The new Companions are both Male, but...

rpa

I expect if this game ever gets romancing its just as 'deep' as in Skyrim. (Wear Amulet of Mara, give Moth gro-Bagol a daedra heart, attend your wedding, enjoy being married to male orc blacksmith.)

AzuraFan

Romances in games are always shallow anyway. One has to make much of it up in one's head, if that's what one wants.

As for there being no good romance options when it comes to the male companions, the females aren't much better. Mirri isn't a spring chicken (which matters to those who only want to romance someone young) and she's too sarcastic for some, Ember doesn't work for those that aren't into Khajits, and Isobel is very young and not into guys (though I'm sure that won't stop some from making it up in their heads anyway, which is fine, because 90% of gaming romances are made up in one's head - see above). None of them are glamorous when it comes to their looks.

So sure, there are presently 3 female companions vs. 1 male, but that doesn't mean that players who would want to romance a female are drowning in choices.

Therefore I have no sympathy for those who are complaining that there still won't be a romanceable male that suits them.

spartaxoxo

AzuraFan wrote: »

Romances in games are always shallow anyway. One has to make much of it up in one's head, if that's what one wants.

As for there being no good romance options when it comes to the male companions, the females aren't much better. Mirri isn't a spring chicken (which matters to those who only want to romance someone young) and she's too sarcastic for some, Ember doesn't work for those that aren't into Khajits, and Isobel is very young and not into guys (though I'm sure that won't stop some from making it up in their heads anyway, which is fine, because 90% of gaming romances are made up in one's head - see above). None of them are glamorous when it comes to their looks.

So sure, there are presently 3 female companions vs. 1 male, but that doesn't mean that players who would want to romance a female are drowning in choices.

Therefore I have no sympathy for those who are complaining that there still won't be a romanceable male that suits them.

Is Mirri older? I don't think she's particularly older.

Syldras

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Is Mirri older? I don't think she's particularly older.

She looks quite young to me, to be honest?

phaneub17_ESO

If we can get Houseguests to sit in chairs, lie down in beds, or even do the lay sideways emote would go a long way to romancing companions in your home. I would love to have all my companions sit at a table and emote talking to each other even if nothing is actually being said, grabbing a goblet toasting and drinking from it time to time.

Cireous

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

If we can get Houseguests to sit in chairs, lie down in beds, or even do the lay sideways emote would go a long way to romancing companions in your home. I would love to have all my companions sit at a table and emote talking to each other even if nothing is actually being said, grabbing a goblet toasting and drinking from it time to time.

I know, it's the little things, right? They'd mean so much.

Their laps around the house and still, ponderous moments only make for limited stories.

VaranisArano

spartaxoxo wrote: »

AzuraFan wrote: »

Romances in games are always shallow anyway. One has to make much of it up in one's head, if that's what one wants.

As for there being no good romance options when it comes to the male companions, the females aren't much better. Mirri isn't a spring chicken (which matters to those who only want to romance someone young) and she's too sarcastic for some, Ember doesn't work for those that aren't into Khajits, and Isobel is very young and not into guys (though I'm sure that won't stop some from making it up in their heads anyway, which is fine, because 90% of gaming romances are made up in one's head - see above). None of them are glamorous when it comes to their looks.

So sure, there are presently 3 female companions vs. 1 male, but that doesn't mean that players who would want to romance a female are drowning in choices.

Therefore I have no sympathy for those who are complaining that there still won't be a romanceable male that suits them.

Is Mirri older? I don't think she's particularly older.

I remember she's the oldest of her siblings.

More conjecturally, she doesn't seem to have known her Grandfather very well, and he'd been dead for "decades" by the time she decides to investigate the puzzle box.

Syldras

VaranisArano wrote: »

More conjecturally, she doesn't seem to have known her Grandfather very well, and he'd been dead for "decades" by the time she decides to investigate the puzzle box.

Was she a child when her grandfather died? Then she might be at least mid-30. Not sure if that's really old, even if she were already in her 40s, especially considering that mer age differently.

spartaxoxo

In her meet the character she's described as "relatively young," between that and the grandfather information, she's probably around 20s-30s.

https://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/59955

Sidereum

I am absolutely looking forward to the Argonian companion!

