This is either a sign of the progress we've made as a society, or that BioWare
really listens to what their fans grouse about on message boards. Yesterday, BioWare's Casey Hudson revealed via
Twitter (subsequently reported
on several websites) that in
Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard will finally be able to partake in same-sex romance with his or her crew members.
The lack of same-sex romance options was a sticking point for many fans after Mass Effect 2 came out in 2010. I guess after the pan-sexual escapades players were able to enjoy in BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins, they expected that to be BioWare's plan going forward for all their games, but that wasn't the case. In ME2, there wasn't even an mono-gendered "female" asari for the femshepers to pursue like Mass Effect 1. Finally, it looks like that will be remedied for those that feel strongly about it.
On the other side of the coin, however, is the backlash BioWare's Dragon Age 2 got because same-sex relationships were often easy to fall into accidentally. I read many a message board post decrying BioWare's seemingly p.c.-driven romantic buffet that saw the protagonist, Hawke, able to romance any and all possible male and female love interests regardless of Hawke's gender.
It will be interesting to see which side of the debate the majority of fan criticisms come down on when
Mass Effect 3 releases early next year.
