jack1974 wrote:I am not so sure if ALL the romances should have happy ending honestly? Every one has a different opinion, and I think what people should focus is the writing and the story arc of the romance. Would take me 5 minutes to tell the writer "change it so that in the end they marry". It's 5 lines of text of an epilogue.
I can do that (maybe only if you get enough points, so there's a bad and a happy ending), but I would like also to hear different opinions first. Forcing writers to write ONLY happy endings for ALL the characters seems a bit too much for me
I would recommend you get the other characters endings though since they're worth it (remember that some characters have bad endings if you don't get enough stats point).
It has to do with player agency in sim games. In a sim game, the player feels as if they have a fair degree of control over the gaming world. You raise your stats, you pursue some people, problems arise but depending on your character and your choices you can make things work. To have that invalidated by saying yada yada 2 years on it fell apart, robs the player of that agency. There is no control over this epilogue, isn't the point of a sim that you have some control over the way things are headed? This seems like an attempt to be artistic in a genre meant to emphasise openness. This is why people were so annoyed at ME3, Bioware's RPGs are about choice, not the illusion of choice. Some fans also behaved like spoilt brats, and went so far past the line that it may as well have been drawn in a different dimension, but I can understand their irritation. I love ME3 and I replay it to death, but I've never finished the game and I never will.
Sims are stat and choice games where you should be rewarded for having good stats and making good choices. If you aren't rewarded for having high stats and making good choices on your chosen route, what's the point of playing the sim? It doesn't matter how good the writing is on that particular arc, if there isn't the option to succeed then, imo, the sim loses some appeal.
Let me give you an example. Do you remember those old vertical flight games in the 1990s? (
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--7BTOxNVkDo/U ... 74x300.gif ) Well imagine that you've spent hours progressing through the game until you reach the final level. Where, guiding your bullet-ridden, but courageous plane through the hapless enemy you leave a path of destruction as far as the horizon. Spotting your target, your final goal in the game, you start readying yourself for one final battle.
With a roar your plane explodes, then silence. Text slowly scrolls across the screen.
"Focused solely on clearing a path to the fortress of Count Evil Sodalot, you failed to notice the approach of Captain Flashheart, the enemy's ace in the sky. Descending from the clouds like an Angry Titan, he tore through your plane with endless volleys of bullets. While your plane carried you down to your inevitable grave, Flashheart drew his plane beside yours, slowly drew a cigar, lit it, and placed it in his smug mouth. A smugness he soon lost as smoke began to fill his air-tight cabin. Desperately putting his cigar out, and waving his hands as if attacking a colony of hovering flies, Lord Flashheart spiralled to his death, killed by his own hubris. And with the ground fast approaching, you allowed yourself a brief smile.
The enemy forces never recovered from the shock of Flashheart's death, and quickly succumbed soon after. And although you died before the final battle could commence, your name was remembered as the man who took down a legend, the man who cut a path to the enemy's base, the hero of the war. A statue of your likeness was erected in your home town, and the brothel you so often frequented name after you in your own honour. The name 'Randy' was, from that point on, forever associated with excessive lust and lewdness. Your name would never be forgotten. THE END"
Yeah, it's a valid ending. But it's not what I signed on for, if you know what I mean! You signed on to be the hero, not the brave soldier who sacrificed himself so that other people could win! In the sim game you sign on so you can succeed at romancing people. Not "oooh, so close but life's like that sometimes, you know."