This may sound a bit sixist, but what about a romance system that let you pick from a set number of available women, ranging from barmaid to queen, each with different skill or quest requirements for you to court and marry them. The end result would be your "trophy" wife -- who would sit in your house/castle and do stuff for you like arrange all the knives and candlesticks that acquired as loot around your house (who honestly has time to decorate the house themselves)? Or.. I'm sure someone could think of something more functional -- like alchemy or enchanting weapons. Each one could have their own special function.

Just trying to think of some game mechanic that might make it more fun.

Really? well excuse me for not laughing then. Sounded more like a huge generalization and ridicule to me.



I Agree. This is a terrible choice and it would probably ultimately end up being completely shallow and pointless like in Fable anyway. Believe me, that's the last thing i want to see. If it stands between this and nothing, i chose nothing.



That is simply how it has to be if you want a deeper experience. It was never a problem for me in BioWares games, i doubt it would be in TES.



No what i personaly want is something similar to BioWares games. Some characters is hetero and some characters is bisixual. For example. If your character is male in Dragon Age: Origins, he can chose to romance Morrigan (Female), Leliana (Female) and Zevren (Male). If your character is female, she can chose to romance Alistair (Male), Zevran (Male) and Leliana (Female).



In Mass Effect and Dragon Age, not much more than the experience and history value. Other characters will some times react to it and you will have unique dialoge options. It can also help define what kind of character you are roleplaying. I simply think it makes the world feel more alive and less lonely. That is good enough for me. But you could add more if you wanted to.



They certainly could.



Yes. That is part of being in a relationship... well a healthy one anyway.



That is obviously a matter of perspective. Some people (like myself) really like the romance part in BioWares games, other sees it as a stupid minigame. I thought it was nothing less than brilliant how you could get to know the NPCs through dialogue, and i am not just speaking about the romanceable NPCs. In retrospect, the characters felt so much more alive than in any Bethesda game i have ever tried. "That" is true roleplaying if you ask me.



Have you ever played BioWares games? What you just described sounds more like Fable and as i said, that's not what i want.



Well that is really not all that different from what i want.

I see some comments here that seem to advise for a Fable-like romance system. Well, please, NO.

Fable's romances are horrible. You can romance ALL the unimportant, secondary characters in the game, which makes for a "romance" without any identity whatsoever. Your partner(s) have no background story, no personality, no specific dialogue, NOTHING. I -hate- Fable's romance system and I'm sure Bethesda knows better than putting something so incredibly dumb in their game.

The Witcher was horrible too. Not only because it only allowed you to romance the ladies (that's not what I call a roleplaying game, if I can't roleplay how I choose), but more importantly because instead of being a romantic relationship, it was an horrible "gotta catch'em all" system.

Dragon Age: Origins and Neverwinter Nights 2 are the only games that got the romances right (specifically, Bishop was never an open romance option, and yet I remember that character as being the only romance I've seen in a videogame that really had me interested). Well, the Mass Effect series has some fairly decent romances too, although it feels too mechanical because of how you systematically advance the romance dialogue after each mission you do.

Not to repeat myself, but I reiterate my point: I'd like Skyrim to not have actual romances (they tend to be kinda lame, in a videogame) but to merely have hints and dialogue lines that may hint at a background romance going on.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - no time for love when you're busy saving the world.

I'd rather have a selection of 1-3 male NPC for a female NPC to choose from, (and vice versa 1-3 females for the male to chose from) that has an involving story to it, and somthing to become attached to, instead of having most NPCs have the same genetic quest line to improve romantic interests. Too many games just let you become involved with someone, who if he dies later it's more like "meh" instead of "omg omg omg restart! I don't care if my last save was 4 hours ago! reload dammit!" While Bioware dose an unrivaled fantastic job (huge Alistair fangirl), i fear that the characters are too involved in the main quest which i felt was the driving factor behind the attachment.

What i don't want is a system like Fable where it's like "Yo, dude you're wife died" "LOL so? that sets me back what? 5 minutes? 10 at the most?"

