Let me just preface this by saying:

a) I obviously don't know anything about the story for Fallout 4, and so I don't really know the extent to which the PC's family in the beginning is involved or referenced in the rest of the story. It might be integral to the game, or it might just be a total throwaway part of the scenario.

I'm not trying to start a flame war of any sort. I just haven't heard anything on this topic yet.

I wanted to know if there has been any word on whether or not we can play as a gay or lisbian couple in the beginning? I realize this might become an option via the modding community, but it would be nice to know it was built into the game so I wouldn't have to wait for said mod(s). Thanks!

I'd doubt it considering what we've seen from the player creation clips

Probably not gonna happen without mods, You have to remember the setting for the Fallout games pre-war was very much inspired by 1950s America, Back then things like that would be frowned upon and generally not seen.

I guarantee you its not going to be a default relationship. Just be happy with all the companions you can gay/lisbian romance.

Personally, I'd like it if this was an option, as well, but given the E3 video, I'm pretty confident that it won't be. Besides, having a same-six couple raises issues with the kid. Sure, adoption is always an option, but Todd Howard specifically said that the child's features would be an amalgamation of the couple you put together. It's a bit of a stretch for your same-six couple to find and adopt a child who happens to look exactly like the people who are adopting him.

This. It's already been confirmed that all of the human companions are eligible for romance, regardless of gender.

Yeah, character creation clips did not leave me very hopeful of this option.

I hoped that despite the 1950's-inspired setting, the devs would have made this part of the game. Afterall, you can start off as an interracial couple (which wasn't legal until 1963 methinks).

And it is a game after all, meant to be fun and centered around player choice/transformation.

One of my worries is that the Wife will be referenced and voiced throughout the game according to their default gender.

This would imo leave much less room for the modding community to work with, as you might be able to mod in a M/M marriage, but throughout the entirety of the main story, the PC's voice acted dialog will always refer to that character as "...my wife". ... which tbh, would annoy me a bit.

That is a good point about the child. Although they still could've chocked it up to gene splicing...etc...etc..or something. I dunno. It's a scifi setting with robots, supermutants, and all manner of ridiculous stuff. Methinks they could've made something up.

They can't cater to everyone. It would annoy me if we would now start seeing games changing stories and extending resources to be more "politically correct" and appease everyone.

I see what you are saying, but an effort like this wouldn't be about being "politically correct" as you say.

It's about catering to the primary goals of their game design and being inclusive at the same time.

Heck, they recorded hundreds of common character names for Codsworth to refer to you as. That was definitely not integral to the game's story.

They could have but why should they? Every player has their own little agenda that they would love to see in the game, but have to make do with the product at hand. It's their world that they decided to create, not ours. They are under no obligation to cater to us. For example, every game fhat Bethesda makes irritates me in some fashion, but I realize that they owe me nothing.

As consumers, we can either accept what they make or take our money elsewhere.

I think you are missing the point. I made no implication of entitlement, nor was I making official demands that gamesas "make X happen or I won't buy their product". That's really not what this thread was about. Please read the first post for more detail.

Let's...uh...let's let this topic die. For the sake of our strength as a community. Y'know? Let's not let this go where I think it's going. Let's just...let it drop.

I also just don't see it plausible in our characters story. He/she is a military veteran and going from the idea that fallout went a different direction after the 50's and kind of stayed in that mindset, I don't see gays having been allowed to serve. I don't think they should change or just make up things just to serve the few people who want to play as a gay character. What fantasyjunkie said illustrated it best, we're playing their game not ours

Let it drop. No reason to start this argument.

Yeahhh I agree with you... My apologies Joker.

I asked for news, and now I'm smelling something burning.

(slowly backs away)

Here's my take on it. Leaving all opinions at the door:

They have 1 Male voice actor for the protagonist, and one female. Don't you think it would be incredibly jarring for your spouse to have the exact same voice as you? Would simply take wayy too much additional work, especially if the character exists beyond the prewar section

No offense but this topic has been talked about before and never without people getting irrationally angry with each other about it. These threads never go anywhere productive and just boil down to name-calling at the end of it. You most likely won't get to be gay/lisbian in the beginning and will just have to settle for the mentioned romance options.

Really sad that people can't have a legit convo about this kind of stuff here.

As nice as this option would be, I am guessing the child at least is integral to the story. Making the kid you're genetic offspring, in Beth's opinion, makes the emotional connection stronger vs an adoption.
And as the kid is there, if you were a straight couple there would be a lot of statments through out the game (most likely) that would need to be changed a lot if the kid was adopted.
Combine that with the kid looking like the couple, and there would have been more than nessicarry to change to accommodate all the possible couples.
Not to mention that it's been speculated the couple is (ex)-military. Anything but straight in the military was only acceptable very recently in OUR universe, in the fallout universe I can see it being impossible to have that kind of relationship and keep your career.
It was probably easier for Beth to use the fact that openly alternative sixuality couples would be rare in a future where culture barely progressed beyond the 50s.
Now as companions are romanceable, Beth has left it open for us to role play as gay/lisbian/bi/ect but got straight married as a cover to family/boss/military whatever. The kid was had, because both parties wanted a kid (and as for me, my spouse is going to be gay and I a lisbian, both of us in seperate relationships, and the kid was supposed to be raised in a big loving family, being taught not to hate and start the equalality for everyone movement).
Things insue, and suddenly it's 200 years later, my true love dead and gone, I'm out to drown my pain in empty hookups and booze.
And with a nuclear apocalypse, it's understandable the survivors were like "ya know what f*&k societal standards, life if dangerous, I'm going to love who I want."
Disaster bread progress, lol.

Here's an question.... Do we know this is or isn't an feature?

People having been making all these threads but the game isn't out yet so it's entirely possible that switching the gender (especially if the spouse dies in the intro) is already option in the game and Beth simply isn't leaking any info (especially if it might reveal the game's story.)

Likewise maybe it wasn't part of the game but they added the featured to please the people complaining about it yet not talking about it so when the game launches they can act like it was an originally feature and they where complaining for nothing.

Oh look, its this thread

Yes, agreed.

Lol I can get behind this explanation. Although I disagree with you on the emotional connection of an adopted child versus biological child. That really boils down to simple storytelling. How you communicate the parent/child relationship, and how you express the emotions behind it is what forms that emotional connection. Making the child biological vs adopted would be a trivial detail.

We've had this conversation, in at least 4 threads... None of which ended on a positive note. Why can't people discuss this? It seems both sides get heated, and it becomes just a circular argument that goes no where. Which is kind of what quite a few discussions turn into. We know that A. You play as the wife, or the husband. and B. No matter what gender character you choose you can romance your human companions. If you want a gay or lisbian character... there you go. Otherwise you get what you get, no amount of discussion here will change that.

In some parts of the country, I've heard they refused interracial marriages until the 1980's. Though, these were small backwoods towns or county's, so they could get away with it longer due to no one really knowing where they are.

Well, if you think about it, the obvious answer would be to mod the wife into the man and play him/her. Though, I work with a gay guy who is married to a man, and always refers to him as his "wife", and I know that there are other m/m couples where one is considered the "husband" and the other the "wife". So I don't think it's too much of an issue after you mod it... unless your preference is "husband" and "husband".