News BioWare dismisses homosexuality in Star Wars

Princess Leia used to be Luke's twin brother but had transgender surgery.

 

Carrie Fisher did have to have her breasts strapped down in A New Hope. Perhaps that was to illustrate that the "treatments" were still a work-in-progress.

 

Um, it's their forum and their game... Freedom of speech only exists in a public, face to face forum.

 

two things, Fail to BioWare for not standing up and supporting the rights of all people.

Fail to FeRaL because the same argument is now being used to suppress free speech. I am sure that this will make its way through the courts and some sort of protection for Free Speech, regardless of who owns the server, will be implemented. We often offer our opinions online now rather than face to face, the same (or maybe more) protections should exist. If they do not we will end up limiting online speech and THAT is a dark and slippery slope.

Yours in Bi-Sexual Free Speech Plasma,
Star¤Dagger

 

Isn't it interesting when anybody says ''ok, you are now banned from discussing.....'' it's almost always a mistake.

 

actually from what I've learned with experiments- there are ALOT of gay people playing online.. I don't think this is a smart move at all.. I used to create tryouts under the name VOW OF FRUITBOY and my buddy would play along just to see how many gay recruits we could get in games with a fake clan.. I mean we were literally shocked at how many people tried out- and alot of the guys who we thought were really awesome especially in RTS games like age of empires, turned out to be gay.. you can't get this kind of data any other way XD they are shooting themselves in the foot and don't even know it

*edit- btw I'm totally strait! lol I thought point that out in case I get gay bashed

 

I disagree.. They still have freedom of speech. I think that's what you're missing.. They have EVERY right to go on their *own* personal blog or other corner of the internet and rant and rave and say what they please... Hell, even other forums will probably allow it ... They only have limited freedom of speech on someone *else*'s corner of the net ... if it's your own property ..you should have the *freedom* to control your board as you wish... my $.02

 

Even if it wasn't relevant to the Star Wars universe, it could still make for interesting discussion as to why it isn't. Banning discussion on forums defeats the purpose of it. Unless that forum is merely a cynical vehicle to promote your own company. Fail.

The argument that devs are missing balanced discussion of a lot of different subjects including political etc - so why get upset at this one incident... well its ok in a game, just means that the devs missed a lot of potential to make the game different/interesting. Stopping others from discussing something that clearly is not offensive in anyway just doesn't make any sense, even if it is in your own private house/forum.

And anyway - BioWare are likely to have a lot of visitors to their forum, so it's more like a public place than a private one - if they wanted it private then they would start kicking out their members!

 

Banning this discussion is nothing short of a dick move meant to discriminate against a single class of people that they apparently mean to discriminate against in the game through exclusion. I don't give them a free pass for wanting to 'avoid controversy', that's just cowardly.

Yeah, it's Bioware's forums, but nobody would ban discussing issues of 'race' in Star Wars in a fantasy context or out. Real-world issues creep into games, it's something one has to deal with. Discrimination may not violate one's legal right to free speech but it is still wrong.

 

WRONG! I'm pretty sure bit-tech can ban me if i start to call everyone n-bombs (or they have it blocked), but other sites would allow it. And how is one forum being censor by its owner a slippery slope leading to oblivion. You can go bitch about it on your own forum and discuss it there...

EDIT: Wrong as in you aren't making any sense (using the wrong word or the word wrong)

 

So, you say freedom of speech doesn't exist in the tubes? Still the world's most liberal and free zone [unless you live in China]?
If we don't have freedom of speech on the internet we might as well collectively commit suicide. It's over then. They won. Period.

Back on topic:

 

I reckon its cos they are going for a teen or lower rating with the game, and when you join the forums theres a load of guff in the rules about not talking about this sort of stuff. Fair play really, a lot of young kids can't really be a part of a serious discussion of homosexuality.

 

If thats BioWares vision of the game, then so be it. They should have the right to create the game the way they want without being under pressure to be "PC". A lot of games portray certain stereotypes and their lifestyles in a way that can seem very negative but nobody pipes up about it.

As for closing forum topics, shame on you BioWare! You may not want gays and lesbians in your game but you can't stop people talking about it! Thats what makes them seem homophobic.

 

Damn... and I was looking forward to using my handle "Jedi Master Powder-Puff"!

 

I am gay, but I'm not a gamer, so I'm probably not qualified to address this, but that never stopped me before.

BioWare - or any privately-owned company, for that matter - has the right to decide what can or cannot be in its games, forums, etc. That's not censorship, nor is it an attack on free speech. It's a private enterprise deciding what limits to place on its properties.

Do I think it's a smart idea? No. It seems a little ridiculous to eliminate all forms of sexuality but straight from a game, especially when it's an environment that features numerous varieties of aliens and androids. But that's their decision to make.

And while I would be offended if I was a gameplayer, I'm actually glad when people who can't tolerate homosexuals make their positions clear, like Cracker Barrel did a few years back. It makes it so much easier to avoid accidentally giving money to a group that practices immoral beliefs.

 

Because the gay lobby knows it can score free publicity out of making themselves out to be victimised. Resident Evil 5 had a whole heap of black stereotypes in it, not that it affected me because I don't even own the console that it was released on.

Anyone suitably offended by this move can just save their thirty to forty pounds and not buy the game, but George Lucas/Bioware doesn't owe anyone anything on the basis of sexuality.

 

Common sense wins out!

Yay.

Nothing wrong with being gay, or talking about being gay in a public forum.

 

Hey, I don't know if you'd ever noticed, but the whole LGBT community has got a bit of "history" when it comes to being victimised.

You may have never heard of such a terrible thing happening, but yes it's true. Some people out there are biggots and do things out of hatred, and the way to stop that is ensure that no victimisation is made against anyone, so don't prevent discussions about whatever flavor of sexuality you have, put constraints of decency as required, but which side of the bread you like your butter isn't a decency issue.

 

@all as well

There are fourms for homos to post in, most fourms have rules about not talking about sex mosty due to the fact that there may be alot some younger age that may come for support and as an parent thay would not be happy that any game maker to expose miners to homos, I am guessing thay allso do not want to be sued by there parents

 

Excuse me? Exposed to homos?! We're in ****ing 2009, FFS!

Homophobic people... I'll never understand them. I can understand every forum admin/owner/moderator if they ban talking about sex in general but to ban homosexuality is just poor. Well, makes it easier to understand why there are still a boat load of therapists/doctors trying to "cure" homosexuality.
Not just in the US, sadly.