Dragon Age 2 writer responds to complaint about BioWare neglecting 'straight male' demographic

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 25th 2011 10:49AM

For the second time in under six months, Dragon Age senior writer David Gaider felt obligated to step among the Darkspawn in the BioWare Forums to defend the sexual politics of Thedas.

A post on the forum declares that "Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer" in Dragon Age 2. The author's thesis (which you should totally read) posits several interesting arguments. Our favorite: "It makes things very awkward when your male companions keep making passes at you. The fact that a 'No Homosexuality' option, which could have been easily implemented, is omitted just proves my point."

"We have good numbers, after all, on the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in [Dragon Age: Origins] and thus don't need to resort to anecdotal evidence to support our idea that their numbers are not insignificant," Gaider wrote, echoing previous sentiments in his response.

We think BioWare should seize this opportunity and release some DLC: the big, gaudy, golden "Necklace of Nohomo" that grants +2 against "unwanted advances" -- then donate the proceeds to the Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Via: Phyrra
Source: BioWare Forums

Tags: Bioware, bisexual, David-Gaider, Dragon-Age-2, EA, Electronic-Arts, gay, glbt, lesbian, microsoft, pc, playstation, ps3, queer, xbox

Reader Comments (262)

Nohomo?? What do they have against home owners??? RANT RANT RANT!

@xreadmore

Ah yes...I can already see the next Mass Effect dialog choices:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14055229/dialog.jpg

@NaeemTHM

Too funny! Nicely done.

@xreadmore It's not gay if it's just two guys helping each other out.

@NaeemTHM

Ya know, I was just thinking about what a neglected group the "Straight Male Gamer" is. So few games really cater to that demographic right?
What a joke.

So going by that logic, should all gay people be angry and offended that they've been neglected somehow by all the hetero romances in games?!?

@NaeemTHM

I nearly choked on my lunch laughing. That was awesome.

@xreadmore

What makes me laugh is that these are the same people playing Gears, Killzone and Halo, for examples, 2 of which are about hot sweaty muscular men journeying together to fight the forces of evil and the other about a man who gets so little of it he requires virtual sex with a holographic image just to stop the urges while taking on the greatest threat to the universe. O_o

Pause , really is this what people complain about now ? I don't like the script . I rather the homo advances than to look questionable in a JRPG. FInal Fantasy I'm looking at YOU!

Psh any self respecting male plays as a female to experience lesbian digitzed sex anyway.

@DAmwake Me and my female Shepard are in 100% agreement with this.

@Cranky Penguin I second this idea. As a male playing a female Shepard, I attempted to sex it up with Amanda, but had better luck with what's her name, the red headed female assistant.

@DAmwake Whats better then one beautiful digital woman? Two beautiful digital women.

that and Female bioware voice acting seems to be better then the male ones.

@evilbastard Yea I tried to make the moves on Miranda first but Kelly the redhead was much more receptive.

@mrantimatter
Whats better then one beautiful digital woman?

A real woman.

@DAmwake

that´s right, as a matter of fact i have a big complain against bioware for not allowing threesomes with my female Sheppard, i wanted her to bang every single creature in the universe but there were no choices, what´s going on??? not allowing more alien sex is racist!!!!

@glamajamma True, but those are much dore difficult to get and more expensive.

@DAmwake You are so right.

@DAmwake - I'm Commander Shepherd, and lesbianism is my favorite thing to do on the Citadel.

@Cranky Penguin

That's probably because Miranda is straight and can't be romanced by fem!Shep...

@Balthier
Miranda was so frigid you'd need an icepick to get in her pants. Kelly would have sex with EDI if the option were available.

@PN04

Lol! I just choked on my muesli for that one. Thanks a bunch.

Gaider should have just responded with, "Your mom's a straight male."

@lonecow Rate-up for making me literally laugh out loud at work.

@lonecow

I thought Gaider's actual response was better: "the number of people who actually used similar sorts of content in [Dragon Age: Origins] ... are not insignificant"

Translated: We keep putting this content in because you guys are so fabulous and flaming!

@copa what were we supposed to do? Just let those 20 achievement points for sleeping with zevran go to waste? If I can side with Caesar's Legion over the New California Republic for 50 points, I can damn well sleep with an effeminate elf and then immediately load my last save, proudly!

