Frankly, at this point I don't even care about "realism" with the relationships, I just want them to be relatable, since I 100% know what you're talking about with that "warm feeling". I appreciate the player-sexual approach infinitely more, as a gay guy myself.

I'm incredibly tired of the only options in most games being a slew of straight, generic females, with the occasional stereotypical gay guy who, most of the time, does not appeal to me. Sure, maybe it does ruin some of the realism, but I find that I enjoy the story and characters a whole lot more when their sexuality is fluid, especially when the romance aspect feels tacked on as it is.

From the numerous conversations I've had with friends, and the occasional game I play through with romantic aspects, it starts to feel like players and writers alike treat the characters as their sexuality, not who they actually are. When I play a game with heterosexual-focused romance systems, it feels like each character wasn't written to be an interesting person, with a unique backstory, personality, etc., but rather written to appeal to straight males or females playing the game, as if the actually important aspects of them took a back seat.

Perhaps it's just bias since I tend to get rather grumpy when I can tell that the game is pushing me to romance one of the ladies (looking at you, recent Fire Emblems), but that system is incredibly disheartening and disappointing to see over and over again in games.

I hope more developers and writers take more consideration into things like this in the future. I'd be fine with straight-only options if the cast of gay characters was equally rich and not just the Mr. "Did I mention how gay I am today?" once again, and if not that, then I'll take the player-sexual folks ten times out of ten, or would rather no romance system at all.