4d ago

'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it

www.pcgamer.com 'These kids do not care about romance': Game devs want to know what today's teens want, and surveys say sex and romance isn't it

Young people want stories about friendship more than romance, say researchers and industry execs.

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bg3 was literally one of the biggest games of the year....
also the sims 4 has been going for years
- Hades was also HUGE and I find it hard to believe it was mainly for the gameplay as even I, a gameplay purist, have always been drawn in by Supergiant’s storytelling.
- The romance was the worst part of BG3, imo.
  Too forced, every dialogue option is either slightly flirty (at least) or just telling them "fuck you and die".
  Even when you say you just want friendship and avoid the most flirty options, it won't stop the game from trying to throw you in a romance. I hated that.
  
  Yep. It did depend on the companion a bit, IIRC Shadowheart and Astarion's romances wouldn't be triggered unless the PC picked the flirty dialogue. But then there were some companions who would pursue the player. I hated how I couldn't just be Gale's Bro, and Halsin is just plain creepy.
  
  Gale has a problem where he interprets interest in his backstory as romantic interest. Which is kind of realistic, but no one wants to be on the receiving end of that in real life or in a game.
  Like bro, put your dick away and tell me some gossip about Mystra.
  
  The upside I guess is that a lot of cis straight men got to experience how uncomfortable unwanted advances are.
  
  Maybe it was deliberate and intended to give some self awareness to some people who won't take no for an answer and keep trying.
- Bets that it wasn’t because of the romance.
  
  I completely avoided all of the romance and loved the game because it's a fantastic game.
  I think it's cool that it's there for people that enjoy it though.
  
  I don’t hate games that have it- though I do wonder what better content there would be if the developers didn’t focus on all the mechanics and coding involved in making it work.

137 comments