SE Please Stop. Dialogue that Presumes My Sexual Orientation Breaks Immersion.

[Roris]

The two guys almost kissed in the end and they even showed surprise at the sign of the male captain, how can you be so sure they aren't gay or bisexual? Why are you so quick to judge their sexuality? Check your privilege.

[Morningstar1337]

#GamerGate #NotYourShield #FullMcIntosh

Somehow I knew this would get brought up on this topic

[mbncd]

In real life I'm an asexual female but I play characters of every orientation and both genders.

I think that some quests do slightly break the stories I've made for my own characters and perhaps more choices regarding personality and preferences when creating these characters would help alleviate that slightly, along with dialogue trees (either stating exactly how we respond or just mood based options).

However, I agree with others that these things can be overlooked, much like the downright stupidity our characters sometimes display, in favour of more general content being written instead of reiterations of similar content to suit said preferences. Every line of text that needs to be changed slightly is a whole new line of text that could have better served general character/story development somewhere else.

[WizardShotTheFood]

Somehow I knew this would get brought up on this topic

The thread's a trainwreck as is. Can bringing out the incoherent "raar why do women exist in my video games" neckbeardrage really make it worse?

(Just watch, someone will show the answer to be "yes".)

[Jynx]

Obviously we need more Dialogue trees!



But seriously your sorely mistaken if you think the mass produced quests this game offers are going to be anything even slightly dynamic. Quantity over quallity is the name of the game when you need to put (!) marks over everyones head.

[Darki]

Somehow I knew this would get brought up on this topic

Any time politics of any kind are brought up in gamer forums regardless of the game, it always devolves into a cesspool of nonsense. Politics and games don't mix. Ever. For any reason.

I'm also big enough to admit that I had to learn this lesson the hard way. /blush

[BreathlessTao]

I don't think the issue is that SE is forcing you into anything but, rather than make the dialogue and interactions neutral and completely bland, they have to make a decision on these things. Clearly their decision was to go with the stereotypes. Now, if SE had UNLIMITED resources and what not, then they'd probably give players an infinite number of dialogue choices to choose from to suit your individual tastes. However, like everything else in this world, SE doesn't have those infinite resources. They make do with what they can. I, most definitely, don't want the dev teams working on superfluous things like this to ensure that everyone maintains their immersion. I want nice looking gear, more challenging fights etc...

Further more, when the devs come up with dialogue for new patches, they also have to keep in mind that their localization team is made up of SIX people. Koji told us at the Vegas fan fest that his localization team does the translation work of ONE kingdom hearts game for every PATCH we get. Them hiring more people also isn't a solution unless we players are willing to throw more and more money at them.

Some of the people who complain seem to think Yoshi is some kind of magician. He isn't. He can't cater to everything everyone wants and does the best with what he has on hand.

Long reply is long, so...apologies in advance.

Let's put OP's specific issue aside a bit here and look at the bigger picture it paints. This is a roleplaying game, right? As such, immersion would (should) be a huge priority; as cool and exciting it might be, pretty outfits and a bunch of numbers don't constitute to the basis of that. You'd be hard-pressed to find a game that doesn't include at least some such in one way or another, yet you'd also be hard-pressed to call them all RPGs. Immersion is based on options, being able to be/do/say what you want, what you are - else, why even get so many options to create a character? We could have the exact same replicas of one pre-made character to run around with.

I understand SE doesn't have infinite resources. But would adding a few extra lines into the conversations of quests (especially if the quests themselves are short anyway) to offer just two-three different choices really be so much extra work as to require infinite resources? Really? Personally, I'd rather have the devs work on this instead of extra shinies to milk us for more of our money when we're already paying them. Going for the general stereotypes is exactly the thing that makes such scenes look/feel/be neutral and bland. It's a roleplaying game, yet the hero of Eorzea is nothing more than a silent puppet who can't do anything but /nod and on rare occasions /smile and look /surprised. As ironic as it is, SE itself admits to this in one of the quests where an NPC directly states it (the muteness specifically). Which is quite sad, considering this is supposed to be a roleplaying game. I'm not even sure I'd need both my hands to count how many times we get dialogue options in the game, even less that actually matters and accounts to more than one different sentence in the reply right after that.

