Same sex romance boycott discussion

Hi benji1123 , 

[moderator hat firmly on] 

Let's deal with the moderation points first:

• Yep, there we some insults in the thread, they have been removed now, they we'ren't reported so they hadn't been reviewed. I hadn't spotted them myself. I've gone back through each post in the thread and tidied up.
• There were some 'low level' terms, eg 'snowflake' which had been reported and other moderators had determined that in-context they were not significant (we can debate that determination another time if you like)
• You tried (failed) to tag me yesterday "@ SofaJockey". FYI: The '@' has to connect to the name or it won't work: "SofaJockey ". I didn't see your post yesterday and saw your last post only by chance.
• The thread was merged in one place because it had been dropped into multiple threads. By titling it with your campaign hashtag and describing it as 'our' boycott, gave it a consensus legitimacy I feel it didn't have. 
• As for my own part in this, I'll be more careful to signal when my 'moderator hat' is 'on' or 'off', so that's been helpful learning for me.

• I'm a straight guy, so what do I know about what it feels like as a gay person? Nothing, and my views do not speak for gay people.
• However, I've met many cool LGBT folk on BSN over the years, seeing them getting insulted or treated poorly, so I think I'm ok to express an opinion, just as I would if I saw one of my friends being insulted or being treated poorly.
• Let's talk about the cause for this situation: Folk wanting a m/m romance have had a pretty lean deal. The thread you reference describes it well: bsn.boards.net/post/457018/thread and it's a thread (and sentiment) I personally support.
  
• I can't talk about how other people feel, so if someone says they are less likely to invest in DLC, or even vote with their wallet entirely, as I think Panda raised, then sure, I respect their positions.
• In short, all the things that have been said about short content and reasons why gay players may be upset are fair enough. They don't need my backing, but as it happens they have it and I'd like to see BioWare do something about it.
• I get that BioWare are in a difficult position, they get a lot of hate from the 'Anti-SJW' crowd if a character even has a 'feminist haircut'. There are some folk who would much prefer the game to only have a male (white) protagonist and lots of 'hawt babes'. (and that sentiment appears politically ascendant at the moment).
• So why is a 'boycott' a really bad idea in my view? (it is the idea of a boycott I have issue with, not the valid concerns):
  
• We know BioWare are already 'pro-diversity' as a studio, even if in this case not being diverse enough impacts on gameplay choices and even achievements.
• We can see from dev tweets that they hear the concern and are taking it seriously.
• A boycott is a pretty extreme act, too extreme, and paints LGBT as 'over-precious victims'.
• What is the 'result' a boycott is meant to achieve, that BioWare go 'oh ok, we hear you...' they've done that already.
• What's required now is that BioWare get some support for whatever they can now do about it.
• Tactically, you've come up with a couple of desperately unhelpful hastags:
• #MassInequaltyAndromeda - a cheesy line that is understandable to few, 
• and #BoycottBioware that is already used by 'Anti-SJWs' to hate on BioWare's 'antiwhite racism twitter.com/hashtag/BoycottBioware?src=hash really? You picked that hashtag without even checking it?
• My concern about embarrassment to the community was to the BSN community. We're a game discussion forum not a campaign platform.
• This boycott proposal is up there with Boycotting BioWare because one ex-employee decided to fight back against racists but did it in a dumb baiting way, or when folk were going to boycott Star Wars because one of the leads was black, boycotts do not have a good track record for being clever.
• I think I'll stop now, I've become sucked into this thread more than I intended to or probably should have done. Andromeda awaits...

"Date Registered: Mar 23, 2017"

How come everyone talking about boycotting the game over this is a brand new account? 

So was the account that suggested it in the first place. 

Probably because there is an influx of new players or potential new players because of the release of the game. Using myself as an example, I was looking forward to ME:A and was on the verge of buying the trilogy to really get into the ME universe.

Then I started reading about the game and decided I wasn't gonna pay to get called a queen for being in a m/m romance. So instead I joined the forum to add another voice. And yea I realize its an insignificant contribution but at least it helps with the venting.

On an unrelated note, its nice to see the mod in this thread take some responsibility. Its still pretty questionable that like 3 people had to call him out for him to actually do anything but hey take what you can get. Maybe this place isn't the gamefaqs part 2 I thought it was...good shit!

Sofajockey wrote:

Let's deal with the moderation points first:
•Yep, there we some insults in the thread, they have been removed now, they we'ren't reported so they hadn't been reviewed. I hadn't spotted them myself. I've gone back through each post in the thread and tidied up.
•There were some 'low level' terms, eg 'snowflake' which had been reported and other moderators had determined that in-context they were not significant (we can debate that determination another time if you like)
•You tried (failed) to tag me yesterday "@ SofaJockey". FYI: The '@' has to connect to the name or it won't work: "MODSofaJockey ". I didn't see your post yesterday and saw your last post only by chance.
•The thread was merged in one place because it had been dropped into multiple threads. By titling it with your campaign hashtag and describing it as 'our' boycott, gave it a consensus legitimacy I feel it didn't have.
•As for my own part in this, I'll be more careful to signal when my 'moderator hat' is 'on' or 'off', so that's been helpful learning for me.


While I appreciate the recent attempt at removing some of the hate, it rings a little hollow at this point... you said you hadn't spotted the comments I pointed out (and you now deleted), but you were reading closely enough to comment the boycott idea had been mocked by the majority.
I also would have had a bit more appreciation for your response as a moderator if you hadn't used the opportunity to then add more than double the amount of text to again assailing the idea of a boycott.

My friends and I are going to continue our efforts to vote with our wallets and impact positive change. The "name callers" and those who stand by and let the name calling happen can continue to drive away those who disagree with them.

leave the mod be. As a straight guy, certain things that may be sensitive to gay guys may not register to him at the time. I said a lot of stuffs that offended people without realizing it before. The mods here have been very accommodating to our situation. They are way more active than the old forum and have generally done a better job than most forum I've been to. If you only know how good it is here, back in the old forum, you would have been banned for 3 days at least by a modbot for even complaining about any issue or even make a suggestion, I'm completely seriously, anyone can attest to that.on to of what I already told you, boycott doesn't work, and angry posts like this may turn away people who sympathize with our situation.

I don't think boycotting actually does anything, not in videogames at least.

I just think it's interesting that at least three accounts were made on here at about the same time exclusively to advocate a boycott over this issue. I didn't see anyone in the initial threads on this discussing a boycott, they were simply suggesting contacting the developers if even that. Then of course the idea of boycotting the game over romances caused an argument and the entire discussion got derailed. 

I just find that interesting is all. 

I wasn't convinced but you don't have to care what I think. 

This could have been written better.

So in this game I have some issues but they're spoilers

Unfortunately I think whether you want to support or boycott this game its a catch 22. 

If you boycott them and they flop then they don't produce (lackluster) content anymore. If you support them and the game succeeds you get a another game where they will do the same thing because basically 'why fix whats not broken'.

Personally this may be ungrateful but giving people a lesser product and telling them 'well its better than nothing' is not good enough for me. To each their own if its good enough for someone else.