In Dragon Age: Origins there is a trophy for a romance with Alistair (who is kinda hot and is funny and charming), but there are also trophies for completing a romance with Zevran and Leliana... now can I do all 3 romances in the same game play through? Can I be a slut? (and apparently a bi-sexual one, because Leliana is open to either gender). Even if I can't do it all in one runthrough, I will have to be pretty slutty and eventually sleep with them all, not to mention I'll have to play as a guy and sleep with Morrigan (who I detest) if I want the trophies.

This is what is wrong with trophies. They make me do the wrong thing, something I don't want to do, have no inclination towards... and I'll have to go against my heart and be a slut - doing the wrong thing. In fact, even considering being a slut feels kind of wrong. Now I do have to give kudos to a game that has me twisted up in sexual morality... because while I really like Alistair, I can't help but wonder if maybe I should have a quick fling with the sweet Leliana and that elf-man Zev first, then conclude with the romance with my "one true love". Alistair has the potential to be a man of title and power, and let's be real - I'm a girl... I want a nice house, security and a cute husband. Then again, will he even offer marriage? Also, if I sleep with Zev and Leliana, will he even want me? Maybe like real life, I'll blow a chance at a good relationship by giving in to those slutty temptations.



So... Leliana, the sweet red-headed temptress... or Alistair, my studly knight... or Zev... the naughty Elf? The game does succeed in presenting real choices with differing personalities and with different possible outcomes.

EDIT: Just to clarify my point... I detest trophies that offer spoilers for plot lines (and who you can have romances with) but the game does offer multiple options and the flirting and various characters manage to make it seem realistic. Each person playing the game would likely have their own choice as to the character that attracted them the most, and those choices would be different. I just hate that the trophies encourage "romantic liasons" with various characters and don't just leave it "complete a romance". In many ways I'm taken out of the story by the trophies and instead am considering the "technicalities" of being a slut and if it would work in terms of acquiring various trophies on one playthrough. It's not a thought that would be natural to me if I wasn't aware of the trophies (though it could be natural to others! LOL!). Once again, trophies have managed to negatively impact a game for me. I really wish there was a trophy opt-out option... so that trophies didn't even show at all - because it's hard not to look!


Decisions, decisions. Anyone else having some problems with the romantic moral ambiguity?
Oh, and I don't care if there's a trophy for it or not... I'm not doing it with a dwarf... that's just asking too much!

Devs need to read more Harlequin Romance novels. Yes, I read them. They are books that are easy to pick up and put down because they rely on a very successful formula for romance. When I read a Dean Koontz book or other "real" book, I'm likely to do a marathon session... which is detrimental to things like dinner! For those that don't read Harlequin Romances... they are no longer "virgin meets rich doctor, falls in love and they get married"... no, today's romances are much, much racier, more realistic and contain some scintillating erotic sex scenes (not porn.. but some get damn close).

To be honest, sex in video games really doesn't hold much interest for me. It tends to be just sex, not romance. Even when they add in romantic qualities, they get it all wrong and really all they're doing is establishing some form of very boring relationship that usually goes along the lines of the following:

*Choice: there is often a choice of potential romance partners, you choose one through a dialogue tree.
*Courting: there are usually dialogue options to continue showing an interest in your choice (or to switch choices). In GTA4, you took her out on a bunch of dates.
*Conclusion: Sex in a bed.

Yawn... boring!

Alternately, we have the more scripted romances that tend to follow the High School concept of "I like her, she doesn't seem to like me, I make a sacrifice for her or rescue her... oh, she does like me... conclusion".

Yawn... again boring!

Devs need to spice things up a bit and think romance and passion not "sex". Harlequin books have a very long and successful history of writing romances and they tend to follow these rules:

Conflict. There must be conflict. There must be a reason to initially hate or dislike the eventual love interest. Maybe the love interest's brother killed your sibling or parent, maybe it's an old family feud, maybe the love interest had you demoted... it doesn't really matter as long as conflict is established with a simple backstory. Conflict simply adds an element to "overcome" which adds to the final resolution.

Anticipation. The initial conflict is always emotional... and once that is overcome, there is usually a situational conflict to overcome. Even when each person realizes they love the other, there are still situations that usually keep them apart - prolonging the anticipation of a resolution. Often it's a misunderstanding, another person... whatever. There just has to be a point at which the heroine realizes she loves the hero, but can't be with him. The more doomed the relationship seems, the more emotional the resolution is.

