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General discussion (archive)Concerning Baltas and the "straight male gamer" post(95 posts)(95 posts)
(95 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 01, 2011
I think it's pretty weird that every DA2 companion is bisexual. That's pretty unrealistic and kind of harms their characters if you ask me.

I don't really care about the gay stuff though. Yeah, some characters really shove it in your face, but that's more bad writing than a problem with homosexuality. Some of the straight romance dialogue is just as bad.

Edit: By harming their characters I mean makes them all have less of an individual identity. I could see someone reading that wrong and calling me a bigot on these hyper-sensitive internet worlds of today.
Post edited April 01, 2011 by StingingVelvet
Posted April 01, 2011
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mystral: I'm not sure about it, but I think I remember being able to pick a neutral "not interested" option that didn't give me a rivalry hit. I'll agree it was badly written though, and rather jarring given that Anders was a well-written character in Awakenings, if a bit goofy.
Nope, when you get past the (dialogue) tree where Hawke has a chance to flirt but it doens't and picks something else instead, Anders then comes on to Hawke and you're given 3 options, two flirt ones and the 'sod off' one which will net you the rivalry hit.

You do have neutral chances in the conversation before that but they're not romance related .
Post edited April 01, 2011 by Namur
Posted April 01, 2011
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USERNAME:Namur#Q&_^Q&Q#GROUP:4#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:14#Q&_^Q&Q#Anders basically jumps Hawke on their first conversation and Hawke either agrees to stroke his magic staff or walks away with a huge rivalry hit. Some folks saw this as forcing a gay romance on male players, which is ludicrous because the very same thing happens with a female char, so those people should've went "Boy, who ever wrote this character and the player dialogue choices either sucks bigtime at writing or wasn't paying much atention to it" but naturally some chose to be offended with the perceived 'forced gayness', which wasn't there.#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:14#Q&_^Q&Q#
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ironically, one of the best written parts of DA 2 was about exactly that.
The only female NPC in your party who isn't a romance option is interested in another man, but has trouble telling him about it.

You have a quest to get them together where you can constantly hint that you're interested in her, but those go completely over her head.
If you insist till the end of the quest, then she'll understand, but she's still doesn't want the PC and you'll get a big rivalry hit.

Personally, it's the only part of the game that made me laugh, and imo it was one of the few well-written parts of the game
Posted April 01, 2011
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Aningan: He is right to some extend. Not so much about the gay/straight issue perhaps, but the fact that companies attempt to please more and more people to make more money, but end up diluting the game and messing it for everyone.
To be honest I never had a problem with opening up the LI's to either gender. It does cater for everyone and in DA:O it's already established that there is much less of a bother about homosexuality. The only real issue I took with it was the way romances were written.
Posted April 01, 2011
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Aningan: He is right to some extend. Not so much about the gay/straight issue perhaps, but the fact that companies attempt to please more and more people to make more money, but end up diluting the game and messing it for everyone.
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Delixe: To be honest I never had a problem with opening up the LI's to either gender. It does cater for everyone and in DA:O it's already established that there is much less of a bother about homosexuality. The only real issue I took with it was the way romances were written.
I'm not bothered either, in DA:O I got all romances both as male and as female. Those were considerably better. This time they were lazy and just looked at the bottom line instead of going the extra mile.
Post edited April 01, 2011 by Aningan
Posted April 01, 2011
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If you say so.
Posted April 01, 2011
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In real life you can firmly or politely decline interest, in this particular situation you can't, you either go for it or you basically have to be a complete ass about it. Also, the rivalry/friendship thing is linked to certain abilities of each characters' abilities tree and a big rivalry hit, i think it's 10, if you're going for the friendship ability, because you don't want jump in the sack with the guy is kinda stupid and it may seem like the romance is being forced on Hawke, but the 'forcing a gay romance' thing it's bs because it's the very same thing with a female Hawke and Anders.

The writing is messy, the dialogue choices were poorly implemented and the whole thing does come across as forced and contrived, much like everything else regarding romances and companions in DA2.
Post edited April 01, 2011 by Namur
Posted April 01, 2011
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I get what you're saying, and yeah, what you describe is something that does happen in RL both in straight and gay scenarios alike.

Thing is, these two just met. They're not friends, that's the point, the rivalry/friendship O'meter at this point is at Zero because they just met, this is their first actual conversation and 3 lines in the guy is already letting you know that we wants to do the nasty with you and if you tell him NO! the guys gets plenty pissed - the rivalry hit ;)
Post edited April 01, 2011 by Namur
Posted April 01, 2011
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USERNAME:StingingVelvet#Q&_^Q&Q#GROUP:4#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:25#Q&_^Q&Q#If you say so.#Q&_^Q&Q#LINK:25#Q&_^Q&Q#
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"If you say so" is pretty much a way of saying I don't personally find that instantly believable but I don't really care or know enough about it to debate it.

My point about the game remains the same, the fact every companion flirts with me no matter my gender harms the game. It feels forced to please a specific audience on the Bioware forums who demand such things, plus it feels unrealistic. Also as Rockpapershotgun pointed out, the "romance" dialogue options are anything but romantic, so having four of them coming at you at once is pretty annoying and feels almost like a 13 year old boy wrote it.
Posted April 01, 2011
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StingingVelvet: My point about the game remains the same, the fact every companion flirts with me no matter my gender harms the game.
I think that's a little unfair. Fenris and Merrill don't flirt with you at all. Fenris has spent most of his life just trying to survive so really hasn't worked on his social skills. Merrill is just shy and completely out of her depth as a Dalish in Kirwall. Her asking you to visit her is more that she is lonely rather than flirting. Isabela certainly does flirt with you but she flirts with everyone, given there is a cut-scene where Anders cures her of an STD it's a given she's the town bike. Get to know her however and you find out why she is like that. Anders, yeah you said it perfectly it was poorly written and despite the fact Hawke has only met him for the first time, the player has known the character since Awakening and for most was a resident Bro.
Posted April 01, 2011
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StingingVelvet: "If you say so" is pretty much a way of saying I don't personally find that instantly believable but I don't really care or know enough about it to debate it.

My point about the game remains the same, the fact every companion flirts with me no matter my gender harms the game. It feels forced to please a specific audience on the Bioware forums who demand such things, plus it feels unrealistic. Also as Rockpapershotgun pointed out, the "romance" dialogue options are anything but romantic, so having four of them coming at you at once is pretty annoying and feels almost like a 13 year old boy wrote it.
I agree with you. I've never played DA2 but I think its odd that everyone in the game, or at least all the main characters, would be attracted to you. I also find it strange that everyone seems to be fine with homosexuality (At least in Origins) and that sort of took some of the immersion out. Everyone seems to be what Damuna said, a pansexual.
Posted April 01, 2011
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The attached pic relates to this scene we've been discussing ;)
Attachments:
anders.jpg (157 Kb)
Posted April 01, 2011
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Namur: The attached pic relates to this scene we've been discussing ;)
ZOMG he's hawt, Mr. hedwards Anders
Posted April 01, 2011
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Namur: The attached pic relates to this scene we've been discussing ;)
WIN
Posted April 01, 2011
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You aren't wide of the mark. David Gaider described the characters as Hawke-sexual. The Captain Jack Harkness effect that can turn a straight man gay. Of course really this is only humor to disguise the fact it saves them a lot of time to just make the romances that way.
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This is my favourite topic
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General discussion (archive)Concerning Baltas and the "straight male gamer" post(95 posts)(95 posts)
(95 posts)