OK, point taken. We've just been having the 'I'm offended!' threads a lot recently so 'shut up and quit being so damned offended' was our first reaction. Lemme start over:

*ahem*

To answer your question, OP: I'm not really sure. My gut reaction would be to say that we're in a heterosixual relationship, but for all we know, Howard/Nora may actually be bisixual (as all your human companions are, as they all can be romanced) and just felt like marrying the opposite six and siring a kid. It's what I plan to do with my first character.

Good question. Unless explicitly stated, Howard/Nora could just be a friend/sibling who is helping the other person care for the child. We just assume they're a heterosixual couple because...well...that's just what we assumed (probably because it's so prevalent in media.) I'm sure Bethesda will let us have some wiggle room so we can roleplay Howard/Nora's gay best friend/sibling who decided to help raise the boy.

OK, my first character has been decided. A bisixual man who decided to live with Nora and help her raise Shaun.

Exactly. If that wasn't the OP's intent, I stand corrected.

Well, maybe I'm just biased as to how Fallout 3 was setup. Like I said, as a straight, half-white male, who was separated from my dad (also named James) Fallout 3 kinda spoke to me.

I know a gay man and straight woman who live together and had a child. They're just good friends and both wanted to be parents. It's a little unusual, admittedly.

Knew this thread would go off topic like pretty much every single other one. Typical minorites thinking they are a majority of the player base, and people acting like every detail of the game is known.
At least a few people had decent conversation though, gives me some hope for these forums

Except in this instance, it was us misinterpreting the OP's honest question and reacting accordingly. To be fair, we had a long string of what some might call 'threads made by overly-sensitive people who felt Bethesda was pissing on them for xyz reasons.' Some of us here got sick of it so when this came up, we kind of had flashbacks as it were and went nuts rather than calmly read the OP and figure out what the OP was trying to say.

So I guess you could say that for once it was our fault. We jumped to a pre-conceived conclusion based on our own experiences rather than taking a step back and checking it against reality. Y'know, the very thing we accused them of doing in all those threads!!! Ah, humans. Never stop being weird.

inb4 angry Tumblr posters

No. No word on whether or not we can play as a gay or lisbian couple in the beginning. Fact, since they only hired one VA for the male (and female) PC it is highly unlikely you could play two males in the intro. It also appears that the story uses a traditional family setup Father/Mother/Child.

You're welcome.

And then there's the basic game mechanics level, at which we realize that switching between the Male & Female characters at the mirror is how you select Male or Female for your playable character (just like how they baked the character creation choices - face/gender/race, SPECIAL, tagged skills - into the tutorial in Fallout 3).

And like playing Mass Effect has reminded me, with the voice acting it will be his character too. Especially if there is automatic dialogue mixed in there too. I wouldn't be surprised if there is, voice acting is expensive, can't afford to record multiple different responses for every dialogue.

Even though you changed your opinion in the next post I am still gonna reply to this. Mostly because in some level I agree to this. I will admit I was one of the first to speak out about the heterosixual relationship in the start. Infact this still bothers me a bit but honestly I stopped caring because after awhile I knew Bethesda would watch our back.

And I was right when they supported gay marriage and allowed any male human companion to be married. Am I still uncomfortable with the beginning? Yes, but I do understand it's not meant to leave me out, it was simply a design choice.

People are complaining about not having a blank slate, well I see leaving the vault, alone, after 200 years, with no one in the wasteland knowing you existed as a blank slate.

Frankly I am tired of this topic as well. I get the OP had an honest question but as it has been proven, these kinds of topics go off track.

Also you should be a little more careful with the words you choose. I know you didn't mean it like that but at first glance it felt like you where comparing being a woman or homesixual to being handicap lol

Which is an issue with the posters, not the topic.

I did not change my opinion, only admitted it was not the right response for the OP.

And for comparing handicapped to homosixuals, I didn't mean it like that, I just used it for an example. I'm myself half deaf but I did not ask for the main character to go "Wha?" for a couple of times cause he didn't hear something well lol

Just an example that every one of us has their little "agenda"

Er well isn't that kinda obvious? I might of reference the topic going off rails but it obviously Can't do that if there weren't posters, right? Didn't know I had to spell it out

I guess I should of said "This topic tends to go off the rails because posters".

Lol

Yes, actually. That would've been clearer. Instead it sounds like you're implying the conversation shouldn't be had at all cuz people can't behave themselves.

Can they? How much experience have you had with humans? In particular in these forums?

As far as I'm concerned the OP's question has been asked and answered. If we want to discuss what we think should be allowed that could be another thread.

Yes. Intentional trolls are a minority, by definition. You might be surprised how often people argue over BS simply because of misunderstandings and assumptions.

It seems this topic has gone off topic into discussing being off topic. How interesting. Normally I would merely leave a note to ask you not derail the topic of discussion. But since it's now almost two pages of off topic pvssyr I'm closing it instead.