Forget retake Mass Effect, EA has come under fire more recently by anti-gay activists. EA top brass has received over several thousand e-mails, letters, and what not protesting the homosexual content in EA's games. EA has been very transparent about this situation and has even released a statement defending itself. VP of corporate communications, Jeff Brown had this to say to Games Industry:
“Every one of EA's games includes ESRB content descriptors so it's hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn't about protecting children, it's about political harassment”
EA was also apparently accused in these letters of forcing homosexuality on to people, particularly children. As noted above EA's games have ESRB ratings which parents should take heed to. It is not the developer's or publisher's issue who buys their game. Once again, we have parents trying to find a scape goat to push their agenda.
EA has even responded to claims that they are taking posts that are against LGBT issues down from their forums.
“…we have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don't tolerate hate speech on our forums”
LGBT bullying has been a hot button issue for a while now, but especially so since a college student committed suicide after having a homosexual encounter of his broadcasted over the internet. I for one applaud EA for doing their best to keep cyber-bullying and hate speech off of their forums. It shows how much they do care about their fans.
The best comment, by far, has to be one from the Family Research Council about homosexual relationships in Star Wars: The Old Republic. It really shows how little these people know about Star Wars canon.
“In a new Star Wars game, the biggest threat to the empire may be homosexual activists!” – Tony Perkins
First of all Mr. Perkins you have just dug yourself a pretty deep proverbial hole. The Empire are the bad guys, so technically you've already described yourself and people like you pretty accurately.
EA was recently dubbed the worst company of them all, but I think for this they should receive a commendation. Defending themselves publicly like this shows how much we as a people have progressed despite all of our drawbacks. I hope that other publishers and developers take this as an example or use this as an impetus to “come out of the closet” and start including homosexual choices in their games. There is indeed a petition in the works to thank EA for what they have done but it has not gone live yet.
In the mean time I urge you to send EA a thank you note for being so admirable. Thank you.
Source: Destructoid via Games Industry
