Extra Punctuation: Roleplaying Homosexual in Dragon Age 2

[RandV80]

So speaking of cross-gender RPG romances I was wondering... if you're a heterosexual male and are playing an RPG of the online variety as a female character, would it be more gay to start a romance with another female avatar being played by a dude or with a male avatar being played by a lady?

 

[Nimcha]

Wow, that is exactly the same way I play these sort of games. I usually don't have a plan but just play through the game making decisions that I think fit the character I'm playing. That way these games are so much more enjoyable because if the writing is good enough things like these relationships feel natural because of how you shaped your character.

On my first playthrough I romanced Merril but that just happened because of the way I played, I had no clue that she was even romancable.

Many call these 'romances' Bioware comes up with in their games to be wonky or sappy or whatever. I just think that's because of a lack of characterisation of their own characters.

 

[ImperialSunlight]

I can't stand the women in this game (except maybe Isabella... ) so I used a male character and he's gay. Girls are icky .

 

[xqxm]

... Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

 

[Hazard12]

I find this article striking a chord with me. In most games, I find romance angles largely interchangeable; I mainly just want to see what happens with them to see if there are rewards, just because &c.. But for me the Tali angle in Mass Effect 2 felt right, it followed from how I'd played the first one, it all sort of...worked for me. And for all the perfectly reasonable criticisms you could levy, you wouldn't be able to stop that romance pleasing me, in pretty much the exact same way as Yahtzee described his role played relationship here.

I think it's a sad, sad commentary that so much time and effort is spent discussing the "romances" in bioware games.

Yep, totally agree.

Get something worthwhile to do with your lives people.

Spending so much time agonizing over fake, badly written 'romance' is quite, quite pathetic.

I am willing to concede that BioWare romances are often overwrought, and not fantastically written. It's sort of teething I'd say, figuring out how to do something like this well in a game. But discussing an aspect of a video game that you think is interesting is not pathetic. You can probably point me to examples where maybe people maybe do dwell on them too much, but we should look at them. No-one is trying to claim they are all there is to the game, that they make them, that you even must play X game for X romance. But discussing how a feature of a game, whether you enjoyed it overall or not (as Yahtzee clearly did not like Dragon Age 2 overall), enhanced your experience of it, gave you food for thought, and was just touching in itself, is a very important part of any community experience. It is as worthwhile to discuss as a mission, or a gameplay aspect, or a feature of the world. These are important things to look at and consider. I think it is a good thing so many people are willing to look at features of games in such a personal and in depth way, even if it is not always right in each specific treatment. I for one don't want something more 'worthwhile' to do with the, oh, 5 minutes (at a stretch) it took me to think and articulate my feelings on a bioware romance above.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Great article. I also find that my characters tend to develop as I play without necessarily going in with anything too specific in mind, especially on a first playthrough.

Some people are commenting on how odd it is that relationships get so much discussion time when a Bioware game is on the table, but I would actually say it's quite natural. Bioware is really the only company that really seems to care about relationships at all, particularly in an interactive sense, and relationships are an integral part of almost every great story. Certainly Bioware doesn't get it all right, and even their best realized relationships tend to run a little shallow, but at least they're moving in the right direction. At least they're trying.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You know you're now going to get a few dozen Anders stories, if you haven't already, right?

 

[Mrsoupcup]

Tepig? Wait so Yahtzee is playing Pokemon? Well color me exited for his next review.

 

[bob-2000]

If I at some point play Dragon Age 2, I'm most likely to make a character that reflects my own sexuality(at the first play-through anyway), but mainly because you don't get to play as a lesbian often enough.

I, also being a lesbian, really liked the way that you can romance women. Lesbian romances are very rare in games, but what was even more surprising was that the romance subplot (Merrill, for me) felt genuine and engaging. It was parts like this in DA2 that made up for its many, many flaws.

 

[Giest4life]

What's this, Yahtzee, you did not end with a punch line? In any case, great read....and my thoughts exactly. Well, almost all of them, because I had my avatar bone that excitable elf, Merill. Which is new, I guess, because that's the first time I've pursued a relationship with a non-human.

 

[Flauros]

man, yahtzee is bashing these homophobes HARD. He just does not give a good dam what you think, lol.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

See, David should have just made the lead character a woman and given the option for lesbian relationships. Then everyone would have been happy. Well, all the people that matter anyway.

[sub]SATIRE! I'm also knocking hetero men [/sub]

 

[vapidaphid]

Yahtzee's best point was that the game is intended to be a fictional experience, meaning, it's not you in the game. As for myself, I have role-played several kinds of characters in table-top games, including a flamingly gay elf (which was incredibly fun oddly enough).

 

[Android2137]

I actually find it difficult to roleplay in video games. I tried playing renegade on Mass Effect, but I couldn't find it in me to be mean to even fictional characters... After picking renegade options and hearing what Shepard spit out, it made me want to jump in and apologize profusely... The closest I ever came to roleplaying was Shepard being snarky and disagreeable to the Council after killing her love interest on Virmire...

 

[faefrost]

Not to nitpick, but there are only 2 romanceable females (both to all appearenced b@sh@t insane in one way or another). There are three men, provided you paid for the DLC to get Sebastion.

 

[jumb]

Even though I've only ever stuck it into things that I've been 80-100% certain were vaginas,...

Nice try covering up your virginity with an The Escapist article, Mr. Ubernerd. We all know you're a unicorn hugger like the rest of us.

Unicorn... hugger?

OT: That was a great article, almost makes me want to play DA2. It's also made me more open minded to a bumming... in a game, I mean.

Also, I can't wait for the Pokemon review this week!

 

[A Concerned Spoon]

My first play through I had planned on romancing Aveline, the woman shaped battering ram.

Spoiler: However...

Mid way through the game I found out that she loved another man. Crushed, I ended up rebounding with Isabella. I'm currently on my second play through and romancing Ms. Adorable herself, Merrill.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Is that a hint that this week we'll have a pokemon white/black zero punctuation?

 

[shiig]

Yahtzee, good sir, thank you. So many guys really do believe that it's impossible to be affectionate without lust, and it's painful for me, as another straight guy, to not even be able to jokingly flirt with my galfriends (and the one other non-insecure guyfriend) because I happen to have a girlfriend.

 

[OurGloriousLeader]

Great article. Suddenly all the penises in the reviews make sense..?