That's if we're taking this question semi-seriously. It was clearly meant to be just a funny joke to pass the time until game release, an invitation to have a threadful of funny posts.
Yeah, you're right. I was being a douche that way. Time to put away my ego. Let's all pretend my only post was on the front page yeah? XD If only.
this is a very great thread... the first time i log in since a few weeks and saw this one on page 1 ... is minsc gay and what about boo? He must be a crossdresser??? and while i´m at it... Viconia might have a bumb in her panties...
@belgarathmth: Sorry for that. The intent indeed was levity, but also in reponse to the other thread - to let some air out - but I can see why it rubs a bit of salt - and it's a short hop to Jan Jansen? Jew/Not Jew? and etc. But this poll was a parody of "teh gay hysteria" or whatev...
Now on to the mental disability angle....firstly, yes we are all animals. Dogs doin' what dogs do. In my experience, knowing well around 30 individuals of such disabilities, and 100+ in occasional observation....you better believe they want boyfriends and girlfriends. Hetero, homo, etc., irrelevant to the fact of this being a primary underlying motivator...nesting....Minsc, I forget his INT, 6 or 7? Definitely would want a gf/bf, unless asexual. If you get to profound retardation, INT 3-4, there is still an instinctive sexuality w/o understanding, and many layers of human complexity that one might not expect...(I realize i am lumping aquired brain injury(Minsc) with retardation...there are fucntional similarities but most of my exp is MR) I think Minsc is probably straight. In the first AD&D game I played, the DM has an optional roll of a d10 or d12 for "preference"...so all of this is nothing new.... Thankfully, most had fun with this completely stupid thread(tm). I am particularly ashamed of "Is he full plate and packing steel?", but not enough to not mention it again. I am a terrible person.
Don't want to offend minsc, but he would need to be gay, understand himself as a gay, and position himself for what he want, however he's just not inteligent enough for that, he would be completly lost in the 2° point.
Are you... Are you suggesting that gay animals, a well known and common phenomenon in nature, have somehow been subjected to an awakening spell?
Oh please. There is a big difference between a human strictly identifying himself as homosexual, and an animal banging whatever it sees. That comparison seems almost disrespectful to me, amounting humans to mindless animals. kamuizin's point about needing to have intelligence to be a sexually-identified person is completely true ... Mentally incapacitated fellows like Minsc tend to be pretty much asexual, they just don't really think about these things.
My dog (Browny) had an ongoing sexual relationship with my friend's dog (Toby) over the course of several years. Both of them were male. They would have sex and run around and play together whenever they saw each other, but I never saw Browny do that with other dogs, and certainly not with the female dog next door. He would wait until my friend would come to visit (and bring Toby), and only then would he seem interested in anything sexual. Browny outlived Toby by several years. He never had such a relationship with another dog after that, although I did catch him humping my family's male cat a few times. I'm not sure how to define the relationship with the cat due to the species difference, but the relationship between Browny and Toby seems like it would clearly be gay. I don't know how else one could describe it.
@ARKdeEREH Please don't bother. My post is apparently very badly worded because I am aware of such occurrences and I was not trying to refute their existence, but at least four people in this thread took my post as meaning the exact opposite. Sorry about that.
"Gay? Of course I am gay! We are good and true examples to everyone, CHARNAME! Our deeds and swords shine brightly...in the spots that are not so covered in the bloody bits of our evil foes, of course! What is not to be happy about, eh?"
Some people here believe that "it would be morally wrong to take sexual advantage of Minsc, for the same reason that it would be morally wrong to take advantage of an impaired adult in real life". Wouldn't it be also morally wrong to take him along in a party where death is very probably to happen? Are we more sensitive in matters of sex rather than in matters of life/death???
Well, actually Minsc is not very experienced, he is like level 1 ranger, so he only have trained in being a ranger and have zero experience. If you cared much about him you would have led him in a safe place and left him there. As for the other part members, they choose by themselves to travel with you in dangerous places and quests. You don't decide to risk their lives, they do this by themselves, being capable to make this decision.
