Countless other games have straight romances (Dishonored, Silent Hill V, Dead Space, Witcher, Alan Wake, Wolf Among Us, Overlord, to name a few). There no one complains about romances. Then you get to BW games, which have more choices and people enjoy it, and suddenly it's accused of being a dating sim.
I'm not familiar with some of those titles -- I'm not a very widely played gamer -- but the few that I do know have fixed protagonists. Sure, you can have some RP variation, but it is still a pre-defined character, more or less. Perhaps that is one of the differences?
I mean, perhaps this is naive of me, but I'd really like not to think that the sole reason Bioware romances come under such criticism is because they include LGBT romance content. Even our own Gay KISA thread has criticism of those romances for one reason or another. Although, I do admit that the continual shouts of the devs "pandering" does tend to make it seem that way...
Perhaps it is that very option of variety that emboldens players with certain preferences. By preferences here I am referring to the gay roguish type versus the KISA type, or similar types of people, not sexualities. Ever since DA2 showed the obvious KISA Avaline, players have been wanting that type for a f/f romance, then that group (myself included) was also locked out of a romance with Cassandra. Of course that is Bioware's right and the writer should do what they feel is right for the character they're creating -- I feel strongly about that. On the other hand, the fact that we have had such variety does make the disappointment a bit stronger and makes one wistfully say, "Well, maybe next time..."
Then again, one really can't discount some of the posts remarking on the lack of "attractive" females in DAI, and the sense of entitlement shown by those players. I'm not sure how much of this you saw, Biotic, but post-release, and for several months afterward, there were occasional threads concerning Josephine, and particularly Cassandra, and how they weren't attractive, or [that Cassandra was] too manly, or other things. One person kept posting under different names, and once even tried to give evidence concerning objective standards of beauty. It was all pretty disgusting.
I seem to have gotten away from my premise, that is, that the ability to choose goes to some players' heads and then leads to entitlement from already privileged groups. I can't even begin to count the number of times that the devs, not just David Gaider, but several of them, had to point out that straight males got the same number of options as in the previous two games, yet they still continued to play the victim because some players got more.
I really don't know how they managed to restrain themselves and not say, "Boo, f-ing hoo," although I think DG did some close on one occasion with some remarks, bless his heart.
Uh... I get too carried away sometimes. All apologies.
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