Essay: Romance in Bioware Games Part 1

[CrimsonKale]

Romance in Games : Comparative look at Dragon Age and Mass Effect

First off I am going to preface this by saying that i truly enjoy making research projects like papers and miss my university classes the forced me to make them. I am a weird forever academic type and i don't expect anyone to actually enjoy reading these but this is going to be a fun project for me. I plan to do a few of these that analyze aspects of some of my favored games. I have a few in mind and this just so happens to be the first topic that i have had some discussions with friends before. So if you do read this all the way through i welcome your feed back and discussion.

For the longest time I have enjoyed playing games, since i was 13 i have looked eagerly forward to the next game in a franchise or the next big revolutionary thing. And with those entries we have made a great deal of progress from the simple hack and slash of early games to fully 3D and scripted productions of today. The advancements in games these days are truly amazing and wowed me in a way that i never though of before. And with these advancements in games it is my opinion that RPGs have been the most affected and enhanced. The addition of voice actors for NPCs, the addition of companions, added graphics, and branching narrative just to name a few. These were truly wondrous additions to a forum that allowed the player to truly loose themselves in the new reality that the game offered. So why is it that I find that the addition of romance options are almost always forced and clumsy. There are some that do romance options better then others, for example The Witcher series and then there have been some poor entries like Fallout 4. For the purpose of this post I plan to look at the romance options in two of my personally beloved series whose romances that I reacted to very differently the Mass Effect Series and the Dragon Age series. I find this an interesting example because these two games are created by the same company with similar writing styles and narrative. So why is it that i hate the romance options in Dragon Age games, but love the romance options in Mass Effect games? For simplicity purposes this will focus on the first 3 Mass Effect Games and the current 3 Dragon Age games.

Mass Effect for those who are unaware, was a Bioware title that took place in the future in the Milky Way galaxy. It was a galaxy wide space opera where the main protagonist and playable character SHEPARD, struggled to save the galaxy in the primary three games. By compassion the Dragon Age trilogy took place in the created land of Theadus and followed around three different player characters the Warden, Hawk, and the Inquisitor, in a similar epic to save the land from a great threat that could destroy everything the player characters hold dear. As a set up I personally think that this is a great start to an adventure. Sprawling epic adventures really appeal to me and many other in the gaming community. And as is befitting of games of this nature the story and the real preference is in the hero's journey rather then the climax. In both games the player will collect companions to follow and aid them, learning a great deal about their followers along the way. In both games i find that the introduction, establishment, and development of the companions to be top notch. There were many times that I found myself laughing at a joke that Rex cracked, or felt the sadness for Cole when he struggled to grasp at what it is to be human. And as one would think both games offer the option for the character to develop feelings for the companions or secondary characters. This option I found to be interesting as it allows a deeper connection between the player and an a secondary character. Personally I was excited to learn in that I could romance a companion in Dragon Age and Mass Effect. It was a concept from Bioware I was familiar with in Bioware games but it was an area I felt was not always done well, from a previous romp though their Neverwinter games. By comparison Dragon Age and then Mass Effect I found that the romance systems to be much more engaging, more effective and over all more fun and immersive. It allowed the player to participate even in some token way, in a relationship with a sexual preference that may not be their own. A point that was bough up in a Zero Punctuation Review for Dragon Age 2 *1. For the most part both Dragon Age and Mass Effect had the same system and set up for romance options. The divergence for me occurred in the second installments of both games. Where I found the romance in Mass Effect to be more real and the romance in Dragon age to be less engaging and fun. Which is not to say that it wasn't fun to learn more about these characters, but rather it felt off and kind of strange to me. It want until the third installment of both that i decided I hated the romance options and to a certain extent the characters around them for Dragon Age and by contrast loved the romance in Mass Effect and by extension the characters. But why? I had to ask myself why I hated Dragon Age romance but not Mass Effect.

[CrimsonKale]

PART 2

At first I concluded that it was because in Dragon Age you never kept the same character and that in Mass Effect you did. Through Dragon Age you created three different protagonist the Warden in Dragon Age : Origins, Hawk in Dragon age II, and the Inquisitor in Dragon age Inquisition. By comparison Commander Shepard was the main player character between all three games. This i think was certainly part of the reason that Mass Effect was a better romance system. By having one player character that the player maintains narrative control for helped Shepard evolve to better suite that players vision for their game. As the player advances through the trilogy many of their past actions follow them through and can have effects on the subsequent games. For example, saving Kaiden in Mass Effect 1 will have him show up as a companion again in Mass Effect 3 (Because Ashley is the worst). This helps the narrative of the Shepard character immensely and really gets the player involved and invested in the romance should they choose to peruse one. By comparison there is no relationship between the Dragon Age player characters, aside from a brief cameo from Hawk in Dragon Age 3 none of the characters that the player has made interact with one another. This to me knee caps the romance system from the start and makes it less engaging. But that still wasn't it, there was still a problem that i had with the games' systems and it wasn't until recently i could even put my finger on what i feel was the real issue.

