"The part of him the player is exposed to, however, is different. "No matter who the player is, Karl was always someone was romantically involved with," says Gaider. Take Anders, who will reveal to a male Hawke his prior involvement with a man named Karl, but neglect to mention it to a female Hawke. A player's choices merely reveal their bisexuality if it exists, rather than defining it. What's distinctive about BioWare's approach is that although players may choose to have straight or gay romances in the game, the characters themselves are written to be gay from the start. Indeed, Anders' personal storyline - one often compared, Gaider says, to the current controversy over gay rights - serves as the driving force behind Dragon Age II's overarching narrative. What's more: Leliana, Anders, and the rest of the Dragon Age series' supporting characters offer hours of conversation and interaction beyond just the monosyllabic babble available in the Sims or Fable games.
Dragon Age II even offers an equal number of potential same-sex partners for a male protagonist as opposite-sex ones (female protagonists have one additional heterosexual option). In both Dragon Age games and the upcoming Mass Effect 3, players can woo non-player characters of the same gender, no matter what their own. One developer that offers more complex LGBT characters in its games is BioWare. "With better technology, it's difficult to justify not including it." "The generic characters aren't really interesting in and of themselves beyond being able to offer you that choice, but I think it's what we'll see a lot more of," says Farr. Compare that to the default heterosexual romance option, Elise/Elliot, who offers the player special dialogue and gifts, and even a personal quest. Their entire personality is summed up in a three- or four-word profile. These love interests, however, aren't characters so much as props: Eligible Bowerstone bachelors in Fable III, for example, have no dialogue and only a small set of standard actions they can perform. "As technology improves and allows designers to include more choices in their games, it just makes sense to offer more options with the gender of the characters the player can pursue romantically," he says, "especially in an open-world game or an MMO, where you can do anything as a character." Improved game-building technology is what makes open-ended game romance possible, says game designer Jeb Havens, who fronts the International Game Developer Association's LGBT special interest group. "In some ways - like in allowing same-sex marriage - they're even ahead of the times."
"These romances have evolved along with the overall political climate," says Denis Farr, writer and editor for. In the latest Fable installment, gay protagonists can even adopt. The Sims and Fable series, for example, both allow players to woo, sleep with, and even marry same-sex partners. Just look at the relative wealth of LGBT characters and storylines in many role-playing games and open-world games these days. The truth is, games have never been gayer than they are now. Still, as the average gamer grows older and the definition of "gamer" changes, we're starting to see developers experiment with LGBT content in new and more interesting ways. But, he adds, "being entertainment doesn't mean you're absent of responsibility for the message you put out there." "On one hand, it's justifiable to say that these are games, and not platforms for social causes," says David Gaider, senior writer at BioWare and lead writer of the Dragon Age series.