(Newser)
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Electronic Arts is launching a brave new world of gay relationships in online role-playing games, and that's sparking an Internet armageddon. EA has been lambasted by religious right-wingers who fear the dangerous influences of an imagined transgendered "Darth VaPaula" in a Star Wars game, and have begun a boycott against the company. They're being slammed in turn by gay rights activists. Now AllOut.org has yanked its anti-boycott petition off the Web because the petition itself had become a target of an army of spambots apparently launched by anti-gay forces.
Complicating matters are suspected PR stunts by EA itself to apparently inflate the war. But that's not the case now, an AllOut spokesman tells Forbes. “We are not arguing that Electronic Arts is a perfect company,” he explained. "But we know that today, on this issue, they are taking an important stand that should be supported. Anti-gay groups are the dark-side here. The Family Research Council is telling this company, and many others, that gay people have no place in our games, in our media and in our lives. That is unacceptable." Star Wars: The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3 will allow role-playing participants to not only choose what kind of character they'll play, but for the first time they'll also have an option to engage in a same sex romance.
