I’d say it would be fine as long as they’re romanceable, you only get rejected for doing things they don’t like, now if they aren’t romanceable at all, that’s not a romance then
False advertising a feature (ie Romance option) is seriously a big no-no; I don’t think any game designer would do so intentionally.
This is just unfortunate circumstance - the author never claimed that Christine would be a romance option…
Sometimes audiences and customers form bonds to NPC characters that they do not foresee. Sometimes an author’s favorite becomes the fan’s most hated and visa-versa.
Intentionally misleading people about the romance options is something I’ve not seen here.
Circumstances involving a particular romance option might be something you can argue but even then, intent is very important to figure out.
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I think there are some instances where we could be flirty with her but it seems that she is too dense to understand. One thing that I don’t get is how that shnek Reuben got her interested even though my mc is the alpha male.
Edit: Yep this is the saltiest that I’ve ever been since I started playing CoGs and HGs.
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The options were a bit too linear for how complicated I feel on this one. I’m somewhere in between “I wouldn’t mind. I think it’d be more realistic because you can’t have everybody.” and “I would be livid. Especially if there is no way to actually romance them.”
So a good example I would like to give is Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition. I had absolutely no idea he was gay. I just saw a character I fell head over heels for because I love witty banter and he flirted so absolutely well. Then his personal quest comes along and he reveals that he’s gay. It’s a heart-wrenching tale of his family not excepting him and the lengths they went to change him into what they wanted him to be, but the ending dialog with him as a female was also what got me.
“You lead me on.” He never told you he was gay before that moment.
“Ah… the flirting.” He sounds somewhat guilty even.
It’s realistic that you can’t have everyone which is great, but I was livid that I couldn’t even be mad at him. I found that I couldn’t romance anyone else in the game either because they didn’t make me laugh the same way he did. It wasn’t as fun. It was a good story and he is one of my favorite characters but I was mad at the devs for making a path with no hope like that.
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Right there with you here. Realistic, perhaps, but that is not why I play games (especially those with romance). After him, well, there was not much of this in the game for me… More like, I suppose, sadness and disappointment than anger, because, as you point out, he sounded guilty.
It took something away from the game for me, though, so in that sense it was a bit counter-productive for the game.
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You are right Christine was never claimed to be an RO. I think what went wrong there was that she was the most fleshed out character in that game while the actual ROs were kinda lacking at least imo.
About answering the OPs question I feel like I will be parroting others here so I’ll just try to make it short: If a character is stated to be an RO and they’d end up with another character bc I made bad choices then that’s fine, I can just replay the game and pick other choices but if we were never meant to have a chance with that character then they shouldn’t be called an RO in the first place.
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It’s the same with Cassandra and fherald too, as far as I know. You can flirt with her for quite a bit before she pulls the “I am straight” card. That’s a good reason why I always wait until I know who is available to who before I play a bioware game.
I think that the lack of save options + the increasing length is also something to be considered. If this is a long drawn out process it will be contributed to making the player feel cheated and losing hours of their time. I think I just have to parrot everybody else here and say that an RO who isn’t an actual option isn’t an RO.
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For me it all depends on the RO.
It really depends.
In a case where you treat your RO poorly, do bad things etc ( or basically have a low relationship) then them choosing someone else makes sense in the end since you can always replay and date them the next time.
In a case where the RO is just your friend and is clearly in love with someone else but you still try to date them it also makes sense for them to choose someone else (kinda like Jun in waywalkers), though in that case I wouldn’t really call them a romantic option.
Then if you have a case where your relationship goes well all along but then when you confess they suddenly turn you down and go date someone else (basically they were leading you on) despite never mentioning that person it will be a huge betrayal and I will get angry.
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I think the problem for me is that saying that the character is an RO when they are in all actuality not an RO and are just advertised as such feels like the author lied to me and set me up to fail just so that I play their game. There is nothing wrong with having an RO that is supposed to make me feel bad if the game gives me enough hints that the relationship is doomed from the very beginning. For there to be this shocking reveal that the RO is not interested in me at all but in someone else (without me realising way before that moment “oh, I guess this is not going to end well for me”) either the author or the RO would have to lead me on and from those two possibilities it’s only the latter were I wouldn’t be mad and not want to play the game anymore. But that would also depend on how it is written to be honest.
Having an RO be in love with another character can actually be a good thing in terms of polyamory. Stronghold, as mentioned above, has this and it feels a lot better than cheating on multiple RO’s and then talking them into being in a relationship or sharing you with this person they might not even know. Choice of the Pirate is the only game that comes to mind that even mentioned that the MC and their RO had a talk about this and knew where they stood with each other regarding multiple partners.
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Like in Mass Effect, where in ME3 Jacob ditch Shepard to impregnate another woman? It was bad in ME3, it would be bad in any other media.
I’d hate the character and probably the game, even if I’d end up with the “safe” RO. I’m fine with a choice consequence being a break-up, but if the RO leave the MC with no other reason that the author want to give the middle finger and be edgy, I’d have no interest in this game.
The very least the author should do is owever have the RO leaving the MC very early in the game, so the MC can find anothr RO.
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I wouldn’t mind. Probably would think it was funny if the author led me on.
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I played a male inquisitor just for dorian^^
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Dorian’s one of those cases where I was glad he rejected my MC – I actually enjoyed my MC’s friendship with him more than his romance. I think the same of Morrigan’s relationship to the MC in the first Dragon Age – I prefer my main playthrough where Morrigan and the MC were like sisters over the one where my MC dude romanced her.
I’m glad @HannahPS is doing something similar with Creme de la Creme where the friendships could be just as good as the romances.
Although if the complete absence of romance could be considered a rejection, I was pretty mad that Varric wasn’t romanceable in II. 
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…or where we could flirt with a certain new crew member in ME3 but that was all, also leading us on, then in a weird and creepy fashioned added a DLC that allowed us to get him drunk later with a rather, uh, bizarre result… Very bad, that one. 
At least for me, where games are my ‘fantasy’ (sci-fi or what-not) and I rather not deal too much with real life disappointments. 
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And, in said DLC we get the creepy and without player input scene “we were so wasted we slept together” with a certain character.
Urgh! And that after the killing off of another LI!!! All option for straight females, of course!!!
Really, in that department, ME3 was another big slap in the face (with its endings) and I don’t play to be slapped by bad banality and everyday junk in a out of the ordinary setting and adventure.
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That is the one. Yes, the lesson in ‘how to taunt your player and create absolutely no adverse feelings in doing so’. What, sarcasm, me? Never! 
I shan’t start on the ‘endings’, not again. 
So, yes, falsely advertising RO’s are not the best idea, and I would say advertise if you plan to make ROs that might leave you (unless treated them badly, of course, then who can blame them!)…
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Honestly that’s how I understood the question. RO - as in romanceable character - rejecting due to our previous choices that lead to such outcome. meaning there’s nothing “false” about it, nor when they hook up with someone else afterwards, nor when it’s not reduced to single decision (I’d always lean towards basing the outcome on 2-3-more decisions throughout the game, rather than “u wunt sum fuk? y/n”. That’s basically throwing entire character building outta window)
This, I think, is a crucial part of any question (or statement). We all can read so much into it, usually based on our own experiences. Such is life, no? 
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Ngl i would laugh to death. I would find in a way extremely amusing from the author. If done well and realistically i would probably be tempted to give praises to the author. It is fun to have a world that doesnt revolve around the mc for me.