246 Relationship Decay

I like games that allow me to build close relationships with the characters in the narrative. The only unrealistic thing about this, in most cases, is that they don’t require you to maintain those relationships. Aside from the niche games that are in the life- or dating-sim genre, this is completely absent from something like Persona.

It’s important for me to spend time with my friends in the game to raise my relationship status with them, but no work gets put into actually maintaining that level.

I’m proposing a system that has relationship decay, just like in real life. If we don’t keep in touch with friends from high school or college, in all likelihood those relationships fall by the wayside. But when we stay in contact, make the effort, and show love, we’re rewarded greatly with satisfying and meaningful relationships. Maybe we can emulate that in game form, to help drive storytelling and increase our relationship with our character through the relationships he/she puts work into maintaining.

[ Today I Was Playing: Back to Bed ]

#game-mechanic-system, #game-opinion