I never said anything about relationships being rudimentary and crude. I said they follow a general path. The path can have many nuances and complications, and won't conform to any specific set of rules, but it is still a linear path.
How can something that can take many different turns be linear? Linearity can have many definitions depending on if you're talking about a mathematical line, which follows a determined path, or a philosophical standpoint such as predetermination and absence of will.
Late to the party, but here's my two cent:
It might be all the years of working in a scientific context that colours my perception, but my mind immidiately goes with the mathematics definition of of linear. i.e. in this case the model of bioware relationships would follow:
f(x) = ax+b
where x = "emotional currency"/"kindness coins" and f(x) being some measure the value of the relationship reaching a maximum value of SEX.
It wouldn't surprise me if he uses the same word interchangeably to refer to both definitions, though. The math one seems to make more sense with his subsequent point about friend zoning and such. The assumption that a relationship should yield a reward proportional to the amount of effort put in can definetly be problematic, but obviously more complex scenarios would require a lot more effort on the development side, so it is unsurprising that this is often the outcome.
I don't mind the inclusion of sex at all as they form an organic part of most relationships (though I could do with some less creppy puppet-show recreations of the act), but I wish that there would be oppourtunities for further development of the relationship "postcoitus".
my main issue with the video was the segue into his standard gender-based arguments (regardless of how true they may be). The friendzone as a concept in this context is just as applicable for both genders. It's not as if the romancing of the male characters have a higher degree of nuance and subtlety, so the jump to yelling at sexist men on the internet seemed a bit contrived