Romance continuation?

[IoNonSoEVero]

Is this a win for players or a win for a cause?

 

It's a win for players. Not everyone is straight and not everyone wants to play opposite gender romances. If any of those things are a "cause" to you and not a matter of common decency toward all people, well, I'm glad that the world is shifting away from that point of view.

Edited February 18, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Karameck]

Is this a win for players or a win for a cause?

That question seems intentionally vague.

 

It could be either considering how many things could be considered a cause, but I don't really think it's a question of import. Regardless of what IRL causes may exist I think it's not hard to see objective reasons why having more options in an RP game that should strive to appeal to as many people as possible would be a good thing.

 

Which is why (to the topic of the main thread) I will always try to promote the idea of continuing to provide as much romance content as possible since it adds a lot of flavor and variety to the story experience.

[TheAresian]

That question seems intentionally vague.

 

It could be either considering how many things could be considered a cause, but I don't really think it's a question of import. Regardless of what IRL causes may exist I think it's not hard to see objective reasons why having more options in an RP game that should strive to appeal to as many people as possible would be a good thing.

 

Which is why (to the topic of the main thread) I will always try to promote the idea of continuing to provide as much romance content as possible since it adds a lot of flavor and variety to the story experience.

 

It was intentionally vague.

 

There absolutely are objective reasons to have multiple options for players. However, I don't agree with the idea that games should try to appeal to as many people as possible. Game companies should do what they do well for the people that like what they do. Attempting to please everybody results in not only not gaining new customers, but losing your old ones as well.

 

It's a win for players. Not everyone is straight and not everyone wants to play opposite gender romances. If any of those things are a "cause" to you and not a matter of common decency toward all people, well, I'm glad that the world is shifting away from that point of view.

 

As I stated above, I do believe it is a win for players and I am aware that not everybody is straight. Whether or not it qualifies as a cause is a matter left open to interpretation. However, as for the world shifting away from that point of view, I would direct your attention to the man who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Karameck]

It was intentionally vague.

 

There absolutely are objective reasons to have multiple options for players. However, I don't agree with the idea that games should try to appeal to as many people as possible. Game companies should do what they do well for the people that like what they do. Attempting to please everybody results in not only not gaining new customers, but losing your old ones as well.

You aren't really appealing to people if you're losing them are you?

 

Whatever approach maximizes your player base is objectively the most profitable. Your self-imposing some imaginary restriction that appealing to a broad base means you can't do so in an intelligent and targeted manner. It just means you want to do what is possible to expand your base as large as you're able to sustain.

 

As I stated above, I do believe it is a win for players and I am aware that not everybody is straight. Whether or not it qualifies as a cause is a matter left open to interpretation. However, as for the world shifting away from that point of view, I would direct your attention to the man who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Let's leave politics out of this, eh? We're already drifting dangerously far from the original topic and this isn't going to be a productive topic, let alone a relevant one.

[Nefla]

Of course your romance will continue and you will keep getting more romance content in the future...as long as you're romancing Lana. If you romanced Theron you may get one more short scene before he's phased out for good like every other companion who isn't Lana and if you're romancing anyone else you're SOL. Not only will you not get any conversations or scenes but they wont even bother with a letter.

[Psilanthropy]

I think people are overreacting just a tad. Yes, there has obviously been a disproportionate amount of attention set for some romances compared to others up to this point, but I have a strong feeling that it won't remain that way, as long as people continue to voice their concerns (i.e. this thread). Maybe I'm just hopeful, though.

 

For me, Lana has been a blessing. Playing a female SW as my main, she's basically the only woman I can have a sustained romance with. She's an interesting character, too. I understand and appreciate that not everyone loves or even likes Lana, but I hope that if the devs do bring in more content with other romances, they don't neglect what they have built upon thus far.

[Goreshaga]

About Lana, i would just appreciate if they could stop putting every characters in default romantic settings with Lana.

 

While that's great for characters romancing her, that's trully becoming creepy for those who don't romance her, and absolutely frustrating when you have the romantic stuff with a character you're not romancing, while you get nothing with your character's actual LI...

