So, EA sent this out today to some folks.

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It's really cool to see a company trying to address issues that are present within the community they are a part of. And not only is EA looking at changing the way the LGBT community is presented in games, but also trying to address the issues present within the social gaming culture, as well as with developers in the industry.

Here's hoping that eventually, there will be a conference that looks at sexuality generally in games, and not just focusing on LGBT issues.

Well done EA.

B..but a stupid consumer poll skewed by but hurt mass effect fans told me EA was an evil company.

Who cares of a company is friendly and supportive of its employees and uses its side and leverage to improve How minorities are portrayed in media.

On topic that's really cool. Will they be live streaming the event anywhere?

Homophobia is downright ridiculous. There are people who literally banish gays for being who they and show no mercy with constant harassment and neglect.

Sure, most religions downright reject homosexuality as acceptable, and under certain circumstances do accept and work around it which is great, but there are hardheaded individuals that go against that acceptance even though their religious practices concur. (For example, Christianity teaches you to love and accept yourself, family and neighbors regardless of sexual orientation, beliefs, race and political views).

You can't change people for who they are. There's no way to persuade an individual to do the opposite of what they believe unless it benefits themselves.

With video games, just like any other form of entertainment, there will be studios that want to express religion and homosexuality in an appropriate manner. Which is fantastic. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and EA is extraordinary to host such an amazing event for such an unnecessarily harsh topic. By appropriate I mean, it should be executed in a non-offensive way. You shouldn't enforce your views and tell the player they're wrong.

This kinda raises several questions. Who's running the event? Which EA games feature LGBT characters? Is there some sort of fundraising involved? And least importantly, aren't homophobic slurs and other derivatives somewhat prominent in their games?

Ok, cool EA is doing this, but not exactly necessary. I'm cool with you being gay and all, but there are a lot of people I know who are constantly trying to shove it in peoples faces. Not all of them are under-spoken. In fact many of them are over-spoken. At least at my high school.

EA, very few, if not there should be and no.

It's not the fact that its games feature LGBT characters but that the company is doing this in general. It's positive and should not be questioned to such an extent. You should be happy.

And that caveman term "f**" should be censored. Always.

So EA is trying to shove the "so-called" gay rights propeganda down everyones throat now. Another reason I'll never give them a dime of my money.

Are you against gay rights?

The main EA franchise that deals with homosexuality in mass effect does it pretty well. They don't make a bog deal of it and characters just happen to be gay and talk about their sexual orientation . One of the supporting crew mates in the last game goes a through a pretty good character arc of grieving for his deceased husband. The only problem I can see is that male Shepard doesn't have the variety in same sex relationships as female sheppard does.

The game is pretty respective and with the expect ion of two already known bisexual characters the established gay/lesbian supporting characters doesn't switch sexual orientation for the player. Coretez as a gay man in unavailable for female Shep and vice versa Tray nor for male Shep.

An article with the writer of the gay romance in ME3.
http://blog.bioware.com/2012/05/07/same-sex-relationships-in-...

Yes because supporting peoples right is such a bad thing now.

Would you say the same thing if this were a mother big company supporting Civil rights in the 1960s?

Didn't EA take some flak from people (including a certain group I will not mention here for fears of derailing the conversation) last year about the inclusion of LGBT characters in some of their games? Anyway, good for EA. The industry could use a strong force like them who are actively trying to break stereotypes prevalent in games, and certainly a conference to promote diversity both in games and gaming would help with this. Good for EA.

Darn, I know you've been collecting a lot of those dimes! You probably have a whole piggy bank full after years of digging around under the family sofa.

Anyhow, as to EA... I definitely respect them for doing something like this and being in favor of civil rights for all people. With that said, Origin still sucks.

I find myself very cynical towards EA's involvment in all this. I remember reading about how in the game Star War The Old Republic, the gay characters were restricted to a single planet (albeit as a quick fix while they work gay characters into the wider "universe"). They could have been written into the story naturally, but they just forgot or something. ome people got upset, and so EA obviously scrambled to include gay characters so as not to look like they have some sort of problem with homosexuality.

In this day and age, homosexuality is unremarkable. Unfortunately, it's well under-represented in videogames, and if a big company like EA is on board, hopefully other companies will follow their lead - especially those from the west.

Okay I now officially can say I have a bit more respect for EA. I wish other companies would do something like this, way to go EA! Let's hope other companies will follow in suit.

I'm glad this was posted. It shows the ignorance of people today.

This is, in no way, shoving anything down anyone's throat.

I am so glad EA is doing this.

The gamer community continues to throw tantrums at even the thought of 'alternative' gamer conventions - look up the various reactions to 'gaymer' conventions; a bunch of manchildren spitting dummies people people want to play games the way they want to in the company they choose to.

It's embarrassing. So I am glad to see the big publishers stepping up and taking leadership of addressing these attitudes.

Really anti-gay people always seem obsessed with the idea of things being shoved down their throats. Wonder why.

Most geeky fandoms and subcultures suffer from a nasty undercurrent of misogyny and homophobia, but gamer culture is usually the worst in this regard.

To be fair some from the gay gamer community were uneasy at the prospect of a gay focused convention (although it had always been said that heterosexuals were more than welcome) when, by rights, the main conventions (E3, Eurocom, etc.) should be adapting to represent their sexuality more.

At the end of the day, I still am no more respectful of EA than I was last week, but I do appreciate it's a good thing for them to raise.

Yeah, I meant to imply RH's post was ignorant.

Also, my reason for questioning is due to past organizations using human rights (or in unfortunate cases, an unsupporting of) to gain publicity or sales. That extends beyond video games.