No same-gender romances in SWTOR.

Quote by maxvinyl

lol I considered playing a male toon for like, half a second. Then I remembered that every time I've tried playing a male toon in any game, I get bored with him in under an hour. All female toons for me, as usual.

Hmnn, I think for me its more important to be able to romance the gender I'm interested in, than play the same gender as myself. Unless there was a really cool companion, like Jack from ME2, she was friggen awesome!!

Quote by enrapture

Hmnn, I think for me its more important to be able to romance the gender I'm interested in, than play the same gender as myself. Unless there was a really cool companion, like Jack from ME2, she was friggen awesome!!

Well for me, the romance aspect of the game is minor. I'd rather enjoy the whole game as a female character than enjoy only the romance aspect as a male character. And to be honest, that might not even be guaranteed when it comes to me, lol. I rolled a male Shepard in ME2 after I finished with my femShep so I could romance Miranda and I ended up loathing him. My brain just kept going, "He's not the real Shepard! Quit hitting on Miranda!" Needless to say, he didn't make it very far.

Given that, my disappointment at the decision to exclude SGRAs isn't based so much on that fact that my character won't be able to romance her lady companions (which is ultimately in itself a minor complaint), but the fact that in creating hetero-only romance arcs, others are explicitly excluded.

I've been playing mmo's since 2003 and in each of them we only had flirts no romance.

As I've stated I'm disheartened that BioWare is only introducing ogra into the game and
for now excluding SGRA's. I'm hopeful that down the road this will change and I'll
get to participate in the romance arc as a gay man.
But if not I can pretend...isn't that what a lot of mmo's experience is about?
Pretending to be a frost mage that can freeze your enemy in their
tracks or a cleric that saves your companions from the death rift that just opened up.

As I get older I realize that things will change. Yes they are slow and gradual changes
but change eventually happens. Heck look at our community in the 70's and 80's
we've come forward by leaps on bounds.

So go to the SW:TOR forums, make a post under the topic (it's held in the general forums) and
vote on it. The thread has been re posted over 10 times now and about 95% of the posters
are for SGRA's. I visit it every day and if I can vote I do and I make a post. That is one
way to let BioWare know you are unhappy and hopefully this feature will be added down
the road if not by release.

The poll is active again - please go vote

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=446796&highlight=gender

Thanks for that. Voted for all. (Greedy)

And apparently they hit 1000 posts in 24 hours and had to start ANOTHER thread...

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=448772

Quote by MarkNine

And apparently they hit 1000 posts in 24 hours and had to start ANOTHER thread...

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=448772

That seems to be happening a lot, I've voted 6 or 7 times in the last couple of weeks.
I wonder why they keep it going and haven't said anything about the topic?

Quote by Van

I wonder why they keep it going and haven't said anything about the topic?

I'm wondering this as well. They've already said there won't be SGRAs, so why do they keep the topic going?

Quote by maxvinyl

Quote by Van

I wonder why they keep it going and haven't said anything about the topic?

I'm wondering this as well. They've already said there won't be SGRAs, so why do they keep the topic going?

I'm not sure where I read this (on our forums or BioWare's) but there is rumor and speculation that both BW and LA had planned for SGRA's (even so far as to have hours of voice over recorded).

The latest rumor is that the company that own's the server farm they are utilizing has a clause in their contract allowing them to prevent material they deem "controversial" from being hosted on their servers.

Again, I remind you that this is all still rumor, but the rumor continues on to say that given the short time remaining for release (expected November/December), they don't believe there will be time to find a new host and get them set up, or develop their own internal server infrastructure. As the rumor goes, when the relationship with the existing server host has been changed, the content might then be made available.

One last time I stress is that this is rumor and speculation that I ran into while reading various forums and news reports on the subject.

I really hope that rumour is true. It certainly fits with Cory's short sharp answer that seemed to contradict earlier statements. It sounded like he was scared to get in trouble if he elaborated on his answer. Fingers crossed they make a statement to clear up this confusion soon.

08/26/2011 - Edit: okays after thinking about the server farm, nay don't buy it. If BioWare
had reviewed the contract with the farm they would have caught this clause. I review
contracts all day long and look for issues/problems or what ever there maybe with a contract.
Now if BioWare hires individuals who do not know what they are doing and having the company
agree to some rule that is outside there normal then that is another issue all together.

This might be a reason they use to reduce the heat but again I don't buy it.
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Agree with you guys on this sounds hopeful and makes sense but you'd think a server farm wouldn't even care but who knows.

Thanks for posting hon, made a tingle in my tummy.

One good thing is TOR is an MMO, so they could easily add new romance options in with a later patch. Something I hope they do if the poll and response keeps going as heavy as it has been.

Quote by Jared

One good thing is TOR is an MMO, so they could easily add new romance options in with a later patch. Something I hope they do if the poll and response keeps going as heavy as it has been.

