Designer Hopes for Love in Games

[Atari]

Veteran designer Peter Molyneux says he wants to put the emotion of love into his next game, Fable 2. The BBC News has the story.

"We sat down and realised what we really wanted to do was make 'wow' moments. We started to talk about what was important in gaming. We can do excitement, fear, achievement. Surely we can think about other emotions?" One of Lionhead's solutions to generate emotion in games is to build a family network for the main character. "We want you to feel loved. You can have sex and you can have a baby. That baby will grow up and will kind of look like you."

[Sailor Enlil]

Meh. Why not just take a hint from the Japanese game developers? Romance in Japanese games is not limited to Dating Sims. Even a few other generes mix it in. Some examples include:
Baldr Force Exe - a scrolling shooter game, but adds romantic (and for the PC version, erotic) elements into it
Brave Soul, Cobra Mission, Knights of Xentar - RPGs with romantic elements added to it.
Downhill Night Blaze - a racing game with romantic elements added to it.
Mai Hime - based on the TV series, sort of half dating sim half turn-based adventure (fortunately for youngsters, no erotic content; just innocent, though sometimes forbidden, romance).

I also read about one Real Time Strategy game (most of the units controlled are mechas of course) which even has romantic elements added as well.

Oh and I think I should mention this as well: the old space simulators Wing Commander II and III had romance in the story (in the 2nd game your character gets involved with one female pilot you've known since the 1st game [but who is tragically killed in the 3rd game], in the 3rd game you could choose between two women or even remain single [sadly your character breaks up with the girl in the 4th game]).