Firstly, I don't think for a moment that Bethesda are going to include player romance - and to be honest I have some reservations about their ability to do it well.

However, in defence of romances in Skyrim...

First, some people say 'get a real girlfriend/relationship'. But RPG romances are nothing to do with real-life relationships, any more than RPG combat is anything to do with real-life combat. It's all part of telling an epic adventure story; it's an escapist fantasy, with fantastical elements. Real-life relationships are about compromise, daily tedium, sharing your life with someone - hopefully falling in love. Fantasy romances are about adventure, action, tales of derring-do - all the things that you simply can't do or have in real life.

Then, there are complaints about the amount of 'wasted' work the developers would have to put in. Well, news-flash here - this is an RPG, not a shooter. In a shooter, you're supposed to experience everything. In an RPG, you're only supposed to experience a fraction of the game in any one playthrough.

'Stealth? I play a battlemage. I don't bloody sneak around! It's wasted effort and it's never convincing, pretending that guard can't see me when I'm just 6 inches away from him. Cut it out!'

'Magic? I'm a Nord Beserker! Magic is for pansies, I'll never use it. Bethesda shouldn't waste their time on magic!'

'What are Bethesda doing wasting their time developing dual-wielding combat?! It's going to look so fake anyway, I only want to play mages, they should concentrate on magic casting!!'

'I hate romance, it's always so cheesy, Bethesda shouldn't waste time on it.'

See what I mean? And really, how expensive is it? As a feature, I mean? No graphics engine work, no expensive middleware, no complex game engine support... Really, it's just a bunch of dialogue and possibly a handful of quests. Yes, there's the voice acting. How big a proportion of the development budget would that be? I have no idea, but I'd be astonished if it was a significant amount. And as for the quests... well, with a bit of imagination any romance NPC could simply become a companion on the main quest, with an actual interest in making sure the world doesn't end .

Finally, there's the cry of 'it's never done right, it's cringeworthy dross'. And this, I think, is the only really valid criticism. But how valid is it? Let's face it, pretending to be an unacknowledged super-hero who's the only person able to save a magical world of elves, vikings and cat-people from dragons, frying monsterous enemies with fireballs and lopping off limbs in rivers of blood... are you seriously trying to tell me that isn't cringeworthy??? Come on, it's sub Harry Potter stuff. It's down at Conan the Barbarian level. It's fantasy escapism, a childish retreat from the important responsibilities and hard challenges of real life. And that's why we love it, why we argue so passionately about it, why we keep on playing these silly games, no matter that they're cringeworthy.

So, fantasy romance is pathetic? Nothing to do with real life? Cheesy and embarrassing? Seems to me like it fits right in . Yeah, it should be optional. RPGs are about choice, and so we should be able to at least choose to play along or not. But there's no good reason why it shouldn't be in there at all. Yes, other RPG games have romances. But none of those other RPGs are Elder Scrolls! Their romances fit their worlds. I see no reason why Skyrim shouldn't have a romance or two that is written to fit into it's world.

As I've said before, romance would only work in a TES game if the characters were given meaningful personalities and were unique.

I can't see Bethesda bothering to give every single NPC a totally unique personality, although it could work if there were five or six people per town you could start a relationship with.

What? Sims? In my Skyrim? Yeah, of course, and let's have kids and make parties with our gay neighbours :nope:

Damn, keep it out :flamethrower:

Let BGS do the rest of the game better instead

Sure, why not? :shrug:

With a whopping http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1161723-dutch-cover-story-interesting-info/, we need something to fill up some time, right?

In some of GI threads there is a info that you can be a "friend" of an NPC... if you help a NPC, you can be a friend, and enter his/her house naturaly and he/she can also follow you as a companion in some related quest...

So, we will have indeed a relationship in the game, but probaly not with romances... About the "wasting time making romances" i agreed with andyw, and think it would not be so hard to improve that relationship to be able to date and even merry some NPC.

But as i said, i think we will not have romances in vanilla game... Let′s wait to some modder made the romances possible! =)

I'm all for making merry with the barmaids, I just don't want to marry them.

lol, my mistake... English is not my primary language. =S

But u got the point ;D

One of the best arguments I've heard! Thank you for so eloquently saying what I could not. After reading this I don't know how anyone would be able to shoot down atleast the idea of having romance in the game. I'm not looking for a bioware quality romance, most of the dialogue could stay the same. Just a few special phrases here and there to add a little something. I'm not looking for a sims game, the sims medieval is on the way...I just want a fully realized game world with skyrim and relationships are part of that. Thanks again.