ADarklore

I'm OK with this year's companion options. I think they made Azandar older due to him being more scholarly, so perhaps with the new class they wanted to add more of a 'teacher' type. As for Sharp... I'm not sure what to expect there. I know they mentioned something about him that, to me, sounded like he wouldn't be into the nefarious activities that we'd want from an Argonian, especially those who wanted more of a Shadowscale companion. We need MORE companions accepting of dark activities, not more who have holier-than-thou attitudes.

I think next year we'll get a female and male... back on track with gender equality. So which races are next? Nord, Orc, Bosmer, or Altmer. We have Necromancer as the only class left unrepresented... which says 'Altmer' IMO. Other than Necromancer, what will be the next class duplicated, or will they just stop with companions after all classes are represented?!?

Syldras

ADarklore wrote: »

We need MORE companions accepting of dark activities, not more who have holier-than-thou attitudes.

Realistically seen, how many of Tamriel's residents (npcs only) are more or less lawful, how many are murderers? I'd assume it would be about the same as in real life - except for all kinds of cultists, of course.

ADarklore wrote: »

Other than Necromancer, what will be the next class duplicated, or will they just stop with companions after all classes are represented?!?

As they seem to see companions more as a roleplaying device and said that they want to introduce romance some day, I'm quite sure there will be companions of the other remaining races, too. What classes they will double, is a good question, though.

swook33b16_ESO

Could we get system for the companions that we can customize individually. So like my rogue, I want Bastion to be a tank for example. But as it is now Bastion would become tank for all my characters. Also if I want Bastion to have meduim armor so it would fit the theme of my rogue, there is the same problem. He will have the same armor for ALL my characters. Sure costumes work but for some characters I want to build the armor and weapons for my companions same way I do for my character without affecting my other characters.

I tried this when I first got Bastion. I build a Imperial armor and weapon for him. Then when I logged in my alt and wanted to change his armor, Bastion had the same armor and weapon that I changed for him on my Main. It seems to be accountwide so can it be done so we can customize individually the companions for our characters?

swook33b16_ESO

ADarklore wrote: »

I'm OK with this year's companion options. I think they made Azandar older due to him being more scholarly, so perhaps with the new class they wanted to add more of a 'teacher' type. As for Sharp... I'm not sure what to expect there. I know they mentioned something about him that, to me, sounded like he wouldn't be into the nefarious activities that we'd want from an Argonian, especially those who wanted more of a Shadowscale companion. We need MORE companions accepting of dark activities, not more who have holier-than-thou attitudes.

I think next year we'll get a female and male... back on track with gender equality. So which races are next? Nord, Orc, Bosmer, or Altmer. We have Necromancer as the only class left unrepresented... which says 'Altmer' IMO. Other than Necromancer, what will be the next class duplicated, or will they just stop with companions after all classes are represented?!?

Well I was hoping for more "Meele" companions, instead we got more "Mage" companions.

Maybe we get a Nord or Orc Meele warriors next timer. Or perhaps a Redguard Meele warrior. Maybe a Warrior similar to Gorn from Gothic game series. They could use the story that he is a Redguard, raised by Nords and use two handed weapons. or female Reguard Warrior that is student of Sai Sahan. Or make Nord female warrior or Nord male warrior.

Gorn.

https://www.gothicz.net/images/g3/npc/gorn.jpg

https://i.redd.it/pc92qqko1vz81.jpg

https://assets.maxroll.gg/wordpress/D4_Class_Barbarian-2.jpg

Veteran Male Nord Warrior.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rUosuk--A9s/SjPlINhe7vI/AAAAAAAAAIE/_UXGbUbgF54/s280/Barb_FACE.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c8/78/3b/c8783b2e1eea98b5c55bf34e0d4e2d31.jpg

Female Nord Warrior.

https://blizzardwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/BarbD4.png

https://www.gamerguides.com/assets/media/17/145/Amiri_cropped1.jpg

Just some ideas.

AzuraFan

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Is Mirri older? I don't think she's particularly older.

I'd guess she's in her 30s, which is old to some on these forums lol. That aside, quite a number of players in other threads have said they don't like her personality. Not that this seems to matter in this thread, since whether a character is romanceable seems to be based very much on looks. On that score, it's impossible for ZOS to satisfy everyone.

My original point stands. I haven't seen as much complaining about the female companions and romance, even though none of them are glamorous (which matters to some) and there are things about all of them that will be off-putting to some players. Which will be true of all companions.

