Sex sells.
Well if the competition is vampire/gay bear sex I think they are being very discreet about it all things considering.
Because people constantly ask about this, better to be clear about it than have people ask for the 100th time if you can bang Argenta.
These are fictional characters meant to be mined of content.
Oh, come on, you are smarter than that. You know fiction is never entirely fictional and is like a mirror of our own society and culture. Real people have made the decision to list something like that on the character sheet and so there must be a real life reason for it.
An RPG character is not a person. A character sheet is supposed to be a summary of the character's... character. I would rgue that romantic preference is an important aspect of anyone's character, all things considered.
I think you're overthinking stuff.. Maybe you should go out because i hardly see anyone irl announcing their sexuality outloud. Is that a US thing to say out loud that you're heterossexual, gay ,etc ?
Well if you want to get technical about it - your reality is a perception of how you understand everything that's around you and not what the person intended it to be when making it. One of the reasons why art is open for interpretation.
Haven't been hit on by gay people at the bar I take it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63469444
But I think you can agree that it's something new that hasn't been done before, ergo I'm asking the question of whether it's truly necessary and my answer is no. It's not only unnecessary, it's also invasive.
How is it different from seeing their origin on their sheet? By your own logic, you wouldn't want to go around having your social background or nationality pinned on your chest after all.
Dating sim elements are part and parcel with these party based RPGs. Dating sim characters are not people, you do what you must to attain their favor and since this isn't an actual dating sim where every character is on the table, people like knowing up front "Should I try to pursue this character?"
I can sort of get the point you're trying to make, but you are overreacting. Those are not people. Those are characters in an RPG. Granted, they are not player characters, but NPCs, therefore the player having access to this information without receiving it somehow in-game is, indeed, wrong. In the PnP context such information regarding both PCs and NPCs could conceivably come in handy to the GM, therefore its presence on character sheets would be not only not invasive, but by all means warranted.
From an immersion point of view, they should be denied that prior knowledge.
Personally I wouldn't say that it's necessary, but it's good for those that want it and it makes no difference for those who don't. It's not like romances in RPGs are deep stories that are enhanced by not knowing about their possibility in advance. If some player wants to plan a playthrough with romance in mind, then it might be useful for him to know at a first glance what his possibilities are.
This is purely marketing. It's not like their sexuality and relationship status is right there on the character screen in-game. Don't want spoilers? Don't pay attention to the marketing, same as always. They're putting this information out there because there's a demand for it.
