Where are all the gay people?

[Brandy1123]

@ Sergeant Rock - They could have done that easily. They also could have had some type of quest where "bad guys" kidnapped your spouse to do sometihng terrible to them or even sacrifice to some critter/dragon. what a better way to get back at the Dragon Born or force an encounter. A naturally occuring weak spot.

[sukeban]

@ Sergeant Rock - They could have done that easily. They also could have had some type of quest where "bad guys" kidnapped your spouse to do sometihng terrible to them or even sacrifice to some critter/dragon. what a better way to get back at the Dragon Born or force an encounter. A naturally occuring weak spot.

That would have been AMAZING! How much better would the Boethiah quest have been had crazed cultists stolen your spouse and you were given the option to a) stand on principle and allow your spouse to get sacrificed or b) agree to sacrifice some other poor soul in his/her place. That would have been an example of a sweet "real choice" that I know we players would have preferred more of.

 

Ditto for the Thieves Guild. It would be kind of a rad radiant quest to be tasked with Mexico-style kidnapping and then demand big payola for safe return. Well, maybe not really Mexico-style, because if the targets didn't pay we'd just let the kidnapped person kick it with us in the cistern and play dominoes and drink mead and become cool. Naturally, we'd only want to nick high-class individuals, Jarl's stewards, Thanes, and the like.

 

Also, extortion would have been neat, but that would require NPCs to have legitimate "dirt" in their backstory/dialogue package, so maybe that idea is cost-prohibitive.

Edited July 13, 2012 by sukeban

[Psiberzerker]

Sex is in the background, like child killing. I'm sure it happens, but they were pretty careful about not directly referancing it, by having pregnant women about, or people take off their armor when they sleep together. Also, in the current political climate, it would be a marketing failure to have any homosexuality apparent. Have you seen the uproar about same sex marrriage? Well, that whole croud would boycot, protest, and quite possibly resort to Operation Rescuesque assassination/bombings if they did that. You can play a gay character, and have a same sex spouse (I usually pick Faendal, he's cute enough, and have you seen him in "hide" armor?) That should be enough... Edited July 13, 2012 by Psiberzerker

[SergeantGrrock]

@ Sergeant Rock - They could have done that easily. They also could have had some type of quest where "bad guys" kidnapped your spouse to do sometihng terrible to them or even sacrifice to some critter/dragon. what a better way to get back at the Dragon Born or force an encounter. A naturally occuring weak spot.

 

Love that idea Brandy. I wish Skyrim would have had that much depth. I really do enjoy the game but it could have easily been so much more.... Epic.

[Relativelybest]

Bethesda hasn't put much thought into this, but at least they gave players the option to marry NPCs of the same sex. Now, most of that is appreciated by straight guys with female characters who want their femmes to marry good looking female NPCs, but it is also appreciated by gays, bis, and lesbians who want their male character with a male NPC or a female character with a female NPC.

 

I'm in the former category. I only play female characters and I just have them marry women. All my female characters are lesbians. You know, I just don't want one of my beautiful female characters marrying Urgerth War Bear or Belethor. XD

 

Yeah, I'm pretty much the same way.

 

I mean, dont get me wrong: if Bethesda wants to create a fantasy universe that doesn't aknowledge homesxuality at all, that wouldn't really bother me because gay people isn't high on my list of action RPG requirements. But if they then throw in gay marriage as an actual option, it breaks my immersion.

 

Leaving it as an option, without forcing the issue, is probably the best way to go about it while maintaining some semblance of respect from the majority of their fans/playerbase. They could have left it off completely, and had some folks a bit upset (though it would very likely have been modded in within days of the CK release, assuming not even earlier). Alternatively, they could have done things far far worse, and gone the ME3 route with a character being purely defined by their sexual preference, serving no purpose except to be "that gay dude you can hook up with" - which is far more insulting to actual homosexual players due to the implications given off from that concept.