When it comes to emotional involvement, i'd prefer quality far over quantity.


edit: wow, i just reread this...so messy xD

Indeed! I wish Skyrim will do what you wrote. But I repeat, I don't want excessive focus on the romance aspect. For example, Bioware games focus way too much on the romance aspect. I find that to be definitely exagerated. (Although, why wasn't Sten romanceable? Darn it! )

I agree The Witcher made a horrible faux pas with that aspect, and really muddied its name. Although there were, I think, two very interesting romance threads there (arguably three).

One was the Shani romance. This was a proper romance, with the need to talk to Shani, get to know her background, turn to her for help, woo her with gifts. There was also a nice, bitter realisation that although part of Geralt wanted to settle down and have a family life, this would never happen because of what and who he was. Then there was the Triss 'romance'. This was very sour and cynical, with the ancient and beautiful witch using six to keep her toy-boy (Geralt) happy, distracted and ignorant while she manipulated him into helping her with her power plays. It was very much in tune with the world of the Witcher, especially as there was the added complication that she did seem to have some genuine affection for him. Rather like a more human/humane version of Morgiah . The final 'romance' was with the selfish, vicious, frightened and obsessed Adda (appropriate name ). That wasn't developed enough, but if CD Projekt had put more work into it they might have had a really compelling (in a horrible sort of way) piece of corrupted-romance storytelling.

That's the sort of thing that I think could work in an Elder Scrolls setting, with thought and learning from CD Projekt's mistakes. The characters are there, the social and political conflicts are there, the danger and urgency is there... the only question is, do Bethesda have the writers and will to do it?

I don't think they do, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

No.Leave that stuff for Bioware in mass effect 3.

Witcher did it pretty much the way it was supposed to do it. Witcher isn't a Bioware or Elder Scrolls game where you choose your character. You're playing a specific character, with specific characteristics, in a specific world. That's certainly still role playing... in fact it has an aspect (no matter in how basic form) many role playing games (including D&D) seem to want to forget. Role playing limitations.

Role playing "limitations" always seemed shallow and very anti-role playing in general to me. If I make a character that character is mine, and not to be pigeonholed into stereotypes based on "game rules." I define what my character is. Not the game.

That's why it always makes me shake my head with for example World of Warcraft forcing players to not even be able to talk to each other if they are certain races. Hard coded racism, go!

Geralt, aka The Witcher, is an established character, who is not bisixual in any of the novels so...itd be lame for him to suddenly become bisixual.

If I wanted romance in a medium that has to be well, read, I'd run down to the local bookstore and get a trashy romance novel. Then read it aloud to the hubs.

TES is my escape from everyday life, which includes, the stresses of work, home, relationships.
I do things in TES impractical in IRL, like wandering off for a month to explore, killing people/monsters/evil spirits, treasure hunting, defying earthly limitations with feats of magic, etc.
I would prefer resources be spent on gameplay, more intricate quests, and graphics, than on trying to poorly emulate some sort of one sided relationship. Which is what any romance in TES would inevetibly be.
Romance in real life is hard, you can't just put in a prompt, hack the system, or push a button and your love intrest aquiesces. I also don't see the payoff in investing time and emotional resource in a pixellated romance. I find the idea of trying to form romantic, emotional bonds with an imaginary character pointless.

As you say, games are an escape from the stresses of real life, and people like to do things they can't in real life.

For some people (perhaps many) an escape from the difficulty and stress of real-life relationships might be to play a little slice of escapist fantasy, an epic adventure in which the character they are creating can battle dragons, hunt bandits and plunder dungeons alongside a devoted companion and fellow warrior; where the difficulties they face aren't real-life difficulties but exciting challenges; where the emotions are the heightened and exaggerated drama of a fantasy adventure.

Not real, not of any lasting value, but fun for an evening (now and again) nonetheless.

It is, of course, a matter of taste. Lots of people don't like eating shellfish. Some find them actively repulsive. Doesn't mean a restaurant shouldn't offer them for those who do like them .

