In my opinion, ZOS does it exactly right.

There are some LGBT pairings around, but they are matter of fact, and not especially overdrawn, they just are there in the landscape of the gameworld.

And best of all, they are just backdrop to all the usual stuff, not like some other ones where there is one "token homosexual" character whose only purpose is to be homosexual, the characters in ESO are shopkeepers, questgivers, NPCs of all kinds - some of which just happen to be LGBT. And noone gives a fu... e-hem. Noone cares. Everyone in Tamriel just accepts it as matter of course. Personally I think it is a very nice depiction of the matter, from the flowers in greenshade to the nord in malabel tor, from the unlikely romance brewing in the hollow city to some of the patrons and employees in a certain ebonheart inn, from an sorceress and her bosmer girl to the couple in bangkorai...

Of course, considering some of my characters, that should come as no surprise, just ask my dunmer bounty huntress:

...or by librarian boy:

PrayingSeraph wrote: »

Honest question to the moderators, would a user here be allowed to create a thread expressing their displeasure of the LGBT inclusion in ESO itself? And would you remove comments of those who take issue with that which don't strictly follow ESO's inclusion of the topic at hand? I'm not saying I myself would create such a thread, but I would like to see fair standards applied to all.

Considering that dsicussion is at its core discriminatory, thats a solid no. All facts and opinions behind such a discussion would come from hate groups, and religious zealot groups. We are people just like anyone else, creating a thread against inclusion is actively saying you are against us existing.

Turelus wrote: »

Duck wrote: »

Meh... They don't do the T part well enough.

My guys deserve to wear pink begonias in their hair, too!
My gals deserve to wear Golden Saint armor without midriffs, too!

Whilst not every option has been unlocked they've at least not gone the route of saying only male/female characters can wear specific clothes in a lot of cases.

Have they had a trans character appear in the story yet, not sure if this is something which the TES lore handles or how ZOS would introduce them but I know a lot of recent big titles have been struggling to get it right (often credited to not hiring/speaking with people who can explain it).

Im thinking in TES universe, being transgender probably wouldn't be too much of a problem, considering they have flesh sculptors who use magic to alter your appearance and gender, not to mention almost anyone that was incredibly adept in alchemy and magic in general could do the same. And mages / alchemists seem to be abundant in Tamriel . Oh if it were so easy IRL =P.

mirta000b16_ESO wrote: »

to play the devil's advocate

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

Since this discussion is going in circles, I'll repeat myself too.

[*] People and societies are ALSO different on Tamriel than they are on Earth. Your pragmatic reasons should be checked to ensure that they apply to both planets.

Tamriel is often at War. War kills many people. In order to keep up with high death rates, you need high birth rates. Unless gay couples agree to be bi for reproduction reasons, they would not be contributing to the high birthrate, making them rather detrimental.

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

[*] Orcs have pretty clear sex roles, but those put a lot of women into warrior positions. ("Shield wives")

Orc clan leaders can make a choice to make all the clan women their wives. They would not stand women's relationships with other men, OR women. You can find a quest where an orc woman is trying to save her lover, because she refused to be part of her clan leader's harem. She finds her lover already dead.

FrancisCrawford wrote: »

It seems the Khajiit and Argonians do as well.

Both sometimes can be found living in Matriarchies.

Read above comment. A lot of Tamrielic societies have people that carry children too as a job pretty much.

Quoted post has been removed.

[snip]

Back on topic. Y'wanna know what I love about the elder scrolls? That entire questline with the werewolves up in bangkorai, several people took it as politicall aligory. But I never did. To me, the werewolf bit was so aligorical in and of itself it just took itself as litteral. And I liked that. It was a cool story, and it never once felt out of place, and it never once felt like the writers were preaching to me.

That, is why I love how it's done in the elder scrolls. It is done well. Memoribly. Tastefully. And not once, has that level of quality dipped. It's just been a world I love, expanding in quality, time and again, and again.

[Edit to remove bait.

Phage wrote: »

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Back on topic. Y'wanna know what I love about the elder scrolls? That entire questline with the werewolves up in bangkorai, several people took it as politicall aligory. But I never did. To me, the werewolf bit was so aligorical in and of itself it just took itself as litteral. And I liked that. It was a cool story, and it never once felt out of place, and it never once felt like the writers were preaching to me.

That, is why I love how it's done in the elder scrolls. It is done well. Memoribly. Tastefully. And not once, has that level of quality dipped.

Also on topic: I totally agree. The quests in the game really are of a higher quality than any other MMO. You've got ones that have political undertones, ones with veiled social commentary, and some quests are just plain fun. I think whats great is that ZOS didn't focus on LGBT - they covered a whole wide range of issues, and managed to keep it within the realm of possibility in an Elder Scrolls Universe. I've been playing CWC lately and the main zone quest is really awesome.

I have never been a bigger opponant of ZOS. I have railed them, I have hated them, I have campaigned and waved the banner.

But one area I will never question, is the visual design, the quests, the acting. The loremaster, and the writers, need to be showered in praise, and they are not nearly enough.

rhapsodious wrote: »

Phage wrote: »

Doctordarkspawn wrote: »

Back on topic. Y'wanna know what I love about the elder scrolls? That entire questline with the werewolves up in bangkorai, several people took it as politicall aligory. But I never did. To me, the werewolf bit was so aligorical in and of itself it just took itself as litteral. And I liked that. It was a cool story, and it never once felt out of place, and it never once felt like the writers were preaching to me.

That, is why I love how it's done in the elder scrolls. It is done well. Memoribly. Tastefully. And not once, has that level of quality dipped.

Also on topic: I totally agree. The quests in the game really are of a higher quality than any other MMO. You've got ones that have political undertones, ones with veiled social commentary, and some quests are just plain fun. I think whats great is that ZOS didn't focus on LGBT - they covered a whole wide range of issues, and managed to keep it within the realm of possibility in an Elder Scrolls Universe. I've been playing CWC lately and the main zone quest is really awesome.

I love the juxtaposition of the more serious quests coupled with the screwy romp-through-the-woods type things, and how most of the characters just feel... like they have real motivations. I think only the Dark Brotherhood questline has made me think "why do I care about you again?" but even then there's good characters, like Green-Venom-Tongue and Elam Drals.

But above all I like how much love and care was put into a lot of the quests, and how characters that would normally be a caricature or single-issue (like non-straight people!) end up being three-dimensional.

And then there's stuff like a naked Nord quest both in Deshaan and in Vvardenfell, as a nice nod to TES3.

Or the Drunk Breton. Marrage troubles. Tamriel over, they exist.