Focus Friday | Player Reaction to ME3 Romance Content

In this week’s Focus Friday we will discuss the survey questions that attempt to resolve how players felt, overall, about the handling of all romance-specific content in Mass Effect 3.  All of these “questions”, were in fact statements, that surveyees rated on a 5-part scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.  Because these were the only questions on the survey that were not represented graphically, we took some extra steps to clarify the results by putting a red box around the most frequent answer, and highlighting in yellow other common answers.

Here are the statements that corresponded to this section of the survey:

• There was enough Love Interest content.
• Content should change if a character is being romanced (versus an un-romanced character).
• I would prefer less auto-dialogue, especially for romanced characters.
• I would purchase Love Interest side mission/loyalty content if it were offered.
• I wanted the option to invite my Love Interest to Shepard’s cabin, as in Mass Effect 2.
• I wanted the option to recruit my Love Interest from Mass Effect 2.
• I thought all Love Interests were fairly treated.
• The Daniels/Donnelly and Garrus/Tali dialogues should be remapped, so a player with Kaidan alive can experience them.
• My Characters romanced….(select all that apply).  Unlike the other statements, this was represented graphically.

Often the results of this part of the survey are a bit confusing.  We saw last week that Romance DLC had huge support from survey respondents, yet what we will see in this section is that in many cases the most frequent response was “neutral“.  We’ll discuss below how we might rectify these seemingly opposing perspectives.

Survey Redux Note:  This section of the survey is now much easier to interpret, as many of the “neutral” and “contrary” responses were removed after winnowing out the duplicate data from GFG.  Questions in this section of the survey tended to be answered by about 5735 out of 6181 respondents (93%).

1. There was enough Love Interest Content.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

In this section of the revised results, we’ve decided to take a departure from the Survey Monkey format of a simple summary table, in favor of a graphical representation. This allows for an easier visual comparison between the original and revised results, and of course, we have supplied a summary table beneath the charts, as well.

This is one of the many questions on the survey who’s results make so much more sense using the revised data set.  GFG’s responses were predominately neutral, though, there were a few “agrees” and “strongly agrees” in there, as well.

Therefore, we now see that the majority of players felt that there was not enough content for Love Interests in Mass Effect 3.  There is still a bit of a spread in the results, but about 60% of respondents either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this statement.

We still have a decent amount of folks sitting at neutral (≈22%), which as I speculate in the original discussion below, might be due to the “inclusive” nature of the question.

Only 19% of players agree or strongly agree with this statement. These players might have felt all LIs had satisfactory amounts of content, or specifically, the LIs that their Shepard spent time romancing.   It would be interesting to correlate the answer to this question, to question #18 where the player selects the various LIs that they romanced.  I may try to do this in the future.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

Responses to this statement had a wider spread than most, however they tended to lean towards the “disagree” end of the spectrum:

• Strongly Disagree — 11.3%
• Disagree — 32.4%
• Neutral — 40.8%
• Agree — 12.7%
• Strongly Agree — 2.8%

What conclusions can we draw from such a response?  Let’s take a closer look at the numbers.   On the “disagree-end” of things, we have 43.7% of respondents.  In contrast, on the “agree-end” we have only 15.5%.  In the middle, we have the neutral folks, which was the most frequent response, with 40.8%.

Respondents tended to think that there wasn’t enough LI content, however, what about all those “neutral” players?  It’s possible that they felt that the amount of content was acceptable, but the content itself wasn’t sufficient.  It could also mean that these respondents thought that current content was ok, but they still want more.

My thought is this:  maybe the question was too “inclusive”.  Respondents might have felt that the content was adequate for some LIs, but insufficient for others, which could have resulted in a “neutral” response.  This perspective would actually be reinforced by many of the comments.  For example, many respondents stated they felt that content for Liara and the VS (Virmire Survivor) was more than sufficient, and the other LIs felt lesser in comparison.  Neutral lies right in between awesome and awful.

I’d love to hear what our readers think about this question!

2. Content should change if a character is being romanced (versus an un-romanced character).

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

Player response to this question is now quite uequivocal.  Players want to see a change in content with the Love Interest that their PC is romancing — not surprising in an RPG.

This game mechanic is supported by 90% of players that responded. Only 8.6% of respondents were neutral, and 1.8% felt this is unnecessary.