I felt after how long it was playing through every little quest/dungeon/easter egg in morrowind it was nice to put down my battle axe hop over to pelegiad and say hey to the Mrs. even though it was fake it felt like something that any real hero would do sorta me playing xbox to escape the hustle and bustle of real life and my char having a romance to get his mind off the whole fate of the world saving all Tamrielic kind (yes I can roleplay within a roleplay) I just feel if it isnt gonna be in game right away a dlc like battlehorn with a possible romance or anything like that could be fun and give some of us hardcoe roleplayers some of what we want.

Alot of people piss and moan about this or that like dual weilding or classes making it hard to level past 30 in oblivion without getting real involved and now look at the game they got those big changes put in so why cant we get a little romance huh exactly everyone likes to argue but in the end is it such a big thing to ask its not like I said lets have nudity and six or child killing (sorry to use that but ppl do talk about it until it gets locked) is it so hard to come home from a day of dragon killing to your whatever race/six romance and have them ask you how your day was then maybe get a "well rested xp bonus" lol and go out bright and early next day to continue saving the world.

If thats too much to ask please give me a valid reason why it shouldn't be in rather than dual weilding or mystisim or the removal of classes or a 200 year gap in time please go ahead... I'm waiting


PS if anyone gets confused I'm sorry I ramble but bear in mind its not easy to type so much whilst riding my oblivion horse up a 87 degree incline.....

As long as it was completely optional or something you had to actively discover and pursue, something which I could ignore or not even know was there becuase you had to intentionally go looking for relationships then fine. Sure put it in the game for those who want it but make sure it wont interfere with the game of those who dont want it.

I am all for adding relationships, so long as it's part of the story, not a bring enough gifts, you get married in a short cutscene, have a cheesy "have six with" that cuts out to a black screen with noises.

having a relationship develop with a main character and progress, or disolve by decisions made, and end in drama / happilly ever after depending on effort put at an important point can add a lot to the depth of experience in a game.

I am guessing it won't be in, as TES seems to stick to standards and traditions a lot, but i certainly would not object.

"Hello."
"Hi."
"So, we've talked for like...five whole minutes. What do you think of me?"
"Well, I..."
BOAST ADMIRE COERCE JOKE
"I LURVE YOU, PLEASE DO UNSPEAKABLE THINGS TO MY BODY"

There might be gay mammoths in the game. That might be the closest to relationships there are...

Would not interest me, I don't need a pixle try to make me happy in a game. :shrug:
would just be a waste of time like in Fable. Just fo' me, you kids have fun

lol

anyways some romance with some companions would not hurt, just no marriage kids stuff, its just sixier to fight along side a character you actually care about.

romantic stuff tends to ruin movies and i dont want that happening to my skyrim.
if you need some lovin go to e-harmony

The problem with romance in games is most people who want it are about as romantic as a pile of sentient flaming goat poo. And what they want creeps everyone else the heck out.

and we're backin up backin up cause my daddy taught me goood.

NO i get enough nagging in real life

I don't think romance would fit TES very well.. It wouldn't really add anything, so I would rather see them concentrating on better quests and whatnot.

Nah. Romancing in a sandbox game would be difficult to implement naturally. Some modder probably builds a romancing mod to those who are in need.

Romancing is for RL, and for TES we :toughninja:

That is not good enough. Either do it right (like BioWare) or don't do it at all.



Really? and you know this because?...

Lucky me, i guess i am a bit of an exception then. Unless ofcause anything related to six and nudity creeps you out but in that case i will argue that you are not speaking for everyone else.

Really? BioWare's "so cheesy they clog the arteries of anyone downwind" romances are a big factor in my not liking RPG "romances" and thinking they feel tacked-on and half-baked. That could of course just be me, but seriously...if that's when they're done "right" I'd hate to see what done wrong looks like. Just sayin'...

You don't need false relationships.

I can't recognize what you just descibed there. I had a completely different experience when i played DA and ME. I never felt the game tried to force it on me or anything like that. So far, no one has done better when it comes to interactive storytelling and interaction between the player and the PC than BioWare if you ask me. There is definitely still a very very long way to go before it's perfect but i feel they are on the right track. But ofcause it's all a matter of taste. Maybe you just don't like romantic subplots at all? Romances isn't for everyone after all.



Fable II is when they are done wrong IMO.