[El Gallo]

Originally Posted by Robo Cutscenes? The God of War games have playable sex minigames.

I find that odd, and a bit gross. I would find it that way regardless of orientation. I don't care to deal with technology in that way.

You clearly have a high view of the medium BioWare's games, generally, are not just ten hours of slashing or shooting. They have a story, and the relationships between the party members are generally considered to be an important part of their games' experience.

I know there has been more and more talk about these games basically being interactive movies or novels but from what I've seen they just aren't close. The "plots" mostly seem like weak premises to support whatever gaming actions are happening.

I really don't know what you're trying to say with the bolded, because it's kind of poorly worded, but it seems uncomfortably close to "they can be gay, as long as they don't do anything that 'proves' that they're gay, because that would be 'creepy.'"

Then let me clarify. I do believe that games are used as substitutes for dealing with real life by certain people. I've seen these discussion about "hardcore" vs. "casual" and the point I'm trying to make is that anyone who would be that hardcore about something so virtual needs to investigate whether they are avoiding something in real life. There is nothing creepy about being gay. If you had a friend though who preferred shopping for his virtual boyfriend, preparing virtual meals or picking a virtual pet over doing these items in real life, then that would be creepy to me regardless of orientation.

This is quite possibly the oddest comment I've ever read on AppleNova. People — straight or gay — don't play games, even games with a romantic subplot, as some sort of substitute for real relationships. People play games for the fun of the game — the gameplay, the story, the music, whatever. So saying that somebody who wants to play a game as a gay character would better spending their time chasing down actual men is just a total non sequitur. It would be like saying people should go chase tail instead of reading, or watching TV. They're not at all the same activity.

First a point, people ought to indeed go chase tail instead of reading or watching TV. That is indeed my view.

I'm going to disagree though on the claim that people don't use these games to substitute or avoid real life in ways. Clearly people do. Not all people and not in all ways but we are talking about the percentage that care about what shirt their avatars are wearing, or who care about the relationship status of their virtual team members. It isn't the only way people have of wasting their time or avoiding life but it certainly can be a way they do that.