Clearly, this aspect of the game is hugely important for many players.  These results now make much more sense when considered along with the responses to questions 1-9 on the survey, and in conjunction with the survey comments.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

Players tended to agree with this statement, as shown in the results:

• Strongly Disagree — 1.4%
  
• Disagree — 1.0%
• Neutral — 20.5%
• Agree — 42.5%
• Strongly Agree — 34.6%

According to these results, 77.1% of respondents think that content should change based upon romance status.  Fewer players strongly agree than agree, and we again have a decent amount of folks that are “neutral”.  Again, this is a bit baffling, especially when considered in the context of what we discussed in last week’s Focus Friday.   Taking the comments into consideration, also, I would have expected fewer “neutral” responses.

My only thought is that the question didn’t specify what “type” of content we were referring to.  That may have led certain folks to feel more “neutral” in their response.  Of course, the most straight-forward explanation is that these players don’t care “that much” if the romance content is unique — they just want the content present.

Overall, players do want to see a difference in content.

3. I would prefer less auto-dialogue, especially for romanced characters.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

The revised results to to this question are somewhat similar to the previous question.  Namely, we see a much clearer trend demonstrating player support for less auto-dialogue.

The revised data set shows an interesting change to how players responded to this question.  A smaller percentage of players support less auto-dialogue (84% vs 78%), but there is a reversal of the percentages of folks who agree versus strongly agree.  In other words, a majority of folks who agree with this statement feel pretty strongly about it.

These results are also now much more congruent with player response in the comments section.  Many players went out of their way to articulate their disdain for the expanded auto-dialogue in ME3.  Both with normal squad/crewmates and with their LI(s).

In short, players have a strong desire to return to the “standard” cut-scene conversation styles, as in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

A majority of players definitely agreed with this statement:

• Strongly Disagree — 1.7%
  
• Disagree — 2.7%
• Neutral — 11.6%
• Agree — 47.6%
• Strongly Agree — 36.4%

Responses to this statement are much easier to interpret.  Players did not like the increase in auto-dialogue in ME3, especially with their LIs.  Very few players disagreed with this statement, and even a relatively small amount were neutral.  In contrast, 84% of players think there should be less auto-dialogue in ME3.  This was reinforced on the survey by an abundance of comments that detailed how much players disliked the change in this system, and how often they found their Shepard responding via auto-dialogue with statements that were untrue and/or out of character.  For many, it was immersing-breaking.

In short, players would like to see a return to the “cut-scene conversation style” of ME1 and ME2.

4. I would purchase Love Interest side mission/loyalty content if it were offered.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

The results to this question are especially interesting.

An examination of the graph reveals that the trend is quite similar both before and after the removal of GFG’s data.  In both we see a steady increase from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.  What differs, however, is the strength of the positive response.

In the revised data, a majority of players now strongly agree with this statement — over 53%.  Combined with folks that agree, a bit over 86% of players would purchase Love Interest side mission or loyalty content if it was offered.  Prior to the revision, only 77% of players agreed in some form, and another 19% of folks were neutral.

As discussed in the original text below, player response to this question was even more positive than in question 7 when we asked about player willingness to pay for the DLC in general.  When we explicitly state that the DLC will contain side mission or loyalty content, player response becomes emphatically positive.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

Players tended to agree with this statement, with results similar to question 2 above:

• Strongly Disagree — 2.3%
  
• Disagree — 1.6%
• Neutral — 19.1%
• Agree — 37.8%
• Strongly Agree — 39.2%

Respondents were almost equally split agree/strongly agree on this question, for a total of 77% that would purchase side mission/loyalty content if it were offered.

What is quite interesting about the response to this question, is examining it in the context of the responses to two other survey questions that we discussed last week: “Would you be interested in a Romance DLC Pack”  and “Would you be willing to pay for this DLC”?

If you remember (and even if you don’t), 67% of players said they would be interested in Romance DLC, and 30% said they might be.  Those numbers changed a bit when you asked if they would also be willing to pay for it:  50% yes and 43% maybe.  In comparison to both of these, players responded more favorably to this question.  In other words, when including side/loyalty missions in the content of the DLC, more players are willing to purchase it.  This reinforces our point last week, that the content of the DLC is vitally important to whether or not players will follow through with the purchase.

