Feature: Love Doesn't Have To Be a Four-Letter Word

[Brick]

Rachel Shepard - the particular Commander Shepard that inhabits the world of Mass Effect which finds itself brought to life every time my Xbox 360 powers up as of late - seems well on her way in her quest to romance her teammate, Garrus Vakarian. I have to admit: her interest in Garrus has come as a bit of a surprise to me.

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[mollipen]

Damn! Who wrote this? Whoever they are, they are a fine specimen of a human being, as I found this piece not only interesting and informative, but also somewhat moving. I can easily say that I am a better person for having read it!

[Nick]

Some chick. I'm surprised there weren't more vampires and terminal illnesses mentioned.

Games still visit the same old scenarios (e.g., hero is busy heroing but his two female teammates - one a doe-eyed blonde and one a spunky redhead - fall for him and start trading veiled barbs over him), but they are at least less giggly now, and the females look like they're past the age of consent.

Maybe Morrigan and Leilani in Dragon Age weren't that far off from the girls in, say, Skies of Arcadia, but the increased realism in the graphics and the dialogue helps a lot.

With the influence of reality televison and all the other mediashit, I wonder if we'll ever get to a point where video game girls are typically more interesting than the real thing? Even stripped of her powers, I'd rather date someone like Morrigan over Generic College Girl #7591.

[Chux]

That's just because she's wearing rags over her tits and has a foul mouth.

[mollipen]

Don't take my support for game-imbedded romance as a sign that I'm happy with where story lines and characters are! You still have too many heroes that are heroes just because that's their job, and indeed, female characters are still utterly horrible a lot of the time. Either they're little more than a male character with a model swap, or they're ridiculously sexualized and evident in their role being eye candy. I mean, seriously... could we get past the day where armor-clad lasses are still required to have cut-out perfect for showing cleavage?

Still, I think attempts on both sides of the world are being made to bring us a better class of character (which is especially important if we are indeed going to be romancing them). As much as I can not only rag on Japanese companies and their god-awful creations, but especially JRPGs, Persona 4 had what I thought was an outstanding cast that refreshingly went quite a ways beyond the stereotypes that genre is notorious for continually reusing.

[Josh]

the females look like they're past the age of consent.

Pass.

[Mzo]

Even stripped of her powers, I'd rather date someone like Morrigan over Generic College Girl #7591.

That might be because her personality is actually the fantasy of some fat programmer and not a real girl.

[Nick]

"Oh yeah, baby! I love it when you talk to me like a fat programmer! I forget: is Linux an operating system or an existentialist?"

[Mzo]

[GohanX]

I was just thinking the other day about how I hated games that have a love interest that you despise. I've been playing Parappa the Rapper lately, and that Sunny Funny bitch needs to be dropped off of a cliff. It's obvious that you should really fall in love with Master Fleaswallow, with his smooth voice and funky, funky flow.