 

So keep the romantic walks in the woods, the worried face, her standing 2m away from you while you sleep for characters who are in a romantic relationship with her and only for these character, please.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Goreshaga

[TheAresian]

You aren't really appealing to people if you're losing them are you?

 

Whatever approach maximizes your player base is objectively the most profitable. Your self-imposing some imaginary restriction that appealing to a broad base means you can't do so in an intelligent and targeted manner. It just means you want to do what is possible to expand your base as large as you're able to sustain.

 

Let's leave politics out of this, eh? We're already drifting dangerously far from the original topic and this isn't going to be a productive topic, let alone a relevant one.

 

While I disagree with this in one way or another, I have no desire to derail the thread.

[Nefla]

About Lana, i would just appreciate if they could stop putting every characters in default romantic settings with Lana.

 

While that's great for characters romancing her, that's trully becoming creepy for those who don't romance her, and absolutely frustrating when you have the romantic stuff with a character you're not romancing, while you get nothing with your character's actual LI...

 

So keep the romantic walks in the woods, the worried face, her standing 2m away from you while you sleep for characters who are in a romantic relationship with her and only for these character, please.

 

So much this! For people that romanced her, of course go right ahead and keep that stuff but for everyone else? Don't force that kind of relationship on us. Never in a BioWare game before has our relationship with a character been defined outside of our own choices and dialogue options. Even games like Dragon Age where you could have a biological family you could choose what kind of relationship you have with them: close and loving, joking and casual, competitive rivalry, or even resentment and dislike. With Lana we are forced to be intimate best friends with her so much so that she feels free to come into our room at night and watch us sleep regardless of how we've treated her in the past. You also have her potentially isolating you from your former friends and intercepting messages for you and not giving them to you (Jonas and the SIS).

 

I know Lana fans are totally loving all the attention their LI/favorite companion is getting as anyone would but in order to give something to more people they will have to take a hit to screen time, we're talking like 75% less Lana. I think we all know that our former class companions aren't going to get more content beyond their recruitment/reunion since they're only available for one class and in some cases one gender and that goes double for companions who have had a kill option.

 

The only feasible solutions for ending the Lana Variety Hour and giving some other people some content are:

 

-Pick 3 more existing companions in addition to Lana that don't have a kill option-one more female and 2 male and make them a permanent part of the story and available for both genders to start a romance with regardless of class,

-Bring in 3 NEW companions (1 female and 2 male) make them a permanent part of the story and romanceable for both genders.

 

Obviously this isn't a great solution but it's better than what we have now. You would have an actual crew again rather than a governess following you around everywhere and involved in everything. The 4 characters could do things that make sense for them and make way for one of the other 3 when it doesn't. (So no more having things like Sith Lana getting us in contact with "her" SIS contacts while our SIS agent Theron and our Republic soldier with an SIS buddy Jorgan twiddle their thumbs).

[TUXs]

Or is that pretty much history after Ossus? Would be nice to be able to continue romance with some of the companions, especially after Iokath decisions left some characters high and dry.....Any word on that??

Ossus is where our story currently ends...what are you expecting exactly?? If you're searching for romance beyond what is written so far, you're asking the impossible...because it literally isn't written yet...

[Nefla]

Ossus is where our story currently ends...what are you expecting exactly?? If you're searching for romance beyond what is written so far, you're asking the impossible...because it literally isn't written yet...

 

The OP is asking if anyone knows if BioWare intends to continue past romances or if we've seen the last of them.

[MorseGod]

Lana is the worst romance option. The whole story builds her up as this tough Sith, but then the story can't advance without her moments of incompetence. Therefore, she's neither particularly feminine nor a good example of an independent career woman.

 

She's also absolutely hideous if you take off the classic customization. She's not terribly attractive with it, but if you remove it, she looks like a mangled old lady. Leaving it on means you can't customize her attire. Thus, our choice is an average chick in an awful outfit or a really hideous chick.

 

I bit the bullet and romanced her with one toon, and I regret it. Bioware needs to really do something to develop more options, and I'm not talking about a homosexual bromance with Theron (the male version of Lana that gets forced on everyone relentlessly).

