Romance and Mature Content?

[ollan1]

I would absolutely ADORE if they added mature content.

Afterall, the more bewbs, the more fun

Don't get me wrong, i love the games as much as anyone, i just like females.

[Argonanza]

It would be cool to be able to make a NPC fall in love with you. Like, there could be a flirt-option in the persuation mini-game.

[The Tom]

It would be cool to be able to make a NPC fall in love with you. Like, there could be a flirt-option in the persuation mini-game.

How about a different way? I hated that game.

I don't know. I guess it would be cool - a lot of the time in Oblivion I felt a bit detached from the world and not really integrated. Don't take this the wrong way, but in Mass Effect I guess you could say I did care about Ashley Williams. What about the NPCs in Elder Scrolls games? Do you care if they die? This would at it's most basic level give more moral choices, and they're always good for immersion.

[Argonanza]

I didn't really care for that silly persuation game either. One can only hope they make something better up.

[The Raven]

I would like to be able to romance someone. Maybe a sex scene like Mass Effect (the priiize) or DA:O, where nothing is shown (like Tali's face...-.-), and is all left to the player to decide what happen !

But don't rush it like the Mass Effect romances. After four missions, we're having sex. Not that I mind, but it's a romance I want, not a slutty shag.

Marriage is a bit too much, and kids is a no-go. Romance is fine, but marriage and kids is taking it too far. For that, I'll just go play Sims.

[Rariow un Irskand]

I think that Romance wouldn't necesarily be a bad thing, as long as they don't force you to do it. As for "Naughty bits", I don't mind at all. Bethesda can do what they want with that, as for me the entire "Hey this has ze naughty bits" appeal of many games is pretty much zero, but if the game is actually good, I'll enjoy it.

I think Romance could be something similar to that off Morrowind's "Romancing Ahnassi" questline, but a bit more in-depth than it, as in actually maybe choosing your partner, and having something more romantic than just "Bring me an enchanted belt" or "Help my frien get off Skooma". After that something similar could happen to what was in Morrowind, as in the partner giving you a key to their house, or mabye moving over to yours. There could be a whole marriage scene, and all, but for goodness sake don't turn this into a family managment game. I don't want to play the Sims except that I actually have to RUN up to everyone and tell them what to do.

In short, Romance is OK, but PLEASE don't make it too cumbersome, and don't force us into romancing a character we might not like.

[DorostheConqueror]

Whereas i see elder scrolls always as a more high fantasy grand adventure sort of game. kind of like the Conan movies with Schwarzenegger.

To be fair, Conan was one of the most oversexed barbarians in history. His whole character was based around the idea that he'd kill things, sleep with things, and drink heavily, in that order. Even the movies had Conan flirting with love interests when not killing snakes and bonking sorceresses prior to killing them! Now granted, Conan is a very masculine lover; his idea of courtship is taking his partner out to kill things together, and his idea of emo-ing over a broken heart is exacting bloody revenge on everything that moves, but if you want Skyrim to be more like Conan, you'd NEED romances!

[Doctor Meaticus]

I said 'Nope, not interested' but I won't freak out if it DOES turn up in the final game. Adding adult situations to the game, in my opinion, wouldn't factor for a lot of people. If you don't want to 'go to town' on that elven temptress casting you sultry glances from across the tavern, don't. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who would LOVE that kind of thing in game, so in a way Bethesda would be drawing a larger crowd if they added sexy-time. Really, if I had a dollar for every person I knew who ignored Grand Theft Auto's missions and instead spent their time banging hookers and chainsawing everything in sight, I'd have full pockets. Violence and poon - the two big moneymakers.

The other side of the debate is that many a domineering parent who bought their 11-15 year kid Oblivion will only be more hesitant if the game now has smut in it.

[Dan-Ru]

To hell with both. in earnest, people in my houses [&@%!] me off unless their guarding something. (wouldn't mind that being a purchasable option for houses). And PC developing a relationship is illogical and pointless because Bethesda would then have to diversifiy the dialogue thenth fold again.

