There are a fair number of games out there where it is possible for a player to have a relationship with a npc. It has been my observation that these games tend to depend on the player to initiate, and largely drive, the conversation relationships. But what about npc's that initiate conversation, or hit on players, or drive the conversation with the player assuming the roll of the person being picked up? On one hand, this seems like an interesting avenue that would add a bit more to a scene. On the other hand this seems like it may be a short cut to weirding players out, or making them uncomfortable, very similarly to how some people get uncomfortable if certain people hit on them in real life. What do you think? And if it were to be written into the game, what could be done to minimize the discomfort the player experiences if they are approached by an npc that they wouldn't like to approach them? Is it best to just leave the player to assume the initiating roll in these things?

I dont think people are going to be weirded out by npcs hitting on them.

in real life it can be akward and scary but in a game i doubt anyone would have those kinds of reactions :P

Well, it would be unfair to make all the NPCs straight, but any group of gamers is likely to have a few big homophobes in it. You'd have to deal with that somehow - possibly when creating a character the player would have to check some boxes to allow or disallow both genders to hit on them. Even for people who aren't homophobic, it would be mildly annoying to have to fend off advances you weren't interested in, whether that disinterest was because of the character's gender or because the character isn't human or because the player is already in a relationship. Depending on the setting, there might even be hermaphrodites or other nonstandard genders to take into account.

You reminded me of fable 2... there were a couple times that i noticed i was giving the option of being romantic at other men... and that sometimes they would be try to be romantic towards me.

it was a little akward but not so bad lol... definitely not like real life.

At least there's some precedent for what you are trying to do, you could find out people's reaction to that part of fable 2 (:

So in Fable 2, did the npc's hit on you, or wait for you to approach them? Did they initiate the conversation? I never played it.

You should play it, it's a really fun game and fable 3 is comin out sometime this year!

Mostly the NPCs would wait for you to talk to them, but if you were really admired etc, sometimes people would approach you.

You should go out and get a copy for "research" (;