#I think Jaal was only made bisexual in a patch

[death-rebirth-senshi]

And jaal is cool if you're into that. Truly the other most damning thing about Andromeda is that the gay romance options range from mid to insulting.

[dgcatanisiri]

I won’t say this is my last word on the subject of Legendary Edition bullshit, because... Well, I know myself enough to be able to say that I NEVER have a last word, I’ll always want to rant again later on. But let’s just make this a sort of master post of the issues overall.

So... Is it fair to hold a game that is a good roughly fifteen years old to the standards of the present? Not inherently. So if the games were being produced in any sort of unedited format, that it was a strict translation, 1:1 ratio, of the original to the remaster... Honestly, I’d still be bitter as all get out, for reasons I’ll expound on in a minute. But it could at least SEEM justified. I could consider it the kind of thing that would be expected - if KOTOR got a remaster today, I would not expect that Carth and Bastila would be made into bi love interests, or Juhani would have her romance patched up so that it has the same level of detail and attention as the het romances. If Jade Empire were remastered, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sky or Silk Fox’s same sex romances adapted so that the straight romances had to be closed out first. That is the kind of thing that, on a functional, practical level, I could understand. Doing a translation from old hardware, the old engine, I get the PRACTICAL reasoning for not making things better. I still object to this on the moral level, to say nothing of the representational one. But PRACTICALLY, I see why - y’know, there’s only so much financial resources going in, and changing things like romances, even if justified, means doing new writing and getting the voice cast back in, which has complications the longer since a game’s original release - actors retire or even die, the passage of time changes voices (like listen to the difference of the exact same lines by James Earl Jones between both versions of the Lion King). Even without those complications, that means paying them, which, in the production of video games, for everything that goes in, something else must go out. So that is the practical argument.

BUT!

But.

But, the thing is, even apart from everything else that I’ll get in to shortly, is that there have been a lot of claims from BioWare about inclusion. There have also been A LOT. of homophobic bullshit from BioWare and Mass Effect. And yes, I’m calling it like I see it.

Because we had the game that followed Jade Empire, with a M/M romance option, be Mass Effect, with NO M/M romance option (but FemShep and Liara could bang - the writing obviously favored the MaleShep portrayal, given that there was no marketing use of FemShep until ME3, and we had ME2 give priority to having loyalty conflicts between MALE Shepard’s romances, but not Female Shepard’s, and we even had BioWare hem and haw about how “well, the asari are monogender, so they’re not TECHNICALLY women, so it’s not REALLY lesbians...”). Because the official claim is that they just “didn’t think about it” in time to have these options included in Mass Effect 1. Because we’ve had writers now come out that Jacob Taylor was originally written as a gay man, but in the game itself was a straight man. Because there are plenty of women who throw themselves at Male Shepard, and Shepard is animated with having Significant Looks™ with these women, but not a single man who expresses any interest in him, until ME3 finally offers SOMETHING, which came to just Kaidan and Cortez.

Because we had one of BioWare’s heads, one of BioWare’s founders, say in an interview right around the release of Mass Effect 2 say “Shepard is too predefined a character to be gay.”

That is what I mean by homophobic bullshit.

And I haven’t even started on Mass Effect Andromeda.

And I’m gonna start on Mass Effect Andromeda now.

So after ME3, after Kaidan and Cortez were actually romances, we honestly gave them a lot of faith - they got the message, we said. They understood that they couldn’t just cut out M/M romance in the game, we said. They didn’t need to have the constant observation that demanded they provide good representation, we said.

And then they cut Jaal’s bisexuality, leaving him straight on release, without even a chance to flirt and be turned down, the bisexual male character who did remain not only was planet bound, he also is a character who a solid argument can be made that he falls into the trope of the Depraved Bisexual, a trope that over in Dragon Age, Patrick Weekes specifically said that they wanted to avoid and so didn’t make a character bisexual because of that. And the gay man is not only almost totally disconnected from the game (aside from one point in the plot, he can be avoided entirely and is not included in almost any other group setting among the Tempest crew), he is also an accessory in his own plot line, which was also heavily criticized for being intensely homophobic. And of these, the only thing BioWare deigned to change was Jaal’s bisexuality. (Which, personal note, I’m uncomfortable with personally, because as it’s implemented, it just feels kind of afterthought-y. Much like Kaidan’s in ME3, being unchanged from a new FemShep romance, despite the active inability to romance him in ME1.)

