Male Companions in Greedfall?

@nickclark89 said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

@domi said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

@nickclark89 said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

@domi said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

@nickclark89 said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

Personally what I dont want is what Bioware usually does, treating lgbtq as lesser characters, I want equality content-wise, no more deviant promiscuous bi men that prefer women, no more hide your gays trope as Mass Effect likes to do, no more chivalrous characters as straight like Dragon Age likes to do, PLOT-RELEVANT characters is important too, Bioware likes to do real life gay angst but since Spiders has confirmed that this wont be a problem is all great 😃 just queer romances as full-fledged as the straight ones, I dont usually give a damn about appearance but that's a sweet bonus.

Technomancer was a step in the right direction with Andrew and it was great as first step. Will see how Spiders treats the romance part in this game, I hope everyone is happy and after being disappointed by Bioware over and over again I prefer all bisexual approach (as long as the conversations are not gender neutral, that's important for the immersion)

What on earth does this have to do with how male companions look?

And all bioware bi males are different. Zevran is the only promiscuous one. Fenris is grumpy emo, Anders is a true romantic and a core of the plot, and Iron Bull is a gigantic warrior. Reyes is a rogue who is not particularly promiscuous, and Jaal is straight out of Regency romance. Can't see how's Andrew particularly stands out?

lgbtq players had to fight for Kaidan and Jaal to happen, so they dont count. Zevran and Iron Bull are all promiscuous and deviant. Iron Bull is my favorite m/m romance, but they are both assasin/spy, they can betray you so they are deviant bi trope characters. I dont cound DA2 because of the all bi approach, but both of the characters have their baggage and love Anders and my characters are pro-mages but he killed a bunch of people (and he was promiscous in DA:A)

Gil and Steve are hidden gays in the hold with real gay angst like Dorian (therapy conversion). Kaidan and Jaal we had to fight for them. And Reyes is another bi promiscous with hidden intentions.

I'm just expressing myself out how I want my male romance options, I dont know why are you bothered that much?

I just don't see the relevance o the romance availability to the avatars in a game to the request for at least one male companion who looks hot. Your views on lbgtq romances are way too complicated, and incredibly burdened with multiple conditions that have nothing to do with the games themselves, but with some sort of a conflict of a man vs Industry. You have an axe to grind with Bio, that's probably not the place anyway. Spiders have not even done a bi romance to start with, or at least in the two I played. Ye gods, just because Reyes had a girlfriend before it does not make his promiscuous.

I just want a simple thing: a great looking, hot, awesome, incredible male companion in a Spider's game that can look as great and immediately eye-catching as Niesha, Amelia, Sybil ad Edwina, aka the female characters. Whom that companion romances and if he romances anyone at all, is something that is more secondary, but I certainly way prefer open romances, not gated.

If you do want the males to look younger and hotter than they are in the previous games, well, say so, it's not really some sort of a bad thing, or embarrassing one or whatever. If you can't care less, well, that's fine too. If you are vehemently opposed, well, tell me why...

I'm just telling what I want, that's because I started with "Personally" and doing a comparison with Bioware is only logical because Spiders and BIoware are the only two vg developers that make cinematic gay scenes. My ideas are not complicated and way too much discussed by a lot of gaymers. If you think I think that Reyes is promiscuous because he had a girlfriend you are so wrong lol is the way the character is written and how sexually flirtatious he is. Again, if my views about lgbtq upsets you, dont read them. I'm not going to censore myself and not telling what I want. And even better, dont you dare to think what's better for gay/bi men players.

It's totally ok you want a hot male companion, like I said it's a great bonus. Myself? I just want fair content because I'm so used to scraps that I dont care anymore if he is conventionally hot or not. I think I have left my point clear so this will be my last comment about this.

I am not talking about players at all, and I am all for completely opening every choice to every avatar. It is far easier and exciting for me to role-play games when the romances are not gated, because romance highlight each protagonist's qualities and contribute to his or her stories, and they need not be standard. One of the reasons I do not like gates is because I don't really like an implication that if I am this or that in RL, I should be expected to create such and such character that should behave this or that way, and should like a romance of this type of a character and of this specific gender only. I do not like the weird competitiveness within the player base the gated romances create.

Reyes imo is not promiscuous. He is not indiscriminate, he is not comically sleazy like Zevran (eye-roll), he is not endlessly engaging into innuendo. He (Reyes) certainly does not openly cheat on Ryder or flirts with other companions in front of him/her like some other characters do. His romancing Ryder is among the most romantic in any games. The games manages (at least to me) convey very clearly that after the roof scene Reyes becomes committed to Ryder. It is also politically motivated relationship, pragmatic, love with interest, so we have a rare male character that has his own standing, interests and carrier outside the protagonist's circle. The same was true of Anders. And Dorian.