This. ^^^

Plus, hello, if we're on SW:TOR, there will be gay romance. And gay drama. And gay catfights. And general gay-osity of all kinds. It's an RPG. And we will be creating our own characters. So there will be gay characters, and everything that comes with it. Just not from the devs, and not with the NPCs.

I can live with that.

Quote by Van

Agree with you guys on this sounds hopeful and makes sense but you'd think a server farm wouldn't even care but who knows.

Thanks for posting hon, made a tingle in my tummy.

It's a LITTLE BIT an odd idea, like giving your cleaning maid rights to vote in family matters! :/

Anyone knows the name of the company?

Quote by Propecius

Quote by Jared

One good thing is TOR is an MMO, so they could easily add new romance options in with a later patch. Something I hope they do if the poll and response keeps going as heavy as it has been.

This. ^^^

Plus, hello, if we're on SW:TOR, there will be gay romance. And gay drama. And gay catfights. And general gay-osity of all kinds. It's an RPG. And we will be creating our own characters. So there will be gay characters, and everything that comes with it. Just not from the devs, and not with the NPCs.

I can live with that.

Surprisingly, I can't.

It's like being invited to a party as vegetarian and the only food you are offered is meat. Why should I go to such a party. For me it has reached a point of all or nothing. A point where I feel hurt and only an apology and explanation will do.

Quote by Elikal

Quote by Propecius

Quote by Jared

One good thing is TOR is an MMO, so they could easily add new romance options in with a later patch. Something I hope they do if the poll and response keeps going as heavy as it has been.

This. ^^^

Plus, hello, if we're on SW:TOR, there will be gay romance. And gay drama. And gay catfights. And general gay-osity of all kinds. It's an RPG. And we will be creating our own characters. So there will be gay characters, and everything that comes with it. Just not from the devs, and not with the NPCs.

I can live with that.

Surprisingly, I can't.

It's like being invited to a party as vegetarian and the only food you are offered is meat. Why should I go to such a party. For me it has reached a point of all or nothing. A point where I feel hurt and only an apology and explanation will do.

That's an odd analogy. For me it would be like being invited to a party and finding out that, because I'm Oriental, I couldn't make out with the refrigerator. I'm totally cool with that. Pre-programmed romances with NPCs bore me; however, some people like that kind of thing and I'm cool with that, too. (Although, deep down, I feel people should be directing their affections towards other humans, and not worrying whether or not the NPCs are into them.)

For me I am going to play TOR to swing a light stick and save the universe, not romance a make believe toon.

Quote by Daividov

For me I am going to play TOR to swing a light stick and save the universe, not romance a make believe toon.

Agreed... I'm playing for the continuation of the KOTOR universe and to be a minigun-toting Medic. Seems a little odd to me to have character romance arcs in an MMO where encouraging community interaction is kind of the point.

But to each their own I guess.

I'm just picturing a bunch of same-class characters chatting about their love interest around a campfire, each one of them names the same Companion... that slut! ;-)

Hi All,
I have been following this topic for the last week or so on the SWTOR forums. In fact, that is how I came to know that KoS existed. It certainly is frustrating that there are no SGRA's. It is no less than discrimination, but it will not keep me from playing the game. Just as Star Trek is a great myth for our time, so is Star Wars. I can't NOT play it.
I think there is a great outcry from our community and participation in the discussion is the only thing that will make things change. I don't think boycotting is the answer. In fact I wrote a letter to GLAAD today to see what they can do. Here is the response:

Hi Richard,
We actually wrote about this situation just last week:
http://glaadblog.org/2011/08/26/upcoming-game-skyrim-to-feature-marriage-between-same-sex-couple-but-not-so-for-star-wars-mmo
Thanks very much for contacting us though, and please feel free to comment on it further on our website.
Best,
Matt

So as you see, there is already bad press out there, and it won't stop. We need to keep on them about it. Keep posting in the forum. There have been 26 threads on the subject and thousands of comments. This will not go away if we don't let it go away. Here is a link to the latest thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=460624&highlight=gender+romance+story+arcs


The reason I am so passionate about this is that SWTOR will be played by millions of people. The franchise is astronomical, and it's cultural influence is far reaching. Changes in the world happen through culture, and in this day and age, the culture of discrimination just is NOT acceptable. They opened the door by adding romantic story arcs in the first place. It is up to us to upgrade the conversation. I think we have a chance to make a difference in this. It may happen soon, or later, or not at all, but I think it will be worth it.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my rant.
Z

Quote by Zeddikas

They opened the door by adding romantic story arcs in the first place. It is up to us to upgrade the conversation. I think we have a chance to make a difference in this. It may happen soon, or later, or not at all, but I think it will be worth it.

If you got this far, thanks for reading my rant.
Z

Well said, Z. There is something to be said for going to the effort of adding romance into the game and then making another conscious decision to exclude a group. In this day and age, I equate it to excluding a gender or race from the game.