated Cortez like any other friend until I turned down the opportunity to make him my love interest for the game. The game had seemed to be steering me toward Liara, who dropped all manner of hints, much as ME-1 seemed to steer me towards Ashley, And ME-2 Miranda, all seemed the characters in which the best interactions would be invested in that game.

 

The renegade penalty for not going along with Cortez, convinced me to  avoid Cortez, and not give him any excuse to proposition me since, though after Leviathan I took the risk of inviting him to the crew party, since I was clearly involved with Liara or Tali and the game respects commitment.

 

I do not see the team that created main characters like Mordin, Grunt, Liara, Tali, Garrus, Wrex, Edi, any number of good and noble at heart personalities you can choose to befriend, suddenly putting in a character like Cortez you had better sympathize with or else. That sounds like the activists who will tolerate no dissenting preference or opinion without penalizing you as an enemy.

 

The people who will punish you if your social conscience says be sympathetic to those who look with regret at the decades since mainstreaming abortion, and ‘men’ seeking women they will  pretty much abandon to single motherhood, (if they do not abort their children). “Men’ who will abandon them to dependence on government support, while they seek out new lady friends to abandon when the responsibility gets too much.

 

If you are going to support marriage equality for the spectrum of human sexuality, do you have enough paragon John Sheppard in you to support fair depiction of those who struggle to return to the traditional values and morality of more responsibility, hard work and honor, a return to more of the faith and courage to face down the likes of the KKK with non violent civil disobedience?

 

Or will you go along to get along with stereotyping and marginalizing us as religious bigots, and help undermine our efforts?  Can the designers face down the politically correct by giving gamers the chance and choice to see both sides of this struggle, even if it is also ‘touchy’ for a lot of unwed and dead beat fathers?

 

In the black community we faced over 400 years of racial inequality, 50 years of self indulgent self destruction with a lot of help from our ‘friends’ who are also following in our footsteps, (as are all who walk this walk). This may be a tale of warning worth telling, maybe something the politically correct need to wake up to themselves, as they try to lead the way.

 

Our change from mid century rural values to modern urban progressive has exceeded the wildest nightmares of many, and caused problems everybody sees, but most turn a blind eye, deaf ear and mute voice to as they go along to get along with making things worst. Hopefully the gaming industry does no go along with changing game mechanics to help make things worst.

[damienmondragon]

I definitely see a difference between playing male!shep and Shepard (I always am always gonna see female Shepard as  canon, no matter how much Bioware shoves her to the side. ) The stripper comments is the most noticeable.

 

I play both Sheps, my main male Shep romances Cortez and my main Shepard is in a poly relationship with Garrus and Tali.

 

I have to draw a disconnection from me and the character I'm roleplaying, tbh. If my Shep sided with the Geth, that doesn't portray my point of view. I don't RP my character to be like me, especially in a game like ME. 

When I saved the Geth I brokered peace between them and the Quarians, the option comes in pale if you are close to having enough points to use the option. When as male Shep you romance Cortez do you get paragon points, and about how many?

Why should a player get a reward for choosing a same sex partner and a penalty for selecting a hetero friend if one's preference is hetero?

If the situation were reversed wouldn't that be a hate crime?

Why not make any selection and commitment to a friend/lover positive?

Why co-opt our heroes, struggles and civil rights victories, and then try to redefine marriage and attack us for our continued advocacy of traditional family, especially given our well known problems with broken families?

If orientations are set for life and can’t be acquired preferences, why try and push people to try something different, and penalize them if they don’t?

Looking at men locked away for years who were before and after incarceration are attracted to women enough to father children, why are they caught on the down low with other men after doing time in lock-up with just other men?

What do you think is meant by “Don’t knock it if you never tried it.”, “Try it, bet you’ll like, better than head.”, “Got to have one to know what really feels good to one.” ?

My people at least ( a lot of others too), have noticed this situation for generations given the number of our men locked away and the time they tend to spend. Looks to us like these men and boys have developed a sexual preference, but what do blacks know about sex, and kinkiness, and people with kinky preferences seeking gratification on the down low in our communities?

In too many of our communities it is about as hard to find out about convicts, people indulging in kinky preferences and the sex trades, as it is gangs and the drug trade, too many people know more than they want to know. Some who found their preference behind bars can be really assertive, even aggressive about their passions, so much so the gay community probably still denies they are gay.

The intimidation tactics of these convicts tend to make such bad PR for their community, (some are rapists) that they are disowned, yet look at the intimidation tactics many who disown them, use against those who disagree with them. Reminds me of the intimidation tactics of many of those put forward as representing the black community (Sharpton, Jackson, Farrakhan, and Wright), and how they intimidate dissenters.

I wonder if there is a majority in both communities that would like to disown their ‘leaders’ and their tactics, but are just go along to get along because they are too intimidated to seek better representation or leadership.

[tch2296]

Jesus dudes I thought this was a spoiler-free forum haha. I've barely even started Mass Effect... 

 

Sorry to be that guy! I think it's an interesting topic.

