Dragon Age: Inquisition - Concerns for Romances

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Well it seems the man you all love to hate David Gaider has another post on his Tumblr blog where he talks about the romances in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

On Concerns Regarding DAI Romances

I’ve been rather heads-down at work as of late, so I’ll admit to not being quite abreast of discussions in the fandom as I sometimes am (even though, at the best of times, I generally only get wind of such things well after they’ve occurred).

So after the excited burbling following the trailer release and subsequent announcements, it was a bit of a surprise to hear of concerns regarding Inquisition’s romance system. I didn’t think we’d actually broached the topic yet, but some comments were made in a recent interview that have been subject to speculation and some alarm. Naturally it’s not something everyone’s interested in for Inquisition, but some people are very interested and also invested in what we’re going to do.

I don’t normally do this, but since I answered a couple of questions on the BioWare forums on the subject—and have had it pointed out to me numerous times that the Tumblr crowd is not always privy to the goings-on of our forums—I’ll repost my answers here. Until we can discuss the matter at length (which will eventually come, even if it feels like it will be never be soon enough), it’s really the most I can do. If you have other questions, feel free to message me…just understand that my blog is not really intended as an “Inquisition information center”, and the questions I can answer regarding things which haven’t yet been revealed is very limited.

I hope it helps, and look forward to the whirlwind of information and speculation (as well as excitement, on our part as well as yours) to come over the next, oh, six months or so.
More information.
 
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I like options in games. I'd like to have an option to disable the romance stuff in BioWare games. The whole idea of a romance in an RPG like this is just pathetic beyond pathetic. The only thing it adds to me is a creepy factor, but not in a horror kind of way, but in a stay 300 yards away from the school kind of way.
 
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Gaider... I hate to love him, not vice versa. :D

Voqar you can refuse to romance during the game through the dialogue, I don't think they'll change that. But yes, Bioware's romances tend to be creepy. We're covered in blood after the fight and now we're sweettalking? Or the thing I've mentioned in another thread, if you "cheat" on Miranda in ME3 - she dies.
There will definetly be romances in DA:I and I'll give one a shot. Which one, dunno. Romancing Flemmeth would be interesting but I dount that'd be a possibility. It meets the creepy requirement, but is not mainstream enough - unless she adds the plastic boobs and botoxes her face.
 
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Hum… if you consider sweettalking when being covered in blood creepy, why do you let your player character start sweettalking when being covered in blood?

(In case there are situations where these dialogs are triggered automatically, my question is nonsense of course. ;) )
 
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I like romances in RPGs. In fact I would like it further developed, just like skill trees. Some jRPGs are even based on that, with companions becoming more powerful and having extra abilities depending on your relationship level with them.
 
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Don't read much of Gaiders stuff because the man usually annoys me, this text i can get behind though.
I mean romances in Bioware games are a given and the ones in Mass effect were kinda okish.
DA always had arkward romances though and DA2 went completely overboard imo basically focusing on making everyone Hawksexual and forgetting to actually develop the characters (On a plus side the "love" scenes in both game were hilarious in a sad way).

Gaider saying they will focus more on the characters stories and less on making sure people can romance who they want to is a good thing.
DA2 had tons more problems than just flat characters though so i'm still not very hopeful for DA3 :p.

Oh 2 more things:
1. I'm amazed some people really think the DA2 romances were done well.
2. If you read the official Bioware forums it seems most people would be happy if Bioware just made some DA fanfic slash and left the game part out.

Imo it's kinda sad.
 
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I seem to recall liking the romance in KotOR with Bastila - but then again, I was a lot younger.

Was that Gaider?
 
I seem to recall liking the romance in KotOR with Bastila - but then again, I was a lot younger.

Was that Gaider?

Hmm according to wikipedia he was doing stuff for BW since BG2.

I dunno i liked the romances in BG2, i was a teenager back then but i remember them somewhat fondly.
 
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Hmm according to wikipedia he was doing stuff for BW since BG2.

I dunno i liked the romances in BG2, i was a teenager back then but i remember them somewhat fondly.

Never played BG2 enough to experience the romances.

About Gaider, I don't think he's a bad writer - it's just the whole Bioware style of writing that doesn't appeal to me. Well, not for many years, at least.
 
What people don't seem to understand is that writing a fictional character is like writing your own child. It's personal, you (should) love it and you hate when ppl tell you how that person should be instead.
I'm a writer..and when I write a character I spend time and effort into making that character personalized in a way that I wish. If that character is not gay then it's not gay, simple as. If anyone told me that character should have been gay I'd tell them to fk off find a date simulator instead.

If I see a cute girl on the street, I don't try to flirt her up then yell at her for not being gay. So why should we yell at Bioware for not making a certain character gay?
 
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I was "meh" on game romances until the Mass Effect series, which blew me away on so many levels. Now I see the potential, when done well. Ah, Ashley… (sigh)

But on the flip side, I can see how it would be a maddening task as a game developer since you're playing with fire there. We've seen that in the endless rants that Gaider seems to provoke… basically every time he opens his text.

I like Gaider, tho. I enjoyed his DA novels and I appreciate his honesty, even if it is a bit abrasive at times.
 
