Misunderstanding sexual orientation in BG3.

[deadsanta]

In terms of the romance options in the game, no NPC has a predetermined sexual preference, it is all determined by the player in a Choose-Your-Adventure-style branching dialogue with (mostly) remembered answers. Some characters are written as sexually adventurous, and others as prudish, but the ambiguity exists in the game universe to allow any player to choose any path they desire.

Every NPC coded to be attracted to the MC is essentially You-Sexual. They're all into you as long as you are into them, their sexuality is a Schrodingers' Box, where opening/unfolding the box determines the state of the inhabitant's sexuality (Instead of the live/dead state of the cat) beginning right at character creation.

It's pretty basic stuff that haters and boosters alike ignore, and it is unbelievably tedious to read this--sometimes deliberate--misunderstanding of coding and fiction-writing for the thousandth time.

[Matunus]

It is lazy, but somewhat understandably so, as it gives all players what they want with minimum effort. Most modern games handle sexual orientation that way.

[victorvnv]

What about those of us who only like 3 somes, 4 somes and groupies?Why don’t we get any sexual representation? Why can’t I have a 3 some with Minthara and Shadowheart or a 4 some with both of them and my buddy Astarion ?

Shadowhearth is supposed to like pain, I should be able to do some bdsm with her, tie her up and whip her with a leather whip but I don’t have that option.

I feel underrepresented sexually in this game and it’s killing all my fun

[Grumpy]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

What about those of us who only like 3 somes, 4 somes and groupies?Why don’t we get any sexual representation? Why can’t I have a 3 some with Minthara and Shadowheart or a 4 some with both of them and my buddy Astarion ?

Shadowhearth is supposed to like pain, I should be able to do some bdsm with her, tie her up and whip her with a leather whip but I don’t have that option.

I feel underrepresented sexually in this game and it’s killing all my fun

Good one :)

[marmih]

Originally posted by Matunus:

It is lazy, but somewhat understandably so, as it gives all players what they want with minimum effort. Most modern games handle sexual orientation that way.

people will always complain about this topic. people like you will say its lazy and that NPCs should have their own sexualities and preferences. and then you have other people complain they can't romance lesbian Judy as a male character and run to download mods so they can have sex with some pixels.

So like.. lazy or not, NPC being player sexual is better cause the player has a choice to romance any companion they want and not be stuck in romancing a certain gender if they don't even like that character. Especially in game that are 150+ hours long, people don't have the time to go through 4-5 runs with dif characters just to be able to romance a specific person lol. I could understand if it was a 20 hour game though.

Having said that, some characters do have flirty lines with/about each other so there are some canon hints here and there. Like Shadowheart is definitely into women due to the Karlach line, and Gale is into women too due to his past, for example.

[Kaldrak]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

What about those of us who only like 3 somes, 4 somes and groupies?Why don’t we get any sexual representation? Why can’t I have a 3 some with Minthara and Shadowheart or a 4 some with both of them and my buddy Astarion ?

Shadowhearth is supposed to like pain, I should be able to do some bdsm with her, tie her up and whip her with a leather whip but I don’t have that option.

I feel underrepresented sexually in this game and it’s killing all my fun

You need some new material. Repeated this joke about three times that I've seen, so far.

[Matunus]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

What about those of us who only like 3 somes, 4 somes and groupies?Why don’t we get any sexual representation? Why can’t I have a 3 some with Minthara and Shadowheart or a 4 some with both of them and my buddy Astarion ?

Shadowhearth is supposed to like pain, I should be able to do some bdsm with her, tie her up and whip her with a leather whip but I don’t have that option.

I feel underrepresented sexually in this game and it’s killing all my fun

Because this is not about representation but convenience and simplicity. Giving the same dialogue option to NPCs regardless of player gender and species, is the simplest way to go that still provides a satisfying experience to most players.