So it is not just a matter of “you have the ability, you’re changing other things, you should do this.” I mean, that is absolutely there - the mods exist for the original game, to the point of being able to even get the romance scene to fire right without Shepard’s gender magically changing once the clothes come off. (I have a vague memory of, at some point, probably around the “too predefined” comment, that being another excuse, that there was difficulty with having the models play nice with one another in that scene.)

But this is about addressing a pattern of behavior on the part of BioWare, that they have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the bare minimum that their own statements on matters of representation and inclusion claim they aspire to. That if the fans are not actively holding their feet to the fire, they are GOING to take their fans for granted - “you don’t get better quality content elsewhere, we’re your only choice!” But “only” choice is not a “good” choice. It’s not a choice with quality.

So if we don’t make a big damn deal about this now, when they have a chance - when they have a CHOICE - to make things better, to provide better representation, to correct the mistakes of the past... What will we get in the future? How will they backtrack on this in the future? How will they exclude us in the game they just announced a few months back? How will they continue to tell us that they don’t want gay people in this setting?

Look, I don’t use these words lightly. But that is, whether it’s a conscious attitude at all or not, what they are telling us. By not including us, by making us optionally involved, by making us disposable within our own stories, by cutting out our content, they are saying that they do not envision a world, a future, that includes queer men.

And anyone who does not speak up, does not condemn this, does not demand that they DO. BETTER... That is tacit approval and agreement. Because you’re saying that things as they are now - the removal and undermining of our content, of our EXISTENCE in these games - are perfectly fine and acceptable.

And yeah, I’m sure that reading that has probably made some people mad, believe I’m being unfair by saying that, because it’s going to push away allies. Thing is, and this is one of the things that always comes up in anything even tangentially activism related... THIS ISN’T ABOUT THE FEELINGS OF THE ALLIES. This is about listening to the people who are being hurt and saying “you don’t deserve to be hurt this way, things need to change.”

BioWare needs to change its approach. And, as we have seen, it does not come just because of a handful of angry queers, demanding to be represented in their games. It comes because of the community at large calling them out and saying “this isn’t right. What you have done is not right, and we are calling on you to fix it. To do better.”

Don’t just stand there and shrug this off. Because evidence tells us that if they aren’t called out on this now, the next game will not be better. And we will be in this exact same place, having this exact same argument, all over again, in a few years when the next Mass Effect game comes out. When the queer men are given the shortest end of the stick again, and people who are right now saying “what do you expect from a remaster?” will either suddenly turn around and go “I don’t know why BioWare would do something so homophobic” or, worse, “well, it’s something, I don’t see why you’re upset.”

We’re upset because we keep having this argument. And we are going to keep having this argument until people are willing to actually DEMAND that things be better. This is the chance to make things better now.

At this point, a post-release patch that includes a Male Shepard/Kaidan romance in ME1 that is tracked through to the following games is a bare minimum fix, a change done to make it clear that BioWare understands their mistakes in the past and want to make things BETTER.

It may not be easy, but genuinely fixing problems never is. But it’s work that needs to be done.

[thefoldedbird]

Mass Effect: Andromeda, Closure

So, it’s been close to four years since the release. Hate has died down considerably, bugs have been patched, faces reconstructed, and opinions reevaluated. On a note of personal opinion.

The combat was the most fleshed out part of this game. It felt good, it felt fluid, and it’s as flexible as it’s ever been. This is perfect for someone who wants to try a class outside their norm and not have long term consequences.

The crafting system. It’s everything I wanted. I missed the level of loot in ME1. Sure managing it sucked but MEA doesn’t have the same management problems. The crafting system this game is the best in the series. Fight me about it.

I didn’t use the multiplayer so I have no opinion.