Again, in this question, we have a decent amount of players that responded with “neutral“.  This could mean that side mission content isn’t what would determine their purchase — something else might be of greater importance to them (dialogue, for example).  What I think it means, especially in the context of the 2 questions we highlighted in the previous paragraph is this:  these “neutrals” represent players that are particularly hesitant to pay for DLC.  As quoted above, 43% of respondents said that they “might” be willing to pay — based on various factors.  These “neutral” players might be interested in side missions, but whether they’d pay for them would again depend upon implementation.

Summation:  A majority of players want to see side missions with their LIs.

5. I wanted the option to invite my Love Interest to Shepard’s cabin, as in Mass Effect 2.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

When interpreting the results to this question with the original data set, I remember being a bit…bewildered.  There were a surprising number of folks that were “neutral” about inviting their LI to the cabin.  For such a popular player “easter egg” in ME2, I expected player response to be much more positive.  Yet, it wasn’t.  In the discussion I proposed a couple of reasons why, which seemed to fit the data.

Well, now the results are much clearer and more positive.  Players were hoping to have this option in ME3, and they were disappointed at its absence.  Only 12% (rather than 34%) of folks felt “neutral” about this, and a whopping 86% favored it.

I still stand behind my previous statements about players wanting to see this mechanism improved; this is illustrated well in the player comments.  However, it is now apprent that despite wanting to see improvements in how Shepard and his/her LI interacted in the cabin, most of these folks responded with affirmative answers.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

A majority of players agreed with this statement, though there was a bit of spread:

• Strongly Disagree — 1.4%
  
• Disagree — 1.1%
• Neutral — 33.7%
• Agree — 22.6%
• Strongly Agree — 41.2%

According to the above, 63.8% of respondents wanted this option; only 2.5% didn’t want this option available to them in ME3.

Interestingly, while the most frequent response was “strongly agree”, the second most frequent response was “neutral”.  Using the comments as a guide, my take on this question is the following:  players do want this feature in the game (only 2.5% actually say that they don’t want it), but they want it improved.  In other words, players want to be able to invite their LI up to the cabin, but NOT as in ME2.  They want more.  Players want to have some dialogue options with their LI.  Surveyees often stated that they wanted to be able to sit down and have a drink or a meal with their LI.  Maybe have the option to go to sleep, etc.  Many suggested having evidence that their LI is spending time with them in the cabin:  prothean artifacts, sniper rifles, poetry books, engineering plans, biotic course books, etc.

In summary, players want this option, but the results suggest that they want to see it improved.

6. I wanted the option to recruit my Love Interest from Mass Effect 2.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

Player response to this question in the original data, was similar to the previous question, and again I found it a bit confounding.  With the removal of GFG’s answers, player feeling on this topic is much easier to discern.

A strong majority of players DO want the option to recruit their Mass Effect 2 LIs.  In fact, 47% strongly agree with this statement.  Another quarter agree for a total of 72%.  That’s almost 3/4 of respondents.

There is still a respectable amount of folks who are “neutral” — almost another quarter.  Possible reasons for this are described in the discussion below, and still apply.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

Results to this question were quite interesting.  Here’s the response breakdown:

• Strongly Disagree — 1.8%
  
• Disagree — 1.6%
• Neutral — 43.6%
• Agree — 18.4%
• Strongly Agree — 34.6%

So, what we have here is somewhat of a split between the “agree-end” at 53% and “neutral” at 43.6%, with the latter being the most frequent response of the five.  It is notable that only 3.4% of players did not want this feature.  So, again, responses to this question take some effort to interpret.

