Same Sex Marriage

[Kallera]

The fact that SE even addressed the issue during the live event means that they are certainly considering it. Maybe we're ignoring the bit about what the "marriage system" may be like and how it would work.

Maybe two players who've somehow developed a bond decide to obtain a, let's call it, civil union. By allowing so they may be entitled to some benefits e.g. slightly increased buffs if they're in a party, housing entitlements (in Singapore you get more advantages in buying a house from the government if you are married...) etc. I'm sure they'd make it like real-life such that you can't really marry someone and divorce him/her the day after, as such decisions are usually long-term ones.

I don't play other MMOs... do they work something like that or are the marriages just symbolic? (whether or not they're meaningless is subject to individual opinion)

Obviously if they implemented such a system, it would be an issue with some of the playerbase, gay or straight, if it was only restricted to marriage between a male and a female only.

Many are just symbolic. Or have nothing game breaking. Those with added benefits tend to get exploited, like with Everquest.

[Psion]

And we have a winner

Actually, we don't. In fact, the USA mostly doesn't allow same-sex marriage at all either, and has the defense of marriage act, and yet despite the plethora of hate groups (Westboro church anyone?), gay marriages in western games hit it off just fine. There's no reason to believe japan would be any different, especially since it's got a lot of heavily urbanized areas, places which tend to have higher support for equal marriage rights.

Playing it safe only gets you far, whether as a person or as a company. Learning to see where trends are going gets you much further as a buisness, and the trends have all been toward equal marriage rights.

[rina_inverse]

Actually, we don't. In fact, the USA mostly doesn't allow same-sex marriage at all either, and has the defense of marriage act, and yet despite the plethora of hate groups (Westboro church anyone?), gay marriages in western games hit it off just fine. There's no reason to believe japan would be any different, especially since it's got a lot of heavily urbanized areas, places which tend to have higher support for equal marriage rights.

Playing it safe only gets you far, whether as a person or as a company. Learning to see where trends are going gets you much further as a buisness, and the trends have all been toward equal marriage rights.

SE as a wedding consultant?
Yea, make it happen lol

[Orca]

They're doing regional servers right? If they do get feedback thats postively in one direction or the other, im sure theyd could enable/disable. Then if it was SOOOOO disgusting to one individual, that theyd be prepared to leave an entire game full of story, lore, battles, growth systems and friends over the CHANCE of coming across a pair of married lads/ladies.....

Well, then they could just server transfer to a place where it was disabled and carry on playing the game.

[deathstix]

If SE really wanted to play it safe, they wouldn't have mentioned marriage at all, let alone bring up the issue of same-sex marriage. Actually I'd rather they'd just kept it under wraps and introduced it in 2.0....

and see the droves of people leaving the game for other games (/sarcastic smile).

[Mihana]

Difference there Psion is a great deal of people who are opposed to same-gender marriages in the states also shun video games in general so they wouldn't play it unless it was wholly educational and non-religious to begin with. I can't really speak for Japan on that of course. But look, the entire point of my post was to try offering insight as to likely why they aren't leaping at this chance. Same-sex marriages are a minority and a smaller feature compared to the rest they're focusing on. Besides, correct me if I'm wrong but don't they take things like marriage in online games much more serious than western audiences?

These kind of features exist so two couples in real life can get married in both worlds. I know there have been real instances where people have hosted an online wedding in a video game to say their vows making them legally married in real life, too. So that's even more of a reason for them to be hesitant on it.

The whole point of it is they may add it, they may not. I'm not trying to justify reasons not to introduce it. I'm a male gamer even if I play a Miqo'te and being a RPer too I'd likely have her marry a male character if I so decide. But in the event I do decide otherwise to marry a female character I'd love to have that option available as well so I really do fully support the idea.

[Finchley]

YES PLEASE!!! I dont know who I want to marry yet, but when I find that cute, perfect, sexy Elf man with an amazing Lance I wanna put a ring on it

[charlemagne]

If they bring in marriage at all and do not allow gay marriage then they are taking a stance on the issue of gay marriage. A discriminatory stance.
I can't speak for other servers but on Ridill there are a large number of gay players. I believe I saw a statistic once showing that gay people make up a disproportianately large percentage of mmo players. The decision to allow heterosexual but not gay marriage discriminates against and will alienate many players. This decision is morally wrong and SE should be ashamed of itself.

[Kurohi]

In case this thread is one of the things SE will take into account when making a decission, I'll say I support this kind of marriage.

We should be discussing more important topics instead a thing that should be taken for granted if ES really wanted to treat equally to its base players.

[shanvhere]

Make it happen SE.

I don't understand why they would even have to consider whether to implement it or not. :/

QFT

Ummmm, religious fanatics that will cause protest and internet mayhem?