For the males, a guy of fatherly age would be perfectly fine for those with characters of motherly or fatherly age, or who prefer older men. Plus, those who want to romance that vampire guy (Count Verandis?) don't seem to mind that he's old, and cold to the touch. The Argonian will be pleasing to those who can see themselves romancing an Argonian.

I don't care much about romance myself, since romances in games are about as deep as parking lot puddles, but I know they're important to some.

(It would be nice if we could customize our companions using the character creation tools. Then everyone could design someone who floats their boat.)

Araneae6537

Doing some companion quests for the first time or on different characters yesterday:

I really do like Bastian, especially during questing. It is some of the repeated lines that can be… fortune-cookie like as someone put it in another thread. I really hope that ZOS will revisit already released companions and give them more lines and more sense as to when they activate. (Poor Mirri is reminded of home… by a cemetery!)

I hope the voices and characterizations are true to the characters. I was surprised and disappointed that Ember does not talk like any Khajiit I have met — I don’t mean the distinctive speech pattern as Khajiit who grow up with non-Khajiit naturally adopt their way of speaking, as for example a Khajiit one meets in Orsinium. But her voice lacks the feline quality that most do and is sooo cutesy bubbly *facepalm* Maybe it is just a front… I hope so… if it’s to put me off my guard and rob me, I will like her better! I like her character concept and design otherwise.

If the Redguard arcanist is well-voiced and written and not a comedic caricature (still don’t know what to make of his description), I think he will be interesting. And I am looking forward to meeting the Argonian, and hope his voice isn’t too nasally like Heem-Jas’. He has a nice visual design and I am intrigued to learn his story.

Julia_Nix

BretonMage wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

And? Last year they were both females.

SilverBride wanted someone like Jakarn for a companion if I recall correctly.

Yes, or someone like Count Verandis Ravenwatch.

Let's hope 2024 will be the year of a romanceable sophisticated male Altmer.

By that year we will have the next Dragon Age for that stuff XD

Araneae6537

Julia_Nix wrote: »

BretonMage wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

chessalavakia_ESO wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

And? Last year they were both females.

SilverBride wanted someone like Jakarn for a companion if I recall correctly.

Yes, or someone like Count Verandis Ravenwatch.

Let's hope 2024 will be the year of a romanceable sophisticated male Altmer.

By that year we will have the next Dragon Age for that stuff XD

I would be thrilled to play both! 😁

Syldras

Araneae6537 wrote: »

(Poor Mirri is reminded of home… by a cemetery!)

Considering the relationship Dunmer have with their ancestors, this isn't even weird.

Araneae6537

Syldras wrote: »

Araneae6537 wrote: »

(Poor Mirri is reminded of home… by a cemetery!)

Considering the relationship Dunmer have with their ancestors, this isn't even weird.

Lol, true, if it were written that way and not about “the bustle” of the city!

Syldras

Araneae6537 wrote: »

Lol, true, if it were written that way and not about “the bustle” of the city!

It's all subjective. Maybe the presence of 1-2 persons at a place at once was a big thing in the town where she grew up

FlopsyPrince

Syldras wrote: »

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I would never want to romance digital bits.

I wouldn't want that too. But some of my characters might want. It's called roleplay, you know?

You are free to want that of course. I still wouldn't want my character to do that....

My characters also kind of do what I want, I see no conflict with that.

I am not saying what others should want of course, but romancing a digital character is still the player romancing a digital character.

Maybe a future feature will be an Otomi (sp?) game part!

Syldras

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

You are free to want that of course. I still wouldn't want my character to do that....

No one said you have to. It would be completely optional.

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I am not saying what others should want of course, but romancing a digital character is still the player romancing a digital character.

Uhm, no? My characters don't even all have the same gender or sexual orientation as me.

katanagirl1

wilykcat wrote: »

I don't really feel comfortable with the idea of adding in romantic relationships into the game. If it did become an option in the game there should be a "disable/enable romantic relationship" checkbox. Otherwise romance isn't an important feature for me either.

I also agree with the last sentence of

Ugrak wrote: »

Romance isn't an important feature for me, though I would use it if it enabled the ring of mara between me and the companion.

Something that would be interesting however: companions that are werewolves or vampires (and maybe even able to bite?).

this player's post. There needs to be more variety of monster companions as well.

If I were going to get a companion in this game it would be a vicious monstrous bodyguard that is a werewolf(made from fire magic) who only protects me from the most elite enemies but otherwise does nothing . No kind of relationships what so ever and who is without a backstory. I'm a newer player who is more into playing the game for fun and not so much for the lore. I like this game so far.