I realize that I share a lot of the responsibility for this, but we are all getting way too serious here. I'm ready to lighten up. I don't think any offense has been intended by anybody.
LOL - let's get some perspective. We're here to share our mutual hobby of high fantasy roleplaying gaming with each other. We're all friends, I hope. I know we've gone over and over in the other "gay" thread about how it can be important to have representations of minorities in games. It can bring healing, and a better world, etc., etc.
But isn't the bottom line really to have fun? Baldur's Gate is a GAME. Happy, happy, fun times for all.
I like a lot of realism and believability in my rpg's, and I like to get totally immersed, and I like to pretend like that's really me in there, but, I have fun while I do that. Beyond a certain point, realism in rpg's just gets ridiculous.
I'm starting to regret that I got serious about this thread. @Quartz's jokes about Minsc's lines were hilarious! I had no idea that Minsc was such a dirty, dirty, bad boy!
@GygaxianProse, you're not a terrible person. It was a funny idea. If it was a crowd of all gay people, we'd probably make jokes about Minsc being possibly gay and nobody would think twice about it, and everybody would be laughing and having a good time. It's just that tensions about the issue are running a little high in the forum right now because of that other thread.
@belgarathmth: Sorry for that. The intent indeed was levity, but also in reponse to the other thread - to let some air out - but I can see why it rubs a bit of salt - and it's a short hop to Jan Jansen? Jew/Not Jew? and etc. But this poll was a parody of "teh gay hysteria" or whatev...
Now on to the mental disability angle....firstly, yes we are all animals. Dogs doin' what dogs do. In my experience, knowing well around 30 individuals of such disabilities, and 100+ in occasional observation....you better believe they want boyfriends and girlfriends. Hetero, homo, etc., irrelevant to the fact of this being a primary underlying motivator...nesting....Minsc, I forget his INT, 6 or 7? Definitely would want a gf/bf, unless asexual. If you get to profound retardation, INT 3-4, there is still an instinctive sexuality w/o understanding, and many layers of human complexity that one might not expect...(I realize i am lumping aquired brain injury(Minsc) with retardation...there are fucntional similarities but most of my exp is MR) I think Minsc is probably straight. In the first AD&D game I played, the DM has an optional roll of a d10 or d12 for "preference"...so all of this is nothing new.... Thankfully, most had fun with this completely stupid thread(tm). I am particularly ashamed of "Is he full plate and packing steel?", but not enough to not mention it again. I am a terrible person.
I got confused about your association with the word 'mental disability' and relating it to people to with low intelligence. Not wanting to be prejucided against people with low intelligence, but to my opinion mental disability is something different. Not being a native english speaker, I googled it and on Wikipedia 'mental disability' redirects to 'mental disorder', which is the route I thought the word points to in English. People like me, with disorders like depression, anxiety, schizofrenia etc. You could pop in the Asperger syndrome, but I think more in the line of people like Xzar and Xan when thinking about mental disabilities than Minsc.
Making people with mental disabilities a quite well represented minority in numbers, though maybe less in imaging (a thought I always had in the back of my head when talking about gay romances - how much am I represented as a minority).
*edit: Minsc suffering problems from a blow on the head puts him in the category of neurological disorders and non-congenital brain disorders, rather than with mental retardation (it's not my term, i got it from Wikipedia, is there a better term? In dutch we say cognitive limitation, is that proper english?).
@Son_of_Imoen - The beauty of English; make up a word out of existing words that is about right. It's nice like that. If there's one thing all these psychology text books enforce is that mental states, positive, negative and those in between, are far too vast and all encompassing to categorise neatly with just a few terms.
And yes, idiocy is not a mental disorder, at least in that sense. As for Minsc, that would probably be psychosis if anything (depending on whether Boo is indeed correctly identified as a Space Hamster, or is merely a hamster infused with mystical powers we can't possibly understand). Asexuality is not a symptom of psychosis however.
Actually thinking about it, you do travel with a metric ton of walking mental disorders ranging from acute codependency to outright megalomania. Perhaps the Bhaalspawn should use their powers to become the god of psychiatry?
