Many of us, 20 years ago, were right where we are now - not wanting romances in our games, period. Actually seems to be the majority opinion on RPGWatch. The only difference now is that they're making them even more awkward for the vast majority of us (minimum of 90% by your own numbers).
BTW, you joined the forum just to post this misdirected rant?
It's difficult for me to relate then I guess. I've been dealing with straight flirting and romances in games for a couple decades where most times I had no choice but to sit through the awkwardness. From my perspective Bioware games are the first time where I don't have to sit through straight romances and flirting. No awkward flirting from Miranda, Jack, Liara, etc. Unless I actually make a dialogue decision to see that. Whereas in other games these are usually forced on the player.
And not sure how my original post was misdirected or any more a rant than many of the other posts on this topic. Nor was it directed at a specific posts but a general sentiment from a few posts. I've been reading RPGWatch for a few years now just for the news. But this post I definitely had to comment on considering the vast pile of games over multiple decades that have straight romance in them, including the Witcher series. Yet I have not heard one complaint on any forums for years about the straight sexuality and story romance there. You also don't hear many complaints in RPG forums about Witchers bad voice acting or many other things (although I like their combat).
In terms of writing when I look at the text of Bioware characters dialogue there is depth and interesting concepts there that many other RPGs lack. Characters like Liara, Jack, Javik, Tali, and on and on have some deep (DEEP) conversations and character motivations that are relevant to the story. It's very hard to find more than superficial and old-reused ideas in most other games. So it makes me want to question what writing someone is comparing Bioware's too when they say it's awful writing.
About gay characters or minority characters feeling to some people like they're being forced in... How should a gay character that's part of the group be presented so that they are equal to the other characters in backstory but not "forced in"? In Mass Effect if Jacob or Wrex were gay would they feel forced because Jacob has a significant other in ME3 and Wrex talks more than once about sex? How limited in their dialogue topics does a gay character have to be so they don't seem "forced in" by some people? Personally I didn't get the sense that any of the characters felt forced. Maybe if there was a big push for more Chinese characters in RPGs. And I didn't live around many Chinese people. And I'm playing ME4 next year and suddenly there's an asian-appearing companion then I can see feeling that the character was forced in. But if you are a Chinese player or live in a multicultural area then I think the chances of it feeling forced in are a lot lower. Instead the game probably feels more inviting and believable to you. Of course there will always be exceptions, e.g. some people who are gay that have a problem with a specific gay character.
On stereotypes Kaidan and Cortez were some of the least stereotypical gay characters in a long time. Kaidan's vocal cords sounds like he eats gravel for breakfast, constantly wears armor, and trains students in combat biotics. Cortez is a sports fan, hangs out with Vega, and tinkers with ships and shuttles in his spare time. They're a little bit tougher than Joker and Thane for example. I would have actually expected Thane to be the stereotypical gay rogue/thief. Although there's nothing wrong with a character being stereotypical. Joel from The Last of Us is a pretty heavy stereotype of a southern Nascar dad. A friend of mine told me after he played ME2 that he liked that Jacob didn't feel like the typical stereotype of a black guy in most games.
I understand the DA2 suckage. The game was very repetitive in environments and the enemy spawning was ridiculous. But the general Bioware hate every time there's a another gay character is really old. Bioware's marketing team didn't get up on a podium with a microphone at 4th of July and announce that "Hey! We have a gay character!" It was put in the character's bio and a journalist specifically asked about it. And how has the writing changed since they've added these types of characters and to what other games are we comparing the writing?
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