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The Official Romance Thread


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Well, there's 36 pages I'm so not reading, here's my 100% True and Correct Opinion on the matter:

 

I don't mind if romances exist I guess except I kind of don't like that every time I've seen them they're basically nothing but a dialogue based minigame (pick the 'nice' options and then 'yes' at the important point) with sex as the endgame. That's not a relationship, that's a one night stand.

 

The one romance I have liked was, funnily enough given this forum's weird obsession with hating everything about Bioware and their fanbase, in Mass Effect 3. Although it didn't involve Shepard, so maybe that's why I thought it worked. Having a bunch of preset potentially romantic things for my own character to say didn't really grab me, but watching a romance blossom between Ta'Li and Garrus was cool and cute and fun.

 

So basically, I'm generally opposed to romances for the PC on the basis of 'they're not very good and they take resources away from things that potentially could be good', but I'm in favour of being a wingman for one of my bros.

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Tali and Garrus can hook up?! Now I feel bad for stealing her... haha.

 

I think the best romance in Mass Effect is between Joker and EDI. :)

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Should we not start with some Ipelagos, or at least some Greater Ipelagos, before tackling a named Arch Ipelago? 6_u

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Ill be quite honest, played the hell outta jade empire on console.....and i dont remember any romance in it. Maybe i just didnt intiate it or whatnot, i was to busy kicking ass and taking names and getting my ass handed to me by the final boss lol.

 

For all u prmancers out there, im crossing my fingers the devs aint trolling yal but i will laugh if they are because u have to admit, its pretty good.

 

Sigh, poor link, at least he never had to go through being told his princess was in another castle 7 or 8 times in a game.

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Ill be quite honest, played the hell outta jade empire on console.....and i dont remember any romance in it. Maybe i just didnt intiate it or whatnot, i was to busy kicking ass and taking names and getting my ass handed to me by the final boss lol.

 

For all u prmancers out there, im crossing my fingers the devs aint trolling yal but i will laugh if they are because u have to admit, its pretty good.

 

Sigh, poor link, at least he never had to go through being told his princess was in another castle 7 or 8 times in a game.

trolling about  what? There is no romance in Pillars of eternity and that is a fact. People in here are just wishing it were^^

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Ill be quite honest, played the hell outta jade empire on console.....and i dont remember any romance in it. Maybe i just didnt intiate it or whatnot, i was to busy kicking ass and taking names and getting my ass handed to me by the final boss lol.

 

For all u prmancers out there, im crossing my fingers the devs aint trolling yal but i will laugh if they are because u have to admit, its pretty good.

 

Sigh, poor link, at least he never had to go through being told his princess was in another castle 7 or 8 times in a game.

trolling about what? There is no romance in Pillars of eternity and that is a fact. People in here are just wishing it were^^

It was a joke. In the video one of the options for why u are there was "looking for love" or something to that effect.

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"I walk around dreaming of you... DO YOU DREAM OF ME?! *creepy wide-eyed stare*"

 

 

rofl, this a thousand times this. A game needs to have a romance plot where the character is stalkerish up to eleven. The potential hillarity.

 

But yea, BioWare has a habit of being hamfisted with the 'romance confirmation' dialogues. Problem is, esp in the ME series, they took a turn for quantity over quality. Their concept of having to give the player a 'heads-up' before they get into something they can't undo is also a sad symptom of modern gaming in general though.

 

Games with pick-your-love-interest romances typically use some kind of points system to determine the characters romance state. Usually a set of key points you have to get correct and number of general do-things-they-like points. Problem is the key decisions are usually few and made obvious, exposing the meta-game. Secondly there is usually only two states for the character, romanced or not. Which is another major contributor to awkwardness.

 

To make the romance more natural there would have to be more key decisions where only a percentage of them must be correct.The majority of these decisions must hide their importance. This is in addition to general do-things-they-like points. Further, at least three states would have to exist. And I mean actual character states (indifferent->like->love), not just an adjective that gives you clues to your progress on how many romance points you have.

 

Having enough content to have numerous key decisions and general for-points decisions would inherently require a large game. Layering differing dialogues for at least three character states for multiple love interests is an exponential increase in writing. Thats without even considering having realistic party banter regarding your advancing romance during various stages of the game. A linear story would prune a lot of writing because you'd know at what points players could have what characters in what states. A dynamic game that lets you complete plot quests in various orders is a ridiculous can of worms thats near mind-boggling. Thats completely ignoring the possiblity of having a character's romance state degrading.

