Evinshir

Let's just get something clear here because I don't seem to have seen anything mentioned yet. There was no outcry about the limerick to Obsidian. One person sent one polite text suggesting that Obisidan look into the limerick as it *might* be seen as offensive by someone. Obsidian, in turn, said "ok we'll look into it." Then the GG crowd went on a crusade against censorship, which then got the Anti-GG Crowd arguing with them about how the only ones actually making a big deal out of it were GG and pointing out how it may be seen as offensive by some people. While all that pointless internet noise was raging on, Obsidian contacting the backer and just said "hey some people have said they might find this offensive, would you be willing to change it?" The backer then said "sure." At no point did Obsidian say "We're taking it down." They did what any business would do when someone raises a complaint or concern. They followed up on it, checked with the backer and everything was done willingly and without any pressure being put on Obsidian or the backer. Meanwhile GG was raging away making all kinds of threats to the person who just posted a single tweet to Obsidian that didn't even demand that the limerick be taken down. So why is this *still* an issue when the woman who complained has moved on and publicly said she's happy with how Obsidian handled the issue. Obsidian have moved on and said they're happy with how the issue played out. The backer has moved on because it's not that big a deal to them. At no point was anyone censored. Censorship is when there is no consultation or discussion. The words are just removed and banned. That isn't what happened here. Can we all just move on now? Like most people did with the whole incident of the idiot with the stupid shirt.

I'm all for romances. It's a natural part of being a person and all the best stories have some degree of romance in there. That doesn't mean the characters have to have sex, but there needs to be flirtation and attraction accounted for. Most people inevitably form bonds. Especially in high pressure situations. That's one of the things about this game that's puzzled me. Having these characters spending long periods of time together means relationships are going to form. Anything less is unrealistic and does spoil the immersion of the game. Divinity: Original Sin handled it well with allowing the characters to flirt and effectively show their attraction for each other while at the same time admitting that "right now" is probably not the appropriate time to act on those feelings. As someone further up said, romances are about the emotional connection. Not the sex. And I suspect that's why Bioware's games often get romances wrong. They focus too much on the sexual connection. One of the best Bioware romances ended up being the gay romance between Shepard and Kaiden. Because time was spent exploring the emotional connection between the characters, what the events they were facing meant to that relationship and how the relationship helped both of them deal with those events. And that's why romances are important to good storytelling. Because they allow us to see what's going on internally with these characters via an external relationship. It's just natural behaviour.

The thing about people is that when you have a group of people travelling together and in high pressure situations, relationships are an inevitable thing. It's disappointing that there isn't a "romance" element in the story because it does kind of try to pretend that people don't care about relationships. The problem with romance options in games isn't that they are a bad idea but that they have been poorly executed. Bioware has become better with dealing with them in their more recent games, but there is still the "it's just leading up to a sex scene" problem. Personally I think what would have been good is to see genuine relationships, including romantic ones, develop between the PC and NPCs without needing an obligatory sex scene. It could be as simple as having the PC and love interest able to flirt, refer to each other romantically, maybe when sleeping they wake up in the same bed or blanket roll. Just don't make a big deal out of the relationship except for when it impacts the drama of the story. But lacking any kind of relationship seems to undermine the goals of a game like Pillars of Eternity. Divinity: Original Sin did a great job of having the two PCs capable of forming a romantic relationship that didn't result in sex. They'd refer to each other affectionately and even discuss about how "after this insane adventure we totally have to take a holiday away together." It's not a binary issue. There are many ways to have "romance" in a game. On the other hand, if the developers don't feel that they can write romance without it sounding all cheesy and corny - then it probably is for the best to not have it. I know as a writer how tough writing any kind of intimacy is. Still, it does feel to me like a missed opportunity.