I know some fans would be happy if we just abandoned the effort [of romances] altogether. Generally those are people who don’t use that sort of content in our games anyhow, so us not pursuing it naturally wouldn’t bother them. I’ll just ignore the element who see romances as a thing that only “fangirls” like, and which is thus of lesser value to a “real game”.
To me, the thing that BioWare does best is not story but characters—I think our characters are done to a level that few other games even attempt, with an element of agency that strikes a chord in our players…and romances have been a natural outgrowth of that. Sure we could stop, but that would be turning our backs on something we do which almost no-one else does. The question would be: “why?” And what do we replace it with?
It’s possible we could answer that question. We’ve made a few games without romances before, and we could do it again. Perhaps, if we made a new IP, we might decide it’s best not to open that particular Pandora’s Box (which, yes, romances have always been) and go with something else…but that “something else” better be something damned good, as there are a lot of people who enjoy that part of our games immensely and who might not be willing to buy into a new series which didn’t have it. Some folks might be eager to write those fans off, but I’m not really sure that BioWare feels the same.
I think personally, the appeal that Bioware's games have for me compared to other series is the way in which character interactions feed back into the sense of ownership of a protagonist. Relating to characters as friends/rivals/whatever is in one sense another way of defining the player character, and this isn't something that a whole lot of other games do.
That doesn't necessarily mean romances are a must-have feature, but I definitely prefer Bioware's approach to a game that says: "here is your character - 99% of the time a white, straight male with a vaguely North American accent - go try to be immersed in the experience!" If a game is going to feature a romantic sub-plot at all, I vastly prefer there to be choice involved.
(And I definitely agree with David that characterisation is hands-down one of Bioware's greatest strengths - even if the main plots can be shaky or downright ridiculous [hi ME3], characters and conversations are almost always fantastic.)
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Can you say if the next ME will have a similarly high level of investment compared to previous trilogy?
