Quote Originally Posted by Aidorouge View Post
falling back on "most popular" immediately has people fighting for or against certain NPCs (see Y'shtolaXRunar versus Y'ShtolaXWarrior of Light)
That's also a part I totally missed in my reasoning. If the story is meant to accommodate for the possibility of character x WoL being the "canon" story, it'll shut out writing of character x character romances. Though extensive rewrite options could theoretically work it also then has to account for a player choosing to pursue the romance later and it'll be a very abrupt end to that story thread. And, realistically, that's just an insane amount of effort for something being added so far into the game and optional flavor side content. Dating systems with companions are a selling point for a lot of RPGs, true, but I just cannot see it going over well if it's dropped as optional content locked to the 6th expansion at level 100+ (and there's just no shot they'll go back and do rewrites for earlier content; can't imagine it going well if they left in playboy thancred, moenbryda x urianger, the y'shtola x runar tease etc while they're supposedly married to the player either).