Gay Gamers were thrilled to learn last week that Star Wars: The Old Republic would be including an option for same-sex relationships in the new expansion pack, “Rise of the Hutt Cartel.”
Less thrilling is the news that gay romance would be confined to one planet. Reports Kotaku:
The controversy that has bizarrely popped up now, over a week after the announcement, is that the same-sex romance will take place on a specific planet for now—Makeb—and you have to pay money to go there.
Some have jokingly dubbed it ‘pay-to-gay.’
Is that like the interstellar version of Palm Springs?
Making lemonade out of lemons, intrepid padawan Auntie Pixilante has designed a text-based choose-your-own-adventure game about the situation, the NSFW-ish Hunt for the Gay Planet:
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
I’ve been saying for a while now that supposedly LGBT-friendly game developers like BioWare only see queer people (lgb people, at least) as consumers. Nothing could make the point more clearly than BioWare’s decision to add gay romances to Star Wars: The Old Republic – on a single planet in the galaxy, which players have to pay for the privilege of visiting. Pay to enter a dystopian future where queers are exiled to a far-off, backwater planet!
My usual spiel is to talk about how the only real queer representation we’re going to see in games is going to come from queer people making their own games and telling their own stories… So i made a game, my first in a while.
The Force is strong in this one.
Play Hunt for the Gay Planet here.
h/t: Forbes.com
bugg
This “controversy” is ridiculous. Bioware is by far the most LGBT-friendly major game developer in the business, to an almost astonishing level.
I’m also pretty sure they plan to expand same-gender romances throughout the game’s galaxy. It’s only on this planet right now because this is a NEW feature on a NEW planet coming with an expansion of NEW content. That’s why it costs money. Do you want them to give a two-hundred million dollar game away entirely free?
Daveliam
Agreed. This is such a ridiculous non-controversy. Bioware announced pre-release that because of timing concerns same gender relationships (sgr’s) would be added into the game in a later update. While not ideal, we all knew this before the game even hit shelves. The Rise of the Hutts is an expansion. It’s adding in a ton of new content. You always have to pay for expansions. That’s how Bioware can afford to make the game free to play now. They are including sgr’s on the new planet. It’s a start. They are still intending on adding in sgr’s in the rest of the game but it takes time to execute. I have complete faith in Bioware.
Bioware is one of the (if not the most) inclusive and GLBT friendly video game companies. They have included sgr’s in almost all of their recent games. This article smacks of tabloid journalism: a scandalous title followed by an article filled with half truths and omissions. (And don’t even get me started on the Fox News story about the new ‘gay planet’ in the Old Republic….) I really hope queerty can get it together when it comes to their video game coverage. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Can we get a little journalistic integrity?
Jawsch
While I can understand why some people may see it as “banning” them to a planet by themselves, the idea of an entire species (which in many sci-fi shows like Star Wars, Star Trek, etc) of people who have no gender roles in regards to sexual attraction being on a single planet fits into the whole realm of a sci-fi story.
You can’t just *bam* inject it into already released content and inter-mingle. That’s not really how expansions like this work.
2eo
It’s just an excuse for the c*nts who worship at the altar of celebrities to take pot shots at gaming and the industry, because for some reason these c*nts see it as beneath them.
The sheer lack of understanding and standard of reporting on this is incredibly low, Bioware are a great company, and are among the most friendly and progressive companies not just in gaming but anywhere.
Also having worked on content for an MMO you have no idea how much work goes into expansions, there’s literally trillions of combinations that you just don’t get with regular expansions.
tazz602
Why are all the gaymers commenting defending this horrendous roll out of this feature?? Bioware could EASILY wait until it can be incorporated throughout the galaxy of the game. Giving them a pass when this clearly looks pretty bad doing it this way is not the way we award bad behavior and bad decisions. As a gaymer – I am appalled and I hope they fix his soon.
2eo
@tazz602: Have you ever tried co-ordinating content across an already existing ecosystem?
There are 8 individual characters, each character can be one of 6 races. The amount of content required for each one is massive. The game is fully voiced, so each race has it’s own set of lines, which is an enormous undertaking.
I don’t think you understand the sheer size and scale of the job in producing new content, let alone new companion characters that need to fit in with current content.
Then they have to watch out that the game economy isn’t skewed by new items or the game becomes unbalanced. It isn’t laziness or a snide attack on our community, it’s simple economics and project management.
MK Ultra
@2eo: I hope you’re right because I love the Mass Effect series (Male Shephard + Kaiden forever!), but if Bioware is going to start closeting their gay characters, I can’t lie and say I won’t be disappointed.