Are we coming full circle, now?

[Call Sign: Raven]

I see a lot of criticism regarding romancing options.

If you are straight, and you happen to witness an occurrence in-game that caused a party member of the same gender to hit on you, consider this:

In many past games with romancing options, they were catered to the straight crowd, with no options at all for any other type of sexual preference. I'm sure there were complaints from some people that wanted more options, but I am also certain there were people who just...enjoyed the game from another perspective.

So aren't we now coming full circle, now? Maybe it's time to understand this new perspective.

[Soft Lockpick]

Originally posted by meleander:

Originally posted by Soft Lockpick:

NPCs that have no preferences don't feel like developed NPCs. It makes them worse because the writing has to be worse to support that openness. It makes the world feel less real.

But I don't think people are even really upset with that. Some may think they are but they're really upset with the pacing of romances. The pace at which you go from "I don't really trust you yet" to "Here's my dark secret, by the way want to have fun?" is wrong.

Larian doesn't do serious character writing well. They do silly well. If they want to transition from a dragon shapeshifter dating sim to serious RPG they really need to fix the writing staff.

Oh but they have. They are straight unless you're here, then those of the same sex are bi.

Being Main-Character-Sexual is the opposite of a preference in real terms.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Every single NPC relationship presented to you is gay. EVERY ONE.

Stop posting obvious lies. Anyone who even makes it to the Act 1 druid grove knows this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[Jeffer'son Airship]

Yeah there's a decent number of straight couples in the game. People acting like it's one big gay fest are lying.

[Vixziค็็็็็n]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Every single NPC relationship presented to you is gay. EVERY ONE.

Stop posting obvious lies. Anyone who even makes it to the Act 1 druid grove knows this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Not a lie and if it is then it should be easy to refute it. Show one showcased couple that's straight other than the girls parents should you choose to do that, that's cinematic and represents a straight couple. And that isn't a necessary part of the story either. All scenes that are uncontrollable and triggered as a result of reaching places in the story that showcase some relationship between NPCs are gay.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Stop posting obvious lies. Anyone who even makes it to the Act 1 druid grove knows this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Not a lie and if it is then it should be easy to refute it. Show one showcased couple that's straight other than the girls parents should you choose to do that, that's cinematic and represents a straight couple. And that isn't a necessary part of the story either. All scenes that are uncontrollable and triggered as a result of reaching places in the story that showcase some relationship between NPCs are gay.

That's a totally different statement. Now you're saying that there is only one straight couple presented in a cutscene that's an unavoidable part of the main plot.

Which is a weird set of conditions that rules out almost all the relationships anyway. Probably all of them? Can't you just attack everyone from a distance anyway?

EDIT: oh, isn't a part of the story. Well the next couple I met was the woman trying to get the hag to revive her husband
So that's two in a row vs 0 non straight couples I found by then

If you want an extensive count of all couples you're on your own, but there's clearly a bunch.

Also there was some straight coupling in the barn for sure!

[Pablos16]

Imagine RDR2 made by Larian. You as Arthur go on a hunt trip with Hosea only to be woken in the middle of the night in a camp by him licking your ear.

Fellowship of a Ring?
Everybody is bi. Gandalf banging Samwise here, Aragorn s*ucking Gimli there...

Is this what the "modern audience" want?

Why the hells we can't have any good old bromance in this game? Or is it possible? Can you give me an example of game event/cutscene where two people spend quality time alone that is not leading to romance?

Or why there is no a simple slider in the character creator? You choose: hetero, homosexual, bi, asexual. Everybody would be happy with it, right? Or does just wanting thing like this make me a homophobe / alphabet hater in this day and age?

[unini]

Congrats guys, now you have a small taste of what it’s like to exist on the internet as a woman.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Pablos16:

Fellowship of a Ring?
Everybody is bi. Gandalf banging Samwise here, Aragorn s*ucking Gimli there...

Is this what the "modern audience" want?

Come on, we know its Sam and Frodo that fans want.

