Do you feel silly romancing digital characters?

[Vault101]

well you never know, I wouldnt be so surprised if they made him a romance option in ME3

I doubt they will tbh, I think he's meant to be more of a sidekick unfortunately. Plus Seth Green is probably expensive. All of the ME2 relationships seem casual tbh My Shep stayed faithful to Kaiden. The LI's just didn't interest me at all.

Yeah true, and as I said even if they did it would be difficult to pull it off without stepping into rediculous territory

as for femshep romances (cant speak for Male shep) Jacob and mabye Garrus seem casual I supose, Thane however not so much..but then again he could die...so that would leave femshep free for kaiden

I mean kaiden was nice....if not a little bland

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I mean kaiden was nice....if not a little bland

Kaiden was bland...not like Joker *cries*

hehe

 

[Vault101]

I mean kaiden was nice....if not a little bland

Kaiden was bland...not like Joker *cries*

hehe

awww dont worry

theres always Fanfic or Deviant-art

 

[mikev7.0]

No.

To tell you the truth, I have an easier time becoming more attached to fictional characters than I have actually people. (I even wrote Kevin Flynn a ulogy after seing T:L, pretty sure he died.) I guess you know more about them, and it's easier to get attached to something that can only really judge you based on your in-game actions.

. . . WHAT?

C'mon, you all feel this way, admit it.

Oh I admit that sometimes I feel a greater attatchment to fictional characters than I do actual people. Few of my heroes are living. Just not a romantic one.

The Heroes I have that are real, people wouldn't recognize their names anyway, why? They aren't characters, they're real Heroes that's why.

By the way, it's sweet, but why did you write a Eulogy for the User?? You can't derez a User!!

Well . . . see that's kinda been a bit of a debate amongst the fellow video warriors (Tron nuts). The whole recombining with Clu thing, it sounded like it involved derezzing.

Who knows. Alot of hope is up for his return however.

I have faith. The User is fine. Clu? Not so much....

 

[Souplex]

I was referring to the collector scene too. You can get up with a broken rib, it's just really unpleasant.

Well, I'm pretty sure people who have disabilities can have relationships. Jus sayin.

I didn't say they couldn't, but physical limitations make certain activities problematic.

 

[Amondren]

For me it depends on the RPG. Dragon Age origins I was fine because I actually liked the character and in a game like Dragon Age I become immersed and I play as I was him.

In other games such as Fable where I am romancing a random NPC simply to kill them with my sword to upgrade it I do in fact feel quite silly.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I was referring to the collector scene too. You can get up with a broken rib, it's just really unpleasant.

Well, I'm pretty sure people who have disabilities can have relationships. Jus sayin.

I didn't say they couldn't, but physical limitations make certain activities problematic.

*shrug* so you work around it, same as you do with the aliens.

 

[Belluavir]

Well it depends. I'll always go for a gay relationship, but unfortunately there's not so much of that. Breeder on breeder stuff... well it just depends, at the moment I can't think of any that I like and only things that I don't. I disliked dating in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and I dislike managing relationships in GTAIV. I know that the vast majority of the relationships are not technically dating, but their pretty much the same thing, except I don't get to fuck a morbidly obese, drug addicted Jamacian man.

It's just dull and their all so demanding. What about my needs?

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

I haven't felt silly doing it yet, but I don't play Dragon Age with people sat around me so I have no reason to be. I've discussed it like I've discussed all other aspects of a game with friends who have played it too, and didn't feel silly. I was interested to discover I was the only one of my friends whom Morrigan made the first move with (well, first suggestion we should be having sex, which would be one hell of a first move in real life), which opened avenues of discussion about other relationship aspects in that game and our individual experiences. Nah, don't feel silly at all, it's all part of the game. No more uncomfortable than when I read first person sex sequences in books.

In Fable it never felt much like romance. It was always very game orientated. I was very much aware it was a side quest slash mini-game type thing. In GTA games I never had any patience for it.

 

[Katana314]

I played through some unusual independently-made games that dealt with romance in an interesting way. Both times, the only admission of romance comes from another character, and doesn't really rely on your response as other events in the game catch up on you; in fact, the default assumption is that you, and your character, are made to feel somewhat awkward and unsure about it, much the same way most would feel about romancing a virtual person.

Anytime your avatar and yourself feel the same way, I feel some immersion has been accomplished.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

Not at all. If the character is extremely well-written, I'll enjoy it more than any relationship with a real person.
Although, that may just be because I get infinitely more attached to objects and well-written characters than real people.

