The Official Romance Thread

[Blarghagh]

Previous topic closed for length. Last page was discussing Josh's claim in an interview that if Obsidian were to do romances, they would want to do them right and that a good romance takes time they did not have for PoE.

 

As before, here are the rules:

 

Romance in PoE Thread Rules

 

- This thread is for people who wish to actually discuss the roleplaying merits of romances (or lack thereof) in regards to Pillars of Eternity. You can lament or celebrate that they are not included, argue why the game would have been better or worse, give examples from games that did it well or did it poorly, talk about modding efforts to add it in, or discuss how it might be included in future expansions or installments and anything related to those subjects, etc.

 

- Anyone posting simply to make fun of or abuse people who like or dislike romance or to point out how often this topic has been done before will find their posts deleted. If the thread goes off-topic or gets very hostile, it will get pruned.

 

- Other romance threads will either be deleted or merged into this one.

 

Knock yourselves out.

[Valmy]

Just a Valian girl

Livin' in a Cipher world

she signed up with a caravan

goin' toward the Gilded Vail

Just a Chanter boy

Born and raised in south Rauatai

[NWN_babaYaga]

I think that something went wrong with romances in games. Yes i liked the feature in BG1 and i also liked the interaction with minsc (I´m always a dude) and so on. The problem i have are the characters, if there is no outstanding "personality" in a game other then he/she is agressive and likes to punsh anyone in sight, a day dreamer who also is a bookworm or the beauty but she is very innocent and doesnt cares about looks...eh. So stereotypes that are done since the early 80s in movies (bad college B movies btw) modern games resurrected them, gave them a new outfit and haircut but are in reality boring as hell (if you are older then 30 fir sure) or you already know who they are. And then you have these strange backgrounds that explain one specific kind of psychoness in them that has to be played out one time in the game so all that writing was justified right from the beginning.

 

So why have I a motivation to romance them is the only reason and point a game has to give you. So if there is no clear motivation for me to romance anyone other then...i WANT to romance someone and i dont care which idi++ it will be WHY care?

 

all this thinking leads me to the conclusion that it is the very individual and edgy personality a character must have that i even think about hey why not. That could be funny..FUNNY! I dont want to marry them anyway...for what..a baby? come on...

 

Do people know what kind of motivation they have why to romance someone in a game? What is it that made younger people being motivated to think about romancing NPCs ?

 

so in the end i´m very happy that PoE has none of that. Strong personalitys dont need to much talk. Just some strange actions they do, how they may look compared to the "other" crowd and so on. The ingredients of a personality that is interesting is nothing that easy to do if you DONT want to appeal to the masses.... STAN from moneky island is an example or that tiny stinky dwarf Largo... you remember them your whole life i think every character in the early lucas arts games or even sierra games have personality that attracts attention.

Edited August 1, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[redneckdevil]

Tbh as long as my party can get drunk and have a bar fight and pinch a serving maids bottom and have a throw and crash a whore house for both sexes....thats all the romance i need in a game tbh.

[Valmy]

Tbh as long as my party can get drunk and have a bar fight and pinch a serving maids bottom and have a throw and crash a whore house for both sexes....thats all the romance i need in a game tbh.

 

So....no love sonnets?

[redneckdevil]

As long as i can be a plastered bard in a seedy bar with 2 barmaids in my lap.

 

Theres alot of "bar"s in that sentence that i have full faith in obsidian overcoming.

Edited August 1, 2014 by redneckdevil

[BruceVC]

Yay for the second Romance thread, its weird but for a topic that people claim to dislike it sure gets loads of attention

 

 

At the moment I am looking forward to the implementation of Romance in DA:I, we have discussed most Romance implementations in previous games. We have analyzed and scrutinized what works and what doesn't. So I am very keen to see the latest iteration from Bioware and if at the end of that the promancer army gains some new recruits from the naysayers on these forums.

 

You never know, we could see after people have played DA:I comments like "you know Romance really enhances the RPG experience. I hope PoE 2 has Romance"

 

That would be an ideal outcome for me

[redneckdevil]

I hope da:i gives u the romance experience u are craving for.

[NWN_babaYaga]

@BruceVC

Does someone pay you for being so slimy to Bioware writers? I mean... i can understand (no i cant but i tolerate them anyway) all the little girls who act like bieberellas in the 1000s romance threads on the bioboards but wow... guy...lol!