I would love him to be gay just to piss out the homophobic crowd.
Really? You'd like him to be changed for the sole purpose of griefing others and changing the story?
My vote (And it's really a fact, not a vote.) is that Minsc is heterosexual, as he was and still is in love with Dynaheir, who is clearly a female and not a male. I have never encountered anything in the Baldur's Gate saga to lead me to believe that Minsc is homosexual.
Great post, @Pantalion. It slipped from my mind, but if Boo *isn't really* a miniature giant space hamster (oh, the heresy), it could indeed be diagnosed as a psychotic delusion from Minsc's part.
Agreed there's more disorders to be found, like the narcisism of Eldoth as one more example. And Alora is suffering from chronic happiness. Wish I had that ;-).
Does anyone else feel like this thread has drifed into something akin to a serious debate about the definition of sexuality and the specific sexuality of Cookie Monster, Grover and Elmo based on "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship Come and Play Edition?"
Yes, with that weird american bleep-censorship I always wonder what word it was you should fill in the bleep. It's just easier if things aren't bleeped. @Quartz post about Minsc and all the **** was very confusing in that regard.
Boo is actually a rakish captain of a spelljammer who was indeed polymorphed by a furious mage that he double-crossed into a giant space hamster, then miniaturized during a wild surge when the mage Gated him to Toril. The effects have apparently been permanent.
Minsc still relates to him as a hamster however.
I don't think he was any happier than Minsc was about being "hidden away" in Irenicus' dungeon.
That's my "fanon" anyway. I might just write it, lol.*
(I do think the best way to appreciate Minsc is that Boo is just a regular old hamster, but this adds some fun creativity.)
* Still have to invent why the "real" Boo doesn't fully explain everything to Minsc... Maybe he's tried and it's all just too much for Minsc to process?
The only flaw in BG EE is the lack of a friendly mod interface to make possible to people mod the game even without a good knowledge of programs. That would make roleplay astounting.
If by that you mean astoundingly flooded with badly written Mary Sue NPCs and romances, then yeah, I agree.
@Son_of_Imoen:Yes, sorry, there is a mixing of terms and imprecision here, as is often the case....the common term to which I am refering is "developmental disability". "Mental disability" is not a term I hear much at work. But then a brain injury can resemble mental retardation, which is a brain injury itself, in the womb....and then any and all mental disorders such as you mention can effect people who also have a developmental disability or aquired brain injury...all humans.... And anyway, personal choice is why I'd allow Minsc in the party. He has a disability - I think its a IQ below 70 that is on par with mild retardation.... but he can still advocate for himself, and is a formidable warrior. And he's dedicated to fighting evil, with you or without you. The relationship question is thornier, but I think Minsc is probably capable of consent as well.
Comments
Minsc loves Boo.
Its a Bromance... Or more likely we need a completely new word for it... A Boomance.
Now on to the mental disability angle....firstly, yes we are all animals. Dogs doin' what dogs do. In my experience, knowing well around 30 individuals of such disabilities, and 100+ in occasional observation....you better believe they want boyfriends and girlfriends. Hetero, homo, etc., irrelevant to the fact of this being a primary underlying motivator...nesting....Minsc, I forget his INT, 6 or 7? Definitely would want a gf/bf, unless asexual. If you get to profound retardation, INT 3-4, there is still an instinctive sexuality w/o understanding, and many layers of human complexity that one might not expect...(I realize i am lumping aquired brain injury(Minsc) with retardation...there are fucntional similarities but most of my exp is MR)
I think Minsc is probably straight. In the first AD&D game I played, the DM has an optional roll of a d10 or d12 for "preference"...so all of this is nothing new....
Thankfully, most had fun with this completely stupid thread(tm). I am particularly ashamed of "Is he full plate and packing steel?", but not enough to not mention it again. I am a terrible person.
