I time travelled and asked Old Warhorse themselves to settle the debate once and for all.

[Sassy]

Quoting WarhorseStudios, "Samesex romance, no you will play as Henry, the son of a Blacksmith from Silver Skalice, and he already does have a background Story in wich he is not a bi- oder ♥♥♥♥-sexual.
But there will be homosexual NPC characters in the game."

"Nobody will force you to do anything. But you will play as Henry the son of a blacksmith, and yes, he is staight, and white and male and from Bohemia.
Someone from France will not be able to play a french guy even if he loves his country. If you are in a wheelchair, you will be able to walk in the game.
And Henry will be able to have a dog in the game, even if you are more a kind of cat-person. You will play as a christian person, even if you are a moslem, hindu, atheist or jedi.

What if you are an artist, and drawing is your life, and now you have to play as a character who is not able to hold a brush or pen at all. Or if you are tall or small or big or skinny.

There is nothing wrong about people to have different preferences and heritages, but we can not cover them all and we don´t want to,
we want to tell the story of Henry the son of a Blacksmith from Silver Skalice, and he will be different from you, not only in his sexuality, but in his heritage,
in his looks and in his biography and many more. He maybe will be able to do things you are not able to do in real life while he lacks in other tasks in which you are great.
This game is not meant to be about you. You are not Henry, you are Yan Silva, and you will be able to play as Henry if you want to. You can play his role.

There are so much facets that creates a character, a person and individual. Being gay or straight is not the only difference between people. People are people."

https://imgur.com/a/WArpoMt

Had to be done.

[Yakito]

I remember fighting tooth and nail on Bioware forums with a gay community to not make my Sheppard gay or retcon some straight characters.

I have to admit that this made me more patient. I lost that battle completely back then. I'd lose this one as well so I decided to accept it because your core game is fantastic and since KC1 was such a rough ride for me (save got corrupted on PS4. Never finished it) I really got excited to play this polished baby you've made now.


Still, I agree with most people (even though I defend your choice). You should not have done this at all.
It feels like slight betrayal of your beliefs, of your fan base and of Henry himself.

I'll obviously just close my mind to even a hint of the option to pursue the gay relationship, but I've got to say that I'd be much happier with that option being gone altogether.
Or... If you made Henry bi from the start it would not look like you're now slaves to a woke agenda or some external pressure to do this.

Don't ever call Henry "body type A" please :)

[PrinceOfPerversia]

I just hope the devs read this.

[smoketrees]

Publicado originalmente por Walrus Beard:

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

That was probably me, who answered back then.
I did not establish Henry as a character.

Now there is the option to be bi. But nobody will be forcing you to play as a bi character.
In addition to that... Henry can now also be more of a cat person, because now we have cats.

I have not played the game myself, however, people who have say that there is nothing in Henry's history in the first game that hints he could be bi or gay. Is it any wonder then that people think Warhorse bent the knee to pressure to include progressive elements? How do the developers explain this improbable change?

All we're going to get is that Henry isn't bi or gay, the player makes the choice. It's 100% a cop out but it's what we'll get. It only makes sense in the context of it being a video game and the romances being somewhat throw away.

For me It cheapens the character.

[gosuprime]

Publicado originalmente por Sassy:

Quoting WarhorseStudios, "Samesex romance, no you will play as Henry, the son of a Blacksmith from Silver Skalice, and he already does have a background Story in wich he is not a bi- oder ♥♥♥♥-sexual.
But there will be homosexual NPC characters in the game."

"Nobody will force you to do anything. But you will play as Henry the son of a blacksmith, and yes, he is staight, and white and male and from Bohemia.
Someone from France will not be able to play a french guy even if he loves his country. If you are in a wheelchair, you will be able to walk in the game.
And Henry will be able to have a dog in the game, even if you are more a kind of cat-person. You will play as a christian person, even if you are a moslem, hindu, atheist or jedi.

What if you are an artist, and drawing is your life, and now you have to play as a character who is not able to hold a brush or pen at all. Or if you are tall or small or big or skinny.

