They made all the love interests player-sexual (will romance regardless of gender), which upset reactionaries because “there’s no straight option”, because even if you play a guy and romance a lady, she could have romanced a lady too.
It’s wild because player-sexual NPCs is kind of a step back from DA:I, that had explictly Bi characters (Iron Bull, Josephine), explicitly straight (Blackwall, Cassandra), explicitly gay (Dorian, Sera) and people who had limited romance options like Cullen (only female humans and Elves) and Solas (only female elf, but was meant to be bisexual but only to elves but cut due to time).
Fallout 4 is 9 years old and has player-sexual romances. The complaint about player-sexual relationships is that it erases queer identity and queer characters people can see. Having a character like Sera or Judy (from Cyberpunk) who is explicitly a lesbian etc. The argument for it, is if you don’t you get silly things happening like Mass Effect having clearly queer or bisexual characters locked as straight.
I liked Cyberpunk’s relationships. There’s a moment after rescuing Saul, where Panem and V are drinking and can flirt, Panem has her legs on top of V, V can run their hand up Panem’s thigh. If you’re masculine it leads to a kiss and falling asleep together, if you’re feminine it leads to a jarring shift in tone as Panem suddenly recoils realizing you’re not joking and then awkwardly tries to diffuse the situation.
Even though it’s a scene of rejection, it feels like a real lesbian experience, with all the discomfort attached.
The problem is they aren’t often actually portrayed as bi or pansexual. If the player doesn’t interactive with them, nothing happens to establish their queerness and the fandom treats them as if they straight by default. Bi character in a game are good when they’re making it clear from the get go that they are bi (like Iron Bull in Dragon Age).
They made all the love interests player-sexual (will romance regardless of gender), which upset reactionaries because “there’s no straight option”, because even if you play a guy and romance a lady, she could have romanced a lady too.
It’s wild because player-sexual NPCs is kind of a step back from DA:I, that had explictly Bi characters (Iron Bull, Josephine), explicitly straight (Blackwall, Cassandra), explicitly gay (Dorian, Sera) and people who had limited romance options like Cullen (only female humans and Elves) and Solas (only female elf, but was meant to be bisexual but only to elves but cut due to time).
Fallout 4 is 9 years old and has player-sexual romances. The complaint about player-sexual relationships is that it erases queer identity and queer characters people can see. Having a character like Sera or Judy (from Cyberpunk) who is explicitly a lesbian etc. The argument for it, is if you don’t you get silly things happening like Mass Effect having clearly queer or bisexual characters locked as straight.
I liked Cyberpunk’s relationships. There’s a moment after rescuing Saul, where Panem and V are drinking and can flirt, Panem has her legs on top of V, V can run their hand up Panem’s thigh. If you’re masculine it leads to a kiss and falling asleep together, if you’re feminine it leads to a jarring shift in tone as Panem suddenly recoils realizing you’re not joking and then awkwardly tries to diffuse the situation.
Even though it’s a scene of rejection, it feels like a real lesbian experience, with all the discomfort attached.
I prefer when everyone is bi ¯\(ツ)/¯
The problem is they aren’t often actually portrayed as bi or pansexual. If the player doesn’t interactive with them, nothing happens to establish their queerness and the fandom treats them as if they straight by default. Bi character in a game are good when they’re making it clear from the get go that they are bi (like Iron Bull in Dragon Age).