Resolution. The hero and heroine finally express their love and commence with the usual showing of their love. "Romance" isn't sex in a bed... it's sex in an open field while it's pouring rain, it's sex on a grand piano in the middle of a huge ballroom with chandeliers softly lit, it's having emotions overrun the situation and a need to show love through sex. Sex in video games needs to be a grander gesture. It needn't be time consuming or explicit... just not boring "sex in a bed" stuff. I do really like how Mass Effect did the sex scenes... just wish it hadn't been so pedestrian and maybe a bit more situationally imaginative.



Harlequin rules of romance also state that the male is always an Alpha male. They must be powerful, decisive, dominant... though with an underlying "hidden" kindness or suffering some emotional wounding. (Bioware's Anomen was not an alpha male in Baldur's Gate:SoA - yes, he was BORING!). The female is almost always a plucky woman. In the past, she was often powerless and needing to be rescued ( from poverty, widowhood, divorce, single motherhood, marauding soldiers, evil relatives, a demeaning job, or some combination of the above), but nowadays she is much more inclined to be an assertive woman who's life is totally under control... until she meets "the man".
EDIT: and it should be noted that sex and romance (love) are treated differently in Harlequins. Often sex is at the beginning of the book and forms the basis for the conflict. They meet, have sex, then find they have to work together. Guilt and conflict ensure... followed by anticipation and finally resolution.



While the Final Fantasy series, Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate series and other games have attempted "romance" - they seem to fail on multiple accounts and to a large degree it seems because they aren't looking at "mature" romance. Instead they are using either underdeveloped high school romance, or they simply give optional partners culimnating in some form of sex scene if the dialogue options are followed. I think that romance has been a sub-plot or optional plot in many of the previous games, but I see no reason why a love story can't actually form the basis for a game. Movies do it all the time. Terminator was a love story. She hates the "future guy" who is ruining her life (conflict) - "come with me if you want to live". They gradually realize their love for one another but are on the run. I don't even recall if an actual "sex scene" was shown because in this romance, the conflict and anticipation parts were drawn out so long. "I came across time for you Sarah. I love you, I always have."
The last scene of Sarah Connor being pregnant though is an interesting way of showing the resolution. It's a touching love story because of the conflict - this is what is so often missing in video games. If she had met him and liked him right away, the love story would not have been nearly as good.

There are many games with good love stories in them... and most do the anticipation part well... but I would like to see more conflict and more mature and passionate resolutions. I didn't have the pleasure of playing Mass Effect unfortunately, but I'm really looking forward to Dragon Age: Origins... and I'll be interested to see if the Bioware devs have been reading romance novels... and have taken video game sex to a place of mature passion and romance. If not, then they should start reading romance novels... doesn't this one seem like it could be an interesting game?


(and yes, this is an actual book!... though I haven't read this one.)

Yeah, I want to buy you a present, but apparently Sony won't let me. I find it frustrating that the PSN store currently has no way of "gifting" a purchase such as a map pack or game to another PSN ID. It seems that this would have been a smart feature to build in at the beginning as it's virtually free profit for Sony at minimal cost. There have been times when I would gladly have bought a map pack for a clan member who didn't have it, and currently I'd like to buy a simple, social PSN game to play with a friend who has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to play the usual shooter games or games with a lot of 3D movement in them... so I'd like to try Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy with her. Unfortunately, she doesn't work and so I'd like to buy a copy of the game for her. I don't want to be giving out my PSN password as this breaks the PSN agreement, and frankly in many cases I really don't mind giving the devs the extra money.



I'd like to buy a code please Vanna!
Why don't they have a simple system whereby you can buy the game, or you can buy a code for game. Beside the "purchase game" link, add a link for "purchase game code"... then let it take you to a simple mechanic whereby you can buy a code for a different country and let them bill at the appropriate exchange rates (she's American and I'm Canadian). Heck, they could even offer deals... buy two map pack codes and get the third one free! You can then simply send the PSN code to your friend. I find it ironic that when the map packs started coming out for Killzone 2, they were offering codes as give-aways on various web sites, but the average user who wanted to actually pay for a code - well they can't. Sony doesn't mind giving games away, but dammit if you can actually buy a game for a friend.

I see now that Amazon sells PSN (and XBL) game codes. Unfortunately you have to have a U.S. billing address in order to buy one. I guess I could lie and fake one (though my credit card info would likely give me away as one of those evil Canadians), but why is it so difficult to incorporate this directly into PSN? I could also buy a PSN card and send it to her... but unfortunately Canadian PSN cards don't work for Americans. Why do we have to stoop to "gamesharing" or giving away our online ID's and passwords in order to accomplish the simple act of giving a gift to a friend that we are often quite willing to buy? In fact if "gamesharing" is legitimate, then why doesn't Sony simply give us a code with our purchase that can be used on 5 different PS3 units? Yes, I could create a sub-account, put an amount in the wallet and pay twice for the game... but it's still complex and stupid and if they're going to make me go to that much trouble then I'm likely to do what everyone else does... rip off the dev and simply give out my own ID info so my friend and I can play a game together.
Shopping is shopping... and people like to buy stuff for other people.



I also want to buy me a present... I would like to buy Uncharted 2's online game only. I don't want to buy the campaign because I'll never play it, but it would be nice to play the online portion of the game. In my opinion, it's a better online game than games like Fat Princess... so why don't the devs sell the online portion as a PSN downloadable game? It means free money for them and more people on the servers encouraging others to continue playing. What about other games like Quantum of Solace or Fear 2? These games are primarily purchased for their single player campaign and often have an online component that dies a quick death - so why not offer the online component as a PSN game?

Online purchases from a console are still new... and I know they have some growing to do, but it seems that the ability to buy something for someone else should have been a no-brainer and anticipated at the very planning stages. I hope the concept also grows to include "parts" of games. It would allow increased profitability for devs, but also lowered costs for gamers only interested in either online or offline components of a game.

So Devs... start thinking of new ways to make profit, and Sony... instead of wasting time and resources putting links to the PSN store all over our XMB, start making the PSN store useful and allow us to buy codes (at least for North America or Europe - regional purchases if you can't do international purchases). This way I can play my Uncharted 2 online and don't have to steal games and rip off devs so I can play a game with my friends.

I found out a short while ago that an online friend committed suicide. We were part of a small gaming community, but she was also one of the very few people that I occasionally corresponded with via email. We weren't especially close, but we were friends. Her sudden suicide affected many of us in our small gaming community (GAP). She was a talented writer, and an honest and tactful force within the community - often the voice of reason when the community was in turmoil. There have been many blogs written about her as the community struggles to come to terms with what happened and I guess this is more in the realm of a personal blog about... well... being happy.

I keep thinking it over... and she faced many challenges in life that I won't go into here... but one thing that always seemed to elude her was a sense of happiness. Even when she was happy, it was always as though it was such a narrow ray of sunshine... with the fingers of various shadows ready to creep in at any time. It's made me think about happiness in general. I truly think that happiness is the most important thing in life... not making money, nor having a great job, a soul mate or a huge house. I also think that happiness is entirely a state of mind. I think that no matter what challenges life throws at you - you can "choose" to be happy - even if you have a crappy job, a miserable spouse or a terrible illness.

"I'll be happy when..." when I get out of school, when I get a better job, when I get married... no you won't be happy then if you aren't happy now. Don't delay on being happy. Think of 5 good things in your life that you can be happy about right now. Think of the things you can achieve... being a good spouse/parent/child... just being a good person. You don't need to climb mountains, travel or be the best at something to feel happiness in achieving things in life.

For some reason, since her passing, I just can't seem to write a blog, or even read blogs that have depth. Everything seems so trivial compared to the overwhelming thought that each avatar is a real person, with real problems... a person that could suddenly die in real life and disappear forever from the text world of my computer. They might not think they would be missed... but they often would be. I guess the best way to describe it is that all the people that inhabit my computer create a synchronous music. When a person gradually fades away to other sites or other interests, that note is simply not as loud, but it is still there... somewhere. When you learn that somebody died... especially suicide with the usual "why's" and "what if's"... it just creates a jarring note that seems to dominate the music.

My condolences go out to her family and fiancee. It's odd how a "virtual" person can be missed, so I guess one thing I take away from this experience is the impact we have on each other. We're probably not even aware of those that might miss us if we passed on, but it's a wider circle of impact than most of us likely think.

eh... it's hard to explain, but for some reason this blog demands being written in order for me to write about other things. I've half written other blogs, but for some reason I feel the need to write something about her. I don't know why - I guess it's just closure. What I choose to take away from this experience though is the confirmation that I am happy. I have so many good things in my life. I'm so very lucky that I don't have chemical imbalances or mental issues that prevent me from feeling happiness. Happiness is such a simple thing... but something we don't seem to enjoy enough when we are lucky enough to have it - in our current world it's so easy to focus on the bad things in life and not take a moment to just smile and feel happy.

So choose to be happy.

OMG!! I'm one of "them"!! How in hell did this happen??? I used to be such a nice girl. Now, I've become that stereotypical gamer... spending my evenings loading up some shooter game and yelling at people into the mic. The fact that I'm old (47) and female, well that's irrelevant because I've become exactly how I always thought gamers were - addicts who bought SOCOM or HALO and played them night after night.

I don't really know how it happened. It was never my intention. I look at the games scattered near my console and most every night I find myself playing an FPS or shooter game - usually the MAG beta, Resistance 2, KZ2 or Battlefield 1943, sometimes Warhawk. I find this odd. I don't like guns. I've never fired a gun in real life. I don't know guns and always think a SCAR is a mark left by an injury, or that FAMAS is somebody misspelling Famous (OMG... I'm Famas!) I don't even know the differences between an SMG and an assault rifle and they all kind of seem the same to me - point, shoot. Terms like bullet spread, grips and suppressors always sound vaguely S&M dirty to me.

It wasn't always this way. I played all the Tomb Raider games, I played RPG's like Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale on the PC, and Shenmue and TimeStalkers on the Dreamcast. I loved the horror genre and eagerly played the Resident Evil games, D2, Shadow Man and many others. Sure, there was shooting in Tomb Raider games, in Blue Stinger, RE and other genres... but they were still more story oriented and had many other gaming aspects. Nowadays I don't even want to bother with the campaign, I just want to play the online game and shoot people. I played Killzone 2 for over 3 months before I finallly went back and played the campaign mode - on easy, just to get through it as quick as possible, just to see what it was like.

I want to get excited about games like InFamous, Batman or Brutal Legend.... but I just know that I'd rather be playing an online game... with guns. I do occasionally play other genres... I've played Flower and it was fine, for short while, but I think it would have been more fun with a gun.



I do usually have an offline game that I play when I finally tire of shooters and just want to relax. It used to be Oblivion, it's currently Sacred 2 and my next game will be Dragon Age:Origins. But these are games I play when I can't play online, or am just too tired to play something that requires any thinking and these are my "relax and vegetate" games... games that tend to be fairly repetitious, easy, long and their own world.


Last night I was a squad leader in the MAG beta, issuing orders to my squad, co-ordinating with my Platoon Leader, working as a team to achieve various objectives... getting annoyed with a sniper who was picking us off as we neared an objective and ordering my troops to "take him out". There's something very empowering about working as a team with real people and achieving the small goals you set for yourself or your group. I think for me the attraction to shooter games has absolutely nothing to do with guns... and everything to do with the teamwork. I find that in about 50% of the games I'm in, I end up with a great group of people where several are on mic and there's a real feeling of camaraderie even with random strangers. I don't know why I have such good luck, but it happens often enough that online FPS gaming has become quite addictive for me.


Teamwork!

I do want to expand my horizons, try other games... I know at some point I'll buy and play Bioshock 2 - but it's still a secondary game for me, something to play when I'm not hauling ass across a map to help a teammate. Borderlands currently tops my list of "most wanted"... but while it's an RPG, it's the promise of all those lovely guns that has me excited!

I guess it's not so bad being one of "those" gamers. It's not really the guns, it's the teamwork and social environment. Speaking of which, I still host an open Warhawk game every Thursday night, and anybody is welcome to join in. The game name is usually GAP-Elsa, it starts around 7pm pacific and it's an unranked player server with a rank cap of Captain. Feel free to jump in and join me... only don't steal my tank! This teamwork thing only goes so far.....
:)

Oh... and I did buy Uno... hoping to get some social play without shooting someone, but really... just before someone plays a 7 and trades their stack of 8 cards for your single card, don't you think a headshot animation would be appropriate??

It's the house party that just won't die! They shut off the lights, turned the music down, locked the doors, and every once in awhile the Admins wander in wearing their bathrobes - yawning and looking around with an expression of "you're still here??... the party's over... go home". Over six years later, it seems that the party is indeed over. In about April of 2003, Sony first revealed the existance of a group called the "Gamer Advisory Panel", which became commonly referred to as "GAP". The group was essentially a focus group for various surveys as Sony worked on the development of both the PSP and the PS3.



