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

Can someone else who is more articulate with their words point out all the things wrong with this sentence? Because I think I'm gonna go mental. 

There is no way for BioWare to do romances that will please everyone. Blackwall and Bull are two of my favourite options in DAI, and I think Sera is flat out one of the best romances BioWare have ever done. Meanwhile, I find Cullen bland and think the Solas romance is underdeveloped and poorly paced. I think the most we can ask for is that every character have two options regardless of their race, gender or sexual orientation and beyond that you pays your money and you takes your chances. Making everyone bi and ungated isn't a perfect solution, because it means fewer options make it into the game in the first place and there would be no romanceable gay or lesbian characters. (Or romanceable straight characters, but I don't think that's something games are short of so it's not really important.)

I mean, if it were up to me the romance options in DAI would be Varric, Harding, Bull, Blackwall, Sera, Dorian, Cassandra and Josephine. And Cassandra would be bi so my lesbian friends would stop crying over her and Bull would be a bottom because that would be way hotter. But my personal preferences are not facts.

I'm not all that articulate, but I'll try  Much as I did personally prefer having 4 bisexual love interests in DA2,** doing something similar in DAI would have lost us the meat of Dorian's story. His fight against blood magic and the estrangement from his family would have had a very different meaning if it hadn't been for Dorian's father trying to make him straight using blood magic. It was pretty important for Dorian to be gay and not playersexual or bisexual.


**That said, having LI's that are not bisexual has forced me to play male protagonists sometimes, which I might not have done had I been able to romance everyone I wanted to as a female. Variety is good, I suppose?


Edit: Nevermind, you responded while I was typing.

Sorry, I tried to clear that up in my comment above. It's not just about Dorian's story. I don't care for the idea that every romance has to be made with straight people in mind (with gay people as a sort of "eh, maybe if there's time" audience), and I'm iffy on bisexuality being used as a convenient tool rather than a legitimate orientation.

A++ for Nathyrra love

I'll only say this in regards to the player-sexual "ideal" some people want to see.  DA2's romances were the shallowest and least satisfying of all Bioware games to date, at least since KotOR (where the "romances" were almost an afterthought, but I digress...'twas a different era then) with the POSSIBLE exception of Merrill, but even her romance arc wasn't nearly what I would call "good."

I'd much rather what we have in DA:I to DA2, by a HUGE margin.   I'll say that as a heterosexual male, DA:I's offerings weren't my cuppa tea.  Cass was a good character, but I just never clicked with her in any romantic way.  Josephine is better in that regard, but she's got poorly animated eyes that almost look "dead," and she's got a perpetual slight open mouth that shows her teeth.  Not that she ain't attractive, but the way she was animated throws me off.  I'd have been very happy with a Sera-like character who was available to male Inquisitors, but I wouldn't want Sera herself made bi.  There's something about her being purely homosexual that just fits with her character, and making her bi would almost detract from that, in my opinion.  Sera isn't conventionally pretty, but she's got the best animated expressions of all the companions, and her eyes look alive in most cutscenes.  Doesn't hurt that I dig her personality like crazy.

So, since the LI's for straight males don't appeal to me on certain levels, I play female inquisitors mostly.  I did a male inq./Josephine run at one point, and it was a very good romance arc...I just wish BioWare had done a better job with her eyes, and let her close her mouth once in a while.    

I agree about Bull, one if the best characters in DA, apart from Varric if course and my favorite love interest. I'm really glad, they didn' t give us a Sten or Arishok like romance.

Yeah, I like the variety for romance options, they don't always need to have the biggest role in the plot (in saying that I romanced Alistair, Anders and Solas for my canon playthroughs but mainly cus it worked with those characters and the story I wanted to tell: My Warden was a Cousland who was going to have happy ending being Queen with her beloved Alistair but ended sacrificing herself for the greater good, as that's what a Warden does in her view,  My Hawke I saw as a tragic figure that kept losing everything that was dear to him so went full into the Mage Cause with his beloved Anders who then dilussioned him by blowing up the chantry and made him question how dangerous Mages and himself can be and he felt forced to kill Anders ----> like I said tragic, and My Inquisitor was an elfy elf and so ended up with Solas who knew so much about the past elves)

A big romance doesn't always work for my characters, for example in MEA, my Ryder had just lost her father and her brother was in a coma and she'd been forced in a job she felt unprepared for. So I made her a person who coped with sarcasm and made bad personal choices so she ended up with Reyes who is basically a criminal who lied to her. He's not a big proper romance though, yet it fit when the other more plot ones didn't. And I like in DAI how the sexuality of a character makes them feel more rounded and real as they are. DA2 felt too playersexual to me, it made me come out of the game a bit.

While I like the story relevant love interests just fine, I second the sentiment because I like those characters for reasons that are unrelated to their story relevancy and I don't feel that friendship is a poor substitute in the story for romance. There's no loss of impact or investment, so to speak. 

In my canon world state, I had my Inquisitor romance Solas not because he had plot relevancy but because I liked his personality and thought it fitted well with hers. Had his personality been any different then I wouldn't have chosen him as the romance because doing so would have diminished the story regardless of how relevant he was to it. On my next playthrough, I didn't choose his romance and the story didn't feel less for it. The friendship between him and the Inquisitor still left a personal aspect to their relationship and angle to the betrayal. 

This extends to the previous romances as well. My Warden's comradery and friendship with Alistair meant the fall out between them during the Landsmeet had the same weight as had they been in a romance. For example, she still had to put aside Alistair's happiness for the sake of duty and responsibility to the Grey Wardens and the world. Her friendship with Morrigan didn't leave the story or certain scenes with less weight. On the contrary, it made Morrigan's words during their last scene come across as her trying to save her first and only friend.

Anders' betrayal still felt like a betrayal to my Hawke. He'd still betrayed her trust and years of friendship by emotionally blackmailing her and making her unknowingly contribute to his plan of mass murder. The friendship between the Inquisitor and Dorian was wonderful. I also liked that Dorian still found someone who loved and supported him outside of a romance. Someone whom he didn't need to hide who he was from. 

Note: written in a bit of haste.

I understand that the majority opinion disagrees with me, but after my DA2 vs DAI experience I am firmly convinced that 4 bi is way, way, way better than a multitude of gated romances. MEA that ended with dropping a gate did the right thing.

I also am not one of the players who feels their experience can only be complete and great if their LI rejects other people’s characters of the “wrong” gender and race. For me the thing that distinguishes Bio games are that I can play a customized protagonist, and I want every protagonist to be able to experience the more awesome story possible, including finding his or her soulmate that makes sense for the player, and that the player wants in relationship with their character, in their story.

When I like something, I want other folks to experience it to the fullest, and not by making them sacrifice what they want to play. I want everyone to get maximum enjoyement, and that’s impossible with gated romances.

There is precious few video games as is where you can make and play a female heroine, so making romantic experience exclusively predicated on gender is disappointing. With romances opened to all players, both a gay protagonist and a female protagonist who are not commonly available are possible to play while enjoying the romance you want to enjoy, and that you feel is right, without anyone sacrificing anything, and not only the romances that someone determined are the “correct” one for your protagonist, depending on your race and gender.

That hurts. I wish I hadn't known this, as I'm female and love Fenris and now I learn it isn't legit via the writers'preference

I am happy to take all the hurt to romance Dorian with my female Qunari Assassin to get the PT that fits my game story.

Well, sometimes we just have to accept that the market's against us. (I want timed main quests back, but it ain't happening.) All-bi LIs managed to fail with both the fans and the writing staff.