My dog (Browny) had an ongoing sexual relationship with my friend's dog (Toby) over the course of several years. Both of them were male. They would have sex and run around and play together whenever they saw each other, but I never saw Browny do that with other dogs, and certainly not with the female dog next door. He would wait until my friend would come to visit (and bring Toby), and only then would he seem interested in anything sexual. Browny outlived Toby by several years. He never had such a relationship with another dog after that, although I did catch him humping my family's male cat a few times. I'm not sure how to define the relationship with the cat due to the species difference, but the relationship between Browny and Toby seems like it would clearly be gay. I don't know how else one could describe it.
@ARKdeEREH: Poor cat...Sorry, but a dog doing a cat... that's disturbing. I'd keep my cat away from that dog, honestly.
Wouldn't it be also morally wrong to take him along in a party where death is very probably to happen? Are we more sensitive in matters of sex rather than in matters of life/death???
As for the other part members, they choose by themselves to travel with you in dangerous places and quests. You don't decide to risk their lives, they do this by themselves, being capable to make this decision.
LOL - let's get some perspective. We're here to share our mutual hobby of high fantasy roleplaying gaming with each other. We're all friends, I hope. I know we've gone over and over in the other "gay" thread about how it can be important to have representations of minorities in games. It can bring healing, and a better world, etc., etc.
But isn't the bottom line really to have fun? Baldur's Gate is a GAME. Happy, happy, fun times for all.
I like a lot of realism and believability in my rpg's, and I like to get totally immersed, and I like to pretend like that's really me in there, but, I have fun while I do that. Beyond a certain point, realism in rpg's just gets ridiculous.
I'm starting to regret that I got serious about this thread. @Quartz's jokes about Minsc's lines were hilarious! I had no idea that Minsc was such a dirty, dirty, bad boy!
@GygaxianProse, you're not a terrible person. It was a funny idea. If it was a crowd of all gay people, we'd probably make jokes about Minsc being possibly gay and nobody would think twice about it, and everybody would be laughing and having a good time. It's just that tensions about the issue are running a little high in the forum right now because of that other thread.
Making people with mental disabilities a quite well represented minority in numbers, though maybe less in imaging (a thought I always had in the back of my head when talking about gay romances - how much am I represented as a minority).
*edit: Minsc suffering problems from a blow on the head puts him in the category of neurological disorders and non-congenital brain disorders, rather than with mental retardation (it's not my term, i got it from Wikipedia, is there a better term? In dutch we say cognitive limitation, is that proper english?).
And yes, idiocy is not a mental disorder, at least in that sense. As for Minsc, that would probably be psychosis if anything (depending on whether Boo is indeed correctly identified as a Space Hamster, or is merely a hamster infused with mystical powers we can't possibly understand). Asexuality is not a symptom of psychosis however.
Actually thinking about it, you do travel with a metric ton of walking mental disorders ranging from acute codependency to outright megalomania. Perhaps the Bhaalspawn should use their powers to become the god of psychiatry?
My vote (And it's really a fact, not a vote.) is that Minsc is heterosexual, as he was and still is in love with Dynaheir, who is clearly a female and not a male. I have never encountered anything in the Baldur's Gate saga to lead me to believe that Minsc is homosexual.
Agreed there's more disorders to be found, like the narcisism of Eldoth as one more example. And Alora is suffering from chronic happiness. Wish I had that ;-).
****kicking for censorship!
Minsc still relates to him as a hamster however.
I don't think he was any happier than Minsc was about being "hidden away" in Irenicus' dungeon.
That's my "fanon" anyway. I might just write it, lol.*
(I do think the best way to appreciate Minsc is that Boo is just a regular old hamster, but this adds some fun creativity.)
* Still have to invent why the "real" Boo doesn't fully explain everything to Minsc... Maybe he's tried and it's all just too much for Minsc to process?
And anyway, personal choice is why I'd allow Minsc in the party. He has a disability - I think its a IQ below 70 that is on par with mild retardation.... but he can still advocate for himself, and is a formidable warrior. And he's dedicated to fighting evil, with you or without you. The relationship question is thornier, but I think Minsc is probably capable of consent as well.