I would rather have the NPCs ingame develope relationships through their idle conversation, date marry and have children. It would add to the game immensely if ever time you visited a town a there would be more NPCs and occasional children from the aforementioned situations. (no, not like Sims, freaking hate that game...). Of course the only part of this you would see is conversations, the rest would eventuate while the PC was out of the Zone or city entirely.

Simply put, the NPCs talk to each other and become better friends (or enemies) and what happens happens.

I just find it kinda lame that its the same bunch of nobodies walking the streets in Oblivion and nothing ever eventuates unless MQ related or tampered with through spells or Console commands.

[Ethelred]

I tend to play games so I can do things I just can't get away with in real life. Whilst I can't kill goblins, use magic or save the world in real life; I can get naked, get others naked, flirt with and sleaze on to people, and sleep with just about anything that moves.... and usually do.

So, not interested in this sort of 'mature' content.

Plus, I'd be scared of catching Droops, Wither, Ticklebritch and Dampworm.

[The Dog Whisperer]

Hmm, Praying at the altar to cure them..
Repent your crimes, wicked one!

I don't see what's so bad about growing the PC-NPC relationship side of the game, though.
Sex or none, being able to say more to/do more with NPCs would expand the non-combat side of the game a whole lot.

[JamaicanmeNordic]

I think it would be great to host inter-racial swingers parties, where random NPC's come to your house or wherever you live at after you put an ad in the local newspaper or general store or something. And from there based on your players speechcraft you could seduce whoever you wanted

[Stendarr]

Please, no Bethesda. Mass Effect did it poorly (was worse in ME2), Fable's is just a sim thing among others. I'd rather have them focus on other things, I don't know, make the game more complex than Oblivion was or add more quests. Romances in games like the MEs or Dragon Age is just a novelty anyway; poorly implemented, too easy to get into, makes no sense, it feels out of place and more for people who need such thing in every piece of entertainment for some reason. Plus, I don't know why an RPG should have this more than other types of games.

And then, how do you implement this in a series like TES? It'd be a lot more similar to Fable than Mass Effect for obvious reasons, and then you'd have to use one of your quest designers (I guess, or someone else who should be using his time more appropriately) to design the whole system - also probably something more complex than Fable since it's very bare bones - and add in voice acting, and you're in for headaches making this. And I really see no interest, TES games have always been about making a powerful character, doing quest, exploring dungeons and collecting cool stuff. I don't see the place of romance, and it's implementation is sure to be lacklustre, you'd have to add other elements to make it work since it's a sandbox game, again waste of time.

But then, you don't need a whole system for this, you can just tie it in the main quest. Yeah, something you forget after trying once. Something that wouldn't feel connected at all and detract from the actual goal of the main quest. TES games aren't about "emotionally engaging" stuff, but just about making a certain kind of character (class, race), throwing him in a new world to explore and do plenty of things, any sort of romance would be just too complicated to implement and the reward too minimal. Too much effort for just a tiny element of the game that a lot of people couldn't care less about. You could always add [&@%!] houses, but that'd be utterly pointless.

If I want to see such content I'll watch a movie, thank you. Or wait for a game that could actually implement it in a satisfying way, a game that can support appropriately the system, that it is deep and all. But why would I want to roleplay romances in games when I can do this in real life? Isn't the point of games to do something you can't in real life and/or just play a fun game?

[SwedishBerzerker]

I dont think there should be. Adding adult content, I think, would kind of ruin the game, and the fact that ES games where not ment to have mature content. Im no perverted person, I dont sit there and... "do stuff" to on-screen nudity, not like some kind of creepy nerd O_o

And the fact that it would take me some work to convince my parents to let me buy the game

TES did have naked chicks in Arena and Daggerfall - don't forget that!

And the estimated age limit of Skyrim is 18, so I hope they'll return to their roots!

Still, I do agree with Stendarr. It would feel kind of out of place.

[Kestral]

Hey, remember the Dremora that threatened to kill you and rape your corpse? Or the uncensored version of the Real Barenziah? The Argonian Account?

