Also the fact that most of the target audience are basement dweller virgins.
If that were true then the game would resemble a harem anime, or something like The Witcher; banging your way across the realm collecting notches like playing cards, choosing between two sexy sorceresses, etc.
What virgin nerd dreams about spit-roasting a chick with their orc bro? That's fucking weird.
I guess you haven't visited many porn sites. That's a lot less weird than what people are actually into now. And the basement virgins just want romances in games, the SWJs are not going to give them what they really want most, so the basement virgins are forced to jerk off to whatever virtue-signaling garbage the devs come up with.
I'd like to say I am above romance in games, and I mostly am. But I really enjoyed having a virtual girlfriend in ME 1 and 3 with Ashley Williams. She is my pretend game girlfriend and I've never pretend cheated on her in any game, including ME 2, and never will unless someone makes a character as sensible and reasonable as she was. But, to this day, besides Scotchmo and Chisel, she is probably the only companion I ever liked in any game (and that was because they genuinely said funny shit). I hate ridiculous characters like Minsc, I don't mind low-key and subtle characters like the blond haired beard farmer guy in PoE. But most of them are written as zany and super-quirky-cute nonsensical characters by lowbrow sycophantic writers to specifically appeal to little kids.
