Adventure Gamers - Forums

Detective Mosely - 05 March 2014 05:22 PM

Has anyone seen the movie Her?

Yeah! The biggest snub at the Oscars.

Detective Mosely - 05 March 2014 05:22 PM

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.

Here I am talking about To The Moon again but it does a bit of this, just without the puzzles parts and choices…

I do like the ideas being thrown around about games being more about relationships ahd their gameplay revolving around emotions. Games like Gone Home, To The Moon, Dear Esther we are moving in that direction, I think the “freshness” of the theme (and quality of writing) is one of the reasons these games are so highly appraised. Now the next step could be adding some more gameplay interactions that would make sense in a game world.

Fascinating topic!

I have to say I don’t find talks of any “format” appealing at all, and in fact a little bit creepy to have a game with a goal of “get the girl”. Romance doesn’t work like that, it needs to be spontaneous to work, not with all the scheming and overthinking like you get in Phoenix Wright.

I can’t suggest a plot because I’m not a brilliant writer but the game would definitely need to be a totally original idea like Detective Moseley’s, with mechanics unique to the particular game.

Even then, I still have doubts. I don’t know if any game with romance as THE main plot could work. A game is a game BECAUSE it has a goal, and if winning your love is the goal it ceases to be romantic and enters “creepy” territory. That’s why the best in-game romances are tied to other plot points like crime-solving or treasure-hunting adventures.

The reason Leisure Suit Larry is unromantic (in everyone’s eyes but Larry’s) is because the purpose of the game IS to win the girl. That’s all fine in the realm of expert swingers but it has nothing to do with love.

tomimt - 05 March 2014 05:45 PM

Writing definetly is one of the key elements here. And there should be a good game there as well that works beyond those interactive novel games. To The Moon did do well on this

Did it really? I don’t recall much of a game there unless you count walking around fetching stuff (I don’t).

Zifnab - 05 March 2014 05:40 PM

A game is a game BECAUSE it has a goal

I don’t think that has to be true with story based games.  What’s the goal of TWD?  To survive?  For how long?  There’s not really an end goal in mind for the characters besides staying alive as long as possible.

That’s one of the things I think is really exciting about Telltale’s current direction.  I think that type of gameplay can be put in almost any genre of fiction, as it’s all about the characters, the story, and the choices you make.  (though of course you’d have to lose the quicktime events if they don’t fit the story)

I think Gone Home and To The Moon are great games but you’re playing from the perspectives of outsiders to the relationships and seeing how they developed through time and how it affected the characters.

What if a game is played from a perspective of the person in the relationship, for example, the role of Samantha in Gone Home and the goal would not be to “get the girl” or something like that but, just make some choices how to evolve the relation and seeing how they affect the companion or family, might be an interesting point of view.

Any number of Japanese “dating” adventures.

I don’t see what’s so wrong with incidental romance, the way it is done in most adventure games, where you don’t have any control over the romance. You don’t have a choice about whether Guybrush likes Elaine or whether Gabriel Knight hooks up with Grace, he just does, it’s out of your hands.

A lot of people like incidental romance even in other mediums. People enjoyed Leia and Han even though that was a very small part of the movie. People enjoyed the relationships in Veronica Mars even though the main plot of the episodes was solving a mystery. People enjoy the relationships in Grey’s Anatomy even thoguh there the main plot is still helping a patient. In fact plenty of people seem to enjoy it more when the romance characters have something to do like saving the world or solving a mystery over a medium where the relationship is the only plot such as a romance movie or a soap opera. I believe this is because they find that when the relationship is the only plot the story often falls back on standards relationship “plots” that people actually don’t really enjoy such as cheating (soap opera) or big misunderstandings (romance movies).

I think it’s pretty obvious that video games could be more romantic they just don’t want to be. Just contrast them with the plots of casual adventure games. Those casual games are targeted at a female audience and hence they try a lot harder to squeeze in romance. As a result you find a decent number of plots that feature romance as a significant element such as:

* You meet a character during the adventure, in the end it is revealed that you married/ended up together.

* There is a pre-existing relationship, but you are separated.  There is a pre-existing relationship, and you work together to solve the problem. I would contrast this to how it is done in for example with Mario and Peach when it is more explictly frames as part of a relationship arc. For example, the game starts off with an engagement/proposal, then the fiance gets abducted, after the puzzle is solved there’s a wedding. This frames the main plot of the game as a bonding experience for the relationship.

* You come across lovers who were separated and help them get a happy ending.

* Or: Something that is abused very heavily in casual games, the villain is motivated by a tragic relationship backstory that you find out more about during the course of the game.

All these contribute to the game finding ways to inject more romance themed scenes or set a slightly more romance oriented baseline for the game. It’s very obvious that these plots could easily be adapted for “mainstream” games, they do the job of stitching together gameplay portions as much as anything else.

I think it’s very obvious that the main reasons it is done less in mainstream games is some sort of machismo:

- Either the creators think its lame personally.

- Or they think they games will only be played by a mostly male audience.

- And they assume that that male audience would have negative reactions to romantic elements and think the game cheesy or dumb because of it.

(or of course the flip side, casual games assume their audience will be more female and assume that subsequently female audiences will enjoy it more if there are romance elements added in)

In my eyes chains of Satinav shows that romantic road movie is a perfectly valid game plot. And again, I would distinguish its plot from “fetchquest” romance plots where the loved person is treated merely as a object to be retrieved, but barely figured into the story other than that.

In Satinav the main character meets a girl, gets to know her better, his feelings deepen and he’s motivated by this relationship to do several things he does. Hence the relationship infuses the plot of the game to a much greater extent than a fetchquest romance would that really just bookends a game (girl is abducted in the beginning) (protagonist does a variety of tasks that make up the main part of the game) (girl is retrieved, previous relationship is restored, nothing about the relationship actually changed).

I don’t see why Prince of Persia for example shouldn’t qualify since some of the games also have this “romantic road movie” setup. Some people enjoy this a plots for romantic movies, so why wouldn’t it be romantic if it was done in game form? A medium doesn’t have to be 100% relationship focused in order to be considered romantic. Titantic stll had a plot despite being a romance movie.