The British Board of Film Classification is pretty funny. Okay, evil. I like to picture them as a group of blue-haired proper English grandmothers with velvet dresses, monocles and lorgnettes, whose delicate teacups rattle with consternation as they review the content of newfangled video games to see whether they meet standards of social propriety. I'm sure monocles popping out and landing in teacups with untoward splashes are a regular occurrence.Anyway, the big gun on my radar is Mass Effect, and if I wasn't already excited about this game, the dear old birds at the BBFC, of all people, have just given me a brain boner:
The game has been classified at '12' for moderate violence and one sex scene.The violence is undetailed and takes place in a futuristic setting. The single sex scene is brief and undetailed, although there is breast nudity in one version of the scene. The sex scene is triggered by the player making a series of choices about becoming more than friends with a colleague. If playing as a male character the scene can take place between him and a human woman or a humanoid female alien. If playing as a female character the scene can take place between her and a male human or a female humanoid alien.
...Are you reading what I'm reading? Humanoid alien lesbian scene, anybody? I am so there. Bioware, Microsoft, if you're reading this, GIVE IT please kindly provide review copy NOW OR I KILL U.
Sigh. Ahead of BioShock I had elaborate treatises on morality, choice and the use of children in games. Ahead of Mass Effect I'm excited for sapphic aliens. Think I'm a little tired, guys?
9 comments:
So, should the player be offended more by having his/her sex scene labeled as ...brief and undetailed... or by the fact that according to the BBFC their hot lesbian (or not) alien sex only rates a 12? Because if the British are rating it at a 12, clearly someone's doing something wrong.
Hey, if you want to get all thinky with this material, it's all there. Choice? Alien lesbian sex is all about choice. Not only does the player choose whether or not to have lesbian sex, but any decent BioWare game gives you a variety of options during the scene: light side, dark side, chaotic evil, the Way of the Open Palm, etc. As for morality, I guess some people could have moral qualms about the alien thing. It never seemed to bother Kirk, though.
Jade Empire totally had lesbo action as well... your she-ninja could get all lovey-dovey with the Emperor's sassy daughter, Silk Fox (which would be a great name for a dildo)... but if I recall, it was very difficult to actually get to the point of romance; lots of veiled comments (from a veiled woman no less) and a mere notion of interest in the male option swung you permanently in that direction.
Anyway, I'm totally psyched that you can even play a lady in Mass Effect... I had the impression that Shepard was by default a dude. I'm always into playing as the fairer sex (my City of Heroes roster is on the verge of pedophillic), so xeno-lesbianism is beyond my wildest dreams.
I just hope they include some she-bots in Mass Effect 2, so we can get lesbionic!
Noah, you're among the living! Email me d00d.
This is so bioware. They'll never give us a male-male homosexual option. Why can't they all be bisexual? Why can't our character be bisexual?
How many appendages will our lady alien friend have...i'm uh, just curious...
I'm amazed that it hasn't been noted yet that this is simply another Open Palm/Closed Fist deal. Crude.. maybe, but I laughed when I thought of it.
Think about it though, America is just now being desensitized to violence in video games. Sex in America is still very Puritan by comparison to say.. Europe. Homosexuality doubly so, much as it embarrasses me to say so (you live outside the US, you see how petty we are). Need to learn to walk before you run.
nectarine - In Jade Empire it was possible to have a male-male romance. But I think that that game was an exception in the Bioware catalog.
Oh yeah, I'm totally with Noah on that one. I find it so appealing to play as a female characters. I find myself playing as them in RPGs, especially the online type.
Bioware sure has a thing for lesbians... I might just have to check this game out. XD
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