7May/12Off
BioWare Interviews Writers Patrick Weekes & Dusty Everman
Being late to the party, I only finished Mass Effect 3 this past weekend. While I was pleased as pie that there was an exclusively homosexual romance in the game, it was not the one I pursued with Sebastian Shepard, for a number of reasons. However, this morning I was pleased to find that BioWare's blog had up an interview with the two writers responsible for both the male and female exclusively homosexual romances: Patrick Weekes and Dusty Everman.
Which is to say: this is not about the ending. Nor is it spoiler-free (in terms of game plot, yes, but not in terms of things that happen during the romances themselves). Spoilers will be below that handy dandy cut, contained in quotations I found particularly worthy of attention. Which is not to say this has always been how BioWare has presented itself, but hopefully is something that indicates future thought processes.
I still recall the Dragon Age forums having official posts concerning the fact that having a purely homosexual romance of any sort could be seen as a waste of resources: these are choices that would not be selected often enough to justify the cost, or the time spent away from other portions of the game.
What's changed? This is purely supposition, but I imagine it has a lot to do with budget, the growth of the series, and numbers. After all, in the day of internet connections, achievements, and our save-files having markers that tell who we played, what we did, and whom we romanced, they have quite a bit of data on how many people are engaging in these romances. When refuting the privileged straight male gamer, Gaider made note that the numbers they have are not insignificant.
Which makes sense to me, as someone who rarely roleplays himself in an RPG. I do still like to see same-sex romances when I can, though. Or perhaps same-sex flings. Depends on the character. However, it seems I am constantly reading reports of straight men who play as a female Shepard, and romancing Garrus, or going for one of the female companions in their crew. Funny how that works.
But, to the quotations!