The Red Silky Caress: Do Games Tell Good Romance Stories?

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We all like to have a bit of fun with the romance options in our games, but sometimes they can come across as artificial and shallow. Patrick Vuleta examines whether games really tell good romance stories, or if they're as shallow and formulaic as some people claim.

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[Bek]

Some of the better examples of romance in games are not ones the player takes part in directly. The most memorable for me being the story of Deionarra in Planescape: Torment. Very very well written, I think the unique way it was told helped with that (2nd person narration of memories). There were also romances the player could take part in throughout the game, and while they were also quite well done and touching, not all had equal impact.

I'd like to see more romance in games if it's meaningful, not Mass Effect style.

Also, obligatory "Leliana was the worst" comment.

[notsocryptic]

As someone who absolutely adores exploring romance options in RPGs (inb4, such a girl thing) I think this article is great! I think you really encompassed what romance means - or should mean - in games.

Personally, I'm pretty satisfied with game romances, to a certain extent. Some games obviously do it better than others. Baldur's Gate 2, for example, being one of my favourites. I've still never managed to romance Jaheira properly.

I find though that there is often a huge discrepancy between male romance options and female romance options. As a lady who doesn't mind romancing other ladies, it's not a huge problem for me. But I resent being given say, one male choice, when the ladies you can pick from number 5 or 6. But more than that, male options are sometimes given more depth than female options. I'm gonna go back to BG2 here, there were at least 3 very complex ladies to pick from, or if you wanted a man, it was some knight in shining armour and you had to be a goody two-shoes and agree with everything he said to get him to notice you.

In conclusion, I found both yeomans to be lacking! I've romanced a few in Mass Effect, but to me, fem-shep will always have romanced Garrus. It's canon.

[PalZer0]

I see that Tim's wife has registered. Welcome to GON.

Also, what's with you and redheads Marius?

[notsocryptic]

Yeah, I've been considering joining up for a while, but this article finally moved me to do it.

Also, I concur with the redhead thing. I don't understand why, but they're just so... beautiful! A truly redheaded lady will stop me in my tracks.

[Marius]

Some of the better examples of romance in games are not ones the player takes part in directly. The most memorable for me being the story of Deionarra in Planescape: Torment. Very very well written, I think the unique way it was told helped with that (2nd person narration of memories). There were also romances the player could take part in throughout the game, and while they were also quite well done and touching, not all had equal impact.

I'd like to see more romance in games if it's meaningful, not Mass Effect style.

Also, obligatory "Leliana was the worst" comment.

I kinda agree. I prefer romances that have an impact on the plot, rather than self-contained in separate love scenes. That's a big reason why my femshep romanced Kelly, because when she appeared the romance had a real impact (like the decision of when to go to the Collector Base.)

The Witcher did this well too with romances affecting other quests, though The Witcher 2 shunted it to the side a little.

As someone who absolutely adores exploring romance options in RPGs (inb4, such a girl thing) I think this article is great! I think you really encompassed what romance means - or should mean - in games.

Personally, I'm pretty satisfied with game romances, to a certain extent. Some games obviously do it better than others. Baldur's Gate 2, for example, being one of my favourites. I've still never managed to romance Jaheira properly.

I find though that there is often a huge discrepancy between male romance options and female romance options. As a lady who doesn't mind romancing other ladies, it's not a huge problem for me. But I resent being given say, one male choice, when the ladies you can pick from number 5 or 6. But more than that, male options are sometimes given more depth than female options. I'm gonna go back to BG2 here, there were at least 3 very complex ladies to pick from, or if you wanted a man, it was some knight in shining armour and you had to be a goody two-shoes and agree with everything he said to get him to notice you.

Thanks, I enjoyed writing it. Plus, it's the only time you'll ever see Kelly fanfic in a professional article.

Games do tend to suffer from a pandering to straight male interests a little. It's mostly because the writers assume that's the main audience, I think.

It's also a problem with cliches. The straight female option shouldn't be your bog standard knight cliche, because that's just laziness - a safe option to pick up the rest of the audience.

