I think what people always need to come back to with romances in games is that they work best when they are written like romances in good movies or good literature. That does not necessarily mean "realistic". It usually doesn't. Real life is frequently dull and frustrating, so we like books and movies and games that give us a break from that. That tell a story. Romance in a role-playing game is part of that story. The original Baldur's Gate romances worked better because they were woven through the overall plot by the timer. You didn't really know when they would pop up, so they became a part of everything else that was going on. The later Bioware games made them too mechanical, in my opinion. It was obvious what they were and how they worked.
