DeathStride wrote...
That's pretty awesome(FLBW) that a videogame like DA helped you with such an important part of your life, definitely going to mention this when people are bashing videogames for all the "bad things" they make people do. Sorry, I don't mean to sound callous and come in here just to tell you I'm going to use your personal life for my own gain or something- I truly am happy for you 
I completely agree that Bioware should keep up the trend of including non-hetero relationship options in their games and in general keep moving forward by abandoning the "norms" and the "accepted." That being said, I really would rather they do it the way they did in Origins where each person swung a certain way, they weren't just blank slates that were, as I saw one poster in these forums put it, "Hawke-sexuals."
The blank-slate category is exclusively designated for the main character so that each player can see themselves in him/her and make the character into what they imagine. The party-member/companions should be the exact opposite- they should be very carefully crafted and well defined characters that each have their own flavor of backstory and personality. By making the DA2 companions be whatever sexual orientation you wanted them to be, it makes the entire experience more bland, more one-size-fits-all generic stuff.
So if they want to make someone gay? make them gay. If they want someone to be straight, make them straight as a ruler. If they want someone BI, that's absolutely fine, but don't make them these bland/generic characters that'll just mold to whatever the player wants- that's the role of the player character.
Thoughts?
You know I thought about your question for a while. On the one hand, I do think that some people who have complained have done so out of discomfort or hatred, regardless of whether it's been overt or cloaked under other reasons. At the same time, there are others who, like yourself, have complained from a storytelling perspective. I certainlty can't give an opinion on how DA 2 feels to play for all queer gamers out there, nor would I try, but I can tell you how it felt for me.
First off, as in Dragon Age: Origins it felt good going into the game knowing already that there was going to be an option for me as a gay girl playing a female Hawke. I did not actually know, at the time I started playing the game, that all of the romance-able female characters were available to romanced by my Hawke. I sort of assumed that it would be like DA:O. There would be a bisexual character, and a straight character, and that was that. And if I happened to like the straight character more than the bisexual one I was just going to have to deal and accept being shoved into my niche. If I wanted a gay romance, past game experiences had told me, I wasn't going to have a choice of partner.
But then I played the game. And I of course romanced Isabella first, because it seemed like the only option. I actually remember the moment when I realized I had another option. I was running around the Wounded Coast area of the map with a party, including Merrill. My companions started background chatter. And there was dialogue between Merrill and Isabella. I don't completely remember the exchange, but I do know that Merill said something about Hawke being attractive, Isabella told her to keep it to herself, and Merill said something like "I'd rather keep it with her..."
It was sort of like a record screeched to a halt. "Whoa!" I thought. "Wait.... you mean that Merrill....... really? Also? Oooh!" so the next time I was back in the city you better believe I went to see if Merrill was actually romanceable, and was quite happy to find out that she was.
The idea that Merill and Isabella could both be romanced by a male Hawke has never bothered me. Because in my world, male Hawke doesn't exist. Hawke is a female. Throughout all my playthroughs this is and will be the case. So while I understand some people feeling like the fludity of characters sexuality in reaction to different gendered Hawke is unrealistic or takes away from the storytelling, it is a non-issue to me. I like having choice as a gay player, rather than being pigeonholed because statistics in the real world deem it so. Hope that answers your question.
Retour en haut
I hope you never feel the need to hide who you are. (There's really little more for me to add to that.)
