Romance requirements is not gender-specific, it's character-specific says Mac

They didn't "make" Kaidan bi for ME3. As a matter of fact, as far as I know, they never stated officially yes or no. That aside though, from a character point of view, Kaidan was never identified in ME1 and ME2 as str8. He has sex with a woman, but that does not mean he's str8.

Of course that's the usual preconception of the less educated. Generally society assumes one is str8 "until proven otherwise" which is idiotic. And claiming something is valid because "most people think it is" is an argumentum ad populum (aka a logical fallacy)

Anyway, to sum it up: the subject doesn't really come up so if you're used to using your brain, you'll realise from ME1 (seeing it the first time that is) that Kaidan may be bi. I like to think that was the writer's intention since there are quite a few signals. Obviously, if there is a Bioware dev that has specifically said, at some point, that Kaidan was str8 and they changed that for ME3 as fan service, then I'm wrong about this (though I'm not wrong in the reasoning that lead me to this conclusion, it's just a bit of meta data that I couldn't have taken into consideration).

Exactly so!

I think you're reading a lot into Mac's evasive comment that might not actually be there. Unless we assume that Sara and Scott are each partially set characters that will have reliably distinct personalities no matter how we play them, then there isn't a hugely impactful way to consistently differentiate them other than gender.

I certainly hope their personalities aren't set in such a way. I was hoping for more refined control over my character's personality and preferences in this game, not less.

That's fair. I figured Kaidan was a 1 or 2 on the Kinsey scale, personally. Mostly into women, but also interested in the occasional man.

(On a related note, is it just me or do most Bioware bisexuals state more preference for women? Ex: Leliana, Zevran, Anders, Isabella, Iron Bull, etc. Then again, those are all DA, so maybe that's mostly limited to that series.)

Actually, Zevran and Taliesen is canon and confirmed in World of Thedas. They were involved in a polyamorous relationship with Rinna

...at least, for a while. Didn't end well on any front.

Perhaps this is an explanation, but it shows a sad picture. Was it really necessary?

I'm certain it was the case with Anders Romance, at the very least. It doesn't matter what the devs are primarily, the programmers and artists have no say in the matter. All that matters in these cases is who the writer of that particular character was, and we know Anders was written by a woman in Dragon Age 2. I don't want to single her out or anything, but I have never agreed with her decision to hide Anders and Karls relationship (or, potentially, have it not exist at all) if the player is playing as a female Hawke. 

While the male devs probably also consciously or subconsciously believe that male characters who express interest in other men are less desirable to female players, female devs are clearly not immune to this either. As shown above, the most blatant example of this came from a female dev. 

That's a fair point.  I knew that Anders' writer in DA2 was a woman, but I had never heard her rationale for why they hid Karl from a LadyHawke.  If that's really the case, that's pretty silly.  And I take your word for it. 

Either way, it does come down to these societal stereotypes that men who are into other men are "less desirable" and "less manly".  And that's what I think is at the root of this phenomenon with the bisexual male LI's in these games.  Whether they mean to or not, the devs perpetuate this by making sure that any bisexual guy goes out of his way to make his clear attraction to women known and, sometimes, even goes further by doing the whole, "I'm not normally into guys....." thing.

It's certainly not the end of the world, but it's irritating to say the least.  I had high hopes for Bull since they really sold him as being into "anyone who he feels won't break".  But that mostly ended up with him going on and on and on about redheads and barmaids.  I was kind of hoping to hear a few "Well that guy was hot...." stuff from him.  Maybe it will happen in ME: A.  But I'm honestly not holding my breath on that since this particular franchise doesn't have the best track record when it comes to m/m romances.  But I'm stupidly optimistic sometimes. 

I believe that they initially claimed the LI's sexualities were up for player interpretation and flexible, so if playing as a female Hawke Anders could be straight, and if playing as a male Hawke he could be gay, or something along those lines. But after people told them about bisexual erasure they backtracked and said Anders only hid the relationship because he didn't feel it was appropriate to mention it to a female Hawke. Don't take my word completely, this is just what I gathered from the old BSN and developer quotes back there. I'm fairly confident it's accurate, though. 

I agree that the stereotype is annoying. Honestly Fenris and Merrill are my favourite bi LI's, despite the ambiguity, because neither feel the need to validate their sexuality by mentioning they find both genders attractive repeatedly. The only time you get any indication of what Fenris likes is when he's in a relationship with you or Isabela, which I appreciated. 

I'm not sure how I want them to handle it going forward. I don't want bi LI's to always prefer women, but I'm not sure that having one who mostly talks about men would be better. I suppose I just want a character where whatever they say or don't say about themselves feels natural, not like everything they say about their sexuality is for the players benefit. 

I'm also quite optimistic about ME:A. While the series doesn't have the best track record with m/m romances I'd say making Garrus a romance option was far more brave, and shows a willingness to go even further than the DA team. Im also fairly convinced that our female Turian squamate will have a romance arc, which is something I was hoping for, and their statement about creating male and female characters of all aliens was promising. I also really like what we've heard about ME:A's relationship system in general, it looks like they are working on improving the issues I had with previous ME games. But overall, in Mass Effect I'm more interested in them exploring the species angle than the gender angle. Like having an LI who's really into humans as a species and doesn't care about human gender. Same gender alien LI's who aren't Asari are something I really want to see in general, actually. Give me my male Quarian already bioware!!!. But the only Bioware game that gave me a male LI I liked more than the female ones was Fenris in DA2, so male LI's in these games don't have the best track record with me in general.

You are correct. Originally their plan was that two of the options would be seen as bisexual and the other two would be seen as ambiguous. But then certain people started complaining and Bioware unfortunately caved and made all four bisexual. 

But Anders in an m/m romance has never been ambiguous. He clearly says that gender doesn't matter to him but the person behind it. Only the Anders in an w/m playthrough could be seen as ambiguous.