The Escapist Bulletin: Swinging into the argument of same-sex relationships in games
How BioWare is leading the playing of all roles
When Tracey John asked BioWare’s Casey Hudson why there were no homosexual relationships in Mass Effect 2, his answer seemed to leave out as much as it included. According to Hudson, BioWare was making a "PG-13 movie", which could easily be interpreted as "maximising our audience," but considering the context of the question, the implication is that including homosexuality would have reduced the game's audience and therefore harmed sales.
Of course, all of this is supposition, in part driven by the fact that Dragon Age Origins – which was released around the same time as Mass Effect 2 – allowed same-sex relationships. Interestingly though, BioWare has stated that it was surprised at the mainstream success of Dragon Age, and must have known that it risked alienating some of its audience with the inclusion of homosexuality.
Certainly, many would have welcomed the inclusion of gay romance options in ME2, and it’s very easy to view the omission of same-sex relationships in ME2 as some kind of failing on BioWare's part, but in doing so, you’d have to ignore the fact that BioWare is actually one of the most progressive developers around.
Given the amount of heat BioWare took for including heterosexual relationships in the original Mass Effect, it’s hardly surprising that it was a little hesitant to give its detractors more ammunition to throw at its flagship product. It's worth remembering, though, that BioWare introduced gay characters into the Star Wars universe with Juhani in Knights of the Old Republic, and added same-sex relationships to Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins.
When you examine those games, there’s no reason from either a gameplay or a narrative point of view to make any of the characters anything other than heterosexual; the fact that Jade Empire's Sky is attracted to both genders is never brought up, so it seems reasonable to assume the only reason it’s in there is because BioWare wanted to make the game more inclusive.
Even ME2 isn’t completely without same-sex relationships, as Yeoman Chambers will flirt with Shepard regardless of gender. It’s not quite the same thing as romancing Miranda or Thane, but BioWare’s commitment to being inclusive is such that even in games where it shies away from same-sex relationships, it doesn’t completely shy away from them.
BioWare isn’t a charity or an advocacy group, it’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of a large corporation that creates multi-million dollar entertainment products, and expecting it to make combating prejudice a regular part of its design documents seems a little unrealistic. Could BioWare be doing more to make gaming more inclusive? Of course it could – every developer could – but it could also be doing a lot less, and that’s not a claim every studio can make.