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Mass Effect banned in Singapore over lesbian scene

by Ross Miller on Nov 14th 2007 10:30PM

If a human female and a humanoid alien who is classified as female want to express their love in a physical manner, who are we to interrupt the natural order of the universe? According to Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, the government's Media Development Authority has banned BioWare's Mass Effect from sale in the country.

As reported by Reuters, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, "the city-state should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals." The lesbian scene was posted on GameVideos earlier this week before Microsoft asked them to remove it.

[Thanks, Mitchell]

Source

Tags: bioware, gay, lesbian, lgbt, masseffect, sex, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (81)

Freedom of expression, not of cock banging. Been to Bangkok actually, and guess what? Youtube's banned in Thailand.

Not anymore it's not. I know that during a boring school trip to Phuket 2 months ago that I was still able to access Youtube just fine.

Plus the military overthrew the government there not too long ago, granted it was because they felt the government was hideously incompetent

The alien isn't necessarily a hermaphrodite - who says they have sexual organs like humans?

Don't worry - if you drop trash in Singapore, they only cane you behind the knees *once*.

Here's the video in question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMY_3BoZDM

Singapore is not so bad. At least you can walk at 4 in the night through the red light district (yes there is an official, legal one here) without any fear of being robbed. In New York you can't even walk on the streets in broad daylight! Homosexuality is technically illegal here although there is a public debate going on about changing this particular law.

youve never been to new york, have you?

If they legalize homosexuality, I wonder how their military conscription policy is gonna work out.

Hahaha. Oh man, if the prime minister of a nation needs to address issues like this, you guys can simply imagine how hard it gets running a country like Singapore.

See what we have to put up with. :D Good thing I've been living away for the past 4 years or so.

Looks like its time for me to cash in. I could probably ship them back home and make a buck or 2 out of it.

I don't think so. It's bans like this that promote piracy because the only way to get it is downloading or going to Johor Baru.

Oh, by the way mr Jake11, I've actually lived in New York and speak from experience. Love the city but wouldn't want to live there anymore.

Think I'm gonna pass on this one....I had high aspirations of a great sci-fi fps et al. All I've seen from the hype and trailers so far is a bunch of soapish garble. I wanna see some alien gibs fly; not a bunch of bisexual freakos cross-pollinating in each others spacesuits for 40+hrs. Thanx for this piece, Joystiq, I think it fixed it for me. "CHIEF! MARCUS! YOU GUYS STILL AROUND??

It's an RPG, from BIOWARE. You know the company that goes around and makes awesome RPGs. You know, those guys that made Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic. Remember those games? Yeah, Bioware made those. It's an RPG with FPS elements in the combat.

Interesting, I saw the game covers in Game yesterday (UK) and they were rated (12).. They were rated by the BBFC if I remember rightly, rather than the european ratings board.

Europe has a lot of tolerance for sexuality, but are ridiculously uptight about graphic violence, while America has a lot of tolerance for graphic violence, but are ridiculously uptight about sexuality

Japan tolerates both, but has their own wierd set of hangups...

HAHAHAHAHA Suxors

I think that they should remove the lesbian scene, but do so in a way that is easily hacked or glitched around.

Fuck Singapore, they shouldn't have to remove squat from that game to appease them!

Don't worry, I saw what you did there.

This is stupid on so many levels. The most glaring one is that this happened because of a result of simple 1 + 1 = 2 technical reasons. They built the game with relationships. They also built the game with an alien species that look a lot like women. Simple math.

The only reason this is causing a fuss is because there are a lot of uptight whiney homophobes who get upset over almost anything. I wish those kinds of people would get a life.

I find it amusing that the same pedestrian leftism that claims to love 'diversity' is enraged that another country dares to have different values than we do.

So, I guess diversity = everyone thinking the same?

What a bunch of hypocrites... LAWL

What you call "values" other people consider to be intolerance or bigotry.

Exactly my point. You are saying that because they disagree with you, their beliefs are obviously wrong and have no value.

So like I said, diversity = everyone thinking alike and holding the same 'allowed' opinions.

No that's holding no values.

Diversity can come from all over the place, but the most diversity will always come from a government that allows it's populous to avoid what it wants and believe what it wants (of course a government has to bar things that will physically and financially harm others). A government that tries to bar different beliefs (in this case homosexuality) is you know, suppressing diversity.

"You are saying that because they disagree with you, their beliefs are obviously wrong and have no value."

No, I see their beliefs as a result of ignorance and fear rather than stupidity and immorality. :D

thats not lesbian, this alien likes sex with other species.

Oh noes! Joystiq used "gay" as a tag for this post. Don't you know you aren't allowed to use the "g" word on the interwebs no more. Guess you guys didn't get the menu.

memo dude, memo

wow has singapore never played the sims? I never saw the scene in Mass Effect but my sims had same sex "relations" all over the place and that game is rated T.

It's all because they've talked about it. Jade Empire had the same option (sans nudity... and kiss) but since the ESRB didn't report on it, Game news and others didn't talk about it, nobody had their panties in a bunch. I bet Singapore didn't ban that. I've always been told how awesome the Sing economy is, but I hadn't heard of that kinda game law withholding...

If lesbians wanna express their love in a physical manner, we should not interrupt the natural order of the universe. Otherwise, it is unfair to those lesbians and may cause them to spend much more time in dating someone online such as http://LesbianConnect.com but not meet their soul mate in real life.

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Mass Effect banned in Singapore over lesbian scene

Reader Comments (81)

Posted: Nov 15th 2007 2:49AM ThornedVenom said

Posted: Nov 15th 2007 5:55AM Jamar said

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Posted: Nov 15th 2007 2:55AM ThornedVenom said

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