Shepard is heterosexual "by choice"

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 February, 2010

Muzyka explains lack of gay relationships.

BioWare co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka has said that the absence of gay relationships in the Mass Effect games is a storytelling decision.

"In Mass Effect it's more a third-person narrative, where you have a pre-defined character who is who he is, or she is," Muzyka told IGN when asked why Dragon Age: Origins allowed for gay relationships while Mass Effect didn't.

"But it's not a wide-open choice matrix. It's more choice on a tactical level with a pre-defined character. So they're different types of narratives, and that's intentional."

The Mass Effect games are about "[Commander] Shepard as a defined character with certain approaches and worldviews", Muzyka continued.

"So we constrain the choice set somewhat, but enable more tactical choices and enable a deeper, richer personality, because it's more focused around defining one character, it's not as wide open. But that's by choice."

Dragon Age, for its part, "is a first-person narrative" where "you are that character at a fundamental level", and that's the reason there's more scope for different relationships.

Meanwhile, over on the BioWare forums, an argument has broken out between fans about whether the developer is guilty of censoring itself by not including more explicit sexual content.

That, too, was a "choice", according to QA man Stanley Woo.

"Let me tell you, folks, that as a developer full of mature individuals, we are also free to not have explicit sex and/or nudity in our games, no matter what you, Fox News, the government, or Bunky the Wonder Clown has to say about it," he wrote.

"We have never considered it a 'problem', it is simply a choice we have made and we have every right to make that choice."

Woo also said he finds it frustrating that "people who claim to be old enough and mature enough to handle sex and nudity in a game seem to believe that any lack of sex and nudity in the game is a sign of self-censorship".

This writer finds it frustrating that you can't chat up Harbinger. Love conquers all.

Check out our Mass Effect 2 review if you fancy some more BioWare this morning.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • bad09 #1 2 years ago

    Shame. That Wrex sure was a big boy.....

  • redneon Verified Programmer, SUMO Digital #2 2 years ago

    "This writer finds it frustrating that you can't chat up Harbinger."

    Haha. That would be awesome.

    I AM ASSUMING CONTROL!

    YOU WILL FEEL THIS!

  • Keivz #3 2 years ago

    A somewhat misleading (and potentially inflammatory) headline, but understood in the contents of the article. I prefer the ME approach of main character development over the DA:o approach myself. To each his own.

  • Red-Moose #4 2 years ago

    I was disappointed with the lack of lesbian blue-woman space-sex, which was possible in the first game.
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/10 @ 08:46

  • matrim83 #5 2 years ago

    Interesting read. I agree that lack of nudity doesn't always equal self censorship but in part I am sure that decision was also influenced by the fact that they would loose out on sales because of it. Its kinda odd that that merely the mention of nudity in a game seems to overshadow everything else in the media.

    Having said that, ME2 as a game doesnt need nudity to be better. And its presence wouldn't make the game any more mature.

  • Darren #6 2 years ago

    I didn't play the first game as a female but I understand that if you did you could seduce the two female members of your crew... Are BioWare saying that is no longer possible in the sequel or just that the male Shepards can't engage in same-sex relationships? :?

    I've spent ages chatting to Jacob as my male Shepard to see if I can ignite the spark but he's not buying. Instead it looks like I'm having to settle for Miranda, although if I'm brutally honest I'd put her below Grunt and Mordin in the attractiveness stakes. I think it's something to do with those ugly misplaced eyelashes during some of the facial closeups that's put me off... ;)

  • HermitArcader #7 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Miths #8 2 years ago

    FemShep does have the option of flirting a bit with a certain woman - and of course continue whatever she may have had with Liara in ME1 (if you have a save game, otherwise I believe Kaidan is forced upon you), although without becoming too spoilerish...


    [Minor spoilers]

    There's not exactly much touchy feely relationship stuff involved with Liara.

  • the_dudefather #9 2 years ago

    I was under the impression that you could DO ANYONE, WHENEVER, HOWEVER YOU WANT and that it was like 'Debbie does Dallas meets Star Wars'

  • HermitArcader #10 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Lee_Morris #11 2 years ago

    If you can have homosexual relationship if you start the game as a female Sheapard , then there is no way in hell they can justify not including a same sex relationship for male shepard.

    I haven't played Mass Effect, so is the above correct?

  • LHH #12 2 years ago

    Thank god for that, would them rather concentrate on making the Mass Effect universe more detailed than concentrate on pandering to horny individuals.

  • Fatallyflawed #13 2 years ago

    I wanna meet Bunky the Wonder Clown he sounds like one hell of a super hero.

  • RobotRocker #14 2 years ago

    @ Lee_Morris

    Horny Nerds. There is your answer

    Lookit that Blue Sideboob...

  • ZuluHero #15 2 years ago

    That's because he's a Man's Man. Grr!