[Matunus]

Originally posted by marmih:

Originally posted by Matunus:

It is lazy, but somewhat understandably so, as it gives all players what they want with minimum effort. Most modern games handle sexual orientation that way.

people will always complain about this topic. people like you will say its lazy and that NPCs should have their own sexualities and preferences. and then you have other people complain they can't romance lesbian Judy as a male character and run to download mods so they can have sex with some pixels.

So like.. lazy or not, NPC being player sexual is better cause the player has a choice to romance any companion they want and not be stuck in romancing a certain gender if they don't even like that character. Especially in game that are 150+ hours long, people don't have the time to go through 4-5 runs with dif characters just to be able to romance a specific person lol. I could understand if it was a 20 hour game though.

Having said that, some characters do have flirty lines with/about each other so there are some canon hints here and there. Like Shadowheart is definitely into women due to the Karlach line, and Gale is into women too due to his past, for example.

I explain, I don't complain in any way, shape or form.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by deadsanta:

They're all into you as long as you are into them

No, you are misunderstanding the situation, they are all into you (well most of them) regardless of what you do. From the get go. And they stay that way more or less permanently. It is very difficult to form non-sexual friendships with the companions because the vast bulk of the dialogue written for them outside of main story beats is romance related. They don't really have anything else to talk about. And in some cases they won't take no for an answer.

This clip from CohhCarnage's BG3 live stream from near the end of Act 2 sums it all up pretty well (it's at 15m54s):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO-4pqU8Yfk&list=PLN39y5i_H0FmkTDiz7ijCf_8inmuZbeYc&index=156

"You realise at this point I'd be reporting you to HR" he says. It's pretty hard to argue against that.

[victorvnv]

Originally posted by Matunus:

Originally posted by victorvnv:

What about those of us who only like 3 somes, 4 somes and groupies?Why don’t we get any sexual representation? Why can’t I have a 3 some with Minthara and Shadowheart or a 4 some with both of them and my buddy Astarion ?

Shadowhearth is supposed to like pain, I should be able to do some bdsm with her, tie her up and whip her with a leather whip but I don’t have that option.

I feel underrepresented sexually in this game and it’s killing all my fun

Because this is not about representation but convenience and simplicity. Giving the same dialogue option to NPCs regardless of player gender and species, is the simplest way to go that still provides a satisfying experience to most players.

No not really. You can see from design and character standpoint that Wyll and Gale romance options are designed for female players. The casual “friendly “ way they offer, the dance next to camp fire with wyll and the romantic night under the stars with Gale.

You can see from design point that Astarion acts gay and that Shadowheart romance is made for straight men.

They could have had Astarion as gay, Shadowheart as straight , Karlach and Laezel as lesbians , Wyll and Gale as straight .

That would have given straight men/ straight women/ gay men / gay women about equal amount of options and would have been perfectly fine with most people .

The way they did it is just creepy, having every guy try to bang you even if you try avoid any romance conversation and that makes them feel gay as most players are straight men .

Not everyone in real world is gay or like being hit on or bi etc, Having Wyll use an approach that is typical for a straight male to use on a female for example is really weired when he uses it on a man.

I mean come on asking me “ may I “ as if I’m some high school girl and he is offering me a dance at a party is just terrible .

Or Gale acting like my bro at first , telling me men talk stuff like how he banged a hot goddess , then asking me to join him for a romantic night under the stars - again it just feel dumb design that goes against how the characters are made and is distracting from
The main plot.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

They could have had Astarion as gay, Shadowheart as straight , Karlach and Laezel as lesbians , Wyll and Gale as straight .

And that would give:

Straight women two romance options
Straight men one option
Gay women two options
Gay men one option

Which is not even nearly enough options for anybody. So writing them all as bi means everybody gets three options, makes it a no brainer.

That's not the problem. The problem is the unwanted attention bordering on sexual harassment, the difficulty of making anything remotely approximating to non-sexual friendships and massive incentive to avoid conversations with the companions at all were possible to avoid toe-curling/awkward encounters with them.

