Arms Of Middle Earth -> Marriage Feature Scrapped in LOTR Online

Marriage Feature Scrapped in LOTR Online, for fears of Gay Dwarves

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Bill The Pony

Posted: May 1 2007, 09:26 AM

Bistro d'Burden

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Salon.com Reports:

QUOTE

Nik Davidson is a game designer at Turbine, the Westwood, Mass., company producing "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar." The game has been in beta (a test version) since September, and during discussions of new features for the game, which was officially released Tuesday, the design team wound up in a heated discussion over what restrictions should be placed on marriage. They debated not only gay marriage but also marriage between members of different species. Finally, the game's executive producer settled the matter by pulling the entire marriage feature.
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The team had also originally planned to introduce a way for characters to marry other characters -- within certain guidelines.

"The rule that we tried to follow across the board was: if there's an example of it in the book, the door is open to explore it," Nik says. "Very rarely will you see an elf and a human hook up, but it does happen; the door is open. Dwarves don't intermarry with hobbits; that door is shut ... Did two male hobbits ever hook up in the shire and have little hobbit civil unions? No. The door is shut."

Um.. Yeah.... So Merry and Pippin left their wives and children to share a Studio Apartment in Gondor... because they were such good friends. Read the Epilogue.

The most frustrating part is trying to pass off this decision as "Keeping true to Toklien"

QUOTE

More than that, Nik says, it seemed as if same-sex marriage would simply not have fit with Tolkien's vision for the worlds he created.

"Tolkien was a conservative Catholic," Nik says. "He went out drinking with C.S. Lewis every night, and the two of them had a worldview that was -- well, let's just say it clashes a little bit with the sensibilities of East Coast liberals who make up the largest population of Turbine."

This seems to be a HUGE disconnect with the actual target audience for this game. More on Alternative Lifestyle Gaming in the Article

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Rivendell_Ranger	Posted: May 1 2007, 12:10 PM
D�nadan Group: Members Posts: 334 Member No.: 68 Joined: 6-February 05	It's funny in the end really, the game people trying not to tick off fans of the books/movies and ban marriage all together to try and not cause problems but give a too long explination and get people riled anyway. Personally I think people just take themselves too seriously! Anyway thanks again BTP for keeping us all informed! -------------------- "This hallway was once the jewel of our kingdom, and so it shall be once more! I claim this hallway on the 10th floor for ROHNDOR!"

Rivendell_Ranger	Posted: May 3 2007, 09:50 AM
D�nadan Group: Members Posts: 334 Member No.: 68 Joined: 6-February 05	I was watching G4 yesterday and they did a spot about the game, they reported that the developers have decided to keep the marriage feature in the game but have banned same sex characters from getting married! Also they have kept it to the books for who can marry who, a dwarf can't marry a human or hobbit because it didn't happen in the books but a human can marry an elf given the right circumstances! Personally for a game I think they are way overthinking it! -------------------- "This hallway was once the jewel of our kingdom, and so it shall be once more! I claim this hallway on the 10th floor for ROHNDOR!"

Maddydahobbit

Posted: May 3 2007, 12:43 PM

Rabid Hobbit of the Shire

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QUOTE (Rivendell_Ranger @ May 3 2007, 09:50 AM)

I was watching G4 yesterday and they did a spot about the game, they reported that the developers have decided to keep the marriage feature in the game but have banned same sex characters from getting married! Also they have kept it to the books for who can marry who, a dwarf can't marry a human or hobbit because it didn't happen in the books but a human can marry an elf given the right circumstances!

Personally for a game I think they are way overthinking it!

TOTALLY agreed there.

Geez

-M

Bonnie_Half-Elven	Posted: May 3 2007, 02:38 PM
Dwarf-Lover Group: Members Posts: 553 Member No.: 42 Joined: 7-January 05	As far as I'm concerned, if you buy the game, you buy the right to play it as you want. If you want everything straight and "traditional," more power to you, but if you want gay marriage, who cares? It's not like you're selling it or anything. It's your game. These people need to get a life. Oh, well, there's always fan fic. -------------------- Namarie, Bonnie Half-Elven "I remain of the firm belief that we need our imaginary villains, the better to brace ourselves for the ones we need to fight in reality." - J.K. Rowling Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Gandalf the Grey	Posted: May 4 2007, 07:18 AM
D�nadan Group: Members Posts: 721 Member No.: 96 Joined: 24-August 05	It's things like this that made me want to go to Middle-Earth in the first place, haha. -------------------- "For even the wise cannot see all ends"

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