There is nothing wrong about people to have different preferences and heritages, but we can not cover them all and we don´t want to,
we want to tell the story of Henry the son of a Blacksmith from Silver Skalice, and he will be different from you, not only in his sexuality, but in his heritage,
in his looks and in his biography and many more. He maybe will be able to do things you are not able to do in real life while he lacks in other tasks in which you are great.
This game is not meant to be about you. You are not Henry, you are Yan Silva, and you will be able to play as Henry if you want to. You can play his role.

There are so much facets that creates a character, a person and individual. Being gay or straight is not the only difference between people. People are people."

https://imgur.com/a/WArpoMt

Had to be done.

So Warhorse Studio and Vavra both changed their mind, hmm

[Milkdust]

Publicado originalmente por smoketrees:

Publicado originalmente por Walrus Beard:

I have not played the game myself, however, people who have say that there is nothing in Henry's history in the first game that hints he could be bi or gay. Is it any wonder then that people think Warhorse bent the knee to pressure to include progressive elements? How do the developers explain this improbable change?

All we're going to get is that Henry isn't bi or gay, the player makes the choice. It's 100% a cop out but it's what we'll get. It only makes sense in the context of it being a video game and the romances being somewhat throw away.

For me It cheapens the character.

Exactly. If Henry can be "anyone," if Henry can be "you," then he really isn't Henry anymore, is he?

[gosuprime]

The dilemma is if you are nice to a male character, this might progress a romance option, when you are just being nice to a male character. It is problematic, because how does the game distinguish friendly banter, with romantic interest? It is immersion breaking to have friendly conversation suddenly become sexual. This is the problem. If you could define your Henry clearly as straight from the start, to avoid this scenario, it would be a non issue. What if you are friendly and pick all the correct options to trigger the relationship talk?

[Dr. Fusselpulli]

Publicado originalmente por Walrus Beard:

I have not played the game myself, however, people who have say that there is nothing in Henry's history in the first game that hints he could be bi or gay. Is it any wonder then that people think Warhorse bent the knee to pressure to include progressive elements? How do the developers explain this improbable change?

No, I don't wonder about it that there are people who don't like it.
It's expected, and they can issue their concerns and disappointment within reason.
I'm not mad at them or judge them, they're our customers.

The general answer is: We are an RPG where choice matters a lot, and if we can have more options instead of less options, then we rather take more options. Especially when those options are purely optional for the player, so people who don't like it, don't have to play it.

[AdahnGorion]

Publicado originalmente por Blindr:

Publicado originalmente por AdahnGorion:

This is unacceptable... making Henry a cat lover is unbeliable !!
(hopefully you see the sarcasm)

With that said, most people in medieval times disliked cats... So having Henry care and pet cats, should make villagers and others supect him of witchcraft or paganism

You can't blame them, they recently found out depictions of cat in kingdom of Bohemia and they included them, like the Mali muslim doctor.

I mean.. if the game was to have a somewhat realistic historical setting, petting cats in front of regular villagers and so forth should give you a reputation hit.
It would be awesome if petting cats could get you accused of witchcraft and give a special quest.. but most likely its just a gimmick, like with so many other games (for some odd reason, you can pet a cat in just about any game now a days)

[Dr. Fusselpulli]

Publicado originalmente por smoketrees:

All we're going to get is that Henry isn't bi or gay, the player makes the choice. It's 100% a cop out but it's what we'll get. It only makes sense in the context of it being a video game and the romances being somewhat throw away.

For me It cheapens the character.

You have valid points.

[Dr. Fusselpulli]

Publicado originalmente por gosuprime:

The dilemma is if you are nice to a male character, this might progress a romance option, when you are just being nice to a male character. It is problematic, because how does the game distinguish friendly banter, with romantic interest? It is immersion breaking to have friendly conversation suddenly become sexual. This is the problem. If you could define your Henry clearly as straight from the start, to avoid this scenario, it would be a non issue. What if you are friendly and pick all the correct options to trigger the relationship talk?

It's really not easy to get to this cutscene. You have to push much more with your choices then "just be nice" to a male character. This is not like the quest in KCD1 with Lady Stephanie where you accept a nice shirt and suddenly it happens...

[AdahnGorion]

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

Publicado originalmente por Walrus Beard:

I have not played the game myself, however, people who have say that there is nothing in Henry's history in the first game that hints he could be bi or gay. Is it any wonder then that people think Warhorse bent the knee to pressure to include progressive elements? How do the developers explain this improbable change?

