Honestly the reason there are so few strictly hetero romances is the same reason that there are so few strictly homosexual relationships. It’s more work.
Every author is trying to maximize number of choices their players have while trying to write a compelling and interesting story. Each romance option you add is a new character that needs to be multi-dimensional, integrated into the plot, and have a character arc of their own.
That’s not easy to do once. To do it four times is really really hard…well…at least I know I’m really struggling with it. I chose four as the magic number because that way I can have two male, and two female romantic options. Their genders are set because I find that helpful when writing. If the players only want to romance women they have a choice, and if they only want to date men they have a choice.
Honestly even limiting it to four romance options I’m really struggling to cram one of the characters into the story. If I was going to give all my romance options fixed single-gender preferences then I’d have to go to eight romance-able characters to still give every player the choice between at least two. That’s too much. Maybe someone can do that, but I haven’t seen it, and I know for a fact that I can’t do it.
Okay so that was kind of a long and off-topic answer to your question, but that’s part of the reason there are so few “straight” romance options.
I honestly like the idea of npcs having their own sexuality. It gives a sense of realisim/individuality to the character.
If a character i want to romance is straight then I’ll max their friendship and move on. No big deal.
I understand i started playing games in early 90 when anything not straight and looking for cis straight males was unthinkable.
I also role-playing characters of different gender and preferences so as nb rarely there is other nb.
Gay ROs are important gay rep. They’re just as important as bi or pan ROs.
Straight ROs… is there a utility to their existence, other than “realism”? Do they cater to players who don’t want their straight MCs dating or falling in love with bi NPCs? That does not seem to me to be in line with COG’s mission statement. Although, from my experience as a bisexual person, certainly “realistic”.
I personally don’t care i think bi characters are more logically except if the character sexual preference is important for storyline. For instance i have a Ro cis girl that has been raised by a sect very against lgtbq She will be fall for you no matter you are and if you are a girl she is trying denying her feelings until she accepts herself or not all depending pc choices.
I really believe that if is not important story everyone should be pan. to be tried for more people
I agree with you whole heartedly, I know people like having their characters be player-sexual but, I prefer the RO’s or NPC’s to have a set sexuality and gender because like you said it makes them their own character instead of being the player’s build your own doll.
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This should in my opinion always an important aspect of world building - making it feel alive. The more maliable the characters, the more limits you have on shaping them. There will always be those who prefer npc’s set in stone, and those who prefer to customise everything - it’s up to you to figure out the path that works for you and best serves your story. What you suggested in opening post has been succesfuly done before in other games, so it’s a tried format. Follow your gut, buddy
I feel like people put a bit too much stock in sexuality of characters. I agree with Mara about it being unimportant if it’s not going to play an actual part in the story/game/media or a character’s life experience.
I have fell in love with personalities and the actions that characters have done which they would have done regardless of their sexuality. All limiting that does is leave a player out of an experience and usually that’s how you end up with them complaining that there isn’t enough of whatever their own sexuality being catered to.
If you want to make them feel more alive in the world and not tied to the player or feel like they aren’t, let them be able to romance other characters or whatnot if the player does not try to pursue them showing that they exist without the MC. Let them decide to pursue their own ambitions. Just my two cents worth.
My two cents here: If you plan to write several ROs then it’s fine to sexuality lock, tho watch out to not ignore anyone bc how would that be fair? (Sure unfairness is realistic, but I doubt that would help in making the game popular) If you plan to write just a few ROs then make them bi or playersexual.
The only issue there is that people may/and have complained about not liking the characters that were available to them. That’s why I think letting characters stand on their personality rather than sexuality is the overall better route…or at least the one with less pitfalls.
Edit: I actually didn’t mean there was only one successful way to do it, apologies.
In an ideal world I think games which intend romance to be important enough should probably opt for gender/sexuality players preference and have about three or four characters to romance. Two usually means characters which are polar opposite of each other, whilst three allows for some greater complexity in background and personalities.
Three or four per sexuality? If I count three for straight female/male, gay female/male, nb that’s already 15 characters. Which author would accept that much extra work? Edit: Also that’d probably affect the quality in a really bad way if someone would try to do that.