Edited August 1, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[Valmy]

Yay for the second Romance thread, its weird but for a topic that people claim to dislike it sure gets loads of attention

 

 

Love is seldom rational.

[BruceVC]

@BruceVC

Does someone pay you for being so slimy to Bioware writers? I mean... i can understand (no i cant but i tolerate them anyway) all the little girls who act like bieberellas in the 1000s romance threads on the bioboards but wow... guy...lol!

 

I'm not with you, are you asking me if I am paid to say I like Bioware games?

 

No I like Bioware games for the same reason millions of other people like them. They offer entertainment and an exciting RPG experience, of course there is always room for improvement...but what game can't you improve on?

 

 

The good in Bioware games far outweighs the bad and that includes the writing and Romance options.

[redneckdevil]

I will say dragon age origins, the romances in that game MINUS the gift giving to cheat was actually bearable.

 

Now did it give me a deeper roleplay? Mmmm only with the black hair chick just because how it was tied into the main plot and dlc. The other options didnt really add anything at all.

 

I think peoples main problem with romances in games and ill take bioware as an example, is 2 things.

1. To gain a romance u have to roleplay and pick specific options. It doesnt really "enhance" roleplaying, more so along the lines of "enforcing" a certain way to roleplay. Meaning u have to pick the right options to gain the romance and thus sometimes having to change the way u roleplay to gain tbe romance. Its not freedom with more options, but actually limiting ur roleplay actually. To gain morrigan as a romance option, u have to roleplay a certain way to gain her.

 

2.. ill get back on this one because im still thinking it through because im not sure now that i think about it.

[NWN_babaYaga]

There is another thing where i can rip that whole DA BS apart. When you focus on "we have romances in it for EVEROYNE" but the complete game is a wasteland in terms of interesting adventures, areas to explore and very interesting and difficult fights etc what have you done to a big crowd of people?

 

You lowered the bar for almost everything that is gamedesign related except "romancing" and acceptance speech. That has nothing more to do with a game and should belong into a school. So romance is one tiny part of a game.... a little piece of a gigantic puzzle if you call it a RPG! If it is not a classic RPG tell it to the people and dont advertize this so called game that is nothing more then a book with some social brainwash.

 

And roleplaying is not cozplay or gang bang in adventure games. It is character creation right from the beginning and then adventuring. But what do they do...they take away the ROLEPLAYING option character creation so YOU are unique and tell us now it´s romance...

 

A little thing...changing the meaning of terms can be dangerous so please RPGs are RPG´s and bioware is not doing real RPG´s anymore.

They do japanese influenced western action (minimal) RPG´s

 

In reality what they do is doing a trash final fantasy clone with western style not knowing what they realy want and so are their games + romance!

Edited August 1, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[Sarog]

To date the only game with romances that I feel are worthwhile and would revit was Baldur's Gate II*. Even then I only really liked one of the three that I tried, but I could at least appreciate that the others weren't poorly done. If Obsidian were to take the time to "do it right" in any future PoE-related project, I would rather they use Baldur's Gate as a model than any of the post-NWN era of RPGs.

 

I am happy and relieved that there are no romances in Pillars. Rather no romances at all than bad romances.

 

*Well, I guess the Witcher's serious romances - as opposed to the random encounters - are alright, but they are so differently written on account of the fact that you're playing a much more defined character. With respect to insert-your-own personality player characters, BGII remains the only game with romances that I find tolerable.

[NWN_babaYaga]

Brothels are everywhere and having a good F**** after an adventure gives you more then having a headache or a depression why your silly henchman is angry with your cooking skills (oh dear it doesnt tastes like on da first date...you dont LOVE me anymore)... it´s ridicolous to compare a brothel (everyone should visit one in their life) and a romance!

Edited August 1, 2014 by NWN_babaYaga

[Valmy]

Brothels are everywhere and having a good F**** after an adventure gives you more then having a headache or a depression why your silly henchman is angry with your cooking skills (oh dear it doesnt tastes like on da first date...you dont LOVE me anymore)... it´s ridicolous to compare a brothel (everyone should visit one in their life) and a romance!

