This topic has been approached in substance to no end and apparently without end in terms of dedication. This time however with direct action in form of a petition. While you have full freedom to start one and hope to push for a change with it, this particular petition, if adhered to, would create more problems and ultimately just spread the problem you were trying to address to different parties invested in the characters at this point in time.
The OP doesn't say much as to reasoning why they feel this petition should go through. They do elaborate in their secondary response with the need to meet the affinities of people that don't conform to the gender binary and therefore won't see their love interest met with their preferences.
Obvious simple consequence of this change at this stage would be to alienate a huge portion of the game's audience and create controversy for CDPR. The necessary very apparent character assassinations across the board would see many leave the game as it would show CDPR to be inept in their design decisions and showing no faith in the work of their writers. Let alone lack of respect for those that grew attached to the characters as they are. Drawn from this we can conclude that the petition will not impact the game, and in my opinion
this thread better shift focus into discussing the merit or lack there of in having gender specific romances (and vice versa) in upcoming games or games in general. I would personally like to hear why it would be of benefit to the game or other games to make romances player sexual beyond the argument of just being a game and therefore should conform to the player. The need to meet everyone's expectation seems to be a fools errand because in current day and age it is near impossible to meet the expectation of every person and newly discovered gender expression.
However if someone feels this argument has weight, I would like to hear why?
Since this topic has been discussed so often with very little diversity in points to support it, many of us are left with repeating the same responses for posterity's sake. To address some of the arguments in the thread and lay out benefits in having gender specific romances as well as possible reasons why the developer chose to go with them:
- One of it could be the obvious: character's background story. Sexuality can be used as a tool by the writers for development of a character. Sexuality while not often, is a valid driving force for development of a character or their personality, it shapes defining features when it comes to behavior, animation/movement, appearance and the way the character is seen by their environment. Some or all of those details will be translated onto the character in their definitive presence. I will note that artists like to work with a lot of details and info in order to create the best picture that would harbor the underlying traits that the characters are build upon.
- Following on the first point, the consequences of said features will be evident in how the characters treat certain genders and how they will respond to their advances, and ultimately the outcome would be refusal or acceptance of said advances. The result is that the characters have the illusion of agency within their space and that makes them appear as equals to the player who is always the definitive driving force in a game.
- Next reasoning could be tied to the 2 above and it regards the writers and character designers. It would be a very strange request from CDPR to have their writers and designers limited to creating characters without any reference to their sexuality at all. Love is a driving factor in many characters backstories and probably the single strongest force in many lives; loss of a lover, rejection, jealousy, lust etc. All these serve as plot devices in characters development. Why they feel the need to do it though? For the sake of relatability to you and me. They want you to make a connection to the character, their past, their choices and have you understand them on a personal level.
- Relatability and immersion. When it comes to immersion it is equally as important when it comes to characters as it is when it comes to how light bounces off surfaces or how physics interact with objects in the world. Devs try to make a relatable and immersive world with outstanding creative inputs while keeping the base close to us so we can allow ourselves to be immersed. From visuals to sound we must accept the world that is presented. Same extends to characters. A character that would do something way out of line in the story without explanation would break immersion. Their ability to refuse or accept the player makes them relatable and allows us to explore 2 separate sets of their interactivity with us, this gives them depth and hits us either with a cold familiar sting of rejection or overwhelming sense of joy in approval, and the art of a video game is to give you that experience directly. No other media can replicate this to the same extend for the individual.
- Another reason would be to encourage the player to find one more reason to give the game another go from the start, this time as opposite gender V. Remember that V has the biggest role in the entire game and the way people talk and approach them varies when male and when female. For the devs it would be reasonable to push you to give the other side a try and see if maybe you enjoy it more.
Okey, you could say that all of these reasons are pointless, ultimately its only the player that counts and the player should have the most options and choices right away and limiting them is bad game design. If the developers were to follow up on this train of though you would be getting only 2 romance choices, male and female, with their respective story that adapts to you being able to romance them with the character you present yourself to them as. They would not be able to refuse you due to their preference anymore and you would know what to expect. And those could be any male and female on street, sure. You could date any random NPC on the street and get the same shallow experience. But they would have the looks you like at least.
It is because the authors respect you enough to avoid giving you one dimensional characters to romance that they make such decisions in my opinion. Hopefully they respect you enough to improve on the romance depth as well as fix the more obvious issues of the game like bugs going forward.