If the companions were written such that the romance content didn't kick in until the player initiated/encouraged it and they also had meaningful platonic friendship content to explore that formed the bulk of their default dialogues then it wouldn't have mattered one jot that they were all bi.

[victorvnv]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Originally posted by victorvnv:

They could have had Astarion as gay, Shadowheart as straight , Karlach and Laezel as lesbians , Wyll and Gale as straight .

And that would give:

Straight women two romance options
Straight men one option
Gay women two options
Gay men one option

Which is not even nearly enough options for anybody. So writing them all as bi means everybody gets three options, makes it a no brainer.

That's not the problem. The problem is the unwanted attention bordering on sexual harassment, the difficulty of making anything remotely approximating to non-sexual friendships and massive incentive to avoid conversations with the companions at all were possible to avoid toe-curling/awkward encounters with them.

If the companions were written such that the romance content didn't kick in until the player initiated/encouraged it then it wouldn't have mattered one jot that they were all bi.

It’s plenty for a game . Honesty I am straight and would have been perfectly fine with just one option in Shadowheart and leave it at that.

Also gays would also have the Harlem sex scene which is like totally gay scene by design . That would equal the gay options with the rest , just the Harlem would have been more of a 1 time thing but then again- all sex scenes are a one time thing in the game anyways

[Jadedragon]

The fact they have to be mad about like 9% of the games content and fill the whole page about it is extra exhausting.

[Jadedragon]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

And that would give:

Straight women two romance options
Straight men one option
Gay women two options
Gay men one option

Which is not even nearly enough options for anybody. So writing them all as bi means everybody gets three options, makes it a no brainer.

That's not the problem. The problem is the unwanted attention bordering on sexual harassment, the difficulty of making anything remotely approximating to non-sexual friendships and massive incentive to avoid conversations with the companions at all were possible to avoid toe-curling/awkward encounters with them.

If the companions were written such that the romance content didn't kick in until the player initiated/encouraged it then it wouldn't have mattered one jot that they were all bi.

It’s plenty for a game . Honesty I am straight and would have been perfectly fine with just one option in Shadowheart and leave it at that.

Also gays would also have the Harlem sex scene which is like totally gay scene by design . That would equal the gay options with the rest , just the Harlem would have been more of a 1 time thing but then again- all sex scenes are a one time thing in the game anyways

Well too bad for you, i like that i can have karlach and astarion alike.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by victorvnv:

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

And that would give:

Straight women two romance options
Straight men one option
Gay women two options
Gay men one option

Which is not even nearly enough options for anybody. So writing them all as bi means everybody gets three options, makes it a no brainer.

That's not the problem. The problem is the unwanted attention bordering on sexual harassment, the difficulty of making anything remotely approximating to non-sexual friendships and massive incentive to avoid conversations with the companions at all were possible to avoid toe-curling/awkward encounters with them.

If the companions were written such that the romance content didn't kick in until the player initiated/encouraged it then it wouldn't have mattered one jot that they were all bi.

It’s plenty for a game . Honesty I am straight and would have been perfectly fine with just one option in Shadowheart and leave it at that.

Shadowheart isn't straight, though. You'd probably get Lae'zel as an option.

[dnelson135]

Originally posted by deadsanta:

In terms of the romance options in the game, no NPC has a predetermined sexual preference, it is all determined by the player in a Choose-Your-Adventure-style branching dialogue with (mostly) remembered answers. Some characters are written as sexually adventurous, and others as prudish, but the ambiguity exists in the game universe to allow any player to choose any path they desire.

Every NPC coded to be attracted to the MC is essentially You-Sexual. They're all into you as long as you are into them, their sexuality is a Schrodingers' Box, where opening/unfolding the box determines the state of the inhabitant's sexuality (Instead of the live/dead state of the cat) beginning right at character creation.

It's pretty basic stuff that haters and boosters alike ignore, and it is unbelievably tedious to read this--sometimes deliberate--misunderstanding of coding and fiction-writing for the thousandth time.

This is incorrect. There are no heterosexual characters in BG3.