The video game community would like to offer our support and encouragement to BioWare, and its parent company Electronic Arts, for their inclusion of multiple sexual identity options in their recent titles, Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Additionally, we as a community offer that same support to other video game developers and publishers who show similar diversity in their storylines and characters. Science Fiction has long stood as an allegorical medium, allowing viewers to gain perspective on real world events, both current and past. In particular, Dr. Who and Star Trek - two multi-generational science fiction serials - have had characters and/or storylines discussing sexual diversity, and the social stigma that is sometimes associated with it. Video games are not only a science fiction medium, but an artistic one as well. The foundation of art is one of communication; the use of images, music and lyrics, or simple allegory to evoke thoughts, feelings and discussion. Due to video games blending of both science fiction and art, the community thanks all developers and publishers who take advantage of their medium to promote said discussions. Our current world, in 2012, is presently engaged with debates regarding sexual identity. Issues include marriage, lifestyle, privacy, and many others - the list is far too exhaustive to include here. Critics have asked BioWare to avoid such topics in their work. We must respond with the following: art imitates life, and ignorance is the antithesis of understanding. Critics also include a concern for family in their arguments, and so must we. For the very individuals you are advocating for exclusion have families as well, parents and siblings and friends; both online and off. The community is not expressing a requirement of sexual diversity in characters or stories, only that developers and publishers be willing to include those options where appropriate. We further include any other artists, such as movie studios, musicians, et al.; and any other current issues that might be thought of as socially divisive. Discussion is necessary and vital for understanding, either for acceptance or to gain the needed perspective on why something may be inappropriate. Allowing, not suppressing, such discussion is therefore even more vital.

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