I know Yoshi isn't a magician. I know he can't cater to anyone. But by the Twelve, he has been trying his best - and if anyone says it's not the game's focus, they really need to pay more attention. Nerfs left, right and center; glamours; dyeable DL and AF gear; idle poses; ability to initiate convos with NPCs and ability to enter cities while mounted; rouge/ninja, dark knight, gunner coming up; the list goes on and on to show they're doing their best to cater to everyone (not saying all their solutions are phenomenally executed, but they are there). And in most cases, they manage to do so. Allowing same-sex marriages sorry, eternal bonds, is the best example of that: might have been a somewhat forced situation, might have made some on the team uncomfortable - but the players cheered for it and the international press feedback was rather positive as well. If anything, that should be an indication that taking some risks is preferable to playing it safe. Yet, they still seem ever so reluctant to take even those risks that quite surely (judging by general forum opinions) would lead to something good - while taking others that so many of us has expressed our dislike about.

This game touts 2.5 million players. There have been news about it turning a profit for SE on numerous sites. They're able to organise one live event after the other - at home or overseas, doesn't seem to matter either. By all means and accounts, it is succesful, it is great as a game, it has a (from what I've noticed, for the most part) pleasant community as its playerbase. I can accept that SE doesn't have infinite resources. I can accept that Yoshi's not a magician. And I don't think anyone even expects free large houses handed out to everyone with unlimited furniture/storage space in them all, or a complete remodel of all NPCs and full VA of all cutscenes. That said, for "limited resources" to be brought up as an argument (excuse?) against features, time and time again (with the other being "PS3 limitations")... I'm not even sure what to think about that. Especially when it's something as little as dialogue options (~choices, immersion, at least one of the cores of RPGs) in a very limited and short sidequest (not even saying main scenario or generally implemented in the game here, see) - regardless of the subject, even, sexuality as such doesn't really bother me in this sense. Like I already said on page 1, I just shrugged and moved on in that particular quest.

So many mechanics in the game are already alienating people. The slew of instant-death moves in certain fights; the unnecessary complexity and gating of the entire glamour system (among other things); housing in general; the blandness of chocobo raising; reliance on RNG in too many places where it should not be the main/solo factor... just to name a few. The power is with SE to discover what players want and shape the game so. Yet they either bang their heads against the wall (cash shop), or seem utterly clueless/ignorant (mentioned in another thread, when they were asked about storage space in houses a looong time ago, they basically said they didn't think of that). At the same time, I see so many posts here in which people clearly say this-and-that other game solved this-and-that way better - games that aren't even made by companies as big as SE. It feels like they're still in stupor over the fail of 1.0 and not able to get out of it. Which is really weird, considering how much they actually do communicate with us players.

All in all, yes, OP's issue might seem insignificant enough not to even warrant a discussion at all. But it does point finger at the greater picture here, which is at least strange, and certainly somewhat troubling. Yes, it's a company with a lot of suits and ties up high, who are there to make money. But going down the route of milking customers for their money while just acting like giving them what they want (asked for glamours, got glamours, but the way it's implemented is quite horrible - for example)... that's not gonna work on the long run, because when people are milked for all they have, they're gonna leave. Saying they stick to P2P because it enables them to deliver updates faster and plan ahead, then rushing out those updates with clearly not-thought-out-or-polished details is lacking logic; same as insisting on sticking to P2P and at the same time wanting to milk us for our money (cash shop, again). And as a result, we get a game with so many messy details and rough edges in it that that ends up breaking immersion. And considering everything, it is just sad and somewhat scary...

[Ooshima]

However, I agree with others that these things can be overlooked, much like the downright stupidity our characters sometimes display, in favour of more general content being written instead of reiterations of similar content to suit said preferences. Every line of text that needs to be changed slightly is a whole new line of text that could have better served general character/story development somewhere else.

This.

If every game maker have to make so many text variation to suit every of the sexual and whatever preferences out there...

Stop it you guys.

SE please spend your time on making more contents or even vanity items than pondering on this.

[Nuinn]

So, I'm bored at work and I've read every single post in this thread.

Man.... you all need to relax.

[Fiever]

I swear these topics... It's just bait