Add romance to the playable character in story?

[Celiea.3461]

Hello after completing the story on End of Dragons has gotten me thinking has anet ever considered adding a npc character and have relationship with our playable characters as a couple kind of thing pretty sure will have alot of content as we do have 4 playable races so meaning 4 races of the npc base on which race your playing your character and it can have same gender relationships too.

 

I have seen a number of MMO games that they did add relationships happen in their storylines and would be the players choice to let the relationship continue to were they marry or breakup.

 

I can say its an idea to have romance for the playable character even a hero needs love. 

 

I hope to hear a response from anet team on what they think but will welcome community comments if they like the idea.

[Freya.9075]

If they do add romance, it should be optional from the get go. Not having to “break up” or continue the relationship. I doubt they will add it though and personally I wouldn’t want it. If they do add marriage and stuff it would likely just be to marry other players since that requires less resources for niche content like this. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I've seen how Anet writes romance.  I would rather they not.  

[mezuzel.4987]

No thanks. I'm enjoying the unofficial ace representation in game.

[Antycypator.9874]

I have seen too many Goldclaw's books to say PLEASE NO.

[Batel.9206]

Nah. People can imagine whatever they'd like between their character and NPC's, but the amount of effort that would need to be put into this...can't say it's really worth it.

SWTOR could do something like this because a) it's BioWare and it'd be odd not to have any romance in one of their games, and b) the entire game was built around that sort of cinematic storytelling, with the player being able to choose their character's fully-voiced responses and getting lavish cutscenes dedicated to each and every conversation and story moment. It also helped that there are only four body styles for either gender (with not too much difference in height) and every romanceable character is humanoid enough to not require unique animations*. GW2 is structured very differently. The sheer effort required to making sure every single character, from the tallest norn to the bulkiest charr to the shortest asura, could have animations that don't glitch badly with their chosen romance - just for one example - is definitely time and money that could be spent elsewhere. That's not getting into voice-overs or cutscenes.

It just wouldn't work.

3 minutes ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

I've seen how Anet writes romance.  I would rather they not.  

...and then there is that. Yeah. The writing in this game is...many things, but swoon-worthy romantic it is definitely not.

 

*Except for Khem Val. I would like to find whoever wanted a Khem Val romance and ask what is wrong with them!?!? 😱

[Fuchslein.8639]

The thing is, hate me for this, but our Commander is neither a Hero, nor has he/she enough depth to have any deep realtionships other than with a certain Blue Dragon. And even this, i don't know if you can call this friendship.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Fuchslein.8639

[NumNums.7935]

Npc marriage is better in fan fiction than if it was implemented in game.

 

Player marriage i could see that working, similar to other mmos they could monetize it and even give you a promise/marriage item that acts similar to portal scroll/ teleport to friend but it takes you to your spouse.

[Andur.9275]

I‘d like to have a romance option for the PC (although in my headcanon my maincharacters are a couple), but I imvho it won‘t be possible to have a good lovestory in GW2 (I did enjoy the epilogue to EoD, though).

Let‘s face it: To have a believable and emotionally touching story arch, the possible love interest should have (at least) the same screentime than Aurene. And how many possible NPCs would it need to have an interesting "pool" to choose from?

In my opinion even games like Mass Effect, which heavily focus on storytelling, sometimes fail to deliver a convincing love story and I fear it would be a disappointment in GW2.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

33 minutes ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

The thing is, hate me for this, but our Commander is neither a Hero, nor has he/she enough depth to have any deep realtionships other than with a certain Blue Dragon. And even this, i don't know if you can call this friendship.

An MMO player character not having depth makes sense. You don't want to force a RP on your players but the commander not being a hero? 

I need some explanation for that. 

 

[Fuchslein.8639]

34 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

An MMO player character not having depth makes sense. You don't want to force a RP on your players but the commander not being a hero? 

I need some explanation for that. 

 

Just run trough the world. Your'e charakter is not a typically Hero. Why else do you need to do all the little work for the People?
Yes, in the story, we got recognized, but in OW? Eventually i miss something, but in OW, i don't feel like an Hero, more like an, how can i say this in english? A Man/Woman for everything? People who do anything for little money because they have not learned anything. But of course, we do it because we want to help(and because of game-desing).

I have not really the feeling, that char's in GW2 are Hero's per se. If you understand what I mean.

[Nightgunner.2896]

2 hours ago, mezuzel.4987 said:

No thanks. I'm enjoying the unofficial ace representation in game.

I've got my Rolling Ace title and it is non-negotiable.

[Labjax.2465]

Would be neat, but since this game has long abandoned any diverging choices in story, I doubt they'd do such. (only stuff I can think of is in base game, like a mission or two early on and then the orders stuff). Like to not get lambasted for being biased, they'd prob need to have one male and one female option at least (if not more for different races), and then have it be optional, and as cool as I think that'd be, they don't even do talking cutscenes like they did in base game. Just the rare cinematic at pivotal moments in the story and live dialogue playback while NPCs do scripted stuff. Unless they decide to put more budget back into their storytelling approach in general, I doubt such would happen.

[Dami.5046]

no

*vomits*

[DanAlcedo.3281]

2 hours ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

Just run trough the world. Your'e charakter is not a typically Hero. Why else do you need to do all the little work for the People?
Yes, in the story, we got recognized, but in OW? Eventually i miss something, but in OW, i don't feel like an Hero, more like an, how can i say this in english? A Man/Woman for everything? People who do anything for little money because they have not learned anything. But of course, we do it because we want to help(and because of game-desing).

