Why do every American game has to have a love relationship?

[ejb626]

Most of America's most popular games have no love relationship at all.
Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Halo all three are American games...wait damn it your right in Halo you can kind of count the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana its a stretch but sort of and Gears has Dom looking for his dead wife. I guess its because Romance makes for a good story arc and can get people caring for the characters( Off-Topic: the alliteration in that makes it sound ridiculous when said out loud) and thus into the story.

 

[LeonLethality]

You know I've never actually seen a video game categorized by the country (apart from JRPGs) it was made in so I couldn't tell you. Most games are made in more than one studio contrary to popular belief. If you could give me some examples it would help though, I can't think of any with a relationship in it.

actually they are usually made in a single studio but often with multiple teams for different fields and produced by a big company (like star ocean is made by tri ace but produced by square enix) at least I think that's how it goes...

 

[WickedSkin]

Let's see now...

Duke Nukem was in love with himself and his overcompensatingly awesome firearms

Gordon Freeman was in love with his crowbar

Master Chief was in love with his armour

Louis was in love with his pills

Sam Fisher was in love with the shadows

Jack Carver was in love with his Hawaiian shirt

The elite crew guy from the terrorist force in counter-strike...source, was in love with his...sweet goatee

And that's about as much cleverness as I can come up with right now...HARRY WAS IN LOVE WITH HIS PITS!

I see your point and I think it's cliched and just fucking stupid whenever there is EVER a trace of romance in a game (Aside from mario and princess peach, I feel like I should give them a free ride). But to be fair it's not just Americans who do it, look up a Japanese eroge game and you'll see that games the Japanese make have more have love in them than any other video games.

Weren't Far Cry developed by Crytek and Splinter Cell by Ubi Soft? Does that mean all European games also have love affairs? The Japanese games have it to you say?! OP you fucked up!

 

[WickedSkin]

Most of America's most popular games have no love relationship at all.
Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Halo all three are American games...wait damn it your right in Halo you can kind of count the relationship between Master Chief and Cortana its a stretch but sort of and Gears has Dom looking for his dead wife. I guess its because Romance makes for a good story arc and can get people caring for the characters( Off-Topic: the alliteration in that makes it sound ridiculous when said out loud) and thus into the story.

***** please. Everyone knows Marcus Fenix and Dom are homosexuals. They obviously compensate and their names are totally gay. Looking for his dead wife? Oh please...

 

[WickedSkin]

Because if we americans don't get at least four sexual encounters per day, we are biologically compelled to randomly select a country and bomb it.

Feeling lucky, Swede? *twitch, twitch*

Then why are there people still alive in the world?

 

[ender214]

Most American action media follows the basic action story-line:

1) Guy falls in love with girl
2) Guy gets rejected by girl
3) Girl gets captured by evil overlord/corporation/secret society/federal agency/terrorist group
4) Guy shoots people/blows stuff up/cuts people up/burns things/stabs things/smashes things. This somehow saves the world from ending.
5) Girl falls in love with guy and they live happily until the sequel

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

I did not notice any in Call of Duty 4 and the Elder Scrolls series.
Those are American.

 

[Krythe]

In all seriousness, I find the mandatory romance subplot to be rather irritating also. I guess it's because they're afraid to break out of the linear formulas the game industry has cemented over the years.

Still, this isn't a uniquely American phenominon - Final Fantasy's milieu of underdressed androgenous teenage boys very pointedly not being romantically interested in the female cahracters blantantly swooning over them until nearly the end of the game where they magically realize they're not homosexual comes to mind. (Whereas anyone who once was, or has at least observed, teenage boys at some point in their lives knows that there are very few thoughts even approaching the magnitude of female relations in the average mindset of this age bracket.)

And the apex of obviously-shoehorned-in romance subplots (for me at least) was the Jack-Rose thing in Metal Gear Solid 2. Halfway through the game I began to find myself hoping that Manhattan WOULD get nuked solely so those two would shut up and we could concentrate on the murder.

 

[The DSM]

Lack of anything else as a plot point, dont mind as long as it isnt just generic sudden love intrest.

 

[Amnestic]

I did not notice any in Call of Duty 4 and the Elder Scrolls series.
Those are American.

The way Soap looked at Gaz? Clearly something was there, lurking just behind their eyes.

 

[Gmano]

Halo similarly lacks any sort of love relationship.

Actually, there is a lot of tension between John and Cortanna (not so much in gameplay, but in the cutscenes, and books. yeah.

 

[badgersprite]

I don't know. I guess because they want their games to be more like TV shows or movies, or because it's the easiest way to shoehorn in emotional depth. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but I think a problem is that they often don't let it evolve organically. It sort of becomes a matter of, "Here's a male character. Here's a female character. OH! They must be in a relationship, obviously!" but it often doesn't work like that. It feels like they don't look at which characters in the cast actually have strong chemistry, or who appeals most to the audience.

I suppose the other reason for putting in love relationships is that video games, and stories in general, are supposed to be fulfilling some kind of fantasy. Either, it's an author-insertion fantasy where their characters are infallible and have all the luck with the ladies, or it's a fantasy that they think will suit the player.

There's nothing wrong with trying to put love or relationship stories into games in theory, but I just wish that they would be handled better, and I wish developers had enough insight to omit a love story if they can see it's being handled badly. Plus, I would like to see characters with deeper motivations than, "Missing wife/must impress girl/it's the end of the world so let's hop into the sack," but then I'm one of those artsy twits who likes to see complex and interesting stories.

In summary - a well-developed love story can make a good game amazing, but, as it stands, a generic romance subplot just makes mediocre games annoying.

 

[C117]

You know what The Beatles said... "all you need is love!"

 

[Amnestic]

Halo similarly lacks any sort of love relationship.

Actually, there is a lot of tension between John and Cortanna (not so much in gameplay, but in the cutscenes, and books. yeah.

There's a difference between being close and being in love. The kind of trust that forms between two comrades on the battlefield might be akin to love, but it's not the same.

 

[ethaninja]

Y'know, 'relationship' can be defined as something more than romantic/sexual.

Thats what I was just about to say.

 

[cheese_wizington]

No COD game has had a love relationship, hell barely any FPS's have relationships like that in them. What I want to know is what games you've been playing.

 

[Simalacrum]

errrm... lets see, games that don't have a romantic (I'm presuming you mean romantic?) reltionship that are American... (off the top of my head):

Tom Clancy's End War
Fallout 3
Forza Motorsports 1,2 and 3
Come to think of it, EVERY racing game out there, pretty much (so thats about +a few hundred)
Guitar Hero + Rock Band franchises
Assassins Creed
Killzone 2
Street Fighter franchise

care for me to continue?

 

[annoyinglizardvoice]

You know what The Beatles said... "all you need is love!"

And people who believe it die of asphyxiation

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

They may be trying to follow the old saying "Everyone loves a romance" it may or may not be true, but it has yet to hurt a games sales as far as I know.

Also, I can't help but notice the slight grammar errors in the title, just sayin.