    No wait! It's because he isn't, right?...

    ;)

  • RobotRocker #16 2 years ago

    Well, they could at least throw us a "Bromance" option with Wrex Or Garrus

    /Hasn't played the second, don't shoot.

  • RealityCheque #17 2 years ago

    Aww does this mean I can't hook up with my PA? :(

  • Paperghost #18 2 years ago

    "This writer finds it frustrating that you can't chat up Harbinger."

    Argh, you missed out on Mass Effect injoke points by not starting the sentence with "This one..."

  • RobotRocker #19 2 years ago

    Actually why cant you have an Elcor relationship then BioWare?

    "Erotic Stimulation: You can really show a girl a good time Captain Shepard"

    /Disgust: I feel really dirty for writing that actually
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/10 @ 09:31

  • Mooglepies #20 2 years ago

    I too want to learn more of Bunky the wonder clown. Completed ME2 yesterday; smexed Liara in the first game and flirted with Garrus this time (didn't go any farther). Fun times.

  • sjmlondon #21 2 years ago

    If you want gratuitous boobs check out The Saboteur or Dante's Inferno.

  • penhalion #22 2 years ago

    @Red Moose

    You hit the nail on the head there. Dr Ray is talking nonsense seeing as a Gay relationship was totally possible in the first game and by his own admission this is the same Commander Shepard!

    Then again, at the risk of a -1 beating I'm going to say that a few of the decisions in ME2 were wrong in my eyes. No planet landing. The stupid mining game that was ultimately just a waste of time. In ME1 I remember landing on every dustball out there and being thrilled to discover pirate bases and extra side missions. In ME2 I would explore whole systems and get the 100% rating and yet have discovered precisely nothing of interest! I like the game but, it somehow feels less than the first game by some way.

  • gjgjg #23 2 years ago

    just make an alien porn you sissies! fox news needs something new to talk about

  • Doctor_What #24 2 years ago

    It's okay to be heterosexual these days. Straight people have got their own clubs and places to go. I mean, I don't like seeing straight people flaunt it on the street, but if they're happy then I guess that's what's important.

    I still think is must be tricky telling the parents, how do you start that kind of conversation? "Hey mum, hey dad, you know that Julian Clary? Well, I'm sorry, but I'm just not like him... I'm straight and I hope one day you'll be able to accept that."

  • Paperghost #25 2 years ago

    "No planet landing."

    i'm still baffled by this. there are 19+ planets / ships to land on and go do things in - just like the first game, except all of them are different from one another and don't just present you with the same identikit spammed moonrock with spammed bad guy bases, coupled with slowly grinding your mako over horribly steep landscapes and realising after 20 minutes you don't have a high enough skill level to open the one item of interest on the planet surface.

    How do people still miss this as a good aspect of the original game?

    that they removed those horrible mako padding sections from the main missions was good enough for me - redoing the planet landing sections was an added bonus. And er, getting somewhat off topic so uhhh....random comment about asaris being asexual or something.
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/10 @ 10:11

  • menage #26 2 years ago

    So, femShepard can be lesbian but male Shepard can't be gay? Bullshit on his whole explanation then.

    Real words: Our target audience wouldn't go for it. But lesbians, the more the merrier. And there is a lot of that as well

  • Zephro #27 2 years ago

    What menage said basically. If you can be lesbian but not male and gay then it smells of hypocrisy.

  • Doctor_What #28 2 years ago

    "Man shall not lie with man" sayeth the Bible. I think they cut the bit where is says "but woman lying with woman is uber-hawt!". I hear that Salome was a bit of a goer.

  • Moribundman #29 2 years ago

    It's technically not that Shepard is hetero by choice - *she* can try to make a move on Subject Zero and get rebuked with a sarky "not a member of the girls club" response. Which would suggest that's Jack's call rather than Shep's.

    Also if forums/Youtube are to be believed you can pursue a relationship w Yeoman Kelly regardless of gender (she basically worships you, and there's some crazy vids of her dancing "erotically" in Shepard's room).

    I guess what they're getting at here is "Shepard is definitely not gay, right? But if you want to be a lonely lesbian then that's OK".

    His sexuality seems fairly logical just from his default appearance - whoever heard of a gay boyband member with a Beckhamesque sense of style?

    And don't even get me started on his "Wrath of Khan meets Marty McFly" casual outfit... LOL

  • Moribundman #30 2 years ago

    It's very funny that peope are getting so upset over the sexuality of a fictional character who never even disrobes anyone, while Heavy Rain is leaking footage of boobies and ladies weeing. ;-)

    Yeah, Heavy Rain is also a mature game setting a relaxed mood, but you can set a relaxed mood without rendering hyper detailed tits and recording a lady tinkling in high def blu ray surround sound... I guess its just those prudish Canadians vs French/Japanese devs...