The characters could have used more work. I am not particularly attached to any of them. Yes Jaal is a nice novelty and a female Turian is bringing some balance to the previously no-girls-allowed club the turian race seemed to be. But none of them are...impactful.

No joke, I was more invested in the small bit of backstory from Kandros. Having been the only one of his siblings to not take a crazy path in life, he came to Andromeda to spice his life and find adventure. I would have loved to hear about his crazy home life with his sisters, him battling with the disappointment from his parents over his leaving and being able to do nothing since they’re dead. Grappling emotionally over the idea that he came looking for his big adventure only to get shoved into a management position for his reliability. Having to shelve his plans and dreams to restore some semblance of militaristic order.

I’m just saying their was a lot of room for a Kandros romance and I’m shocked I didn’t get one seeing all the out of place ones. I didn’t get why Keri was a romance option...or Avela but I think she was meant to be the female Anagara option until they made Jaal bisexual.

That being said PeeBee comes off as someone who would be uninterested in romance as a whole. But you can still get with her.

The characters needed work. Except Kallo. He was perfect. Drack was fine, but they really should have done more with the romance between him and Lexi. He has enough charcteristics to be distinctive from Wrex. His age, being an amputee, being a father, his romance with Lexi. I think the “Wrex 2.0″ opinions stem a lot from their similar snarky demeanor. But that’s just how old Krogans who aren’t assholes are I guess.

It’s funny when you have him an Liam in the Nomad together. The juxtaposition alone is great. 

If there was one thing that made these characters tolerable it was the banter. Oh my god the banter. Everyone was always having a conversation. It’s great.  

Kesh was also pretty amazing as a character. I loved her. Good job being a parent Drack. Wished there was more of her as well.

Storyline kind of seems like reapers 2.0 but with a dash of Eugenics for spice. I am interested in the Jardaan however. That’s new and that’s cool. We haven’t had an alien race like this since the Leviathans right? With the level of technical advancement to create another species. Except the Jardaan went full organic. Like I know this is science fiction but do you know how hard it is to make a body?

That was not an invitation for sex jokes.

I’m not mad at the Kett storyline. It’s actually strikingly similar to the (Netflix) She-Ra storyline now that I’m thinking about it. It is very possibly that the Jaardan are still in the Heleus Cluster. It’s not like Heleus has Mass Effect Relays. The rest of the Kett horde and the Jardaan are probably closer to our cast than our cast is to the Milky Way.

There’s many unresolved storylines as well. The Quarian Ark, the Jardaan, the rest of the Kett, what are the Turians going to do without a homeworld?

In relation to that note. That GIANT ship on Elaaden. Whose crummy idea was it to only have us explore 2% of it? That could have been a WHOLE other thing.

Holy shit it would be downright unbeliveably cool if the ship could be stripped for materials to build structure on Elaaden. Think of how unique and imposing that would look? Sleek black metal against the sand dunes. 

Speaking of ships. Finding the other arks was some of the best stuff in the game. Don’t know why. But the ark missions were just *chef’s kiss* a thing of beauty.

Raeka and Avitus are premier pathfinders. I don’t even remember the Asari’s name though. That mission got pretty messy. Ethically and politically.  

The long and short of it is that I want closure. It would be very easy to write off our current crew members into doing other things. Drack being a grandpa, Gill settling down with Jill, PeeBee spearheading the research on Khi Tasira (The Remnant City). She’d make a great researcher. Like Mordin. Good at what she does but totally able to shoot you in the head if necessary. I’d like to see her take on a “mad scientist” role.

Cora could be spearheading the new age of biotics proposed as a way to interact with remnant. It’s mentioned in an email during the epilogue. Liam could be a part of a new crisis response center as the humans of the Hyperion set about trying to colonize Meridian. It’s new territory. Accidents on any scale are bound to happen.

There are other characters but my point is that a time skip and some new faces could fix a lot of the problems with Andromeda. Throw in the quarian ark, the Jardaan, the rest of the the Kett horde, some news about what happened to the old Milky Way, some new faces and fresh backstories to explore and I really think it could be legendary.

