Of all the things that video games have going for it as an art form there is one big piece of subject matter gaming in general hasn’t handled very well: Relationships. In light of that (and from Thee Brouhaha’s suggestion) I wanted to offer my humble suggestions–my do’s and don’ts of relationships in video games.
Do:
Make it nuanced/complex/believable
Real life relationships are complicated and sometimes messy. As such it can be difficult to fit them believably into the logical ones and zeros of video games. Every action in real relationships can have any number of reactions while in a game outcomes are mostly limited to if > then statements. However, I can see games breaking free of this in the near future. Bioware’s dynamic conversation system in Mass Effect is a good example of a step in the right direction.
Explore new ground
A major problem in modern games is the overuse and abuse of stereotypes. If you’re a hero then chances are you’re either a wise-cracking Han Solo type or a muscle headed Marcus Fenix type. If you’re a woman or a minority then yours chances are even worse. This is one area that games have been getting a lot better at* but there is still a long ways to go toward developing complexity in character development.
Allow mistakes (but make them fixable)
One of the few guarantees of real life relationships that if you are invested in them at all then you’re likely going to screw them up at one point or another. It is a given of our human fallibility. This ability to fall out is something I’d like to see more of in gaming (I hear Dragon Age: Origins has something like this but I haven’t played it so I’m not sure). At the same time, though, I think it is important that these mistakes be reasonably fixable. A game is, after all, a game and concessions need to be made in order to not totally screw over the player.
Make platonic possible
It may be assumed that when talking about relationships in games I am mainly talking about romantic relationships. Indeed, romantic relationships are the most abused in gaming but there is another type of relationship that I simply feel in unfairly underrepresented. I am referring to platonic friendships. I believe that game story telling would be well served by exploring this type of relationship in deeper ways. A fine example of this comes in my old standby Persona 4.
Don’t:
Make it too easy
Unfortunately, the game I praised for better exploring platonic relationships is also one of the biggest offender’s here. In Persona 4 any female peer that you spend significant time with will, without exception, develop romantic feelings for your character.** It actually became comical to me after a while. While a game depiction of a relationship can’t and shouldn’t be as challenging as a real relationship there should be a certain level of challenge involved. Something won without effort is not going to be perceived as valuable simply because it was easy to get.
Use exploitation and stereotypes
Just as games should work to develop complex and nuanced characters they should also actively avoid the stereotypical and exploitative. It basically amounts to lazy storytelling.
Make it an achievement
The offender that instantly comes to mind here is the romantic subplot of the original Mass Effect. Everyone might still remember the unfair flack the game got because of it’s PG-13 sex scene but what I noticed after the smoke cleared was that no one was talking about the sub-story arch but was talking, instead, about whether they laid the human or the alien. Hiding the relationship story behind a single achievement moment does a great disservice to the story.
Make it too serious
While relationships can be messy, difficult, and confusing they can also be a lot of fun. I would suggest that unless a game is trying to tell a very specific story it shouldn’t take a relationship story completely serious. Have fun with it. Add quirks and friendly jokes. This will not only help stave off emotional burn out but will also allow the relationship depiction to be more dynamic.
These are just my suggestions. What are your thoughts?
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*Silent Hill 2 is a good, if dark, example; another is Metal Gear Solid 3.
**To the game’s credit, though, I should note that you can only date one person and all other relationships will become platonic.