And they all were hot, which subtracted precisely nothing from the richness of their character development and complicated plots they were involved in.

This is really a very odd discussion to a very simple request for the future. Not the one I was looking for.

In the end of the day, all I want is for one of those awesome Spider artists to really create a lovingly astonishing artistic concept for an incredibly cool to look at male companion that will blow my face off.

last edited by Domi

@mariecécile-jacq Great to hear that you put effort into making the characters. I really enjoy Andrew, as I find him to be quite attractive. But it is his personalities and his quest that truly shine.

I could not help but compare with other Bioware human m/m LIs. Most of the time Bioware has not put much effort into m/m romance options compared to other romances, especially straight ones. I'll have to agree with @nickclark89 that Bioware m/m romances are mostly disappointing or partly problematic. Comparing Liara romance to Kaidan romance shows this.

So my suggestion is of course to put as much effort in all romance equally as possible as you said! And I also would love to see more interactions between PC and an LI as they explore the world and more acknowledgement of their relationship from others as well.

Thank you very much!

last edited by dirkjake

Andrew was a breath of fresh air compared to Dorian or Gil. I love romances that are actually about the 2 guys-not about the world judging them for who they are. I also like that he didn't flirt with the girls like most of the bisexual characters in BioWare games. He was nice to them and acted like a friend. Much more realistic and enjoyable to me!

So if Spiders makes romances opened to all avatars you will be critical of it?

last edited by Domi

I really don't get the complaint about gay romances in a tread about aestetic of male companions, it seem to me almost just a jump in to shut up any kind of request from female players that happen to be straight.

But that is just my personal impression, so I'll just say that I would like more uniqueness in look for male companions like female ones had in the past, be the romance straight or gay.
What can I say, I like guys, I happen to be female, so I of course speak with in mind male guys for my female character. That doesn't mean I just want just straight male companions to look unique/good looking, but male companions in general, and even if in the end is the writing that make a character shine, having said character look good/particular/memorable like the female ones help a lot.

I don't know how male companions were for Technomancer, since the fixed male protagonist had me not interested in the game.

@lee80 said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

Andrew was a breath of fresh air compared to Dorian or Gil. I love romances that are actually about the 2 guys-not about the world judging them for who they are. I also like that he didn't flirt with the girls like most of the bisexual characters in BioWare games. He was nice to them and acted like a friend. Much more realistic and enjoyable to me!

Yeah, it was really nice, makes me optimistic about the gay romance/s in this game.

@willowg said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

I really don't get the complaint about gay romances in a tread about aestetic of male companions, it seem to me almost just a jump in to shut up any kind of request from female players that happen to be straight.

But that is just my personal impression, so I'll just say that I would like more uniqueness in look for male companions like female ones had in the past, be the romance straight or gay.
What can I say, I like guys, I happen to be female, so I of course speak with in mind male guys for my female character. That doesn't mean I just want just straight male companions to look unique/good looking, but male companions in general, and even if in the end is the writing that make a character shine, having said character look good/particular/memorable like the female ones help a lot.

I don't know how male companions were for Technomancer, since the fixed male protagonist had me not interested in the game.

I did play Technomancer, but I do appreciate that this time around I am allowed to create a female lead, because normally the industry turns a deaf ear to this request.

I do hope that independently of how the romances are distributed the male companions will approach the female ones in pizzaz. Even if only male avatars get to romance them.

Frankly, with five companions I expect two nubile females, one younger male character, one father/elder brother male, and one monster type companion.

It is not a bad recipie, and I do not mind it, but I really would love that one male to look awesome!

I gotta be honest, I kinda feel like "attractive" guys in games fit into two or three really narrow, really boring archetypes, and I'm pretty tired of it. Anders is a prime example - I never really found him all that attractive because he looks like he was designed by committee. If I have to choose between getting a character who's traditionally attractive and getting one who has a face with personality, I'll go with the latter every time.

last edited by Foelhe

@foelhe said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

I gotta be honest, I kinda feel like "attractive" guys in games fit into two or three really narrow, really boring archetypes, and I'm pretty tired of it. Anders is a prime example - I never really found him all that attractive because he looks like he was designed by committee. If I have to choose between getting a character who's traditionally attractive and getting one who has a face with personality, I'll go with the latter every time.

