Romance in video games is fun, yeah, but it's usually just something extra. It's rarely the main focus and I'm hard-pressed to really imagine how to make it the main focus without making a gooner game. Usually romance/sex is sort of the cherry on top of an otherwise good game.
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025
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Maybe one day, someone in charge of making video games will ~~figure out~~ remember that compelling, unique, decently challenging and rewarding gameplay is the actual fundamental component of a video game, and that everything else is important, but ultimately secondary to that.
Now, I like a good romance here and there. Who doesn't?
That being said, games like Sonic 06 are very good examples of why romance isn't welcome in some places
Oh really. And what do you think he's collecting all those rings for?
Sauron
Big mainstream games that are heavy on sex, like Baldur's Gate 3, are a recent phenomenon.
Heavy on sex? Just which mods did the author install?
It's fairly accurate isn't it? Every single companion (bar Minsc and Jaheira - though the Jaheira romance was cut content) lusts for you with the uncomplicated ferocity of a hormonal teenager, some after having exchanged barely a sentence or two with you (looking at you, Halsin). There is a bear fucking scene, Mizora wants you for some reason and hell, you can even bang a god damn mind flayer.
The bear-fucking scene will always be my answer to things like this.
You can't look at BG3 and go "yup, wholesome family fun for all ages"
Yeah, but you don't HAVE to fuck the bear.
Joking aside, if romance and sex aren't your thing, you as the player have control in most games to just not do those things.
The characters keep throwing themselves at you though.
It really sucks when I'm playing a game with my girlfriend and there is a half-naked demon lady trying to bang me despite me being an asshole to them in every interaction.
Baldurs Gate 3 is one of my favorites games ever, but I would enjoy it a lot more without the awkward horny stuff it throws in my face.
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You can romance and have sex with pretty much anything with a heartbeat in BG3.
Yeah there's some romance, but there's barely any sex. You can only romance one character at a time and there's like one short cutscene per character, with some being a fade to black, in a 100 hour long game.
There's not a bunch of full frontal nudity or raunchy sex scenes, that's true.
But the game is shamelessly horny. All characters were designed to be maximally fuckable and they're all desperately tryna fuck. The sexual tension is palpable and several of the MC outfits wouldn't be out of place at a sex party.
Don't get me wrong I wouldn't call the game softcore porn by any stretch, it's just... canonically horny. Which is perfectly fine.
When was the last time you saw a game that was more than that outside of porn games and maybe dating sims? The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Cyberpunk 2077.
I always think of this kind of stuff when these kinds of polls come up because they're always by big corporate companies who put the most shallow of these themes in. People want this stuff like they want strong female leads: they want stuff that actually puts the effort in to make it good, not half-baked content just to maximize market reach or that one gay side character with one line of dialogue mentioning his husband who never actually appears in the movie.
Does it need a heart beat?
Asterion?
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I know it's anecdotal, but among my students (12-18 y/o), dating sims are extremely popular. Probably the most popular genre after battle royal games. I would definitely consider dating sims romance games.
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Half-assed sex scenes (no pun intended) are probably worse than ones that are well done.
I still think a lot about one of the beats in a DA:I romance. But like... all the ones from DA:O were kind of bad. But also the one I played in DA:V was so PG-13 and sterile it wasn't any fun at all.
all the ones from DA:O
You underestimate the power of my crush on Morrigan.
I think that you can just give them gifts until they're horny for you is like the quintessential example of poorly done video game romance.
To be fair, the DLC that added the absurd +50 approval gifts was an optional download released on April 1st. The gifts system as shipped by the vanilla game was not too bad, and was not enough to make a companion swoon over you single-handedly. At least I don't think so. That being said, I can't pretend DA:O is the height of dating sims or anything, either.
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I really enjoyed my Shepard and Liara romance during the Mass Effect trilogy, but I don't think it's particularly well executed in most other games.
This feels like such a non issue because games and movies these days have basically zero sex appeal or romance
It was a pleasant surprise that you could romance people in BG3
SIGNALIS is a game about romance and I loved it, it is one of my favorite relatively recently released games.
Maybe you're doing it wrong?
It's always been this way.... Are people finally realizing that fan service is cringe?
This came up, I want to say last year? In regards to movies and TV shows as well.
Aha - 2023:
https://www.npr.org/2023/10/25/1208435267/sex-teens-tv-movies
"Looking for 'nomance': Study finds teens want less sex in their TV and movies"
This is where I've found myself, too. It's not that I am prudish or against the inclusion of sex scenes in shows and movies—I think some of them are pretty well done—but we're at the point where it feels like a lot of media are just adding in sex scenes for the spectacle of it without it serving any particular purpose for narrative development or characterization.
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