Should a game ask for your sexual preferences during character creation?

[Zed Clampet]

It seems to me that clicking on male/female/other/all/none at the start of a game should be a thing.

In Baldur's Gate 3, Guido and I have been under constant harassment from male characters since very early in the game. We've both been approached by every male character in our camp, and Guido also has been approached by the Emperor. Neither of us has had an opportunity to romance any of the females.

I am to the point where I will not talk to male characters in camp anymore unless I have to for their personal quest. Not only am I not interested in a gay relationship, but I'm also not interested in having to turn everyone down when they hit on me. It makes me uncomfortable. I'd like to consider my character and party members to be platonic friends with no unrequited desires simmering just below the surface, but this is very hard to do right now.

Withers, at the end of Act 2, asked me why I hadn't been with anyone. "Because I'm not gay" was not a dialogue option. I had to say, instead, that no one liked me. Thanks, game.

If I weren't a reasonable person, I'd start ranting about wokeness right now. But while I don't agree with the woke crowd's attitude or behavior, I'm starting to understand where they are coming from. Why have none of the females hit on me immediately like all of the males did?

It's even worse elsewhere. Some games go so far as having the person you rejected behave poorly towards you from that point onward.

Why can't we just choose who we wish to romance at the beginning of the game? For my new solo playthrough, I've downloaded a mod that lets me do just that, but I don't feel like we should have to rely on modders to do this. It should be an obvious thing to include in any game with romance.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Admit it, youre holding a candle for Withers.

I guess it might make sense in some games. Generally in western RPGs I think its pretty normal for the game to be OK with you romancing anyone, preetty sure Bioware has done that for a long time, Cyberpunk was like that and probably others. I'm not big on romancing in RPGs so I dont remember very well what approach other companies have. I quite often play a female character and almost always romance females if I have the option.

Not sure what happened in your game, but In BG3 I think they all hit on you depending on your choices and you can turn them all down and just be friends depending on what dialogue you pick. I'm pretty sure Karlach hits on you immediately even if you cant touch her because shes on fire all the time, and Laezel as well although again it might depend for her. Shadowheart takes a little more work I think, although she seems pretty receptive after not too long at all. As I said it might depend on your actions in the campaign, but everyones really horny in BG3, no doubt.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Admit it, youre holding a candle for Withers.

I guess it might make sense in some games. Generally in western RPGs I think its pretty normal for the game to be OK with you romancing anyone, preetty sure Bioware has done that for a long time, Cyberpunk was like that and probably others. I'm not big on romancing in RPGs so I dont remember very well what approach other companies have. I quite often play a female character and almost always romance females if I have the option.

Not sure what happened in your game, but In BG3 I think they all hit on you depending on your choices and you can turn them all down and just be friends depending on what dialogue you pick. I'm pretty sure Karlach hits on you immediately even if you cant touch her because shes on fire all the time, and Laezel as well although again it might depend for her. Shadowheart takes a little more work I think, although she seems pretty receptive after not too long at all. As I said it might depend on your actions in the campaign, but everyones really horny in BG3, no doubt.

I think maybe the reason the females didn't hit on me was perhaps because I avoided talking to them, except for Karlach, most of the time. Then there were a couple of times I accidentally clicked on Shadowheart out in the world, and actually didn't want to talk to her, so I just cycled through as fast as possible until I could get the "Leave" option. But I specifically tried to flirt with Karlach, who we didn't get until later, and I didn't see any dialogue boxes that would move the relationship forward. Closest I got was telling her she was "hot", and she told me to be careful because she was already near exploding. I even gave her a hug after Dammon fixed her up. It was a touching moment, but didn't advance anything.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I think maybe the reason the females didn't hit on me was perhaps because I avoided talking to them, except for Karlach, most of the time. Then there were a couple of times I accidentally clicked on Shadowheart out in the world, and actually didn't want to talk to her, so I just cycled through as fast as possible until I could get the "Leave" option. But I specifically tried to flirt with Karlach, who we didn't get until later, and I didn't see any dialogue boxes that would move the relationship forward. Closest I got was telling her she was "hot", and she told me to be careful because she was already near exploding. I even gave her a hug after Dammon fixed her up. It was a touching moment, but didn't advance anything.

Could be. Like I said I bet it depends on decisions you make and their alignment. I dont think Karlach is going to like you if youre slapping around tiefling kids or siding with the Absolute, but Laezel might not mind that and I think Shadowheart can turn out either good or evil depending on how you deal with her.

I know that if you free the grove from the goblins Karlach can flirt with you at the party and arrange to hook up later. She wont go all the way because shes on fire. Laezel also flirted in her way but then said she'd noticed I was already meeting with Karlach that night so she would wait, and Shadowheart did the same.

I had a magical moment with Gayle pretty early on but then I told him it was platonic somehow and he was good with that far as I remember, and I also let Astarion have a little drink to see what happens, but told him if he did it again I'd kill him.

 

[Colif]

In Baldur's Gate 3, Guido and I have been under constant harassment from male characters since very early in the game. We've both been approached by every male character in our camp, and Guido also has been approached by the Emperor. Neither of us has had an opportunity to romance any of the females.

So I assume you played male characters... you didn't specify it so I just thought I ask.

Lucky for me, action rpg generally don't ask this sort of detail, or at least, the ones I have played don't. I generally avoid games with too much talking so games like BG3 just don't interest me - BG3 being party based also is a barrier for it.

I don't think they should ask them at start of game but you should perhaps be able to block some in options. That would be fairest approach. Let player choose.

it seems a bit much to me that every friendship has to lead to more... in games. Thats not how real life works.