Regardless of it being straight or gay, more games are presenting romantic relationships. Is this just the start or has it already gone over the top?

Please, no troll emails or comments, I used the title just to catch your attention. I am not an anti-gay activist. The other day I read an exceptional piece on GameSpy entitled "Putting the Gay in Games: The Industry's Evolving Attitudes Toward Sexuality" by Lara Crigger and it set me thinking about relationships in modern video game titles.

Recently my real life Pirate Princess was playing with Dragon Age: Origins (for the 5th time through) and I spotted that her girl character was romantically attracted to Leliana. Now in the real world she is straight as a die. For the record, in this go through she was only a huge tease to passionate Leliana who never gets to have sex with her girlfriend. My other half was annoyed when I was playing Dragon Age and my guy hero was sleeping with both Leliana and Morrigan (I was running game customizations that enable explicit sex scenes and this definitely had something to do with her disdain). Those mods are only available for the PC version and can be found at Dragons Age Nexus (grown ups only please). I was expected to justify in in no uncertain terms, when I was forced to pick why did I choose Leliana over Morrigan. What was my answer to her questioning? I claimed, "Because Leliana appears to be way more like you". She was completely satisfied with my answer. I am real happy I did not prefer Morrigan, as it was a toss-up between the two and I sure could have chose her instead.

The challenge is not really do we need gay romantic interests in games, but to we need relationships in games at all. From the large cross section of gamers I chat with, the majority response was: "depends on the variety and flavor." I found it to be a delightful break from shooting and looting in Dragon Age and grinding through targets. I never pick the male on male option and I rarely choose to be playing a girl fictional character, unless that is the one and only option available. Having said that, more selections are sure to make the games way more inviting to a broader audience.

There is massive shortage of relationship features in nearly all the games, even in RPGs (Role Playing Games). There must be a bigger demand for this than what producers are supplying to us. For instance, it could have quite easily been a much bigger part of Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas. In their forerunner Fallout 2, this had been a neat characteristic of that game, that was regrettably skipped by the first person heirs. There is a outstanding mod for Fallout 3 called "Gurlz 187", which can be uncovered for zero cost at Fallout 3 Nexus. Players can hook up with a partner by the name of Sasha Ashe (who debuted in my Cops in the Wasteland machinimas if you want to watch her). The more Sasha is charmed by your on screen persona, the more stuff she will give and the more advantages she will present you, as well as "doing it" with you. My estimate is that gaming companies do want to show us relationships in our virtual lives, but the truth is the added computer programming associated takes a long time which makes it a lot more costly to complete. Of course, if precious time was the solitary issue we would have observed many more romantic choices for Duke in Duke Nukem Forever, despite the fact that we adored the 2 girls in a lip lock. "Shake it baby".

I find the shortfall of virtual love interests surprising. With all the breakthroughs in AI (artificial intelligence), why haven’t we experienced more? The single title I know about that presents any genuine AI relationship progression is an all but unknown project called Kari Virtual Girlfriend. Kari has been around for a minimum of 6 years and has grown minimally, which is horrible as the idea is fantastic. I really believe if a major studio makes a good game, with a incredible romantic options for you, it would disappear off the shelves (or off their online download web servers) and enjoy very high sales. Undoubtedly there is a desire for love and relationship fostering in games. There are a multitude of individuals out there who may have no authentic love relationship in their lives or It's possible they just want to role play. Most certainly in many games sexual orientation is thoroughly of no significance. When you’re staring through the scope of sniper rifle what big difference does it make? Conversely in a role playing game it certainly adds depth to the game experience.

So what do you believe concerning relationships in games? Would you order a game that has a high quality relationship simulator and would you really want gay selections? And will the industry confine these to M and A/O rated games or do we find gay relations in E rated games? Only precious time will tell. And whatever happened to the virtual reality sex simulators we were promised? I believe I will keep that subject for another day. As I am just about to complete this post I stumble upon a game critique on a newly released title for PS3 known as "Catherine". The game's plot is built around a guy character's romantic relationship with his girlfriend Katherine (spelled with a "K") and his hook up with a magnificent woman named Catherine (note spelling is with a "C"). So I think we are on the correct path. We know from experience sex sells, but I feel relationships would too. I can see it now ZeniMax's "Deliverance: Raft & Rape Edition" or Take Two Presents "Brokeback Mountain: No Man Left Behymen". Have fun. Thanks for reading.