 

After deposing Arcann and Vaylin, then ridding the galaxy of Valkorion, the galaxy is probably teeming with people that would love to hook up with the hero. It's time for the folks we met in Shadow of Revan to fade into obscurity and stop being the center of attention.

[IoNonSoEVero]

For me, Lana has been a blessing. Playing a female SW as my main, she's basically the only woman I can have a sustained romance with. She's an interesting character, too. I understand and appreciate that not everyone loves or even likes Lana, but I hope that if the devs do bring in more content with other romances, they don't neglect what they have built upon thus far.

 

This is how I feel. I don't know if it's realized how much Lana means to those of us who are in the F/F category. As far as I'm concerned, she's intriguing and beautiful.

 

I'd like the devs to at least give something to the other LIs (if nothing else to stop the animosity against Lana) too, and maybe bring in a few more, but I would hope it's not an 'either-or' situation. And if it is, I'd rather have them focus on giving quality content to all the romances they already have. That would probably mean more to people than doing meaningless AAs who have one kiss and will never be seen again, or bringing in new ones.

Edited February 18, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[TheAresian]

This is how I feel. I don't know if it's realized how much Lana means to those of us who are in the F/F category. As far as I'm concerned, she's intriguing and beautiful.

 

I'd like the devs to at least give something to the other LIs (if nothing else to stop the animosity against Lana) too, and maybe bring in a few more, but I would hope it's not an 'either-or' situation. And if it is, I'd rather have them focus on giving quality content to all the romances they already have. That would probably mean more to people than doing meaningless AAs who have one kiss and will never be seen again, or bringing in new ones.

 

Even if you choose to go through and play without a love interest, the game is almost written to try and force Lana on the player. It's not the players being in love with Lana that bothers me. It's the writer being in love with his or her character that bother me. I suspect it's at least in part due to budget reasons, but the pendulum swinging the other way can definitely leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

[IoNonSoEVero]

Even if you choose to go through and play without a love interest, the game is almost written to try and force Lana on the player. It's not the players being in love with Lana that bothers me. It's the writer being in love with his or her character that bother me. I suspect it's at least in part due to budget reasons, but the pendulum swinging the other way can definitely leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

 

I disagree and it would be nice if just one of these threads could go without devolving into a Lana hatefest. Are we really to the point where people cannot say what they like about her without other people complaining?

 

If anything I think the class stories tried to force romances on the player in a very heavy-handed way. You can't even be nice to some of the opposite gender companions without triggering romances you cannot escape from, and the rest of your companions seem to think you're straight and going to have kids by default. Plus in some of the stories there are companions and NPCs who come on very strong.

Edited February 18, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Goreshaga]

I disagree and it would be nice if just one of these threads could go without devolving into a Lana hatefest. Are we really to the point where people cannot say what they like about her without other people complaining?

Imagine if :

- Theron has constantly been the first face you see whenever your character is waking up,

- Theron has been standing in your character's room alone with her while she was asleep, while your character is romancing Lana, and Lana is in another room on the ship

- Theron constantly showed worried face while Lana does not

- Lana had seemingly betrayed you and Theron was telling how much he wanted to kill her for that, even when you tell him that you trust her

- Theron was taking you on romantic walks in the woods to watch waterfalls under the sunset with him, while Lana was not allowed to be there

- Theron had kept from you that the Sith Intelligence or whatever it's called now has been trying to contact you for months, but he kept turning them down while you always sided with the Empire

- Theron is the only one who knows of your true allegiance while you don't necessarily trust him and would rather share that with Lana

 

Would you not find Theron absolutely annoying and borderline creepy ?

Would you not feel uncomfortable around Theron ?

Would you not be frustrated to be forced in such level of intimacy with him while you'd rather spent more time with Lana instead ?

 

The above is the issue I personnaly have with the way they are using Lana...

