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The discussion in the Same gender relationships clarifications thread has been going on for several months now on the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. After several iterations and many deleted posts, players still flock to the thread to discuss how these relationships might take shape if they ever make it out of the development cycle and into game proper. Given the developer’s seeming difficulty holding subscribers and the upcoming transition into a free-to-play model, it’ll be interesting to see if Bioware maintains their commitment to developing a narrative-focused MMORPG.
I don’t mean to naysay free-to-play, particularly when it’s done well (I enjoy both League of Legends and Dungeon Fighter Online). I’m just not sure how it will work when a company’s primary focus is on the story. It makes sense to compartmentalize graphical assets and gameplay changes and sell them piece-by-piece, but Bioware might run into some problems if they try gating individual storylines behind cost barriers.
A critical sticking point in this scenario would be the introduction of same-sex romances. With no concrete word on the subject since Lead Game Designer Daniel Erickson spoke about it back in April, the status of this content remains in doubt. If the SW:TOR development team still intends to produce these narratives, I hope it will be without implementing a stigmatizing pay-to-gay system. Bioware has handled similar issues in the past with a relatively high degree of sensitivity, and until recently I would have said I expected them to handle this one equally well.
It was tough for me to observe the total absence of same-sex NPC couples while I was playing through one of the lengthy class stories. I encountered plenty of married and mated heterosexual pairs with complex, nuanced relationships on both sides of the faction line. While these romances don’t involve the player (or do so only tangentially), they provide vital context that helps the world feel a bit more plausible.
Many of Bioware’s single player games offer same-sex romantic relationships that don’t include the player’s avatar. Branka (Dragon Age: Origins) may mistreat her husband and make some other questionable life decisions (allowing her lover Hespith to become infected with darkspawn taint), but at least she exists. She’s a part of the patchwork of DA:O’s narrative, and even though I disliked her I was still glad she was there.
I don’t think Branka made it into the narrative as a sort of “affirmative action” villain because she’s gay. I do think the development team made a conscious choice toward inclusiveness, and that’s a choice that I really appreciated.
The human soldier trying to find refuge for her half-asari daughter in Mass Effect 3 is another great example. She’s not a major character; she just stands at the counter in the Presidium Embassies while Shepard happens to overhear her. Little details like this really help provide a believable backdrop for the same-sex relationships Shepard can participate in.
If/when the men and women of the SW:TOR team add same-sex romances for player characters, they should consider sprinkling in a few NPC same-sex-loving couples along the way. Otherwise they run the risk of creating stories that feel tacked-on or just incomplete.