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Hum… if you consider sweettalking when being covered in blood creepy, why do you let your player character start sweettalking when being covered in blood?
I guess I'm just a common pervert. :)

The truth is… Just because I can. I will say afterwards it stinks though, won't go praising the design fail or pretend it's not there like review sites do.

If I see a cute girl on the street, I don't try to flirt her up then yell at her for not being gay. So why should we yell at Bioware for not making a certain character gay?
Erm…
I don't remember someone getting "too excited" on Bioware for not making someone gay. But I do remember (yells that) certain romances are poorly written. In some other thread I've said that it does feel plain silly when my Shepard, which I made pretty ugly both inside and outside, is a love interest for almost every shipmate. That's IMO a case of bad writing in general, and not connected to including or excluding gay romances.
 
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What people don't seem to understand is that writing a fictional character is like writing your own child. It's personal, you (should) love it and you hate when ppl tell you how that person should be instead.
I'm a writer..and when I write a character I spend time and effort into making that character personalized in a way that I wish. If that character is not gay then it's not gay, simple as. If anyone told me that character should have been gay I'd tell them to fk off find a date simulator instead.

This exactly.
The writers should write the characters as they see them.
Changing them up to please everyone just ruins the characters.
 
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I guess I'm just a common pervert. :)

But I do remember (yells that) certain romances are poorly written. In some other thread I've said that it does feel plain silly when my Shepard, which I made pretty ugly both inside and outside, is a love interest for almost every shipmate. That's IMO a case of bad writing in general, and not connected to including or excluding gay romances.
I've never experienced this, as I've played a good-guy-Shepard only, but if that's the case, it's a problem and a huge flaw indeed. If the protagonist is an asshole, he/she shouldn't be able to be everybody's darling. That's what role playing is about.
 
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I seem to recall liking the romance in KotOR with Bastila - but then again, I was a lot younger.

Was that Gaider?

I believe so. I remember him talking about the KoTOR romances a while back.
Edit: Gaider wrote part of Bastila including some of the romance and Drew wrote the rest of "her".

DA2 went completely overboard imo basically focusing on making everyone Hawksexual and forgetting to actually develop the characters

DA2 having everyone bisexual was a side effect of the dev trying to get at least 2 choices to romance by sexuality (gay, straight, bisexual). Of course, that setup caused some players to expect they could romance everyone in future games and now they are angry because they fear they are going to get shafted (aka won't get that one character they wanted to romance after looking at some screenshot). No idea how these people will react to the "no rivalmance" and "affection meter is sort of back".

Now, we also have at least one non-companion romance in DAI and people are scared to get shafted there as well (Gaider said he didn't like non-companion romance, so I expect this to be the case).
 
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Those some players who'll get angry just because they can't romance adorable looks on a screenshot of some NPC are retarded.
 
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DA2 having everyone bisexual was a side effect of the dev trying to get at least 2 choices to romance by sexuality (gay, straight, bisexual). Of course, that setup caused some players to expect they could romance everyone in future games and now they are angry because they fear they are going to get shafted (aka won't get that one character they wanted to romance after looking at some screenshot). No idea how these people will react to the "no rivalmance" and "affection meter is sort of back".

Yeah and it was a bad idea to start with, they obviously rushed out the game anyways.

And if you want to be inclusive but don't have time to flesh out characters each way, it would probably would have been smarter to just leave the whole romance thing out.

Well Bioware made it's bed i guess, now they lie in it.

I wonder how people that react so strongly to not being able to date the pixels they want deal with RL rejections.
 
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I find much of this rather confusion. The romances are optional so I never really understood all the angst against them.

Personally I really enjoy them - they are a major highlight (highlight not the core) to any game and not just Biowares. I like when the companions are more then pack mules and meat shields. I like them to have personalities and react to things. The more the better. I would like to see a few more BFF and bromances - there is more to a relationship then a sexual or romantic one after all. Some real good sheild-brother/sister ones. I rather preferred my main characters bromance with Alistair in DAO and I felt that worked better than if he had been a gay romance option - he was far better the way he was written.

I also don't understand the general tirade about writing and awkward scenes in a romance. Ghosh this isn't a movie, real people, or some game running on a CRAY. Its a simple game with a ton of limitations. Go with the props the play provides and use your imagination to flesh it out. I prefer to just enjoy some of the added content then get overly critical and bitchy about it.
 
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Wow.....silly me, I'm usually all about getting exp and lewts in crpgs. Maybe I've been doing it wrong for the past 30 yrs, lol. Who cares bout romance in games, I figure you're as likely to get laid while playing a computer game as you are while reading a novel....which is to say, not at all. Start with designing a game that doesn't suck, then we can talk about other things. That hasn't happened for Bioware since the first Dragon Age.
 
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Wow…..silly me, I'm usually all about getting exp and lewts in crpgs. Maybe I've been doing it wrong for the past 30 yrs, lol. Who cares bout romance in games, I figure you're as likely to get laid while playing a computer game as you are while reading a novel….which is to say, not at all. Start with designing a game that doesn't suck, then we can talk about other things. That hasn't happened for Bioware since the first Dragon Age.
Romances and LGBT pandering are the only things setting biowares games apart from every other RPG. Without them they are just another company making generic RPGs.
 
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