Submitted 1 day ago by mereo@piefed.ca to games@lemmy.world
https://www.polygon.com/mass-effect-universe-bioware-ea-remove-lgbtq-flag/
A former BioWare employee says that EA’s new management wasn’t on board with the developer’s inclusiveness.
The anonymous employee mentioned a specific case where the developers were asked to remove a specific flag from a presentation video for “looking too much like the LGBTQIA+ flag,” in order “not to offend.”
God what a bunch of snowflakes.
The issue isn’t just about a texture or a flag—it’s the corporate censorship and what it signals. If management is already stepping in to scrub a presentation video to avoid “offending” corporate masters, it makes you wonder what kind of creative compromises are happening behind closed doors during actual game development.
it’s more than corporate censorship, it’s theocratic censorship.
Em dash…
Real people use em dashes. That is a common place in human writing to use an em dash, or it would not have become a trend in the averaging that is LLM-generated text.
We cannot assume this comment was written by a bot. It was short and only used one em dash in a normal place.
This, scrubbing a flag itself, if actually confined to that (it wouldn’t be) isn’t world ending.
But it’s just short edge of the wedge. Remove flags now, later remove some trans representation, then remove gay and lesbian representation and lastly might as well go full Imperial cult and remove any friendly relations with Xenos.
Suadi’s would probably LOVE Terra Firma…
But the worries of lgbt sims players are still totally unfounded right?
Sims players despite being thought of as casuals (and most definitely are) have been the canary in the coal mine for so much bullshit from EA.
They even brought back the widely hated and transparently cynical micro transactions from Sims 3 into Sims 4, get this, over 10 years after the launch of the game. These games are so indicative of so many aspects of the industry and trends and how audiences deal with changes in a way that I think a lot of people don’t realize.
Sims 1 was oozing with personality and is a pretty straightforward satire of capitalism 4 KiDz!! while 4 is not only beyond sterile but has pretty much gotten worse over 12 years especially when they reworked it into a free game. Yes I’m complaining about the themes and writing of a simulation dollhouse game mainly played by children. Children deserve good writing too
The base game has less content than most demos. The full game will cost you around $1400 these days.
For context for any viewers who are wondering why @thingsiplay@lemmy.ml deleted his posts, he was saying this:
If you were wondering why he has so many downvotes, that is why. :)
Hehe
There is wrong characterization here. I’m just fed up with the bad faith argumentation. Its just a waste of time. And its clear that people don’t accept any other opinion. Have fun with your witch hunt.
Too bad you deleted your own words, otherwise you’d have an easier time convincing people.
This was not a witch hunt. I am merely providing the context of what you said because you are trying to skirt outside of public criticism by deleting your comments.
You made a fallacious claim that the removal of the Pride Flag had no meaning. You literally said it was “just a flag”. You literally said the removal was meaningless because it had no significance to you. You literally said that the removal of that symbol does not symbolize the removal of LGBTQIA+ rights. You literally said that gay people are equally welcome in bars. You literally said that changes that don’t impact gameplay or story have no meaning. You literally said that censorship before the release of the game was “not censorship” and that it has no meaning.
I have not misquoted you. If you feel like your own words paint you in a negative light, perhaps you shouldn’t have said them.
Wrong characterization? I saw your bullshit before you deleted it and these things are literally what you said. God, you suck at your propaganda job
X
developers were asked to remove a specific flag from a presentation video for “looking too much like the LGBTQIA+ flag,” in order “not to offend.”
Well, they failed. Because that offends me.
But why buy a studio known for inclusive storytelling, presumably to profit from it, and then kill the thing they’re known for? Or was this an investment in culture war?
EA bought BioWare well before this new managment (Saudis) jumped in. EA used to not care because inclusivity was just another way to sell a game, thus BioWare could be gay as fuck. Now there’s a conservative slant to it and BioWare is (even when they’re making bad games) an incredibly gay studio so this was just bound to happen.
i mean they were bought by Saudi Arabia and that country is not too fond of LGBTQ
they arent too fond of heterosexuality either, considering the recent execution of a husband and wife for the sin of a forehead kiss.
Yeah, it’s Saudi Arabia, they are Islamic and not quite as permissive as USA.
There’s no pride parade in Saudi Arabia or any Islamic state. You keep your head down and keep it to yourself or you get thrown off a roof.