Also, what's with you and redheads Marius?

They're attractive!

[Bek]

The Witcher did this well too with romances affecting other quests, though The Witcher 2 shunted it to the side a little.

Yeah that was a bit of a shame, although with the restrictions (mainly Geralt having to stay as Geralt) it'd be hard branch the romance options off in too many ways. Hard, but not impossible.

Plus, it's the only time you'll ever see Kelly fanfic in a professional article.

So you've given up professional writing? You know you'll always throw a reference in here or there

Games do tend to suffer from a pandering to straight male interests a little. It's mostly because the writers assume that's the main audience, I think.

It's also a problem with cliches. The straight female option shouldn't be your bog standard knight cliche, because that's just laziness - a safe option to pick up the rest of the audience.

I'm trying to think of any diverse RPG's that have a female lead. Not a male/female choice but just a characterised female. Perhaps there's an niche for some game to fill. The only female protagonist I can remember playing is Faith from Mirror's edge, which didn't have any romance plots but did touch (very very briefly) on a sisterly relationship. Nothing deep or special though, other games (DX comes to mind) use family ties in a much more meaningful way.

They're attractive!

Very.

[Marius]

The closest to a full female lead would be the Dragon Age DLC Leliana's Song, which explored her romance with Majorlaine.

With The Witcher 2, Triss didn't even play that big a part. They could have just exchanged her for Shani.

And that portrait is pretty hot.

[majkicCFC]

i think as long as you open you mind to the story and get sucked in to it, you can feel anything.

i did this with my 3rd dragon age play through...

female warrior, and Alastair, it felt like they could take on the world and win,

and the big finale was me not including Alastair in the final fight, and if THAT final good bye wasn't enough. once i downed the boss and then died my self, the funeral speech was amazing....it was the best amount of closure Ive had on a game, no cliff hangers, just an ending....

truly a work of art in my eyes

so in all that play through was like a really long action war love movie, that had a sad ending for the main character, but a overall happy ending

[Vencha88]

As someone who absolutely adores exploring romance options in RPGs (inb4, such a girl thing) I think this article is great! I think you really encompassed what romance means - or should mean - in games.

Personally, I'm pretty satisfied with game romances, to a certain extent. Some games obviously do it better than others. Baldur's Gate 2, for example, being one of my favourites. I've still never managed to romance Jaheira properly.

I find though that there is often a huge discrepancy between male romance options and female romance options. As a lady who doesn't mind romancing other ladies, it's not a huge problem for me. But I resent being given say, one male choice, when the ladies you can pick from number 5 or 6. But more than that, male options are sometimes given more depth than female options. I'm gonna go back to BG2 here, there were at least 3 very complex ladies to pick from, or if you wanted a man, it was some knight in shining armour and you had to be a goody two-shoes and agree with everything he said to get him to notice you.

In conclusion, I found both yeomans to be lacking! I've romanced a few in Mass Effect, but to me, fem-shep will always have romanced Garrus. It's canon.

I am satisfied with our progress on in-game relationships, but I think we have space to grow.

Using the Mass Effect example (cannon is Jack, thank you), you get relationships with people who react differently to your advances and even react with anger/sadness to your breeches of trust. Jack's lack of respect if you took her up on casual sex, Miranda's awesome agency and Thane's heart felt letter are well realised relationships that show the characters history personality effecting how they act.
But I'd like to see more focus on characters who maybe don't want a whole relationship, or characters who want more than just sex in the captain's quarters then a suicide mission. At the moment, and it's a limit that is really a symptom of the media, characters all want one pretty identical relationship.

[DoHo_]

To start off: when it comes to narrative, themes etc video games have an extremely long way to go.

What makes a good story (romantic or otherwise) is a pretty difficult question to answer, but I want to take the cheap way out and say we (collectively via society or whatever) just know when a story is "good" and we know a good romance when we see it - and it's most certainly not lesbians in video games and probably not any other relationship in a video game and that's because video games are a lot about action. (That was a long sentence) Action, in this instance, does not only refer to explosions or gunshots, but literally any verbs that happen quickly or in an excited manner (which, let's face it, happen a hell of a lot because that's the nature of video games).