Agreed. Love the characters with a more unique appearance that's something you're not entirely used to, or expecting.

Finally figure out how to do multi quotes!

@lee80 said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

Andrew was a breath of fresh air compared to Dorian or Gil. I love romances that are actually about the 2 guys-not about the world judging them for who they are. I also like that he didn't flirt with the girls like most of the bisexual characters in BioWare games. He was nice to them and acted like a friend. Much more realistic and enjoyable to me!

That's a good point indeed. Andrew romance is nice because of it lacking real-life social commentary ( "my dad hates me for being gay" in Dorian case or "gay guys need to procreate" in Gil case).

@sir-drell said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

@foelhe said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

I gotta be honest, I kinda feel like "attractive" guys in games fit into two or three really narrow, really boring archetypes, and I'm pretty tired of it. Anders is a prime example - I never really found him all that attractive because he looks like he was designed by committee. If I have to choose between getting a character who's traditionally attractive and getting one who has a face with personality, I'll go with the latter every time.

Agreed. Love the characters with a more unique appearance that's something you're not entirely used to, or expecting.

I hope we can have the best of both worlds where the characters look great, have unique appearance, and have great personalities. I hope Spiders will be able to accomplish this.

@willowg said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

I really don't get the complaint about gay romances in a tread about aestetic of male companions, it seem to me almost just a jump in to shut up any kind of request from female players that happen to be straight.

everytime lgbtq people are critical about the romances they have in these kind of games, the demonization of their opinion starts, happens in every forum and every site. I wish I could post some facepalm gif here. Sigh.

Anyway, I hope Spiders gets some good feedback from these users, Andrew was a right step in the right direction and Bless Spiders for that. Keep the good work!

last edited by nickclark89

To be fair the thread is about male companions and I don't see where there's any advantage to limiting conversations to only about how they look. That would not really even require conversation-almost no one is hoping to have the worlds ugliest male companion, most everyone wants options that they find attractive. I feel like that is pretty much a waste of time.

So I focused my post on what I want in a romance. If it's bisexual men I want them to show interest in the pc primarily-and if they have to show interest in other people I want it to be equal with other males not just females.

I'm still certain that talking about how the male companions will offer some lgbtq representation is a way better and more meaningful topic than 'are they hot?' (How are the devs even supposed to answer that?).

So yeah, just saying this to the devs, a lot of people here would like to talk about the lgbtq representation present in the game.

Okay, I have played through MWL now as well, and that’s the worst of all Spiders’ games in terms of the male companions’ looks vs their female counterparts.

It is overall also the least inspired of their games, imo, including artistically. I guess the build take a lot of resources.

Fingers crossed that this switch to the new settting and the world is not going hurt the companions looks and personalities. I would now add the littl’ brother to Spiders potential tropes in companion department, b/w Andrew and Innocence.

last edited by Domi

I finished my first Technomancer run a couple of weeks ago and I just loved Andrew. Though I would argue that the girls were better looking, Andrew's characterization was fantastic. I chose him as love interest on that alone.

@foelhe said in Male Companions in Greedfall?:

I gotta be honest, I kinda feel like "attractive" guys in games fit into two or three really narrow, really boring archetypes, and I'm pretty tired of it. Anders is a prime example - I never really found him all that attractive because he looks like he was designed by committee. If I have to choose between getting a character who's traditionally attractive and getting one who has a face with personality, I'll go with the latter every time.

Anders is among my most favorite videogame characters of all times, and imo one of the most complex conceptually, with an incredible balance of positives and negatives, and so ultimately human, as well as influenced by the nineteenth century ideals. He is never boring or perfect to me, just ultimately fascinating.

Can’t say that Andrew made the same deep impression. He was pleasant and had Bao Dur’s like appearance without Bao Dur’s capacity for loyalty and economically conveyed love for the PC, with the most romantic dialogue ever directed at a videogame lead... that “the longest you have looked at me...” aww.... yeah, Andrew is no Bao Dur’s. He is just a very nice guy who is ready to call Zach a Grandmaster.

If I can find a similar magnitude of awesomeness character (to Anders) in Greedfall, I will be completely happy.

last edited by Domi

Sure, Anders is great, because his personality is the most important thing; I want a character who's deep and well-written, not a cut-out from GQ. If we're talking about looks (and so far all you've been talking about is looks) then all I'm saying is I'm more interested in someone who has a face with character than yet another blandly attractive blond dude. Obviously tastes differ, I just wanted to put that out there.