*****WARNING*****
This next section may get a touch political to some depending on your world views. However, I promise that I am not doing this to attack or belittle any world view on any issue.
*****WARNING*****

Recently I have puzzled out why i hated the Dragon Age romances. It wasn't because of the characters themselves, most of them were wonderfully written and acted. It wasn't because my character was different between the three games. It wasn't even the shift in goals or settings between the games. (Generally speaking all three took place in the same land but shifted focus around the world). I believe that the reason I hated Dragon age romances more the Mass Effects was because the developers were focused on and made an issue of, the sexuality of the Dragon Age characters. By comparison in the Mass Effect games sexuality was played down or outright ignored. My best examples are a comparison between the two games on play troughs where I played as Gay Male Shepard and Gay Male Inquisitor. That wasn't to say i didn't play each of these games MANY times as different genders and sexuality, (In fact playing as strait fem Shepard was one of the most fun run toughs). But this was my fist run thoughts with both games and it left a sour taste in my mouth for future play troughs.

In Mass Effect it was never an issue of the sexuality of your companions, going so far as most of them not caring out right that some companions were gay, i.e Vega. Who is aggressively strait but develops a bromance with a gay shipmate Cortez through the course of the game. In fact i can't remember when any of the characters in Mass Effect announced their sexuality with out first being questioned by the player. Sexuality in Mass Effect was never a THING, it was just another aspect of who they were, and everyone reacted appropriately. It went so far as I ACCIDENTALLY ended up with Kaiden (because fuck Ashley the space raciest), it wasn't a plot point, there was no special talk where Kaiden pontificated about sleeping with both men and women, I didn't even know i could do it and when it happened it didn't feel forced or like it was a statement. By comparison in Dragon Age gave me the feeling that all the companions were displaying their sexuality like a badge. I sure like dudes states Dorian, Woof those other women are super hot states Sara, boy howdie am I ever a bisexual states Bull. It certainly wasn't as bad as it could be and i have seen worse, but for these characters in Dragon Age their Sexuality was always a THING. For example both Dorian & Sara characters and Bull to a certain extent always have little lines about how they like the same gender or how they find that (insert nameless hot person) attractive around the castle. Needlessly banging you about the face and neck about how LGBTQALMNOP**+# they are. Most of his romance conversations always felt like a Queer as Folk episode. And it saddened me to see a character clearly developed to pander to me and others like me in a demographic I am a part of, to be made so one dimensional in their sexuality. He has other aspects to his character but his sexuality is done so in your face and over the top to make a statement it detracted from his character over all. Coming from a company who did it so well in their previous big title Mass Effect where i know that they can do better.

[CrimsonKale]

Part 3

I am sorry i have gone off on a bit of tangent on the gay romances, but these issues were most prevalent and noticeable in the gay romances lines, it is probable that most gamers that play these games wouldn't have seen or cared about these instances. I went back several times in all six of the games and did several play toughs of each, trying to choose a different kind of Shepard and a different kind of Dragon age characters. And i found a different problem in the romances between gay/bi and strait character romances upon different play toughs. As a strait Inquisitor/Warden/Hawk it it was a different . The romances for these characters weren't forced but instead seemed to be stiff and passionless for the most part. (I'll admit that the romance of Alistair was cute as hell and tragic that you couldn't end up with him. And that Aveline was adorkable in her own way) but they were in the minority. Romancing Greywall was a chore, Isibella was no fun despite her being a fun character, and Cassandra was like charming a sofa. And while i love the character of Meril when I choose to romance her it really kinda killed her charm for me. By comparison I found one of the most fun play toughs to be as Fem Shepard, having RPed as a Captain Janeway isk character for the first 2 games and then being pulled into romancing meat head Vega and his massive ham neck was a lot of fun, and while I started it a lark the romance between the 2 was actually quite charming. And again when I went back and romanced Tali I felt it, I felt the chemistry and the emotions. It was an aspect that was either muted or missing from the Dragon Age romances. "oh i love you so much" why? my ability to bash Templar's about?

