Torment Post x8 Combo: The Queer Thing III

....and Colin McComb, in two separate places, has now directly addressed all the concerns I had!

Colin McComb is the creative lead, the guy running this entire fuckin' shebang, so I really could not be happier. Seriously. I'm ecstatic.

Regarding 'letting queer people exist', he responded to this question:

 Reading your interview about Torment on the Penny Arcade Report, I get the sense that you want to downplay player romances as a thing, and I can get behind that. Could you speak to whether or not LGBT characters will be in the game at all?

 With this reply:

Sure they will. But we're just going to put them in, and we're not going to make a big deal about their inclusion. In other words, they're here, they're queer, and so what? :)

That is, we're not *making an effort* to include them. We're just including them. Here's Numenera writer/editor Shanna Germain's post on the subject (read down): http://shannagermain2.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/why-i-love-building-the-ninth-world/

The asker replied:

 That's a relief; the way you seemed to dodge the question in the interview made me a little worried. Glad to see that concern was unfounded. In an industry that treats any inclusion as a effort, it's hard not to make assumptions.

To which I can say: HEAR, HEAR. (And to Colin's comment, FUCK YES.)

Original context here: http://www.formspring.me/CMcComb/q/438826247087218058 (until Formspring shuts down, which I hear it's gonna)

If you're wondering why Colin felt the need to specify the 'not *making an effort* thing', since it's a non sequiter from the question - it's because (I'm guessing) he, like the other Torment devs, is well aware of the accusation of 'pandering' at the suggestion of including queer characters at all.

It's the typical debate tactic of the anti-gay, since it easily wins over people who are casually reading it and don't necessarily understand the subject. And his reply tells me that he does understand the subject, which is honest to gods a huge relief.

Regarding the romance thing, Colin also covered that in this interview: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-22-torments-USD3-5m-kickstarter-stretch-goal-is-obsidians-chris-avellone

Relevant quote:

"While we have ruled out physical relationships in Torment, we do intend to leave the question of exploring relationships open, and we're going to do that without regard for gender or race," said McComb. "The Ninth World is a billion years in the future, and humanity has changed in that time. We'll present what we consider alternative relationships today in a simple, matter-of-fact format, and that's because that's what those relationships should be. We don't want to 'earn points' for this - we want to present a logical, coherent world."

 This is utterly fantastic and I'm extremely excited. Once again: FUCK YES.

(Heh - Dare I even hope that they're going to include polyamory? For that, I'm not going to ask, I'm just going to wait and see.)