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"Romance Is Not Dead!"

Nothing endures more than a good romantic plot (what do you need other than a good woman and a PS 2?), and nothing moves a classic game quite like a good yank on the old heartstrings to add a sense of urgency to the action. Love and romance, contrary to what you might think, are quite alive and well in classic videogames, as can be observed in this archetypal plotline:

Hero's main squeeze is kidnapped by:

A. Monster
B. Ninjas
C. Monstrous Ninjas
D. Gargamel (Smurf games only)

Naturally, this leads to a certain amount of indignation in the hero. The hero's quest to win back his lady fair enriches us all, and the eventual re-union of the lovers can teach us all a great deal about romance, as can be seen in these typical plot resolutions:

Hero fights hard and rescues his ladylove, whereupon:

A. They kiss; hero blushes
B. A large floating heart appears above the couple
C. They watch the villain's hideout crumble to the ground
D. She kills him with one swift kick

So what Romantic Moments are there?

Certainly we're all familiar with the first epic plight of Mario. Donkey Kong has kidnapped Mario's girlfriend, Pauline, hauling her to the top of a construction site. After dodging barrels and weaving his way around

Many lessons are ripe for the learning here. Observe:

A. True love will overcome any adversity.
B. Shared romantic moments become even more special when a large concussed monkey is lying semiconscious beneath you.
C. Lovers should display their affection for all the world to see, preferably in the form of gigantic, floating pink hearts.
D. Love is worth several hundred BONUS POINTS!!!!

Other Romantic moments maybe not the aim of the game or to save the loved one, but aid them through a tough and frantic battle to save the world by means of calming them, hinting to them and making them learn how to Love, hence MGS 1 ? Snake/Meryl and Now in MGS 2 ? Raidan/Rose.

So it should be obvious that classic videogames have a great deal to teach us about love. What is the mysterious force that brings two people together in a profound bond, prompting them to share their innermost thoughts and desires, their lives, their extra lives, their power-up items?

Final Thought:

Games have many drastic Romantic themes in them, which may have been taken from the people?s memories and events, which may have happened in their life or a great moment of madness.

Take for example MGS 2 Hideo includes a dialogue between Raiden and Rose, which his wife kept reminding him about several times before learning to understand what she was actually trying to get through to him

Have games ever taught you the meaning of Love and the Importance of why they are involved in today?s gaming world?

Thanks for Reading

AbsoluT Neo

Hey,

Thanks everyone

First GAD ive won

well chuffed

now just the hard decision on what to claim!

:D

Well done on a fine Gad win Mr Neo.

I'm not reading that...

Congrats on the win, well deserved

:)

Wahey!

This won GAD!

Good one!

AbsoluT Neo wrote:

Hero fights hard
> and rescues his ladylove, whereupon:

A. They kiss; hero blushes
B. A large
> floating heart appears above the couple
C. They watch the villain's hideout
> crumble to the ground
D. She kills him with one swift kick



She kills him with one swift kick? Hmmmm.....

Thanks for the comments everyone, lets hope for more 'romancing moments' in future game development and possibly with the roles reversed, now that would be interesting? :D

I think that romance is something that so far has not been exploited in videogames but thanks to a few developers is slowly starting to creep out the woodwork...

I think the reluctance to make romance and love such an integral part is (aside from the red and white pixels saving a pink pixel in a slightly 'basic' intepretation of romance) because graphical constraints would have probably rendered any show of emotion by the characters or palpable feelings stupid looking and ineffective. However, with graphics becoming what they are now, I believe it will certainly be included more and more, especially as motives for plot. Secondly, as game are becoming more movie-like (again I point to MGS2 as an example) a natural progession in this transition would be the inclusion and of love in stories. How long till we see the first love scene in a computer game? Not long I think

Overall very good post Neo, a very original idea and a concept I'm sure we'll see furthered in the future

good points and indeed square have been good @ showing aspects of romacing and it is very easy to base a plot around the 'hero' rescuing his 'love' in a platformer, and normally this is a bloke rescuing his damsal in distress, I wonder if this is ever shown the other way round in games? imagine being Rose and rescusing Raiden with him being caught by dead cell?

For me I like the 'non subtle' elements of romancing in games such as in the MGS games.

Have games taught me
> anything about love?...possibly. Have they effected how things may have gone in
> my life?...im not telling you lot. :D

Oh come on..?

lol :D

You have to say that nearly all the action adventure games out there have a romance part to there plot in them, there are so many examples out there, some which you have used, but some games use romance and portray it better than others, and the best for me has to be the Final Fantasy series.

The plots are huge in these games, but there littered with love elements, all of them, especially on the PS1: Cloud abd Aries, Squall and Rinoa, Zinadane and Dagger (Mind the spellings) All these characters have a thing between them during the game, and these games seem to handle the subject the best for me. Square seem to know what there doing, thats why they are the best developers out there.

Many games have romantic elements in them because its rather easy to model a games plot around it too. With this structure as you have written about everything is already there for the developer in the structure of the plot, all they have to do is twist things and make the games there own.

Have games taught me anything about love?...possibly. Have they effected how things may have gone in my life?...im not telling you lot. :D