I think the key here might be in examining the results of a couple other questions.  Let’s take a look:

• What was the 1st BW game that you played?  ––  The most frequent response was Mass Effect, with 27.5%.  What we saw from our survey is that most respondents either started the ME franchise with ME1, or went back to play ME1 after ME2.  For these players, they might not often romance a LI in ME2, as they are staying “faithful” to their ME1 LI.  Therefore, a “neutral” answer would be appropriate as they didn’t have an LI to recruit from ME2 in to ME3.
• My Shepard(s) romanced…. — This question will be covered below, but what we’ll see is that top 4 LIs (not in order) were Liara,  Kaidan, Garrus, and Tali.  They were all romanced by about 30% or more of players.  In Liara and Garrus’ case, much more than 30%.   This not only partly reinforces the point I just made above, but it illustrates another very important point.  Players on the survey most frequently romanced LIs that were recruited as squad members in ME3.  Therefore, again, a neutral answer was appropriate as many players would not have had an ME2 LI to recruit, and those that did (Garrus and Tali) were in fact, recruited.  Then there is always the possibility that they dumped their ME2 LI in ME3, because they really wanted to be with their ME1 LI.  If this was the case, not being able to recruit their ME2 LI likely would have made little difference to them.  Therefore, they were “neutral”.

What is potentially the most interesting, is that fact that despite all the ME21 LIs being romanced by fewer players than the ME1 LIs (I’m going to through Garrus and Tali in this bunch since they were present in ME1), these players tended to vote neutral, rather than disagree.  That tells me that these players, whether they romanced an ME2 LI or not, are not opposed to the idea of ME2 LIs, having the option to be recruited in ME3.

Lastly, there is the special case of Jack.  Jack underwent some amazing character development over the course of ME2.  In ME3 Shepard finds out that she has become an instructor at Grissom Academy, where she teaches a group of biotic students.  Many players who romanced Jack felt that it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to be recruited to the Normandy, thereby “abandoning” her students.  Considering Jack was a somewhat popular LI  for ME2, this could certainly impact the results for this question.

The results suggest that most players who did romance an ME2 LI, do want to see them recruitable.  Players who romanced Jack seem especially split on this.

7. I thought all Love Interests were fairly treated.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

We have another substantial change to the data in this question.

Before the revision, player response was a bit ambiguous (see original discussion below).  With the re-tabulated data we see a clear relationship:  players did not think that all Love Interests were fairly treated in ME3.  Specifically, 72% of players disagreed with this — 40% strongly disagreed.  In addition, a much smaller percentage of folks responded with neutral (16% rather than 37%).  There was a very small change to both the agree and strongly agree categories.

Please see the original discussion below for additional insights into the results for this question.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

Generally, players tended to disagree with this statement, though there is a bit of spread.  Here’s the breakdown of the results:

• Strongly Disagree — 29.7%
  
• Disagree — 23.0%
• Neutral — 36.7%
• Agree — 7.4%
• Strongly Agree — 3.2%

Over half — 52.7% — of players disagreed with this statement; they felt that all LIs were not fairly treated.  Yet, again the “neutral” response was the most frequent of the five, at 36.7%.  Only 10.6% of respondents felt all LIs were treated fairly.

Using the comments and the forthcoming character-specific results as a guide, here’s what I think is valid way to interpret these results:

• This statement is another that likely suffers from being “too inclusive“. For example, if a player felt that Jacob was treated poorly, but Liara was treated well, they might vote “neutral”.  The “good” and the “bad” cancel each other out.
• Players also might not feel comfortable voting one way or another, depending on how much they know about all the romances.  This statement essentially requires the player to make a blanket opinion about all the ME3 LIs.  If a player only romanced one or two LIs, they might not feel they have adequate knowledge to state whether all LIs were treated fairly or not.  The “safest” way to vote in that situation is neutral.

8. The Daniels/Donnelly and Garrus/Tali dialogues should be remapped, so a player with Kaidan alive can experience them.

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

Because this was fixed in the ME3 Extended Cut DLC, we aren’t going to spend much time on this question.

It should be noted, however, that player response was much more positive than original data showed.  The removal of GFG’s surveys decreased the amount of strongly disagree, disagree, and neutral responses, and affected the percentage of all responses accordingly.  This response pattern is much more what we would have expected for this question.

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

We’re actually going to skip this question, as to my knowledge, this was rectified in the ME3 Extended Cut DLC.  Nice work, BioWare.

9. My Shepards romanced…. (select as many as apply).

===============  BEGIN SURVEY REDUX DISCUSSION, 12/09/2012  ===============

As you might expect, since GFG was such a fan of Garrus, the removal of their associated data had a significant impact on the results to this question.

Many people were surprised at the dominance Garrus had in the original data.  We were surprised.  However, we figured it was an artifact of having more females participate in the survey.  It was logical.  In a way, this was the reason, but obviously it was a bit more complicated than that!