 

When you really think about the dev costs it becomes kinda obvious why games with pick-your-love-interest romances tend to have shallow or bad romances. Equally obvious why Obsidian is just not bothering with PoE.

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Dealspawn interviewd Josh Sawyer and the subject of romances came up.

 

Dealspawn:  One of the things that came out of the Kickstarter pitch:  no romances in the game.  Was that something that was decided very early on?

 

Sawyer:  We know that it takes a long time to write companions.  Period.  To write romances takes much, much longer.  Romances are a very sensitive thing.  It's hard enough to write good dialogue.  Just two people talking like normal human beings is very hard. 

 

It's very, very difficult to write romantic interactions between people that come across as believable and that develop in a way that also feels real and believable that you feel as genuine and you can get into.  So we looked at that and said "we're making eight companions, it's going to be a real challenge to write all their stuff, and on top of that having enough romance across those companions to feel like we're covering all the options that people would want".   Like I want to romance this guy, I want to have same sex stuff, or I want to do this or I want to do that. 

 

I think it's worth taking seriously that people want to have the option of, like  I want it with this guy...

 

But then, we're looking at that and that's a huge amount of work.  So we talked about it and none of us thought that we could do that logistically.  It's too much work.  It was less about our personal preferences...

 

I mean, I'm not a super huge fan of romances but I think it would be fun to write them.  I just think it would require a lot of time to do well.    I don't like writing ****ty dialogue.  That's what I don't like doing.  And I know if we rushed it, it would come across as being half-assed.

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I like that Josh has an "If we ever do those, it'll be done right and not half-assed" mentality.

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Should we not start with some Ipelagos, or at least some Greater Ipelagos, before tackling a named Arch Ipelago? 6_u

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There is. Not-half-assed is the right way, for example. If there's a wrong way to do something, then, by default, there' a right way. Doesn't mean there's only a single design that's correct. It just means that there's a correct approach to take. Objectively.

Edited by Lephys
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Should we not start with some Ipelagos, or at least some Greater Ipelagos, before tackling a named Arch Ipelago? 6_u

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But since doing romances 'the right way' still does not guarantee their success (objectively or otherwise), you're not really saying anything here.

 

I can walk down the street the "correct" way, but that doesn't mean I won't get run over by a truck

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True, but I think it might have some bearing on the likelihood of your being hit by a truck. :)

Edited by Lephys

Should we not start with some Ipelagos, or at least some Greater Ipelagos, before tackling a named Arch Ipelago? 6_u

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That's a tough one, but I'm going to have to go with "no."

 

Unless you're shipping professions of undying love. Or shipping yourself to your beloved. :)

Should we not start with some Ipelagos, or at least some Greater Ipelagos, before tackling a named Arch Ipelago? 6_u

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,

Dealspawn interviewd Josh Sawyer and the subject of romances came up.

 

Dealspawn:  One of the things that came out of the Kickstarter pitch:  no romances in the game.  Was that something that was decided very early on?

 

Sawyer:  We know that it takes a long time to write companions.  Period.  To write romances takes much, much longer.  Romances are a very sensitive thing.  It's hard enough to write good dialogue.  Just two people talking like normal human beings is very hard. 

 

It's very, very difficult to write romantic interactions between people that come across as believable and that develop in a way that also feels real and believable that you feel as genuine and you can get into.  So we looked at that and said "we're making eight companions, it's going to be a real challenge to write all their stuff, and on top of that having enough romance across those companions to feel like we're covering all the options that people would want".   Like I want to romance this guy, I want to have same sex stuff, or I want to do this or I want to do that. 

 

I think it's worth taking seriously that people want to have the option of, like  I want it with this guy...

 

But then, we're looking at that and that's a huge amount of work.  So we talked about it and none of us thought that we could do that logistically.  It's too much work.  It was less about our personal preferences...

 

I mean, I'm not a super huge fan of romances but I think it would be fun to write them.  I just think it would require a lot of time to do well.    I don't like writing ****ty dialogue.  That's what I don't like doing.  And I know if we rushed it, it would come across as being half-assed.

 

We all understand and accept the fact that there wont be Romance in PoE but this doesn't help to alleviate the melancholic mood, on some levels,  that this logical decision from Obsidian creates ;(

 

Especially when we know that games like DA:I and Witcher 3 will have Romance options, I know PoE will be an excellent RPG....it could just be better with Romance :wub:

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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Or the sea. If by "shipping" you mean "sea-vessel"ing. :)

 

 

Inb4 someone brings up seamen... oh, I guess I just did.

 :lol:

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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