Romances: Disparity in quality and quantity

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I think most people think of Dragon Age 2 when speaking about player-sexual characters, where everyone was available to both genders. Something even Bioware seems to agree wasn't a great idea.

I wonder without the internet or somehow perceiving an alternate world (new game) how many people noticed that the characters in DA2 were herosexual?:)
 
The DA2 characters were playersexual from the very beginning. I don't see the problem. In a fantasy story I'm interested in them as characters and not because they felt discriminated against as a gay elf or something. DA2 only had four love interests, it made sense to make them playersexual. It would have been weird if all romanceable charas in Inquisition were bi, because there are so many, but with four, I really don't see the issue.
 
If you're reffering to Jaal, why not? Angara and humans are already from a completely different galaxy, have a different physique and culture, why on earth should Jaal care about Ryder being male or female? He should probably been bi or pan or whatever from the start, but I really don't see the problem in patching that in later.

I think most people think of Dragon Age 2 when speaking about player-sexual characters, where everyone was available to both genders. Something even Bioware seems to agree wasn't a great idea.
Yeah, I was talking about DA2. Andromeda barely exists in my book, it was that forgettable
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The DA2 characters were playersexual from the very beginning. I don't see the problem. In a fantasy story I'm interested in them as characters and not because they felt discriminated against as a gay elf or something. DA2 only had four love interests, it made sense to make them playersexual. It would have been weird if all romanceable charas in Inquisition were bi, because there are so many, but with four, I really don't see the issue.
I thought about that at first... but in a story-driven RPG it's just awful IMO, I do prefer 2 straight 2 gay. More realistic than everyone bi.
 
I wonder without the internet or somehow perceiving an alternate world (new game) how many people noticed that the characters in DA2 were herosexual?:)
That's actually a good question. I perceived them as quite flat and boring, lacking personality, and it might or might not have to do with their herosexuality, I don't know. I found the hard-locked straight and gay characters in DA:I much more interesting, their sexuality was in some cases integral part of their background and added to their personalty, esp. Dorian comes to mind, maybe the only really memorable DA:I character.
Now that might seem like I find bi in general less believable, which doesn't really agree with my real life views and experiences, but maybe it's just that these game characters weren't speaking to me. I guess Leliana is an exception.
The question if the perception might change without prior knowledge is an interesting one, because usually we assume today that every player already knows who are the romance options before starting the game, which was pretty much always the case for me, yet I still defended people's wrong ideas about Panam earlier in the thread.

Edit: After giving it some thought I think it's simply being shot down as a player, being told "nope, I'm not into you", that adds that final little bit of realism and not being omnipotent. Those games are already powerfantasy enough, which I have a general dislike for, and I like when the player is shown some limits.
In Mass Effect my only crush has always been Tali, and everytime I played the game I had that little bit of disappointment that she's simply not into Femsheps, but I respect it anyway, it's part of her and I have to deal with it instead of just grabbing whatever I want, and I'd never throw a fit or start a petition to change her.
 
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Yes, Dorian is a nice example of how set sexuality can play a role in a character. Although I found the characters in DA2 good so...I guess I am just indecisive and I am ok with both:)
 
Well, I didn't like getting shot down by Cullen T_T Why can't male characters romance the tortured knight in shining armor for a change?
 
Well, I didn't like getting shot down by Cullen T_T Why can't male characters romance the tortured knight in shining armor for a change?
Don't give up hope, he had to deal with a lot and still has to come to terms with a lot of things, he's one of the characters where it might even make sense to turn Kaiden in a future title. At least more than for Cassandra who I would've preferred over Sera - however, I found it funny how much you can still tease her. :D
 
Cullen was the only reason I played through the whole game as a woman once, even though I usually prefer playing guys. Though the best thing about that is that you can listen to The Bull and Dorian flirting with each other incessantly.

Poor River on the other hand would not be enough to make me go through CP2077 as female V.
 
I was being sarcastic. This is dragging out at this point. I already suggested the best solution, 1 bi female, 1 bi male. Change no one already in the game. But no, can't have something make sense, can we?
Definitely not change established characters, that's Bioware's specialty :giveup:. Add brand new characters like TW3 DLC did :cool: (which is an additional incentive to get them)
 

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"Cyberpunk's love interests should have been bi playersexual" would have mostly benefited people who wanted to romance one of the girls. If Kerry and River were bi, we'd still have this exact same thread with people criticizing how obviously unequal romance content distribution is. Personally, I'd rather have no romance at all because it really would have been equal for everyone.

Add brand new characters like TW3 DLC did :cool: (which is an additional incentive to get them)
I'm not sure if that would help? Shani and Syanna weren't fully fledged romance options, just hookups who then disappeared off the face of the earth once their part in the expansions were done. They didn't get any ending slideshows and they didn't show up at Corvo Bianco at the end. I doubt that if Cyberpunk's expansions added new options they'd be treated any differently.
 
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Well, I didn't like getting shot down by Cullen T_T Why can't male characters romance the tortured knight in shining armor for a change?
It's almost as if Bioware thinks masculine gay men don't exist...
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"Cyberpunk's love interests should have been bi playersexual" would have mostly benefited people who wanted to romance one of the girls. If Kerry and River were bi, we'd still have this exact same thread with people criticizing how obviously unequal romance content distribution is. Personally, I'd rather have no romance at all because it really would have been equal for everyone.


