Mass Effect's Gay Debate Shows Gamers Have Growing Up to Do

Another year, another great game in the Mass Effect series and another idiotic controversy to go along with it. With previous installments, the game has drawn the ire of the “family” crowd who doesn’t believe that an M-rated game should even hint at sex, overlooking the mass slaughter of humans and humanoids that makes up the game’s core premise. Blue alien buttcheeks offend their sensibilities, and as such the barely PG-13 “love scenes” landed the game national news coverage.

Now with Mass Effect 3′s release imminent, an even more dreaded bogeyman has now reared its head: GAY sex. The horror! After two games of featuring man/woman, man/alien and alien/woman love stories, the option now exists to make your Commander Shepard what I believe is the first gay video game lead in history.

Of course, as the word “option” implies, being gay is not mandatory. For the hetero crowd there are still plenty of sultry space women and curvy aliens who share your preferences. Or you don’t have to pursue the romantic angle at all, as the entire relationship side plot is optional in ALL the games.

But now fresh fuel has been added to the fire as the “gay sex” scene from the game has leaked onto YouTube. I have a hunch that it won’t remain online by the time this goes to print, but the reaction has already been chronicled. There are far more dislikes than likes on the video, something usually reserved for those awful reply girl shorts or when people throw kittens down stairs, and the comment section is the most hateful, vile, cesspool of internet ignorance I’ve seen outside of 4chan. A few samples:

“I puked that’s just wrong and disgusting”

Alright, that’s actually about the only one I can print. The general consensus is that Bioware has done the world a great disservice by introducing a gay subplot, and its fans are bent on showing just how immature the video game community still is, despite their ever increasing median age.

If the scene is in any way offensive, it’s only because of how poorly it’s executed and written. To call it a sex scene is like calling a spilled cup of water a tsunami. There’s a hand hold, a kiss that is quickly shoved offscreen, and some shirtless men spooning after a cutaway. The entire thing is laughable, but yet, it causes great offense.

The sheer amount of attention paid to Bioware’s inclusion of this option is just ridiculous, and really shows that we as gamers need to grow up. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised that the crowd that is continuously calling me a “faggot” on Xbox Live isn’t sexually progressive, but still, this is pretty inane, even for them. The gay option remains an “option.” The sex scene is cuddling. The entire subplot probably takes a grand total of ten minutes in a game that’s thirty hours long.

I don’t think Bioware intended to make a political statement with this creative decision. They are simply reflecting reality when designing their game. Ever since day one, they’ve allowed you to make a lead character of any race and any gender. Why shouldn’t sexuality be included in this? Why is sex a controversial element of these games at all? Hate the scripting and voice acting all you want, but as soon as you start claiming that what Bioware has done here is “wrong,” you’ve shown your true colors. Chances are if you don’t wants gays in your games, you probably don’t want them anywhere else either.

Maybe gamers don’t need to grow up. Maybe everyone does.