David Gaider discusses romances in Bioware games

[Anna Neal]

I just read this interesting blog post by the guy who does the writing for the Bioware games.

He brings up some interesting points about romance in games.

http://dgaider.tumblr.com/post/403618...

I think he makes a bunch of great points about creating more complex relationships with the different characters in the game.

Though it's a little disappointing that a happy ending romance to him equates to "sex dolls" throughout the game. Can't there be conflict without a sad ending?

This just reminds me how much I want more writer diversity in romantic game genres.

[Liv]

That was interesting, thanks for sharing.

Anna wrote: "Though it's a little disappointing that a happy ending romance to him equates to "sex dolls" throughout the game. Can't there be conflict without a sad ending?"

I agree with you there, but come to think of it the Alistair and Merrill romances could end happily (not without conflict). I'm not sure if he wrote their plot lines personally though, but he must have overseen them being the lead writer and all.

[Vicky]

I've listened to David Gaider talk before about character development in games, it's always interesting!

Anna wrote: "Though it's a little disappointing that a happy ending romance to him equates to "sex dolls" throughout the game. Can't there be conflict without a sad ending?"

I didn't read it like that. It's not the happily ever after - but the idea that you could, for instance, choose the most virtuous character as your lover and then follow the most cold-blooded, violent choices in the game and still keep the relationship that he's relating to sex dolls. In one of my DA2 games Fenris HATED my character but I could still get him to sleep with me regardless.

I would love to see more reactive relationships in games where the relationships you make changes based on the choices you make.