Confetti’s Cozy Corner: Happy Aromantic Awareness Week!
Happy Aromantic Awareness Week! In honor of celebrating and bringing awareness & acceptance to folks on the aromantic spectrum, I wanted to plant a seed in the indie developer ethos.
We have all run into a character in a game where dating is possible, but OF COURSE, there are one or two characters that are simply not romanceable, and that’s the ONE choice we want to get closer to. I’m looking squarely at Olric from Fields of Mistria!
I believe what characters in romance games players can and cannot romance is completely up to the creators and an artistic choice that, regardless of my wants, I respect! I also do believe that non-romantic NPCs give a way to an opportunity to explore aromanticism in video games healthily and intentionally.
Let’s start at the beginning: What exactly is aromanticism? Aromanticism, in a VERY brief definition, is a person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others. Oftentimes, an aromantic person receives fulfillment from friendships, platonic, and non-romantic-based relationships. Aromanticism exists on a spectrum and consists of many microlabels under its identity. Aromanticism deals specifically with romantic feelings and does not equate to asexuality. Not everyone who identifies as aromantic is asexual or vice versa.
The opportunity in non-romantic NPCs in video games opens up exploration into healthy aromantic representation. It could be argued that growing friendship with NPCs could be a form of aromantic representation; however, there is a difference between that being assumed and canonically expressed in a story.
For example, in a previous article, I spoke about the joy of having canon asexual representation in video games, specifically in The Outer Worlds with Parvati. When she explained her background and that she was asexual outright, that representation felt so warm, grounding, and relatable. It’s the same feeling I personally get when I realize a video game character is left-handed, because as a left it’s rare to see us represented! If we were able to get the same in with aromanticism, that would also be incredible.
Aromanticism gives a whole new lane of character development and relationship exploration and depth, I feel, that has not really broken into. Adding an extra layer of exploration of what aromanticism looks like within companionship would also be a beautiful story to tell.
When I highlight aromanticism, I do not explicitly mean from a place of trauma, loneliness, or hardship. I feel like sometimes with aromanticism, similarly with asexuality, many folks approach or seek to understand us from a place of lack, rather than seeing the wholeness of our identity. My community is largely queer, and many of them are aromantic and asexual. It is a place of joy, laughter, and upliftment. Of course, we have our struggles, but that is not the whole of our identity.
I focus on indie games because more often than not, indie games provide experiences that are more inclusive for gamers who want to see themselves in games. Moreover, indie games lately have been crushing it when it comes to story development, complex characters, and representation. That is not to say AAA studios are incapable of doing this; however, there may be more bureaucracy involved when it comes to getting healthy representation in the final product.
When it comes to writing aromanticism, I would love to see coming out stories in video games, NPCs explaining the fullness of their lives, the beautiful connections they have fostered, or how to exist healthily in relationships. That may be difficult to do if outside of the aromantic identity, and I always encourage companies to seek out consultation when possible! There are many queer-oriented organizations, Gayming included, that provide such consultation when creating accurate representation.
Happy Aromantic Awarness Week from yours truly, a demi-romantic lover of indie games!
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