People enjoy venting stress on inanimate objects in violent and often fatal ways that they would never do in real life. The consequences would be severe, and because animals and people are actually living beings, some bit of permanent, lifetime emotional distress ensues. Some folks (including myself) don't just limit venting stress to game playing alone, we have other physically rewarding hobbies to utilize. But it is nice to have the option of being well, EVIL, without actually physically hurting anyone.
The very escapist nature of TES in that regard is one reason why romance should not be in game.
Another reason is that slaying dragons, performing magical feats that defy the nature of gravity, those things are NOT humanly possible.
Having a relationship is. Millions of people have actual relationships IRL, and the nuances, emotional, physical, and mental ties, progression and evoloution of relationships are extremely complex and won't carry over well to this sort of media. Mental and emotional attachement is something you don't want to mess with.
People accusing others of being close minded are guilty themselves of the same.

Killing people/monsters/evil spirits in real life is hard, you can't just put in a prompt, hack the system, or push a button and the monster is dead. I also don't see the payoff in investing time and emotional resource in a pixellated quest.
:wink_smile:

Perhaps you missed the part about being able to have romantic relationships in real life.
As well the entire point about it being achieveable. Unless of course, you are able to shoot magically fire from your ass, frost from your fingers, and levitate.

I'm going to say it, and I don't care how many people I piss off, romance in games is stupid. It's a pixellated sham, often poorly excuted, and there exist other games, and media in which one can gratify themselves romantically or sixually.
Romance not being in TES is actually a bonus, and I know I am not the only one who feels this way.

I'm hoping for romantic relationships, it would be something different for TeS. Add marriage and getting ppl pregnant just to add the realism to the game. I'm not sure they will tho but it would be cool if they did

Right, but what's wrong with having it in there as an option for people who want it for immersion purposes? Not everybody plays the same games for the same reasons. For example, I don't want my character to have to worry about eating food to keep from starving, but some people love that sort of thing.

+1

The point that people seem to keep repeatedly missing is that games that involve killing, require an emotional distancing on the players part. Yet, ironically people want to vest themselves emotionally in a way that will be experienced incompletely. I keep hearing all the [censored]ing about real life and immersion, but the fact is, it's highly discouraged and forbidden in close quarters where the career involves some level of violence. IE, military, police, rescue personnel. You have to focus on getting teh job done, not be distracted by some trivial stuff that
your ingame significant other is going on about. Distractions like that in real life get you killed, good and dead.
Myself, I am not so emotionally bankrupt and lacking in interpersonal relationships that I must resort to demanding romance in a videogame that I play.
Not to mention, it opens up a whole can of worms about superiors and subordinates being involved. Judging by the reactions people had to Uncle Crassy's less than sublte demands, romance could backfire in hilarious and humilation ways for the player.


Also, since people are going on about it being real, I expect the game to be KINECT READY.
Cause I want to feel like I am really hiking up that mountain, really swinging that sword, shooting that arrow,dodging flame breathing dragons, and really smacking the crap out of anyone that asks me to make a sandwich, or says "By Azura, By Azura, By Azura! It's really you, standing here, with ME!"

I feel like there is no way to have a "mature" relationship in a video game, especially a single-player one. I hope Bethesda doesn't put this in the game, but I'm not worried because I'd be shocked if they did.

Relationships in a game are a little strange but if Bethesda wanted to make the game realistic by adding relationships then more power to them but if not then no chip off my shoulder. It is a little Fable-like but I'm sure they could figure out an interesting way to make it work to their advantage!

I hope they have romances, or at least NPCs you can form a relationship of some sort with. This was entirely absent in Oblivion and almost entirely absent in Fallout 3 (the only exception being daddy, and that bond was FORCED down your craw). It doesn't make much sense to be in a world full of people without forging any real bonds with anyone. The world might as well be empty.

They also make for excellent drama in literature when the character is forced to choose between his duty and his significant other.



You imply that someone who wants romance options in a role-playing game lacks interpersonal relationships in the real world? Childish.

Don't be mean to bioware!