Grimlorn
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Messages
- 10,248
It's never well written. It's not something that needs to be in every RPG. You get fans like Bioware fans that think every option needs to be romanceable and every sexuality needs to be represented. These people are creeps and one of the reasons why Bioware had to shut down the romance section of their forums because these degenerates were fighting over characters and who was the biggest fan.Much of the Codex's anti-romance sentiment is actually more about being "anti-people-who-really-like-romances". There's a narrative that BioWare's romances attracted a "bad crowd" that the studio destroyed itself by pandering to. Romances are seen as something that people have a tendency to care about to the exclusion of other things.
This I can understand, to an extent.
For me, romance in RPGs is an important thing because it feels weird to have this expansive narratives that last months of in-game time, and have every character be chaste and show no attraction that develops over time. Like other people have commented, it seems natural that people would find solace in romance (or sex) in desperate situations.
It also takes away resources from other parts of games, because so much work is put into dialogue, voice acting, and cutscenes for every romance scene. Those resources could be put elsewhere like writing a tighter narrative that isn't pigeonholed because they need to make sure everyone can romance and fuck everyone.