But, yeah, there's a definite big audience that's up for this stuff. It's called women, who do you think was writing Kirk/Spock slash fiction!

[[Kartell]Captain Data]

Originally posted by Madeline:

Originally posted by His Divine Shadow:

I disagree. Making everyone pansexual or bi makes sense from a business standpoint at the very least and certainly a social one as well. l

As someone who is LGBT, it feels very lazy to be honest, and is ironically a complete lack of diversity among character sexuality. It would be cool to see a gay man, a straight man, a bi woman, a lesbian, a straight woman, etc etc, instead of all of them being interested in everyone. That was something I actually really liked about cyberpunk 2077 where judy is actually just a lesbian. it makes her seem like more of a character rather than just a set of interactions for the player to do in order to get video game romance.

Hey, I was kinda disappointed I couldn't hook up with Judy, 'cuz I had a male PC. It was one of those few moments I regretted that choice because I liked her character + looks. Well. You can't have everything. At least it's realistic: no matter how hawt you are for someone, if that someone has no interest in you, it won't happen.
Also this gives me a reason to start anew with a female V just to romance Judy.

In Bioware's Mass Effect there's the same thing: you can't have everyone with a male Shepard. Traynor (cute british-accented girl in ME3) is a lesbian romance option for a female Shepard only. Didn't matter that much to me as my male Shep always ended up with Ashley Williams, but the point stands: NPCs you could romance had preferences and simply weren't available in case of "wrong gender".

BG3 kinda misses that opportunity. Actually, I wouldn't mind a bisexual Astarion - AFTER you got behind his issues. It fits that flamboyant vampire.
But in case of Gale, Wyll or Halsin? Nah. I think out of the three, Gale is the one that may fit the gay territory quite good, Wyll appears to be straight and Halsin - we won't talk about Male-Male in bear form. I don't want to imagine anything of that :-P

Women ... well, for some odd reason we have a somewhat limited cast here. Ppl talk about tastes and "normal women" and we got to select between a quite normal Shadowheart, a warrior girl Lae'Zel, a demonette Karlach and a psychopathic drow Minthara. Now let's say Shadowheart is lesbian, that leaves only Lae'Zel (possibly bi) and Karlach (she's hot in the "burns your skin" way) OR Minthara (just sacrifice two dozen innocent souls and kill another camp full of Gobbos, you'll get in her pants). In other words: for a lot of ppl a lesbian Shadowheart means, there's no female NPC left they'd start a romance with.

Another thing that may stirr up a lot of issues is the fact it's NOT the player initating a romantic relationship with any of the characters. The way it's written they come forth with their feelings rather early in the game and may catch the player in surprise. In other games like Mass Effect it's as if the player is initiating romantic feelings for / by the Love Interest they were pursueing. It's basically the other way around. You still can have Commander Shepard "We'll bang" hook up with three different LIs, one in each game. Nothing stops you from switching from Liara to Tali to Ashley for instance. Female Shepard may go from Liara to Jacob and end up with Traynor, cementing her status as Bi!Shepard.

Too bad a thorough debate isn't possible in a toxic environment.

[Ashling]

Originally posted by Pablos16:

Is this what the "modern audience" want?

I think how people are portraying this game, and the reality of the game, are two different things.

I’m on my way to moonrise temple and I’ve only been hit on once. Once, by someone I was actively trying to romance. It is completely possible to have a platonic run in this game, but you’re going to have to not accept every advance on to your character.

[Hattori]

Its ok to have like one gay option for that 5% of population in which 1% or less play videos games but in this game everyone is Bi or gay

[Vixziค็็็็็n]

Originally posted by Quillithe:

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Not a lie and if it is then it should be easy to refute it. Show one showcased couple that's straight other than the girls parents should you choose to do that, that's cinematic and represents a straight couple. And that isn't a necessary part of the story either. All scenes that are uncontrollable and triggered as a result of reaching places in the story that showcase some relationship between NPCs are gay.

