In a panel titled “Building a Better Romance” at this year’s GaymerX Convention, Bioware explained that they are including gay, straight, and bisexual romances in Dragon Age: Inquisition because “those are different stories to tell.” The Bioware team at the panel discussed how they wanted to explore a variety of different stories in the game’s possible romances, and so some characters will only romance players of their same gender, some will be bisexual, and the Iron Bull will now romance an Inquisitor of any gender.
Dragon Age lead writer David Gaiden contrasted this approach with the one taken with Dragon Age II, in which players could pursue romances with only four other characters (a fifth was made available through DLC). Gaiden explained that because of the low number of romanceable characters, the choice was made to make all the potential romantic partners bisexual so that players always had choice. The team was unhappy with this “compromise,” Gaiden went on, because “bisexuality itself is not a compromise.” When the team learned that they could include more romance options in Inquisition, they took that opportunity to tell different stories with characters with different orientations.
In the Q&A at the end of the panel, the team also discussed the possibility of even more types of romance. When an audience member asked them about the possibility of polyamorous romances, the team revealed that they have tried to implement this as a feature, but the game’s scripting has not allowed it. However, should the team ever figure out the coding problems, then future Dragon Age games will include this option. When another audience member questioned the team about asexual romances, Gaiden replied that the team wanted to have “a conversation over how to approach that,” adding that he wanted to approach such a relationship in a respectful manner.
Related: 10 Awesome Games We Can’t Play Until 2015
Related: Unlock All Battlefield 4: Dragon’s Teeth Weapons With This Quick Video Guide