  • Harlequeen #31 2 years ago

    As a gay male gamer, I'm really not bothered. Partly because computer game sex/relationships are generally a bit off. Taking a girl bowling in GTAIV, or Barbarella style sex with blue aliens in ME1 really doesn't quite cut it.

    Still it's better than taking your cousin, Roman, out for the twentieth time, just because he's bored.

  • kwarive #32 2 years ago

    Alien Lesbian love scene.

    I can confirm I first played mass effect 1 as a female Shepard and there is a very nice alien lesbian sex scene at the end with Liari. Its ridiculous they didn't add male gay love option to the game too.

  • Khab #33 2 years ago

    I'm playing a female Shepard who hopped into bed with Liara in ME1, and there certainly was some snogging going on when I ran into her in ME2, but nothing more serious so far.

  • Moribundman #34 2 years ago

    @Kwarive SPOILER! ;-)

  • Postumo #35 2 years ago

    beah... at least we still have Dante's Inferno blue breasted demons... fine stuff!

  • kiroquai #36 2 years ago

    60 hours. 60 hours over two games that I spent angling my female Shepard in on Tali. 60 hours wasted you gits!

  • Moribundman #37 2 years ago

    @Darren Keep plugging away at Mordin instead of Miranda. You might get a pleasant surprise...

  • metalangel #38 2 years ago

    My female Shepard scored with both the Asari Consort AND Liara in the first game. She likes her flanges tight, wet and blue.

    They'll be telling us why there's no option to do a Richard Gere with the space hamster next...

  • Moribundman #39 2 years ago

    @Vertical Stand (To paraphrase Chris Morris in the Day Today. Twice.) "Shepard; if it's got a backbone I'll do it" (sorry Hannar) or "Feel my nose and put my Umbra Visor there! Roars drunken Shepard"...

  • Coughthulu #40 2 years ago

    @RobotRocker:

    "Faking Orgasm: You're the best I've ever encountered, Shepherd."

    I think that's probably why. :)

  • chukcyQ #41 2 years ago

    If the main character was gay I wouldn't play the game.

  • Greigyboi #42 2 years ago

    I don't think it is required. I am gay, and tbh Shepard is a proper lad and doesn't need homosexual options in-game.

    However, the lesbian fueled content also shouldn't be needed on game as it just has no dynamic point. It's only for the saddest of loneliest geeks out there who's only love is a Friday night ham shank.

    If people want it, Dante has plenty (which is good in that game as it drives the plot). ME2 doesn't require it as it's not plot driven.

  • gjgjg #43 2 years ago

    dood u dont choose ur sexuality ... gosh

  • glaeken #44 2 years ago

    Sex with Asari using a female Shepard does not count as lesbian sex because the Asari only have one sex. They are neither male nor female so I am not quite sure what having sex with one would actually be but its not heterosexual or homosexual regardless of the sex of your Shepard.

  • Artemus #45 2 years ago

    My female Shepard was a lesbian in the first game. It's weird they took it out in the second. Was hoping for some Miranda loving but ending up having to settle for some interspecies naughtiness with Garrus instead.

  • Beano #46 2 years ago

    No gay relationsships i ME2?... quess I can stop hitting on Kelly with my Jane Shepard character :p

  • Moribundman #47 2 years ago

    Just shows you shouldn't come to these games with preconceptions... A shaven headed woman with tats who calls herself "Jack" is not interested in ladies. And a certain little dark horse is...

    I love the way everyone is focussed on what gender of human people can or can't do the dirty with and not some of the more bizarre pairings this game offers. I think straight and gay characters become a lot more similar when you're talking cross polination of species...

    I *love* the Krogan/Asari bartender. She really made me laugh with the Asari approximation of a Krogan voice/attitude. :-D

  • spekkeh #48 2 years ago

    I read this a couple of times, but it's just completely nonsensical. You could have gay relationships in the first game, but now Shepard turned by choice? It also serves absolutely nothing in the story whatsoever, women can hook up with Garrus and Thane, men can hook up with Miranda and Jack. So what do you mean design choices mister?

    I think it's lame, my girlfriend missed out on Liara in the first game, and I would've loved to see my girlfriend, erm I mean her Shepard, explore her sexuality.

  • Moribundman #49 2 years ago

    This is all technically a load of shit anyway. You can have a relationship with Liara in the first game, and this is technically neither straight or gay regardless of Shepard's gender, its ALIEN with an alien who has boobs and makes babies with male and female humans, asari, turians, salerians, batarans, vorla, krogans, elcor, drell, quarians, volus... hell, rachni probably...

    Who knows if asari have "lady parts" down there (Indeed, who's to say turians have "man parts" down there... Garrus doesn't go into too much detail!)

    Basically Asari are a right bunch of slappers...

