Quote:
Originally Posted by crimfan
Since Bioware is moving to a "downloadable content" model, it might be that a lot of the issues people raise here will be rectified in subsequent releases. On the issue of romances, I think they were pretty brave---given the vocalness of the moral majority types---to put out a gay male one in Jade Empire. As to why there wasn't one in ME, it's hard to say. I am always leery of forcing a game or other entertainment venue to be a soapbox for social causes. It may be they simply didn't manage to get a good NPC together which fit and plan to put out something else later. Things like NPC romances are sauce, not fundamental to the meal. When you've got fundamental things to get working, they go by the wayside. For instance, KotoR II: The Sith Lords lacked any female character romances at all and, in fact, was rather underdeveloped for female characters. The game designers were rushed and had to tie off the most likely paths that players would take. The game for a light side male character was much better.
I'd love to play ME but lack an Xbox 360. More importantly, I'm not sure I have the time....
Crimfan
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Like I said - it didn't effect my scoring of the game. But I do think that when you are purporting to produce a game that can be played *your* way, then you open yourself up as a company for criticism if you then fail to deliver.
As for the moral minority- there is surprisingly little controversy about allowing optional gay content. The Sims had very little controversy regarding the use of gay marriage - it sparked for about a month after the very first release and died down quickly. Nobody minded because the game wasn't forcing anything on the players, you could choose to send your sims down that path - or not.
The same with Fable and it's gay marriage/romance - very little controversy. Even Bully had remarkably little furore. Jade Empire had virtually no bad press from having a gay, lesbian and threesome romance. Do a google search sometime - there was virtually no controversy.
The story goes that there were simply not enough resources to write a gay romance and have all the other material that was in Mass Effect. However, having played through the game, it is full of cut corners. It would have been better to just remove entire elements and do the remaining elements *really* well.
The romances are not the sauce. The head of the project admitted that they were a key thing that fans looked forward to in their products. Ironically, in Mass Effect they do end up being treated as just extra, and are poorly written. Mass Effect is a game that has a lot of great stuff going for it, but also suffers from a clear lack of polish.
Romances, Unchartered Worlds, The Mako, The atrocious squad AI - so many areas that have been let down. The worst is the texture pop-in. If the engine they had chosen to use was so buggy, why didn't they choose a better engine? I will always wonder if a Havok based Mass Effect would have been any less gorgeous...
Conan