I'm not sure if that would help? Shani and Syanna weren't fully fledged romance options, just hookups who then disappeared off the face of the earth once their part in the expansions were done. They didn't get any ending slideshows and they didn't show up at Corvo Bianco at the end. I doubt that if Cyberpunk's expansions added new options they'd be treated any differently.
Then just make 'em fully fledged! It's not an impossibility IMO
 

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Then just make 'em fully fledged! It's not an impossibility IMO
Maybe, but expansions tend to be shorter and have smaller budgets, so new love interests would probably get the same amount of character development as River (which is not a lot) if not less. I also wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if a new female love interest was written in a way where she'd want to leave Night City so V could ride off into the sunset with yet another woman, while a male romance option had reasons to stay in the city, only for him to talk how V is neglecting their relationship in the Sun's ending credit messages, like every other character already does. Endings and how they affect romances were criticized too.
 
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Maybe, but expansions tend to be shorter and have smaller budgets, so new love interests would most likely get the same amount of character development as River (which is not a lot) if not less. I also wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if a new female love interest was written in a way where she'd want to leave Night City so V could ride off into the sunset with yet another woman, while a male romance option had some obligations that required him to stay only for him to talk how V is neglecting their relationship in the credit messages, like every other character already does. The endings and how they affect romances were criticized too.
You know, I actually like the ending where V stays in the City. Or the Arasaka one, but, of course, that means there's no happy ending for Val and Judy. It's only possible with Nomad one. It's laughable that we can't really talk to Judy about future plans or with Kerry/River about potentially leaving the city. Yet again the control over the character was taken from players and V decided on her/his own what to do.

I don't exactly know what's happening with Kerry and River, but in Arasaka ending in one moment Judy says she wants Val to come back to Earth asap. And if we actually do it, Judy leaves her just like that. Without a word basically. No conversation, nothing. In Legend ending with 6 months time skip they lived together, but again, she leaves, because she doesn't like the city (which is understandable in her situation), but there was still no option to just say "ok, but can we leave after I'm cured, Jude?"

Endings are shit and it's sad that game pushes the only "right one" on us - The Nomad ending, punishing players who preferred other ones.


It's almost as if Bioware thinks masculine gay men don't exist...
Or ice queen/hard to get lesbians. We only get shy nerdy girls of which I'm so tired.
 
You know, I actually like the ending where V stays in the City. Or the Arasaka one, but, of course, that means there's no happy ending for Val and Judy. It's only possible with Nomad one. It's laughable that we can't really talk to Judy about future plans or with Kerry/River about potentially leaving the city. Yet again the control over the character was taken from players and V decided on her/his own what to do.

I don't exactly know what's happening with Kerry and River, but in Arasaka ending in one moment Judy says she wants Val to come back to Earth asap. And if we actually do it, Judy leaves her just like that. Without a word basically. No conversation, nothing. In Legend ending with 6 months time skip they lived together, but again, she leaves, because she doesn't like the city (which is understandable in her situation), but there was still no option to just say "ok, but can we leave after I'm cured, Jude?"

Endings are shit and it's sad that game pushes the only "right one" on us - The Nomad ending, punishing players who preferred other ones.



Or ice queen/hard to get lesbians. We only get shy nerdy girls of which I'm so tired.
You can bet I won't be playing DA4, my patience with them has also run its course
 

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You know, I actually like the ending where V stays in the City. Or the Arasaka one, but, of course, that means there's no happy ending for Val and Judy. It's only possible with Nomad one. It's laughable that we can't really talk to Judy about future plans or with Kerry/River about potentially leaving the city. Yet again the control over the character was taken from players and V decided on her/his own what to do.

I don't exactly know what's happening with Kerry and River, but in Arasaka ending in one moment Judy says she wants Val to come back to Earth asap. And if we actually do it, Judy leaves her just like that. Without a word basically. No conversation, nothing. In Legend ending with 6 months time skip they lived together, but again, she leaves, because she doesn't like the city (which is understandable in her situation), but there was still no option to just say "ok, but can we leave after I'm cured, Jude?"
The thing that bothers me about the Sun ending is the credits messages. Romanced Kerry says he wants to spend some quality time with V but can't because V is too busy or something. Misty, Mama Welles and Vik all say they haven't seen or heard from V in a long time, which sounds very out of character for my V, and maybe V in general. My V didn't cough blood from one side of the map to the other and help friends with their problems without asking for anything in return only to start ghosting people.

As for the Devil ending and Judy's reaction in it, it's very odd but the voicemail messages that play during the credits are recycled from a different ending. Maybe they ran out of time to record messages for all endings? Hard to tell.

It's a bit frustrating how tight-lipped V is in the endings. Can't say they'll leave with Judy or Panam in the legend ending, can't say they'll come back to Kerry or River in the nomads ending. Can't even say to their love interest they might be doing the Crystal Palace heist for survival. It's kept a secret until Mr. Blue Eyes hints at it.
 
can we stop it with the Bioware bashing maybe? Some of us happen to like them.
I used to like them (mostly because of KOTOR) but their handling of LGBT characters reeks of the old Corpo PR move, while Cyberpunk 2077 is way more wholesome in that regard (and pretty much every other)
 
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