I definitely feel like a lot of the backlash against 'playersexual' romance amounts to people being uncomfortable that 'the gays' are 'too visible'.
True, though I'd argue that this is less so for games with playersexual companions than it is for games with high frequency of specifically bi/homosexual companions (where they have explicitly stated backstory or current in-game dialogue/relationships reinforcing those sexualities). Playersexuality has its own, though significantly overlapping, set of arguments against it.
For BG3 in particular, a big offender is probably that all the characters jump you at the same time, which gets lumped together with playersexual companions under the broad "problems with romance in BG3" discussion. Of course, playersexual companions doesn't have to mean that all companions jump you, let alone they jump you at the same time; this is just how it happens in BG3 EA. If companions' attention was spread out more and/or the player had to initiate any romance, I imagine that the complains about romance in BG3 would probably drop significantly.
Originally Posted by Leucrotta
IMO what Larian is doing is more or less the best course of action available. Everyone can go with whichever option they want without feeling like they were arbitrarily denied so-and-so.
It is definitely the *safest* course of action, but not necessarily the best. In an optimal-world, games should create believable characters of varying sexualities, of course making sure to not rely on harmful stereotypes. Importantly, and this should easily be possible for a game with ~8 companions plus other "romance" opportunities (e.g., Minthara), there should be enough romance options to allow players of any gender/sexuality to have good options. This was a main problem for CP2077, which had 1 romance option for each combination of man/woman & straight/gay. No one wants to be shoehorned into a single option of anything.
Of course, this is hard to do properly and probably requires hiring more writers that can write believable and non-offensive lgbt characters. And implementing it poorly will invite backlash from both sides. Of course, doing so properly & with care will still inevitably anger the players who think that the majority of romance options should be straight. But that's fine. You can't please everyone.
