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Haven't finished the game yet -- too impatient to try out the other clans. I was wondering if there were any females in the game that could be seduced only by men or if all the women in the game were bi-sexual. My one male character doesn't have any seduction skill, so I wanted ask the group.

As a female, you can positively influence your conversations using Seduction with Jeannette, VV and the blood dolls in Santa Monica, Downtown and I presume Hollywood and Chinatown. I once got a purple option with Venus, but I didn't see any significant change in her behavior. Has anyone played a male character with different results?

Hmm.. IIRC the girl near the piano in Giovanni Mansion can only be seduced by male PCs..

I really hate seeing a game overwhelmingly geared to males... every woman in the game is either a lesbian or bisexual. Certainly the male characters cannot seduce other men...

Sorry, I just have to rant for a minute...

[QUOTE=Ruds]I really hate seeing a game overwhelmingly geared to males... every woman in the game is either a lesbian or bisexual. Certainly the male characters cannot seduce other men...[/QUOTE]

Ruds, I wholeheartedly agree. I know that the primary target audience for the gaming industry as a whole is young adult males, and Bloodlines is no exception, but surely they must realize that there will be women who play this game, too.

I found it interesting that in the opening scene of the game my (female) character was apparently engaged in some rather amorous activity with a male, but that after her embrace she apparently became a raging lesbian.

Since I was playing a Ventrue I put a lot of focus on my social stats, including seduction. Here is how the Bloodlines manual defines seduction "...with a high seduction skill, your character can charm those of the opposite sex to do your bidding." Hmm. Interesting, since 98% of the people in the game who were seducible (to my female Ventrue) were FEMALE. I can count on one hand the number of times a seduction option appeared in a dialogue with a male character.

Indeed, vampires can be very seductive to humans of either gender. I have no problem with the game designers wanting to incorporate bisexuality into this game; it adds an interesting dimension. Or rather, it would be an interesting dimension if it were optional, but it's not! You can't even choose the sexual orientation of your character; if you play a female with seduction, you have wasted your experience points if you have no interest in seducing those of your own sex! This is just lazy planning and programing, and in very bad taste.

There is also an abundance of sexy, flirtatious female NPC vampires who play big roles in the story and who are possible to seduce (Jeanette and VV to name a few) but there's almost no sexy, flirtatious male NPC vampires. Oh, wait a minute, there ARE none. NOT ONE. Never once did a male vampire flirt with me, nor did I have the option to use seduction on any of them. I was offered seduction options for a handful of human males whose overall importance in the story was nonexistent.

The "highlight" of female heterosexuality in the game is when I had the option of sleeping with a ghoul because he couldn't leave his post to go find a prostitute. Woo-hoo. How degrading.

And as you said, Runs, I'm sure this bisexual slant on the game is limited only to lesbian activity. Even without having played a male I can be sure that there is no implied "hot man-love." The old double standard in homosexuality: lesbians are sexy and acceptable, while gay men are revolting and offensive.

Also note that the women in this game generally have bodies like underwear models and look like they died in their mid-twenties. Only exceptions i can think of are the female bums and the Lady that serves in the diner.
The male vampires show more diversity in age and look.
Now consider that VV own and works in a strip club, while the one half of the
Asylum club owner is a crazy nymphomatic. Therese, who would be a normal buisnesswomen much like all the major male vampires is said to have "a personality like a rock"(quote mercutio).
If you still have doubts, just take a look at all your ghoul's outfits.
One will certainly convince you that the game designer were on steroids


I asumed the female walking blood banks would change into male ones, if oyu played a female char. It wouldn't require a lot of code to do to.
Of course, i also asumed that your ghoul would be male, in that case.
There go my illusions...

By the way, am i the only one who thinks that dead creatures having sex is monstrously revolting? I don't even want to begin to imagine that. Bah.

I deeply agree with all remarks above ! But that's ultra capitalism ! Games editors try to target the larger audience possible but yet still abiding by the laws of majority - in this case - the young anglo-saxon male geek
As a side note Im' very astonished such a game was released in the US seeing the suffocating puritan atmosphere there those days !? I mean the game is filled up the *beep* with *beep* *beep* and up your mother's *beep* and all those female nudity ... Prolly sold only in Sin Bin like shops
Any sons ( or daughters ) of Uncle Sam to comment on that ?

