What about Chaorin and Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh? That's a great relationship....insane stalker fangirl/lesbian style.

Man_In_Gauze:
No Gordon/Alyx, please. I feel like Alyx more admires or has a crush on him, but I'm tired of every single male/female relationship in all media ending up in an *actual* relationship.

Couldn't agree more, which is what I liked about the male/female relationships in the Resident Evil series, it's a more subtle hinting relationship there's no evidence of an actual one going on in most cases.

It always slightly bugged me that Neverwinter Nights 2 pretty much threw the romance subplots in as afterthoughts.

And where the hell was the love for Sand? If you played a female character in that game, your options were Casavir or Bishop, that's about it.

KOTOR 2 did a decent job of romantic subplots by combining it with the influence system, and if Team Gizka ever finishes then the romantic subplots will be even better.

I think most romance in games is mostly an English schoolboy's giggle-fest or a pigheaded, drunken fratboy woot session. In Mass Effect whether or not my character went all Captain Kirk on Liara, the Asari scientist, massively had no effect on what happened at the end of the game. For all of that awkward conversation I endured in order to spite Fox News, the end result, as well as the trip there, was rather a bit of a letdown. (Although it was entertaining to make inappropriate jokes throughout the conversations)

I think if there was a sort of Ophelia syndrome in games where if you didn't pay attention to a female member of your party her performance would decline, and *400 year old spoiler alert* she tragically ends up face down in a river, but not before she breaks everyone's hearts by acting crazy in a major scene. It could tie into the moral system inherent in most games: where if you purposefully emotional torture her you can earn the arbitrary points on the red bar graph, but not before having her watching her slowly spiral into madness. Or if you payed attention to her and treated her with respect the game would compensate by having your team's skills increased and your blue bar graph increase. Keep in mind these scenarios would only be applicable in the sort of RPGs that make Excel look accessible.

Any romantic scenario would be terribly complicated in order for it to be portrayed with dignity, as it should, and certainly beats the piss out having all the characters act like they're in the Odyssey, like most games. "What? You were lost at sea and had this cool, epic adventure? Oh, so that's why you didn't return from the war. Meanwhile I was here thinking you ended up like Achilles. Well, I've kinda been here on the verge of leaving you for nameless prick #4, but I'll overlook your exploits with every creature that has female parts in the Mediterranean sea. Just be glad we didn't end up like the royalty of Thebes."

Oh and to answer question #3: No this thread doesn't make you a loser, just a normal human being...or maybe an English major.

I think romance in games makes as good sence as anything else, as long as it fits the plot.

Bad examples:
Jak/Kiera. Much hinted on in the first game and further explored in the second, where it made no sense at all. I mean, Kiera had her panties in a bunch over one of Jak's opponents and bailed on him in the third game. And yet they make out in JakX. To me they always had a sibling kind of relationship.

Kain/Umah in Blood Omen 2. A general WTF covers it all.

Good Examples:
Lulu/Wakka in FFX-2 and Gabriel Knight/Grace in Gabriel Knight 3. The first one is because it just fits; the second one because it feels so classic and it doesn't get in the way of the main plot. It doesn't advance it either but it does give depth to the characters.

Often people project their emotions on the characters in any given fiction they are absorbed in at the moment. To me this seems perfectly natural. It happens to me as well. Developers understandably like to give a few hints and leave relationships quite open, because it allows the consumers to project whatever emotions they wish on the characters. I have noticed quite a lot of male-female-duos in games with a little bit of magnetism without any actual romance or sex. This gives the developers a lot of room to maneuver, although to me it often seems artificial and forced.

Planescape: Torment is one of the best games ever written and it also had some of the best characters. There was the immortal, amnesiac protagonist, the half-fiend thief girl, the chaste succubus, the pyromaniac sorcerer, the ghost of the protagonist's wife, and many more. I also liked the obvious attraction between the thief girl and the protagonist. There was some excellent dialog. But the chaste succubus was even more alluring, although I don't remember any actual romance with her. I just thought that the duality and internal conflict of that character made her delicious. I guess it has something to do with my own split personality.

To me it is all about the quality of writing. The immersion comes from believability and drama. If the characters are interesting and act in a plausible manner, they contribute to the overall experience. Otherwise, they subtract from it. Everything must be in its right place and any hasty add-ons and generic or forced elements will feel out-of-place and substandard. A romantic plot can work as the main course or a side dish, if it is done right.

VRaptorX:
What about Chaorin and Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh? That's a great relationship....insane stalker fangirl/lesbian style.

I thought we were talking about video game romances, not anime romances (as great as Azumanga Daioh is). Oh, and it's spelled "Kaorin."