    Hey how about a half prothean asari for ME3? Actually how the HELL will they do ME3 given the combination of dead/living team members at the end? Presumably the dead Shepard ending will NOT be the canon start!

  • Schiraman #50 2 years ago

    Saying that Shepard is a defined character and that your choices in ME are purely tactical is fairly obviously untrue. You can chose your sex, your face, key elements of your background story, your training, whether you solve problems with diplomacy or violence and make numerous choices during the game that help to greatly distinguish one player's Shepard from any other.

    Clearly if I play a female, paragon Shepard who saves the council and gains the loyalty of all my team-members, I am playing a very different character to someone who plays a male, renegade Shepard who leaves the council and his team-mates to burn.

    And more to the point; you can chose Shepard's sexual preferences in terms of whether he/she sticks with one partner or sleeps around, and pick which *race* he/she prefers to sleep with - but Muzyka is trying to say that Shepard is such a clearly defined character that it wouldn't make sense for the player to chose what *sex* Shepard is interested in?

    Unless, of course, you chose that Shepard is female, in which case her rigidly defined character (which is oh so important to Bioware's artistic integrity) does allow her to be a lesbian. But only in the first game. Presumably it's just a phase?

    This kind of weasely corporate double-speak is pathetic. Let's have some honesty on the topic next time, eh?

  • kweeky #51 2 years ago

    BioWare, as much as I love you as a developer, you can be exceptionally hypocritical at times.

    Sex when it involves two women is not homosexuality yet when it features two men it is?

    Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the dictionary definition of homosexuality simply: "Sexual orientation to persons of the same sex." If that is true, then why is BioWare declaring that Shepard "isn't like that" when there is the possibility of pursuing Liara (monogendered arguments aside), Yeoman Kelly, and propositioning Jack (even if she does reject you).

    Following the whole "Homosexuality does not exist in the Star Wars universe" statements made by BioWare last year (which held as much salt as saying "There are no toilets in the Star Wars universe because you never see them";), I am starting to wonder if there is someone over on the Mass Effect team who is having difficulty working out the difference between political correctness and bigotry.

    They handled it well in Dragon Age, so why not Mass Effect?

    On a side note: I don't care that the option isn't there, not all games need sex (or a specific pandering to people's sexual preferences), what I *do* care about is that BioWare made a hypocritical statement that makes little sense.
    Edited by 2 at 08/02/10 @ 19:16

  • The-Bodybuilder #52 2 years ago

    >"...we are also free to not have explicit sex and/or nudity in our games..."

    SALUTES.
    IMO, it appears to me that the gaming industry is so insecure about itself and is suffering from some sort of inferiority complex, that it feels IT MUST prove to the other types of media forms that it's more than just a "video games kids toy".
    Its like all those people who spend endless threads arguing about the question "is video games an artform?" Answer: Shut up and play.

    Seriously, devs are free to do whatever they like. If they want to add sex, the can. However, the industry should not try and use certain titles and devs as a puppet to express and solve their inferiority complex.

  • The-Bodybuilder #53 2 years ago

    As someone already said, and I'll spell it out for everyone....

    THE ASARI AREN'T "FEMALE", THEY ARE ASEXUAL. So even in ME1, shepherd doesn't have a "gay relationship".

  • spekkeh #54 2 years ago

    If they're not female, then why do they insist on calling their children daughters, and not just children?

    Of course they're female, they have hot female bodies. They just reproduce asexually. It could be that in long lost lore there were asari males, but the females chose to reproduce via gene modification instead of sexual intercourse.

    BioWare are I think somewhat excused by the backstories of the major male characters, who all seem to have a girl at home, otherwise they'd have to make that variable too and it would be quite difficult to gauge whether someone's playing a straight or homosexual Shepard. Still, very easy compared to the other stuff they pulled narrative wise.
    Edited by 1 at 08/02/10 @ 22:02

  • Gastrian #55 2 years ago

    Spekkeh, it specifically states the asri are NOT female and that they can adapt to meet the needs of most species sort of like a mutable hemaphrodite.

    We are dealing with game that has a multitude of species and different cultures (you buy items from a friggin floating jellyfish!) yet people still feel the need to confine their viewpoints to two genders and two sexual orientations.

    On a side note its only been since 2003 that the UK legal system even recognised lesbianism as a sexual practice, all homosexual laws refereed to buggery (that is the legal term used).

  • Sevens #56 2 years ago

    Oh come on, female Shepard certainly can/does have lesbian tendencies, at least. I find Jennifer Hale's voice acting much superior and would've liked being able to have the male romance options for female Shepard, thus "lesbian" choices.

    P.S.:

    "Real words: Our target audience wouldn't go for it. But lesbians, the more the merrier. And there is a lot of that as well "

    Unfortunately there's not a lot of that, at all.
    Edited by 1 at 09/02/10 @ 00:51