I'm a fellow Bioware fan but I just can't see romance working well in a TES game. That isn't because I feel it'd take away from the whole adventuring thing or whatever, but I've never felt connected to the characters in a Bethesda game. At least, not enough to warrant the possibility of a decent love interest. Perhaps they could prove me wrong if it was something they truly tried at but I doubt they would even want to bother in the first place. I'm happy with the games as they are - save a few small things, but I digress...

I fully support tavern wenches and [censored]s when there's enough coin to spare, however. :celebration:

There is load of Romance between NPCs. Its between the Player and the NPCs that people want.

Romances will break Immersion if anything, because they will play out the way bethesda writes it.
Whether, Bethesdas writers are good or bad, it doesn't matter. Imagine if in real life your romance was scripted, and played out in stupid dialog sequences.

I agree about the scripted thing, but scripted is the only way it can be there so I'll prefer scripted to no romance at all. I don't see why it's only the romance that we must compare to real life to conclude that it would be silly in the game. We can say the same thing about fighting, story, all the factions and quest, they are all simplified, scripted and unbelievable if compared to reality. All the dialogue is scripted by bethesda, and it doesn't prevent me from roleplaying. I assume romance dialogue is the same. It's not like I, the player have to love that particular npc, it's my character. And my character doesn't think the dialogue is silly, simply because it's his dialogue. Made up by Bethesda, of course, like every other part of the game.

I don't think TES games are good for that. Games with a more focused story, where you have a small group of characters who spend a lot of time together / character development / etc.... that's a better fit. TES doesn't tend to have that.

:shrug:

relax. i'm pretty sure this wont be in the vanilla game but it will be in mods. just wait 4 it.

Enough to make it clear this is something that a lot of players care about a lot - either for or against !

I'd love to hear the development team's thoughts on this. On the one hand, there are obviously sales to be made by including something along these lines; on the other, they could make real fools of themselves if they misjudge either the level of interest or how to implement such a feature.

I'd really like for there to be a romance quest or two in Skyrim, if done well (action/adventure romance rather than domestic, paced out by elapsed play-time or quest-completed count rather than being a straight run-through). I think it would add to the variety of the game and would make the storytelling stronger.

But I don't believe Bethesda have any interest in doing this.

This. Says it all...

N + 1

Where N = "Too damn many already."





Nice try. Check the number of units of Oblivion sold, then check the number of people subscribed to these forums. The total forum population is still one fairly skimpy cross-section of a small subset of the most biased TES players, and the number of those people who think the cheezy romance-novel-plotline-rejects that get passed off as "romances" in CRPGs are worthwhile is an even smaller subset of that group.



You think? I'd bet that if we could split reality into two identical timelines and do a "double blind" test, we'd find the difference in units sold between Universe A (with well-developed Harlequin Romance plotline included) and Universe B (without shoehorned-in Harlequin Romance plot gimmick) would be so small as to fall within the margin of error.

Seriously, look at every "If [game] [has/doesn't have] [plotelement/feature/spears/boss monsters/playable Sloads] then I'm [not buying it/never buying anything Bethesda again]!!one!!" post and tell me how likely it is that any one element is going to make a noticeable difference in sales, especially in a market where "I'm a gamer" means "I rip through every game released beginning to end in record time, then sell it to Gamestop to finance my addiction?"



Lengthy experience suggests to me they don't have the caliber of writers needed, and that this will remain the case given how long it's been the case that their own forums are full of posts about what other companies to look to if one wants decent writing. :shrug:

deleted for plausable deniability.

A bit of Hagar the Horrible there.

Quit puting reality into this game...before you know it you'll need to repair the roof, paint the house, fix the firepit....OY!

and great screen name there Mr. Winters.

thanks.

please dump the quote. [big grin]

Just becuase TES story line may not be as strong as Bioware's games in the past, it doesn't mean that in Skyrim it has to be the same. I expect, as a consumer with buying power, that games get better with each version. I don't see why Skyrim or any future TES game can't also focus on creating storylines that will make us care about the characters in the game. I like options in my RPG. Like I would want different sections of armor that my character can wear, I would want the ability to buy any land, build houses anywhere, create my own storyline with romantic options if I choose to.

Romance in RPG game just adds to the whole fantasy of living in this virtual world for those few hours you play it, and having things like romance or fishing in the game doesn't mean that you are obligated to do it. Thus, it comes down to being able for all of us to choose how we play the game, and the more options you have the better the RPG it is.

Now, I must stress that I understand the difference between many options that don't work and fewer options but are fully flushed out. However, many people are just eliminating the romance part becuase of it's nature not because it will or will not be flushed out correctly.

Lastly, in these threads, there is always someone who yells out "If you want a girlfriend, get a real one." To that type of person, I can tell you that I'm married and all is dandy. Also, I would never tell someone "hey, if you want to swing a sword, swing it in real life" since afterall, this is a video game in the realm of RPGs.

Has anybody thought why do you want romances in the game what happens if you are playing your girlfriend comes in and your making lovey eyes at some virtual NPC she isn't going to be impressed and if you don't have a girlfriend for that to tbe a problem stop playing the stupid game and go get one!!!!

I am not against it but only if they do it right to I really want it.