We don't fall in love with explosions and stuff crumbling around us (i.e. love is not born from or during drama). Love happens when we grow to know someone. Often, love is an unsaid experience. You don't have to go every 5 minutes saying "I love you and we're in love and we know this because we're saying so" - it just happens. Love takes time and it's not always a dramatic or "romantic" affair.

And that's why I believe romances such as Alyx Vance, or even Lydia from Skyrim, have more impact, even if there's no gameplay or dialogue to even acknowledge that it exists. These characters are someone you share experiences with (yes, even though these are dramatic experiences) and you share these experiences with them over time, and the "love" is... implied... I don't know. That's what I think anyway.

Romances in games usually come about by introducing a character, and then going on a mission/quest and then 5 minutes later you're in love, or there's a cutscene and it fades to black and you're married - even in Skyrim you just walk up to someone and go "Hey, wanna get married?" and that's it.

[Zombywolf]

No mention of leisure suit larry?
for shame.

its not romance per se but when you think about the psychological aspects of why he does what he does...now that's interesting!

[Nexi]

(Potential Spoiler Alert)
Gonna weigh in here and bring up one of my favourite games Final Fantasy 8
which was effectively, from start to finish, a love story.

Now while it can be argued that JRPG is not traditional RPG (in the sense that you play a predetermined role rather than one you create yourself), you still grow attached to the main characters (Squall, Rinoa and Seifer) and how the relationship between the 3 of them plays out over the course of the game. Rinoa and Squall first meeting with the awkward dancing, meeting her parents and learning about her past, risking your life by flinging yourself out into space not knowing if you will make it back. Many of those scenes stuck with me long after playing the game and much of it can be attributed to the musical score as well.

Final Fantasy 10 also did reasonably well on the romance front (moving right past HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA) and on to discovering that Yuna is making a pilgrimage to die and all the plans you made along the way were never going to happen and you were the only one that didn't know.

I suppose my point on this is that romance needs to be meaningful to work. You either need to have a deep investment into a character you have created and for the romance and events surrounding it to have implications beyond a 2 minute cutscene with implied doinking. Or you have built up empathy for a character due to some very good writing/story telling. You form an odd bond with them whereby you agree with their choices as ones you would have made, even if you didn't make them yourself, this also applies to romances.

(also it's late and I am pretty sure that last paragraph feels unfinished but I think I get the general idea across)

[Marius]

What makes a good story (romantic or otherwise) is a pretty difficult question to answer, but I want to take the cheap way out and say we (collectively via society or whatever) just know when a story is "good" and we know a good romance when we see it - and it's most certainly not lesbians in video games and probably not any other relationship in a video game and that's because video games are a lot about action. (That was a long sentence) Action, in this instance, does not only refer to explosions or gunshots, but literally any verbs that happen quickly or in an excited manner (which, let's face it, happen a hell of a lot because that's the nature of video games).

Hmmm I don't know if I agree.

First, what makes a good story is pretty refined over centuries of telling them (and book and film publishers certainly have a formula they enforce, which contributes to our expectations).

At the most basic level, stories must have a beginning, middle, and end... otherwise it's not really a story.

In the article I reflected this by saying the romance must have an original beginning so we pay attention, must draw us in with the conflicting middle, and have to actually have an end, rather than rambling off into the sunset.

Second, I guess I think romance stories can work very well in games, but a lot is up to the player's own interpretation about whether they see the romance deep or shallow. You can pretty much imagine any game romance either way, in particular because of their fleeting nature. But if they have at least enough elements to make a proper story arc than it helps give you a hook to do this with.

[Burty13]

Romance in games usually falls under 2 categories.

Press X for sex.

JRPG melodrama.

In my opinion its just patched into games as a gimmick, it reminds me of obligatory love scenes in stapled in an action movie.

Real love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoomycJFIQ