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(08-09-2013, 03:31 PM)Naunet Wrote:You need to remember that the United States is FAR ahead of other countries in terms of accepting homosexuality. Japanese society, as far as what I can tell off of other threads/sites that have talked about this topic, does not accept it as openly. This game is world-wide and thus they need to take into account the customs and socially accepted ways of each country their game goes into. Let's say for example(this is hypothetical)Â Germany was extremely against homosexuality. If they released that on the game, it -could- offend a large part part of the German player base.Â(08-09-2013, 03:25 PM)Dameon Wrote: As far as I know they haven't allowed this in any other MMO, the closest I can think of is the same sex npc romances in SW:ToR that were in a single mission string with only one potential same sex NPC.
When Rift implemented its marriage system, it came out of the gate with zero restrictions on who you could marry. Squee seems to be of the mind that putting a marriage system in place with no gender restrictions will somehow offend people, but honestly? No one raged at Trion when they did it - and in fact, it was celebrated. The most news-worthy part of Rift's marriage system was the world record they set for most online marriages in a single day (which I happily took part in!).
So yeah, to answer the question: No, Squee is not going to be allowing same sex marriages in ARR. Is it absolutely, utterly stupid? Yes. But there it is.
The chance of offending people is relatively low, but square enix seems to be concerned with -all- of their players, not just the majority. At this point in time they have far more important things to handle than dealing with such a controversial topic, and so the safest thing to do is exactly what they will be doing.Â
It is better to not release it initially and then add it in upon majority player-base request than to add it in and offend some of your players.
I applaud them for their caution about it, because it -is- sensitive to some people, and while I won't argue in either direction for it, I think their decision is appropriate considering the struggles that FFXIV has gone through and the effort they have put into reviving this game into something as amazing as it now is.
Also, a large majority of the player base that wants it added, or would argue against it, would likely be Role Players, which is usually the smallest community in an MMO in comparison to PvE and PvP players.
So, with all that said, I'd say lets sit back and enjoy the game and not get wrapped up in such a controversial topic about a small addition they added into the game. Eventually it will, or will not, be changed based upon the responses they get from the community. They have pretty much promised that.
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