No, I don't wonder about it that there are people who don't like it.
It's expected, and they can issue their concerns and disappointment within reason.
I'm not mad at them or judge them, they're our customers.

The general answer is: We are an RPG where choice matters a lot, and if we can have more options instead of less options, then we rather take more options. Especially when those options are purely optional for the player, so people who don't like it, don't have to play it.

It is not really that much of an RPG? (I love your first game and will most likely love the secound) this is more akin to what we call an Action Adventure, with light RPG elements.

Henry is a set character, with a set story and everything is railroaded with only few agency choices (that wont affect overall storyline) If you wanted to go the RPG way, then you would include options for us to change history and affect the world around us, also larger parts.

Ie.. if I was skilled enough, I should be able to sneak (highly unlikely ofc) into Sigismunds tent and poison him... ending history.
Its not like that here, its a set story, with set characters and one ending.

It is important for me to note, that I don´t dislike playersexual characters (I like it in my RPG´s or D&D sessions for that matter, its more choices)
But in terms of agency, the claim that its a full agency RPG is not really valid, as its not.


What draws us in, is all the funny things we can do in the sandbox away from the mainquest and such. Because there we do have more agency, albeit still limited.

[Sassy]

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

Publicado originalmente por Walrus Beard:

I have not played the game myself, however, people who have say that there is nothing in Henry's history in the first game that hints he could be bi or gay. Is it any wonder then that people think Warhorse bent the knee to pressure to include progressive elements? How do the developers explain this improbable change?

No, I don't wonder about it that there are people who don't like it.
It's expected, and they can issue their concerns and disappointment within reason.
I'm not mad at them or judge them, they're our customers.

The general answer is: We are an RPG where choice matters a lot, and if we can have more options instead of less options, then we rather take more options. Especially when those options are purely optional for the player, so people who don't like it, don't have to play it.

As a lover of the first game, not a problem I wont play it. From a game I was more hyped for then GTA 6 to a game I'm not gonna touch with a 10ft pole. I bet there's not even any animations for drinking beer.

[Columbus]

Publicado originalmente por Sassy:

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

No, I don't wonder about it that there are people who don't like it.
It's expected, and they can issue their concerns and disappointment within reason.
I'm not mad at them or judge them, they're our customers.

The general answer is: We are an RPG where choice matters a lot, and if we can have more options instead of less options, then we rather take more options. Especially when those options are purely optional for the player, so people who don't like it, don't have to play it.

As a lover of the first game, not a problem I wont play it. From a game I was more hyped for then GTA 6 to a game I'm not gonna touch with a 10ft pole.

Imagine being that woke, that you cancel a game for 2 little optional things. Have fun playing Malding Gay 3. Oh wait...

[Milkdust]

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

It's really not easy to get to this cutscene. You have to push much more with your choices then "just be nice" to a male character. This is not like the quest in KCD1 with Lady Stephanie where you accept a nice shirt and suddenly it happens...

Since it's so difficult to access anyway, it should be very easy to cut from the game.

[Gabe]

Publicado originalmente por Dr. Fusselpulli:

Publicado originalmente por gosuprime:

The dilemma is if you are nice to a male character, this might progress a romance option, when you are just being nice to a male character. It is problematic, because how does the game distinguish friendly banter, with romantic interest? It is immersion breaking to have friendly conversation suddenly become sexual. This is the problem. If you could define your Henry clearly as straight from the start, to avoid this scenario, it would be a non issue. What if you are friendly and pick all the correct options to trigger the relationship talk?

It's really not easy to get to this cutscene. You have to push much more with your choices then "just be nice" to a male character. This is not like the quest in KCD1 with Lady Stephanie where you accept a nice shirt and suddenly it happens...

Ok so you know enough about the studio's track record, and you actually expect us to trust you when you say "Don't worry the gay sex is very out of the way." if it's so out of the way, and a player who isn't trying for it can't possibly stumble into it through accepting a shirt when they just got done bleeding half to death over the one they were wearing presently,

Why can't you remove it from the game, put in some sort of mod, or just have the gay sex, and modern liberal blacks DLC? Why does it have to be in the game if it's so hard to find?