I love all these hypothetical stories people come up with- that the publishers were the ones who shoehorned non-straightness in because it is trending on Twitter or something. If that were the case then we'd have a lot more gays in games outside of just Bioware games and the occasional indie.
It never occurs to them that writers do it because they want these characters in the game. That they may have had to fight and scrap with the publishers just to get someone like Krem in the game. That it might have HAD to be FtM because the opposite would make some players feel uncomfortable. Judging from what we know about Bioware writers and EA, I'd put money on that rather than the opposite. Or that EA has generally let Bioware do what they want at this point, which seems the most likely. That (gasp!) Bioware might actually have gay or other orientations on staff writing the game.
I'm totally opposed to tokenism, but you can usually spot tokenism a mile away. Caricatures that usually pushed to the side or even dies when things get going. Creating fully-fleshed out characters that are not defined by their sexuality but who still have a sexuality is generally what people are looking for.
I'm open to the idea that not all games really need sexuality or romance. However, Bioware games are meant to be epic at least on some scale with lots of character interaction, and adults in those situations probably would get romantically and/or sexually entangled.
Whether or not Bioware does it well, that's a matter of taste. Romance is probably the most explored genre in history, and there's not much you can do to break new ground or be original. In ME1/DAO I would say it was sub-optimal, and the following games were average. However, with what experience I have with DAI (romancing Josephine), it's a good bit better, with romance subplots getting more involved and complex, and decisions having to be made.
It never occurs to them that writers do it because they want these characters in the game. That they may have had to fight and scrap with the publishers just to get someone like Krem in the game. That it might have HAD to be FtM because the opposite would make some players feel uncomfortable. Judging from what we know about Bioware writers and EA, I'd put money on that rather than the opposite. Or that EA has generally let Bioware do what they want at this point, which seems the most likely. That (gasp!) Bioware might actually have gay or other orientations on staff writing the game.
I'm totally opposed to tokenism, but you can usually spot tokenism a mile away. Caricatures that usually pushed to the side or even dies when things get going. Creating fully-fleshed out characters that are not defined by their sexuality but who still have a sexuality is generally what people are looking for.
I'm open to the idea that not all games really need sexuality or romance. However, Bioware games are meant to be epic at least on some scale with lots of character interaction, and adults in those situations probably would get romantically and/or sexually entangled.
Whether or not Bioware does it well, that's a matter of taste. Romance is probably the most explored genre in history, and there's not much you can do to break new ground or be original. In ME1/DAO I would say it was sub-optimal, and the following games were average. However, with what experience I have with DAI (romancing Josephine), it's a good bit better, with romance subplots getting more involved and complex, and decisions having to be made.
Leliana is also suggested to have been in an asexual romantic relationship with the Divine, which I also found quite refreshing. As someone who can identify with that, it's nice to see a recognition that such relationships do exist.