 

I guess I fail to see the appeal of going to a video game brothel to have video game sex.  A romance is at least a RPing thing.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Valmy

[redneckdevil]

Damn right im perfectly normal....Because im not crossing fingers to visit a brother BUT to get drunk and have a bar fight and grab a serving maid and kick in the doors to brothel as my drunk bruised bard sings "I'm so excited" while spending most of his gold lr whatever type of currency there.

 

See there is exciting roleaying qualities in visiting a brothel!

Edited August 1, 2014 by redneckdevil

[Stun]

Brothels are everywhere

Well, They're a fantasy RPG trope. If there's no Brothel, then it's not a fantasy RPG. Edited August 1, 2014 by Stun

[Foksuh]

Well, this is gonna be a great thread by the looks of it. Someone has already drawn interesting conclusions about people who like seeing a romance in a game. Very, very interesting ones.. but I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Personally I think romances in games can be good, though obviously not a necessity. Well written romantical options can enhance the story a great deal though, help out fleshing out the characters themselves, including player character and even add some depth to more critical decisions that can be made in a game.. There's always potential in those "Make a decision between a loved one or x" type of choices for example.

[NWN_babaYaga]

I have no problem with people calling me a jerk... not thinking about what their own motivation is why they need romances? tell me.... why do you want to get the whole dating romance experience in a game? There are no experience points to gain... am i a material guy like madonna once did a song about? maybe????

 

lol realy. Think about your own motivation what´s the point of romance when you cant do real character creation for your own. Tell me one NPC you would date in reallife if you have no portrait of and try to imagine his fantasy background into our modern world.

[Foksuh]

I have no problem with people calling me a jerk... not thinking about what their own motivation is why they need romances? tell me.... why do you want to get the whole dating romance experience in a game? There are no experience points to gain... am i a material guy like madonna once did a song about? maybe????

 

lol realy. Think about your own motivation what´s the point of romance when you cant do real character creation for your own. Tell me one NPC you would date in reallife if you have no portrait of and try to imagine his fantasy background into our modern world.

Not quite sure if I understood you completely, but I already mentioned that personally I think the romance options can be used to flesh out characters in a way that might not be easy to write in otherwise. People tend to open up about certain things only to very specific people, which is why well written romances can be great tools to flesh out characters and storylines. This applies to the player character too, even though you're always limited to the lines that the writers put in the game.

 

Why do we play RPG's in the first place? Stories, dialogue, personalities to like and dislike, all of that has some sort of a meaning to us players, right? Despite all the limitations that RPG's on computers have.

[Blarghagh]

Thread pruned. No more ableism and sexism as per the forum guidelines that everyone agreed to by signing up to be a member.

 

Discrimination: Obsidian has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to racial, ethnic, gender, religious, disablement, and/or sexually discriminating remarks.

[Aethryl]

Considering the posts on the moddability of NPCs and the number of player made romances in BG2 I expect that eventually some will be modded into PoE to space up replays.

 

I personally prefer no romances and better interactivity otherwise than the romances they had in the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games which I found fairly lackluster.

[Ztirual]

Romances in games isn't really anything I personally desire or expect at all, but if it's there and manages to bring a tear to my eye, it's there, and if it's not, then no problem. I can see the beneficial aspects of it though, for those players who like it, as it does bring somewhat different roleplaying opportunities. On a side note, can you even metagame romances? And if so, why, how? In any case, I reckon it is quite the intricate work to get in-game romances that are good, because man, alot of the romances in very many games are more clichè or plain awkward than it feels heartfelt and natural - I've usually ended up feeling slightly sick and confused, like being on a trippy rollercoaster from hell, as opposed to feeling warm and fuzzy or whatever it is people feel. But then again, maybe I'm the awkward one.

[Arouet]

I'm going to say that it's stupid to throw out romances just because there's been a hurricane of games with poorly written romances that look like they've been put in out of a sense of obligation. Games are full of poorly written women, does this mean the correct choice is to not put women in your well written games? Romance and courtship are parts of living. A well written one is a wonderful tool for luring the player into accepting the story as real to them by giving the characters feelings and putting them in situations that the player can empathize and identify with. This is not wish fufillment - it's quite the opposite. It's making characters (and by extension, the whole setting) real by making them do things that really happen in real life. Ditching them on principle is not an act of maturity.