The hits just keep on coming for BioWare and EA’s ill-fated Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. After a less-than stellar launch and a much maligned move to free-to-play, the game is getting its first major expansion in the form of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel, which will feature, of all things, a planet where same-sex romances are permitted.
This might not seem too strange to people who haven’t played The Old Republic, but Makeb, as the planet is called, is the only place in the entire game where player characters can engage in same-sex romances with NPCs. This doesn’t turn previous companions into romance options, or even add new companions with this feature (because that would be “too difficult” according to the developers), but rather places new characters exclusively on Makeb.
As if that wasn’t strange enough, making this part of the Rise of the Hutt Cartel expansion means that same-sex romances are available only after paying for it. Putting SGR (same-gender romance as the TOR forums call it) on a single planet behind a paywall just smacks of not only laziness, but a lack of respect for customers looking for that kind of content.
BioWare always seems to swing one way or the other when it comes to same-sex romances. In Dragon Age 2, everybody was trying to get into Hawke’s pants and now in Star Wars: The Old Republic, there’s a whole planet dedicated to this. There’s nowhere else in that vast galaxy where a player an have their male avatar romance a male NPC except on Makeb. Star Wars has been traditionally bereft of LGBT characters (there’s a brief nod to this in one of the Dark Nest Trilogy books, but that’s about as far as it goes), so I suppose BioWare has to be given some credit for adding in this option.
What do you guys think? Is this good enough and are people over-reacting? Should BioWare remove SGR from the game until they can implement it properly with an actual companion?
Due to the recent F2P and other updates, SGR has kind of been put on the backburner for SWTOR in recent months due to the triage process. Unfortunately it would require them to record all new dialogue for a lot of the companions and other characters, so it would be no easy undertaking. This allows for them to partially satisfy those who want SGR until a more permanent solution can be made. I don’t think it’s too bad on Bioware’s part, but then again I love the game and I feel like in the last 6 months every time I go to defend it I just look like this: http://replygif.net/i/101
I can understand that other tasks have re-prioritized SGR, but placing a few NPCs on one planet seems like a half-assed stop-gap measure and also seems to indicate a lack of respect for people who want this content. Why not wait until the dev team can focus their attention on this task instead of doling it out piecemeal?
I agree with you, unfortunately, like with the Bioware Social Network, the devs have been berated on the SWTOR forums by those who have been waiting for SGR, so Bioware is throwing them a bone until a more permanent solution can be created. Not ideal, but at least they’re doing something.
I was kinda torn here until Drell pointed out that this is essentially keeping the people appeased FOR NOW. I think it will be fair if they properly implement it into the game. If this is it, which seems a tad difficult to believe, then it’s foul. I’m willing to wait before making a more realistic call on this.
I can’t speak for everyone, but to me the voice-overs and even cutscene dialogue are fluff – I’d much rather have it mechanically implemented with text now than have to wait who-knows-how-long to get it with all the bells and whistles. ESPECIALLY behind a paywall which I won’t be able to break anytime soon.