When I think of playersexual, I view it as the player and companions having a push-pull where I’m becoming more non-player character sexual and they more playersexual. By this I mean I have my preferences as well but it’s about my character’s relationship with his companions and if I feel like the characters make sense, I’ll follow the storyline. Sometimes it leads to romance (In DA:O: my character went from being challenged by morrigan to falling in love with her organically.) Sometimes it doesn’t work out and that’s okay.
I feel as though I just finished saying and agreeing that that is, indeed, an ideal way for it to be. That having that push and pull played out is the perfect method of reaching a compromise that will feel good. That having NPCs with preferences and opinions they can voice and comment on where appropriate, and acknowledge the more unusual or unexpected situations, is the ideal situation, and it is sad that so few, if any games, attempt to take that route.
Niara you mentioned how you should be able to romance anyone you are interested in, but part my problem with that (and I have a few) is that it precludes any sort of platonic relationship with a character. Relationships are presumed to be a prelude to romance (for non-narrative reasons), and every character is made to be romantically available before you even know if you like them, when you get their approval high enough that's what the game assumes is going on.
That's not what I've been saying at all, though.
No, the
possibility of romance does not and should not, ever, preclude the
possibility an equally fulfilling non-romantic progression. I feel I've said exactly that, multiple times, no? I've definitely never implied otherwise. Why do you think anyone here is saying that it does? No-one is.
It should be an option; physical configuration should not be a barrier because it's something the PC doesn't have control over. Other things that the PC does have control over, such as who they are or choose to be, how they act, what they say, what they're like, and their views on various things, all should be factors that either draw another character in or push them away... but features that the PC does not have a choice in should not be lock-outs. But... read that first bit again; an
option. Nothing is being suggested as forced, or even pushed. The option to pursue a romance or not should always be in the hands of the player and their character, and their choosing not to, for whatever reason, must be respected, and should also never serve as a lock-out or terminating factor towards building a different close, even intimate, bond with NPCs - even romance-capable ones.
If a game is treating romance as the
only path forward, and the only type of close bond you can develop or build with a character, then it's doing it
poorly, and it's doing it
wrong, and I don't think
anyone wants that at all, I feel like I've spent great efforts belabouring that point several times now.
I don't like the pick a story to tell to choose your sexual preference because of how on the nose it is but I've seen it done before so why not.
In an ideal situation, this would be way of defining how you think your character generally feels by default, or how they start out... however, it should only control what sort of propositions you might receive - the choice of who or what to pursue should still, always, remain with the player, because while the game could in theory show the push and pull, and the change over time, and the building of an unexpected bond perhaps, with their NPCs, the only person who can illustrate that exact same thing on the player character's side is the player themselves, with how their character acts... so such a method of informing the game should never lock you, the player, out of making a different choice for your character.