It’s not going to happen. The level of backlash was too severe and now it’s as good as gone...but it shouldn’t have been. There was and still is potential.

If the next mass effect game gives us information and ties to Andromeda I won’t be mad. At all. That world still has stories to tell and I think it deserves that chance.

[lavellit]

ok so after 6 days and 70 odd hours, i finished andromeda. and i really liked it. there were also some things i didn’t like as much, but i’ll go at it by parts.

what i liked:

the overall hopeful tone. it has a really great star trek-y vibe, which as a massive star trek fan, delights the fuck out of me. that might not appeal to everyone, i don’t know what’s the tone of the original trilogy, i never played it, but i suspect it’s much darker. if you like star trek tho, you’ll enjoy andromeda to hell and back. that’s the best compliment i can pay. if you’ve always wanted a star trek open world game, andromeda scratches that itch something fierce. 

the combat. this is the first mass effect game i’ve ever played, because a) i dislike sci-fi games (sci-fi is my favourite genre of everything else, just not video games) b) i dislike 3rd person shooters ( the only other shooters i’ve ever played are fallout and bioshock, and that’s because they’re what i call “fun shooters”, they make shooting up mooks fun, and andromeda blissfully does this too, albeit not to the enormously satisfying level of bioshock, but on par with fallout)

the loyalty missions. it’s a bioware game, this one is a no-brainer. and in terms of action and duration, they are a lot deeper than in dragon age games, but, i’ll say, some of them don’t do much in terms of satisfying character development. all companion quests in the dragon age series do this a lot better. but over the course of the game, and through main, and secondary quest reaction cutscenes, most of the tempest crew does get some sort of character development.  

lots of cutscenes, even for secondary quests. what can i say, i love cutscenes, and having the opportunity to be a smartass as often as possible. seeing as the lack of secondary quest cutscenes is one of my biggest gripes with da:i, i was really happy that there were so many in andromeda. there could be more tho, i’m talking da2 levels of unnecessary cutscenes to send me to my happy place. 

kadara is amazing, has some of the funniest side quests in the whole game, one of the most engaging and rewarding questlines, and some really well-written characters. plus,  sloane kelly is voiced by indira varma, the same actress who voiced vivienne, and reyes vidal is voiced by nicholas boulton, the same actor who voiced hawke. enough said. all aboard the kadara dlc train

the turian ark rescue mission, i uhm...needed to walk away for a moment after that one. really atmospheric quest.

the missing memory questline is surprisingly rewarding, i say surprising because it was a pain getting some of those memories.

ryder is ryder, i can only compare andromeda to dragon age games, but ryder resembles hawke, a lot more than the warden or the inquisitor, you can make different dialogue options, but the tone is set, and you can’t really go against it. ryder is ryder, but that’s okay, because much like hawke, i happen to like ryder. instead of the sarcastic option you have the casual option, which when paired with the emotional option, leads to what i like to call: bleeding heart asshole, and it’s amazing.

so much background dialogue, it can become a little bit of a cacophony at times, but i like hearing it nonetheless, makes the world feel really alive.

lots of banter, no one shuts up in my game, between my squad, SAM talking about the weather, and ryder pointing out every single thing that came up, i don’t think i’ve gone more than five minutes in silence...but that also leads me to:

what i didn’t like:

lack of romance specific banter. i romanced jaal with scott in this playthrough, and was disappointed that there was no acknowledgement by any of the crew during banter. i didn’t realise this, but jaal was made available very recently as a bisexual option with patch 1.08, so that might be the reason for it. but i did a few searches and there were other ppl complaining about the lack of romance banter for other characters so it might be a general thing. i live for this, and there was so much of it in da:i, and da2, i really felt its absence. it seemed that when i was romancing sera in my first da:i playthrough it was all my party wanted to talk about, and i.was.living. - still, in my next playthrough with sara i’ll romance either peebee or vetra and then i’ll be sure if it is as lacking as i suspect.

