The RTS is a fetishization of cybernetic control. It is a simulacra of the modern Western military paradigm of command and control; sometimes a more efficient one, sometimes less. It almost always privileges positions of management and control over the autonomy of the individual.
One does not get to choose who, or what, one loves. I don’t mean that there isn’t choice involved, but there’s something about love that is hidden from the waking mind; it’s chemical, unconscious, surprisingly capable of overwhelming the better senses. It treats flaws as unimportant details, not so much glossing over them as accepting them.
They say Mass Effect 3 is supposed to be accessible to new players, but that’s insane. You shouldn’t be allowed to play it if you’re not importing a character you brought with you from the beginning. You need to earn these friendships before their payoffs will mean anything to you, and once you have, it’s truly something special.