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Most romantic adventure game?
Can’t say I agree with this. It all depends on your choices. I remember I stuck by my choice in Jack and got rewarded with a very good “arc” where Jack mellowed down and started talking about herself more and showing need which is totally unexpected of her from the impression you get when you fist see her.
Sometimes you might end up saying respectful or complimentary things to other characters that can be misinterpreted for flirting but it all comes down to the choices you make.
You just have to learn to say No when it counts
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It’s still a ridiculously immature and misogynistic approach to “romance,” where sex with the already objectified female characters is given to the player as a “reward” for clicking the correct dialog options. You can’t seriously argue otherwise, can you?
I don’t think Bioware is that bad, at least they give the player lots of options, even if they don’t want any romance, it’s just that sex scenes are over the top and the dialog a bit dodgy in some areas. I prefered when they had less focus in the romance options like in Baldurs gate or Kotor.
Bioware isn’t as bad as CD project was with Witcher 1 and the whole Pokemon attitude towards sex partners. Gotta catch ‘em all. You even get a card. Though Witcher 2 has a nice romantic side in it.
Mass Effect seems to think stringing along every female character and bedding all of them is Romance so games.
Can’t say I agree with this. It all depends on your choices.
Not to forget that you can actually only bed one character in each game. You can flirt with several, but at some point you have to choose between them and will only end up in bed with the one you “lock on to”.
I still wouldn’t call ME a romantic game though.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
It’s still a ridiculously immature and misogynistic approach to “romance,” where sex with the already objectified female characters is given to the player as a “reward” for clicking the correct dialog options. You can’t seriously argue otherwise, can you?
What is the problem to the concept of correct dialog choices leading up to it?Even in reality ,words can lead to sex.That’s attraction for you…would you rather have her be a tavern wench and you paying for her services?
I guess it depends on what side you want to focus on(yes there are several sides)....I never said anything about sex.I only talked about the romance.And I got “rewarded” with a very nice turn of events watching Jack go from a total wreck to strong woman with her head on the game.Strong in terms of confidence and purpose.Where she was previously lost,she now has a bond with someone resulting in inner balance and her feeling more confident about what she wants to do. And she does whatever she wants to do.She doesn’t stay by your character’s side,she goes to the Academy because she finds purpose in it.But when reunited she still shows how much that bond meant to her.And all of that is attributed to the support she got from your character,all the while having feelings for eachother.Not that misogynistic methinks.
Admitedly most developers could dial it down but I don’t think it’s so over the top the way you present it to be,apart from Witcher 1 in which case they did go over the top and did dial it(a lot) down in Witcher 2.
EDIT:You can get a female gender Sheppard and have romance with any male character and you can even have male on male or female on female in ME 3.Just these two points are enough to classify BioWare as just providing for every possible scenario instead of misogynists and sexists.
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I do think that in general level the current game devs are afraid of tackling actual romantic plotlines. There’s nothing that prevents including a well written and well thought romance plot in any story in any genre, be it an adventure game or a hardcore action game. You can have an adventurous Indiana Jones story that also has a strong romance in it, but from some reason the game devs just seem unwilling to go there.
Is it really fear though or just good sense? When you look at what all adventure games are based around it’s still action. And there’s little action in love. When your input into a game is ‘use, look, take, push’ you can’t blame them for thinking treasure hunting is more exciting than romancing. I’d like that to change but i think the tech needs an overhaul - the old verb table and two-click use/look function are outdated. I could seeroom for a novelty IF game - maybe a single night with your first date. A clueless nervous character could be fun to play as and your actions would be more along the lines of observing your date and doing certain things at certain times and saying the right stuff. (i hope i haven’t just described Larry - not much romance there for me)
agreed,if a game story was to be written about a romance the gameplay mechanics would have to be appropriate.
i could see a story where at first through your actions and dialogue choices you prove your feelings to someone else and then a different part where there are problems that arise which you must endure,like finally after having won the love of another you find that he/she is chased and you have to get away(thus introducing the action part).
depending on the situation your options could change,that includes the interface options.
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Is it really fear though or just good sense?
Or it might just be that people who write games aren’t very good at writing romances. I think that one approach could be a story where the romance is there, but it’s not pursuited by the actions of the game, but it is always there, as a part of the setting rather than a game about people who try to get significant other.