[SwedishBerzerker]

Hey, remember the Dremora that threatened to kill you and rape your corpse? Or the uncensored version of the Real Barenziah? The Argonian Account?

Yeah, I remember reading that one in Morrowind, and it's even worse in Daggerfall!
http://uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:The_Rea ... h,_Part_IV
Haha, I can't believe they actually wrote that one!

[The Dog Whisperer]

I think, though, that it's a different climate now than it was then.
Gaming's mildly socially acceptable now, it's got some limelight.
They have to be careful about what they put in, I'm all for pushing it;
The more games do that the less controversy there'll be in the future.
But I think they'd need to be careful.

i.e. If they released a revamped edition of Daggerfall there would be some 2D images they wouldn't be 3D-ing.
Or at least releasing.

[Murcator]

NO.

We've managed without it so far. We don't need it, all it will do is pull up the rating.

[Veck]

It all boils down to haters gonna hate really. The media is almost guaranteed to find something in a game with a rating above 15 to moan about, and nobody's really going to have their opinions changed by what it is. If Bethesda puts in some tender romantic scenes and the option to get married, they can let Fox News made up some bullcrap about full graphic nudity, and then present the evidence that the game doesn't have any. Bethesda come out tops, some parents stop listening to the hype and acfept that the game is acceptable for their 15 year old. If Bethesda think that there's a place for love in their game, then they can include it. I know my opinion isn't going to change.

[Spiney]

It all boils down to haters gonna hate really. The media is almost guaranteed to find something in a game with a rating above 15 to moan about, and nobody's really going to have their opinions changed by what it is. If Bethesda puts in some tender romantic scenes and the option to get married, they can let Fox News made up some bullcrap about full graphic nudity, and then present the evidence that the game doesn't have any. Bethesda come out tops, some parents stop listening to the hype and acfept that the game is acceptable for their 15 year old. If Bethesda think that there's a place for love in their game, then they can include it. I know my opinion isn't going to change.

Good point there. Haters are always going to hate. Though even if Bethesda puts mature content in, it will never top the controversy Mass Effect first created when it was found out to have inter-species intercourse. It even got banned in a few countries. I think a few sexually proverse fantasy moments will be fine in the full spectrum of the media eye.

[Red Guardian]

What kind of mature content are you guys talking about? Because mature content isn't only about sex, like some people are thinking.

The series always had plenty of mature content on it: Use of drugs and alcohol, violence, blood and gore (not like Mortal Kombat but we had blood in the game and we saw plenty of ripped corpses and etc). They always had mature content apart from sex.

Sex, in the game, isn't needed but I wouldn't mind it, really.

[ZombiezuRFER]

I should like to see romance in the game, but no rush right into it kinda stuff. If they can even get the feeling of UST (unsolved sexual tensions) in there, then it has limitless possibilities. Honestly, for Romance though, they need a crapload more formal NPCs that can be killed. We should have Adventurers going round with names and houses, doing things the player might do. So say your dungeon diving one day and you find a pretty girl, you talk to her, and become friends, then one of you wants to go traipsing round with the other, and then your'e engaged in Epic combat caring for each other. You camp out, and life is good. Make them have emotions, we cant have 2d characters in a 3d world. Of course, to make everything much more epic and emotional, it means things need to be a bit more dire. Hope that conveys my point clearly enough.

[WartBoy95]

Only romances in Vanilla.

[Qwackie]

Mm, I think it'd be fine to have romances, but no sex. If there's sex, then there's no way in hell my parents would let me even read the lore of that game. Leave the sex to the mods, and maybe add some romance to the vanilla game.

[Sir_Cuthulhu]

I wouldn't mind romances, as long as they're well done. I agree that the NPC's need to have emotions, to make the game feel much deeper. I definitely would not want the game to force me to romance, but the option to do it in the vanilla game would be nice.

As far as the mature content goes, I agree with Red Guardian that the ES series already has plenty of it outside of sex. If they want to have sex in the game, it's fine by me. But I think they should only hint at it. (two character's start kissing, screen goes black, in game time passes, screen comes back) No need to turn the game into something naughty. That's what modders are for