Or, and maybe I’m the weird one here, we shouldn’t include romance in games. We absolutely shouldn’t have the players’ avatars involved in those romances. Games are escapist fantasy, and I don’t believe it’s helpful to allow anyone to experience romantic things in an escapist context - that should be constrained to the real world.
Then again, I think the only game I’ve played with a narrative that I really appreciate anymore is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. So maybe I’m just old and jaded.
I think this essentially gets at the same point of criticism: Do it properly or don’t do it at all. If you want romance, then write a romantic story with real love and loss that allows players to experience these feelings through their characters, but not shallow “romance options” like the ones that are included in so many games nowadays and that feel like the equivalent of reading two pages of a character’s diary.
I am ok with having transactional vg relationships. I mean, if I could marry in factorio I would probably automate it and have an exponentially increasing number of partners.
Or, and maybe I’m the weird one here, we shouldn’t include romance in games. We absolutely shouldn’t have the players’ avatars involved in those romances. Games are escapist fantasy, and I don’t believe it’s helpful to allow anyone to experience romantic things in an escapist context - that should be constrained to the real world.
Then again, I think the only game I’ve played with a narrative that I really appreciate anymore is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. So maybe I’m just old and jaded.
I think this essentially gets at the same point of criticism: Do it properly or don’t do it at all. If you want romance, then write a romantic story with real love and loss that allows players to experience these feelings through their characters, but not shallow “romance options” like the ones that are included in so many games nowadays and that feel like the equivalent of reading two pages of a character’s diary.
I am ok with having transactional vg relationships. I mean, if I could marry in factorio I would probably automate it and have an exponentially increasing number of partners.
not what’s meant when they say “the factory must grow”, but let them cook