Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me

"A number of single-player roleplaying games put an intriguing spin on romance: They invite the player to flirt." Chris Dahlen looks at flirting and romance in modern single-player RPGs.

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Great article, it is always intresting to know the thinking behind games and how they find a way to make games just that little bit more real. It was a good read.

I always love to do the little romance side quests. My favorite was getting Carth Onasi, an inherently good alignment character, to love and adore my ruthlessly evil alignment Jedi. I managed to do that, but was very sad that I still had to kill him in the end. I wish games had a lot more of the romance aspect, deeper than just the "oh I love you" ending of it all. But ah tis the wishes of a crazy young girl...sigh

That was really interesting. I think flirting as a mechanic is going to hit a bit of the uncanny valley problem, but that there are people trying to look at game experiences in a different way is always positive.

Agent_4:
I always love to do the little romance side quests. My favorite was getting Carth Onasi, an inherently good alignment character, to love and adore my ruthlessly evil alignment Jedi. I managed to do that, but was very sad that I still had to kill him in the end.

Man I wouldn't have been. I just regret that you have to wait so long to kill that obnoxious whiner. }:)

I have to admit, I've never been able to really "get" romance stories in singleplayer games where you, the player, is expected to role-play the part of loving an NPC. I just can't do it. Maybe it's not so different from all the other ways you interact with imaginary characters in games, but it weirds me out. That being said, I have issues with expressing romantic feelings in real life, so that might have something to do with it. :P

Interesting article. One of the things I loved about Baldur's Gate 2 (and most of the rest of the Black Isle, Interplay, and Bioware RPGS) was the romance. It was a new way to interact with NPCs, and made everything more real. A game should always endeavor to make you feel something towards the NPCs other than, "I need to kill this guy to advance," and romance is one way of accomplishing that.

I really can't think of anything more artificial and distancing than this. I suppose if people can enjoy hentai they might be able to enjoy that. But in all seriousness the idea of modern computer AI trying to emulate a sexual relationship between a gamer and itself just strikes me as unhealthy, and is a point at which you should probably stop and do a little soul searching.

I've actually done it, a long time ago playing role-playing games. And it really struck me how very odd it is. It's like yearning to have sex with aliens or something, some sort of Captain Kirk complex...(xxxenophile I would make an exception for, because it's so over the top). It seems to me that there is something wrong with devoting energy to the task of wooing an npc.

I would concede it kind of does add to the play, but what is the play worth? What kind of reciprocity do you get out of this? Why would you devote energy to wooing something that can't love you back? Where do you draw the line with RPGs? You have to draw a line with RPGs somewhere, and I think this is one of those times.

I'll put in the disclaimer "These are my feelings and you can disregard/disagree with them, or agree to whatever degree you do." Please do not feel offended, If I have hurt someone's feelings I apologize.

I like them because I always think of games as movies played out before your eyes the way you like it to happen. This is why I adore games like HL2 and Mass Effect. I don't bond with a game character, like some have said, but I think it adds more to the drama of the story if there was some romantic themes going on around your character.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I hate when video games have romantic/sexual themes in them. I fell like the game/comic is making fun of me.

Life without romance is just a collection of cells dying.