That’s…sorta hard to answer, well, I’d more than happily to have a choice to matchmake two ROs, but only when they WOULDN’T get together with each other if the MC didn’t romance them automatically. And to discourage…I’m…too weak to do that, so…nope.
That’d be great!
I’ll start with saying the obvious, write what you wanna write. This is not saying you can’t or shouldn’t do any of this, just my personal feelings on the matter…
So, I feel like having the choice to either help them pursue someone that isn’t you, or actively stop them/choose not to help, is even worse than it simply happening without any choice.
Every time I’ve seen this done it makes you out to be the bad guy somehow if you choose not to. It’s like those “free” story games on app-stores where if you don’t pay to help someone else in their pursuit of someone it tries to guilt-trip you for not doing it. And honestly the active guilt-tripping isn’t even necessary, it would be kind of a shitty thing to do regardless if you had the choice, to actively prevent it, I mean.
My point is, at least to me It will instantly feel like you’re supposed to do it, and if you don’t you’re playing it wrong… whether that’s the intention or not.
And I don’t quite understand the realism argument that’s been made a few times so far. It’s not only irrelevant but counter-productive. Unless romance is a side thing and not at all the point of the story(at which point I wouldn’t care about any of this anyway), I don’t see how you can say “but it’s realistic that people would end up with someone else if you don’t reciprocate/pursue them”, while also accepting that whoever you choose is guaranteed to end up with you. Nothing to do with the actual romance is realistic to begin with, why should that specific part have to be? I don’t think it adds anything to a story, the opposite, imo. And most certainly not to a romance focused story.
And like many others have said, I personally would have no interest in trying out any RO path where the RO was written to end up with someone else if you didn’t choose them. Choice or not.
Perhaps it is time to let this bookish Canon route Thing rest in Peace? I mean a normal IF author should have either No Canon route or all Canon routes, just choose which phrasing you like more.
When I read the wip threads and the authors threads it seems like they give all their thoughts and hard work to make sure every path is equally interesting.
And since it is IF, every route is a Canon route for this playthrough. I do not want to sound rude or something like that. But I think it could be a good thing to divide your own expectation as a Reader/Player in two different expectations. When you read books there is of course one Canon route. But in an IF-Story every route you choose is Canon, because the author gave you the option to choose.
Except for Choice of Romance, of course. Only one of those routes is canon unless you pretend the sequel doesn’t exist.
Right but that game is an older title, the no canon route is a newer Thing, but one I really like. 
I actually rather enjoy it! It makes the characters feel more real to me instead of just narrative devices for the main character. I enjoy watching the chemistry (or we’re technically reading it) and the character interactions. It makes them feel more fleshed out as people.
And I’m not trying to be rude, but what’s up with all this There Is Only One Canon Route And If It Doesn’t Have My Mc In It I Will Be Mad thing? It’s interactive fiction, everything and nothing is canon. Based on how you act in each playthrough, the characters can have wildly different responses to you. A character that might have been your best friend in one playthrough could thoroughly hate your guts in another playthrough. Both of these variations are true!
And besides, technically they wouldn’t be replacing you because you haven’t shown any interest in them. To get on a romance route, you have to romance the person (or people) that you fancy. If you don’t show any interest in the other RO’s in your game, what’s to stop them from pursuing other NPC’s? To them, you’re just MC- a person who’s in the process of falling for someone else.
tldr; No, I don’t mind if love interest’s get involved with someone else.
It depends. If it’s obvious they have feeling/history/are complicated before MC entering the picture, I won’t t pursue their romance paths because it feels like destroying other people’s relationship. It doesn’t matter if there is a poly option.
For example, I won’t consider Shery in Mind Blind a RO because of her crush for another person. I will also prefer no sabotage options because it feels icky and manipulative
It’s more acceptable if MC is already in another path and the characters will only develop relationship with MC’s encouragement, like Izzy in Diaspora, though I won’t invest myself as much in their own paths. That way I will feel less guilty not helping them.
Is a bold and adventurous ro supposed to wait for someone else to come in and set up their relationship? Thats my main issue with the MC deciding who can hook up and who cant. Some people don’t have that kind of character. Plenty of people can start a relationship without outside help and some I could see not even liking outside meddling. Do we simply throw those traits out for character’s so they can all fit into the catagory of “needs hero to come in and set their lives”?
I agree that there is no established “canon” for (most of) these games, but I think when people mention it in this discussion, what they mean is that they don’t like feeling as if there is a canon route, if that makes sense?
I mean, an author might offer several routes, but the text, the amount of time/attention each gets, etc. might still suggest that they actually have a preferred route. So I can definitely see people not enjoying a game where the writer goes out of their way to point out how X and Y are just perfect for each other and meant to be and if the player pursues X they get lackluster scenes or it’s still implied that that their chosen RO would have been happier with the other character.
Huh, I haven’t actually thought about that, but it makes sense! I can understand why people would get pissed about lackluster scenes when pursuing a RO. I’d still chock that up to writing problems instead of a problem with the whole concept of RO’s romancing NPC’s though. (If that makes sense- I’m not very eloquent.)
It is not just a problem of lacklustre scenes, though - for some people it is also a problem of pure math.
If there are three love interest and RO A always get together with B when you are not romancing them, then that means that RO A gets together with B 3 out of four times (The fourth options of course being that the player romances no one,) That can make it feel like RO A is more canonical with Character B because that is statisctically what will happen most of the time.
Personally, I’ve never really minded whenever this happens (in my mind, it’s kind of cute!). Though that’s also a very valid reason for not being fond of this concept!
I understand but I can’t say I personally agree. Because even with that, the MC relationship takes priority over theirs in game world, that means they choose the MC. RO A could say no and go with the “canonical” romance. If anything that should speak for the feelings that character has for the MC and possibly even add to the romance.
Someone above said it pretty well. There isn’t “the one” theres multiple people out there that can give someone a happy life. If MC is taken then why can RO A not find that someone? Especially since that’s not to say they feel nothing for MC just that they’re gonna respect the MC’s relationship and move on with their own life, their own happiness.
At the end of the day, I’d say the MC is everyone’s cannon romance since if the MC chooses them, they’ll go for it. But if the MC doesn’t choose them why should they not continue with their future, love, and happiness?
Hard agree.
And the end of the day, I guess it’s…just the diverse of personal tastes? 