How *unappealing* do you predict straight male romance options will be in DA4?

LMAO. I'm a woman too. It's not even remotely the same.

It's friend flirting! After his personal quest, it's perfectly obvious that nothing will come of it.

If you're playing a woman in that scenario, you can have the idea that that was the case all along (here I'm referring to roleplay). Or if you were actually interested in him and choose the "you led me on" option after his personal quest, he essentially says that that wasn't his intention and tries to be nice about it. If you choose to take the option to ask him to continue, he approves because he's happy you're not truly upset about it because he values you as a friend, which he makes clear in the very next scene with Giselle. Dorian is not the sort of have many truly close friends, and he especially did not expect to find one in the South. So when he finds one, male or female, he's happy that he can be himself around them, which includes some playful flirting.

Because this is a game with romance options, the male flirting leads to an actual romance, but you can certainly have flirty friendships without it actually leading to anything.

He certainly does, but once he is away from Tevinter and his family, and the obligations it is not implausible that he might feel differently about women because it is no longer tied to marriage and Pavus heritage.

Are you for real? He might feel differently about women?

The man is gay.

G      A      Y

A

Y


GAY!

It is, because I can access this content if I create a different character. So, it is only when I create a “wrong” character that is not good enough that I cannot play a romance, even if I make exactly the same choices as a person. It’s just my race or my gender that prevent it, not who the character is.

I do not think that this is true. I think he is disgusted by the entire social idea of breeding partnerships and arranged marriages, and his own parent’s union. I think he would have refused to marry anyone under these conditions, and tbh to marry all.

Oh good gods. You do not decide to change your sexual orientation because of a change of venue. At this point you are being purposefully obtuse. He is not into women. It's that simple. He likes them as friends. Not lovers. PERIOD.

Flirting is not the same as romantic love. Again, simple.

Please stop trying to change reality just because it doesn't suit your desires. You're being as bad as bloody Halward, and I'm becoming increasingly convinced you're just finding this amusing as all get out because you just keep flogging the same dead horse.

This has only been happening for like ... 15 years or so now, lol. It's an argument that has no end. My argument will always be that cRPGs are founded on tabletop RPGs and therefore its roots are in player created stories. Player created stories are stories the player creates themselves. cRPGs weren't able to accommodate this feature in the 80s and 90s due to lack of computing power and therefore relied solely on the battle aspect of RPGs. In other words cRPGs became battle sims where player choice only affected the combat.

Now that technology has reached a satisfactory level, more player choice and freedom should be incorporated as it's the defining aspect of an RPG (not stories, but player created stories). It's not just a viewpoint with fans either, J Sawyer (no introduction needed of course) for example defines an RPG not on the amount of dialogue but on the degree of player choice in a game.

Of course other people have different opinions *wrinkles nose*

No, it is true. When asked about it in the scene with his father: 

*choose 'No women at all?' dialogue option*
Inquisitor: "You've never been with a woman? Or even wanted to?" 
Dorian: "Not to my recollection. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful. They're just...not for me. That's not so beyond belief, is it?" 

I just have to laugh. The idea of asking him this in front of his father is so weird to me. It just seems so wildly inappropriate for how I think of such questions. I can see asking him later on, at some other time, but not just then!

So true. I, as a straight woman, had the most options available to me, yet didn't like a single one of them. Them's the breaks.

I happily fell for the gay dude and happily made a guy for him. But if I hadn't, as with DAO, or hadn't wanted to make a male, I would have no romance. Dorian's friend arc is wonderfully touching and caring, and it is also something he needs in his life: a true, loyal, trusted friend that values him for who he is. When playing a female character, it's nice to be that for him.

My first DAO play had no romance because I didn't know about them and didn't stumble into one. My current play is also sans romance of my own choosing. I don't feel there is any great loss.

What sageoflife means to say is to "use the mod and be done with it". His fingers are just having trouble mashing the correct keys