There is a male character in Dragon Age 2 who will make advances towards your own male character. If you spurn those advances, you will receive rivalry points. This makes sense; after all, who likes being rejected? The problem is that the character is gay, and that means that people who dislike gay characters in games are upset because of his existence, and a group of gay gamers are upset over how the character is portrayed.

This debate continues to be played out across the Internet, and the biggest takeaway appears to be that it remains incredibly difficult to portray characters that seem both real and human. It's doubly so when they belong to a group that inspires so many strong feelings.

The straight male gamers need more love!

On the official Bioware forum, a gamer posted a thread claiming that Bioware was turning its back on "straight male gamers" by including certain gay and female characters that he felt were created to appeal to different groups of gamers.

Let's take a look at his argument, where he claims that there should have been a way to remove homosexuality from the game. You can read his entire post if you'd like, and at the very least we should respect the fact that he took the time to lay out his arguments in such calm tones.

In every previous BioWare game, I always felt that almost every companion in the game was designed for the male gamer in mind. Every female love interest was always written as a male friend type support character. In Dragon Age 2, I felt like most of the companions were designed to appeal to other groups foremost, Anders and Fenris for gays and Aveline for women given the lack of strong women in games, and that for the straight male gamer, a secondary concern. It makes things very awkward when your male companions keep making passes at you. The fact that a 'No Homosexuality' option, which could have been easily implemented, is omitted just proves my point. I know there are some straight male gamers out there who did not mind it and I respect that.

Dragon Age 2 writer David Gaider responded to the post quickly, arguing in favor of the way the game handled relationships. "If there is any doubt why [catering to a broad audience] might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as 'political correctness' if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority," Gaider wrote. "They're so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don't see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what's everyone's fuss all about? That's the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want."

Gaider also said that "the person who says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is, if you ask me, the one who deserves it least."

There are good arguments on Bioware's forum for and against the content in the game, and it's worth reading the opinions of both sides.

Stop stereotyping gay characters!

Straight male gamers aren't the only ones upset, however. "As a homosexual playing Dragon Age 2, I've witnessed the worst stereotype [of] homosexual characters in this game. If you refuse to make your moves on a gay character then you [receive] rivalry points for not wanting to be gay for the character," another gamer wrote on a petition to have Gaider fired. His issue is that the character seems to further a stereotype of gay men as being sex-crazed and unable to deal with rejection from straight men.

Some are drawing parallels between the game and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the United States military. It's OK if the video game character is attracted to other men, but we don't want him to pursue that attraction because it makes some gamers uncomfortable. The claim is that the game furthers this agenda. Others have no love for this argument.

"The stereotype of homosexuality needing to be something that is shoved back into a closet because it makes other people uncomfortable is one about being tolerated on other peoples' terms," an article on the website GayGamer stated. "It is not about being accepted, and politely denied. It also mistakes that all gay men want to have sex with straight men, and cannot take no for an answer—an erroneous assumption, and it is that assumption that should be combated, which Dragon Age 2 does not perpetuate."

It is pointed out that you can repair the relationship in the game, and wouldn't it be more troubling if the character wasn't upset at being rejected?

Both sides seem to be arguing that there is only one sort of gay character, or one correct way to portray gay characters in games. "Writers don't have a responsibility to make exclusively noble gay characters, they have a responsibility to portray human gay characters," Ken Levine, the cofounder of Irrational Games and one of the minds behind Bioshock wrote via Twitter, in defense of Dragon Age 2.

Where does this leave us?

It's an interesting conversation, and one we'd like to add to with this post and the conversation it will inspire in the comments. One person argues that there should be a way to disable any mention of homosexuality in the game, and not every straight male gamer agrees with that. Another person argues that the stereotype of a gay man who hits on everything he sees and can't handle rejection is promoted in the game, and not every gay gamer agrees with that. Most gamers will probably play the game and be able to deal with the fact that, like in real life, there are people of different sexual orientations who act in a variety of ways.