08-01-2013, 06:15 AM
As someone who wishes to become a game designer in the future, this subject has been a curious one for me. I'd like to ask the true recipients of these depictions about their ideas on the matter, but until recently I've not had the chance. So here we go...
At least three series of games have brought homosexuality into mainstream view in recent years: Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy, their Dragon Age duology, and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The first two have party members who are able to be romanced by both male and female player characters, and have a heavy amount of dialogue and back story included as part of the relationship mechanic.
Skyrim's relationship mechanic is far less visible; the PC can gain followers after helping them with certain quests or events. After unlocking a bit of dialogue explaining marriage from a priest of that universe's deity of love, you can then approach the follower of your choice wearing an amulet of said deity and request for marriage. The whole affair is easily missed, however, and very little dialogue is unlocked, nor is there a major mechanic effected by doing so aside from minor experience boosts you can get from sleeping in the same bed with your PC's spouse and being able to obtain money and supplies from a shop they run.
Now, as to which of these were successful, in my opinion... Mass Effect caught a lot of flack from the media for their "scenes of a sexual nature", which were obtained at the culmination of the romance and honestly displayed less skin than your average R-rated movie. However, going into the first game's code and dialogue reveals that initially, a male or female PC could have a romance for all three romance options, which are a male human, a female human, and a "female" mono-gendered alien. This was removed before release. A male PC could only romance the female human or the alien, and a female PC could romance the male and the same alien. The second game of the series removed the alien character, and after that a true homosexual romance was impossible until the third game.
Dragon Age had much the same, only with two bisexual romance characters. This trend continued in Dragon Age 2.
Aside from easily being able to miss the romances in Skyrim, the whole thing is not looked at strangely by any characters in the game. It's taken as completely neutral, though this is probably because the developers didn't add much of anything on that subject regarding NPC interaction.
Gah... I feel like I'm making this too much like a college lecture, but honestly I do want to know this community's thoughts on the matter. Feel free to post anything regarding other modes of visual media as well, if you like. Though if you can, please keep the conversation civil...
--V
At least three series of games have brought homosexuality into mainstream view in recent years: Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy, their Dragon Age duology, and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. The first two have party members who are able to be romanced by both male and female player characters, and have a heavy amount of dialogue and back story included as part of the relationship mechanic.
Skyrim's relationship mechanic is far less visible; the PC can gain followers after helping them with certain quests or events. After unlocking a bit of dialogue explaining marriage from a priest of that universe's deity of love, you can then approach the follower of your choice wearing an amulet of said deity and request for marriage. The whole affair is easily missed, however, and very little dialogue is unlocked, nor is there a major mechanic effected by doing so aside from minor experience boosts you can get from sleeping in the same bed with your PC's spouse and being able to obtain money and supplies from a shop they run.
Now, as to which of these were successful, in my opinion... Mass Effect caught a lot of flack from the media for their "scenes of a sexual nature", which were obtained at the culmination of the romance and honestly displayed less skin than your average R-rated movie. However, going into the first game's code and dialogue reveals that initially, a male or female PC could have a romance for all three romance options, which are a male human, a female human, and a "female" mono-gendered alien. This was removed before release. A male PC could only romance the female human or the alien, and a female PC could romance the male and the same alien. The second game of the series removed the alien character, and after that a true homosexual romance was impossible until the third game.
Dragon Age had much the same, only with two bisexual romance characters. This trend continued in Dragon Age 2.
Aside from easily being able to miss the romances in Skyrim, the whole thing is not looked at strangely by any characters in the game. It's taken as completely neutral, though this is probably because the developers didn't add much of anything on that subject regarding NPC interaction.
Gah... I feel like I'm making this too much like a college lecture, but honestly I do want to know this community's thoughts on the matter. Feel free to post anything regarding other modes of visual media as well, if you like. Though if you can, please keep the conversation civil...
--V