I have not really the feeling, that char's in GW2 are Hero's per se. If you understand what I mean.

I kinda get what you mean but you have to remember that this is an MMO. 

Even with the minimal forced RP to us, people still come to the forum everyday to complain that X and y doesn't fit their specific narrative. 

You for example want Npcs address you like a Hero. 

Other would hate the fact as their character isn't one in their own mind. 

That's why for the most part in OW the players isn't really the Commander but just a foot soldier of the pact. At least that was the idea in earlier parts of the game. 

 

[DarcShriek.5829]

No, No, No, No, NO!

If you want romance, join an RP community.

[costepj.5120]

5 hours ago, Celiea.3461 said:

as we do have 4 playable races

Which of the 5 playable races have you not encountered yet?

[Fuchslein.8639]

25 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I kinda get what you mean but you have to remember that this is an MMO. 

Even with the minimal forced RP to us, people still come to the forum everyday to complain that X and y doesn't fit their specific narrative. 

You for example want Npcs address you like a Hero. 

Other would hate the fact as their character isn't one in their own mind. 

That's why for the most part in OW the players isn't really the Commander but just a foot soldier of the pact. At least that was the idea in earlier parts of the game. 

 

Ahh yeah, thats true. People nitpick about everything so this is understandable. And yeah also the game-factor. But sometimes it just feels strange what we have to do, even now after slaying gods and dragons xD.

Btw to clarify, the confused emoji is not from me.

Edited April 19, 2022 by Fuchslein.8639

[ardhikaizecson.3697]

I very much want this, something akin like a choice in gw1 nightfall whether a hero wanted acolyte jin or sousuke to accompany them, have both of the choices to follows commander but differentiate dialogue based on who our pact commander have a relationship with. but it should be optional.

[kharmin.7683]

Just now, ardhikaizecson.3697 said:

I very much want this, something akin like a choice in gw1 nightfall whether a hero wanted acolyte jin or sousuke to accompany them, have both of the choices to follows commander but differentiate dialogue based on who our pact commander have a relationship with. but it should be optional.

Check the forums search feature and look for threads on heroes to understand why this will most likely never be implemented in GW2.

[ardhikaizecson.3697]

Just now, kharmin.7683 said:

Check the forums search feature and look for threads on heroes to understand why this will most likely never be implemented in GW2.

I may have chosen the wrong choice of word, but by hero i was actually addressing our player character in gw1 which is called a hero as well, not hero "Hero" features. it's something like charr personal story where you can choose dinky or other charr character to accompany you.

[Telgum.6071]

Story is cringe enough with Anet's peak writing, Imagine if they added romance.

[Danikat.8537]

I think it's unlikely they could add enough options to make it work well for a significant number of people and add enough dialogue/screen time for it to be a meaningful relationship for each of those choices.

There would have to be at least 10 options, one for each race/gender, all available for any character to choose of course, but I suspect a significant number of people would want their characters partner to be the same race and would be frustrated if that meant there was only 1 gender option. But I know I'm not the only one who sees my characters as each having a distinct personality, so even with 10 options the chances of finding someone who is a good match for each of them is low, and there would have to be duplicates which I'd find weird.

Then there's the problem of fitting them into the game/story. One option is that romance storylines and interactions are an entirely stand-alone thing, but that means a lot of development time (and voice acting budget) for an optional side activity which many players may never engage in. The other option is that the PC's partner joins Dragon's Watch and is involved in the story, but then you have to write everyone else's dialogue to allow for 10+ different people (or no one) filling the same spot in the conversation, either it has to be very generic and their contributions are always largely meaningless or you get some very complicated dialogue trees which again adds a lot of development work and voice acting budget for an optional extra. Add in the fact that they already have to do that with the player character (their dialogue is often slightly different based on the race, gender, profession, story choices etc.) and I think it would be even more noticeable.

I think it's the kind of thing that works best when it's planned from the start of the game.

 

3 hours ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

Just run trough the world. Your'e charakter is not a typically Hero. Why else do you need to do all the little work for the People?
Yes, in the story, we got recognized, but in OW? Eventually i miss something, but in OW, i don't feel like an Hero, more like an, how can i say this in english? A Man/Woman for everything? People who do anything for little money because they have not learned anything. But of course, we do it because we want to help(and because of game-desing).

I have not really the feeling, that char's in GW2 are Hero's per se. If you understand what I mean.

By that definition the player character in pretty much every RPG or adventure game ever made is not really a hero. They all include side-quests where you're doing all kinds of things, from fighting additional monsters to collecting escaped chickens or watering someone's plants.

If anything I'd argue that willingness to help anyone who needs it and never consider a request beneath them is part of what makes those characters a hero. Can you imagine a Superman comic where he tells someone that just yesterday he saved the Earth from an alien invasion, so he's now far too important to deal with their trivial bank robbery?

[ugrakarma.9416]

oh boys, Anet can't handle too much choices in code, without mess up itself, Personal History is atm unrepeatable because of this. is a historical difficult in their development.

Edited April 19, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[DanAlcedo.3281]

1 hour ago, Fuchslein.8639 said:

Ahh yeah, thats true. People nitpick about everything so this is understandable. And yeah also the game-factor. But sometimes it just feels strange what we have to do, even now after slaying gods and dragons xD.

Btw to clarify, the confused emoji is not from me.

It's fine. 🤗

I personally dislike the way that the Commander is portrait as alot weaker then he actually is. 

But I also seen complaints of people going in the exact opposite direction. 

 

It's like in Skyrim when a Bandit thinks he can take on our max level, full geared demi God of a character. 

Doesn't make sense.