*Romance distribution spoilers* Make your voice heard about the lack of romance options, sex scenes,

If you want to take issue with what I have to say I'd appreciate it if you addressed what's actually in my post, not what you'd like my post to be about.

I'm quite grateful for what Bioware does and (hopefully) continues to do, especially the DA tema, that does not detract from the fact that gay men got objectively shortchanged in MEA. I won't address 'quality' of the romances because that's subjective at the end of the day but if we go by time allocated and options available -- it's fact.

There's also quite a distance between saying "You don't put gays in your games but at least you don't pretend like you think it matters and I can respect that lack of hypocrisy" which is what I said and "YAY KEEP GAY OUT OF YOUR GAMES CDPR!" which is what you seem to want my post to say.

If you're content and don't see an issue that's fabulous, please don't feel the need to twist the opinions of people you disagree with to justify that contentment.

Here we have neither. 

Gil and Reyes as non-squad mates just won't compare to squad mate romances.  There won't be the same sense of consistent adventure and progression that you would feel being constantly in peril or traveling with a squad mate.  You won't get constant banter and interactions with Gil being on the ship and Reyes not even being on the ship. 

These characters will undoubtedly have far less dialogue for romance and general character development.  Probably no loyalty missions.  

I made a joke weeks ago that m/m romances would be in full armor.  One of the romances ended up doing this.  WTF. The other fade to black only shows their heads in a Closeup. I guess we can't even handle a male chest. Meanwhile Coras ass is right in your face for long periods of straight male gaze.  Cora then lays in bed fully nude while m/m is like "can we get away with showing a collarbone?"

Im sickened by this disparity and while I appreciate BioWare does gay content at all, I'm not going to just shut up and hope they get more GLAAD awards with these kinds of differences.  

I just watched 

Even though I don't play ME, I'm popping over from the DA forums because I've been following the issue of the MEA m/m romances. Dorian is my favorite character in the franchise, and his is my favorite romance in the entire series. I am certainly not averse to m/m content, or seeing gay sex.



I can't tell if you're joking with this, but I think it IS something to consider, and this post is the only time I've seen it mentioned in this thread.

One of the reasons I like the Dorian romance is because you CAN headcanon with regard to top/bottom/vers/(nothing; stuff other than pen) (please don't argue with me about this, that is not the scope of this thread). Not only does that relate to Dorian, but to the PC as well and what he likes. Some gay players were even put off by the Iron Bull romance because HE dictates the sexual roles.

For the most part, this is not an issue with straight pairings: card A goes in slot B.

I watched the entire Gil video, and I actually prefer that there is fade to black because of that headcanon factor.

However, I DO acknowledge that there is a greater issue here, namely the great disparity when it comes to the sex scenes.


Let's use the Dorian post-sex scene as a comparison. Not only do you get a nice ass shot of him, but he and the PC have an extended conversation while naked, sitting on the bed, which ends with the start of additional sexy times. But the sex is not depicted.

Would something like this have been satisfactory for Gil?


In fairness, I should note that at the end of the post-sex conversation, they did fully animate the shot of them lying back down on the bed. It's pretty hot. However, even with a human PC, the clipping is pretty bad and that video author (who I'm fairly familiar with in terms of their body of work) used clever camera positioning to capture the best angle. Other angles, which I have seen for myself in the game, have the Inquisitor partly sunken into the bed, with awkward, stiff arm movements. I'd imagine that having to tweak it for all four races would have been time consuming. Instead we get another fade to black and that shot isn't seen.

[edit] Also not shown is the Inquisitor holding Dorian's hand, which is, to me, the greater loss because of the emotion of the scene.

Frankly I'd rather not have semi-porn in the game at all.

Bioware romances are getting creepy af

If that is the intention they aren't exactly doing a good job, considering gay men have had the least romance content for 4 games in a row.

I really think Gil's romance arch is designed to get press for being first to market on a certain issue.  It's just so forced to me.  They just feel like they are checking checkboxes without any passion.

If we only had Mass Effect to go on, I might think this had merit, but that's not the case. Bioware is bigger than ME. They've had same-sex romances for a very long time throughout various games.

If anything, I think this is just indicative of the different priorities and values between the Mass Effect and Dragon Age teams. Heck, DAO's same-sex sex scenes were just as creepy (underwear sex with weird faces) and explicit as the opposite-sex ones.

Indeed... they might one time have had the skill to include same sex relationships in a meaningful way, but like with everything else, they no longer really have a vision behind anything they do. The public/media will catch on to that at some point, but until then, their cred as "the makers of great stories and characters" seams to live on...

They are hearing us.

Well while it's not a promise for change, it's a good recognition, and the silence has been broken, which is a good thing.

It also means that in a week or so they'll have to start talking or tumblr will go to war with them.

I think Dragon Age's progressiveness has gone beyond cashing in social brownie points.  Mass Effect has always been trailing it