Same Gender Romance Coming Soon To SWTOR?

Larry Everett made a very eye-opening prediction today about same-gender romances coming in SWTOR: Rise of the Hutt Cartel. This was on Massively in his article, Hyperspace Beacon: What does the future hold for SWTOR?

I was having the same exact thoughts today, but with the additional observation that the Hutt species is hermaphroditic, that is, they have sex organs from both genders hiding somewhere on their big slug-like bodies.

What better time to introduce the enjoyment of love in all possible forms, including droid love? I would think droids are also hermaphroditic, with various interchangeable modules–okay I don’t want to go too far with this, but if there are any droids out there with power supplies that last longer than normal batteries, look me up.

I can also say that a LotRO kinmate on the Landroval server said in our kin forum last July 2nd that her friend is a lead writer for SWTOR, and that she “Just talked to my friend and he confirms that there is definitely some same-sex content coming down the pipe for SWOTR. He can’t say when, but it’s confirmed.”

I think quality companionship is a really big deal in an RPG. It doesn’t even have to be romance. It can be a faction. It can be friends. The party banter in Baldur’s Gate and Dragon Age is much-beloved because it adds so much to immersion and characterization.

I’ve only played Skyrim for six hours (so glad I waited for my new PC–it’s the best-looking game I’ve seen), but I’m already impressed by the characters and how they try to recruit me into their factions. The world of Skyrim is so amazing so far.

Anyway. Here is the relevant text from the Massively article, and behold my newest artwork creation as well, in the form of a quirky comic strip.

“Since the announcement that SWTOR would continue the BioWare tradition of romantic story arcs in TOR, players have been curious (no pun intended) about whether same-gender options would be available and how they might play out within the existing character storylines. I certainly believe that Rise of the Hutt Cartel will bring us the SGRAs we’re looking for.

I’ll even speculate that the arcs will be similar to those in Mass Effect 3. I don’t believe that suddenly every romance arc will be available to you regardless of gender. I believe that certain characters, possibly existing companions (Kaliyo, I’m looking at you), will have a change of heart, as it were, and make themselves available for players to romance now.

However, I think the biggest area for SGRAs will be in brand-new characters introduced on Makeb. These characters will be orientated one specific way, and if your character is the same gender, then you will be able to romance them. Additionally, I believe we will receive a new companion — maybe two. This companion will be gained much as we acquired HK-51: There will be a shared story arc for every class to gain this companion, and I believe this companion will be completely romanceable. ~Larry Everett

An Early X-Chromosome Scope On E3 News

If you read my blog at all, you know I’m always looking for the female POV in games. I can’t play a male for very long unless he’s a handsome Mafia man. This post is an overview of E3 news from a female point of view, looking mainly at Sony, Microsoft, and Bethesda.

Sony’s opening presentation seemed the most fem-RPG friendly (I didn’t get through all of Nintendo or Microsoft). Sony announced Assassin’s Creed: Liberation for the Vita, which features a non-Caucasian heroine (video). She looks awesome. The mainline Assassin’s Creed 3 for PS3 continues to be a staunch bastion of balls. His name is Connor, if I recall. Are we kitties interested in buying Vitas? Not at all.

Sony also announced the next super-immersive, storytelling-type game by Quantic Dream (makers of Heavy Rain). The title is called Beyond. I was entranced by Heavy Rain and highly impressed by its quality of writing and graphics, which summed to a memorable and unequaled level of immersion on the PS3, so I’m excited by this title. Even better, Ellen Page will be voicing the role of the female protagonist.

I have only two concerns about Beyond. One is the paranormal theme. I wonder if non-realistic cups flying and ghosty things happening will actually pull the player out of the the “Quantic Dream” and make them feel like they are in just another horror game, or will everything combine well to make a whole that is even more amazing? Also, will a female protagonist kill any chance of romance, or will male players be expected to hit up a boyfriend? If this game seriously looks at death and completely neglects the importance of love, then it may fail for me. Still it will be a must-see.

The Microsoft games involved a laundry list of studs and uber-dudes. The dudettes mostly boiled down to iconic girl-games like Tomb Raider (a game on all platforms by the way, so PC and PS3 should be covered) and Fable, The Journey, both of which are supposedly due to release this fall. The new Fable will be more Kinect-centric. I’ve been stalled halfway through Tomb Raider: Underworld for about a year, but I really like the direction Crystal Dynamics is taking this game.

Namely, the devs are (maybe influenced by other games like Uncharted) focusing more on conveying emotion in a survivalist situation, which is great! If the player cares about the protagonist and connects at a human level, then the player actually wants to win/get revenge/etc. Tomb Raider: Underworld doesn’t seem to have that. It has decent adventures and puzzles with beautiful graphics on the PC. The devs assumed that I knew and cared more than I did about the overarching storyline, or maybe they thought climbing rocks and walking tightropes would be enough.