 

[Goofguy]

Nah it doesn't bother me. Ultimately, you have the choice of whether you want your character to pursue a relationship or not. Sure, sometimes the line gets blurred when your innocent compliment to a party member apparently is code for "I want you, come screw me before a pivotal main plot event".

I went through ME2 without initiating relationships with any of the eligible females. Sure, it was because I was remaining faithful to Liara but regardless of this, my Shepard went through the whole game without getting his dungus wet.

 

[Seanfall]

Only when other people are watching.

 

[TheRookie8]

I believe that romance in a videogame allows more emotional depth and allows the player character to express a little more about "who they are".

Let's look at the Mass Effect series: The romances in the game actually serve to further illustrate what kind of character your avatar is like. By choosing either tough characters for their strength or style, or the shy characters for their quirkiness, vulnerability and sweetness, you can demonstrate what sort of romance you the player are attracted to. But as these romances develop, the character you romance can change. Suddenly the "tough" character may not be so confident, and so the player then left to witness the evolution of the character and the plot.

The concept of romance in videogames is not so different than what we see in movies or read in books. Romance is a unique way to develop character and plot. Videogames, however, have an advantage in that they are able to let the player express themselves by picking what kind of personality they might most enjoy. In the end, they let the player explore the kind of relationship appeals to them.

Not to say that romance is always needed. It's a story-crafting tool, and players should only use it if they want to.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I don't feel silly at all.

Romances are one thing that makes me even more interested to find out more about certain characters that you wouldn't any other way and thus expanding my trust/hate for them.

 

[Feylynn]

Snip

yeah I also held onto my wedding ring! I cant remember if I sold it later, mabye because I was letting go and wanted to get with alistair.... perhaps I was holding onto it more out of guilt than loyaty or love...no probably because I wanted money

but yeah I liked it how somthing as simple as having your wedding ring in your inventory could create such an emotional reaction

also with morrigan...she was a ***** and all but for some reason I was always nice to her..and respected her in a way, even Miranda from ME2 I guess bitchy charachters dont bother me much..

or mabye its that I want to "fix" them and make them nice

Nice to know someone else had to hold on to that statless ring for sentimental reasons, even if it was only temporary. =)
Been hearing to much from people that don't even try to role play in these role playing games, kind of bothering me haha.

I got along with Morrigan because she valued freedom so much. The mislead ideal my rogue shared that everyone, even mages and monsters deserve to be free.

 

[Maxtro]

No, simply because real characters don't like me.

 

[Jandau]

Not really, but that's mostly because I never identify with my characters. I don't feel any more silly when my Warden romances Morrigan or when my Shepard gets it on with Tali than I do reading about a romance in a book. I'm not the one coming on to a bunch of pixels, my character is. I'm just telling him how to go about it...

 

[LittleBlondeGoth]

As long as it's well written and optional, then it's not silly - after all, it's the character on screen that's doing the wild thing, not you. I do think though that because of the nature of games as a whole, it's very hard to make game romances seem a natural progression - in real life these things can take weeks, months, years to develop, but in these instances you've got the course of the games' timeline and that's it. So yes, it may come over a little forced sometimes.

But I reckon if you find yourself caring about what the bunches of pixels on screen are doing, thinking or feeling, well that's a sign of a well done game. There's some kind of emotional investment there.

Although I did have to give myself a stern talking to when someone asked me about my ideal threesome and I realised that both the men I picked were in fact video game characters and not, as such, in any way shape or form, real.

(Vincent Valentine and Alistair Theirin, in case anyone was wondering).

 

[DanDanikov]

Very much so. I've yet to experience a decent game that has had player-managed relationships build up naturally and realistically over time (even the Sims is kinda artificial). The major element is a lack of patience; most games operate on a time-scale that makes real relationships incredibly improbable.

On top of that, they don't seem to model relationship failure that well, either. Usually it's just a series of probing and more intimate discussions that your characters can have (jumping conversation hoops) plus maybe some lock and key (I can't possible have a romance-unlocking conversation with you until you find my family armour). Straying too far from this path just doesn't unlock the 'let's have sex' conversation option at the end of the tree. That's it.

Quite possibly one of my favourite video game relationships of all time is from Red Dead Redemption- John Marston and Bonnie MacFarlane. Due to the nature of RDR it's a fairly linear experience, but that allows for a well crafted and believable progression (mainly, it doesn't go far because John is married). With that in mind, I think one of the big problems with the Bioware romances is that they're entirely optional extras. Your main character romancing someone? That should be integral to the main plot, not optional pre-battle romps in the hay with a loyal follower you managed to talk into it.

The more I think about it, the more I feel I should be raging about it.