Dragon Age: Inquisition - Concerns for Romances

I find much of this rather confusion. The romances are optional so I never really understood all the angst against them.
I agree with you but you have answered your own question. It's angst or rather a mild version of a phobia. But, at the other end of the scale, the very same phobia is behind the attempts to ban games, films, books, opposition to the granting of the equal rights to the minorities etc, etc, etc…
 
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Call me a hopeless cyber romantic, but Ive started to like romance in games.

Or just call me hopeless....
 
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Romances: a subject guaranteed to generate much contention in discussion forums.

Mostly I'm meh about pre-scripted romances in games. I prefer the literary form.
 
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But romances in DA:O did have their own quest lines so each added to the game even if it was not very much.
 
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I don't mind romance in game if its tied to character development, but I dislike/hate it otherwise. I also hate sex scenes - it makes me extremely uncomfortable especially because my hubby is next to me playing another game. I preferred good old BW romances with texts only without explicit sex description. I mean, this is not meant to be sad, lame porn, its a game!! But lately I find BW focusing too much on sex (especially DA series) and sadly I know a LOT of girls who love & want more of that… It can get quite disturbing.
 
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.

That's the most honest post in this thread so far, especially the last two sentences.
 
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No. The third sentence (from any direction) is honest. The rest is… Irrelevant. :D
 
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I am not one who cares about this, but whatever. I guess I'm old fashioned in that I think about all the effort put into romances should be put into making more dungeons or areas to explore in the game, or more character options, or the story line more interesting and have more intricate quests, etc etc.
 
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I am just surprise there is 29 replies to this thread. If DA3 is anything like DA2 it will last all of 2-3 hours on my hard drive so it won't matter much if there is or isn't Romance in the game.
 
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I guess I can't be honest and enjoy other things than loot and experience - but so be it.

I'd love a well-written romance in any CRPG - but that takes something that seems quite elusive to Bioware. The most obvious of which would be a plausible romance with characters that seem real, rather than teenage fantasies.

For instance, while I appreciated Liara's personality in Mass Effect on some level - I struggle to imagine a less convincing adult alien scientist. In a Chandler Bing voice: Could she BE anymore of a nerd-fest fantasy?

Oh, Shephard - I'm sorry if this seems wrong, but I have this strange interest in you. I've only known you for 5 minutes, but it's like you're the answer to all my questions. But I'm so awkwardly innocent and bookish - and that I'm absolutely over-the-top in love with you is so unexpected and…

Come on, it's for kids. It has nothing to do with real characters.

I could get behind Triss in The Witcher (pun intended) - but Bioware characters are just juvenile.
 
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".

I guess the logical conclusion is that you have to be young and inexperienced to enjoy Gaider romances :)
 
And as usual, your "logic" is anything but. David has written some excellent complex characters and romances, prime recent example being Morrigan.
 
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To each their own. No romance in any Bioware game has ever made the game better for me in any way.

The effort put forth to create the redundant sequences necessary to pursue these "relationships" would be better spent on other aspects of game design imo.
 
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I certainly agree that stuff like the "gift-giving" mechanic in Bioware games is beyond stupid, except for those rare moments where the lore supported a change and you had a cutscene to justify what happened.

I quite liked that, actually.

But the whole "exhaust the dialogue tree to create romance" is just not my idea of a great experience.
 
To each their own. No romance in any Bioware game has ever made the game better for me in any way.

The effort put forth to create the redundant sequences necessary to pursue these "relationships" would be better spent on other aspects of game design imo.
Well, the same goes for every other features in RPGs (or any other game). E.g. I personally as good as never use the crafting/alchemy feature in RPGs. I just don't like it, for me it's unnecessary, shallow and in most cases poorly realized considering realism. (Melting iron from ore and smithing a sword in 2 minutes…)
So from my point of view the effort for creating crafting systems should be spent on other aspects of the game.

So for every gamer every feature in every game has a different weighting and you'll hardly find a game including all features you weight highly and lacking all features you weight lowly. You just have to ignore some features (when possible) and concentrate on those you like.

Just as you said, to each his own.
 
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For my part, I'd never suggest they omit the romances. It's clearly a big part of the Bioware formula.

It makes more sense for me to simply acknowledge I'm not a big fan of the Bioware formula, and enjoy what's actually there to like than suggest they actually adapt to my tastes.

But a site like this is basically all about exchanging opinions about games. So, it makes no sense at all not to praise or criticise things - just as long as you can provide reasons for it. I don't see much use in opinions without any kind of rational thought behind them, but that's me.
 
But the whole "exhaust the dialogue tree to create romance" is just not my idea of a great experience.
Right, I'd like to see some more sophisticated approaches too. I'd like "free actions" to influence relations to companions instead of predefined dialogues.
Some examples would be:
  • bring the companion to a special place at a special time (cheesy example: a companion somewhen mentions he/she likes sunrises at the ocean and later you bring him/her to an eastern shore at sunrise)
  • give the companion an ordinary item at a special occasion (bromance building example: get him a beer when he's sitting in the camp relaxing)
  • when there's a game mechanic where you have to select a limited number of companions to accompany your main char on quests/missions (DA, MassEffect), these choices should influence relations
  • if the main character's appearance can be customized, it should influence love interests
  • any actzions/decisions in quests should influence the relationship (classic example: spare or kill the defeated opponent)
I'm sure there are a lot more possibilities like these to design companion relationship development much better.
 
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DArtagnan said:
But a site like this is basically all about exchanging opinions about games. So, it makes no sense at all not to praise or criticise things - just as long as you can provide reasons for it. I don't see much use in opinions without any kind of rational thought behind them, but that's me.

And after presenting supposed "rational" in support your criticism (which are mostly exaggerations and hyperboles), there is almost always some taunt and veiled insult to the developer and/or the to the fans (which you must surely think it's fine coz there is a smiley at the end!!!). It is only appropriate then you are replied in the same tone there onwards.
 
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