Great quotes and I totally agree. I think it’s a good example of how things that can seem really inclusive on paper sometimes go so far they swing around and feel exploitive in a different way.
I could imagine one way they could try and still have the playersexual thing, but maybe make it feel better, is if the potential partners are as picky as real life people. So in other words, it’s possible to court anyone, but you have to really nail it to get any of them at all. No idea if it would fix the issue, but it sounds interesting to me to see how that would feel.
That lends itself to narratives that sexuality can be overridden by someone being good enough at romance. Like the old trope of a straight guy telling a lesbian “you just haven’t had a good dick yet” or an asexual “one day you’ll meet the person for you”.
If I was developing a romance game, I’d have to know that at some point a misogynist incel creep is going to play it, and I don’t want to feed into the idea that if they just savescum or use a walkthrough or choose the perfect pickup line, they can change someone’s sexual preferences. That’s how you get Tate fans thinking they can use pickup artist tricks to get women in the real world.
I think that’s definitely true, though I would say it’s less so than the current versions of playersexual talked about in the article, which basically imply if you flirt with someone even a little they will completely fall for you.
I think my hope with that idea is that if it’s fairly difficult, you may not even know who the romanceable characters are in some cases, so it’s trying to have the cake and eat it to, which is maybe impossible.
It’s not a simple thing I don’t think, and whatever approach is taken has problems it seems like.
Great quotes and I totally agree. I think it’s a good example of how things that can seem really inclusive on paper sometimes go so far they swing around and feel exploitive in a different way.
I could imagine one way they could try and still have the playersexual thing, but maybe make it feel better, is if the potential partners are as picky as real life people. So in other words, it’s possible to court anyone, but you have to really nail it to get any of them at all. No idea if it would fix the issue, but it sounds interesting to me to see how that would feel.
That lends itself to narratives that sexuality can be overridden by someone being good enough at romance. Like the old trope of a straight guy telling a lesbian “you just haven’t had a good dick yet” or an asexual “one day you’ll meet the person for you”.
If I was developing a romance game, I’d have to know that at some point a misogynist incel creep is going to play it, and I don’t want to feed into the idea that if they just savescum or use a walkthrough or choose the perfect pickup line, they can change someone’s sexual preferences. That’s how you get Tate fans thinking they can use pickup artist tricks to get women in the real world.
I think that’s definitely true, though I would say it’s less so than the current versions of playersexual talked about in the article, which basically imply if you flirt with someone even a little they will completely fall for you.
I think my hope with that idea is that if it’s fairly difficult, you may not even know who the romanceable characters are in some cases, so it’s trying to have the cake and eat it to, which is maybe impossible.
It’s not a simple thing I don’t think, and whatever approach is taken has problems it seems like.