The slow-motion heartbeat effect where you have a split second to take an action also looks kind of thrilling in the new Tomb Raider. E3 video. I’m not so thrilled though about the early announcement of DLC XBOX-exclusive blah blah however–*head explode*. Since my head has now exploded, I have no cerebral matter with which to throw a jab at the bonus-bloated tiers of Riders Of Rohan pre-order packages heretofore announced. Refer to the anti-DLC rap video I posted.

Of the games being previewed at E3, I’m most excited about Elder Scrolls Online. This excitement is not rational. I’ve seen nothing yet that merits giddy vibes. In fact, the Elder Scrolls devs themselves seem suspiciously cautious. Or maybe they seem cautiously suspicious. It’s hard to say. They are describing a simplified skillbar and high level of accessibility, which means that the game is being made mainly to rake fat stacks (of course) and not to cater to serious MMO fans. Massively posted a few new videos and an interview today with Paul Sage.

Skip that first short video. Dear Bethesda video guy, why do you make videos where the start and end credits are 25% of the video?

CAT GIRLS. Do I have your attention? SWTOR is bringing an always-on free trial in July as well as a new Cathar species according to their E3 preview video on Massively. Yes, this is another SWTOR species with the same human body but a different-looking head. Cathar women are known as good slaves, so that could make for interesting (and furry) roleplay. Speaking of roleplay, the HK (“handsome kissable”) assassin droid is already rumored to do gay romance.

I made up that rumor thing–I think. That’s how rumors start, right? Love is better than war, people. Dizzy up that Wookie at the cantina. Too much violence in society.

Peace.

Further Reading:

A closer look at Microsoft’s E3 press conference lineup.
Beyond: Two Souls gameplay video on NUR.
More on the super-simple Elder Scrolls skill bar.

Is There Anything A Popular ‘Verse Can’t Sell?

I haven’t followed Blizzard in the past, but they’re really pushing the merchandise lately. Just a week ago they unleashed World of Warcraft cups on AM/PM stores in the U.S., and this week they’ve announced WoW Monopoly.

Meanwhile, Blizzard is gearing up for the release of the Mists of Pandaria expansion some time later this year, which will bring Kung Fu pandas to WoW. I’m not one of the players accusing Blizzard of jumping the shark, but if you’re going to do it, why not ride in style on a kitchen sink, aka a pile of merchandise.

Can a popular game universe sell pretty much anything? I picked up a Sith T-Shirt at the thrift store last week for when I play SWTOR (someday soon, I hope). It’s nice, new-ish, and fashionably Sith-black.

Then I saw this snack display at the grocery today. These bright-colored little goo-globs are a little bit frightening. Crispy roast lizard or Bantha jerky would be full of protein at least and healthier for kids both young and old.

Fabulous Girl Friday

Today was an unusually sexy day for MMO news. Syp at Biobreak wrote about a Guild Wars 2 editorial that discusses the revealing bikini armor in GW2.

This is a very interesting, well-researched article concerning an often-debated topic that flares up whenever a new game is released that makes good use of sexy women, sometimes overtly to sell copies as GW2 appears to be doing.

Where do I stand? Firmly in a state of inner conflict. I can say that I’m indignant about male developers using their god-powers to get off in a juvenile way in sexualizing their game, which I believe may have happened a bit in Rift.

On the other hand, selling with sex bothers me not at all in the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw game title, which is totally over the top. It didn’t bother me in the recent movie Sucker Punch, either, which is artistic, classy, and literary.

I usually prefer Lady Aribeth style armor with full crotch protection, but I don’t begrudge other preferences. Some female players may want to dress more sexy. They should have that opportunity. Our avatars express us.

I actually joined the minor forum protest when Neverwinter Nights 2 released and it became known that the underwear in the game were these suits that looked like full-body Star Trek uniforms more than medieval skivvies. In other words–too overtly prudish.

It comes down to how it’s handled. It’s intangible. In games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, I don’t even look twice when I strip the armor off of a she-bandit (or handsome man-bandit) that just tried to empty my brains with a spiked mace. It’s dirty realistic. I still think women game designers should be in charge of female character design, including outfits and hairstyles.

Catgirls are renowned as an idiom that sexualizes girls, but there are all kinds of catgirls in addition to the standard vapid, panty-clad drool kittens. Adventurers like the one depicted above, for example, and superheroines like Cat Girl Nuku Nuku. Sexy can happen (and be fun) without being crass.

Other sexy news today came in the form of Massively posting a video on same gender romances that Conan O’Brien created. It’s hilarious, and it’s linked below on Youtube.