I fully believe that this system was kneecapped by the ever growing forced representation and inclusive in games. A growing demand from a small minority who demanded more representation in these games pressed upon a developer who honestly and truly had already provided that representation to a satisfied player base. I want to preference what I am going to say next is not an endorsement for or a condemnation agents inclusive and representation in games. Personally I never really saw the point in making a big deal out of representation in games. I enjoy a good story, engaging characters, and a fun world and never gave a care weather that character looked like me or had the same sexual organs, or even if they liked the same sexual preferences as I did. Some of my favored characters in video games in general were female. I loved the character of Garnet in FF9 for a compelling character arc from gormless royal to kick ass caster. I loved Tracer from Overwatch because she is so dedicated to her cause but still is flawed and is still dedicated to a dead cause because of her belief in said cause. Its just not an issue that ever bothered me all that much. And that is coming from a gamer who comes from 2 minorities groups. Well 1.5 i suppose is more accurate, grandma was Asian but grandpa was white. A slight divergence but back to the written issue.

It was, in my case, where i played as Gay Inquisitor that I noticed these issues and really kicked off this essay. I feel that I hated the romance system in Dragon Age because in a rush to prove how inclusive they were to to claim that their prominent display and proclamation of their GAY characters they sacrificed actual emotion, genuine relationship building, and over all character to wave their "support Flag". And as a member of the demographic that they were OBLIVIOUSLY pandering to I cannot support it, if Bioware wants to make a gay character, great. I enjoy seeing a character like me. But i don't want it to be a THING, I don't want it to affect good story, and I certainly don't want it to cause the character to be less engaging. So to that end this is why I felt that Mass Effect was a better romance system then in Dragon Age.

To everyone who as read this far thank you. I know this kind of rambling and may not have been the most fascinating issue that has ever been written about. But it is one that has been bothering me for a bit. Maybe one day I will go back to the Mass Effect Andromeda and deconstruct the myriad of issues that I didn't appreciate their as well. Which is partly why I excluded it from the essay. Along with other social justice issues i didn't want to get into. Please let me know if you though this was at least a decent essay.


Your Friendly & Healthy
CrimsonKale



Linked Sources

*1 https://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...-Dragon-Age-II

[Borghir]

It was an interesting piece to read and I look forward to reading more of your projects.

I played ME2 not that long ago and absolutely loved it. I ended up with a relationship in that game, but it's not the part that I fondly remember the game by. The relationship aspect was just an option in the game that Shepard could take at some point. I did it more to see if there were extra missions for him.

Maybe I don't feel emerged enough with my characters to actually care what they are doing. When I opt for a relationship in a game it usually with the hopes of getting more out of the game(items, quests, etc), but the times I've encountered this option it was an optional side story with no effect on the main story.
For the same reason I often play previous Fallout games twice. Once with a male and once with a female, because they have their own unique conversation options and I hope to encounter something new.

Perhaps I'll change my mind after playing DA2 though. I've got the game on Origin (which I haven't opened in months) and will give it a go!

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

IMO, I hated ME2’s relationships. I felt like they made Shepard into a Kirk/Commander Richer clone, because all members of the opposite sex would always make a pass at you. I was almost perplexed that Mordin Solis, a Salarian who doesn’t have hormone based sex drive, showed affection to Shepard. I thought it was way too overdone, IMO.

I thought it was a meme at best. Who wants Shepard!

It was nice to play a FemShep with a 3 game relationship with Liara. I wish I could test my hypothesis that Liara has a child with Shepard. In the end of the 3 game, she and Shepard ‘embraced enternity’ and I had the feeling it was about Liara conceiving a child with Shepard.

I also like the relationship with both Ashley and Kaiden. Ashley, IMO, isn’t racist, but was a Humanity First person - a predecessor of today’s nationalist politicians.

You’re right with your assessment between Dragon Age and ME trililogy. I brought it up when I was reviewing Mass Effect Andromeda. They way you find out Ortega was gay was completely different than how you find out Gil Broady is Gay/Bi-Sexual. Ortega was talking about Horizon and losing his husband there, and Gil you find out is Bi-Sexual (he has a child with his female friend) because some guy asks if Gil is ‘available’ in the most awkward way. . . Just fuck off.

The whole Dragon Age thing was so overt that I actually didn’t even try to romance people in the second game at all because nobody seemed like a worthy match for Hawks.

[CrimsonKale]

IMO, I hated ME2’s relationships. I felt like they made Shepard into a Kirk/Commander Richer clone, because all members of the opposite sex would always make a pass at you. I was almost perplexed that Mordin Solis, a Salarian who doesn’t have hormone based sex drive, showed affection to Shepard. I thought it was way too overdone, IMO.

