Decline Romances in Video Games

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

When did they start?

Were they ever passable or always ranging from cringeworthy to death by cringe?

 

[AngryEddy]

When did they start?

Were they ever passable or always ranging from cringeworthy to death by cringe?

I don't know, would you consider this passable?:

Spoiler

 

[UndetectedButthurt]

 

[Goat Vomit]

Define romances. Do you mean romances as in a systemic dating gameplay thingy or just as a theme in writing? Do you mean full blown relationships or will any flirty character do? Does it have to involve the player or can it just be background stuff? Your question is much too vague.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

first we have to ask ourselves what is a romance*

in the true, Romantic sense of the word i could nominate every computer game ever made, since most of them inspire awe and require the player to do some pretty hectic things



*i hate the term romance when its applied to feels and relationships; its as far away from the true meaning of the word as can be possible

 

[Goat Vomit]

first we have to ask ourselves what is a romance*

in the true, Romantic sense of the word i could nominate every computer game ever made, since most of them inspire awe and require the player to do some pretty hectic things



*i hate the term romance when its applied to feels and relationships; its as far away from the true meaning of the word as can be possible

Amour courtois or chivalric romance, what does it matter what term you use as long as both parties know what you mean by their use? It is quite obvious that he is referring to the old traditional European themes of idealized noble relationships that still permeate the entire western creative output. The question is how this relates to games, since they are an interactive medium and I am unsure if they truly can be said to be about romantic themes unless they are executed by the player.

Thinking about video games as an art form hurts my head. Can Super Mario Bros. be said to be romantic? Mario fights a mighty turtle and other beasts to prove himself to be worthy of the affection of the princess.

 

[Lyric Suite]

I really think they started with BG2. Other games probably had them before but they probably weren't as ludicrous as they were on BG2 and as they have been since.

 

[Whisky]

BG2 romances were hilarious though. It helped that you could see the full options available and saying the insulting rejection options to Aerie as you listened to another, "MY WINGS HAVE BEEN CLIPPED! I WISH YOU COULD UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A PRISONER OF THE GROUND!" bawwwwfest.

 

[RK47]

When did they start?

Were they ever passable or always ranging from cringeworthy to death by cringe?

When she died after saying she didn't love me.
And I realized that her dying was from my choice alone.
Did she really say no?
Or did she mean 'not yet'?
We will never know.
Commander, you are my number one.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

When did they start?

Were they ever passable or always ranging from cringeworthy to death by cringe?

When she died after saying she didn't love me.
And I realized that her dying was from my choice alone.
Did she really say no?
Or did she mean 'not yet'?
We will never know.
Commander, you are my number one.

benis in vagina
pixelated
time to fap

 

[A horse of course]

I don't know when they began but they need to continue whilst also gitting gud

 

[laclongquan]

It start with Planescape Torment, of course. The love stories in that game is heartwrenching.

It reach the peak of player participation with Baldur's Gate 2, in Viconia fanbois groups.

After that Bioware tried their shits in romance-heavy RPGs.

 

[A horse of course]

I legit cried at Viconia's romance ending in ToB.

It got me into IE modding just to change that text, in fact

 

[catfood]

One of the games that did romances right is King's Bounty The Legend. During your trek through the game world you encounter princesses that you can marry. Each of these give you bonus to the stats of some of your troops. So the frog princess gives you bonuses to your swamp units while the demon one gives you bonuses to your demon troops. However you are encouraged to dump them in favor of new ones because you are constantly changing troop types during the course of the game. In theory you could finish the game with the first princess that you meet but you would not have the optimal hero (and this is a game where you pretty much have to min-max). Each wife has different equipment slots, so for instance the dwarfette can be equipped with a melee weapon and a shield while the aforementioned frog princess may carry a staff. You can also choose to have children with them but the catch is that each child occupies one of their inventory slots. Also if you divorce her you also lose any children you had with her and you have to pay alimony.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Dafuq? Baldur's Gate 2 had romances? I'll assume you mean the dating sim kind, like Ass Effect and Dragon Age and KOTOR?

Or is this some other nex-gen use of the abbreviation BG2?

So does it have to be optional or are you talking about romantic involvements that just happen in the story anyway, over which the player has no control?

 

[Night Goat]

I like the relationships in Skyrim. Once you marry someone she won't have sex with you, and she'll keep saying the same thing over and over forever. Just like in real life!

 

[Spectacle]

I believe the first video game to feature a romance was Custer's Revenge from 1982.

 

[deuxhero]

Calling romance in games shit ignores the larger problem that romance in fiction is shit and uses the same damn fucking cliches for hundreds, if not thousands of years while being tacked onto everything for no apparent reason.

Only thing special about games is the added stupid from trying to put player choice into it.

 

[baturinsky]

There are all kind of date sims. Some of them may be good.

 

[Borelli]

Romances started when i first played Doom as a kid and shot an Imp with a double barelled shotgun. I fell in love immediately.

 

[Jick Magger]

What we need to differentiate here is the inclusion of a romance subplot in a game, or romance being incorporated into the game itself, like with Bioware and their dating sims with RPG elements. The former is primarily down to whether or not the quality of writing is sufficient enough to make it believable, which is not really the norm since a vast majority of writing in video games is shit. Felt the romances between the main characters Metal Gear Solid were usually well-executed, if only because they aren't intrusive on the main plot of the games, are part of the character developments of the protagonists of each game, and don't really feel tacked on. The latter I rarely find is well-done in RPG's, though that's primarily because the main pushers of this style of romance is Bioware, and their romantic writing has always been fucking infantile at best.

 

[Haba]

There are not that many romances in games in the first place. There have been plenty of games with romantic undertones, some Bioware her-a-durps, some rare exceptions where it works (P:ST) and then some games with scripted "romantic" interaction (Fable, Skyrim etc.)

I think they can be good additions, if you have a good writer adding them. Most of the time you don't.

It is sad why people don't have the balls to take things to the extreme, Japan style. I'm talking about casual sex, harems, drunken fuckups... At least then it'd be entertaining and not just awkward. Black Company/Malazan style casual adventuring party fuckbuddies? Witcher is the only one that dared to venture into that direction.

 

[felipepepe]

Worlds of Ultima - The Savage Empire, 1990:

Treasures of the Savage Frontier, 1992:

Savage chicks were cool in the 90's, it seems.

 

[Lyric Suite]

It start with Planescape Torment, of course. The love stories in that game is heartwrenching.

Yeah, but that doesn't count. Flirting with Annah, which was kinda cute actually, does count, but i doubt that is what set Bioware with their dating sim bullshit.

 

[Garryydde]

Spoiler

You don't want this. It doesn't have to end like this. This isn't the future we chose, it is the future we got.