At the risk of starting an Edit War, since some people feel really strongly about this subject...
- This was planned, along with female Shepard/Ashley as an actual player option. The dialogue was all ready but they were unable to program the cutscenes in for the MaleShep/Kaidan romance before they had to start removing things to meet deadlines.
- They didn't completely remove them - you can still find the voice files for 'that' scene and a few others in the install directory.
- This was planned, along with female Shepard/Ashley as an actual player option. The dialogue was all ready but they were unable to program the cutscenes in for the MaleShep/Kaidan romance before they had to start removing things to meet deadlines.
This is a really persistent myth that simply isn't true. One of the writers of Mass Effect stated here (yes, that has been confirmed as his account) that the reason why romantic dialogue exists for both genders is because it was faster for both voice actors to record everything, whether the dialogue would actually trigger in-game or not. It was never planned.
- Mass Effect 3 makes Kaidan an official romance for male Shepards. Apparently, Bioware felt he was the Virmire Survivor with the most Ho Yay to build on, as the same does not apply to female Shepards and Ashley.
One of the editors of Mass Effect 3 said that the Ashley/Kaidan situation was the result of "a delicate balance of technical requirements and community feedback". Nothing about story reasons, the reason why the option exists is mostly because of player demand.
Edited by Tropulastic
Even though it is a less well-known Bioware game, Jade Empire deserves mention as well, since male player characters can romance Sky and female player characters can romance Silk Fox (fan patches make it possible for female player characters to romance Dawn Star or both Silk Fox and Dawn Star)
Edited by MrHerc