Update: BioWare's Mike Laidlaw confirms that Dragon Age: Inquisition will not be dropping romance options.
Romances: totally happening, totally optional, just like before. That's all needs be said. #worrynot
— Mike Laidlaw (@Mike_Laidlaw) January 23, 2014
Original post:
Why even include romance options in video games? That’s the question Dragon Age: Inquisition lead writer David Gaider is currently wresting with. The BioWare employee has been answering fan questions on his personal Tumblr, and when presented with the topic of romance options in the massive RPG, Gaider seemed to struggle with whether or not the feature will be included.
“Yes, at that time, the conversation of why we even bother certainly can and will come up within the team,” he wrote. “For the most part, it’s not hard to soon remember that we bother because there are a lot of people who enjoy the romances we write very much—and if there are people who take it to an angry place, it’s probably because they passionately care. And also probably because we do sometimes make mistakes and can indeed do better.
“I know some fans would be happy if we just abandoned the effort altogether. Generally those are people who don’t use that sort of content in our games anyhow, so us not pursuing it naturally wouldn’t bother them. I’ll just ignore the element who see romances as a thing that only ‘fangirls’ like, and which is thus of lesser value to a ‘real game.’”
The game’s extended development time has led fans to ask for quite a few additions to the Dragon Age formula, but it’ll be up to Gaider and the BioWare team to decide if romance is in the game’s future.
