Same-Sex Marriage

Hello!

My boyfriend and I, who both play the game together, would really like to marry in-game and be able to enjoy the benefits of said marriage (eg. Special Skills).

Looking for documentation we found that in order to marry our characters must have different sex, which is obviously not our case and we find it a bit odd.

So, I'd like to ask the mods and game admins if there is any way the game could be modified in order to accept the marriage of two same sex characters or maybe find a solution so that we both can acquire the beneficial skills and have the "married" status.

Thanks and Cheers!

It won't ever be implemented I believe. I know there is a way around it by doing a gender change to marry first, then gender changing back. Not sure if that's legit though.

None of the Official Servers have EVER allowed Same-sex marriages. Only private servers.

Well, i might recall someone telling me 1 of the (no dead) official servers had same sex marriages, can't remember if i was being BSed on though. This isn't an iRO thing, we'd need Korea's approval.

None of the Official Servers have EVER allowed Same-sex marriages. Only private servers.

Maybe the issue hasn't been brought up before since I can understand that a game that's 10 years old didn't have the same social reality back then. But a company needs to adapt to the needs and necessities of its clients (and thus players) in the current age and day.

If I can marry my boyfriend in real life, why wouldn't I be able to do it in a game that technically supports it?

All I'm saying is that I find it very unfair and should be revised. Maybe there's some way a GM can give us those skills despite being both the same gender?

Also, thank you for your opinions. I'm looking forward to hear about this issue from other users and hopefully also from some "official" representative.

I would also like to ask everybody who stumbles upon this thread to please state their opinion on this topic in order to learn other player's viewpoint and see what iRO's "society" thinks.

From a business standpoint adding a feature like this is a bad move right now, so you're probably going to have to wait a little bit. Right now same sex marriage is a highly controversial topic in America and I believe that is where this game's center is. (Both the literal center and the center for clients.) Businesses usually try their best to stay out of politics until they're sure of the majority's belief on the subject, and right now I don't believe Gravity would want to risk some of the potential client-base for adding this feature.

Not making a judgmental call, just saying what it is from a business standpoint. If you want an example look at Oreos. They recently posted a picture of a rainbow filled oreo and people who are against gay marriage started to flip out and say they're never having oreos again. If people would boycott something as simple as a cookie, and freaking delicious one at that, for posting a single picture then they definitely wouldn't have a problem not playing a videogame because of this.

Yeah - it may seem strange to young, liberal, urban, tech-savvy individuals like us (I'm guessing on your part - but I'm right aren't I?)... but almost half of the country is still opposed to gay marriage - and a substantial portion of those people will froth at the mouth over the issue.

You may not know anyone with a problem with gays (I don't) - but there are many places in the country where the average resident wouldn't know anyone who didn't.

Edited by DrAzzy, 22 July 2012 - 02:31 PM.

Yeah, at the moment, it's looking pretty infeasible.

If you're willing to blow roughly 45 bucks (40 if you're not buying the Marriage Covenant), however, the Gender Change VAS is a viable alternative. I've thought about doing it myself, but that's a lot of money to me. :c

If 99% of America doesn't support Same-sex Marriage, it will never be approved in this game.

If 99% of America doesn't support Same-sex Marriage, it will never be approved in this game.

I can safely say that the US consensus on the subject is a lot more even than that.

Anyway, it's my understanding that this has nothing to do with what the people behind iRO do or don't want, and everything to do with what the big Korean bosses of kRO refuse to approve for us. Before they ask the players, they'd need to go through Gravity, and unfortunately it's a totally different world over there.

I've also heard (see: hearsay) that even with the workaround (gender-swapping, marrying, gender-swapping), it's still likely to fail, as techs, GMs, etc. may manually break the marriage. It's been said that those that function after gender-swapping are anomalies -- oversights -- and not the standard.

There was a cute idea suggested, though, that has a comparatively higher chance of succeeding, though, still unlikely.

I think before we even get to the America portion the idea has to pass through Korea (kRO) and I think I recall someone mentioning they won't allow it there.

But as I said, if you 're just doing it for the marriage skills, you can maybe do gender change, marry, then change back.

Hello everybody again!
Thank you all for answering and for your support.

