After seeing a lot of angry comments about teh gays, including rage about Bioware's David Gaider (or "Gayder", to several of the homophobes) and his tendency to include teh gays in games he's involved in (Dragon Age; to a lesser extent, Mass Effect), I posted another giant proposal post...
"Let LGBTQ People Exist In Torment/Numenera (Without "Pandering")"
The majority of us can agree - as do the devs - that we won't have much romance in Torment, and no sex. That's 110% fine. That's not what this is about.Because I am not much of a confrontational type and the amount of shit I'm going to get for this is not going to be all that much fun to deal with, I wasn't even originally gonna post anything about that. But after wading through so many homophobic comments, and then the homophobic topic urging the devs to not 'pander to minorities' (code for: teh gays, lumped in with necrophiliacs and pedophiles by many of the supporting commentators in-between homophobic insults)... I just had to, really. Ugh.
My proposal is: If you have people in relationships in the world, don't forget LGBTQ relationships. I don't care what kind, so long as we can exist in the world, same as people in straight relationships will presumably also exist in the world.
We don't need people calling themselves 'gay' or 'bisexual' or even 'straight'. This isn't about identity politics either.
It's just that presumably you'll have characters in relationships or expressing desire for relationships....
FOR EXAMPLE... Maybe that male shaman has a male partner living with him instead of a female partner. Maybe that female prostitute takes only female customers - or, hell, maybe that male prostitute takes both male AND female customers. Maybe an Annah-equivalent will only kiss you if you're a woman (the option not even appearing for a male character).
The first Torment didn't really do this. But that doesn't make it not a classic-RPG thing. I mean, Temple of Elemental Evil generated a ton of controversy for allowing a male character to enter a same-sex marriage, back in 2003 before the majority of the country supported that.
And again: NO PANDERING. DON'T make any huge deal about it. DON'T include a character who aggressively hits on people of the same sex. DON'T make a race of tentacled all-female alien lesbians, DON'T throw in a troupe of flamboyant gay men. Pretty sure no LGBTQ gamer here wants that kind of weird fuckin' pandering. Just let us EXIST.
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Something to consider as well, along the lines of the "Let's Be Gay" topic: If there's LOW-LEVEL straight romance, CONSIDER letting us have LOW-LEVEL gay romance too (both genders). NO SEX, just like straight romance. DON'T push it on the player like certain other RPGs have, of course. DON'T turn it into some kind of fanfiction-esque drama. Keep it simple, if you put it in at all.
But the above part is not NEARLY as important as 'let LGBTQ people exist in the world'. If you want to make the PC straight? Make the PC straight. But If gender exists (and gender DOES exist, as already established), so should we.
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Topic located here: https://torment.uservoice.com/forums/197950-game-ideas/suggestions/3763637-let-lgbtq-people-exist-in-torment-numenera-withou
Most of the homophobic comments can be found in the following two topics (plus my individual replies):
https://torment.uservoice.com/forums/197950-game-ideas/suggestions/3760034-let-s-be-gay-
https://torment.uservoice.com/forums/197950-game-ideas/suggestions/3761581-keep-david-gaider-and-gaiderisms-out-of-torment-
I'd say "enjoy", but... you probably won't.
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