Same sex romance boycott discussion

Yesterday, I announced a boycott that some friends, associates, and I are starting over the lack of equal m/m content in MEA. I tried to show respect for those who value other (straight) content, but invited those who agree with our feelings to join us. I noted that we had first reached out to BioWare and received no response. I asked for negative reviews of MAE only where you felt it was warranted (i.e where it was the truth in your own opinion).

Our concept for a boycott/refund is based on the idea that (a) Bioware is a business and response best to financial incentives, ( a game that appeals to more people will likely sell more, and (c) all players should have the same amount of content (equal quality) to enjoy.

Since that post, I've been referred to as a troll, a princess, a special snowflake, and a drama queen. My expectation of equal content has been seen as an entitlement vs. a good business decision and/or the right thing to do.

For those thinking my joy is to stir up trouble, I assure you it is not. My friends and I have played ME since the beginning as well as DA. After the success of Inquisition, we had every expectation that Bioware had learned including content for all is a great thing (#TeamDorian) and would continue that trend, not regress to only offering limited dialogue /content and fade to black like some 1950s soap opera. I was the first one in our gaming group to preorder MEA expecting great things.... not what we ended up with.

I also agree there are other things that Bioware needs to work on for MEA... don't even get me started on the graphics or glitches (sigh).... but that doesn't mean they can't fix this too.

If you don't care about the m/m content - great. If you are happy with the m/m content as is (regardless of your orientation) - great. I respect your opinion and wont' attack or mock you for it.
If you feel as we do that this is an issue that needs to be addressed... you are welcome to refund the game like we have or take other action ... we support you
If you feel that even raising this as an idea is justification to attack or verbally harass someone simply because you disagree... well, I more feel sorry for you than anything else... frankly, shouldn't we be better than that in this day and age?

#BoycottBioware
#MassInequalityAndromeda

Nothing was "cut". Jaal was never meant to be bi.

@ Sofajockey - With all due respect, honored moderator, I HAVE had those comments directed at me, in posts visible to all, and you have been silent. Please review the first several responses posted. Even today, because I held this option, I'm disregarded as someone who must be a lonely hermit without a relationship (I have a partner thank you very much, cooldude). You said nothing to any of that, Sofajockey.

However, you WERE involved in moving the thread, changing the thread name, and posting twice within it - each time making your own feelings known that the idea of a boycott was "mocked by the majority" and an embarrassment to the community.

Forgive me if this feels less than balanced moderation from my POV. I would have welcomed some help from your when the name calling started.

You are welcome to dismiss the non-equal content for M/M as unfounded and attack the messenger. Clearly, that's the power that comes from being in the majority... I, meanwhile, can only take comfort in the facts -- (props to bloodofthefirst for providing this summary in a different thread)

bsn.boards.net/post/457018/thread

Considering all the screaming coming from the opposite side of the fence, I expect this would backfire on us spectacularly. Fortunately, I am quite enjoying the game as a whole, romances aside.

The amount of homophobia in this thread is ridiculous. Stay classy, BSN.

The amount of homophobia in this thread is exactly zero.

Unless by homophobia you mean "someone said something stupid and people had a laugh" instead of "irrational fear of homosexual people", in which case it would be wise to stop devaluating a word that describes something with actually important implications before it becomes yet another useless meme that only useful to play victim.

There lies the problem for some people, they can't / don't want to distinguish between the two.

And in my personal experience, that's the majority in the LGBT community, which exacerbates the problem when talking about stuff like this.

Of course you dont, you wrote it.

That doesn't negate that youre being disrespectful...

A moderator is disrespectful on purpose...

ok.

lulz

Disrespectful views that attack people for voicing concerns.

No I hear you. Thats totes legit. I expect that from regular users. Not mods.

You dont have to look far I can tell you that. But if thats the way things are done. Then dont mind me...

Keep up the great work /sarcasm

I think the problem is that while there is a difference between attacking an argument and attacking a person, that difference does not always come with a clear distinction.

Some attacks are attacks against a person voicing an argument.
Some attacks are attacks against the argument being voiced.
But some attacks against an argument are also indirect attacks against the person voicing that argument.

There are some ways to insult an argument without insulting the person voicing it, but it is also possible to insult an argument in a way that makes the person voicing it feel attacked. There is no clear line here between the two.

And this is where it gets tricky, because this all comes down to tone and intent. It is much more open to personal interpretation than the distinction between "this argument is dumb" and "you are dumb because you have this argument." It is also easy to misread someone's intentions due to the tone they use.

In the post I quoted on the last page, I felt that the tone of the statements did not match the intent behind them. Because of this, I personally felt that what was said came across as insulting. I am not the OP and cannot speak to how it was received there, but I wanted to point out that I felt the general tone of the thread felt off. It felt as if people were attacking the OP's argument in a way that was also attacking the OP. Even if they did not intent to do so.