That's a totally different statement. Now you're saying that there is only one straight couple presented in a cutscene that's an unavoidable part of the main plot.

Which is a weird set of conditions that rules out almost all the relationships anyway. Probably all of them? Can't you just attack everyone from a distance anyway?

EDIT: oh, isn't a part of the story. Well the next couple I met was the woman trying to get the hag to revive her husband
So that's two in a row vs 0 non straight couples I found by then

If you want an extensive count of all couples you're on your own, but there's clearly a bunch.

Also there was some straight coupling in the barn for sure!

lol again trying to grasp at straws. No she doesn't count being that she is not presented as a couple whatsoever in any of her scenes and at best she alludes to her dead husband so no that has nothing to do with anything here.

Again still waiting for the cinematic scenes that depict straight couples. I can count 4 gay couples so far one of which has significant screen time and zero straight ones. But by all means... catch up.

[Graill]

Originally posted by MrSaturn69420:

Originally posted by Fastracecarguy:

So 90% of the population are now forced to be spammed with a different perspective in EVERY aspect of life because companies are afraid of the wrath from the vocal, angry, intolerant 10%?

Forced? Is someone holding a gun to your head to play the game?

This last post is representative of this agenda and politics today.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by Vixzian:

Originally posted by Quillithe:

That's a totally different statement. Now you're saying that there is only one straight couple presented in a cutscene that's an unavoidable part of the main plot.

Which is a weird set of conditions that rules out almost all the relationships anyway. Probably all of them? Can't you just attack everyone from a distance anyway?

EDIT: oh, isn't a part of the story. Well the next couple I met was the woman trying to get the hag to revive her husband
So that's two in a row vs 0 non straight couples I found by then

If you want an extensive count of all couples you're on your own, but there's clearly a bunch.

Also there was some straight coupling in the barn for sure!

lol again trying to grasp at straws. No she doesn't count being that she is not presented as a couple whatsoever in any of her scenes and at best she alludes to her dead husband so no that has nothing to do with anything here.

Again still waiting for the cinematic scenes that depict straight couples. I can count 4 gay couples so far and zero straight ones. But by all means... catch up.

That's like saying the Bloody Baron quest in the Witcher 3 doesn't count as a straight couple. Literally her entire plot is about her straight relationship.

Do they have to kiss on screen to count or something? Because I just told you about two straight couples and you decided they don't count because you don't want to be wrong.

[Quillithe]

Originally posted by KartellCaptain Data:

Originally posted by Madeline:

As someone who is LGBT, it feels very lazy to be honest, and is ironically a complete lack of diversity among character sexuality. It would be cool to see a gay man, a straight man, a bi woman, a lesbian, a straight woman, etc etc, instead of all of them being interested in everyone. That was something I actually really liked about cyberpunk 2077 where judy is actually just a lesbian. it makes her seem like more of a character rather than just a set of interactions for the player to do in order to get video game romance.

Hey, I was kinda disappointed I couldn't hook up with Judy, 'cuz I had a male PC. It was one of those few moments I regretted that choice because I liked her character + looks. Well. You can't have everything. At least it's realistic: no matter how hawt you are for someone, if that someone has no interest in you, it won't happen.
Also this gives me a reason to start anew with a female V just to romance Judy.

In Bioware's Mass Effect there's the same thing: you can't have everyone with a male Shepard. Traynor (cute british-accented girl in ME3) is a lesbian romance option for a female Shepard only. Didn't matter that much to me as my male Shep always ended up with Ashley Williams, but the point stands: NPCs you could romance had preferences and simply weren't available in case of "wrong gender".

You can at least romance most options in Mass Effect. I like having some characters off limits, but I'll admit that if they made a character unable to romance, modders would just add it in anyway no doubt.

So I can understand their attempt to just please everyone to start with. Especially since I feel like romance is more there for the audience and the Baldur's Gate name rather than being an element of artistic quality Swen is passionate about or something.