Really? So, if we take the hundred-plus ideas per day that flood these forums, deal them out to each of the hundred-odd people working on the game, and continue doing that every day, the result would be the ultimate CRPG ever? Or is it more likely that trying to shove everything including the kitchen sink into it would mean many, many neglected ideas shoved into it as barebones, barely-completed ideas that give the entire game a sheen of rushed mediocrity?

I'm inclined to find the latter more accurate, with experience to go by no less- look at all the "features galore" games people get these ideas from, then annotate their own idea with "Of course it svcked in [game] because they just shoved it in with a bunch of other features and didn't really work on it..." yet we get thread after thread saying "If they'd just add this in, cause more choices = better game, amirite?"

Well-done additions and extras make a good game. "Lots of" additions and extras make...lots of additions and extras, sure- but additions to what? If the focus is so much on adding everything, then what "everything" is getting added to kinda gets neglected. I'd rather have less stuff, but all of it well-done, than every lame gimmick that's ever been done in an unpolished, rushed form that makes it feel as obviously rushed and crammed-in as it actually is.

Nah, keep these things out of TES. Let Bioware do it, we all saw how well DA2 fared when they said "for most of our players, the romances are more important than the story". I'd rather not have another situation like this. I'm still trying to forget DA2 exists.

Let the devs worry about things that actually matter like improving quests and creating original content, not useless pixel romance.

That quote makes me infinitely angry.

Nice try. The number of units sold has nothing to do with the relevance of the opinions in these threads. They may or may not be representative for the whole public, we'll never know as long as there aren't any sociologically well documented studies on the subject made by Bethesda themselves. But at least these threads are something palpable. More palpable than a blind guess that the silent majority of fans who don't use the forums would agree or disagree. And besides andyw said "players care about a lot - either for or against". I'm not saying the silent majority would "vote" for or against romance if they cared to join the forums, I'm just saying that using the argument of this community being irrelevant for the total fanbase whenever you need to belittle one of the forums minorities is...irrelevant. The people who protested in these forums about the level scaling were a very small minority of the total fanbase as well, but that didn't nullify their argument.

:celebration: :foodndrink:


As to the op...

Could it? Maybe. Will it? Probably not. You're a lone hero doing your thing killing dragons and stuff. No time for love.

Do *I* want romances in games? Nope. Why? Because they aren't mine. No developer is going to write the kind of dialog I would use and since the character is me (that's how I roll) I'm not interested in a developer's scripted virtual fantasy romance. :shrug:

As you say, the membership of these forums is small and biased. Unless you have access to some other information, you are only guessing as to which way the forums are biased. Without that information, the only sensible thing to do is to put your guesses aside and simply go by what actually appears here.

Now, those who want romance of some form or another are clearly in a minority, but judging by the number of posts in favour, the polls, and the number of times these threads crop up, I think it's something like 10% to 30% of the fanbase who'd be in favour. There might be more in favour among the mainstream audience, there might be fewer.


Could be. In which case, though, why would any game have any sort of romance in at all? Developers are, lets face it, planning to stay in business. Publishers even more so. They're not going to repeatedly and persistently put in a tricky and potentially expensive feature that makes absolutely no difference to sales.

Now, if you'd limited that observation to genres that have traditionally had no character interaction, and who's core audience don't expect it, then I might concede the point (though you'd still have to explain away Alyx Vance ). But TES is, after all, an RPG. That puts it in an area of the games market where romances are, if not traditional, at least familiar.


Sales aren't hurt by verbose ranters. But they are hurt by hundreds of thousand of people deciding that a game isn't quite what they're looking for. And frankly, games aren't going to make all (or even most) of their money being sold to gamers. They are, based on demographic trends in gaming, increasingly going to make their money being sold to young-ish (20 to 40) mums and dads who buy few games and have only a few hours a week to play them. http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp, while not being the last word on the subject, should give you pause for thought when you consider whose dollars the publishers are looking to attract.


Now that I can agree on, and it's one of the reasons that (much as I would like one) I don't believe there will be any romance in Skyrim. Bethesda probably know better than to make fools of themselves by trying something they have no experience and possibly no expertise in.

Unlikely and certainly not needed. Better to put more resources towards something else. Now though if it's a quest that involves getting X Item because somebody likes someone then that's one thing but falling in love with another character is a little too much.

Similar too the romance in MW? I don't see the problem. Bioware romances? I think that belong in Bioware. I thought that was very awkward at times and I hope it isn't in. IMO at least.

I'm not playing many games, I have little play time, so I don't exactly know how love and relationships worked in other games, but I know that I'd like Bethesda to try this, it could be interesting for role playing. We already can take many roles in one Tes playthrough, from thief to honest hunter, from knight to cold blood assassin and back. Having a little romance with someone of my choice would not divert me from the game's specific atmosphere more than other secondary features such as grinding professions, buying houses and decorating, collecting items, exploring for treasures, breaking into houses and killing for fun, reading the books. As far as I'm concerned, the more options, the better, and romance can't be quite rocket science, you just need a few pages of good quality, rich dialogue.

The player is not the last of the dragon born, and they've confirmed it's not only confined to bloodlines, although it is passed through them.

I wouldn't mind romance options but I don't feel the game needs them. I'm slightly in favor of them. I find the typical knee-jerk opposition to be very funny though. "Eww, romance!!"

If Bethesda wants to add it, fine, as long as it isn't forced. Otherwise, there's a mod for that. If not, there will be. I'm sure the console gamers don't really care for this stuff anyway.