@TheDarkWayne Gay for (achievement) pay?

It's more likely then you'd think.

@mrantimatter
Homo for Cheevo?

I'm picturing the phobe out there scared to death of being turned on by these "unwanted advances". Poor fella.

As a straight 20 something year old male I have to agree that my demographic is hardly ever marketed to in any industry and Bioware games have sold out to the mainstream homosexual agenda. If only there were more dudebro straight-centric games out there that made me feel empowered

@Dopple Boppler I like you...

...yeshomo.

@Dopple Boppler You sir win at satire.

@Dopple Boppler
I know, right?
And on that note, when the hell is ARMY OF TWO 3D coming out? I wanna high-five, kick ass, shoot guns, and make lewd comments about everything in three dimensions, damnit. Or at least put it on KINECT so I can chest bump with my fellow MADDEN buddies.

@Dopple Boppler

We all know that hetro's love to teabag in multiplayer... so why are both teams (usually) always men.. ;)

@Dopple Boppler
For real though, this is a game where nearly all the women are endowed to make barbie look flat. I still feel uncomfortably pandered to like I'm a supersexual moron because of that. Seriously saying hetero-males are not targeted or ignored is just idiotic. (I know you were not serious. I'm hoping the original poster wasn't either...)

@foxhound I hope Army of Two 3D doesn’t come out the same week as Duke Nukem Forever. I don’t know if I can handle a double brogasm.

@Dopple Boppler Dammit Dungeon Man! You have privilege out the ass. There is a DUNGEON inside of you!

@Mazrael

This topic is staring to stink worse than Lance Bass's house after a hard night of partying with the bros

FemHawk + Merrill best couple ever!

@DokiDokiBawanga

FemHawke and Isabella wasn't exactly shabby, either.

Such a rare and exotic necklace!
Is it of Qunari origin?

If the lack of a "I'm insecure about my sexuality" option leads this author to such bold conclusions about Bioware's design philosophy, I think he's ready to be a Fox News pundit.

@wily8906 not sure if serious o_O

The forumer's thesis is pretty great. First of all, the "No Homosexuality" option makes no sense because this is an RPG, a game where you're supposed to create your character as you play. Not to mention that it wouldn't make it a believable world if characters displayed only one form of sexual orientation.

He even equates "Straight Male Gamers" as being the only group who are fans of Bioware's games, completely ignoring others.

I wouldn't take anything on the Bioware Social Forums seriously though. Check out this link: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/4786509/70#4822092.

@finnith Hey he mentioned female gamers too. They just only play The Sims (according to him).

The Bioware Social Forums depress me.

@finnith
I mostly agree, except for this line: "Not to mention that it wouldn't make it a believable world if characters displayed only one form of sexual orientation."

I've logged hundreds (thousands?) of hours with games, movies, books, TV shows, etc where none of the characters were homosexual and never once did that alone make me question the authenticity or believability of the world in which the story takes place.

@finnith as soon as I saw that link, I knew exactly what thread it was going to be, and I'm glad I did, because I know my soul could not bear to enter there once more

@finnith agreed. The Bioware forums have gone to the dogs.

@babywolfman Totally depends on perspective and your demographic. I myself am a straight white male, so stuff that's catered to me (almost everything!) never really registers unless I'm really thinking about it. If I were gay, it'd be a different perspective.

This was one of the reasons I stopped playing and sold on my copy of Dragon Age.

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Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 writer responds to complaint about BioWare neglecting 'straight male' demographic

Reader Comments (262)

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 10:54AM xreadmore said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:34AM NaeemTHM said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 1:44PM refinedsugar said

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Posted: Mar 25th 2011 2:03PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 4:48PM Kozuu said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 10:36PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Mar 26th 2011 11:48AM Balthier said

Posted: Mar 27th 2011 3:10AM PN04 said

Posted: Mar 31st 2011 9:32PM Foetoid said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 10:57AM lonecow said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:03AM captcarl said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:24AM copa said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:51AM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:57AM mrantimatter said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 4:27PM MrCheeks said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 10:57AM mrmojoz said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 10:59AM Dopple Boppler said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:00AM edofyingfilms said

Posted: Mar 25th 2011 11:16AM captcarl said

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