Yeah well, being locked up in prison at the start is getting old, and it was a quite neat way of switching characters. A gay friend of mine used "sixchange" in the console to make them a same six couple in the starting scene, as she could not abide a male partner.

I am now stupider for reading this thread.

I just wish we would get more than two steaks out of a whole horse.

Edited for more better spelling.

Hold on. I'm going to contact the ACLU. This is an outrage.

It kind of does feel like just that, but you really would have to be a member of the community to 'get it' or really understand the impact. The same-six perks were removed, we're dumped into this marriage whether we can identify with it or not, and all the while we're told this character is "ours" and not a named protagonist. It sure looks like a named protagonist to me, not the blank slate of previous Fallout\ES games.

Then, after we get into the world, at every turn, every NPC beats us over the head with this past. Even NPCs that you never once discussed the former relationship with will be sure to inform you of how in love with your spouse you seem. Really? I could get on board with looking for the son if everyone would just shut up already about the stupid husband that I didn't want and don't care that is dead.

There's really no legit reason to have gone about it this way. There are so many ways to write a story about a kidnapped baby. Only one of them is you are the father\mother. Who exactly was the target audience with this particular story?

Nevermind the fact that they did absolutely nothing to actually create a real bond with the baby or spouse. And you know what would have stopped this entire debate? Another hundred lines of interchangeable dialogue and the option to swap both characters at the start to whatever gender. If the spouse was going to die ANYWAY... What was the harm? Oh, because in a world where they are literally making synthetic humans that you can't tell from real ones they somehow haven't managed to figure out how to procreate without this traditional marriage? It was THAT IMPORTANT that this baby who we see for all of five seconds has some minor recognizable traits from both parents that somehow wouldn't work with same six parents, because like, we can't use DNA from our spouse's opposite six sibling\other relative or use DNA from a donor that looks similar to our spouse, right?

Something isn't right, here. Not for the year 2015 and allegedly the year 2077. It would have been ideal if they had just scrapped the entire thing and made the baby your younger brother who was taken from your mother's arms, while your father had died in the war or whatever. THAT would have been a compelling story for the majority of players. THAT would have fueled some revenge and not alienated a portion of the playerbase. No one pitched that story? Todd Howard really felt this was the ONLY way to introduce a baby to chase?

Look, I'm over it. There's nothing I can do. The story is written, and once I accepted that this is Todd Howard's character and not mine I did go on to enjoy other aspects of the game. I'll never be on board with this story, I'll always think it was lazy and hokey and terribly written, and that's the way it is. I probably won't even accept another Fallout title even if it's given to me as this was. I wasn't going to buy this title because of the story, and someone got it for me anyway so I gave it a chance.

It's worse than I thought it would be in terms of main story (everything else? love it love it love it). You don't get it, and that's 100% ok. However, please respect that it did hurt and alienate some people who previously supported this developer because they were so serious about giving us a character we could make our own. Some of us feel like Todd is taking a swipe at us, and we don't even know why.

You can romance a ghoul male(Hancock) as another male. You can also romance a robot female(curie) as another female. Not only can you be gay, but you can have six with a robot. Thats pretty inclusive in my book.

Absolutely!

And one form an entire Deathclaw? That must be a friggin' huge steak!

Being forced to be bisixual than gay is kind of a weird place to be upset about versus the hundreds of other games were you're forced to be heterosixual.

Polyamory also goes off without a hitch in this game.

My Jared Fogle RP is ruined.

I think we're missing the point that this is based on 1950's America. There is no way that, in that particular era, there were going to be openly same six couples. Period. If you were gay, you either stayed alone or you got married and did what was expected. The repercussions of your orientation were simply too dire.

As a gay man, I don't have an issue with the way that the game started at all.

This is the first time that you are actually starting off as a civilian. It seemed pretty honest to me.

My characters have ended up being a woman who's basically a Nun, liking only her dog and her robots/synths and a guy that will sleep with anything, although he prefers the company of men.

I look at it as you can do anything you want.

I simply couldn't picture two men or two women living together with a child in 1950's suburbia without their being siblings.

Beth didn't go so far as to make the relationship and dialogue an indicator of a "love" relationship, at best a friendship. You could use sarcasm and, if you're going to point out the whole wedding ring thing, I would react the same way if it was my friend or my lover.

I guess I'm just simple that way.

Why pander when it wouldn't make any sense in context.

Who says you can't romance animals. I love my Dogmeat and my pet Deathclaw. As to children... EWWWWWWW!

I don't recall being able to romance anyone in Fallout 3. Sure there's implication that the Lone Wanderer had feelings for Amata and can get hit on by a few people, but that's about it.

I get what you're saying, but here's my refute: If you look around during the bit of the prologue when the War starts, you'll find two women clinging to each other as lovers trying to comfort each other. That's pretty strong implication that they are a lisbian couple.

There's also the fact that you and your spouse can also be in an interracial marriage. I can roll a black guy married to a white woman living in the suburbs with a baby and a white picket fence. This sure as hell wouldn't have sat well with the societal norms of 1950s America.

Yes.

I wouldn't take it personally. They forgot left handed people as well.

As has been pointed out numerous times. Bethesda wanted to tell a story about a father searching for his son and seeking vengeance. To put some extra emphasis they had a brief intro trying to make an emotional connection with his wife.....and I emphasize trying because Nora was fugly as hell....... and then killed her off to elicit an emotional response. Its time tested and it has been done countless times in movies, TV shows and literature.

Far, far, far more people are going to relate with a spouse of the opposite gender and only a tiny minority with a spouse of the same gender. Thus they chose to cater to the wider audience for obvious reasons. Gay people find the heterosixual opening to be uninspiring but it works both ways. Far more people would have to do major retconning in their heads to explain away a gay marriage and kid.

That's rather ignorant. Gay people doesn't necessarily wear dresses for women, nor is there necessarily a "who's the man in the couple" cliche.

I know... I know.. you're right, but, still. Can't I have my delusions?

And disabled people. As a half-blind/half-deaf guy, I'm not really all that upset that I'm once again forced to play a character with two working eyes and ears.

The 1950s argument fails with the fact you can be an interracial couple.

im confuse or u can romance Preston as Male?????

Plus the whole u arent gay bc u are merry that isnt true, i have a friend that has been merry for 15 years and he discover he was gay 3 years ago.

That's it! They should have made the original couple Gay and Ugly and you couldn't change it!

That would have honked off the majority. Oh! And let's make them ethnic and interracial. I think guys. That pisses them off more.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Make it an awesome game that you can't refuse and that you've been looking forward to for years and then throw that at them! Yeah!

Yes, you can romance Preston as a man.

It comes up every time I talk to him since I have him at Idolized.

yeah i notice that too, lol it was one of the reason i stop taking him with me as companion.

I prefer to have Curie as companion i like her alot more =P and working to romances her.

This is the only response that should exist.

I won't flame and get into the ridiculousness of the complaint. Suffice to say, this thread should be cleaned.