The Gamer Advisory Panel was also an invite-only group and on receiving the invitation gamers were granted access to a private blogging portion of the Playstation site. Most new members received a fancy certificate of membership and also a welcome gift that changed over the years, but generally was an item like a hat, t-shirt, disc binder or other small item. In exchange for their involvement they were promised such things as the following:
* Opportunities to provide feedback (generally through various surveys, but also in response to blogs posted by the site admin) * Prioritized access to beta tests
* Opportunities to work at Playstation events and promotions (Ozzfest, Comic-con, and sometimes instore promotions at various locations) * Access to exclusive insider events, including contests
* A shot to win a trip to E3 (this contest was last held in 2006)

For the most part, the promises made were fulfilled. I got the invite in early 2006, a few months after registering a launch PSP. I was admittedly a bit puzzled about the certificate which stated that I was apparently "one of the most elite, involved gamers in the Playstation Underground". I had only made a few posts on the PSU and my gaming skillz were hardly "elite"! After awhile I soon came to realize that membership was likely either entirely random or particular demographics were targeted (acquisition of newer consoles seemed a definite factor as most newcomers had a PSP and later newcomers had a PS3).



The biggest promise was the "power to shape the future of gaming" which did happen. Early members received many surveys which helped to shape the current PSP and PS3 units and many of the contests were unique. One I still remember was for the God of War 2 Alternate costume contest. GAP members submitted their alternate costume ideas and then they also got to vote on the submissions to select the final costume. Amusingly GAP members voted for the "COD of War" costume, and astonishingly the Devs actually fulfilled their promise and included the costume in the final game. It illustrated that gamers have a sense of humour, and it was a fun addition to a fairly serious game - indeed changing "the future of gaming" to some small extent.



So GAP served it's purpose and more members were added to GAP regularly in giant waves of invites where the community was flooded with "hi I'm new" posts. Slowly things changed though. With the release of the PSP and PS3 the surveys decreased. When the Playstation.blog became a reality and feedback could be more direct, surveys to GAP members ceased. Data that once they relied on GAP members for, they now had direct access to. With the PSP and PS3 being connected to the web, Sony now had access to what games were being played, how long, the movies we watched, how many unique users used a PSP or PS3 unit, the web sites we surfed, how many friends we have or don't have, heck, they probably even know what we eat for breakfast (and quit scratching yourself there... it's not polite!) With this "hard data", new alternate feedback mechanisms such as the Playstation blog, and the ability to send out betas electronically without a physical disc or UMD... input from GAP members became obsolete and basically not needed.

About a year ago, new members stopped appearing. New contests became increasingly rare, and beta invites came through pre-orders, random selection or PSU forum participation. There were no new surveys and the website itself began to become outdated and stale with old contests, old promises and old information that was never changed or updated. Members gradually left for the usual reasons... school, life changes, other websites. With no new incoming members, active participation in the GAP community decreased. However, Sony seemed to forget that it's people that make the party. Even with no music, no booze, no cake and no balloons... the people there have formed a community. While it's not always a "happy" community, the GAP site is still "home" to many gamers. So what do you do with a group that refuses to leave when the party's over? Sony essentially created a prestigious private club and everyone wanted in. To this day there are still threads on the PSU forums with enquiries regarding "how do I get into GAP?". Do you tell them that you're shutting the doors and give them a timeline? Do you hope that eventually they finally do drunkenly wander off and you can quietly close the doors? Do you create a new program (possibly P.S. Thanks) and invite them in? Do you kick them out on their asses and quickly lock the door behind them? Could (and should) the program be reinvented? Sony could learn a lot about group mechanics by looking at GAP more closely. How large gaming groups work, the benefits to Sony, how groups could better be incorporated and catered to.... but that's another blog!

I used to be a very active member on GAP and was even a GAP moderator for several years. I came to Destructoid, because I started looking for a new gaming community. Somewhere that I could game online with other people, somewhere that I could read and write... and somewhere that what I write might actually be noticed by Playstation. In all honesty I don't think they read GAP anymore, and have rather forgotten about us. In some ways I'm glad they shut the party down as otherwise I would never have joined Destructoid... but in many other ways I'm saddened not by the loss of the "perks" of being a GAP member, but rather by the loss of the community. I still lurk on GAP and occasionally participate, but the site's stagnation and unknown future is unsettling and makes me feel sad. Playstation's Gamer Advisory Panel seems to have become "forgotten". :(