Game Politics has an interesting article about gay marriage in Lord of the Rings, and specifically their decision to disallow it. Choice clip:

The rule that we tried to follow across the board was: if there’s an example of it in the book, the door is open to explore it. Very rarely will you see an elf and a human hook up, but it does happen; the door is open. Dwarves don’t intermarry with hobbits; that door is shut … Did two male hobbits ever hook up in the shire and have little hobbit civil unions? No. The door is shut.

Tolkien was a conservative Catholic. He went out drinking with C.S. Lewis every night, and the two of them had a worldview that was — well, let’s just say it clashes a little bit with the sensibilities of East Coast liberals who make up the largest population of Turbine.

This is, of course, not the first time that this issue has risen up to bite a dev team in the keister. I’m sure many will remember WoW’s dustup with their no-gay-guild policy.

That being said, some might argue that Turbine’s policy isn’t completely accurate.