I'd first like to address some of the ideas on corporate management that have been appearing here and there. I hold a Master's Degree in Advertising and Public Relations and there is a very good reason why companies such as Google, Apple, Kraft Foods (Oreos), etc. make public statements on such delicate topics like gay marriage or gay rights: It defines their corporate image.

For a company nowadays their corporate image is extremely important. They want to be close to their publics and offer an image that can be sympathized with. So although it might not be the best decision in terms of purely financial profit, by doing this the company gains much more of an identity and itself and the brand that it is holding appears to be much closer to the consumer who will react accordingly and often "love" the company even more. They want to avoid being a face-less, identity lacking, Mr. nobody brand... even if that means losing some customers: The benefits of having a solid corporate image are astronomical.

Anyways, PR lesson aside, it's understandable that RO Korea has a totally different opinion on the topic due to the social reality South Korea's living. But even if they won't ever read this, I'd like to invite the people at Gravity Korea (and all others) to change and allow modifications based on the social needs of the players (and clients) they're supplying. Fortunately, more than half of the people living in the United States are now in favor of Same Sex marriage, according to the latest polls. Also, iRo (international Ragnarok Online) is not exclusive to the United States but also attends players from around the world, including many many countries who currently allow same sex marriage or civil unions.

Obviously, and please don't get me wrong, Gravity is still a private company and has got every right to decide what "marriage" looks like in their game. The only thing I'm trying to point at is that iRO should be given the right and ability to decide on this issue since it's them who are dealing with a player community who might have a completely different perception on the topic than Korea. It seems illogical to leave the decision to a company's division (Korea) who does not share the same cultural context and needs than the ones making the request (in this case iRO).

Finally, let me just point out that I'm not really upset about all this. I'm not going to pout for not being able to get married in a 10 year old game, specially considering that I can get married in Real Life in the country where I live. But it's still like a stuck thorn, considering that there are some very useful in-game benefits for my boyfriend and I, who always play together.

If there is any GM reading this, I'd kindly like to ask them to look forward to a solution: Either implement same sex marriage or possibly offer another solution that might allow the same benefits (skills) possibly under a different name.

If there is any way to do this, please let me know.

Cheers,
Shirocat.

This has been discussed and asked more times than you can imagine, I doubt one more long letter for them to read is going to change their mind. Its their game, if they are uncomfortable with something we do, they can shut us down. Therefore we are subject to their will no matter how you or I feel on the matter.

You may say that more than half of US support gay marriage but if we make a poll right now in-game or in forums of who favors it, you'll be surprise at all the antagonism towards gay marriage.

iRO gaming community = / = UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Furthermore, a good majority of the RO gaming community is of Asian origin (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Singapore, China, Japan) and most Asian countries do not favor gay marriage in any way.

Edited by CeruleanGamer, 23 July 2012 - 09:59 AM.

Or you could do what a LOT of people do. Make a character that is a different gender than you really are. One of you could be female one could be male. All it does is change sprite of the character. Or changes class if it is of the performer class. It's probably the only way you will ever be able to get around this. As a gaming company or any company in general they tend to look to please the mass public. No company wants to really cause public disrest. (They leave that for politicians) Beleive it or not a change like that to the game can make some people quite pissed. It has to do with human mentality and all that stuff. People can get pissed off for the slightest things which could make a company go under. I remember hearing class names being changed. Like Creator being changed to Biochemist due to religious views that Creator was sounding too much like a religious figure or something along those lines. Best thing to do is just find a way around it that suits you best.

but almost half of the country is still opposed to gay marriage

Actually!






Slowly but surely brother. Slowly but surely.

i like the BFF bracelet idea stated in another thread... shouldnt be that hard for iro to implement since theyre tweaking stuff constantly to suit its playerbase...

You know, a good percentage of those people who are opposed to gay marriages don't know f-all about online MMORPGs that aren't mainstream. Ragnarok is NO WHERE NEAR as mainstream as Maplestory is right now, so if Ragnarok has same-sex marriages, I guarantee that the mass of the population that is against gay marriages won't even know anything about Ragnarok.

So go for it.

Even if 99% of the game population finds same-sex marriage to be fine, parent groups in every country would have a fit if IRO allows it. Just like the time when priestesses' panties in their death spirte was changed to shorts years ago.

Just like the time when priestesses' panties in their death spirte was changed to shorts years ago.

They "forgot" to change it for the alpaca version.