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Author Topic: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot  (Read 3936 times)

Deshara

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First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« on: November 02, 2018, 03:23:51 AM »

Fallout: New California (the new fan-made Fallout game using New Vegas as a base) is the first videogame with a relationship written by an adult.

(spoilers) The opening of this game doesn't end on a clean slate; you escort a group of survivors out of the opening & they all become your companions. You have to go and get them during the evacuation, however, and in order to get them to actually come with you you have to be something that they need.
The nerdy science energy loser needs you to be physically powerful, and bc my character had no endurance and low strength I wasn't what he needed in a leader & he wouldn't come with me & died. A character who needed compassion & understanding in his life came with me because I went out of my way to apologize for having wronged him beforehand, and then went out of my way to spring him and refused to let him talk his way out of being rescued.

Why does this matter? Bc there's a girl (or guy) you can bang in the opening who is in a relationship already and you have to break them up first after you've seduced one of the two in order to seal the deal. However, if you bang either of them, they both die in the opening. The /only/ way to get either of these characters out alive is to strengthen their relationship and get them out as a couple; if you *** them they die.
The implication, here, is that bc saving companions from the opening requires you -- as a player -- to provide them something in your relationship that they as a character need, and bc they can survive the opening if they stick together but /can't/ survive with you, their relationship with eachother provides them with something that you can't.
In fact, this is actually pretty explicitly stated. Of course, the game doesn't tell you ahead of time that you sealing the deal in the opening seconds will get them killed & deny you a (two) companion(s). It just expects you to be an adult who realizes that breaking a couple up just for a casual lay during what is known openly to be a time of extreme civic unrest will be denying them a stable relationship, nearly lifelong relationship, and then explicitly states as much, and then punishes you, the player, for breaking them up anyway without actually warning you that your actions were gonna have permanent ramifications, bc breaking couples up as soon as you meet them comes back at you.

That's... an incredibly adult way to do a relationship in a game. There's no way to persue a relationship with these companions, and even trying permanently removes them from the game and it's all your fault for taking something valueable from them for your own personal, selfish gain
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Quote from: Deshara
I cant be blamed for what I said 5 minutes ago. I was a different person back then

Network Pesci

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have at it
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2018, 07:23:09 AM »

.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2023, 01:41:33 AM by Network Pesci »
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Deshara

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Re: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2018, 11:26:09 AM »

okay but how do you really feel?
lol jk, but fr tho a mod in a media critique group I'm in slept with one of my IRL friends and now is "jokingly" deleting all my pending posts unless I stop being her friend bc life never stops being highschool nonsense apparently, so now I'm copying said posts when I suspect said mod is the only one up, and pasting them here before I go to bed as a harder to lose version of a clipboard that has the added benefit of *** you off personally so I can re-submit them at a more reasonable hour when there's someone else up to approve them
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Quote from: Deshara
I cant be blamed for what I said 5 minutes ago. I was a different person back then

BillyRueben

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Re: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2018, 02:08:45 PM »

...life never stops being highschool nonsense apparently...
...has the added benefit of *** you off personally...

Proving your own point I see.


But back on topic:
I don't see this as a portrayal of an adult relationship in any way. It's more of a fan-fiction power fantasy, where the player can choose if a relationship that they aren't involved in succeeds or fails, when in reality it is the choices and feelings of those within the relationship that have the real impact on the success or failure of that relationship.
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Alex

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Re: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2018, 02:22:44 PM »

, so now I'm copying said posts when I suspect said mod is the only one up, and pasting them here before I go to bed as a harder to lose version of a clipboard

I'm sorry about whatever is going on IRL, but that's definitely not a proper use of the forum.
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Histidine

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Re: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« Reply #5 on: November 02, 2018, 09:37:53 PM »

Life hack: Notepad++ lets you open a new file, type whatever inside it, leave it unsaved, and it'll remain available even after an application/OS restart (there's no annoying "save your work or it'll be lost" prompt either). Very useful for stuff that needs to be written down temporarily.
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Linnis

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Re: First Game W Adult Relationship Subplot
« Reply #6 on: November 04, 2018, 06:35:00 PM »

I am sorry but that plot reeks of fan fiction amateur level of writing. Not that official fallout 4 games writing is much better beyond quirky humour.

Out of all the simple run of the mill stories that video games use, especially in the cases of romantic stories. The only one that has good writing in romance I have seen so far is in Final Fantasy Tactics, there is a reason they keep remaking and porting that game. Though something of note is the "main" story line is boring normal FF game stuff, but all of the sub plot regarding class struggle, family allegiance, and romance is top tier.

In short, there are three major characters in that game. Ramza, who you can rename serves as the player's prospective as a nearly silent protagonist. Delita, and Ovelia are the other two. The player, Ramza, who you can rename, shared an childhood with Delita. Though they were best friends and even joined a militia group together, the player is from a noble family and Delita is a dirty commoner. After Delita's sister is murdered he decides to go seperate ways from his childhood friend.

 Some years later the player is put in a position of protecting the princess Ovelia from the prince as a mercenary. With both support from the player's noble family who seeks to benefit from the player's ties with the princess and also the support of the player's mercenary group the player is wholesomely invested in protecting Ovelia and putting her on the throne. With the player's noble birth and time spent together you would expect the beginning of the love story to go well. But as art imitate life not everything is so simple.

Things go wrong and Delita, who is working with "the bad noble guys" now shows up outta nowhere and kidnaps Ovelia. Delita at this point comes off as a driven no non-sense character, who has climbed to the top of the military ranks on his own merit. Delita also gains Ovelia's trust eventually and they marry. Delita eventually becomes king with his marriage to Ovelia and is loved by all as the hero that stopped all the fighting within the kingdom. While in reality, it is the player who foiled multiple plans from multiple parties to claim power. The Marrieage between Delita and Ovelia does not end well either. Ovelia who realises that she had been used in the end tries to kill Delita. On her birthday she meets with Delita at the location where they first met. Delita brings her flowers while Ovelia stabs Delita with a dagger. Ofcourse Delita takes the stab like a man and in return kills her with her own knife. The last scene is Delita looking at the sky with Ovelia dead in her arms. A naive girl if allowed to live would send the kingdom into civil war again. But in this last moment you can sense that Delita is conflicted in that he killed a girl just like his sister, who's death was his whole motivation to stop the kingdom from fighting and take his destiny into his own hands.


The story though dramatic is quite mature in that it is similar to how love is in the real world. A girl leaves a guy for a better guy, someone who is more driven and more wealthy. She regret her choice in choosing wealthy, comfort, and security over feelings. They divorce... The guy who is sincere and equally hardworking sometimes does not get the girl, or the recognition, but in his mind he is at peace because his actions dictate who he is, not his circumstances. The wealthy driven guy loses his wife, and has to confront the reality that in his pursuit of worldly thing he has neglected someone he obviously loved at one point. But in the end no one is at fault, all the characters are well written that they do the things anyone would do if put in their shoes with their past and motivations.

This is adult relationship in a video-game. This is also why I never play "story" based games, as the stories are always so bland and simple compared to novels, films, heck even documentaries.
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