Edited February 18, 2019 by Goreshaga

[IoNonSoEVero]

Imagine if :

- Theron has constantly been the first face you seen whenever your character is waking up,

- Theron has been standing in your character's room while she was asleep, while your character is romancing Lana, and Lana is in another room on the ship

- Theron constantly showed worried face while Lana does not

- Lana had seemingly betrayed you and Theron was telling how much he wanted to kill her for that, even when you tell him that you trust her

- Theron was taking you on romantic walks in the woods to watch waterfalls under the sunset with him, while Lana was not allowed to be there

- Theron had kept from you that the Sith Intelligence or whatever it's called now has been trying to contact you for months, but he kept turning them down while you always sided with the Empire

- Theron is the only one who know of your true allegiance while you don't necessarily trust him and would rather share that with Lana

 

Would you not find Theron absolutely annoying and borderline creepy ?

Would you not be frustrated to be forced in such level of intimacy with him while you'd rather spent more time with Lana instead ?

 

How would you feel if every time you said you liked Theron, in any thread, anywhere, others immediately popped up to voice the same complaints over and over again, to the point where you couldn't even discuss Theron without it popping up?

 

You know what, I am not going there. I'm just not. You guys want to complain about Lana, there are threads where you can do it all day. We get it, you think she's creepy. We get it, you're sick of seeing her. We have the message because you people won't stop repeating it.

 

Putting it in every thread and not being able to even discuss Lana without this is getting really old. People like me who love Lana have actually SUPPORTED you guys getting more content with your LIs, but it just never stops.

 

So I go back to what I said, which is that it would be nice to have at least one romance discussion thread and let people say nice things about the LIs they enjoy without having another round of complaints from the We Hate Lana clique. The general consensus seems to be that everyone would like to see more romance interaction and quality interactions, without sacrificing anyone's LIs.

Edited February 18, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Karameck]

Even if you choose to go through and play without a love interest, the game is almost written to try and force Lana on the player. It's not the players being in love with Lana that bothers me. It's the writer being in love with his or her character that bother me. I suspect it's at least in part due to budget reasons, but the pendulum swinging the other way can definitely leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

I haven’t felt this way once, and I’ve never romanced Lana. You’re welcome to your opinion, I just wanted to express my personal experience.

 

Lana feels equally as forced for an Imp player as Theron does for a Pub to me before KOTFE/KOTET starts. They are just your “go to” contact and then part of your Alliance. Afterwards I think Lana is given a viable reason for hanging around, and you are given several opportunities to be cold towards her. Ultimately it feels like a lot of people are just mad they can’t kill her. I never got the deep desire people have to see 90% of comps knocked off.

[Goreshaga]

How would you feel if every time you said you liked Theron, in any thread, anywhere, others immediately popped up to voice the same complaints over and over again, to the point where you couldn't even discuss Theron without it popping up?

 

You know what, I am not going there. I'm just not. You guys want to complain about Lana, there are threads where you can do it all day. We get it, you think she's creepy. We get it, you're sick of seeing her. We have the message because you people won't stop repeating it.

 

Putting it in every thread and not being able to even discuss Lana without this is getting really old. People like me who love Lana have actually SUPPORTED you guys getting more content with your LIs, but it just never stops.

 

So I go back to what I said, which is that it would be nice to have at least one romance discussion thread and let people say nice things about the LIs they enjoy without having another round of complaints from the We Hate Lana clique. The general consensus seems to be that everyone would like to see more romance interaction and quality interactions, without sacrificing anyone's LIs.

Well, i'm not asking for less romance content with Lana for characters romancing her, but that this content is kept for characters actually romancing her, that's all, because it just ends up in awkward situations when it's done like that.

They just need to keep the romantic settings for romance specific scenes, keep the worried face for characters she's actually in love with, stop forcing intimacy for characters who are not romancing her and would not necessarily see her as a close friend or more, and i think a lot of people would stop conplaining or at least a lot less than now.

 

I enjoyed her during SoR, i still enjoyed her during most of KOTFEET with my JK, but now, i'm just tired.

I'm playing a clone of my BH, and i ended up skipping SoR and Ziost and had to actually esc some of the cutscenes while playind KOTFE because i realised mid-scenes with her angry reactions that I was actually mindlessly picking the rude answers that i never picked before and had to replay the scene not to be rude to her.

 

Which is sad because i really liked her at first.

