I'm a writer. I've written for games before (NOT bioware RPGs). For me, this debate is about two factors: How many hours of work would it take for me to add a bisexual romance option, and could I maintain character consistency while doing so?
Note: I give time investment estimates for implementing a particular bisexual option. These are based on my knowledge of the NWN scripting system and other in-game content management applications. It is possible that it is MUCH more difficult and time-intensive (or that it is much less difficult and time intensive) to work within Bioware scriptiong system, so take these esptimates with a grain of salt.
How possible it is to add in a relationship without altering the character's personality depends on several factors:
1 .How much does evidence of a character's predilictions spill outside of the romance dialogue trees?
2. How much change would be required
within existing romantic dialogue trees? Is it possible to write dialogue that would be believable, given the opposite gender's dialogue as cannon?
3. Is it possible to avoid accidentally flirting with the person, if your Shepard is not interested?
4. What do we know about that particular race or species's normal sexuality?
The easiest example here is Kaidan:
1. Evidence of Kaidan's affection for Female Shepard spill out constantly throughout the game. A huge amount of dialogue would have to be rewritten, and it would change everythign players know about the character. A gay or bi Kaidan would have to exist in an alternate universe from the current Kaidan Malesheps experience, or he would have to have an entirely different romantic relationship with Maleshep than he does with Femshep.
2.Kaidan compares you to other women, brings up past romances with women, and doesn't mention past romances with men. He mentions a girl he liked BY NAME. You can't just find and replace gender pronouns in his dialogue in order to adapt it. It would require a completely new rewrite.
3. It's easy not to show any interest in Kaidan as Femshep. You can either be curt and professional or actively discouraging. It would be easy to adapt this dialogue to maleshep, allowing him to shoot Kaidan down as well.
4. We know that most male humans are either straight or gay. Homosexuality is a minority, and bisexuality is an even smaller minority. Making Kaidan bisexual, given his established strong interest in women, would require a lot of explanation, and would be difficult to rationalize with known human sexuality. Also, Kaidan has already established that he has trouble controlling his flirtations with people to whom he is attracted. Reconciling the existing differences between his interactions with male and female Shepard in the context of the understood parameters of human bisexuality would require a lot of additional explanation.
Time required to implement bisexual romance: A lot. 12+ hours of writing, several days of Voice Recording. Complete dialogue overhaul.
Possibility of maintaining character personality consistency given romantic and non-romantic playthroughs on different genders: Low. Extremely difficult. You learn that Kaidan likes Femshep early and often, it would be very difficult to avoid this information.
Now, let's look at Tali:
1. Tali is equally friendly with both genders of Shepard. I am unaware of any dialogue outside her romance trees where she expresses a strong gender preference.
2. Tali's romantic dialogue trees refer to shared experiences with Shepard that created these romantic feelings. Since Tali has shared these experiences no matter what Shepard's gender is, it would be easy to find and replace gender pronouns and reuse the same dialogue with no other changes, similar to Liara.
3. No matter the gender, dialogue before flirtation with Tali is similar - the only change being that there is an option to explicitly start flirting if you are a male, while the dialogue ends for a female. A romance could be added while still allowing those who wish to remain platonic with Tali to do so.
4. We know little about Quarian sexuality, other than the fact that it isn't especially taboo for them to have relationships with other species, and that they often use nerve stimulation to do so without risking infection.
Development time required to implement bisexual romance: Less than an hour of writing. 1-2 hours of dialogue recording. 1 hour of data entry.
Possibility of maintaining character personality consistency given romantic and non-romantic playthroughs on different genders: High. It is easy to keep Tali as a platonic friend. The only thing that changes is the romantic dialogue trees. It is also easy to know Tali without ever determining what her sexual preferences are.
This is why, from a writer-developer standpoint, I don't think ALL mass effect romances should be bi, but I think that certain characters could be made Bi at a minimal expense and with minimal story impact.
While composing this, I made little notes about dialogue possibility and time estimates for most other characters, from this same writer/developer standpoint. I can do this with any ME romance, if anyone has any specific questions.
Modifié par CulturalGeekGirl, 24 mars 2011 - 01:59 .
Ce sujet est fermé
Retour en haut
Some people just don't consider their sexuality as a major defining feature in their lives. 
![=]](https://lvlt.forum.bioware.com/public/style_emoticons/default/sideways.png)