It’s great that this issue is staying on the surface in the media, keeping a little bit of pressure on Bioware to bring that thang. For better or for worse, we also have last week’s public (and quite premature) Christian outrage to thank for that.

You Might Be A Sith: A Dark Side Questionnaire

Should you play as a Sith or a Jedi in SWTOR? Two factions in an MMO allow for life-or-death conflict, intriguing storylines, and intense PvP scenarios. SWTOR is no exception to this standard.

In fact, SWTOR ups the ante by delivering one of the most clearly “evil” and destructive sides in an MMO to date, while games like Aion and WoW waffle and write neither side as necessarily good or bad. Everyone knows who the good guys are in Star Wars, and everyone has seen the evil that the bad guys can do.

In the first ten levels of the Sith academy on Korriban in SWTOR, verbal abuse, cruelty, betrayal, assassination, and torture are the norm.

In Drew Karpashyn’s Darth Bane novels, we see a little sympathy for the Sith, just as we see sympathy sometimes for the actions of comic book super-villains like Doctor Octopus and Catwoman. Can you handle playing Sith, or should you stick with the good guys?

Answer the following statements: Agree, Disagree, or I Don’t Know. When you finish the questionnaire, check your score at the end!

1. You’re with Magneto. The humans really *are* an inferior race, and they need to be put in their place.
2. You secretly have a thing for Professor Snape/Bellatrix Lestrange. You could be persuaded to get a serpent tattoo on your wrist as a symbol of your affection.
3. You agree that mudbloods should never be allowed into Hogwarts. Voldemort is just misunderstood. Avada Kedavra is the only spell from Harry Potter that you can remember. Long live Slytherin.
4. At a deep, subconscious level, Cylons fascinate you. You wouldn’t mind realizing that you’re really one of them.
5. You wouldn’t want to be a Cylon, but you might be willing to betray the human race for a passionate long-term romance with Number Six. (Or Number Eight.)
6. When you watch the Karate Kid (any of the movies with Ralph Macchio), he annoys you so much that you actually want the bad guys to win and crush him like the sniveling bug that he is.
7. Sometimes you fantasize about using Force Choke and lightning powers in real life, and you like it.
8. You don’t get why people like hobbits. You almost wish the orcs would kill them and roast them so the book/movie series will end.
9. Light sabers look good in red, and you look good in black. You don’t need a better excuse for being evil.

Scoring:

If you agreed with two or more of the above questions, you might be a Sith. If you were affirmative on three or four of these statements, you might ask your local Imperial Recruiter about a signing bonus.

If you agreed with five or more of the statements, you might need therapy! Thanks for playing, and remember: whether you’re a winner or a loser, there’s a place on Team Evil for everyone. See: Doctor Horrible.

Further reading:

“You might be a redneck” jokes.

The Sith Lord list. Are you worthy?

Which Dark Lord of the Sith are you?

Hitler, Rift, And What Class To Pick

Something we like to do here at KittyKitty is to collect information and links in one online place for later reference, and a bunch of videos kind of floated into the radar this week, so here you go.

Rift

These videos mixing Hitler and Rift may or may not be funny, depending on your perspective. Note they also contain quite a lot of F-bombs and other language that may be offensive to people. A thread posted in the Rift forums by Haristo, one of the authors, tipped us off today to these.

Hitler Opens A PvP Rift.
Hitler finds out Rift is better than WoW.
Hitler finds out Mages were nerfed again.

SWTOR

For something more wholesome, MMOGamerChick made a list a few days ago of the videos for the eight SWTOR base classes.

The “Fem-Shep” Trooper class (voiced by Jennifer Hale, the same as the female Shepard from Mass Effect) is pretty compelling from the voice alone as well as the big guns, but it would be weird hearing Fem-Shep in a different context. Yes? On the other hand, Force lightning is hard to resist. It’s just plain sexy. So…the Sith Inquisitor video kind of blew me away. It almost isn’t surprising that this class has been leading popularity polls by a wide margin for quite a while.

The Smuggler is at the back of the pack in that linked poll, making it look like the Smuggler is an underdog class. One of the Bioware writers singled out the Smuggler in an interview (with a grin on his face) as having a really wild ride for a story. How will the class mechanics (i.e. cover) work out in practice? This could be one of those little-played, much-appreciated classes.

Remember that each class in SWTOR splits later into one of two advanced classes, which is another consideration. Last I’ve heard, you can’t change your advanced class once chosen, but the ability to do so is still in consideration by Bioware. Your advanced class plays no role in your overall class story.

Guild Wars 2

A crop of new, high-quality Guild Wars 2 videos have also surfaced in the past few days, including the same type of class/race video show-offs as the ones above for SWTOR. You can check them out in HD at Gametrailers.