Is having a companion a required part of this game or is that part of the game optional? Are there other monster companions besides the kahjiit and lizard people?

This is the best response I came up with for this discussion.

I apologize in advance for not being able to follow this thread more closely (got to page 4) but the one romance option I had in Mass Effect ruined it for me. I just wanted to keep choosing options in the dialog wheel to learn more about the characters and found my femShep forced into a romantic relationship with completely emo and messed up Kaiden. No option to refuse. Ugh. No more romance for me.

spartaxoxo

FlopsyPrince wrote: »

I am not saying what others should want of course, but romancing a digital character is still the player romancing a digital character.

I guess in the sense that the player is the one pressing the buttons. But, it's not really that different than watching a rom-com on television. Unless you're specifically imagining yourself as the character in the moment, you're just watching a romantic story playout on your screen. It's just more interactive than say watching Always Be My Maybe on Netflix.

Syldras

I'm wondering if some people might not understand that for some, it's possible to enjoy stories that are about protagonists that are completely different to themselves, that have a different character, a diffent life, different interests. When it comes to books or movies, I don't need them to be focused on a person who is similar to me. It doesn't even have to be a person I find likeable. It has to be an interesting story, that's all that matters to me.

Plus, I see similarities between roleplaying and acting. An actor that plays a murderer normally does that because he finds the role or the story interesting or challenging to play, not because he'd wish to be a murderer in reality.

Syldras

A strange thing came to my mind: Could Azandar Al-Cybiades be a nod to Lovecraft's character Abdul Al-Hazred? Alhazred (or Al-Hazred, depending on translation - the whole thing being a pun: "all has read") is an insane old Arab man who examined ancient ruins, finding otherworldly things, collected forbidden knowledge, and worshipped obscure ancient deities. He's definitively not a funny character, though.

Danikat

Syldras wrote: »

I'm wondering if some people might not understand that for some, it's possible to enjoy stories that are about protagonists that are completely different to themselves, that have a different character, a diffent life, different interests. When it comes to books or movies, I don't need them to be focused on a person who is similar to me. It doesn't even have to be a person I find likeable. It has to be an interesting story, that's all that matters to me.

Plus, I see similarities between roleplaying and acting. An actor that plays a murderer normally does that because he finds the role or the story interesting or challenging to play, not because he'd wish to be a murderer in reality.

That's definitely a factor in games, it often comes up in topics about whether players make characters of the same gender they are. Some people see their characters as a representation of themselves and therefore want to make characters that either look like them or look how they want to look. Others approach it more like writing a story - they're creating characters to fufil a role and there's no reason they have to look or act like the player, any more than you'd expect everyone in a book to look and act like the author. Some people in the first group seem to find it quite confusing, even distressing, that other people's characters are not necessarily representative of who the player is in real life.

(For some reason this never seems to apply to race or class or anything else, no one finds it strange if you play an elf who shoots lightning from their hands and summons demons even though they probably assume you're a non-magical human in real life. But that elf needs to be the same gender and sometimes age, height, weight, etc. as you or somehow it's weird. Oh, and if you play a khajiit some people will insist on believing you're a furry, but I think that's just trolling.)

I've recently found out some people have a similar attitude to books and movies - they want to imagine themselves as the protagonist and if they can't pick a character to identify with they lose interest. Whereas some other people don't like books written in the first person because they think it's trying to force you to do that. But I'm not sure if either is as common as with games, I suppose it's different when you're controlling the characters actions rather than just watching it.

(I've always said my characters in most games cannot be me regardless of how they look because they do things I would never do, top of the list being killing people. If they were me they'd have to stay in town and be one of the merchants selling stuff to the adventurers. If those idiots want to go out and get themselves killed that's their problem but I'd stay well away from all that.)

Fennorian

They just need to make Fennorian a companion when they bring out an altmer companion

Kallykat

Syldras wrote: »

A strange thing came to my mind: Could Azandar Al-Cybiades be a nod to Lovecraft's character Abdul Al-Hazred? Alhazred (or Al-Hazred, depending on translation - the whole thing being a pun: "all has read") is an insane old Arab man who examined ancient ruins, finding otherworldly things, collected forbidden knowledge, and worshipped obscure ancient deities. He's definitively not a funny character, though.

*Moves Lovecraft to the top of the "To-Read" list*