Will Kaidan Alenko be in Mass Effect 4? Interview: Raphael Sbarge

Excerpt:

”I was thrilled when they introduced the Homosexual romance options in Mass Effect 3 just because obviously there was a huge audience. I spoke to the developers about it, they said they provided so many different choices we were proud of, to be really honest it was just another piece of extra content that didn’t make the final cut in the other games.

What’s amazing about the game for people is that you can cross gender! You can play through in any capacity you want, imaginatively for any of us that’s a huge factor in the experience. All of the opportunities and complexities are fascinating, and that’s what games allow to go down the rabbit hole and explore it."

[Ashunderfire86]

If he is in there than Ashley should be in there too, because you had to choose who will live. Ashley or Kaidan?

[GRRiMREEAPeR]

sooo tired of this homosexual agenda in media and now videogames smh

[PooEgg]

I am sure you are about as tired of it as they are of being silenced by self-centered people like you. You need to keep in mind that other people exist in the world besides you. Just because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean it doesn't need to be said.

Ask yourself this question, how would you feel if the world was different and straight relationships were considered abnormal? Would you be happy silently hiding who you are in order to avoid making others uncomfortable?

[Sketchy_Galore]

Actually.... I'm not making any definitive claims here but there are studies that suggest Mr. Grrim might just know exactly how it feels to live that kind of a lie.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

http://www.psychologytoday....

[GRRiMREEAPeR]

great points pooegg, I can try and put the shoe on the other foot, I imagine it isn't easy to feel like you are gay in a world with like 99% of the people are straight. however everywhere you seem to turn nowadays its gay this or tranny that. Children observe all of this and I don't understand how anyone can make the argument that that's good for them. I don't need to be socially indoctrinated by political vested interests everytime I look up. Mass Effect messed up when they took their mind off of making a great game, just to go ahead and make a controversial social comment. (I apolgize if this isn't super readable as I am on my phone)

[GRRiMREEAPeR]

Lol and to Sketchy, sure you nailed out right on the head bro smh

[Sketchy_Galore]

Sorry if I came across like I was attacking you GRRiM. Your response was far more reasonable and considerate of another's opinion than you often see on the Internet. It's just that I'm working on my own little Indie kid's game, 'Trannyman in sodomy landU' and am a little sensitive to criticism.

Seriously though, it might seem like forcing in a controversial political statement to have a gay character in a game but that's just a sign of how unequal things are. There was a time that an interracial couple on screen was seen as forcing a controversial political issue. When an episode of Star Trek called for Captain Kirk to kiss Uhura NBC demanded that an alternate take be shot without the kiss out of fear of the reaction of the Southern audiences.

You probably wouldn't have had to be a racist back in those days to find these things on TV annoying. The fact that you were used to shows ignoring such subjects would probably make it seem forced and contrived when they did start addressing these issues but these days we're use to seeing interracial couples on TV as just another fact about society represented as it is. It's the same with gay characters. You're not used to seeing them in roles as anything other than comedy relief sissies so every time you see them as more it feels forced and like somebody's pushing an agenda. In fact, there are gay people who are not comedy relief sissies in the real world and all this artistic medium is doing is finally acknowledging that fact.

Having said all that, Kaidan has the personality of wet cardboard and I'm still pissed that the first game pulled the old switcharoo on me when I initially wanted to save the girl.

[PooEgg]

@GRRiMREEAPeR

You say you don't need to be socially indoctrinated by politically vested interests every time you look up. But the problem is that you already have been. Had you grown up in a world where homophobia did not exist, you would not feel uncomfortable with gay people as an adult, and the idea of a gay Commander Shepard would feel odd to you.

As for the children, I think that it is far better that our children grow up in a world where they won't have to worry about hiding their sexual orientation out of fear that they will not be accepted by their peers, parents, or by society.

You seem like a decent person, and I don't want to tell you how to think, this is simply how I look at the world.

@Sketchy

You make some very good points. It is interesting that we have grown so much as a society, yet we still have a problem with gay people.

[Jek_Porkins]

He wasn't in ME2 or ME3 for me, so it wouldn't matter.

[FrightfulActions]

I don't care about having gay romance options since more choice is a good thing for games (even though personally a homo-Shep seems weird). Regardless I can't be the only one who didn't appreciate them turning Kaidan gay. It's one thing to introduce a new character and establish them as gay, its another thing entirely to just flip the sexual-orientation switch on a character that has already been established as hetro.

Bioware made a similar mistake with their novels where they suddenly made a gay character straight. Fans who followed the novels were upset over this large oversight. In the game they turned a previously straight character gay. It made things a bit awkward too considering one could be trying to be a caring friend but it comes out to be a romance trigger.

Go to see Kaidan in the hospital, give him good wishes and hope he gets better, gets flirted with. Awkward. It ruined Garrus' 'sniper challenge' cutscene for me the first time too. The moment he said "you're not going to propose marriage now are you?" I instantly went "oh no, not you too Garrus!" Luckily he was just being his usual smartass self. I can overlook them rewriting Kaidan since he's not that 'big' of a role, but to rewrite Garrus? That would had been horrible.