 

Some games get it right, Arcade Gannon in FNV being one of the more notable examples (you don't know he is unless you go pretty far into his dialogue asking about personal stuff), though expecting Bethesda themselves to be the gods of quality writing may be asking a bit much. :whistling:

 

I don't expect Bethesda to be the gods of quality writing. Goodness, no. But I do kinda expect, you know, consistency.

 

I expect them to understand that you can't have your cake and eat it at the same time. That you can either make a setting that does not aknowledge that homosexuals exist, or you can let your players have gay marriages with no consequences, but that you can't do both.

 

You have to make an actual commitment, is what I'm basically saying.

 

 

Just to support BOTH your views:

 

- He's married, to a woman.

- said wife is always complaining about her husband's, uh, affinity for the Jarl's backside.

 

Nazeem is an old denialist school closet dweller?

 

Ah, but what reason would he possibly have to be closeted with a beard wife in a society where there is apparently no stigma to gay marriage whatsoever?

 

Agree with the general analysis that Beth have basically hedged their bets here - include the option but not highlight so as to try to please both camps. Personally I agree with the OP though, if the option of gay marriage is included it does seem strange (in the sense of immersion) that they haven't included any gay couples.

 

You pretty much nailed it. It's an immersion issue for me, not a political thing.

 

There's two guys in Shor's Stone who live together an orc and a dark elf IIRC.. one complains about the other's cooking and they both bicker like an old couple, while Sylgia (who is one of the best looking NPC's in the game) is the only woman living in the village and she happens to be single, despite spending every night at the campfire with the guys.

 

Draw your own conclusions.

 

Right, so one possible couple of gay guys, maybe.

 

Right on Georgiegril, you nailed it. The romantic relationships in Skyrim are almost pointless and almost seem like an unexplored afterthought in the game design.

 

Oh, I absolutely agree. If you ask me the entire thing needs an overhaul.

 

Just, I thought that was a rant for a different thread.

 

Sex is in the background, like child killing. I'm sure it happens, but they were pretty careful about not directly referancing it, by having pregnant women about, or people take off their armor when they sleep together.

 

I'm not talking about sex, I'm talking about marriage. Love. People being romantically involved with each other. There's plenty of that in this game. It's very badly executed, yes, but at least it's there.

 

Also, in the current political climate, it would be a marketing failure to have any homosexuality apparent. Have you seen the uproar about same sex marrriage? Well, that whole croud would boycot, protest, and quite possibly resort to Operation Rescuesque assassination/bombings if they did that. You can play a gay character, and have a same sex spouse (I usually pick Faendal, he's cute enough, and have you seen him in "hide" armor?) That should be enough...

 

....How in God's name can the option of gay marriage not count as making homosexuality apparent? o_O

 

Besides, you're telling me that in this day an age, you can't put a couple of token gay people in an M-rated fantasy game that lets you engage in murder, cannibalism and blood sacrifice to demon gods? Have you payed attention to the fantasy genre the last couple decades? Watched Game of Thrones, maybe? It's not the 1800s anymore, it goddamned 2012.

 

I don't buy it. I think Bethesda could have totally gotten away with it if they wanted to. They just didn't want to have to bother making the effort.

Edited July 14, 2012 by Relativelybest

[Psiberzerker]

Besides, you're telling me that in this day an age, you can't put a couple of token gay people in an M-rated fantasy game that lets you engage in murder, cannibalism and blood sacrifice to demon gods? Have you payed attention to the fantasy genre the last couple decades? Watched Game of Thrones, maybe? It's not the 1800s anymore, it goddamned 2012.

 

I don't buy it. I think Bethesda could have totally gotten away with it if they wanted to. They just didn't want to have to bother making the effort.

Calm down, breathe, it's just a game. Here's a paper bag. Now, I understand that sex, and violence is unbalanced in this culture. Yes, the game starts with a bloody decapitation, and no, you don't get to see so much as holding hands, much less kissing. Sorry.