[damienmondragon]

This is a good topic; hope my opinions do not push you away. But I have seen activists using thug tactics do a lot of damage to a lot of really good things. I have seen people who probably started with good intentions gain great power and influence intimidating first their community and then many others into going along with them to get along. I have seen noble starts hijacked into brutal endings.

 

I have lived seeing entire communities corrupted and exploited by people using thug tactics intimidation on one hand, buy people off with just enough money hand outs to get by and stay high without working,  and blaming the communities' problems on outsiders who would suck the community dry if not for these thugs` "standing up" for it.

 

I have seen good and courageous people ostracized for speaking the truth they saw, while thugs coerced others to go along to get along with reciting even embracing arguments they knew were wrong. This amongst people who not too long before stood in unarmed defiance against the KKK, and practicing non-violent civil disobedience won. `By their example they garnered enough support to change laws and attitudes.

 

Want to see what happens if thug tactics activists get entrenched and influential in the game industry, as other such activists latched onto and destroyed so many other good things for so many?

[damienmondragon]

Making social justice a theme in gaming, how to equally portray both sides?

 “We should use the ability of our medium to show players the issues first hand, or give them a unique understanding of the issues and complexities by crafting game mechanics along with narrative components that result in dynamics of play that create meaning for the player in ways that other media isn’t capable of.”

As an example, he envisioned a game where a soldier comes out to his squad and over time he works with them to earn their trust and acceptance and they become a stronger unit for it. While such an idea has a rough starting point, as you could argue why should he have to prove himself (and you’d be right), I think this is Heir’s way of making gamers think about the ‘issue’ rather than the sort of ‘there if you want it’ options offered by the sexuality of Mass Effect’s Commander Sheppard.

Read more: http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/03/mass-effect-4-negative-stereotyping/#ixzz334BEvemo

 

Taking out the ‘there if you want it option’ and crafting the game mechanics and narrative components sounds like taking away the players choice and forcing them to make what someone, (probably an activist) deems the right or wrong choice, based on another politically correct agenda.

I for one haven’t waited all this time for ME 4, to quietly go along to get along with the start of something like this.   Far more than I like I have seen what activists like this both inside and outside the black community have done to my people. There is something to consider here.

The developers of ME 4 can make compelling and memorable characters, what would happen if they made compelling memorable characters on both sides of marriage equality, redefining family, redefining what is moral acceptability, changing from traditional morality to social justice morality and conveyed them equally?

Could they tell the side of conservative minorities that see their crime, violent, murder, abortion and out of  wedlock birth rates as I have described, for the reasons I have given, and if not, why not?

The issues cited are real and deadly serious, to marginalize, ridicule and vilify us, deny we lived our life experiences as we lived them,  because they are politically incorrect (such as observations of some of the convicts you know), serves what purpose, good or evil?

Do you find yourself feeling threatened, do you find yourself feeling fear even at the thought of conveying our story as I have told it?

Do you see the irony of feeling this way about fairly representing minorities struggling to return to the values that made us all safer, more successful and strong enough to pioneer the modern civil rights movement?

How about going along to get along with those who would have us portrayed as ignorant, backwards, hateful, simple minded and superstitious for our generations long struggle to return to who we were, when we were at our best, especially given the results of experimenting with our families for something better?

[damienmondragon]

If you are reading this and feel uncomfortable replying your opinion, please ask yourself why and what has happened to us as a free people.  You have a degree of anonymity; you have nothing to fear from being politically correct, and If you choose to agree with me and mine, what are you worried about and why?

 

I have met and know gay people who have over the years privately expressed sympathy with the positions I have defended here, but feel very reluctant agreeing out in public, much as have many blacks about criticizing our leaders.

 

I have met gay people who have argued you do not choose to be gay, and ask” who would choose to be gay?”  But wouldn’t say they wish to be hetero given a choice, only they wish people would accept their being gay, which doesn’t mean given a choice they would choose to be gay.

 

I’ve met people who wanted to change their preference, those who say they did it once and can or will change back again, (didn’t Anne Heche do this?).  Those who will say this in public stand to be shouted down with great passion, dissent is not tolerated. Guess what happens to those who have met such people, will talk about it, and can sympathize with them?

 

A Trans sexual on the other hand can demand a right to sex change operations and in a growing number of cases a right to public funding. They can demand people respect them as their chosen gender identity as their sex, regardless of their physical body since birth. God help you if you do not go along.

 

God help the gay person who’s gender identity history does not conform to the party line that states all gays are born gay, you have no choice in the matter and your orientation can not be changed. Once you publicly come out, expect great pressure to live the “no choice, can’t change part.” It seems being ex-gay is worst than speaking out as a black conservative.

 

Beware of community leaders who appeal to others to join with or follow them, and then try to destroy any who wants to move on, they tend to be control freaks.  Would you immigrate to, or invest in starting a business in a country that threatened its citizens with violence up to death, or Imprisonment if it caught them trying to leave?  