I thought it was a meme at best. Who wants Shepard!

It was nice to play a FemShep with a 3 game relationship with Liara. I wish I could test my hypothesis that Liara has a child with Shepard. In the end of the 3 game, she and Shepard ‘embraced enternity’ and I had the feeling it was about Liara conceiving a child with Shepard.

I also like the relationship with both Ashley and Kaiden. Ashley, IMO, isn’t racist, but was a Humanity First person - a predecessor of today’s nationalist politicians.

You’re right with your assessment between Dragon Age and ME trilogy. I brought it up when I was reviewing Mass Effect Andromeda. They way you find out Ortega was gay was completely different than how you find out Gil Broady is Gay/Bi-Sexual. Ortega was talking about Horizon and losing his husband there, and Gil you find out is Bi-Sexual (he has a child with his female friend) because some guy asks if Gil is ‘available’ in the most awkward way. . . Just fuck off.

The whole Dragon Age thing was so overt that I actually didn’t even try to romance people in the second game at all because nobody seemed like a worthy match for Hawks.

Yes I'll admit that Ashley wasn't overtly space raciest i was just being hyperbolic for a bit of comedy. And In ME 2 Shepard got a bit Capt Kirk but it was still a fun system. thanks for pointing that out though i glossed right over ME 2 Romance shenanigans. But i didn't want to get into Mass Effect Andromeda do to its MANY issues at launch and at with a ton of awkwardly crow-board poorly written social issues that were just dropped in apropos of nothing and weirdly delivered. I didn't want to go over Andromeda relationship system mostly because it wasn't anything new it was tropes we saw before and to be honest i did 1 run though just to get to the end and then never touched it again. i couldn't deliver a good review of a system i only half hearty did one time several years ago. Thanks for the Feed back .

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

I hear you on ME:A. I was writing every single day before I played that game, so bad writing became even more offensive to me - and I think there was only one or two sequences that I truly felt like I was in a space opera Sci-Fi game in the entire game.

It’s funny that the Mass Effect romances were written just after NeverWinter Nights. There were several great player made modules that had some great romances in them, and they probably learned how to do it right by following that, same with DA:O.

On ME:A, the one thing they did get right is how the end the game. Whoever Ryder romances gives you a cutscene at the end, and if you romance the lesbian scientist in the ship, she tells you something amazing about that sector of Andomeda that sparked my interest. Too bad it’s not being supported anymore.

https://youtu.be/Vofx3UgmNQU

14:54 and you can see the sequence - you only get this when you romance Suvi.

[CrimsonKale]

It was an interesting piece to read and I look forward to reading more of your projects.

I played ME2 not that long ago and absolutely loved it. I ended up with a relationship in that game, but it's not the part that I fondly remember the game by. The relationship aspect was just an option in the game that Shepard could take at some point. I did it more to see if there were extra missions for him.

Maybe I don't feel emerged enough with my characters to actually care what they are doing. When I opt for a relationship in a game it usually with the hopes of getting more out of the game(items, quests, etc), but the times I've encountered this option it was an optional side story with no effect on the main story.
For the same reason I often play previous Fallout games twice. Once with a male and once with a female, because they have their own unique conversation options and I hope to encounter something new.

Perhaps I'll change my mind after playing DA2 though. I've got the game on Origin (which I haven't opened in months) and will give it a go!

I'm glad you liked it thank you. And no, the relationships in Bioware games never really effect game play to much, it really is more for a deeper look at on companion and how they would react to being presued romantically by the main character. And DA2 while i thought fun despite its many issues, still told a fun, if smaller story to DA1 and 3 the romance system in DA 2 similar to MA2 but the companions wern't worth the time in my opinion. They were fun to have in a party but but it felt like little effort was given to their romance options.

[The_Dirk_Diggler]

A great read. Though a few spelling errors awakened my inner grammar nazi. Lol sorry. I honestly miss romancing in most games either because I play them too fast or I'm just dense. I like your take on the differences between the series. Strange that it seems like the same studio is reading from two different play books.

[MadMummy76]

I think pc culture makes deep romance options in games obsolete. It's hard to make a romance real when almost every character swings both ways. I really hated the romance options in AC:Odyssey, well it's not really romance at all, I called them: "Let's fuck options".

I agree that ME's romance threads were much more realistic and engaging than Dragon Age ever was. Well, except for romancing Cassandra in DA:I That was pretty realistic, and gradual. If you stick with her that is, because initially I didn't think of her much either, but later she does open up.

