Ah, Valentine's Day is almost upon us. A day dedicated to blossoming romance, bonds of love held to be eternal. A shame that videos games can't really capture that kind of feeling, isn't it?
It isn't for lack of trying. There are many dating sims (up to and including more risque games for adults), and romance is a stable of quite a few RPGs as well. And yet, when romance meets the playable protagonist, it seems that developers, AAA to indie, can do no right when it comes to this.
The real problem stems from three factors. First, one of the trends in fiction in general (not just limited to video games) is that romance is portrayed as One True Love (TM), a fact which is unfortunate. The concept of casual romance is not something that is popular in fiction, and as such rarely gets shown. And even when it does, well, usually there's a case of the One True Love (TM) to go with it.
The second detail is due to the pacing of games. A deep romantic relationship is built over several years, day by day and week by week. Most video games aren't built around showing day to day affairs, and those that are tend to take place over a relatively short period of time. Neither of those things are built towards showing a serious romantic relationship in any major detail.
It doesn't help that some games are required to be vague about the time period over which the game's events take place, since they have to account for a player being able to blaze through the game versus a player who takes their sweet time and checks every nook and cranny. When that happens, it's harder for a player to grasp how fast or slow the romance is progressing, and thus it can come off as forced or drawn out, depending on your perspective.
The third factor is how romance can get tied to game mechanics and rewards. If the game gives specific bonuses for romance, especially it falls really foul on the first two points, it makes the whole thing seemed contrived. Instead of being a deep romance, players may read it as just another game mechanic instead of actual character interaction and development. Which kind of runs counter to showcasing the relationship as One True Love (TM).
The result is a huge mess, and one of the reasons I feel that romance, when explored in a game, should be between secondary NPCs, instead of playable characters. It's far too easy to fall into one or more of the above traps, and I'd rather I see video game stories done well, even if that limits the kinds of stories that can be told with them.
Either way, it's not stopping you from buying your beloved some candy and/or flowers, so go out and do that. And if you don't have someone to do that for...well, I guess you just can't count on video games to provide escapism in that regard, can you?
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