With the removal of the data, we now see a more typical and expected result, namely, that of Liara as the most commonly romanced LI by players.  Essentially, her and Garrus traded spots as far as percent-romanced.  The remainder of the LIs show very similar trends in both the original and revised data, due to the fact that their frequencies didn’t change by the removal of GFG’s data.  As a result of this, however, they all have greater percentages due to the smaller number of total surveys present.

The original discussion below still applies to these results, with the exception of course on the Liara/Garrus issue.  The retabulated results now agree with the BSN Poll a bit more (see below).

===================  ↓ ↓  ORIGINAL DISCUSSION BELOW ↓ ↓ ===================

I almost forgot about this question, actually.  Oops!  At any rate, some interesting results, here.  Take a look (rounding to the nearest percentage):

• Garrus      59%
• Liara         40%
• Tali           29%
• Kaidan     28%
• Miranda   23%
• Ashley      23%
• Thane       20%
• Jack           17%
• Sam           11%
• Jacob          5%
• Steve           5%
• Other          6%  (Samara/Morinth, Kelly, Allers)

The first thing I want to do is compare these results to some other polls.  Part 3 of the BSN poll essentially turned into a bit of a popularity contest.  While it doesn’t ask the exact same question, it is a strong indication of which LIs players prefer to romance, and it’s the most voted poll of it’s kind on BSN.  Right away we see some important differences:

• In the BSN poll Liara was the most popular LI followed by Garrus and Tali, and I’d say it’s no secret that Liara is romanced by much of the playerbase.   Yet, in our survey, it’s Garrus that was romanced by most of the players.  This difference can likely be attributed to the composition of the survey’s male/female demographic.  I don’t have any evidence so far to support this, but I have a “theory” that female gamers tend to play FemSheps who tend to romance male LIs more than female ones.  Therefore, Garrus likely received a higher response rate because we had more female respondents.  I’d guess that the demographic of the BSN poll was more evenly split, or most likely, actually had more male respondents, who would be more apt to romance Liara.
• In both the survey and poll the top 3 male LIs in order are Garrus, Kaidan, and Thane.  However, in the BSN poll Kaidan and Thane were essentially tied, whereas according to the survey, 8% more players romanced Kaidan than Thane.  The survey results are likely impacted by the fact that many players experienced ME1 first, and may have decided to stay faithful to Kaidan in ME2 — or even romance a more familiar character like Garrus in ME2 (who players strongly advocated for).  In contrast, the BSN polls might be showing a different demographic:  we saw in a previous Focus Friday that ME2 sales still far outnumber ME1 sales, therefore, it’s likely that a good amount of ME2 players still haven’t played ME1.  These players might be represented in greater number in this poll, resulting in a larger amount of players who romanced Thane, which would explain the tie.
• In both the survey and the poll the top 3 female LIs in order are Liara, Tali, and Miranda, though Ashley is almost tied with Miranda.  In comparison to the BSN poll, Tali and Ashley are represented a bit more strongly, and Liara and Miranda a bit more weakly.  I think this also likley due to the stronger female demographic in the survey.  Miranda and Liara are very sexualized characters that will appeal strongly to the male demographic.  Ashley and Tali are much less sexualized in comparison (though, Ash less so in ME3), and  they may have a greater appeal to female players that decide to go ahead and play a Bro rather than FemShep.

More results can be interpreted when comparing the survey to the poll, but those are some of the biggest ones that jump out.  Other than that, this question on the survey really is a popularity contest.  Below is a quick summation of what I’ve gathered from reading through the comments and conversing on the forums.  All of these characters will be explored in more detail beginning next week, when we begin to delve into the LI-specific portions of the survey.