I liked that she was one of the few female companions who was not young, impressionable, or in any kind of subservient position to our character whose only purpose was to seemingly be the "hot GF", that she was strong enough to do things on her own, that she had very differing views to my JK and complimented her well, which made her a nice friend to her (even if i'm not interested in romancing her).

And i'd like to enjoy her presence again, like i did at the begining, but for that to happen, they need to use more neutral settings for the buisness talks and keep everything very intimate and romantic for romance specific content, so that characters not romancing her don't end up in these akward, uncomfortable situations i listed above.

 

So I don't have a problem WITH LANA herself, but WITH THE WAY she's used sometimes, and unfortunately, these times just add up to one another. If it was just 1 instance (like when you wake up on the Gravestone after using Valkorion's powers or being stabbed by Arcann, this one was perfectly fine, and i'd have no issue with that if it had been the only time), i could live with it without taking issues, but it's starting the be too often for my own taste.

[IoNonSoEVero]

(snip)

 

I think everyone has read these concerns, because they've been voiced over. And over. And over again. I think everyone has tried to make it clear that they support more romance content for everyone.

 

I'd again ask how you'd feel if every time someone said ANYTHING nice about Theron, people felt the need to pounce and complain. It's like a constant fixation at this point. I just can't get into debates about it anymore because it's like Groundhog Day; nothing new is ever said and nobody's mind is going to be changed.

Edited February 18, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Psilanthropy]

I think everyone has read these concerns, because they've been voiced over. And over. And over again. I think everyone has tried to make it clear that they support more romance content for everyone.

 

I'd again ask how you'd feel if every time someone said ANYTHING nice about Theron, people felt the need to pounce and complain. It's like a constant fixation at this point. I just can't get into debates about it anymore because it's like Groundhog Day; nothing new is ever said and nobody's mind is going to be changed.

 

With all due respect, I don't think the people disagreeing with you here are just mindlessly complaining. They've voiced their concerns about the game, but it seems you've just been voicing your concerns about the people who have issues; maybe focus on the issues they've brought up instead?

 

As for feeling like Lana is too intimate with a PC that isn't romancing her, I think at this point it makes sense to be close considering she spent a little under five years searching for and helping them. I believe the writers intended for her and Theron to come off as a sort of "rock" for the player, someone they can always rely on and contact for help or directions. This can be interpreted as creepy, romantic, platonic, whatever you want. But there's clearly been a buildup to this point, so it's not like they thrust Lana into our arms and said "HERE IS YOUR FUTURE WIFE" from the starting gun.

 

I understand peoples' concerns, I just don't think they're as egregious as they've been made out to be.

[IoNonSoEVero]

With all due respect, I don't think the people disagreeing with you here are just mindlessly complaining. They've voiced their concerns about the game, but it seems you've just been voicing your concerns about the people who have issues; maybe focus on the issues they've brought up instead?

 

As for feeling like Lana is too intimate with a PC that isn't romancing her, I think at this point it makes sense to be close considering she spent a little under five years searching for and helping them. I believe the writers intended for her and Theron to come off as a sort of "rock" for the player, someone they can always rely on and contact for help or directions. This can be interpreted as creepy, romantic, platonic, whatever you want. But there's clearly been a buildup to this point, so it's not like they thrust Lana into our arms and said "HERE IS YOUR FUTURE WIFE" from the starting gun.

 

I understand peoples' concerns, I just don't think they're as egregious as they've been made out to be.

 

I don't think they're mindlessly complaining either, they clearly feel how they do about it, but the same complaints have been brought up again and again in almost every thread where Lana has been mentioned, hence my lack of patience with it at this point.

 

I agree that there are multiple interpretations of characters. There are other characters in this game that are far more objectionable for me than Lana ever could be, that do things I find abhorrent, but people love them. That's not in question. None of us are required to love any companion and all of us are allowed to dislike or hate them.

 

I don't think the writers intend to force everyone to romance Lana, but I do think the writers intended for her and Theron to be friends to the player's character and behave accordingly. That means they might for instance be worried about the PC's welfare.

