The "No Romances!" Thread

Currently some are trying to start a Twitter # to get Bioware to put romances in the Anthem (much like the #MakeJaalBi campaign to make Jaal in Mass Effect: Andromeda romanceable by Bro-Ryder). What do you think of this tactic? Should developers be pressured into adding stuff into their games this way, especially before anyone has really played much of the game? Or should they be allowed to make the game they want first?

I mean for me it’s icing on the cake. I like it but I care more about getting a good cake. That said, the way BW has been cagey and vague about the story telling/rpg parts and mostly has been saying “we’re BW of course the game will have a good story/characters” and yet there are all these BW staples that will be absent. People are freaking out about no romances, but also companions will be missing. This is huge.

Less “kadan” more “git gud” 

I mean in terms of developers making what they want... sure. But there are limits. Brands are a thing. Innovation and mixing it up is fine, but if BW keeps asking for us to trust in their legacy (brand) of giving good stories and characters but then keeps jettisoning staples of the BW brand (rpg, romance, companions,dialogue)then it’s a bit like asking people to like your product after it no longer does the thing it was designed to do and the reason why people bought it in the first place was to do that thing. 

It's to be expected. Romances bring out a side of this community that is downright disgusting in the way they handle business. Constant whining about certain characters not being an option or being an option to another sex, attacking of other members of the community for their options. And even within specific character communities, arguments that lead to an entire sub forum being shut down.

This is not a group of people that BioWare want to drag with them to new game, and not just a new IP, but a new style of game, Anthem isn't a RPG like BioWare have done before. For the first time in two decades, BioWare are trying to branch out and bring in new players with a new genre of gaming. They don't need the baggage of the romance community following them.

But it seems like that's not working, with according to the OP people are already starting to force BioWare into adding romances, which adds even further to my point that this isn't a mentally stable community, they need to move on already. The BioWare RPG fans, have moved on, I have no plan at all at buying this game because it isn't a RPG. I played Destiny 2(only because I wanted the white PS4 pro), it was trash, and since Anthem is Destiny, I already know what it is. Now it's time for the romance fans to move on as well. Let BioWare appeal to a new demographic and hope that they can sustain BioWare long enough for Dragon Age to come out.

Developers trying to appease the masses is what gave us Mass Effect: Andromeda, for they keep throwing stuff at the game to try and make people happy and it never works.  If anything I think BioWare over the years has spent too much time trying give their fanbase what they want and it always backfires so its nice for them to to remove things for whatever reason.

As far as it working like Jaal being made Bi in Andromeda, I doubt it.  With Andromeda they were altering a character because people were making an argument that three of four groups of romances could complete an achievement and the fourth needed to pick one of the other types of romances.  This is adding new content to a game that the developers are saying won't be in the game before release, so its not fixing something that was overlooked like with Andromeda but adding a completely different feature that the developers didn't want in the release version for one reason or another.

I have no interest in buying Anthem. I play games for story, and story alone. I have zero interest in playing with others because each game is MY story, and MY story alone. I'm not sharing that with anyone else, because everyone else has their own story that they want to enjoy. As soon as I saw that it was a multi-player game my interest took a massive nose-dive.

Now I agree with some people that having romances can bring out the worse in people online- specifically, it brings out an incredibly annoying, whiny, sometimes bitchy group of people who constantly complain about various aspects to the romances and seem to fixate on that alone. However, I would argue that you can find that sort of group online in any forum. Some people are just obnoxious and loudmouthed, and will scream at anyone IN ALL CAPS because they lack the ability to simply realize that this is not worth getting THAT upset about, and move on with their life. I would argue that that particular subset just happens to focus on romance because it's easiest, and you (in this case BioWare) should not remove something that's so enjoyable for so many other (rational) people just because of a loud minority.

Now this might simply be a new direction they're going with this game, and that's fine, that's their choice. But it makes it much less appealing to the, I would argue, much larger, older, and loyal fanbase they've built up over the years that expect that from them. When you're telling a story, the relationships in that story help to make it real, and yes, friendship is a great and wonderful aspect of that, but so is love (and I say love because in BioWare games romantic relationships cumulate in actual love between the PC and the companion). Having that aspect helps to make it more real, more tangible. It makes your character more human, and thus connects you more to the narrative.

So when they revealed more information, like you CAN play alone, but it's better with others, and there's no romances, to me that just means this isn't going to be a story-driven game, it's just going to be action, and I have now lost all interest. Maybe a year after the launch when they've released some DLC's, or the story has actually proven to be worthwhile (and it's not so ridiculously expensive), I'll check it out, but I'm not holding my breath.

EDIT: I will say that I disagree with people campaigning to change the sexuality of romancable characters. Characters are written a certain way with certain preferences, and you need to just respect the writer's decisions on some things. I was a little sad I couldn't romance Dorian, but hey, that's life. You can't just go changing a person's sexuality in life either. There's other options out there for you. That's all I'll say about that.

Excellent poll idea, OP, I'm stealing this for twitter...

I guess my biggest issue is the no companions thing... I honestly don’t play BW games because their stories are that innovative or because their romances are just so good. I play them for the characters they write being a joy to spend a whole game with/

Anthem could still, hypothetically have that, but i’ve Yet to see that advertised but time will tell.

Well... not to be negative just cautious. They said the same about the crew in MEA. 

The Witcher series by CD Projekt
Obsidian did romances in their BioWare sequels, Alpha Protocols and Deadfire.
There is a few FF games with romance (part of the story, so static).
Life is Strange from DONTNOD has 2 romance-able NPCs.
Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 (in 1 you could just romance your co-source hunter)
Any dating sims.