Arcann romance appreciation thread! Haters keep out please!❤

We found it! anticipation driving Lana to call the Commander immediately.
Safaia groaned as her holocom, still clipped to her belt, beeped urgently as it received the priority call. She rolled over and threw it against the far wall. It had been an incredibly rough few weeks and she was struggling with everything. Minutes later Lana barged in through the door to her quarters.
"Commander, it's important. We've found the planet the map Theron destroyed led to." Lana spoke firmly, but her worry about Safaia was thinly veiled. The Commander had thrown herself into her work, almost glue to her office computer desk taking a bigger interest in all of the Alliance's reports and anything that didn't have to do with Theron.
There was something else Lana couldn't quite put her finger on, the Commander had shut herself off from almost everyone, refused to talk to any worried alliance medics, and was exhausted all the time. She was currently lying on her bed, fully clothed and geared up as if she hadn't moved since she attempted to get involved the training arena the day before.

Safaia sighed, rolling off the bed and heading out the door, "fine. I guess we're already prepped to go. Destination?"
"Nathema."
Safaia stopped in her tracks, staring at Lana incredulously. "I remember reading that it was re-vegetating itself. Oggurobb's very intrigued by it but... seriously? that's where the superweapon coordinates led us? I thought it would have been Yavin IV or Ziost."
"That is the location and preliminary scout reports are showing signs of activity from an unknown group, the shuttle is ready to go, we'll stop at the Orbital Station to check in."

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/GregB...e_in_games.php

Samantha Wallschlaeger (Guild Wars 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Star Wars: The Old Republic)

I grew up on older Japanese visual novels, which used romance solely as a form of fantasy fulfillment for the player. Audiences expected each romance arc to follow an existing trope, and the games of that era were happy to oblige. And there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, but it frustrated the hell out of me, because it was fantasy fulfillment at the expense of character development. A romance should reveal character depth, not hinder it. So when I began writing romances for games, I made a conscious decision to approach the process differently.

An NPC-player romance arc is always going to be a form of escapism, but I don’t think it has to give players absolutely everything they want. It’s important for me to follow a character’s truth, and really dig into the unique way he or she feels and expresses love. When I wrote Avela Kjar’s romance for Mass Effect: Andromeda, I knew that despite being kind and expressive, she would never allow herself to fully fall for anyone. And I stuck to that, even though it would mean letting the player down in the end. And that’s just it—it’s okay to break the player’s heart a little, if it makes for a better character experience. Injecting that kind of nuance into a relationship makes it feel more real, and lets the player become more immersed in the experience.

That’s not to say I don’t use tropes when I write romances. I think they’re an excellent starting point—people like them for a reason, after all (enemies-to-lovers is my particular weakness). And in order to provide a new spin on classic tropes, you need to be a practiced study. I make a point to grill my friends and colleagues on why they enjoy particular kinds of romance arcs, and what they’d like to see done differently.

Even if a certain kind of romance isn’t my personal preference, it’s important for me to understand why it’s appealing to other people. It’s my job to provide every type of player with the experience they’ve come to love—injected with a little freshness to surprise and delight them, of course. Because being committed to realism in game romance also means being committed to inclusivity, and celebrating the myriad types of relationships that exist.