[QUOTE=Draek Won]As a side note Im' very astonished such a game was released in the US seeing the suffocating puritan atmosphere there those days !? I mean the game is filled up the *beep* with *beep* *beep* and up your mother's *beep* and all those female nudity ... Prolly sold only in Sin Bin like shops Any sons ( or daughters ) of Uncle Sam to comment on that ? [/QUOTE]

Draek Won, there's a very interesting point. Perhaps I can shed a little light on your question as I live in the United States.
In the United States each person is guaranteed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Each person is also guaranteed "freedom of speech," which is put forth in the Constitution of the United States of America. "Freedom of speech" is more like freedom of expression, since it covers not only speech but also music, art, literature, etc. You can get away with almost anything in the United States because of freedom of speech. I say almost because here's the catch: your freedom of expression cannot break any laws or conflict with another person's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For example, I couldn't kill someone and then get away with it by claiming I did it because of freedom of expession.

There has been a conservative uprising in the United States lately, but no matter how much certain individuals or groups dislike or disagree with certain things they cannot take away another person's right to freedom of speech. For example, many people have a huge problem with pornographic movies and magazines, but sexual expression falls under freedom of speech, so there's not really anything they could do to make it illegal.

That being said, there IS a rating system designed to prevent children and minors (anyone under the age of 18) from being exposed to certain things such as sex, nudity, strong language and violence. There is an organization that monitors the content of television shows and fines stations that don't comply. You cannot show anything with nudity, graphic sex or strong language on television (unless it's on a premium cable channel that you specifically pay for.) Movies are rated on their content; any movie containing graphic violence, sexual situations, or language is rated "R" (for "restricted") and by law cannot be shown to anyone under the age of 18. If you want to go to an "R" rated movie you're going to have to show I.D. to prove your age (if you are young.) Music is also rated; any CD containing lyrics that are "vulgar" has a "parental advisory" stick on it and is not supposed to be sold to anyone under the age of 18, even though they often are.

Video games are no exception to this rating system. Bloodlines is rated "M" (for "mature") and is not intended for anyone under the age of 18. It shouldn't be sold to anyone that looks young without proper identification, but "M" rated games often are.

There are always groups of people protesting things that they find "vulgar." There have been a lot of people protesting violent and sexual video games lately. The programmers of Bloodlines actually touched on this in the game; at one point there is a story on T.V. about a group of people who want to get certain games banned!

No matter how much it's disliked, though, it's covered under "freedom of speech," and as long as it doesn't break the law or interfere with someone else's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," there's nothing that can be done to stop it.

Sorry that was like an essay, but I hope it helped!

Wow, this made an interesting read. Actually made me wonder how "freedom of speach" is interpreted in Germany. Spend some time reading the constitution
It is a guaranteed right here too, of course. But there are some restrictions.
You musn't rally people to overthrow the democratic system, for instance.
For the same it is a offence to sell or own certain books or cds.

When it comes to video games i envy the us system. Here there is an organization that rates games, too. The catch is that everything with blood and
gore gets rated 18+. But since companies try to address a broader market, they try to get a lower rating.
This made them cripple their games in the past.
Some of them have green "blood" instead of red. (Blood is red , so if they lose green liquor it can't be blood ,right?)
I remember one had robots instead of humans.
And one (Fallout) had no children, because it was technically possible that they could get hurt.

Needless to say that those games are not nearly as much fun as the originals.
And even though the original ones are sold too , you have to be very carefull not to buy a censored one by accident.

On television there are almost no restrictions. Movies with violence are usually not shown before 8pm and porn not before late night, but i think this has more to do with when the targeted audiences watch than with censorship.

Considering music almost everything goes. Only texts that violate basic rights (like rasist lyrics or attacs on religions) are banned.


This thread is seriously off topic now X-)

I thought it was tasteful in BG2 how if you were a female character, it was possible to have a relationship with some of the male NPCs. Most games ignore this entirely. All of the female characters flirt with the male PCs (or even the female PCs ala Vampire), but no men ever flirt with women PCs.

I don't like it, and I'm a guy. All of the graphics, engine, sounds, scripts, and special bells and whistles reflect a 2004 game, yet...

Oh well. It's still a good game, but there's no getting around appealing to the 14-year old adolescent boys whose suburban upper-middle class family spoils them rotten with Mature-rated games anyway.

Ack, I'm too critical. It's just a game!

In Baldurs Gate 2 was *one* single male romance target for the ladies, unless i missed something.
And this char was arguably the most annoying NPC in the entire game.
I am talking about Anomen (Annoyme) here ,of course. Or was there a romance
possibility with Hear 'dalis ,too? I don't think so.
I agree that this might be better, than to be offered none or only lesbain relationships, but the gaming industry definitely has a lot of catching up to do.
Movies in which person group (such as the pretty large group of females )
are presented as stereotypes are less believable and most funny.
The same goes for games. Making a game mature does not only require a m- rating for sex&violence, but also mature characters ^^

I'm pretty sure that a relationship with Haer dalis was possible also.

This thread seems to have run its course, so I'm closing it.