 

Where I personally find forced romances happening is in the class stories. As mentioned you cannot even be nice to some of the opposite gender companions without triggering serious romances you can't break off, and some of them are very heavy handed with their advances. Not romancing the chosen LI in the class stories often requires a PC to be cold and rude to them, and a lot of the dialogue seems to be focused around the expectation that the PC will enter the romance by default.

Edited February 19, 2019 by IoNonSoEVero

[Nefla]

I think everyone has read these concerns, because they've been voiced over. And over. And over again. I think everyone has tried to make it clear that they support more romance content for everyone.

 

I'd again ask how you'd feel if every time someone said ANYTHING nice about Theron, people felt the need to pounce and complain. It's like a constant fixation at this point. I just can't get into debates about it anymore because it's like Groundhog Day; nothing new is ever said and nobody's mind is going to be changed.

Well you certainly waste no chance in saying how much you hate Theron, you bring him up any time Lana is mentioned, you're bringing him up right now even though his content has been stripped down soon to become a lifeless brick like all the rest and you got the opportunity to kill him and remove him from your game forever, something people who can't stand Lana will never get.

 

Why do people always bring up Lana? Because she's the only one getting regular content and she's taking the place of characters who make more sense in certain scenarios. That's fine and dandy for you and others who just loooove her but for people who hate her? It's maddening and the more she's favored, the more screen time she takes up, and the more our relationship with her is defined in ways we didn't choose, the more we resent her. If there were a full crew of like 6 companions that the focus shifted between evenly then most people wouldn't have such a huge a problem with Lana because we'd get a reprieve from her and not have her constantly attached at the hip.

 

You try to get other people to see it your way but you make no effort to see it theirs. If any one of the companions I like got the same treatment that Lana gets, if that character just replaced her in every scene and action, they just swapped out one for another but that meant people would say how much they hate that character on the forums...well that's an easy tradeoff! Who care if internet randos don't like the character that character would be getting all the content? People do that NOW with characters I like such as Koth and Arcann and I don't get a crap ton of content with them to make up for it. I don't care if people hate the characters I like, bad mouth them, or even kill them, the characters aren't real and from the way you act about Lana it seems like you don't know that. Again, you make no effort to put yourself in someone else's shoes. How do you think you would react if everything Lana did or said, was instead done by a companion YOU hate like Doc? What if Doc was the one sneaking into your room at night to watch you sleep? What if Doc was blocking your communications and refusing your former allies behind your back? What if Doc was giving you every mission and acting intimate with you no matter how many times you're rude or mean to him? Would you not have the same attitude as people who hate Lana?

[AureliaSulis]

I still cannot comprehend the rationale as to why my Republic Jedi (in KotFE) was released from carbonite by a Sith instead of the SIS Agent Theron. Yeah, I can understand why a Sith was involved in the rescue of my Imperial characters, but surely a Republic agent would be a more logical choice for a Republic character. Also, logically our vanilla love interests should have been right there as well - or our highest rep companions. Doc should have been on hand for my Jedi Knight, Quinn for my Sith Warrior, and Andronikos Revel for my Sith Inquisitor.

[Psilanthropy]

I don't think they're mindlessly complaining either, they clearly feel how they do about it, but the same complaints have been brought up again and again in almost every thread where Lana has been mentioned, hence my lack of patience with it at this point.

 

I agree that there are multiple interpretations of characters. There are other characters in this game that are far more objectionable for me than Lana ever could be, that do things I find abhorrent, but people love them. That's not in question. None of us are required to love any companion and all of us are allowed to dislike or hate them.

 

I don't think the writers intend to force everyone to romance Lana, but I do think the writers intended for her and Theron to be friends to the player's character and behave accordingly. That means they might for instance be worried about the PC's welfare.

 

Where I personally find forced romances happening is in the class stories. As mentioned you cannot even be nice to some of the opposite gender companions without triggering serious romances you can't break off, and some of them are very heavy handed with their advances. Not romancing the chosen LI in the class stories often requires a PC to be cold and rude to them, and a lot of the dialogue seems to be focused around the expectation that the PC will enter the romance by default.

 

Just curious, which class story LIs are you talking about? I've only played through the empire side so far.