Yeah, dont get me started on realism in BG3 romances.
For example if men pulled what Gale pulls in this night scene with other men, they would get beaten up. A LOT.
[...]
There are several problems with how romance is approached in BG3, but the worst is that it makes people feel out of control. [...]
In some cases this is much worse. [...] For women who’ve personally experienced men assuming that just because they’ve been nice they deserve sex, this is a nasty part of the real world they don’t want in their games. Or at least, many of them don’t.
All this could be made much more appropriate by simply doing one thing, giving us clear dialogue choices clear. [...]
Personally I kind of like Lae’zel being the start of the relationship, but not only is it not for everyone, I’ve heard of multiple people who don’t want to play BG3 simply because all the romance options happen all the time. It makes people uncomfortable and turns them off. [...]
I'm also personally frustrated with games that gate content behind building a romantic relationship with certain characters, I think mass effect and dragons age largely did this right, as you don't have to have a romantic or sexual relationship with your companions to dig into their character or learn about them as a person and they clearly mark the dialogue options that go down that path.
First of all, awesome OP !
Yes the romances in BG3 suck BIG TIME. I'm not surprised some people wont play the game just because of the obnoxious romances.
As I've said before, they should give us the option to disable romances. I would immediately enable that and never turn it off again.
Personally I always romance Karlach ASAP - not because I want to, but simply to shut everybody else up. There is nothing I like about that romance, but she's the by far most likeable of the female options. Admittedly a very low bar, considering the other two are essentially pure evil.
But realistically I play Halfling and the most I would maybe romance is Gnome, but really typically another Halfling. And yes, I also sometimes play Half Woodelf. Then thats less of an issue. Those are the only two races I really play.
I also always play female now. Mainly because female faces are better. But also for example because then Gale's scene isnt as over the top uber creepy if you are female. Still creepy and invasive, just not as much.
I also dont like that everyone is bisexual. Realistic would be one bisexual, one homosexual. Then again, given how narrow the choices are, and how the game forces me to play females, its a good thing that Karlach is bisexual and I can romance her as a female.
There's 2 main issues at work here:
1) There is no nuance between "Friend" and "Romantic Partner".
It's incredibly hard to maintain a platonic friendship without any romantic advances [...]
2) Relationships are shallow.
This applies to both friendships and romance, but is more egregious for romance.
Very well said, too.