Like let’s take a scenario where two people a stranded in an hostile environment. Their goal is to escape. They adventure, get in peril, safe each other a couple of times and at some point the romance just happens as a part of a story rather than player managing to complete a quick time event right. It also can help in adding more weight to the story, if written right, as the player then might feel even bigger need to protect the characters to the happy end.
where the hell is the like button? ^^
though i’d like to see some intimate moments in that scenario.you are in peril,stranded in a room,safe for the moment,and there is conversation that even though is predestined to lead to something will at least give it depth and color.
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Is it really fear though or just good sense?
Or it might just be that people who write games aren’t very good at writing romances. I think that one approach could be a story where the romance is there, but it’s not pursuited by the actions of the game, but it is always there, as a part of the setting rather than a game about people who try to get significant other.
Like let’s take a scenario where two people a stranded in an hostile environment. Their goal is to escape. They adventure, get in peril, safe each other a couple of times and at some point the romance just happens as a part of a story rather than player managing to complete a quick time event right. It also can help in adding more weight to the story, if written right, as the player then might feel even bigger need to protect the characters to the happy end.
I like it but it isn’t a story i would describe as having romance as the central plot. The summary you gave could be used to describe Sands of Time, a pure action game. Shouldn’t we be more ambitious as to what we can do with the adventure game format and romance? We already have Fate of Atlantis and Broken Sword for AGs with incidental romances.
It’d say it depends quite a on bit how the story is handeled. At first it might be just about survival, but at some point the story narrative can shift away of being just about the survival and turn into something much more story wise. From just survial to great romance with survival.
I mean let’s take a movie True Romance for an example. It is, both, an odd romance as well as a kick ass action movie. The action element of the story would no exist without the romance part and the romance part is, I’d say, more important part of the story than the action.
Yes, i see what you mean. The hard part as i see it, is making the gameplay romance oriented. Is that even possible? Does anyone want it or are we happy with romance plots centered around TAKE, USE, PUSH and QTEs. Plot is the easy part - even Pacman can be made a romance.
As an idea for something different, take the interface for Ace Attorney. Could that work in a dialogue intensive romance context? Presenting topics of conversation when suitable and having 2 or 3 conversation options like ‘interrupt’ or ‘pursue’ or ‘change topic’. Of course it
would need a killer writer to work. I like the opportunities provided by being able to fail and therefore having to pay attention to what your romance interest says or does. Even FMV could work well here - Tex and Chelsea come to mind.
You could use feeling based options in that case,as in COMFORT COMPLIMENT DISCOURAGE etc,which is awfully derivative but it could be used instead of the usual dialogue. Maybe even an intuition like LA Noire giving hints about the other party’s state. I believe that the whole experience coupled with the awesome facial expressions we’ve been seeing in recent games will be very interesting.
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As an idea for something different, take the interface for Ace Attorney. Could that work in a dialogue intensive romance context? Presenting topics of conversation when suitable and having 2 or 3 conversation options like ‘interrupt’ or ‘pursue’ or ‘change topic’. Of course it would need a killer writer to work.
Sounds like a very interesting idea. I’d buy that in a heartbeat.
Has anyone seen the movie Her?
I’d hesitate to call it “romantic”, at least not in the traditional sense, but it’s all about this crazy relationship a man in the near future has with an AI program, and the story has tons of unpredictable twists and turns in it.
Something like that I think could make for a fantastic storyline for a game. Not it being about a relationship with an AI, but the uncliched twists and turns keeping the plot feeling fresh, even if it’s only focused on one relationship.
I’d also love to see a game deal with time in a more movie like way. Like for example they could have the game start out with the player being young and meeting a love interest, and them falling in love. (with puzzles along the way, both dialogue and inventory based)
Then fast forward to when they’re married, and they have some sort of major crisis in their marriage. Perhaps giving the player the ability to work towards keeping them together or breaking them up.
And then a fast forward to the end of their life, when they’re reflecting on the choices they’ve made and their lives as a whole.
As people have said, the quality of the game would all come down to the writing. But it’s definitely doable, and I’d love to see more games try things like this.
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