Between Pen and Paper

Apparently not, according to Bioware.

On the forum of their upcoming MMORPG, Star Wars: The Old Republic, there have been threads discussing the posibility of homosexual characters. Most of these have been closed now. However, the issue came to a head when a filter was put in place on the site, banning the use of words such as "gay", "lesbian", and "homosexual". The poster had this to say:

"Just wanted to point out that disallowing the usage of the words G-A-Y and L-E-S-B-I-A-N in this forum is something we (the GLBT community) cringe at witnessing. I understand where it comes from, but my advise to Bioware is to rethink this. Blizzard got some really bad press when they tried to forbid the usage of these words, and it would be really disappointing if Bioware would follow such a conservative policy in their forum - and their game."

In response to this, a few pages later into the thread, Bioware Community Manager Sean Dahlberg stated this before locking the topic:

"As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars. Thread closed."

Coming from Bioware, this seems an odd move as they have given players the option to follow diverse romantic options in their previous games. In Jade Empire, female player characters could choose between seducing a male or female companion, whereas a male player character had even more choice - being able to choose between a male, female or even two female companions. In Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, there was lesbian subtext between the female player character and Juhani, a female jedi.

Whilst their reasoning may work if they want to exclude the restrictions of specific sexuality from the Star Wars universe, why not restrict use of all terms related to the subject, such as 'heterosexuality'? At the moment, this seems like needless conservative censorship and added explanation is required on their part to avoid further conflict with the LGBT community.

Even if everyone was in agreement that these terms weren't used in Star Wars mythos, the need for players to identify themselves and build their character is still present. I can see the point of restricting these words in-game but it makes little sense to censor such things on a public forum.

Japanese developer and publisher Square Enix have acquired the UK company, Eidos for £84.3 million. Although franchises such as Tomb Raider and Hitman now belong to Square Enix, the Eidos logo will still be used when distributing them. Eidos has been allowed to remain independent and work on their own games.

Square Enix also released their sales figures for long-running games series, such as Final Fantasy, which has sold over 85 million units and Dragon Quest, which has shifted 47 million units. In comparison Tomb Raider has sold 30 million and Hitman only 8 million units. Other games of note from Eidos are Deus Ex and Just Cause.

Bethesda Softworks has upgraded their scrolls for books, taking their successful series of games to the literary stage. Elder Scrolls will be getting the treatment of bestselling author Greg Keyes as he creates two novels, the first due to be released in Autumn this year.

For more information, here's the press release:

"US, April 27, 2009 - Rockville, MD - Bethesda Softworks, a ZeniMax Media company, and Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, are pleased to announce that Del Rey Books will publish two novels based on Bethesda Softworks' award-winning, high-fantasy video game series, The Elder Scrolls. The best-selling game series is known for giving the player the ability to choose how their story will play out and unfold, and for the incredible amount of lore and depth found in these rich game worlds.

Penned by New York Times bestselling author Greg Keyes, the novels will be all-new, original stories based in The Elder Scrolls universe. The first novel – The Infernal City – is set to be published in Fall 2009. Among Keyes' prior works are the Age of Unreason tetrology (for which he won the prestigious "Le Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire" award), and three New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels in the New Jedi Order series.

"We've been big fans of Greg's work for a long time, and we're thrilled he agreed to bring his talents to The Elder Scrolls," said Pete Hines, vice president of public relations and marketing for Bethesda Softworks. "We see these books as a natural extension of the franchise and think fans will love the stories and characters Greg has created."

The Infernal City is set after the events of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, the latest game in the video game series, and finds the citizens of Tamriel once again facing an uncertain future. Floating high above the land is a strange and mysterious city that is casting a horrifying shadow – wherever it falls, people die and rise again as undead. It is up to an unlikely duo – a seventeen-year-old girl named Annaig and the Emperor's young son, Prince Attrebus – to rescue the kingdom from doom. Annaig and Attrebus' quest will take them through the Elder Scrolls universe and their adventure is sure to add to the series' already magnificent mythology."

So I've had a think about what I could post up here other than fan fiction. I have my original stories but for obvious reasons I don't think I'll be displaying those for everyone to see. I'll probably put up snippits of ideas I've had in the past but decided not to continue with. That's perhaps a bit mean for those that actually want to read more. :P

I'll also post up some of my journalism. Obviously, I won't stick any of the old news items up here. Most of my online journalism was for emagi.co.uk but as I've stopped working for them now, I'll be using this blog for those kinds of articles. I actually enjoyed working on the news articles so I may continue. I did a few reviews over there so I'll bring those over here. Go check the site out if you have the time, it's certainly worth it.