Love is in the game

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day everyone; may you find the droid you are looking for! ^^

Today, instead of making some cheesy content as there are already tons of out there, it seems like an excellent opportunity to talk about love in the world of MMORPGs. Through several years of gaming, I noticed a bunch of different types of the love’s appearance and, of course, different points of view, and I would like to share them with you!

Role n°1: Cupid’s little helper

The big old classic in MMORPGs is simply to play the love messenger with some easy quests, such as A is secretly in love with B but has no guts to say it. That’s generally our cue to bring some flowers, a love letter, kill some savage creatures threatening B’s family/village/spaceship and let finally the two lost souls have a lifetime of hapiness together.

One of my favorite examples can be found playing the Lord of the Rings Online.

The first one is a series of quests during the spring festival at Bree, where we try to help by delivering some splendid tokens of affection (very classic flowers, chocolate box and so on), but we even end up by leaving them at the wrong adress and there’s a lot of fun involved.

And of course, let’s not forget the beautiful albeit sad love story of Elessar and Undomiel of which we learn more details by asking several Elves in the Lothlorien region, all while listening to heartwarming elvish music and being surrounded by the natural paradise of  the Golden Wood…

Sad and beautiful… like anything else that is elvish, their love stories can surely be qualified as such.

Role n°2: being involved with another character

Less common than the first one, a series of quests or the role playing pattern makes our character involved with an NPC (non-playing character) or a companion. I am a huge fan of this type of love episodes in the game; it’s like having a mini romantic movie inside something completely different.

In order to illustrate this, I cannot think of a better example than Star Wars the Old Republic and its companions system. Either you choose the Republic or the Empire, using the Force or blasters, you always have several companions at your side, and some of them may engage a romantic relationship depending on what you do. Your actions in the game, as well as gifts you might offer them or answering in a special manner during conversations with them should bring you closer.

My favorite love stories from SWTOR are definitely with Malavai Quinn (Sith Warrior), and most of all with Corso Riggs (Smuggler). The moment the latter and my smuggler kissed and decied to get married was so cute! Even after you’ve finished your companion’s quests, he still sends you love letters and gifts through ingame mail. Now how sweet is that?

Corso, you heart-breaker…

Role n°3: real soul mate!

The name « MMORPG » kinda has « massively multiplayer » written in it, no surprise that you can actually bond with humans thanks to this type of gaming. For some, this could be a real opportunity to meet someone, even fall in love and bring this great new relationship beyond the virtual world. For others, playing MMORPGs will simply mean meeting new people through guilds, raid rosters and whatnot, and why not making new friends.

Some MMORPGs have in-game relationship systems. The most common is to marry another character, giving special bonus like an extra teleportation or combat enhacements.

Runes of Magic had (don’t know if it’s still the case, I played RoM a long while ago) a rather extended version of relationships that you mave have with other players. There was of course the marriage system, but you could also become a family member or a friend. Each of those relationships could be leveled-up by playing together, and you could gain different bonuses such as more HP, mana, attack of defence. All the more reasons to play with lots of people, I liked it a lot.

Love was really in the air at the ceremony… Although we could have worn something more suitable to the occasion!

However, my favorite in-game marriage ever remains the one I did with my boyfriend when we were both playing Final Fantasy XIV. Not only you have to accomplish together a series of special quests preparing you for the ceremony, but also you can plan the whole wedding to the smallest details, such as decoration or music. The wedding ceremony is just lovely; there are adorable cinematics, the rings exchange, the final kiss… And to be honest, the wedding gown is just gorgeous.

… and they lived happily ever after!

What about your favorite love episodes in the MMORPG world? Do you like to enjoy some player relationships or you rather leave all that stuff aside from the « real » gaming? Or maybe you’ve witnessed another role a player could have in romantic scenarios in this type of games? Tell us all about it!