the prologue. the only reason i even played as scott in the first playthrough was because my first save with sara got corrupted when i was playing during the origin installation, don’t ask me how that happened. but the sheer prospect of playing through the prologue again was so daunting that it made me start over with scott so it wouldn’t be all the same. the game is very worth it, but the prologue is uhm...a trial.

the nomad. listen i got better at driving the damn thing, but why the fuck do i need to steer with the keyboard instead of with the mouse? what’s the damn point, but it’s fine, it became fine eventually...except, being in the nomad, and the fact banter really only fires in the nomad, meant i had no desire to get out and explore, unless it was for a specific quest. points of interest? i drove right by. and this really frustrates me, because i actually loved exploring every nook and cranny in da:i, but there’s just no tangible reward for it, your party won’t talk, the planet will try to kill you, and you might end up not doing anything more exciting than killing some enemies.

the archon. unfortunately went to the corypheus school of bland villains, fortunately the remnant plot holds its own, and he’s more of a nuisance keeping you from discovering its secrets. 

none of my choices really mattered, at least not immediately, there’s a few i feel will have some serious repercussions in further games and dlc, but as of finishing the game, the consequences were minimal. 

none of my companions betrayed me/ left forever. what the fuck is up with that? honestly this might be my biggest gripe with the game. how am i supposed to pine if they don’t backstab me/ leave for tevinter/ disappear to study eluvians? not one of them blew up a building. 0/10

[dgcatanisiri]

Considering the day, the anniversary of the patch that made Jaal bi, and the ongoing thing with Make Mass Effect Legendary More Inclusive, I am thinking that over again.

I won’t ever regret that I was on board with #MakeJaalBi - that was a shit situation that deserved remedy. The same with the current fight over the Legendary Edition - the BARE MINIMUM was restoring Kaidan’s bisexuality in ME1, since the mods have made it work in the originals, and those files are all still there, so yeah, I’m all for saying “fine, if you didn’t want to do this minimum thing, then we’ll demand the maximum.”

That all said... I really do wish I could like Jaal as a romance more than I do. Whatever the reason, the end result with him just feels... hollow for me. Maybe it’s just a failure to connect with him on the romance level - I know the lock in scene, where he takes Ryder to meet the family, has always felt uncomfortable to me, my anxiety kicking in to high gear at the idea of being in this crowd of strangers, all of whom are much more tactile that I prefer, all of this being a ME thing that I can’t divorce from my PCs. If the game’s lock in calls for it to happen in a place that makes me uncomfortable, it’s really easy for me to just not be comfortable with the whole thing.

Or it might be all the attempts to tease Jaal/Peebee, particularly after my last time playing the Jaal romance, where after I had Ryder tell Jaal that he was interested in him, there was a Nomad banter where Jaal tells Vetra that he has found himself “looking back” at Peebee. But overall, the push of Jaal/Peebee feels uncomfortably like BioWare trying to affirm him as a heterosexual-only option, which... Eugh. Especially considering that they DID hack out his bisexuality originally, so it comes across as a pointed jab to me.

And then there’s the simple reality that, as much as I wanted to get equal treatment in terms of romance options, my biggest complaint in terms of what we got in Andromeda really was the homophobic mess that was Gil’s story, something that didn’t get touched at all. While I am glad about the rebalance of options, I’m still pissed that nothing fixed Gil, a character who, in the five percent of his screentime that isn’t wrapped up in the homophobic mess, I actually genuinely like and prefer (and particularly considering that I can’t stand Reyes at all...).

All of this is where we are BEFORE the issues surrounding the Legendary Edition. 

As much as Mass Effect and Dragon Age - hell, BioWare games in general - tend to be my hyperfixations, my escapes and relaxations from the reality that is often untenable, even when I have to ignore and rework in-game material to feel like they offer a place of belonging for me, it IS impossible to ignore that there is this strong sense of displeasure from them at the fact that I, as a gay man, even interact with them. 

For my own sake, I prefer to believe that this is a corporate issue more than an individual issue - it’s not that I want to support them at my own expense, just that I can’t give up things that have kept me afloat in my dark times. But I do recognize that this is too much a pattern of behavior for it to be fixed without a lot of ACTIVE work on their part.