Poll: Sex/Relationships in RPGs - how does it affect your enjoyment?

[wench]

It seems like there's a pretty wide spectrum, and I'm curious as to what people think about having sex and relationships included in RPGs. I know that for myself, they really add an extra level of enjoyment - Bioware's been great at this, and I'll go through multiple times just to see the different angles that a relationship will give you on the storyline. They increase my sense of attachment to the other characters as well as my emotional involvement. That said, I know a lot of people who just can't be bothered as well as those who wish that their game would stop making kissy-faces at them. So, what do you think? I'd also like to get perspectives on whether you think that including this sort of material in a game is simply marketing, or whether there's an argument to be made for complex storytelling as well.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

I don't really like them, as they often feel artiicial. DA did it quite well, or so I'm told, but I was also told that ME was an amazing game, so I can't trust any of you lot.

[sub]Supposed to be taken wit a pinch of salt. I don't think ME1 was awful, just not amazing.[/sub]

 

[wooty]

Theres numerous ways to apporach it, if it enhances the storyline and gives it it different outcomes at the end, then its good as a plot device. But if sex is just there as a gimmick for something to do, or for it to try and be controversial, then fuck it.
If I wanted to see sex, I'd either ring up my girlfriend or log onto www......ect ect.com

 

[SturmDolch]

It feels artificial a lot of the time... DA:O actually included a character worth romancing (Morrigan) for once, with a whole subquest for her. But now conversation is stuck at the end and I have less than half the game completed. That sucks.

Also:

If I wanted to see sex, I'd either ring up my girlfriend or log onto www......ect ect.com

I want it for the story, I don't need sex scenes in Video Games. They can be implied. It's different from movies since these aren't real people (yet).

 

[Rainboq]

Just as long as it isn't sex for the sake of it

 

[Avaholic03]

Most of it feels like a cheap gimmick. I almost never see any compelling human emotion in a RPG, least of all love/romance. It's just there with the cheap excuse that it's adding depth, but really just a way to get horny 13-year-old boys to buy those games.

 

[Wolfram23]

Well I didn't think much of it in DA:O, or even in the Witcher although I thought the sex cards were kinda fun to look at. Too bad we got the more censored versions but looking it up online for the originals was fun...

And then there's WoW. I had some amazing sex thanks to that game with a really hot asian chick I met in-game... good times.

 

[Internet Kraken]

To be honest I've never liked them. Having sex in an RPG just so you can have sex is....pretty much pointless. And none of the RPGs I have played have ever done relationships right, in my opinion.

I mostly talking about BioWare with this. Despite all of the character development there is never enough of it for me to believe that these characters love each other. These people go from being complete strangers to lovers in a matter of days. Even if the game says it's been weeks or months, to the player it still only feels like a couple of days, maybe even less. So I can't accept that these two characters have suddenly fallen in love.

That's of course the first problem. The second problem is that there are just far to many opportunities for the game to slide into the uncanny valley during these romances. Things like a passionate kiss, a loving embrace, etc. These need to look realistic, otherwise it kills the credibility of the moment. The games also tends to shove the camera right up to a character's face during these moments, where you can see every little detail and flaw in the character model.

So I suppose my problem with video game romances is that they just don't feel realistic. Considering all the things that have the potential to ruin a romance in a video game, this is not surprising. As a result, ending up in a relationship with a video game character usually has a negative impact on my enjoyment of the game.


Honestly, the only thing worse than failing to make a convincing romance is butchering your story in the process of doing so.

Still, it bothers me when being nice keeps being percieved as my trying to romance someone, both with NPCs and real people online, for that matter.

Ugh. This keeps happening to me in BioWare games. I end up in romances just because I was trying to be nice to someone. I think BioWare easing the character into the relationship over time is good, but don't make it so that you can't even realize that's what is happening.

 

[Sebenko]

At best, it's like the sex scene in Team America.
It only gets worse from there.

Waste of time- I play games to kill things (well, and other things too, but sex isn't one of them). If sex has anything to do with videogames, they happen before and after sex.

 

[Zacharine]

The romanciung is rarely done well. When it's done poorly, I tend to cringe. The time used to create those poor interactions could have been used to better other facets of the game.

When it is done well, I'm pretty much indifferent to it. I don't play the RPG for those romantic interactions, I play them for the story and the world and the challenges and choices given to me. When seeing the romancing 'plots' that are well-done, I simply shrug and think 'okay, so they added this. Now, where was the quest to advance the main plot again?'

 

[insectoid]

I don't particularly care, unless it's done in a spectacularly bad fashion.

 

[Mother Yeti]

If the characters are well written and their attraction to the PC is believable, I'm all for it.

 

[The Unskilled78]

I have enough difficulty empathizing with real people, doing so with images is even harder. I wish they would just have extra gameplay instead of romance. I bought Mass Effect, not Xenophilia Love Sim.

 

[magicmonkeybars]

It's all about how it's done, in DA:O you have two examples of sex.

1. The cutscene, some vague cinematics involving two people doing something.... (sex maybe) but while wearing their underwear (sometimes full plate) I'm pretty sure sex doesn't work that way.

2. The fade to black, only insinuations are made of what really took place, the details are
left to the player to imagine.

The first is clunky and creepy, kind of uncanny, devoid of emotion just robots going through the motions but not the emotions.

The second is more dependant on the players imagination, the depth of your own depravity as your only limitation.

In short, "waking up" "naked" in a room with two nugs and nothing but questions was alot more "satisfying" then 20 seconds of creepy robot "sex"

 

[Zyst]

I like it as long as it feels "natural" so to say, not something they added to please the mainstream base who like looking at 2 fictional characters screw each other. As long as it feels like there was some "Story" or "Value" behind it, I'm ok with it. Can also live easily without it, either way is fine.

 

[StigmataDiaboli]

I think it is ok in an acceptable way. I mean Tidus and Yuna's underwater kiss scene in Final Fantasy X was good, but Dragon Age, Mass Effect and soon Heavy Rain sex scenes....

 

[aPod]

Most of it feels like a cheap gimmick. I almost never see any compelling human emotion in a RPG, least of all love/romance. It's just there with the cheap excuse that it's adding depth, but really just a way to get horny 13-year-old boys to buy those games.

I agree with this. I might do it in one play through but after that i avoid it... just feels clunky to me and that goes for biowares games. Never seems "real" but maybe thats the point? I dont know cheap gimmick, take it or leave doesnt matter to me.