We need to know before launch if the new followers are racist
PugPug
Member Posts: 560
First of all, Neera is the only follower whose page says she is romanceable, but it's apparently common knowledge that all three are. Shame on whoever maintains the website. Shame.
And secondly, we need to know if they accept love in all its forms or if we need to be a member of any particular race to strike their fancy.
And secondly, we need to know if they accept love in all its forms or if we need to be a member of any particular race to strike their fancy.
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Child, no need to glare! 'Twas me axe I were referring to.
My point is that racism is a term that we (humans in the real world) have constructed to mean actions that discriminate based on the racial identity of another person. It's human against human discrimination, so it's not the same thing as a Dwarf hating a Goblin because it's a Goblin (yes, I know I shouldn't be capitalizing collective nouns). Now, if a moon elf hates wood elves, then that would probably be a better example of racism as we know it.
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Stop trying to start another moral war, can you?
I use the word "racist" in a tongue-in-cheek, shorthand-for-a-more-complex-concept sort of way.
Either way, I'm lobbying for more racist NPCs. They're already in there, independent of alignment. Both Keldorn and Korgan are racist against dark elves, but from what I remember only Korgan went all Rwanda ear necklace on some of them.
Maybe in baldur's gate 2 ee, there can be an evil sportsman NPC that shoots down Avariel while wearing Wellingtons and a Barbour jacket. When Aerie asks why he would do such a thing, he just looks wistful before unloading both barrels of a shotgun into her quivering, wide-eyed face. Then he plucks her feathers, cleans and guts her before sitting down to tea.
Why does Bioware hate short people? Short people need love too.
Now, of course, it would suggest a certain taste or an ability to look past appearances. But I don't consder an elf-dwarf romance or a dwarf-half-orc romance to be as wildly out there as you do.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/89688/#Comment_89688
I disagree with racial restrictions on romance. Not because it's immoral, but just because it limits options severely without adding anything to the story itself. These racial restrictions are arbitrary, unexplained, and not obvious to the player until multiple playthroughs were completed. Were they true story decisions, that I might support. But it is never explained in these stories why being a male half-orc (or a female gnome, I think) makes one unlovable.
As far as interspecies go. Human-Elf and Human-Orc are part of the setting and are the only ones who are capable of producing living offspring. But since the ability to breed is hardly a requirement for romance, and all the humanoid species in the setting are so much alike, I really hope that the new romanceables come without species restrictions.
Make as many options as possible to the players, and let THEM decide what they want for their characters.
This is very obvious, but in real life, there is a wide spectrum of sexuality and sexual interest. While there are many people who are not solely heterosexual, not everyone is homosexual, bisexual, or pansexual (in fact I would hazard an estimate that a large majority of people are primarily heterosexual). It's poor writing and beyond lazy to make all romanceable characters generically pansexual. You take all the time to develop a backstory and a personality--all things very much unique to specific characters in the game--and then you just make them all sexual omnivores? That's not the way real life works, and I don't think games should be written that way either.
I enjoyed Dragon Age Origins. I had no interest in DA2 for a number of reasons, but one reason was that all romances were open to either gender. I find that completely uninteresting. In DAO the romance options--and the combinations of sexualities--fit with the characters, their backgrounds, and their personalities.
Also correct me if I am wrong but human(half-,elf)/halfling, human(half-,elf)/dwarf and human(half-,elf)/gnome can´t breed and those three were the restricted combinations for romances.
Unless there exists a very recent common ancestor they are not different races but different species of sentient humanoids.
Anyway biological terms are a bit hard to apply in a world with magic.
As example that the offspring of two half-orcs are all half-orks instead of the 25% pure humans, 25% pure orcs and 50% half-orcs you would actually get if the forgotten realms followed the same biological rules as our world.
And speciesism is simply a far less inflammatory term than racism so I rather prefer to use it.
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dwelf
I think the issue with partial patronage/matronage from Halflings, Dwarves or Gnomes is that they'll take after the latter race in almost every form but be generally taller than their brethren.
(Speculating on Halflings and Gnomes since I can't confirm that, but that IS the case with dwarves).
It's an additional level of restriction that doesn't seem quite necessary, and to be honest I found it frustrating in the original BG2.
I'd rather play what I want to play, without missing extra dialogues right off the bat.
Also, a romance could take into account the racial differences or alignment differences and adjust accordingly. A good NPC and an evil PC might only have a fling or an affair while more compatible characters could have a more romantic relarionship... and this was merely an example I thought of on the spot. There are many ways to adjust romances believably.
And as a side note: this is not something we need/have to/must know. It is something we want to so we can plan our characters.