More Mass Effect 2 and Some Thoughts on RPG Romance

I wanted to put up an actual sketch post between the Mass Effect 2 Choice post and this one, but that's just not going to happen before I leave for GDC. So here we are:

So I'm on my second Mass Effect 2 playthrough, this time with a male Shepard import. It's really neat to see how the game is affected by all the ME sidequests--I just about cried laughing when I ran into Conrad Verner (though I was somewhat confused by his claims that Shepard had waved a gun in his face until I found out that it's a bug), and I have been genuinely charmed by some of the messages from old NPCs. I'm also somewhat amused by the fact that the default ME2 Shepard appears to have completed none of the sidequests and chosen the neutral dialogue option every time, since in my mind that represents a complete failure to play the game properly.

I'm far enough along in this playthrough to have completed some of the Loyalty Quests, so romances are opening up. I'm a little distressed by the fact that my options tend to be between "Have Sex With Jack Now" and "Tell Jack You Want to Have Sex With Her Later," or "Enter a Relationship With Miranda" and "Utterly Crush Miranda's Tender Self-Esteem By Being a Paranoid Jerk." Sex or Renegade, basically. Which is really funny, because when romancing Garrus as Paragon female Shepard, you have to be really careful because the Paragon option tends to be "No, Let's Just Be Friends" and you have to be sure to choose the neutral one if you want to get anywhere. I think I'm just not going to talk to Miranda or Jack again until I've swept Tali off her feet, as I planned when I started this playthrough.



I've noticed this weird romance-is-easier-for-male-characters trend in other games, too. I didn't even know Carth could be romanced in Knights of the Old Republic until I looked it up, while Bastilla throws herself at male Revan in the course of normal dialogue. Knights of the Old Republic II didn't suffer from this problem so much as the more general problem of having a more developed game for male PCs--there really wasn't any romance payoff for the female Exile, just a lot of progressively-thicker romantic tension, while the male Exile got something that could be described as a relationship confirmation scene*. Jade Empire had Sky, who was only marginally easier to woo than Carth and only for nice girls**, and Silk Fox, sleek and bitchy bisexual. ME bucks this trend a little, as I recall--I had no trouble snagging Kaidan, though I wondered afterward why I had bothered. I also had no trouble with Alistair in Dragon Age, though I haven't bothered with a male playthrough and thus have no comparison.

My somewhat cynical theory about this is that "guys" (still the primary demographic audience for games like this) want relationships to be easy. Heck, who doesn't? If I'm playing a game for escapism purposes, why would I want to put work into a relationship with an NPC***? However, the "guy" demographic is incredibly homophobic, as any randomly sampled XBOX Live conversation could tell you. While the Law of Ass**** dictates that it's a-okay for "guys" to play female characters, they still feel icky putting that female character in a relationship with a male NPC. Because they might catch the gay. So it would follow that, in order to keep the main demographic happy, you want to make it hard for them to accidentally have their characters have sex with a member of the players' own gender. As opposed to, say, me accidentally having lesbian sex with the Asari Consort in ME*****.

Speaking of ME, I also went back to finish a half-completed playthrough so I could import it into ME2 at some later date. Things I learned from this experience:

1. My ME Shepards are uglier than I remembered, and ME2 is, if not a step forward, then at least not a step back.
2. I'd rather scan planets forever than drive that damn Mako. 
3. Say what you will about the mission-based structure of ME2, at least all the missions don't take place in what's really obviously the same three rooms with different arrangements of crates.
4. I have no idea why I liked ever liked Kaidan.

I do, however, miss having sidequests that didn't consist of finding something on the ground in a warehouse and tracking down its owner.

* There's no sex in Star Wars unless you're married or evil. Or Corran Horn.
** Don't even get me started on the gay male option, where you had to be ultra-super-good but also a complete jerkbag to Silk Fox and Dawn Star, or Sky would seriously tell you, "I'd be interested, but Dawn Star really likes you and you haven't been a complete jerk to her, so you should go talk to her instead." And then I ejected the disc in disgust and never got around to starting up again.
*** In actuality, I love screwing around to find just the right dialogue combinations to melt the hearts of ornery NPCs. I think that's why I still have a soft spot for Carth.
**** If you're going to spend 20 hours staring at a computer-generated ass, it might as well be a nice ass.
***** True story. I had no idea that Renegade dialogue option was going to lead to sweaty Titanic-style bubble-sex, and had a mighty laugh when I realized what was happening.