At the current pace, the US will catch up soon though!
Yup, white people in the south used to be the same until the secular changed it. You think the racist homophobes here at home are gone? Lots of secular people in Saudi Arabia you aren’t aware of, though.
Did white christians from the south buy EA?
I fucking knew it, hijabs for everyone! Better dead than mangled, I say.
Of course it wasn’t. They’re owned by SA.
Yet another reason why we need to move the world off of its oil dependency.
I predicted it when EA sold out to Saudi Arabia.
This is why foreign countries shouldn’t be allowed to own companies. Worker and citizen owned companies or gtfo
USA is the same level of shithole, enacting all sorts of anti-trans and anti-lgbt laws that their citizens celebrate.
Remember that Trump saw an increase in votes for the 2024 election - USA as a whole hates LGBT.
I think you are seeing a survivor bias here. The majority of the U.S. does not see things that way. Just bcz the government right now, and their neo-fascist thug followers see it that way doesn’t make it a majority.
“Every foreign country in the world should not be allowed to own companies because I disagree with one of them” sure is a take of all time. But america (or wherever your from) is fine for seemingly no reason.
Yes, that’s not a stupid take at all. Governments all over the world have show over and over that they are terrible stewards of people’s interests. Why wouldn’t you want worker and citizen owned things instead?
That’s like saying the 5 richest dudes in the world have all the money and that’s how the world works right now, so they must be responsible and good at it, so we should give them all the control.
Just bcz things work a certain way now, doesn’t mean it’s the right way to run the world.
Hell, I would argue we’ve been doing it wrong for centuries.
im pretty sure most games already have to do this for their release in saudi arabia. the spider-man “mod” that removed those flags was just changing the map to the saudi arabia version
Just like rainbow crosswalks the flag itself isn’t that important, it’s the fact they’re being removed that’s the problem.
I think i get what you’re saying and i also don’t care, but when a dev puts a flag in and people start getting weird about it then I start caring a lot.
I’m not queer, but I find throwing trans and rainbow flags around is a great way to get fascists and bigots and otherwise miserable people to out themselves.
a .ml user arguing in bad faith again. figures.
imHo, these companies are not problem on their own. Company follows money, companies provide product that sells more. They do research, how many happy queers will pay for a game with flags, how many will ignore game if there wont be any flag, vs how many bigots will not buy with flag. And queers are commonly losing on statistics, sadge. Ideology or supporting LGBTQ+ may not be even considered at company meetings, but money data only.
Sure, would be awesome, if some companies would support queers and do a slap, do a change against bigotry. Enough of such small details, optional texture at some optional costume, and gae visibility could be a norm, no more shocking no more disgus for norms near queers, just a norma… yet, that’s not exactly what big game companies are there for…
You can’t forgive a company for “following the money”… These companies are run by people and can and should be held accountable. They aren’t faceless automated robots, and even if they were, we are in charge. We are the ones that are alive, we decide where the buck stops. Following the money is a cop out. They make their own statement by following the money, and it’s not a neutral one. Just like “I was just following orders” isn’t an excuse.
jontree255@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“You can fuck the aliens but only if they’re straight.”
Fucking Saudis
Carmakazi@piefed.social 1 day ago
I’m not entirely sure the house of Saud really cares about western video games enough to intervene like this. I always imagined they only cared about the money and diversification from oil, “deeply held beliefs” often can be overlooked for the right price. This could just as easily be because of the corporate weathervein pointing towards conservatism, lots of companies have made decisions like this recently without meddling from the middle east.
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Saudi Arabia currently owns EA.
jontree255@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It’s less of them directly interfering and more like EAs management trying to appease their new masters.
bold_omi@lemmy.today 1 day ago
In case this comment by @Carmakazi@piefed.social gets deleted, this is what it said:
thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Bigots’ response to the flag is really interesting. It’s like conceding that it happens but that you shouldn’t be proud of it, or celebrate it or normalise it like straight romance.
AmyAye@nord.pub 1 day ago
“What the fuck are gay and straight, we just enjoy ourselves.”
– Aliens probably
bold_omi@lemmy.today 1 day ago
For context for any viewers who are wondering why @thingsiplay@lemmy.ml deleted his posts, he was saying this:
If you were wondering why he has so many downvotes, that is why. :)