I actually disagree kind of...? But I'm a proponent of "playersexual" love interests in video games. It's more like... I like imagining the characters and the romance a certain way. One playthrough I'm playing a bisexual male Hawke who romances Fenris, who is gay. In another playthrough, I'm envisioning Hawke as gay this time but Fenris is bisexual. The game lets me do this, so why not? I can create so many different kinds of stories that way. And really it doesn't fundamentally change Hawke or Fenris.
I just like being able to take charge of the story, especially when it comes to romance. I particularly loved romancing Solas (of course had to mod it to do so with a guy) because I could easily headcanon that my inquisitor was asexual. I really, really like that.
However, I also like having very much defined background characters. I'm sick and tired of the pantheon of straight couples that overshadow every game I've ever played, including BioWare games. I want to see more gay, lesbian, bi, and so on characters.
I love being able to romance whoever I want in games like Skyrim. (Of course, me being the contrary sort, I always want to romance the unavailable ones... hello Brynjolf and Ulfric romance mods!) I suppose you could call everyone in Skyrim bisexual. However I don't think that's the case canonically. They're video game characters whose sexuality is fluid and player-controlled, just like almost every other aspect of the game. In the same way I sit down to write a story and decide to make a character straight, then midway through the story change my mind and make her bi. *shrugs* She's still the same character. I just came up with a great idea that involves her having a girlfriend. And maybe if I decided to reuse that character in another story, I'd make her lesbian, just because it works better in that story.
In short, they are characters, not real people... but that isn't to say representation doesn't matter because it does. So, it's a tricky line to walk. I'm just not fond of blanket statements.
I understand what you're saying and appreciate you're desire to "control" the sexuality of characters for game play reasons. What you're asking for is many versions of the same character, each version being the most appealing depending on your playthrough.
As a game that you actively take part in, you can control so much of the world you play in. Very little is static in the game world and having this almost god-like ability to control the fates of the people in it is certainly enjoyable.
At some point though, we have to look at the characterisation of NPCs and give up that control so we can be told a story. In Skyrim, I could marry almost anyone but they didn't feel like real people beyond very shallow personalities so the trade-off for that freedom wasn't worth it to me.
That's not to say I'm necessarily against making all Lis bi (and calling the mechanic playersexual). LIs make up a very small portion of the game population so it doesn't break my suspension of disbelief. I just think we should just call them and treat them as what they are, which is bisexual people. They are not straight except for the player character which is what playersexual implies.
You obviously enjoy head canon and so do I to an extent but I also like to give up control and be taken on a ride. I like characters that are what they are and my character be dammed. I don't really like to "harden" Leliana or Alistair or choose between dark side/light side Jaesa in SWTOR. I'm not saying that you can't influence characters but having that direct control over who they are lessens them as individuals to me.





Retour en haut




