I think humans like shiny, new things. This goes for just about everything. When you start up a new series of books and you adore the characters and the world. There is nothing like exploring it for the first time. You may even be obsessed with it, crave more of it cause it’s so perfect and original and there will never be anything like it again. But months go by and the feeling dulls into simple fondness. Then you find another book that fills you the same passion again. This happens with new jobs, living spaces, new toys and gadgets. We crave that initial burst of pure passion.
However, what should happen in relationships is evolution. That’s why there are different types of love. We get caught up in the initial intense lust for a partner but that feeling isn’t sustainable. Almost everyone hits the stage where they find their partner irritating and little disagreements turn into big arguments. However, when you are with the right person, there’s a stage past that which I honestly think is more romantic than the ‘crazy for each other’ stage. A lifelong companion who you have shared history with, who makes you feel safe, who wants to be with you all your faults included. And you have a mutual feeling for them. A connection that makes you want to experience new things with them and enjoy the quiet moments with them rather than fear them. I’ve known a few couples that are so in tune with each other that they can have conversations through their eyes and body language alone. And it’s not passionless, it’s a mature passion of that comfort and warmth you feel being your partner’s presence.
But most romance media is focused on that first stage. It’s whats most popular, happy, innocent, fun. Nobody wants to deal with that problematic middle. Even in TV and movies, it’s like they don’t even know what to do with their characters once they get together. They either break them up or keep the relationship stationary. I wish there was more exploration in media but I understand it’s hard and it’s probably not going to profitable to have your story start in the midst of an argument with your significant other.
I would say that most of the games on here have idealistic romances, although I would think that is more due to time constraints than anything. Writing these games takes enormous effort; I have never tried myself, but reading the descriptions of how to do so makes it clear that it can take a great deal of time to finish even a few scenes. Having fully fleshed out, realistic romances would mean more scenes, more coding, I imagine more stat-checking, etc. I don’t want to speak for the authors here, but I have to imagine the reason many romances in COG are idealistic versus realistic is because making them realistic would be far too time-consuming.
For anyone looking at different take on romance should check out rent a vice. It shows a different type of love interest, the ex-spouse. It’s not an idealistic love, but realistic one of what happens in some relationships.
My biggest story , has 2 couples . One couple have distance against them . The 2nd couple have bickering and frictions in the way .
And yes , it all end up with happily ever after .
Is it easy to write stable normal full of ‘everyday mistakes’ relationship ? depand on the person . Some peoples can dive into writing horrors , some just can’t .
Is it expected from the writer to give them a happy unicorn and rainbow ending? alot of peoples pick up these text based games to escape from a sucky reality . really , this is not a crime .
I don’t think there is a right way to write romance . Some peoples will use their personal experience , and others will never have experienced THAT kind of romance . Should they be guilty of something ? it’s what make us humans , our differences…and god…there are SO many .
Books…games…are an outlet . An escape . Should it always meet reality ? No . If you play a game where the romance is PERFECTION for you , does it mean that’s how reality should be ? No . But there is no law that say you can’t work to make it so . Just like there is no law that say it would end up as you like it .
Do readers expect happy sappy romances ? don’t we all ? it’s in human nature to expect things . We expect a movie to be good as we imagine it , we expect this actors to be awesome in that movie cose we saw alot of his work , we expect this store to sell this kind of product because the store banner say so , we expect there will be traffic because you are driving on the highway …etc .
I think that most games take less than two real time days to complete and it is hard to show a relationship that develops over many years in a two-ish day long game.
I personally wouldn’t see the point in dating anyone who was a major jerk or annoying, especially if I don’t have the backstory of how the relationship developed in the first place. I would just leave the relationship and look for someone less bad.
I wouldn’t see the point in arguing over the same thing over and over again or being with someone with fundamentally different ideals like whether monogamy is important in a relationship.
“Our Personal Space” is a game about being married in space. I don’t see why they got married in the first place because the husband
is jealous and mean to Our poor co-worker who feels isolated and bad at their job and needs friends. It would have made more sense if all of us could have dinner together; the husband would be happy because he would see the wife wasn’t cheating and the wife would be happy because they might actually get along and be friends.
I prefer the idealistic relationships because they can easily be done well in a short period of time.
