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[TheBlackAdder13]

So I've been reading the Cullen thread and I've been thinking about Bioware's latest trend of having most LIs bisexual - a la DA 2. I understand the arguments about  resource efficency/meta-gaming/more player options/etc but honestly I really strongly prefer the way Origins handled LIs. I know the devs will probably call this meta-gaming so here's some insight on how I play my game: my first playthourgh is always my canon playthrough but I imagine subsequent playthroughs as "what-if" secnarios -- meaning this would happen if events played out slightly differently, etc. I disagree with the devs that this is meta-gaming because I'm not playing to optimize certain outcomes, rather, I'm playing to get a greater feel for the story and the world and using alternate "what-if" scenarios to flesh out my understanding of the events that surronded my canon character. This is why I did playthroughs of all the origins in Origins after completing the game with my canon city elf. 

Thus, if a charater is gay for my Hawke but then I do the opposite gender Hawke on another play thorough, the character still seems "bi" to me. I think Origins was a good start for LGBT equality in that it had two bi and two straight companions but making the character's sexual orientation revolve around your PC's gender just strikes me as too unrealistic, and, perhaps more convincingly, I actually think it's somewhat unfair to LGBT players. 

Why? We've never seen an exlucsively gay or lesbian companion LI in Dragon Age. Leliana and Zevran were great bi characters but making all the LIs in DA2 playersexual makes them bi in my mind and, frankly, it just wasn't convincing that they were ALL bi as the percentage of the population that's bi isn't that high. The sole exception to this was Isabella because it had previously been established in Origins and it was further explored through companion banter in DA2. Now straight people have had three exclusively straight interests (Alistair, Morrigan and Sebastian). This doesn't seem fair to lesbian/gay players, especially because there was an exclusively straight LI in DA2. Yes, the game where every other LI is playersexual/bi has an exclusively straight LI but no excluisvely gay LI. And yet I see many LGBT players laud the playersexual system as fair and inclusive even though Sebastian was not a fair and exlucisve LI.

Note, I think Sebastian makes more sense as a straight character so I'm advocating for a similar consistency amongst all LIs. Bioware writes romances after they've established the companion, their backstory and character so I would prefer Bioware to remain consistent with this method by determining the sexual orientation of each LI and not making them "playersexual." In short, I strongly prefer LIs who are definitively gay, bi or straight, rather than being devoid of a sexual orientation and merely be unquesitongly in love with the player no matter what. 

Just to shed some more light on how I go through my first/canon playthrough, I randomize EVERYTHING, including my character's sexual orientation. I use a random integer generator to determine my character's race, gender, class, etc. as well as to determine if my character is gay, straight or bi. My warden was a straight city elf male warrior and romanced Leliana while Hawke was gay male warrior and romanced Anders (because I didn't recruit Fenris for roleplaying reasons). So, although I'm a gay male, I don't neccesarily confine myself to same-sex LIs or even male PCs. 

I'm curious to see the opinions of other LGBT Dragon Age players on my thoughts because to me it seems that a lot of them are keen on the playersexual romances but I think this might be because Bioware has never actually made an excluisvely gay LI so they see it as the only alternative to mostly straight LIs with a few bisexual LIs thrown in. Where as we've had Alistair, Morrigan and Sebastian as exlusively straight LIs. 

Modifié par TheBlackAdder13, 17 novembre 2012 - 01:56 .

[David Gaider]

As I've said in other threads (and which people in this thread have mentioned), our ideal would be to have a spread of set sexualities among the romanceable companions-- if we had enough resources to make it an even spread.

DAO did indeed have set sexualities, but that left gay fans with only one romance option. So making companions "playersexual" (if that's the term you prefer) is a matter of fairness. Yes, fairness and fun gameplay win out over meta-gaming (the only way you can even know this is occurring). The game is made to be played, not to create accurate depictions of sexuality.

As for the writing of the romances, we were pretty careful to keep them ambiguous with Merrill and Fenris-- less so with Isabela and Anders, who do express preferences. If you feel differently, that's your call... YMMV, as the saying goes, which is pretty obvious seeing as impressions vary according to the poster. I'd say that perception is a wonderful thing, and you'll probably see what you want to see.

At any rate, I'm closing this down. This kind of thread always devolves into the same mess, and we haven't said anything about romances in DA3 or our approach to them yet, so there's no need for another hypothetical argument.