• Garrus is a very popular character in Mass Effect, and is romanced by much of the playerbase who plays FemShep.  His personality is quite likeable to both men and women, and reading the comments, his presence enriches the game for both male and female players.  He has also been around since ME1, and therefore has had more time to garner a larger following.
• Jacob, while a main character in ME2, does not seem to be liked by much of the playerbase.  Most feedback seems to allude to his personality as being the main reason.  His unpopularity is evidenced by the fact that he was romanced by relatively few players.
• Liara is romanced by much of the playerbase — partly because she can be romanced by both male and female Shepard.  Her personality is likeable to many people, and she has had some very rich storylines in the game.  In addition, like Garrus, she has been around since ME1.  Lastly, the asari in general are quite sexualized in Mass Effect, and she is the only real asari LI (Samara is a bit lacking in that regard).  Essentially, Liara is ‘made” to appeal to the male demographic, and there are likely more male than female players playing Mass Effect.
• Kaidan, like Garrus and Liara has been around since ME1.  He was, in fact, the only male LI in ME1.  Part of his strong following will be due to that alone.  BioWare obviously tried to make him attractive to females both physically and personality-wise — he is the yin to Liara’s yang in that regard.  He also likely gained additional popularity as an LI in ME3, now that he was available to both Male and FemShep.
• Ashley seems to be a more polarizing character, which we’ll delve into more when we go over her section of the survey.  She’s a very strong female character in Mass Effect, and players, both male and female, tend to love or hate her.  She is also less-sexualized than Liara and Miranda, and taking into account how sexualized most female characters are in video games, it seems that players often prefer the more titillating character.
• Tali is a bit similar to Garrus in the sense that players seem to really enjoy her in the game.  She has a pleasant personality and her storyline is strong.  She has also been around since ME1 and has time to develop a large following, as a result.
• Jack is a bit like Ashley, in the sense that she seems to be somewhat polarizing across the playerbase.  Her character is a bit “unconventional” and she has a lot of emotional baggage, which might explain (in part) the smaller amount of players that romance her.
• Miranda, like Jacob, was one of the main characters in ME2.  However, in contrast to Jacob, she was liked by much more of the playerbase, and as a result was romanced in larger numbers.  Miranda’s storyline in ME2 was quite strong, and her personality, while still strong, seems less polarizing to players than Ashley, for example.  Much of Miranda’s romance appeal, likely does result from the hyper-sexualization of her character — she was seemingly created with the male demographic in mind.
• Samantha and Steve both appear for the first time in ME3 and are only available to Shepard for a same-sex romance option.  Both of these reasons will contribute to smaller amounts of players who romance them.  However, if the comments are any indication, players really enjoyed both of these characters in ME3, and very much want to see more of them.
• Thane was one of the poster-children for ME2 and was rated by IGN as 2010’s best video game character of the year.  He seems to be liked by a large amount of the playerbase, and similar to Garrus, is only available to female Shepard.  However, unlike Garrus and Kaidan, Thane was introduced to the series in Mass Effect 2.  This means that many players will already have developed a “preference” for Garrus and Kaidan, as a LI, which may influence his numbers.  According to BioWare, Thane as an LI was developed with the female player in mind, both physically and personality-wise.  However, many players stated on the survey were “put off” by Thane’s illness in ME2 and his wife’s recent death.  They said they wanted to romance him, and would have, if not for those two aspects. His representation in the survey would likely have been larger had this not been the case.

TL:DR

• Players disagree that there was enough LI content
• Players agree that content should change if a character is being romanced
• Many players would prefer less auto-dialogue, especially with their LI
• Players would purchase side mission/loyalty content for their LI
• Players want to invite their LI to Shepard’s cabin, but likely want an improved experience from ME2
• Players that romanced an ME2 LI, generally want to recruit them in ME3.
• Players felt that LIs were not all fairly treated
• Players romanced Garrus the most for a male LI, and Liara the most for a female LI
• Ashley, Kaidan, Tali, Miranda and Thane were all romanced by 20% or more of respondents

TL:DR REDUX

• Almost 60% of players think there there was not enough LI content
• 90% of players think that content should change if a character is being romanced
• 47% of players players strongly feel that less auto-dialogue is better; another 31% agree with this
• 86% of players would purchase side mission/loyalty content for their LI
• 86% of players want to invite their LI to Shepard’s cabin
• 72% of players want to recruit their romanced LI from ME2 in ME3
• 72% of players felt that LIs were not all fairly treated
• 57% of players romanced Liara, therefore she was also the most-romanced female LI
• Garrus was the most popular male LI
• Ashley, Kaidan, Tali, Miranda and Thane were all romanced by over one quarter of respondents

Well, that was the longest Focus Friday yet, eek.  Hoped you enjoyed reading it, and we’ll see you next week!