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Comment on Video game romances need to evolve beyond lore dumps

BG3 romances seem shallow and kind of transactional because it is a mix of characters who don’t know each other having a whirlwind romance in a relatively short period of time. They are easily comparable to the majority of romances in movies and books with similar circumstances.

The other thing that is always going to make romances in games difficult to do in more detail is a lack of real world senses that play a huge part in attraction. Smells, tone of voice, flirting based on what is cutrently happening are either impossible or extremely time consuming to implement in a computer game. Like you could luck into picking the right cologne for a character or something, but that is along the same lines as picking the right voice lines.

Not saying it is literally impossible to do, but it really is a monumental task to implement relationships that don’t seem forced or obviously mechanical in a video game. If they did implement one perfectly, the randomness of real life would make it nearly impossible to have a romance as there are so many things that can easily derail a relationship forming including just not being in the mood to reciprocate affection because of some completely unrelated event!

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Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I think it also makes them feel more shallow because the characters are all “player-sexual” to use an industry term. Basically every character is into you if you want them to be.

I’d love to see more games have characters with preset likes and dislikes and how you’ve built and played your character will determine who will be interested (and who will shoot you down!)

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- Katana314@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Part of me thinks the devs should just be more settled about having more relationships that don’t involve the player. You get 5 supporting characters, and character A, in their “relationship event” with you, admits that they have feelings for character C and want your advice because they don’t know how to express it.
  
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  - Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I also would love to see this!
    
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- RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Some games in the past were like this but people complained because “I want the goth baddie but I am not an 80 year old man with a white beard names Santa Claus, this game’s romance system sucks.”
  
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  - mika_mika@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Not just romance systems… Especially with younger crowd unless 100% of the content is accessible on a playthrough they will feel left out. Cosmetics, items, weapons whatever be it. Makes everything seem more shallow because of their fomo.
    
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- EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  The game already works this way I believe.
  
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  - Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Do you mean the being shot down part? Cause the devs have said in interviews that they purposely made the characters player-sexual.
    
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    EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah I mean the way you play your character, depending on the likes/dislikes of the companions does have an effect on whether or not you can romance them.
    
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- sem@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Asurion shot me down :(
  
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  - jokerwanted@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Astarion has the best relationship narratives IMO, and was by far more satisfying than any other. He’s been broken for so long, forced to seduce thousands of people, never having any of his own choices. When you finally show him that he has that now, that when the REAL relationship with him starts.
    
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  - Paradachshund@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    🫡
    
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- snooggums@piefed.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Shallow and rushed, since it has to develop in a few dozen hours of gameplay with a limited number of NPCs!
  
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luciferofastora@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

B²G3 romances seem shallow and kind of transactional because it is a mix of characters who don’t know each other having a whirlwind romance in a relatively short period of time.

Add the sense of “we don’t know how much longer we have” and the general dramatisation of High Fantasy and you have one hell of an intense honeymoon phase.

After that, the game doesn’t really cover how your relationship plays out, aside from that short party epilogue. Sure, your shared experience may make for a strong start, but the arguments, the differences, the difficulties adjusting to one another while also grappling with the trauma of what you went through and the challenge of finding your place in this new world… there’s a lot left open that just doesn’t fit in this game’s frame.

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fishy@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There’s genres of games that are supposed to be relationship sims and nothing else. The relationships and characters are still hollow and would only draw in the loneliest people.

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