Because that would make them money, and lately Nintendo's been allergic to that. The lack of workable innovation by Nintendo, that is innovation made with forethought and understanding as opposed to riding on nostalgia and making different for different's sake, is astounding. They're just surviving off the Wii's legacy and throwing Super Mario World 20 at us and thinking it's something genuinely new and exciting. I cannot see how they could avoid pulling out of home consoles, focus on the hand held and eventually become a more successful Sega. At this point it seems the only way they can survive.

It's not going to happen. The game has been out for over a year. Honestly, I think this is all fuss for the sake of fuss. Besides, the game was originally aimed at children and the female gaming demographic in Japan. Neither of which need such content.

Besides, the last time Nintendo of Japan allowed a game with overtly homosexual content, Nintendo of America chose not to release it in the US, even though it was in the process of being localised.

But haven't you heard about their plans for Quality of Life? Haven't you noticed that it hasn't even been described at all, or even outlined in detail, despite E3 being quite soon?

However, Nintendo does this have this ace in their sleeve, a VMU disguised as a bulky plastic figurine.

Sounds a lot like Skylanders, really. Maybe they will indeed allow you to finally play as Link in Mario Kart, or have Donkey Kong in Super Mario Brother Wii U The Unessecary Sequal. That's be a step, but a step in the right direction? Nintendo should probably be focusing on making a new IP more than promoting characters that have already been done to death. Depending on your view, the last IP they made was either Wii Sports or Pikmin, both nearly a decade old (infact more so in Pikmin's case). A Nintendo style Skylanders/Infinity would be interesting, but I'm skeptical on whether it'd be enough. The characters you know they'll use have already been done to death, over saturating the market. Hell, maybe returning to work on a new Metroid or proper Star Fox title would be better because those characters are less utilised than Mario and Link, but that's just my opinion. There's also the idea that it'll likley just be Nintendo made games that use this system in the majority; Nintendo would likley be very choosy in which 3rd parties get to use this system, and a lot of companies don't have much of an interest in promotigin someone else's mascot. We'll see though.

Quality of Life sounds like it'll be a version of Wii Fit, but as a standalone creation not reliant on the Wii. Nintendo's stressed it's not just a video game company (something that really hasn't been true since the 80's, but anyway...), so it'll probably be something like that, designed to appeal to casual/mainstream...not gamers, but people in general I guess. Perhaps Nintendo is trying to branch out of the games market, but if it's doing something like a 'health and wellness device', it'd be competing in a very different world than it's used to. Anything from diet plans, the AbFlex Pro, infomercial companies...all with a lot of already established consumer bases and trust. It's possible Nintendo could catch on with another Wii Fit like success, but again, we'll have to wait and see.

Sorry, I should of been more clear. I meant letting gay people be open about it in the military is a huge "fuck you" to all the people who take the bible seriously(like Christians). And I'm sure a lot of people see this as a good thing(out of hatred for Christians) but from my neutral point of view, its not a solution, everyone can live with. It's like someone telling another person "My way or the highway" when they could just both easily ignore each other. I believe people should have the freedom to go to work without being forced to see something against their beliefs just like I believe people should have the freedom to have sex with someone of the same gender. The work place should be a place where there is only work...

A fair point. 'Live and let live' so to speak.

This has to be one of the most ignorant things that has been posted.

Ahhhh 1950's never ended. The "nuclear family" is actually a minority of families in both the US and the rest of the world. It's a massively outdated concept.

Hence the complaints about them being hating, conservative, and ignorant. If they are all of the above then what is wrong with complaining?

"Animations"??? Please explain. What additional animations and programming would be needed for homosexual characters? Taking gender out of it is less programming.

"Gay life sim" I don't even know what to say to that. :facepalm: especially with the persecution included. Sounds like fun! (not).

Eh, I don't think it's assimilation; gay people don't want everyone to be gay, and not all Christians want everyone to be Christians. Gay people want representation in these mainstream forms of media so they can have society acknowledge them as not being something outside of what makes up normal society. Christians that dislike gay people and voice dissaproval do so because it goes against thier faith, though that doesn't mean they are actually speaking on the behalf of a majority.

Everyone's rights should be protected, up to a point - do I think a gay couple should be allowed to marry? Sure, if that's what they want. Do I think a church should be forced to ordain it if it goes against thier religion? No, because that's wrong and infringes on that church's rights. Do people get the freedom to voice thier opinions on gay people if it's negative? Yes, due to free speech. Do they get to force thier views on and try to harrass gay people? No, because that's no longer opinion, that's being a frigging asshole and shouldn't be supported.

People are way too opinionated and entitled, and unfortunately develop assumptions about things they have little to no understanding of most of the time. People should really be more accepting of one another - and if not, just keep that to themselves to avoid issues.

Personally i am just tired over "gay discussion".

I dont mind about what kind of (sex) life people want to have, but i sure just hell am starting to get annoyed over these things being so glaringly shoved at my face in movies, tvs, games. All the time.

How well people must have everything in their life, if they have time and energy to argue about now having the chance to have sex with same gender in some .... game.

You're being way too harsh on this guy, imo. What he said on the first point? True to a degree; yes LGBT are the same as straight people fundamentality and have the same diversity in mindset, personality, likes, dislikes, etc, it's wayyyyyy blind to say that a gay man lives in exactly the same culture a transgender does. They face vastly different situations (does a gay man take male or female hormones?), challenges and, to an extent, social groups...and descriminations. No idea if you're gay/lesbian or not, but you ever been to a club with a f-m friend who is denied entry because she's not a 'real' guy? That's not cultural cohesion. People *do* lump LGBT together like it's some sort of sanwich acronym, and whilst the communities can be closely knit, no, they are not the exact same. This guy's really got it right; please don't discourage this realisation.

As for the second point, he's just trying to say that if LGBT (hold the onion) wants a better representation, we should make it, because we understand ourselves better. And you know what? He's kind of right. Look at David Gaider in Bioware; pretty much the closest thing we've got to someone to our champion of gay relations in games. But he's one guy, and doesn't write all the relationships; which is why you get things like Xander - sorry, Zevran. People may mean the best, but they may not know what they are doing. Yes, straight people can write gay relationships, but realistically, you need to be gay to get all the subtle nuances that such a romance brings. I'm a fairly confident white guy in Australia; I *can* write a struggling black woman in South Africa, but it may lack some authentic touches because I don't genuinely know what being such a person is like, and thus the person who *is* that who reads the work will see the flaws. Mainstream media should include equal representation when one side of the situation (eg. straight romance) would be presented, unless it really goes against the narrative of the plot (eg. RPG in Medieval Crusades or something, and even then it's up to the designer if they are going for authenticity). But at the same time, if we really want a more acurate depicition, we need to get more gay/lesbian writers into gaming, educate people, and make games ourselves, too.

I haven't read anything of his that comes off as homophobic or malicious; this is some straight guy, trying to understand something different from him. Please, please don't just label him as ignorant and throw it back in his face - that's when people stop trying to understand and don't bother. It may sound nuts, I know, but understanding does come from both sides.

You're posting a lot of good stuff.

I particularly liked your #134 in the thread which helps broaden the understanding of what may be behind this re Japanese culture. It also highlights the inherent contradiction that you can't be tolerant and respectful of others / other cultures unless you actually tolerate and respect their choices in opposite direction and conflicting with yours.

Contrast with Momo's #67, which assumes malicious intent (hate) rather than misunderstanding or fear.
Contrast with Psyringe's #71 which again assumes intent to exclude whereas it could simply be the definition of marriage followed straight as a consequence from implementing avatars of 2 genders rather than looking at individual avatar level.

Anyway going OT, I have a question for you as relates your #128. Why do you think it is that so many are biased against commercial enterprise as you mentioned? I completely agree that underlying a lot of this social critique is a devaluation of expression / communication having any degree of commercial goal, versus - let's say depreciatively, letting my bias show through ;) - pie in the sky, idealist, disinterested expression / communication. What is behind this?

Feel free to PM in reply if you don't want to further derail here. And thanks for the thoughtful posts either way.

Like heteronormative standards, values and stories ?

Of course people live different lives. The problem is dividing people over sexuality with heterosexuality being the only thing displayed and accepted and everything else thrown out. That's why you have a LGBT community in the first place. Because they are not accepted anywhere else. But if LGBT people are fundamentally the same people as everyone else (shock!) who eat, sleep, go to work,have relationships (if you let them) have aspirations, live life etc etc why have the world split into heterosexuality vs everything else.

He said "Out of all of my gay friends and family, none of them have typical heterosexual relationships, just with the gender changed". What is a typical heterosexual relationship? (falling in love,dating, moving in together, splitting up etc) How is a homosexual relationship so vastly different? I thought it was ignorant maybe I misunderstood.

He said a "gay life sim". What exactly is "gay life"? and how is it fundamentally different from "non-gay life"?(taking away all the negative social constructions that is)

Sorry if I come off as harsh or blunt or rude. Its how I probably always sound in every topic but I don't mean it that way.

i wonder what are heteronormative "standards"?

This is -precisely- what i do not like about "gay talk". I am not anti-gay. I have nothing against gays. The only trouble i have with is making it out to be something bigger than (personal) life.

If say Half-Lifes hero was suddenly made out to be guy (in sensible story way) i would not mind. I would play and like HL just as i like it now.

What i do not really care for is adding gay -alternative just for the sake of having gay alternative.

it does not make sense. not to me anyways.

If 1/10 people are gays, why this 1/10 seems to feel its crime if 10/10 games do not have gay alternative. Is it REALLY so big issue?

Personally i would like to shoot women. Well not really ofcourse. But ive just played crapload of FPS's and there are pretty much never a single woman enemy in the games. Its always men (or women) killing men.

This is is ofcourse "heteronormative" so i suppose its not a problem for anyone.