I'm also a space racist because I found romancing aliens in Mass Effect weird. It never gave me that dopamine boost as the human options did. But being attracted to your own kind is not racism. At least I reject that notion. The same way as not wanting to have sex with a trans person doesn't make you transphobic either.

By far my favorite romance option in the ME trilogy was Miranda. Why? Because you get the best and most rewarding scenes with her in ME3. Especially if you get the citadel DLC, seriously you must not miss that.

On a technical aspect, what I disliked about the ME games, is that if you turned down the romance dialogue option just once during the game, then you lost the option forever. And on first playtrough I never wanted to be that pushy. but I Did finish ME1 and ME2 at least a dozen times, so I had time to experiment.

[JackofTears]

I respect that you, OP, have a lot to say on the subject, but maybe post a synopsis first and then introduce your more detailed ideas as they come up in the course of discussion. I only say this because seeing three pages of text opening the thread will turn a lot of people away - it turned me away - and that's too bad because this is a subject I find very interesting. Dumping a long paper on someone at the start of a thread is a bit too overwhelming and it will only limit discussion, maybe avoid it in the future.

[The_Dirk_Diggler]

To be fair OP started title with "Essay:....". I think that if OP had tried to gradually introduce talking points later it would have been clunky and if there isn't much reader engagement it would look weird. Probably easier to just lay everything on the table and if dialogue ensues so be it.

[CrimsonKale]

Thanks for the feedback. I thought about that but yes i thought it would have been weird to just randomly drop sections of my essay into odd parts of the conversation.

[CrimsonKale]

A great read. Though a few spelling errors awakened my inner grammar nazi. Lol sorry. I honestly miss romancing in most games either because I play them too fast or I'm just dense. I like your take on the differences between the series. Strange that it seems like the same studio is reading from two different play books.

LOL its ok I'm useless with out Spell check.

[MakeGamesGreatAgain]

Try Grammarly, it definitely helps.

[CrimsonKale]

NEVER!!!! your just being intolerant of the spelling disabled. LOL naw i thought of it I just haven't gotten around to it. Plus i see those adds all the time and they feel targeted. I'm not sure if i should be impressed that the internet knows i suck at spelling or insulted lol.

[CrimsonKale]

I think pc culture makes deep romance options in games obsolete. It's hard to make a romance real when almost every character swings both ways. I really hated the romance options in AC:Odyssey, well it's not really romance at all, I called them: "Let's fuck options".

I agree that ME's romance threads were much more realistic and engaging than Dragon Age ever was. Well, except for romancing Cassandra in DA:I That was pretty realistic, and gradual. If you stick with her that is, because initially I didn't think of her much either, but later she does open up.

I'm also a space racist because I found romancing aliens in Mass Effect weird. It never gave me that dopamine boost as the human options did. But being attracted to your own kind is not racism. At least I reject that notion. The same way as not wanting to have sex with a trans person doesn't make you transphobic either.

By far my favorite romance option in the ME trilogy was Miranda. Why? Because you get the best and most rewarding scenes with her in ME3. Especially if you get the citadel DLC, seriously you must not miss that.

On a technical aspect, what I disliked about the ME games, is that if you turned down the romance dialogue option just once during the game, then you lost the option forever. And on first playtrough I never wanted to be that pushy. but I Did finish ME1 and ME2 at least a dozen times, so I had time to experiment.

Yes i think that the PC culture has had a lot to do with the devolving narrative of some games. Every character being able to be BI really hurts the game. Oddly enough this didn't hold true in DA:I there were some characters that you couldn't woo. For example Cassandra would only go for male Inquisitor and Cullen would only go for female Inquisitor. Its just a shame that the BI an gay characters are so insufferable when romancing them. I'm not saying that ONLY gay people can write the gay romances but perhaps a bit more consultation would have made it better. So it was like they had half of the equation in ME and half of the equation in DA.

[RaptureReady]

I enjoyed your essay. However, why are you writing an essay about romance in bioware when you could be writing an essay to Bethesda?

[isturbo1984]

The romancing options have always been something that has been poked fun at. Mostly because having it in out video games makes some people uncomfortable. But also because of the cringe factor. I a good romance cutscene from Mass Effect 1&2 and The Witcher series is something that is worth complimenting. I hate the lazy ones these days that just show a character kiss and the screen fades to black with an accompanying achievement pop, lol. It's lazy. Either include it or don't.

[JackofTears]

It kind of depends on what kind of age rating they're shooting for with their players and if they want to go through the effort of censoring the scenes for release in certain countries.