 

Be wary of partnering with people who demand you treat them and theirs better than they are willing to treat those outside their circle (like you and yours), double standards are a strong warning of an appetite to dominate as much as they can.  The dominating types tend to rise to the forefront in most communities, especially when they can argue to their people they are getting them something owed them by others, and can bully those others into going along to get along.

 

Was Shepard as gay or Bi an option in the earlier games?  Now that there is a gay option in ME-3, in ME-4 it should  be make “ gamers think about the ‘issue’ rather than the sort of ‘there if you want it’ options offered by the sexuality of Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard…”as it is in ME-3. In ME-4 there should be no choice in “affirming” sexual minorities.  “Although it’ll need to be designed well as to avoid coming across as patronizing to the audience…” is this accurate?  Is it true this proposal was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation at Game Developers’ Conference 2014?http://www.gamerhead...e-stereotyping/

 

Will this include ex-gays, those who want to be ex-gay, and those who claim their sexual preference is acquired and like oral sex, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it? Will developers respect the beliefs and conclusions of such disowned members of their sexual minorities as ex-gays, those who want to be ex-gay, those who claim their preference can be acquired,  and those who support them?

Will social justice respect conservatives of all races and faiths, and our values, our reasons based on the actual experiences of many of our people with secular social experiments on morality and family? Who makes the calls how we are, or are not depicted, how much influence will whose activists have on ME-4 and any later games?

 

Looking at how fast the progression from “We just want tolerance and civil unions, how does that hurt your family?” to “Anyone who doesn’t support same sex marriage is a hateful bigot who should lose their job or business regardless of how many employees and their families might lose most or all of their income.”   I am not encouraged, (I see jackboots).

 

How does one argue that traditional marriage and family have no equal for raising children, when not portraying traditional marriage as at best an equal to some alternatives is hateful and intolerant? How does one advocate the traditional marriage and family, (hard as that commitment may be to keep, compared to the easier alternatives that have baby daddies out of the home). When society and culture undermine and discredit teaching traditional family is the superior option worth the extra effort, does that hurt passing on traditional marriage and family to your heirs?

 

Here in New York 40 years after heroin ripped through the black ghettos of our largest cities, it is making such a comeback, this time in the suburbs that our governor has doubled the size of our state police drug task force, because in the past four years our share of the entire nation’s heroin seizures has nearly doubled from 20% to 35%.

http://www.nytimes.c...pe=article&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.c...gewanted=1&_r=0

 

Seems a lot of people with every opportunity to know better, can look at decades of something tearing up black and other minority communities in the 70s and feel somehow they can handle the same thing better. What happened to us when in hopes of living easier, better and freer, we walked away from the moral values that kept our families and communities strong through our worst times, is happening to everybody else only a little slower.

 

Put the wrong people in the lead and by the time you realize how far the secular social experiments you advocated have changed your community, your nation, you may have children or grandchildren who have know nothing else and who look at what you have come to realize after decades of experience, as old fashioned, even backwards.

 

They are learning and doing stuff you know nothing about. Don’t worry, they are smarter, better educated, and better informed, they will handle it better than you could, or can. And don’t try and poison their kid’s minds with your outdated beliefs and superstitions.

You have probably loved them since you first started to know each other, you holding them newborn in your arms.  You’ve probably done what you had it in you to do, to give them more than you had at their age. The idea of leaving everything you have left and that you care about to them when you die hopefully helps make the thought of dying easier.

 

Try leaving them a world where the average citizen has the kind of strength, the faith to stand before armed KKK type thugs in unarmed civil disobedience, that their heirs might have a better life. Such people will have the kind moral strength, a lot of our parents and/or grandparents had, to raise their children to resist all manner of temptations  that ruin; and to struggle, suffer and sacrifice to do right by family, community and hopefully country.

 

For many millions of us this is not a sometimes intellectual argument, it is looking back on our lives, the social experiments to “make life more free, fun and easy we’ve gone along with and lived through, (looked good when we were stoned, young and starting out). Maybe your secular social experiments will work better than ours, maybe your generation will do better with heroin than we did, or the Chinese did with opium under the British.

 

Maybe you will help discredit something that you now know worked better than what you replaced it with. Maybe you help discredit it so well that your heirs will not believe you, or stand by you when you try to warn them and others that you and yours were wrong.

They may agree with you and still not dare stand with you when there is still time to help fix your mistakes for their heirs. They go along to get along, not stand against the Klan.

 

 A lot that you should have left to your heirs can be stolen or corrupted by the people you choose to follow.  Ignoring the signs you were being mislead, exploited, brow beaten into squandering the legacy you leave your heirs, can lead to the bitterest regrets you and they  will take to your graves. Supremacy of the traditional family brought out much of the best in all our communities and brought us all far, try not to so tarnish the value of the traditional family that it is buried like Nazism. Unlike Nazism we may really need to re-elevate the traditional family, some generation soon.

[Xilizhra]

There's a lot I could say to this... but none of it would have anything at all to do with Mass Effect, so I'll just say that no, you won't have "representation" of this kind, because in the ME setting, no one gives a damn about sexual orientation anymore and gay marriage is ordinary and uncontroversial.