ND523

@Jefromi Thanks for letting me know—I'd totally thought that was the best way to say it when initially writing it.

@Jefromi Oh. Well, I'm certainly open to suggestions. What do you think it should say instead? I may as well change it, the question's still active after all this time.

@Jefromi Man, I ain't trying to offend anyone. I'm asking a legitimate question—whether or not this inclusion of LGBT characters would do well for my game, sales-wise. As I've said, I'm a Southern-born guy—it's kind of an issue down there. I did what I could to seem as neutral as I could. I wanted to appeal to both sides as well as gain factual evidence of sales increases or decreases due to this. Wasn't trying to start a debate, still am not.

And, supposing you read any of the comments I left on any of the answers, you would find further evidence of my neutral disposition.

firestorm, which, it looks like I did either way. The internet's a generally liberal place, so guys like me feel right at home here, but I always want to leave room for people who don't think that way, because, whether we like it or not, there are people that detest the very thought of LGBT characters in a game. I'm not saying that's me (it's not me), but it is some people, many of which I know.

@Jefromi I was trying to put it in as neutral terms as possible: the inclusion of these characters was half my idea as well—I initially approved it. I go tto thinking later on, mainly because 50% of my family is from the Bible belt. Also, notice I said "pushing the LGBT agenda" and not the "gay agenda". There's a large difference between the two phrases, although technically meaning the same thing. That was the most neutral thing I could say, simply because I didn't want to start a political

@Mr.Mindor Yeah. They characters are going to be relatively minor, although crucial to the plot. A-B playtesting with them is honestly a matter of switching sprites and pronouns—not much else.

@barbecue Not true. The point of this thread is not to assert a political opinion, so please keep that in mind. Popeye shoves down your throat that spinach is healthy. Spinach is healthy! You can’t deny it—but they take every opportunity to tell you about it. That’s the issue many people have in this situation. Whether they support the community or not, many, it seems, get tired of the seemingly perpetual assertions of normalization.

@EricLippert I really like your idea here—I may try that in our playtesting phase.

@Geliormth About LGBT in general! For future reference among other aspiring developers as well. The question is, of course, tailored to me, but it’s not been asked before, so that’s why I used the term ‘LGBT characters’ instead of ‘lesbian couple’.

@DMGregory Exactly what I was thinking—many of my LGBTQ friends feel this way, and giving them that hint of spotlight was our initial goal. We just want to make sure it’s good for the game as well.

@Malcom Yeah, kissing between them certainly won't occur. Being secondary characters, their relationship isn't something that receives a ton of time in the game—it's just there.

@Rain And that’s exactly what I’m worried about. In Russia, that’ll harm our sales. Our audience will be limited to those that are 18+, giving our game a label as an adult game, which, honestly, we really don’t need. It’s like releasing an album with one explicit song, only to have the entire album be labeled as explicit.

@Shautieh Although true, there's a difference. In sharp contrast to 20–25 years ago, we now have technology more readily available to delve deeper into characters than ever before, but that doesn't mean developers use it well. We don't really have any technological barriers anymore when it comes to creating a good RPG.

@FelixDombek That was a fairly interesting article—I had absolutely no idea about any of that.