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meteordustOkay, so on RO you can roleplay romances between characters. Some people even get married, inviting friends to a wedding ceremony and exchanging vows and gifts. None of this is coded into the game, however - it's a purely symbolic act.
Now there's talk going around that Gravity is planning to implement an official marriage system in the game. Married couples will get special skills allowing them to do things like support each other in battle. However, marriage can only take place between a male and a female character - same sex marriages are not allowed.
So someone posts a poll on the RO-World forums asking whether gay and lesbian marriages should be allowed on RO. The result? Not surprisingly, a massive flamewar.
In the 236 posts which follow the original, pretty much the entire spectrum of responses can be found, including 'Gravity is homophobic', 'homosexuality is an abomination to God', 'Christian bigots should die', 'get over it, it's only a game', and 'it's okay if it's lesbians, hur hur hur'.
Religion, as always, ends up featuring prominently in the debate. There is argument over whether Rune-Midgard is a Christian kingdom (with dictionary definitions of 'church' being cited) or an ancient Norse fantasy kingdom (in which gays may or may not exist). Leviticus is brought up, of course. There is much heated discussion of the 'people are born gay' versus the 'it's a lifestyle choice' issues. Surprisingly, no one has invoked the Nazis yet.
Me? On one hand, I think it's going to suck if same sex couples can't access those new skills. On the other hand, I'm finding it easy to resist wading into this debate - the old saying about participating in arguments on Usenet comes to mind.
All I can say is that if I had a JournalFen code, this would so be going on Fandom Wank.
Now there's talk going around that Gravity is planning to implement an official marriage system in the game. Married couples will get special skills allowing them to do things like support each other in battle. However, marriage can only take place between a male and a female character - same sex marriages are not allowed.
So someone posts a poll on the RO-World forums asking whether gay and lesbian marriages should be allowed on RO. The result? Not surprisingly, a massive flamewar.
In the 236 posts which follow the original, pretty much the entire spectrum of responses can be found, including 'Gravity is homophobic', 'homosexuality is an abomination to God', 'Christian bigots should die', 'get over it, it's only a game', and 'it's okay if it's lesbians, hur hur hur'.
Religion, as always, ends up featuring prominently in the debate. There is argument over whether Rune-Midgard is a Christian kingdom (with dictionary definitions of 'church' being cited) or an ancient Norse fantasy kingdom (in which gays may or may not exist). Leviticus is brought up, of course. There is much heated discussion of the 'people are born gay' versus the 'it's a lifestyle choice' issues. Surprisingly, no one has invoked the Nazis yet.
Me? On one hand, I think it's going to suck if same sex couples can't access those new skills. On the other hand, I'm finding it easy to resist wading into this debate - the old saying about participating in arguments on Usenet comes to mind.
All I can say is that if I had a JournalFen code, this would so be going on Fandom Wank.
